Estimating Group Stress Level by Measuring Body Motion

Understanding employee stress has become a key issue for top management for corporate growth and risk reduction. So far, annual employee satisfaction surveys (ESs) have been conducted to assess the soundness of an organization. However, since it is difficult to collect questionnaires quantitatively and continuously, there is a need for a practical method that can be used to frequently measure group stress levels with a small burden on employees. We propose such a method and evaluated four combinations of approaches, using activity/rest duration distributions from body motion data and generating estimation models on an individual/group basis. The optimal result was obtained when modeling was made on a group basis by using the activity duration distribution (r = 0.928, p < 0.001, estimation error: 1.36%), making it possible to assess the degree of the stress of employees quantitatively and easily, and this showed the possibility of this method being useful as a management guide for companies.

The Effect of Age, Stretchtension During Thaw Rigor and Heat of Selected Quality Characteristics of Beef Sternomandibularis Muscle

Some aspects of the phenomenon of thaw rigor have been studied in order to understand how it affects skeletal muscle as a food. Specifically, studies were conducted to evaluate the tenderness and other quality characteristics of muscle strips retained at rest length or stretched by 50 percent during thaw rigor, and to see whether any observed differences were related to the age or sex of the animals. No statistically significant differences due to the stretched state, age or sex were noted in the 24 hr. post thawing pH or water holding capacity as determined by the Carver Press method, although in the latter parameter, individual animals differed significantly (P<0.05) from one another. Differences in the stretched state affected the cooking loss, cooking contraction, shear values, sarcomere length and fiber diameter. Variations in the cooking loss, cooking contraction and sarcomere length were not significant when considered on between group basis while significant variations were observed in the shear values (P <0.05) and fiber diameters (P<0.01). Significant differences in the response of individual animals within t!e different groups were noted in the cooking loss, cooking contraction (P<0.01) and shear values (P<0.05). Within group) differences were not observed in the estimates of sarcomere length and fiber diameter. Significant differences were not noted in the total collagen, alkali-soluble collagen, and elastin contents of the cow, steer and heifer groups. However, the collagen content of the veal group was significantly greater (P<0.005) and was more readily soluble in dilute alkali than the three other groups. No significant differences in the collagen content or solubility was attributable to the stretched state. Heating of the muscle strips significantly affected col!agen solubility (P<0.005) in all the different groups

COVID-19 Spreading Dynamics with Vaccination – Allocation Strategy, Return to Normalcy and Vaccine Hesitancy

ABSTRACTIn this work we use mathematical modeling to analyse the dynamics of COVID-19 spread after a vaccination program is initiated. The model used is a delay differential equation developed earlier by our group. Basis of currently available data, our principal findings are as follows. (a) For fastest deceleration of the pandemic, people with high interaction rate such as grocers and airline cabin crew should be given priority in vaccine access. (b) Individuals who have been vaccinated may be selectively cleared to return to normal activities without significant risk of a resurgence in cases. (c) If an infection as well as a vaccine confers immunity for a duration τ0, then the pandemic can be eliminated by vaccinating people at a sufficiently high rate. Unless τ0 is very small, the cutoff rate required appears feasible to achieve in practice. (d) The presence of a substantial minority of vaccine-hesitant population might not amount to a significant threat or even an inconvenience to a vaccine-compliant majority population.

A Knowledge Discovery Education Framework Targeting the Effective Budget Use and Opinion Explorations in Designing Specific High Cost Product

For an R&D institution to design a specific high investment cost product, the budget is usually ‘large but limited’. To allocate such budget on the directions with key potential benefits (e.g., core technologies) requires, at first and at least, a priority over the involved design criteria, as to discover the relevant decision knowledge for a suitable budgeting plan. Such a problem becomes crucial when the designed product is relevant to the security and military sustainability of a nation, e.g., a next generation fighter. This study presents a science education framework that helps to obtain such knowledge and close the opinion gaps. It involves several main tutorial phases to construct and confirm the set of design criteria, to establish a decision hierarchy, to assess the preferential structures of the decision makers (DMs) (individually or on a group basis), and to perform some decision analyses that are designed to identify the homogeneity and heterogeneity of the opinions in the decision group. The entire framework has been applied in a training course hold in a large R&D institution, while after learning the staff successfully applied these knowledge discovery processes (for planning the budget for the fighter design works and for closing the opinion gaps present). With the staffs’ practical exercises, several empirical findings except for the budgeting priority (e.g., the discrimination between ‘more important criteria’ against the less important ones) are also interesting. For some examples (but not limited to these), it is found that the results from using two measures (statistical correlation vs. geometrical cosine similarity) to identify the opinion gaps are almost identical. It is found that DMs’ considerations under various constructs are sometimes consistent, but often hard to be consistent. It is also found that the two methods (degree of divergence (DoD) vs. number of observed subgroups (NSgs)) that are used to understand the opinions’ diversity under the constructs are different. The proposed education framework meets the recent trend of data-driven decision-making, and the teaching materials are also some updates to science education.

The Group Theory of Parties: Identity Politics, Party Stereotypes, and Polarization in the 21st Century

An emerging narrative contends that 2016 was significant for bridging identity politics and American party conflict. This narrative misses a fundamental truth: for ordinary Americans, partisan identity has always been grounded in their orientations toward groups in society. The group theory of parties holds that citizens evaluate political parties according to their social stereotypes of Democrats and Republicans, ultimately identifying (or not) with a party that jives with their own self-image. In this essay, I review existing research and summarize several original studies suggesting that citizens’ beliefs about party composition affect their feelings toward Democrats and Republicans. Americans tend to hold shockingly erroneous beliefs about the degree to which stereotypical groups compose the parties – for example, that 38% of Republicans belong to the economic “1%” – and correcting social stereotypes about the out-party reduces polarization between rank-and-file party supporters. Most studies discussed in this essay were conducted before Donald Trump became a candidate, suggesting that 2016 was not the year that identity politics hijacked the parties, but rather the year in which the implicit group basis for mass partisanship became baldly explicit.

Microfinance Institutions and Empowerment of Women in Rural Area: A Case in Tangerang

The purpose of this study is to discover the performance of the financial independence, the members’ welfare, and accessibility of microfinance institutions to the rural areas in the Tangerang District. To measure the financial dependence is using financial ratios. Measuring levels of performance of the members’ welfare and accessibility using Chi-Square. The results found that, first, the level of welfare of members. The coastal areas have a higher loan value than other regions. Expenditure and income of members, industrial areas have high levels of spending and revenues higher than other regions. The performance of a range to members based on a group basis. Second, the performance of financial independence, categorized as "Healthy". The coastal area is 86.40, the area around the industrial area is 85.71 and agricultural area is 83,73. Third, the level of non-performing loans, the coastal area is 0.03, the industrial area is 0,26, and the agricultural area is 0.19.DOI: 10.15408/sjie.v6i1.4637

Comparison Between Individually and Group-Based Insulin Pump Initiation by Time-Driven Activity-Based Costing

Background: Depending on available resources, competencies, and pedagogic preference, initiation of insulin pump therapy can be performed on either an individual or a group basis. Here we compared the two models with respect to resources used. Methods: Time-driven activity-based costing (TDABC) was used to compare initiating insulin pump treatment in groups (GT) to individual treatment (IT). Activities and cost drivers were identified, timed, or estimated at location. Medical quality and patient satisfaction were assumed to be noninferior and were not measured. Results: GT was about 30% less time-consuming and 17% less cost driving per patient and activity compared to IT. As a batch driver (16 patients in one group) GT produced an upward jigsaw-shaped accumulative cost curve compared to the incremental increase incurred by IT. Taking the alternate cost for those not attending into account, and realizing the cost of opportunity gained, suggested that GT was cost neutral already when 5 of 16 patients attended, and that a second group could be initiated at no additional cost as the attendance rate reached 15:1. Conclusions: We found TDABC to be effective in comparing treatment alternatives, improving cost control and decision making. Everything else being equal, if the setup is available, our data suggest that initiating insulin pump treatment in groups is far more cost effective than on an individual basis and that TDABC may be used to find the balance point.

Providing Assurance for Sustainability Reports: An Instructional Case

ABSTRACT Due to increased interest in sustainability from non-governmental organizations (NGO), investors, and other stakeholders, many companies prepare sustainability reports, sometimes with third-party assurance as to the veracity of their claims. This instructional case provides a challenging and enriching experience for students in which the provision of assurance services on nonfinancial sustainability reporting is addressed. The case involves determining the procedures necessary to provide assurance on a sustainability report where procedures are non-standard and may vary substantially from client to client. To arrive at a solution, students are required to familiarize themselves with sustainability reporting in general and use judgment in deciding the most appropriate type of assurance and related procedures to provide. Students are also asked to discuss a number of related topics including the need for assurance in this area and auditor independence issues. This instructional resource provides students with an opportunity to gain an understanding of sustainability reporting and assurance. The case is appropriate for upper-division undergraduate and graduate auditing courses in which assurance services other than audits are discussed and can be assigned on an individual or group basis for out-of-class preparation, followed by in-class discussion.