The Prevalence of Nomophobia by Population and by Research Tool: A Systematic Review, Meta-Analysis, and Meta-Regression

Background: No systematic review or meta-analysis has yet been performed to examine the global prevalence of nomophobia by population, by instrument. Thus, this review was performed to estimate the prevalence of nomophobia by severity. Methods: American Psychological Association PsycINFO, Cochrane, Cumulative Index to Nursing and Allied Health Literature (CINAHL), EBSCOhost, EMBASE, MEDLINE, ProQuest Medical, ScienceDirect, Scopus, and Web of Science from inception of each respective database to second week of January 2021 were used. There was no language restriction. The random-effect meta-analysis model was used with the DerSimonian and Laird methodology was used for computation. Results: Twenty papers, involving 12,462 participants from ten countries, were evaluated for meta-analysis. The prevalence of moderate to severe nomophobia is 70.76% [95% CI 62.62%; 77.75%]. The prevalence of severe nomophobia is 20.81% [95% CI 15.45%; 27.43%]. University students appeared to be the highest group affected with a prevalence of severe nomophobia 25.46% [95% CI 18.49%; 33.98%]. Meta-regressions of severe nomophobia showed that age and sex were not a successful predictor of severe nomophobia β = −0.9732, p = 0.2672 and β = −0.9732, p = 0.4986. Conclusions: The prevalence of severe nomophobia is approximately 21% in the general adult population. University students appeared to be the most impacted by the disorder.

Collision prediction on combined horizontal and vertical alignments of two-lane rural highways.

This study investigates the safety effects of combined horizontal and vertical alignments using accident occurrences on two-lane rural highways in Washington. Eight statistical models were developed to establish the relationships between vehicle accidents and their associated factors for eight combinations of alignments by the Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated Poisson, and zero-inflated negative binomial. Three selected models were validated. The findings show that degree of curvature is the most successful predictor for horizontal curves combined with vertical alignments. A minimum ratio of 25 of vertical curve radius to horizontal curve radius is recommended for a curve with radius of smaller than 6000 ft (or 1830 m). Vertical curves have relatively little influence on accident occurrences at horizontal tangents. The grade value and length of a grade increase accident occurrences when a horizontal curve or tangent is on a grade. A smaller curve should be avoided introducing at a steep grade.

Collision prediction on combined horizontal and vertical alignments of two-lane rural highways.

This study investigates the safety effects of combined horizontal and vertical alignments using accident occurrences on two-lane rural highways in Washington. Eight statistical models were developed to establish the relationships between vehicle accidents and their associated factors for eight combinations of alignments by the Poisson, negative binomial, zero-inflated Poisson, and zero-inflated negative binomial. Three selected models were validated. The findings show that degree of curvature is the most successful predictor for horizontal curves combined with vertical alignments. A minimum ratio of 25 of vertical curve radius to horizontal curve radius is recommended for a curve with radius of smaller than 6000 ft (or 1830 m). Vertical curves have relatively little influence on accident occurrences at horizontal tangents. The grade value and length of a grade increase accident occurrences when a horizontal curve or tangent is on a grade. A smaller curve should be avoided introducing at a steep grade.

To Predict or to Memorize: Prominence in Inaugural Addresses

The assignment of phrasal prominence has been variously attributed to syntactic structure, part of speech, predictability, informativity, and speaker's intent. A recent account asserts that prominence is memorized on a by-word basis as Accent Ratio (AR), the likelihood that a word is accented (Nenkova et al. 2007). We examined whether AR outperforms the traditional predictors, in particular syntax and informativity, and if not, whether the traditional predictors shed light on the variance left unexplained by AR. We used a corpus of spoken American English consisting of the first inaugural addresses of six recent American presidents, hand-annotated for stress by two native English speakers. Regression models fitted to the data revealed that AR, syntax, and informativity all independently matter. Dividing the data into high-prominence and low-prominence tokens further revealed that AR and informativity are significant among low-prominence words, but only syntax is significant among high-prominence words. We conclude that although AR is a highly successful predictor, certain aspects of phrasal prominence require reference to syntax and informativity.

CT in every step: Long COVID

Background and aim: Some patients continue to experience symptoms related to COVID-19 after the acute phase of infection. Imaging studies, especially chest computerized tomography (CT), has been gaining importance from the beginning of the pandemic with its ability of diagnosing COVID-19, assessing the extent of pulmonary involvement, predicting disease severity. We intend to define the frequency of persistent symptoms and correlate the presence of persistent symptoms with laboratory findings and CT severity levels. Methods and Materials: We tried to patients who had been discharged from the study hospital after the treatment and who had a positive nasopharyngeal swab result for SARS-CoV-2, after at least four weeks from the initial diagnosis. The patients were questioned for the presence of persisting symptoms. In addition to demographic data, laboratory results and CT severity levels were recorded. Results: 116 patients were included into the study. 61 patients reported at least one persisting symptom (52.5%). Mean age of the population is 48.90±17.74 years. Shortness of breath, chest pain, cough, muscle weakness, dizziness, headache, fatigue, and palpitation were found as persisting symptoms. Mean CT severity score value of the population is 3.80±0.38. Mean CT severity score value is lower in patients without any persistent symptoms. Conclusion: CRP, fibrinogen levels, anemia and female gender were associated with some of the persistent symptoms. CT severity, as being a successful predictor for disease severity/prognosis, is also related with future long COVID presence, and CT severity is related with more persistent symptoms than laboratory parameters.

Utilizing Bots for Sustainable News Business: Understanding Users’ Perspectives of News Bots in the Age of Social Media

The move of news audiences to social media has presented a major challenge for news organizations. How to adapt and adjust to this social media environment is an important issue for sustainable news business. News bots are one of the key technologies offered in the current media environment and are widely applied in news production, dissemination, and interaction with audiences. While benefits and concerns coexist about the application of bots in news organizations, the current study aimed to examine how social media users perceive news bots, the factors that affect their acceptance of bots in news organizations, and how this is related to their evaluation of social media news in general. An analysis of the US national survey dataset showed that self-efficacy (confidence in identifying content from a bot) was a successful predictor of news bot acceptance, which in turn resulted in a positive evaluation of social media news in general. In addition, an individual’s perceived prevalence of social media news from bots had an indirect effect on acceptance by increasing self-efficacy. The results are discussed with the aim of providing a better understanding of news audiences in the social media environment, and practical implications for the sustainable news business are suggested.

Outperforming the benchmark: online information demand and REIT market performance

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to investigate whether there is a relationship between asset-specific online search interest and movements in the US REIT market. Design/methodology/approach – The authors collect search volume (SV) data from “Google Trends” for a set of keywords representing the information demand of real estate (equity) investors. On this basis, the authors test hypothetical investment strategies based on changes in internet SV, to anticipate REIT market movements. Findings – The results reveal that people’s information demand can indeed serve as a successful predictor for the US REIT market. Among other findings, evidence is provided that there is a significant relationship between asset-specific keywords and the US REIT market. Specifically, investment strategies based on weekly changes in Google SV would have outperformed a buy-and-hold strategy (0.1 percent p.a.) for the Morgan Stanley Capital International US REIT Index by a remarkable 15.4 percent p.a. between 2006 and 2013. Furthermore, the authors find that real-estate-related terms are more suitable than rather general, finance-related terms for predicting REIT market movements. Practical implications – The findings should be of particular interest for REIT market investors, as the established relationships can potentially be utilized to anticipate short-term REIT market movements. Originality/value – This is the first paper which applies Google search query data to the REIT market.

Field Independence and Outcome in Schizophrenia: A U-Shaped Relationship

Relationships are examined between field-independence as measured by Series III of the rod-and-frame test in 51 recently hospitalized schizophrenics and outcome 6 mo. later in terms of presence in or out of hospital. An earlier attempt to find a linear relationship between field independence and outcome had proved unsuccessful; however, on the basis of more recent findings, a U-shaped relationship, predicting a poor outcome for extremely field-dependent and extremely field-independent Ss, was predicted and found. Optimal cutting-points assign 39 patients correctly; the most successful predictor in the earlier study, Phillips' scale of premorbid adjustment, had assigned 36 patients correctly. Combining these two measures and predicting a poor outcome for only those patients with extreme field-articulation and poor premorbid adjustment 42 of the 51 patients are assigned correctly. The post hoc nature of findings and the necessity for confirmation are stressed.