Analisis Perilaku Konsumen Usia Muda di Kota Bogor dalam Mengonsumsi Susu dan Produk Olahannya di Masa Pandemi Covid 19

During the COVID-19 pandemic, people are started to consume foods that are highly nutritious to increased their immunity, one of them is by consuming milk and its processed products like kefir, yogurt. Milk is one of the foods favored by the community because it is rich in health benefits. The demand for this product is also increased every year. Consumer behavior was always changing along with consumer needs that follow the conditions and developments of the times. Consumers will choose products with good quality and ful fill what their needs, as well as dairy products. This study aims to analyze consumer decisions in consuming milk and its processed products in the Bogor city area during the covid 19 pandemic. The research was carried out with the stages of determining respondents, identify factors that influence consumer behavior, collecting and analyzing data. Respondents are people who live in Bogor City with an age range of 20 to 30 years purposively as many as 108 respondents. Data processing and analysis was carried out using the Spearman rank correlation test to determine the relationship between knowledge and situational variables on the decision to consume milk and its processed products. The results showed that the level of knowledge and situational had a significant and direct relationship with consumer decisions (P<0.01). This shows that the higher level of consumer knowledge of products with supportive conditions, the consumer’s decision to consume milk and its processed products is also getting stronger.

The Simpson’s Paradox in the Offline Evaluation of Recommendation Systems

Recommendation systems are often evaluated based on user’s interactions that were collected from an existing, already deployed recommendation system. In this situation, users only provide feedback on the exposed items and they may not leave feedback on other items since they have not been exposed to them by the deployed system. As a result, the collected feedback dataset that is used to evaluate a new model is influenced by the deployed system, as a form of closed loop feedback. In this article, we show that the typical offline evaluation of recommender systems suffers from the so-called Simpson’s paradox. Simpson’s paradox is the name given to a phenomenon observed when a significant trend appears in several different sub-populations of observational data but disappears or is even reversed when these sub-populations are combined together. Our in-depth experiments based on stratified sampling reveal that a very small minority of items that are frequently exposed by the deployed system plays a confounding factor in the offline evaluation of recommendation systems. In addition, we propose a novel evaluation methodology that takes into account the confounder, i.e., the deployed system’s characteristics. Using the relative comparison of many recommendation models as in the typical offline evaluation of recommender systems, and based on the Kendall rank correlation coefficient, we show that our proposed evaluation methodology exhibits statistically significant improvements of 14% and 40% on the examined open loop datasets (Yahoo! and Coat), respectively, in reflecting the true ranking of systems with an open loop (randomised) evaluation in comparison to the standard evaluation.

Altmetrics and their relationship with citation counts: a case of journal articles in physics

Purpose The first purpose of the present study is to investigate the coverage of journal articles in Physics in various sources of altmetrics. Secondly, the study investigates the relationship between altmetrics and citations. Finally, the study also investigates whether the relationship between citations and altmetrics was stronger or weaker for those articles that had been mentioned at least once in the sources of altmetrics. Design/methodology/approach The journal articles in Physics having at least one author from an Indian Institution and published during 2014–2018 in sources of altmetrics have been investigated. Altmetric.com was used for collecting altmetrics data. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient (ρ) has been used as the data found to be skewed. Findings The highest coverage was found on Twitter (22.68%), followed by Facebook (3.62%) and blogs (2.18%). The coverage in the rest of the sources was less than 1%. The average Twitter mentions for journal articles tweeted at least once was found to be 4 (3.99) and for Facebook mentions, it was found to be 1.48. Correlations between Twitter mentions–citations and Facebook mentions–citation were found to be statistically significant but low to weak positive. Research limitations/implications The study concludes that due to the low coverage of journal articles, altmetrics should be used cautiously for research evaluation keeping in mind the disciplinary differences. The study also suggests that altmetrics can function as complementary to citation-based metrics. Originality/value The study is one of the first large scale altmetrics studies dealing with research in Physics. Also, Indian research has not been attended to in the altmetrics literature and the present study shall fill that void.

Influence of Topographic Conditions on Teak Growth Performance in Mountainous Landscapes of Lao PDR

Teak is a globally valuable hardwood tree species, as its growth performance is important for timber productivity. The purpose of this study was to establish an effective management system for teak plantations in the Lao PDR. Using diameter at breast height (DBH) and height growth as significant indicators of growth performance, we investigated the relationship between tree growth curve parameters of teak and topographic conditions. Stem analysis data for 81 sample trees (three trees selected in canopy trees with predominant height in each plot) were examined for growth performance using the Mitscherlich growth function. The results of Spearman’s partial rank correlation indicated that the upper limits of DBH and tree height growth had significant negative correlations with the slope gradient and stand density. The curvature of DBH and tree height growth curves showed significant positive correlations with the slope form. Moreover, the elevation and slope gradient showed significant negative correlations with the curvature of tree height growth curve. However, the time lag of DBH growth showed a significant negative correlation with the slope position, while the slope gradient was positively correlated with the time lag of tree height growth. These results suggest that teak planted at lower slopes has faster growth rates and that there is an interaction with the gentle concave slope of this area.

How Efficient are the Romanian Sports Federations? A Theoretical and Experimental Approach

Examining the links between performance and financial issues has been, and still is, subject of a great number of researches both in the business and in the non-profit environment. In this respect, the world of sports has not been bypassed either, using concepts and / or instruments from accounting, economics or statistic areas in order to analyse a firm or an NGO in the sport industry and his success. The present study represents one of the first attempt to value the Romanian sports federations’ activity which is not based solely on the scores attained following places and medals won by athletes participating in the national and international competition system. And it is intended to identify an appropriate methodology to highlight how efficient the sports federations have been in 2019 year, reporting the results obtained to the resources used, from a domestic perspective (meaning the participation in national sports events and the scores obtained). This paper addresses 12 Romanian sports federations (out of 75 federations on sport branches) and their efficiency, through the lens of several input, output and outcome indicators, using public data gathered from various sources - the Romanian Ministry of Finance, the National Institute of Statistics, the Romanian Ministry of Youth and Sports. Using statistical tools, such as Spearman rank correlation, as well as statistical methods, such as standardization, we developed an efficiency calculation methodology, which could be used to support managerial team to improve and / or reshape federations' activities, if necessary.

Mathematical Approach to Investigate Stress due to Control Measures to Curb COVID-19

COVID-19 is a world pandemic that has affected and continues to affect the social lives of people. Due to its social and economic impact, different countries imposed preventive measures that are aimed at reducing the transmission of the disease. Such control measures include physical distancing, quarantine, hand-washing, travel and boarder restrictions, lockdown, and the use of hand sanitizers. Quarantine, out of the aforementioned control measures, is considered to be more stressful for people to manage. When people are stressed, their body immunity becomes weak, which leads to multiplying of coronavirus within the body. Therefore, a mathematical model consisting of six compartments, Susceptible-Exposed-Quarantine-Infectious-Hospitalized-Recovered (SEQIHR) was developed, aimed at showing the impact of stress on the transmission of COVID-19 disease. From the model formulated, the positivity, bounded region, existence, uniqueness of the solution, the model existence of free and endemic equilibrium points, and local and global stability were theoretically proved. The basic reproduction number ( R 0 ) was derived by using the next-generation matrix method, which shows that, when R 0 < 1 , the disease-free equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable whereas when R 0 > 1 the endemic equilibrium is globally asymptotically stable. Moreover, the Partial Rank Correlation Coefficient (PRCC) method was used to study the correlation between model parameters and R 0 . Numerically, the SEQIHR model was solved by using the Rung-Kutta fourth-order method, while the least square method was used for parameter identifiability. Furthermore, graphical presentation revealed that when the mental health of an individual is good, the body immunity becomes strong and hence minimizes the infection. Conclusively, the control parameters have a significant impact in reducing the transmission of COVID-19.

Correlation of cutaneous blood microcirculation parameters with biological age in diabetic patients

Известно, что с возрастом и при ряде хронических заболеваний происходит снижение реактивности микроциркуляторного звена кровообращения. Целью данного исследования стала оценка взаимосвязи параметров кожной микроциркуляции с биологическим и хронологическим возрастом у пациентов с сахарным диабетом. В исследование были включены 11 человек с сахарным диабетом [медиана возраста 57 (51; 64) лет]; биологический возраст определяли с помощью калькулятора Aging.AI. Показатели кожной микроциркуляции оценивали с помощью метода лазерной допплеровской флоуметрии в ходе окклюзионно-теплового теста. Для анализа взаимосвязи количественных параметров рассчитывали коэффициенты ранговой корреляции Спирмена. Были выявлены значимые множественные отрицательные корреляции биологического возраста с показателями реактивности микрососудов как при тепловом, так и при окклюзионном воздействии (сила корреляций от -0,618 до -0,97, p<0,05). У лиц с сахарным диабетом снижение реактивности микрососудов в большей мере ассоциировано с биологическим возрастом, чем с хронологическим. It has been established that the age together with the number of chronic diseases cause the decrease of the reactivity of the microcirculatory bed. This study aims to evaluate the relationship between cutaneous microcirculation parameters and biological and chronological age of patients with diabetes mellitus. 11 diabetic patients (median age 57 (51; 64) years) were examined in course of this study; biological age was figured by Aging.AI calculator. Cutaneous microcirculation parameters were measured by laser Doppler flowmetry with an occlusion-heating test. Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients were calculated to analyze the relationships between quantitative parameters. Significant multiple negative correlations of biological age and microvascular reactivity indices on exposure to both heat and occlusion (correlation strength from -0,618, to -0,97, p<0,05) were found. Diabetic patients have decreased microvascular reactivity that is more associated with biological age than with chronological age.

Validation of the Modified Alvarado Score in Patients Attending A&E Unit With Suspected Appendicitis – Prospective Clinical Study

BackgroundThe aim of our prospective study was to confirm the validity, diagnostic accuracy of the modified Alvarado score developed in the Department of Surgery, University of Szeged.Methods138 patients were enrolled in our study between 01 January 2019 and 01 January 2020. The patient’s modified Alvarado score was calculated in the Emergency Department before surgical consultation and decision of further therapy. The score was validated based on the final histology finding of the removed appendix. Additionally, potential correlation was examined between the frequency of drain usage, hospital stay, antibiotic use and the severity of the inflammation. ResultsComparing the scores with the histological findings, specificity of the modified Alvarado score was 84.78%, its sensitivity was 97.83% (with cutoff value of 5.5). Spearman's rank correlation (0.796) and ROC analysis (area under the curve 0.968) confirmed that the modified Alvarado score has an excellent predictive value in the diagnosis of acute appendicitis. Based on the result of the Fisher's exact test, cross tabulation and Spearman’s rank correlation correlation was found between the severity of the inflammation determined by the histology finding, the selected antibiotic and the duration of the antibiotic therapy, the average duration of hospitalization and drain insertion. ConclusionsBased on the results of our study, predictive value of the new, modified score system is excellent, using this score system is safe in the differential diagnosis of acute appendicitis as an aid for non-surgical consultants in emergency care. This new score system may decrease the number of unnecessary surgical consultations, decrease waiting time of the patients and some unnecessary examinations can be avoided. Trial RegistrationValidation of the modified Alvarado score in patients presenting in the Emergency Department with right lower abdominal complaints, ethical license number: 248/2018/SZTE, date of registration: 2018.11.04., name of ethics committee: SZTE SZAKK Regionális és Intézményi Humán Orvosbiológiai Kutatásetikai Bizottság- Clinical Research Coordination Office of the University of Szeged

Quantification of human plasma metalloproteins in multiple sclerosis, ischemic stroke and healthy controls reveals an association of haptoglobin-hemoglobin complexes with age

Advanced analytical methods play an important role in quantifying serum disease biomarkers. The problem of separating thousands of proteins can be reduced by analyzing for a ‘sub-proteome’, such as the ‘metalloproteome’, defined as all proteins that contain bound metals. We employed size exclusion chromatography (SEC) coupled to an inductively coupled plasma atomic emission spectrometer (ICP-AES) to analyze plasma from multiple sclerosis (MS) participants (n = 21), acute ischemic stroke (AIS) participants (n = 17) and healthy controls (n = 21) for Fe, Cu and Zn-metalloproteins. Using ANOVA analysis to compare the mean peak areas among the groups revealed no statistically significant differences for ceruloplasmin (p = 0.31), α2macroglobulin (p = 0.51) and transferrin (p = 0.31). However, a statistically significant difference was observed for the haptoglobin-hemoglobin (Hp-Hb) complex (p = 0.04), being driven by the difference between the control group and AIS (p = 0.012), but not with the MS group (p = 0.13), based on Dunnes test. A linear regression model for Hp-Hb complex with the groups now adjusted for age found no statistically significant differences between the groups (p = 0.95), but was suggestive for age (p = 0.057). To measure the strength of association between the Hp-Hb complex and age without possible modifications due to disease, we calculated the Spearman rank correlation in the healthy controls. The latter revealed a positive association (r = 0.39, 95% Confidence Interval = (-0.05, 0.83), which suggests that either the removal of Hp-Hb complexes from the blood circulation slows with age or that the release of Hb from red blood cells increases with age. We also observed that the Fe-peak corresponding to the Hp-Hb complex eluted ~100 s later in ~14% of all study samples, which was not correlated with age or disease diagnosis, but is consistent with the presence of the smaller Hp (1–1) isoform in 15% of the population.