Search results for "Covar"
showing 10 items of 509 documents
Comparative Study of the Perceived Quality of Life of Patients in Treatment for Cocaine and Heroin Dependence in Spain: Differences by Gender and Tim…
2014
This is a cross-sectional study in which we compared the perceived quality of life (QoL) of patients receiving outpatient treatment for cocaine (n = 727) and heroin dependence (n = 469), by analyzing differences by gender and time in treatment. Participants were recruited from addictive behavior centers in Spain in 2004. The World Health Organization Quality of Life Assessment Instrument (WHOQOL-Bref) was used as a measure. Analysis of covariance and multivariate linear regression were used. This study shows the relevance of considering the role of gender in QoL studies, and the need to evaluate the effectiveness of treatment in the improvement of QoL. Limitations of the study were noted.
Optimal selection of individuals for repeated covariate measurements in follow-up studies
2016
Repeated covariate measurements bring important information on the time-varying risk factors in long epidemiological follow-up studies. However, due to budget limitations, it may be possible to carry out the repeated measurements only for a subset of the cohort. We study cost-efficient alternatives for the simple random sampling in the selection of the individuals to be remeasured. The proposed selection criteria are based on forms of the D-optimality. The selection methods are compared with the simulation studies and illustrated with the data from the East–West study carried out in Finland from 1959 to 1999. The results indicate that cost savings can be achieved if the selection is focuse…
Birkhoff-Frink representations as functors
2010
In an earlier article we characterized, from the viewpoint of set theory, those closure operators for which the classical result of Birkhoff and Frink, stating the equivalence between algebraic closure spaces, subalgebra lattices and algebraic lattices, holds in a many-sorted setting. In the present article we investigate, from the standpoint of category theory, the form these equivalences take when the adequate morphisms of the several different species of structures implicated in them are also taken into account. Specifically, our main aim is to provide a functorial rendering of the Birkhoff-Frink representation theorems for both single-sorted algebras and many-sorted algebras, by definin…
The role of virtual work in Levi-Civita's parallel transport
2015
The current literature on history of science reports that Levi-Civita’s parallel transport was motivated by his attempt to provide the covariant derivative of the absolute differential calculus with a geometrical interpretation (For instance, see Scholz in The intersection of history and mathematics, Birkhauser, Basel, pp 203–230, 1994, Sect. 4). Levi-Civita’s memoir on the subject was explicitly aimed at simplifying the geometrical computation of the curvature of a Riemannian manifold. In the present paper, we wish to point out the possible role implicitly played by the principle of virtual work in Levi-Civita’s conceptual reasoning to formulate parallel transport.
Effects of power resistance training program with elastic bands on body composition, muscle strength and physical function in older women
2020
The aim of this study was to investigate the effects of a power-strength resistance program with elastic bands on body composition, physical function, and muscle strength in older women. For such purpose, a randomized controlled trial with a pre-post-intervention design was conducted. Thus, 58 healthy, physically independent, sedentary women, aged 65-85 years, were randomly allocated to the intervention (n = 28) or control group (n = 30). Measurements of body composition (total mass, total fat mass, total skeletal-muscle mass, and body fat percentage), isokinetic muscle strength of knee flexors and extensors (at 60º/second and 180º/second), and physical performance (flexibility, agility/dyn…
Error estimation and reduction with cross correlations
2010
Besides the well-known effect of autocorrelations in time series of Monte Carlo simulation data resulting from the underlying Markov process, using the same data pool for computing various estimates entails additional cross correlations. This effect, if not properly taken into account, leads to systematically wrong error estimates for combined quantities. Using a straightforward recipe of data analysis employing the jackknife or similar resampling techniques, such problems can be avoided. In addition, a covariance analysis allows for the formulation of optimal estimators with often significantly reduced variance as compared to more conventional averages.
Investigating the level of significance of the coherence function in cardiovascular variability analysis
2002
Although the presence of significant coupling between cardiovascular variability series is usually verified according to the threshold value of 0.5 in the coherence function (CF), spectral estimator parameters should also be considered. In this study, the surrogate data technique was introduced to define the level of significance of the CF. The proposed method determined a frequency-dependent threshold over which the hypothesis of zero coherence was rejected. The weighted covariance method and the autoregressive method were used to estimate the CF on simulated series with different degrees of linear coupling and on real cardiovascular data. The threshold was dependent on the type and parame…
Ten years surface-atmosphere water budget from the ISAC micrometeorological base in Salento peninsula and comments on the aquifer balance
2016
Data from a ten years (2003-2013) period of activity of the ISAC-Lecce micrometeorological station have been discussed focusing on the atmosphere-surface exchange. Some suitable indices have been calculated such as the precipitation intensity, the aridity index and the ground water infiltration fraction (ratio of the difference between precipitation and real evapotranspiration and the precipitation). Possible trends of annual averages in the decadal period are considered, trying to take also into account the statistical uncertainty associated to measurement errors and missing data. The results indicate a significant increasing in the precipitation intensity together with an experimental evi…
Pose classification using support vector machines
2000
In this work a software architecture is presented for the automatic recognition of human arm poses. Our research has been carried on in the robotics framework. A mobile robot that has to find its path to the goal in a partially structured environment can be trained by a human operator to follow particular routes in order to perform its task quickly. The system is able to recognize and classify some different poses of the operator's arms as direction commands like "turn-left", "turn-right", "go-straight", and so on. A binary image of the operator silhouette is obtained from the gray-level input. Next, a slice centered on the silhouette itself is processed in order to compute the eigenvalues …
Thinking outside the box: effects of modes larger than the survey on matter power spectrum covariance
2012
Considering the matter power spectrum covariance matrix, it has recently been found that there is a potentially dominant effect on mildly non-linear scales due to power in modes of size equal to and larger than the survey volume. This {\it beat coupling} effect has been derived analytically in perturbation theory and while it has been tested with simulations, some questions remain unanswered. Moreover, there is an additional effect of these large modes, which has so far not been included in analytic studies, namely the effect on the estimated {\it average} density which enters the power spectrum estimate. In this article, we work out analytic, perturbation theory based expressions including…