Dissertations / Theses on the topic 'Registered Reports'

Les preuves scientifiques sur les effets positifs de l'alimentation végétale (environnement, santé et bien-être animal) s'accumulent. Malgré ces avancées, la consommation individuelle de viande reste à des niveaux très élevés. La première partie de la thèse utilise les méthodes d'économie expérimentale pour identifier et lever les freins à la végétalisation de l'alimentation. Le chapitre 1 vise à mesurer expérimentalement le stigma social associé à l'alimentation végétale. Les résultats ne permettent pas de conclure à la présence de végéphobie dans un cadre économique, mais soulignent les limites des méthodes économiques utilisées. Le chapitre 2 rapporte les résultats d'une expérience portant sur l'impact d'une brochure d'information relative à l'alimentation végétale auprès d'un échantillon représentatif de médecins généralistes français. L'exposition à la brochure améliore l'avis général des médecins et dans une moindre mesure leurs pratiques. La deuxième partie de la thèse vise à répondre au biais de publication et aux pratiques scientifiques inadéquates en économie qui menacent la réplicabilité des résultats. Le chapitre 3 propose un guide à la rédaction des Registered Reports pour les économistes. Le guide développe les apports des Registered Reports et explicite les principaux concepts nécessaires à leur rédaction (plan d'analyse, analyse de pouvoir statistique, taille d’effet minimal d’intérêt, etc.). Des exemples spécifiques adaptés à l'économie expérimentale ainsi que des codes R et Stata sont détaillés pour faciliter la mise en œuvre des Registered Reports
Scientific evidence on the benefits of plant-based diets (environmental, health and animal welfare) is growing. Yet, individual meat consumption remains high. The first part of this dissertation uses experimental economics methods to identify and remove some of the barriers that limit the transition towards plant-based diets. Chapter 1 presents an experimental approach to measure the social stigma associated with following a plant-based diet. The results do not conclude to the presence of vegephobia in the economic environment but underline the limits of the employed tools. Chapter 2 reports the results from an experiment on the impact of an information campaign about plant-based diets on a representative sample of French doctors. The information campaign has a positive impact on the doctors' views and, to a smaller extent, improves their practices. The second part of the dissertation is dedicated to reduce publication bias and questionable research practices in economics in order to reduce the likelihood of a replication crisis. Chapter 3 provides a practical guide to Registered Reports for economists. The guide describes the benefits of Registered Reports and details the necessary methodological components (analysis plan, power analysis, smallest effect size of interest, etc.). Specific examples for experimental economics as well as R and Stata codes are provided to facilitate the implementation of Registered Reports

The purpose of this study is to describe newly graduated nurses’ self-reported perception of competence at the commencement of their first job as a registered nurse. Participants were new graduate nurses starting their first job in nursing in the acute care setting. Data was collected using the Nurse Professional Competence scale (Nilsson et al., 2014) between November 2016 and June 2017 in one hospital network. The tool includes eight areas of competence which are divided into two themes. Theme one is patient related nursing and theme two is nursing care organization and development. The survey was administered in a paper and pencil format at the start of the nursing orientation program. Demographic data collected included gender, age, months since licensed, highest nursing degree and prior work experience in health care. Findings revealed that nurses perceived themselves as most competent in the areas of value-based nursing care, teaching/learning support, and legislation in nursing and safety planning and least competent in the area of education and supervision of staff and students. Theme one competencies’ scores were higher than theme two competencies. There was a statistically significant finding among nurses who graduated with an accelerated BSN degree as compared to those with an ADN degree in the competence areas of medical technical care (p=0.040) and teaching learning support (p=.007). In addition, those nurses who had prior pre-licensure experience in healthcare related clerical roles had a statistically significant (p=.040) difference in the leadership and development in nursing competence area as compared to those with experience in other health care related jobs. The results of the study provide guidance to academia and practice in identifying new graduates’ areas of strengths and weaknesses to ensure safe entry-level nursing practice.

There is an enduring and prevailing disparity between the clinical prevalence of alcohol, tobacco and other drug-related problems and the frequency that nurses recognise and intervene in these common problems. The extant nursing literature has long determined an urgent need for further investigation into why nurses do not respond to patients with ATOD-related problems in the consistent and effective manner that the prevalence of these costly health problems require, or in a manner that reflects the opportunities that nurses have to offer brief and timely intervention. This thesis reports and discusses the investigation of factors that determine identification, assessment and interventions of patients with alcohol, tobacco and other drug-related problems by a randomly selected sample of Registered Nurses [n=1281] in practice in New South Wales, Australia. Of particular interest was the relationship between nurses' ATOD knowledge, therapeutic attitudes and clinical activity. Multiple quantitative and qualitative methods were used, firstly to systematically investigate factors within the nurse and their clinical setting that might predict desired clinical behaviour towards addressing ATOD-related problems, and secondly, to analyse and describe nurses' self-reported perceptions, views and experiences of the issue and what aids or impedes it. The research instrument - a 72 item self-completed questionnaire was developed and refined within a process of three (3) pilot studies and test-retest method. A multiple regression model was developed to establish the predictors of key clinical behaviours. Thematic coding was used to analyse the perceptions of these nurses as to the factors that affect their ability to intervene with patients who have ATODrelated problems. Convergent and divergent concerns between quantitative and qualitative findings became apparent. Thematic analysis of open-ended responses demonstrated that nurses report a complex of factors that affect their ability and capacity to intervene with patients who have ATOD-related problems. Among these are factors located within nurses themselves, within their patient(s), within their workplace, within other health professionals and within the broader social/cultural context. The latter part of the thesis systematically considers the relationships between the quantitative and qualitative findings within this large sample of registered nurses. From this comprehensive level of analysis, workforce implications for ATOD education, training and organisational support for nurses, the most numerous group of health care workers, have been readily identified. The major empirical finding of this investigation is that there is a significant difference between positive attitudinal sets and motivation of practicing registered nurses to perform desired ATOD-related clinical activities, and the lower reported frequency at which this occurs. The qualitative findings are highly convergent with the empirical ones. It is the nurse's self-identified lack of knowledge, skills, experience and confidence that is now reported as having the greatest effect on their ability to assess, identify and offer brief and timely intervention for patients with ATOD-related problems, rather than any prevailing beliefs and attitudes that these patients were not worthy of their care, or outside the legitimate framework of their nursing role.

Abstract Study samples in medical research are selected according to the objectives of the studies. Researchers seek to collect data as extensively and reliably as possible. In practice, however, data are often missing or may be incorrect. This thesis covers some of the problems concerning missing data and data collection in psychiatric research. Methods for adjusting for missing data and for evaluating the reliability of data are presented. The data originate from the Northern Finland 1966 Birth Cohort (N = 12058). This study explored how participation in an epidemiologic study that includes questionnaires and a clinical examination is affected by mental health (N = 11540), and whether non-participants experience more severe clinical symptoms than participants in a psychiatric field study (N = 145) among subjects with a psychosis. Inverse probability weighting (IPW) was used to adjust for non-participation in comparisons of brain volumes between schizophrenia and control groups. The precision of self-reported medication use was also explored (N = 7625). In an epidemiologic study of all cohort members, subjects with a psychiatric disorder participated less actively than those without one. In the psychiatric field study, non participants were more often patients with schizophrenia than other psychoses. The psychiatric symptoms of non-participants were more severe and they needed more hospital care than participants. The use of IPW led to higher estimates of cerebrospinal fluid volume and lower estimates of grey and white matter volumes in schizophrenia patients, and increased the statistical significance of the differences in brain volume estimates between the schizophrenia and control groups. The precision of self-reported data on psychoactive medication use was substantial. Due to non-participation, the true prevalence of psychiatric disorders is probably higher than the prevalence estimates from field studies that are based on data provided by participants only. In order to reflect the true differences in the target population, weighting methods can be used to improve estimates affected by non-participation. Regarding psychoactive medication use, data collected by postal questionnaire can be assumed accurate enough for study purposes. However, it may underestimate the prevalence of medication use due to non-participation
Abstract Tutkimusaineisto valitaan tutkimuksen tavoitteiden perusteella. Tavoitteena on kerätä kattava ja virheetön aineisto. Käytännössä kuitenkin osa tiedoista voi puuttua tai olla virheellistä. Tässä väitöskirjassa esitellään yleisesti menetelmiä huomioida puuttuva tieto analyyseissä ja arvioida aineistojen luotettavuutta psykiatrisessa tutkimuksessa. Aineisto perustuu Pohjois-Suomen vuoden 1966 syntymäkohorttiin (N = 12058). Väitöskirjassa tutkittiin, miten psykiatrinen sairastavuus vaikuttaa osallistumiseen epidemiologisessa tutkimuksessa, joka sisälsi kyselyitä ja terveystutkimuksen (N = 11540), sekä erosiko psykiatriseen kenttätutkimukseen osallistuneiden ja osallistumattomien psykoosipotilaiden kliininen taudinkuva toisistaan (N = 145). Käänteisen todennäköisyyden painotusmenetelmää käytettiin korjaamaan puuttuvan tiedon aiheuttamaa virhettä aivovolyymien estimaateissa skitsofreniapotilailla. Lisäksi arvioitiin itse ilmoitetun lääkekäyttötiedon luotettavuutta (N = 7625). Epidemiologisessa tutkimuksessa ne kohortin jäsenet, joilla oli jokin psykiatrinen sairaus, osallistuivat passiivisemmin kuin ne, joilla ei ollut psykiatrista sairautta. Psykoosipotilaat, jotka eivät osallistuneet psykiatriseen kenttätutkimukseen, sairastivat tutkimukseen osallistuneita useammin skitsofreniaa kuin muita psykooseja ja heidän taudinkuvansa oli vakavampi. Painottaminen kasvatti aivonesteen ja alensi harmaan ja valkean aineen tilavuuksien estimaatteja skitsofreniapotilailla, ja lisäsi aivovolyymien erojen tilastollista merkitsevyyttä skitsofreniapotilaiden ja vertailuhenkilöiden välillä. Itse ilmoitetun psykoaktiivisten lääkkeiden käyttötiedon luotettavuus oli merkittävä. Kadosta johtuen psykiatristen sairauksien todellinen vallitsevuus on todennäköisesti korkeampi kuin vallitsevuuden estimaatit, jotka on laskettu tutkimukseen osallistuneiden tiedoista. Painotusmenetelmiä voidaan käyttää parantamaan puuttuvan tiedon vääristämiä estimaatteja, koska painottamalla huomioidaan todellisia eroja kohdeväestössä. Tutkittaessa lääkekäyttötietoa postikyselyillä kerätyn aineiston voidaan olettaa olevan laadultaan riittävä tutkimustarpeisiin

The aim of this dissertation is to investigate aspects of the differential corporate reporting debate in South Africa. The dissertation summarises the background to the current position and findings in respect of all previous South African research and selected previous international research. The dissertation reports the results of a postal survey of South African registered accountants' and auditors' perceptions of the suitability of selected South African statements of generally accepted accounting practice to a range of South African entities varied by size, legal form and financial statement user base. The dissertation provides evidence of (i) the need for differential corporate reporting in South Africa, (ii) the need for multiple differential reporting thresholds in South Africa, and (iii) the need for differential reporting options to include both presentation and disclosure and recognition and measurement concessions. The dissertation also raises some questions for future research.
Thesis (M.Com.)-University of KwaZulu-Natal, 2004.

Background Several studies have concluded that the use of nurses’ time and energy is often not optimized. Given widespread migration of nurses from developing to developed countries, it is important for human resource planning to know whether nursing education in developing countries is associated with more exaggerated patterns of inefficiency. Objectives First, to describe nurses’ reports on tasks below their skill level. Second, to examine the association between nurses’ migratory status (domestically trained nurse or foreign trained nurse from a developing country) and reports on these tasks. Design The Registered Nurse Forecasting Study used a cross-sectional quantitative research design to gather data from 33,731 nurses (62% response rate) in 486 hospitals in Belgium, England, Finland, Germany, Greece, Ireland, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. Methods For this analysis, nurse-reported information on migratory status and tasks below their skill level performed during their last shift was used. Random effects models estimated the effect of nurses’ migratory status on reports of these tasks. Results 832 nurses were trained in a developing country (2.5% of total sample). Across countries, a high proportion of both domestically trained and foreign trained nurses from developing countries reported having performed tasks below their skill level during their last shift. After adjusting for nurses’ type of last shift worked, years of experience, and level of education, there remained a pronounced overall effect of being a foreign trained nurse from a developing country and an increase in reports of tasks below skill level performed during the last shift. Conclusion The findings suggest that there remains much room for improvement to optimize the use of nurses’ time and energy. Special attention should be given to raising the professional level of practice of foreign trained nurses from developing countries. Further research is needed to understand the influence of professional practice standards, skill levels of foreign trained nurses from developing countries and values attached to these tasks resulting from previous work experiences in their home countries. This will allow us to better understand the conditions under which foreign trained nurses from developing countries can optimally contribute to professional nursing practice in developed country contexts.
Dr McIntosh is a member of the the RN4CAST Consortium.

Methicillin Resistant Staphylococcus aureus (MRSA) is the most commonly isolated multi-drug resistant organism in the hospital setting. MRSA can result in death among people who have no identified risk factors for infection. One-third of MRSA infections are cross-transmitted as Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs). It is well known that the single most effective means for decreasing the risk of HAIs is hand hygiene (HH), yet poor performance among registered nurses persists. The theoretical framework used to guide the study was the Health Belief Model (HBM). The purposes of the study were to: explore the RNs’ self-reported HH performance rate; explore the RNs’ knowledge related to MRSA; identify relationships between MRSA knowledge and HBM constructs; explore the RNs’ barriers to HH performance; identify relationships between barriers and self-reported HH performance; explore relationships among HH behaviors and constructs in the HBM; explore predictors of ‘overall HH’ performance; and identify if certain demographic characteristics are related to MRSA knowledge, self-reported HH, and HBM constructs. A cross sectional descriptive study was conducted with a sample of RNs who were randomly selected. The questionnaire mailing, which included the survey, consent, and the return-stamped envelope were distributed to 684 RNs. Completed surveys (n=120) from RNs who met the sample inclusion criteria were returned within four weeks. Self-reported HH were highest during times of increased perceived susceptibility for infection. In addition, nurses were more likely to overcome barriers to HH during ‘moments’ associated with the highest perceived susceptibility. Although MRSA knowledge did not correlate with ‘overall HH’ performance, there was a significant relationship identified with self-efficacy (r=.27, p<.01), which may influence HH behaviors. The most commonly identified barriers to HH performance were system factors (e.g. ‘a high workload’). Self-efficacy and barriers represented 26% of the variability in the regression model when applying significant correlations among HBM constructs and ‘overall HH.’ The phenomenon of the RN’s HH decision making is not completely understood. More research is needed to explain predictors for HH among registered nurses. This understanding will allow researchers to plan interventions aimed at increasing knowledge and understanding about perceived susceptibility, which may in turn improve self-efficacy behaviors for HH, which could decrease HAI rates.
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This historic preservation report focuses on the Gaines-Oliphint house in Sabine County, Texas. The first part of the report establishes the geographic and historic context of the home. Next, the report concentrates on establishing significance of the Gaines- Oliphint house based on the National Register’s criteria through both an association with a significant person in history and architectural characteristics representative of a particular time and style. Finally, the report outlines a preliminary conditions assessment of the Gaines-Oliphint house followed by recommendations for stabilization, preservation and restoration of the home.
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Natural Language Processing (NLP) is a discipline that involves the design of methods that process text. Deep learning, and Machine Learning (ML) in general, is the discipline that studies and implements methods that learn to make predictions from data. In the last years, many different ML methods have been presented in the context of NLP. In this work we focused in par- ticular on text classification methods. Cancer registries collect pathology re- ports from clinical data sources and combine them with administrative data sources to identify cancer diagnoses in a specific area. Here we present a large scale study on deep learning methods applied to cancer pathology reports in Italian language. In this study we developed several classifiers to predict to- pography and morphology ICD-O codes. We compared classic machine learn- ing approaches, i.e. Support Vector Machine (SVM), with recent deep learn- ing techniques, i.e. Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) and Gated Recurrent Unit (GRU). Furthermore, we compared recent attention-based and hierar- chical techniques, e.g. Bidirectional Encoder Representations from Transform- ers (BERT), with a more simple hard attention method, showing that the latter is enough to perform slightly better in this specific domain.

Dissertação de Mestrado em Ciências Jurídico-Forenses apresentada à Faculdade de Direito
Na presente dissertação será abordada a questão da dupla descrição no registo predial. Neste sentido, importa notar que este estudo é centrado na publicitação de direitos reais sobre imóveis, mais concretamente sobre prédios (rústicos, urbanos e mistos), e o seu regime de registo. Assim sendo, com a apreciação das características fundamentais do sistema registal português será possível descortinar algumas das suas fragilidades que, direta ou indiretamente, causam duplicações de registo. Serão, desta forma, abordadas temáticas especialmente controversas, como a inexistência de um cadastro eficaz, a extrema facilidade com que se inscrevem prédios nos serviços das finanças e a consequente insuficiência das descrições prediais. Além do mais, será analisada a insegurança gerada pelo regime dos meios de suprimentos de títulos, bem como a relação entre o registo e a usucapião, sendo também aprofundada a questão do fracionamento do prédio e a usucapião parcial. De igual modo, integrará uma apreciação do regime da habilitação de herdeiros e a falta de controlo da titularidade dos prédios em caso de falecimento, assim como o infortúnio abandono do princípio da competência territorial das conservatórias.Em súmula, evidencia-se uma excessiva facilidade do acesso ao registo, uma enorme desvalorização do sistema registal e um indigno desinteresse no seu aperfeiçoamento que, mantendo-se até aos dias de hoje, potenciam situações totalmente inconcebíveis. Como é, aliás, o caso da problemática aqui a tratar: a duplicação do mesmo prédio no registo, através da qual se publicita que duas pessoas distintas são, simultaneamente, proprietárias do mesmo prédio.Não obstante ser abordado o conflito entre os diferentes titulares registais, tal como as duas doutrinas sobre os critérios de resolução do mesmo, este trabalho centra-se na necessidade de encontrar mecanismos que possibilitem eliminar existência de duplas descrições. Neste ponto, constatamos que esta é uma tarefa extremamente difícil, pois tal implica uma rigorosa revisão de vários regimes diferentes. Mais concretamente, tornar mais exigente, quer o regime da justificação quer o da habilitação de herdeiros, voltar a consagrar a regra da competência territorial das conservatórias e investir no projeto SINERGIC enquanto cadastro verdadeiramente eficaz, o que, só por si, já ajudaria a minimizar o problema das inscrições matriciais. No meu entendimento, o mais urgente é regulamentar a forma como se inscrevem os prédios nos serviços das finanças, sendo imprescindível criar um regime próprio para as inscrições matriciais, através de um conjunto de requisitos que tenham que ser cumpridos a nível nacional por todos os serviços de finanças.
This dissertation addresses the matter of duplicate report in register of deeds. In this sense, it is important to note that this study is centered on the publication of real property rights, more specifically on tenements (rustic, urban and mixed), and their registration system. Therefore, analysing the fundamental characteristics of the Portuguese registration system, will possibly reveal some of its weaknesses that, directly or indirectly, cause duplication of registration. In this way, especially controversial topics will be addressed, such as the lack of an effective register, the extreme ease with which tenements are registered in the Finance service and the consequent insufficiency of land descriptions. In addition, the insecurity generated by the title deeds supply regime will be analyzed, as well as the relationship between registration and adverse possession, and the issue of fractioned tenement and partial adverse possession will also be further investigated. Likewise, it will include an assessment of the regime for the qualification of heirs and the lack of control over the ownership of tenements / land in the event of death, as well as the regretable abandoning of the principle of territorial jurisdiction of the land registration offices.In short, there is an excessive ease in access to registration, a huge devaluation of the registration system and an unworthy lack of interest in its improvement, which, even today, lead to totally inconceivable situations. Such is the case of the situation to be addressed here: the duplication of the same tenement in the Land Registry, through which it is advertised that two different people are simultaneously owners of the same building.Despite addressing the conflict between the different registrants, as well as the two doctrines on the criteria for its resolution, this work focuses on the need to find mechanisms that make it possible to eliminate the existence of duplicate report. At this point, it is an extremely difficult task, as this implies a rigorous review of several different regimes. Specifically, to make both the justification regime and the qualification of heirs more thorough, re-establish the rule of territorial jurisdiction of land registration offices and invest in the SINERGIC project as a truly effective record which, in itself, would already help to minimize the problem of main office registrations.In my understanding, the most urgent thing is to regulate the way tenements / land are registered in the Finance service, being essential to create a specific regime for matrix registrations, through a set of requirements that must be complied at a national level by all services of Finance.

This dissertation looks at selected matters covered by the statutory provisions on the shareholders protection as set out in the Commercial Code. It focuses mainly on the matters contained in Section 196a of the Commercial Code, Section 193 (2) of the Commercial Code, and on the issue of financial assistance. In addition, this dissertation deals with the legal protection of shareholders under the Business Corporations Act which is to take effect on 1 January 2014, and provides a brief outline of how these matters are regulated under certain foreign laws. As well, it provides a comparison with the legal regulations of the European Union. This dissertation is comprised of three sections, each having several parts. The parts are further divided into articles. Section 1 analyses the statutory provisions on the protection of shareholders as given in the Commercial Code, and is divided into four parts. The introduction, given in Part I, focuses on the protection of shareholders under the Commercial Code in the general sense. The remaining three parts concentrate on the above said selected statutory provisions. In each of those three parts, I attempt to discuss the key purpose of the provisions, describe how they developed including respective amendment (novelizations) of the Commercial Code and, in this context,...