Multilevel modeling (MLM) has emerged as a powerful statistical framework for analyzing complex data structures with nested relationships. With its hierarchical modeling approach, MLM enables researchers to account fo...Multilevel modeling (MLM) has emerged as a powerful statistical framework for analyzing complex data structures with nested relationships. With its hierarchical modeling approach, MLM enables researchers to account for dependencies and variations within and between different levels of a hierarchy. By explicitly modeling these relationships, MLM provides a robust and accurate analysis of data. It has become increasingly popular in the field of education. MLM enables the investigation of various research issues, the evaluation of individual and group-level indicators, and the calculation of both fixed and random effects. Overall, MLM revolutionizes data analysis by uncovering patterns, understanding contextual effects, and making more precise statistical inferences in complex datasets. For fitting multilevel models in R, use lmer function provided by lme4 package. Through this examination, the use of a multilevel model is expected to increase and revolutionize data analysis and decision-making. The Constrained Intermediate Model (CIM) and Augmented Intermediate model (AIM) deviation are compared using the Likelihood-ratio (LR) test and the ANOVA function. This study analyzes student results from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, collected via stratified random sampling. A linear mixed-effect model under multilevel modeling estimates the impact on CGPA, considering department, gender, intermediate marks, and entry test scores. These results indicate that Entry test is a significant predictor of CGPA, but the effect of department identifier CMC on CGPA is not statistically significant.展开更多
Introduction: Among young teens, about one in five smokes worldwide. Adolescents spend a considerable amount of their time in school, and the school environment is therefore important for child health practices and ou...Introduction: Among young teens, about one in five smokes worldwide. Adolescents spend a considerable amount of their time in school, and the school environment is therefore important for child health practices and outcomes. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the impact on smoking behavior of the school environment and the personal characteristics of male teenage students attending schools in Pakistan, taking into account the survey sampling structure. Methods: A two-stage cluster sampling with stratification was employed, and we interviewed 772 male secondary school students. We adopted random effect and generalizing estimating equation models. Results: Peer pressure in particular had a strong influence on adolescents smoking;those whose friends smoked were up to 6 times more likely to smoke. Family smoking was also significantly associated with adolescents smoking, but those students whose mother was educated were 50% less likely to smoke. The fitted random effect model indicated that the between school variability was significant (p-value < 0.01), indicating differences in smoking habits between schools. A random coefficient model showed that variability among schools was not significantly different for public and private schools. Conclusion: Public health campaigns for smoking cessation should target not only the individual but also the families of adolescents attending schools.展开更多
Background: There have been researches on the evaluation of Doppler vascular impedance in hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy (HDCP). With respect to the method of analysis used and the conclusions drawn in ...Background: There have been researches on the evaluation of Doppler vascular impedance in hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy (HDCP). With respect to the method of analysis used and the conclusions drawn in previous studies, different vessels were usually viewed separately and independently. This study was designed to evaluate Doppler vascular impedance changes in HDCP from a new perspective, with original thought and insight into an ordinary issue. Methods: 273 pregnant women (110 hypertensive pregnancies and 163 normotensive pregnancies) were randomly included in a grouping case-control study conducted from February 10, 2011 to April 30, 2013. All women in the study underwent Doppler measurements of six different vessels including the umbilical artery, the uterine arteries, the placental bed spiral artery, the fetal middle cerebral artery and the fetal renal artery. Doppler vascular impedance was presented as pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), and systolic and diastolic ratio (S/D). Doppler changes in the hypertensive and normotensive groups were assessed by the multilevel modeling approach with univariate and multivariate-adjusted analyses. Results: According to multilevel modeling approach with multivariate-adjusted analysis, a relatively average evaluation on Doppler vascular impedance was provided. Hypertension was significantly associated with positive effects on PI, RI and S/D values (coefficients were 0.10, 0.03 and 0.08, respectively;95% CIs were 0.06 - 0.14, 0.02 - 0.04 and 0.04 - 0.11, respectively;P values were all less than 0.001) in comparison with normotensive group. Conclusion: According to an overall evaluation, Doppler vascular impedance in hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy was higher than in normotensive pregnancy. The novel thought and approach applied in this research may bring about inspirations for better understanding and assessment of the disease.展开更多
Controversy exists on the magnitude and variability of farm nutrient balances and quality of arable land in sub-Saharan Africa with Kenya among those affected negatively. This study investigates quality of arable land...Controversy exists on the magnitude and variability of farm nutrient balances and quality of arable land in sub-Saharan Africa with Kenya among those affected negatively. This study investigates quality of arable land by fitting multivariate multilevel model to farm nutrient balance data collected from five agro-climatic zones of Kenya (arable lands). Objectives of the study were to investigate the magnitude and variability of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) farm nutrient balances in arable lands of Kenya, study effects of agro-climatic zones on nutrient balances and to determine effects of household resource endowments on NPK nutrient balances. The study concludes that agro-climatic zones differ with respect to farm nutrient balances;that livestock resource endowments and hired labour have positive effects on the magnitude and direction of farm nutrient balances;and that household ownership of large capital resources do not guarantee a positive effect on farm nutrient balances. The study recommends integration of sound livestock practices and application of agro-climatic zone differentiated interventions in future strategies for addressing farm nutrient balances and arable land quality, and the use of large sample sizes and relevant factors/covariates in future analysis to shed additional insights on farm nutrient balances and on how arable land quality can be improved.展开更多
This study applied multilevel modeling to investigate the impact of observed predictors and different levels or groups that households belong, on parents’ choice of discipline methods using data from 8156 households ...This study applied multilevel modeling to investigate the impact of observed predictors and different levels or groups that households belong, on parents’ choice of discipline methods using data from 8156 households derived from a nationwide survey by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in 2011. The aim of the study is to provide in-depth information on why parents choose particular discipline methods as corrective measures to reduce unwanted child behaviour in the present and to increase desirable ones in the future. The results of the study show that, religion and age-group of household heads have significant effect on household’s likelihood to choose physical discipline methods whereas the wealth index of a household and ethnicity of the household head, have significant effect on households’ likelihood to choose non-physical and psychological aggression methods. The results further show significant contextual effect on the differences in choices of parents at the household and regional levels. The choice of physical discipline methods by parents was consistent across households and regional levels unlike non-physical and psychological aggression methods whose application varied across the regions. Households in the Northern, Eastern and Volta regions mostly chose to apply physical discipline methods whereas in the Upper West, Western and Northern regions the most chosen discipline methods were non-physical discipline methods. Psychological aggression discipline methods were predominantly applied in the Upper East, Central and Northern regions of the country.展开更多
In this study,we used an extensive sampling network established in central Romania to develop tree height and crown length models.Our analysis included more than 18,000 tree measurements from five different species.In...In this study,we used an extensive sampling network established in central Romania to develop tree height and crown length models.Our analysis included more than 18,000 tree measurements from five different species.Instead of building univariate models for each response variable,we employed a multivariate approach using seemingly unrelated mixed-effects models.These models incorporated variables related to species mixture,tree and stand size,competition,and stand structure.With the inclusion of additional variables in the multivariate seemingly unrelated mixed-effects models,the accuracy of the height prediction models improved by over 10% for all species,whereas the improvement in the crown length models was considerably smaller.Our findings indicate that trees in mixed stands tend to have shorter heights but longer crowns than those in pure stands.We also observed that trees in homogeneous stand structures have shorter crown lengths than those in heterogeneous stands.By employing a multivariate mixed-effects modelling framework,we were able to perform cross-model random-effect predictions,leading to a significant increase in accuracy when both responses were used to calibrate the model.In contrast,the improvement in accuracy was marginal when only height was used for calibration.We demonstrate how multivariate mixed-effects models can be effectively used to develop multi-response allometric models that can be easily calibrated with a limited number of observations while simultaneously achieving better-aligned projections.展开更多
Land degradation causes serious environmental problems in many regions of the world, and although it can be effectively assessed and monitored using a time series of rainfall and a normalized difference vegetation ind...Land degradation causes serious environmental problems in many regions of the world, and although it can be effectively assessed and monitored using a time series of rainfall and a normalized difference vegetation index （NDVI） from remotely-sensed imagery, dividing human-induced land degradation from vegetation dynamics due to climate change is not a trivial task. This paper presented a multilevel statistical modeling of the NDVI-rainfall relationship to detect human-induced land degradation at local and landscape scales in the Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, China, and recognized that anthropogenic activities result in either positive （land restoration and re-vegetation） or negative （degradation） trends. Linear regressions were used to assess the accuracy of the multi- level statistical model. The results show that： （1） land restoration was the dominant process in the Ordos Plateau between 1998 and 2012; （2） the effect of the statistical removal of precipitation revealed areas of human-induced land degradation and improvement, the latter reflecting successful restoration projects and changes in land man- agement in many parts of the Ordos; （3） compared to a simple linear regression, multilevel statistical modeling could be used to analyze the relationship between the NDVI and rainfall and improve the accuracy of detecting the effect of human activities. Additional factors should be included when analyzing the NDVI-rainfall relationship and detecting human-induced loss of vegetation cover in drylands to improve the accuracy of the approach and elimi- nate some observed non-significant residual trends.展开更多
Modern battlefield doctrine is based on mobility, flexibility, and rapid response to changing situations. As is well known, mobile ad hoc network systems are among the best utilities for battlefield activity. Although...Modern battlefield doctrine is based on mobility, flexibility, and rapid response to changing situations. As is well known, mobile ad hoc network systems are among the best utilities for battlefield activity. Although much research has been done on secure routing, security issues have largely been ignored in applying mobile ad hoc network theory to computer technology. An ad hoc network is usually assumed to be homogeneous, which is an irrational assumption for armies. It is clear that soldiers, commanders, and commanders-in-chief should have different security levels and computation powers as they have access to asymmetric resources. Imitating basic military rank levels in battlefield situations, how multilevel security can be introduced into ad hoc networks is indicated, thereby controlling restricted classified information flows among nodes that have different security levels.展开更多
Complex energy and environment system, especially nuclear fuel cycle system recently raised socialconcerns about the issues of economic competitiveness, environmental effect and nuclear proliferation. Only underthe co...Complex energy and environment system, especially nuclear fuel cycle system recently raised socialconcerns about the issues of economic competitiveness, environmental effect and nuclear proliferation. Only underthe condition that those conflicting issues are gotten a consensus between stakeholders with different knowledgebackground, can nuclear power industry be continuingly developed. In this paper, a new analysis platform has beendeveloped to help stakeholders to recognize and analyze various socio-technical issues in the nuclear fuel cycle systembased on the functional modeling method named Multilevel Flow Models (MFM) according to the cognition theoryof human being. Its character is that MFM models define a set of mass, energy and information flow structures onmultiple levels of abstraction to describe the functional structure of a process system and its graphical symbol representationand the means-end and part-whole hierarchical flow structure to make the represented process easy to beunderstood. Based upon this methodology, a micro-process and a macro-process of nuclear fuel cycle system wereselected to be simulated and some analysis processes such as economics analysis, environmental analysis and energybalance analysis related to those flows were also integrated to help stakeholders to understand the process of decision-making with the introduction of some new functions for the improved Multilevel Flow Models Studio, and finallythe simple simulation such as spent fuel management process simulation and money flow of nuclear fuel cycleand its levelised cost analysis will be represented as feasible examples.展开更多
With CMOS technologies approaching the scaling ceiling, novel memory technologies have thrived in recent years, among which the memristor is a rather promising candidate for future resistive memory （RRAM）. Memristor...With CMOS technologies approaching the scaling ceiling, novel memory technologies have thrived in recent years, among which the memristor is a rather promising candidate for future resistive memory （RRAM）. Memristor＇s potential to store multiple bits of information as different resistance levels allows its application in multilevel cell （MCL） tech- nology, which can significantly increase the memory capacity. However, most existing memristor models are built for binary or continuous memristance switching. In this paper, we propose the simulation program with integrated circuits emphasis （SPICE） modeling of charge-controlled and flux-controlled memristors with multilevel resistance states based on the memristance versus state map. In our model, the memristance switches abruptly between neighboring resistance states. The proposed model allows users to easily set the number of the resistance levels as parameters, and provides the predictability of resistance switching time if the input current/voltage waveform is given. The functionality of our models has been validated in HSPICE. The models can be used in multilevel RRAM modeling as well as in artificial neural network simulations.展开更多
By means of vertical normal modes a regional nested multilevel primitive equation model can be reduced to several sets of shallow water equations characterized by various equivalent depths. Therefore, time integration...By means of vertical normal modes a regional nested multilevel primitive equation model can be reduced to several sets of shallow water equations characterized by various equivalent depths. Therefore, time integration of the model in spectral form can be performed in the manner similar to those used in the spectral nested shallow water equation model case.展开更多
The paper describes a new human-interface system design method by combining the conception of Multilevel Flow Model and Ecological Interface Design to support operators’ fault diagnosis in the complex plant system. M...The paper describes a new human-interface system design method by combining the conception of Multilevel Flow Model and Ecological Interface Design to support operators’ fault diagnosis in the complex plant system. Modern man-made systems are always achieving many complex automatic and intelligent tasks so that they are becoming more and more complex and can be hardly understood by operators, who should be the primary role in system operating. This situation presents a big challenge to the operating support system that it should present the complex system in a direct and clear way to operators to and make operators understand the internal interaction of the system especially in the abnormal status to ensure the operating safety. The Multilevel Flow Model based on the idea of ”Abstraction Hierarchy”, aiming at decompressing a system by means-end and part-whole way, can be used to represent a complex system in a standard way and perform intelligent operating tasks such as fault diagnosis and process control. Ecological Interface Design, which based on the human cognitive properties, can present the internal interaction of the system in a direct way. This paper combines this two interface design conceptions to achieve two aspects, intelligent fault diagnosis and direct presentation of causal relationship of operating parameters, to support operators’ fault diagnosis in complex plant system. The design method is applied to a PWR power plant in this paper as an application example.展开更多
Introduction: Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic disease among schoolchildren. We aimed to investigate the association between dental caries index and socio-demographic status in schoolchildren by using a mul...Introduction: Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic disease among schoolchildren. We aimed to investigate the association between dental caries index and socio-demographic status in schoolchildren by using a multilevel hurdle model. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study was carried out on 906 primary school pupils in Kerman, Iran in 2012. The subjects were selected through a stratified cluster random sampling. At first, the whole target area was stratified according to two geographic areas, the north and south area. Then each area was stratified according to gender. In the next step, several schools were considered as clusters, which were selected randomly in each geographic area and gender strata. All the schoolchildren in these schools were included in this study as samples. Twelve-year-old pupils were examined for dental caries. The dependent variable in this study was the dmft/DMFT index. Eight variables, including socio-demographic information, were collected. Multilevel negative binomial hurdle model was employed for data analysis. Results: The prevalence of caries-free pupils was 30.1% and the mean dmft/DMFT was 3.6 ± 2.2. Negative binomial part of the adjusted model showed that the dmft/DMFT adjusted rate for females was 1.36 (95% CI: 1.10-1.79) times higher than males. Also, the dmft/DMFT adjusted rate for overweight pupils was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.74-0.98) times lower than those with normal weight. Logistic part of the adjusted model showed that the posibility of caries-free state in overweight pupils was 1.95 (95% CI: 1.22-3.11) times higher than those with normal weight. In addition, pupils whose fathers and mothers were workers and housewives, respectively, and those with a high maternal age were at a greater risk for caries experience than others (p < 0.05). Conclusion: BMI, gender, parent’s job and mother’s age at delivery were factors effecting on dental caries in schoolchildren. These pupils need more attention to dental care.展开更多
On the basis of analyzing the flaws of present multiple-attribute and multilevel evaluation methods, concerning the problem of characteristics of the multiple-attribute and multilevel system s appraisal and the partic...On the basis of analyzing the flaws of present multiple-attribute and multilevel evaluation methods, concerning the problem of characteristics of the multiple-attribute and multilevel system s appraisal and the particular emphasis on the respective attributes in the evaluation process, as well as its relevance to the environment, an optimal attribute system is proposed, and the multiplicative analytic hierarchy process (MAHP) is used to obtain subjective weight coefficients and the objective weight coefficient evaluating method is given. The deviation between the index value of each level and the values of the same index of other levels are formulated, and an optimal model is gained, thus establishing the weight coefficients of the whole optimal attribute system. Furthermore, the detailed implementation procedure of this method is introduced. Besides, favorable results have been gained by applying the model to the practical problems of economic evaluation.展开更多
This study attempted to interpret differential item discriminations between individual and cluster levels by focusing on patterns and magnitudes of item discriminations under 2PL multilevel IRT model through a set of ...This study attempted to interpret differential item discriminations between individual and cluster levels by focusing on patterns and magnitudes of item discriminations under 2PL multilevel IRT model through a set of variety simulation conditions. The consistency between the mean of individual-level ability estimates and cluster-level ability estimates was evaluated by the correlations between them. As a result, it was found that they were highly correlated if the patterns of item discriminations were the same for both individual and cluster levels. The magnitudes of item discriminations themselves did not affect much on correlations, as far as the patterns were the same at the two levels. However, it was found that the correlation became lower when the patterns of item discriminations were different between the individual and cluster levels. Also, it was revealed that the mean of the estimated individual-level abilities would not be necessarily a good representation of the cluster-level ability, if the patterns were different at the two levels.展开更多
A pilot-scale multilevel contact oxidation reactors system, coupled with saran lock carriers,was applied for the treatment of poultry farm wastewater. The removal efficiencies of CODcr, ammonia, and the total nitrogen...A pilot-scale multilevel contact oxidation reactors system, coupled with saran lock carriers,was applied for the treatment of poultry farm wastewater. The removal efficiencies of CODcr, ammonia, and the total nitrogen as well as the elimination performance of CODcr and total nitrogen along the three-level contact oxidation tanks under six designed operational models were investigated. Based on the performance of the nitrogen removal of the saran lock carriers and the distribution of anoxic–aerobic interspace under the suitable operation model, the mechanism of nitrogen removal of the system was also explored. The results revealed that the intermittent aeration under parallel model is the most suitable operation model, while the removal efficiencies of CODcr, ammonia, and the total nitrogen were 86.86%, 84.04%, and 80.96%, respectively. The effluent concentration of CODcr,ammonia, and the total nitrogen were 55.6 mg/L, 8.3 mg/L, and 12.0 mg/L, which satisfy both the discharge standard of pollutants for livestock and poultry breeding industry(GB18596–2001) and the first grade of the integrated wastewater discharge standard(GB 8978–1996). Moreover, the mechanism for the nitrogen removal should be attributed to the plenty of anoxic–aerobic interspaces of the biofilm and the three-dimensional spiral structure of the saran lock carriers, where the oxygen-deficient distribution was suitable for the happening of the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification process. Therefore, the multilevel contact oxidation tanks system is an effective pathway for the treatment of the poultry farm wastewater on the strength of a suitable operation model and novel carriers.展开更多
Complex Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC) system faces many socio-technical issues that need to obtain the consensus between stakeholders of different knowledge background. In this paper, a visualized analysis platform based o...Complex Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC) system faces many socio-technical issues that need to obtain the consensus between stakeholders of different knowledge background. In this paper, a visualized analysis platform based on graphical functional modeling method, Multilevel Flow Model (MFM), is proposed to help those stakeholders to recognize and analyze various socio-technical issues in NFC system. Some new functions, such as “Reaction Function", “Switch Function" and “Conversion Function", are introduced to fulfill new simulation tasks for NFC system. Based upon this methodology, a micro-process and a macro-process of NFC system are simulated and meanwhile some key analysis variables, such as CO2 emission and cost flow, required by some analysis methods are deducted and displayed in the platform. And finally a sample simulation analysis is conducted based on MFM.展开更多
文摘Multilevel modeling (MLM) has emerged as a powerful statistical framework for analyzing complex data structures with nested relationships. With its hierarchical modeling approach, MLM enables researchers to account for dependencies and variations within and between different levels of a hierarchy. By explicitly modeling these relationships, MLM provides a robust and accurate analysis of data. It has become increasingly popular in the field of education. MLM enables the investigation of various research issues, the evaluation of individual and group-level indicators, and the calculation of both fixed and random effects. Overall, MLM revolutionizes data analysis by uncovering patterns, understanding contextual effects, and making more precise statistical inferences in complex datasets. For fitting multilevel models in R, use lmer function provided by lme4 package. Through this examination, the use of a multilevel model is expected to increase and revolutionize data analysis and decision-making. The Constrained Intermediate Model (CIM) and Augmented Intermediate model (AIM) deviation are compared using the Likelihood-ratio (LR) test and the ANOVA function. This study analyzes student results from the University of Agriculture Faisalabad, collected via stratified random sampling. A linear mixed-effect model under multilevel modeling estimates the impact on CGPA, considering department, gender, intermediate marks, and entry test scores. These results indicate that Entry test is a significant predictor of CGPA, but the effect of department identifier CMC on CGPA is not statistically significant.
文摘Introduction: Among young teens, about one in five smokes worldwide. Adolescents spend a considerable amount of their time in school, and the school environment is therefore important for child health practices and outcomes. Objectives: We aimed to investigate the impact on smoking behavior of the school environment and the personal characteristics of male teenage students attending schools in Pakistan, taking into account the survey sampling structure. Methods: A two-stage cluster sampling with stratification was employed, and we interviewed 772 male secondary school students. We adopted random effect and generalizing estimating equation models. Results: Peer pressure in particular had a strong influence on adolescents smoking;those whose friends smoked were up to 6 times more likely to smoke. Family smoking was also significantly associated with adolescents smoking, but those students whose mother was educated were 50% less likely to smoke. The fitted random effect model indicated that the between school variability was significant (p-value < 0.01), indicating differences in smoking habits between schools. A random coefficient model showed that variability among schools was not significantly different for public and private schools. Conclusion: Public health campaigns for smoking cessation should target not only the individual but also the families of adolescents attending schools.
文摘Background: There have been researches on the evaluation of Doppler vascular impedance in hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy (HDCP). With respect to the method of analysis used and the conclusions drawn in previous studies, different vessels were usually viewed separately and independently. This study was designed to evaluate Doppler vascular impedance changes in HDCP from a new perspective, with original thought and insight into an ordinary issue. Methods: 273 pregnant women (110 hypertensive pregnancies and 163 normotensive pregnancies) were randomly included in a grouping case-control study conducted from February 10, 2011 to April 30, 2013. All women in the study underwent Doppler measurements of six different vessels including the umbilical artery, the uterine arteries, the placental bed spiral artery, the fetal middle cerebral artery and the fetal renal artery. Doppler vascular impedance was presented as pulsatility index (PI), resistance index (RI), and systolic and diastolic ratio (S/D). Doppler changes in the hypertensive and normotensive groups were assessed by the multilevel modeling approach with univariate and multivariate-adjusted analyses. Results: According to multilevel modeling approach with multivariate-adjusted analysis, a relatively average evaluation on Doppler vascular impedance was provided. Hypertension was significantly associated with positive effects on PI, RI and S/D values (coefficients were 0.10, 0.03 and 0.08, respectively;95% CIs were 0.06 - 0.14, 0.02 - 0.04 and 0.04 - 0.11, respectively;P values were all less than 0.001) in comparison with normotensive group. Conclusion: According to an overall evaluation, Doppler vascular impedance in hypertensive disorders complicating pregnancy was higher than in normotensive pregnancy. The novel thought and approach applied in this research may bring about inspirations for better understanding and assessment of the disease.
文摘Controversy exists on the magnitude and variability of farm nutrient balances and quality of arable land in sub-Saharan Africa with Kenya among those affected negatively. This study investigates quality of arable land by fitting multivariate multilevel model to farm nutrient balance data collected from five agro-climatic zones of Kenya (arable lands). Objectives of the study were to investigate the magnitude and variability of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Potassium (NPK) farm nutrient balances in arable lands of Kenya, study effects of agro-climatic zones on nutrient balances and to determine effects of household resource endowments on NPK nutrient balances. The study concludes that agro-climatic zones differ with respect to farm nutrient balances;that livestock resource endowments and hired labour have positive effects on the magnitude and direction of farm nutrient balances;and that household ownership of large capital resources do not guarantee a positive effect on farm nutrient balances. The study recommends integration of sound livestock practices and application of agro-climatic zone differentiated interventions in future strategies for addressing farm nutrient balances and arable land quality, and the use of large sample sizes and relevant factors/covariates in future analysis to shed additional insights on farm nutrient balances and on how arable land quality can be improved.
文摘This study applied multilevel modeling to investigate the impact of observed predictors and different levels or groups that households belong, on parents’ choice of discipline methods using data from 8156 households derived from a nationwide survey by the Ghana Statistical Service (GSS) in 2011. The aim of the study is to provide in-depth information on why parents choose particular discipline methods as corrective measures to reduce unwanted child behaviour in the present and to increase desirable ones in the future. The results of the study show that, religion and age-group of household heads have significant effect on household’s likelihood to choose physical discipline methods whereas the wealth index of a household and ethnicity of the household head, have significant effect on households’ likelihood to choose non-physical and psychological aggression methods. The results further show significant contextual effect on the differences in choices of parents at the household and regional levels. The choice of physical discipline methods by parents was consistent across households and regional levels unlike non-physical and psychological aggression methods whose application varied across the regions. Households in the Northern, Eastern and Volta regions mostly chose to apply physical discipline methods whereas in the Upper West, Western and Northern regions the most chosen discipline methods were non-physical discipline methods. Psychological aggression discipline methods were predominantly applied in the Upper East, Central and Northern regions of the country.
基金supported by the European Union and the Romanian Government through the Competitiveness Operational Programme 2014–2020, under the project“Increasing the economic competitiveness of the forestry sector and the quality of life through knowledge transfer,technology and CDI skills”(CRESFORLIFE),ID P 40 380/105506, subsidiary contract no. 17/2020partially by the FORCLIMSOC Nucleu Programme (Contract 12N/2023)+2 种基金project PN 23090101CresPerfInst project (Contract 34PFE/December 30, 2021)“Increasing the institutional capacity and performance of INCDS ‘Marin Drǎcea’in RDI activities-CresPer”LM was financially supported by the Research Council of Finland's flagship ecosystem for Forest-Human-Machine Interplay–Building Resilience, Redefining Value Networks and Enabling Meaningful Experiences (UNITE)(decision number 357909)
文摘In this study,we used an extensive sampling network established in central Romania to develop tree height and crown length models.Our analysis included more than 18,000 tree measurements from five different species.Instead of building univariate models for each response variable,we employed a multivariate approach using seemingly unrelated mixed-effects models.These models incorporated variables related to species mixture,tree and stand size,competition,and stand structure.With the inclusion of additional variables in the multivariate seemingly unrelated mixed-effects models,the accuracy of the height prediction models improved by over 10% for all species,whereas the improvement in the crown length models was considerably smaller.Our findings indicate that trees in mixed stands tend to have shorter heights but longer crowns than those in pure stands.We also observed that trees in homogeneous stand structures have shorter crown lengths than those in heterogeneous stands.By employing a multivariate mixed-effects modelling framework,we were able to perform cross-model random-effect predictions,leading to a significant increase in accuracy when both responses were used to calibrate the model.In contrast,the improvement in accuracy was marginal when only height was used for calibration.We demonstrate how multivariate mixed-effects models can be effectively used to develop multi-response allometric models that can be easily calibrated with a limited number of observations while simultaneously achieving better-aligned projections.
基金National Basic Research Program of China (2012CB722201)National Natural Science Foundation of China (30970504, 31060320)National Science and Technology Support Program (2011BAC07B01)
文摘Land degradation causes serious environmental problems in many regions of the world, and although it can be effectively assessed and monitored using a time series of rainfall and a normalized difference vegetation index （NDVI） from remotely-sensed imagery, dividing human-induced land degradation from vegetation dynamics due to climate change is not a trivial task. This paper presented a multilevel statistical modeling of the NDVI-rainfall relationship to detect human-induced land degradation at local and landscape scales in the Ordos Plateau of Inner Mongolia, China, and recognized that anthropogenic activities result in either positive （land restoration and re-vegetation） or negative （degradation） trends. Linear regressions were used to assess the accuracy of the multi- level statistical model. The results show that： （1） land restoration was the dominant process in the Ordos Plateau between 1998 and 2012; （2） the effect of the statistical removal of precipitation revealed areas of human-induced land degradation and improvement, the latter reflecting successful restoration projects and changes in land man- agement in many parts of the Ordos; （3） compared to a simple linear regression, multilevel statistical modeling could be used to analyze the relationship between the NDVI and rainfall and improve the accuracy of detecting the effect of human activities. Additional factors should be included when analyzing the NDVI-rainfall relationship and detecting human-induced loss of vegetation cover in drylands to improve the accuracy of the approach and elimi- nate some observed non-significant residual trends.
基金the National Natural Science Foundation of China (60773049)the Natural Science Foundationof Jiangsu Province (BK2007086)the Fundamental Research Project of Natural Science in Colleges of Jiangsu Province(07KJB520016).
文摘Modern battlefield doctrine is based on mobility, flexibility, and rapid response to changing situations. As is well known, mobile ad hoc network systems are among the best utilities for battlefield activity. Although much research has been done on secure routing, security issues have largely been ignored in applying mobile ad hoc network theory to computer technology. An ad hoc network is usually assumed to be homogeneous, which is an irrational assumption for armies. It is clear that soldiers, commanders, and commanders-in-chief should have different security levels and computation powers as they have access to asymmetric resources. Imitating basic military rank levels in battlefield situations, how multilevel security can be introduced into ad hoc networks is indicated, thereby controlling restricted classified information flows among nodes that have different security levels.
文摘Complex energy and environment system, especially nuclear fuel cycle system recently raised socialconcerns about the issues of economic competitiveness, environmental effect and nuclear proliferation. Only underthe condition that those conflicting issues are gotten a consensus between stakeholders with different knowledgebackground, can nuclear power industry be continuingly developed. In this paper, a new analysis platform has beendeveloped to help stakeholders to recognize and analyze various socio-technical issues in the nuclear fuel cycle systembased on the functional modeling method named Multilevel Flow Models (MFM) according to the cognition theoryof human being. Its character is that MFM models define a set of mass, energy and information flow structures onmultiple levels of abstraction to describe the functional structure of a process system and its graphical symbol representationand the means-end and part-whole hierarchical flow structure to make the represented process easy to beunderstood. Based upon this methodology, a micro-process and a macro-process of nuclear fuel cycle system wereselected to be simulated and some analysis processes such as economics analysis, environmental analysis and energybalance analysis related to those flows were also integrated to help stakeholders to understand the process of decision-making with the introduction of some new functions for the improved Multilevel Flow Models Studio, and finallythe simple simulation such as spent fuel management process simulation and money flow of nuclear fuel cycleand its levelised cost analysis will be represented as feasible examples.
基金Project supported by the Science Fund for Creative Research Groups of the National Natural Science Foundation of China (GrantNo. 60921062)the National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant No. 61003075)
文摘With CMOS technologies approaching the scaling ceiling, novel memory technologies have thrived in recent years, among which the memristor is a rather promising candidate for future resistive memory （RRAM）. Memristor＇s potential to store multiple bits of information as different resistance levels allows its application in multilevel cell （MCL） tech- nology, which can significantly increase the memory capacity. However, most existing memristor models are built for binary or continuous memristance switching. In this paper, we propose the simulation program with integrated circuits emphasis （SPICE） modeling of charge-controlled and flux-controlled memristors with multilevel resistance states based on the memristance versus state map. In our model, the memristance switches abruptly between neighboring resistance states. The proposed model allows users to easily set the number of the resistance levels as parameters, and provides the predictability of resistance switching time if the input current/voltage waveform is given. The functionality of our models has been validated in HSPICE. The models can be used in multilevel RRAM modeling as well as in artificial neural network simulations.
文摘By means of vertical normal modes a regional nested multilevel primitive equation model can be reduced to several sets of shallow water equations characterized by various equivalent depths. Therefore, time integration of the model in spectral form can be performed in the manner similar to those used in the spectral nested shallow water equation model case.
文摘The paper describes a new human-interface system design method by combining the conception of Multilevel Flow Model and Ecological Interface Design to support operators’ fault diagnosis in the complex plant system. Modern man-made systems are always achieving many complex automatic and intelligent tasks so that they are becoming more and more complex and can be hardly understood by operators, who should be the primary role in system operating. This situation presents a big challenge to the operating support system that it should present the complex system in a direct and clear way to operators to and make operators understand the internal interaction of the system especially in the abnormal status to ensure the operating safety. The Multilevel Flow Model based on the idea of ”Abstraction Hierarchy”, aiming at decompressing a system by means-end and part-whole way, can be used to represent a complex system in a standard way and perform intelligent operating tasks such as fault diagnosis and process control. Ecological Interface Design, which based on the human cognitive properties, can present the internal interaction of the system in a direct way. This paper combines this two interface design conceptions to achieve two aspects, intelligent fault diagnosis and direct presentation of causal relationship of operating parameters, to support operators’ fault diagnosis in complex plant system. The design method is applied to a PWR power plant in this paper as an application example.
文摘Introduction: Dental caries is the most prevalent chronic disease among schoolchildren. We aimed to investigate the association between dental caries index and socio-demographic status in schoolchildren by using a multilevel hurdle model. Materials and Methods: A cross-sectional epidemiological study was carried out on 906 primary school pupils in Kerman, Iran in 2012. The subjects were selected through a stratified cluster random sampling. At first, the whole target area was stratified according to two geographic areas, the north and south area. Then each area was stratified according to gender. In the next step, several schools were considered as clusters, which were selected randomly in each geographic area and gender strata. All the schoolchildren in these schools were included in this study as samples. Twelve-year-old pupils were examined for dental caries. The dependent variable in this study was the dmft/DMFT index. Eight variables, including socio-demographic information, were collected. Multilevel negative binomial hurdle model was employed for data analysis. Results: The prevalence of caries-free pupils was 30.1% and the mean dmft/DMFT was 3.6 ± 2.2. Negative binomial part of the adjusted model showed that the dmft/DMFT adjusted rate for females was 1.36 (95% CI: 1.10-1.79) times higher than males. Also, the dmft/DMFT adjusted rate for overweight pupils was 0.86 (95% CI: 0.74-0.98) times lower than those with normal weight. Logistic part of the adjusted model showed that the posibility of caries-free state in overweight pupils was 1.95 (95% CI: 1.22-3.11) times higher than those with normal weight. In addition, pupils whose fathers and mothers were workers and housewives, respectively, and those with a high maternal age were at a greater risk for caries experience than others (p < 0.05). Conclusion: BMI, gender, parent’s job and mother’s age at delivery were factors effecting on dental caries in schoolchildren. These pupils need more attention to dental care.
基金The project was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China( 70172015) the Research Fund for Doc-toral Program of Higher Education(20010533016).
文摘On the basis of analyzing the flaws of present multiple-attribute and multilevel evaluation methods, concerning the problem of characteristics of the multiple-attribute and multilevel system s appraisal and the particular emphasis on the respective attributes in the evaluation process, as well as its relevance to the environment, an optimal attribute system is proposed, and the multiplicative analytic hierarchy process (MAHP) is used to obtain subjective weight coefficients and the objective weight coefficient evaluating method is given. The deviation between the index value of each level and the values of the same index of other levels are formulated, and an optimal model is gained, thus establishing the weight coefficients of the whole optimal attribute system. Furthermore, the detailed implementation procedure of this method is introduced. Besides, favorable results have been gained by applying the model to the practical problems of economic evaluation.
文摘This study attempted to interpret differential item discriminations between individual and cluster levels by focusing on patterns and magnitudes of item discriminations under 2PL multilevel IRT model through a set of variety simulation conditions. The consistency between the mean of individual-level ability estimates and cluster-level ability estimates was evaluated by the correlations between them. As a result, it was found that they were highly correlated if the patterns of item discriminations were the same for both individual and cluster levels. The magnitudes of item discriminations themselves did not affect much on correlations, as far as the patterns were the same at the two levels. However, it was found that the correlation became lower when the patterns of item discriminations were different between the individual and cluster levels. Also, it was revealed that the mean of the estimated individual-level abilities would not be necessarily a good representation of the cluster-level ability, if the patterns were different at the two levels.
基金supported of the Major Science and Technology Program for Water Pollution Control and Treatment(Nos.2017ZX07102004-002 and 2012ZX07201002-6)
文摘A pilot-scale multilevel contact oxidation reactors system, coupled with saran lock carriers,was applied for the treatment of poultry farm wastewater. The removal efficiencies of CODcr, ammonia, and the total nitrogen as well as the elimination performance of CODcr and total nitrogen along the three-level contact oxidation tanks under six designed operational models were investigated. Based on the performance of the nitrogen removal of the saran lock carriers and the distribution of anoxic–aerobic interspace under the suitable operation model, the mechanism of nitrogen removal of the system was also explored. The results revealed that the intermittent aeration under parallel model is the most suitable operation model, while the removal efficiencies of CODcr, ammonia, and the total nitrogen were 86.86%, 84.04%, and 80.96%, respectively. The effluent concentration of CODcr,ammonia, and the total nitrogen were 55.6 mg/L, 8.3 mg/L, and 12.0 mg/L, which satisfy both the discharge standard of pollutants for livestock and poultry breeding industry(GB18596–2001) and the first grade of the integrated wastewater discharge standard(GB 8978–1996). Moreover, the mechanism for the nitrogen removal should be attributed to the plenty of anoxic–aerobic interspaces of the biofilm and the three-dimensional spiral structure of the saran lock carriers, where the oxygen-deficient distribution was suitable for the happening of the simultaneous nitrification and denitrification process. Therefore, the multilevel contact oxidation tanks system is an effective pathway for the treatment of the poultry farm wastewater on the strength of a suitable operation model and novel carriers.
文摘Complex Nuclear Fuel Cycle (NFC) system faces many socio-technical issues that need to obtain the consensus between stakeholders of different knowledge background. In this paper, a visualized analysis platform based on graphical functional modeling method, Multilevel Flow Model (MFM), is proposed to help those stakeholders to recognize and analyze various socio-technical issues in NFC system. Some new functions, such as “Reaction Function", “Switch Function" and “Conversion Function", are introduced to fulfill new simulation tasks for NFC system. Based upon this methodology, a micro-process and a macro-process of NFC system are simulated and meanwhile some key analysis variables, such as CO2 emission and cost flow, required by some analysis methods are deducted and displayed in the platform. And finally a sample simulation analysis is conducted based on MFM.
