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Critics claim that excessive risk avoidance is characteristic of public sector workers. To test this contention, the financial risk tolerance scores of public sector and private sector employees who had used financial planning services were compared on a financial risk tolerance scale. Public sector employees scored lower on financial risk tolerance relative to private sector employees. Differences remained even after controlling for other variables linked to risk tolerance. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Purpose: The Health Risk Screening Tool (HRST) is a 22-item instrument specifically designed to assess the health risk of persons with developmental disabilities. The predictive validity of the HRST was investigated by examining its ability to predict mortality., Methods: The sample consisted of 12,582 people with an intellectual or developmental disability residing in Georgia (U.S.). Data were analyzed using survival analysis (Kaplan-Meier estimate and Cox regression) and a binary logistic regression., Results: All models supported the prognostic value of the six-level health risk classification. The Kaplan-Meier procedure showed clear separation among functions. The Cox proportional hazard regression revealed that hazard is inversely related to the health risk level, even after controlling for potential confounding by gender, ethnicity, and race., Conclusions: The HRST can predict mortality. Therefore, it can serve as a basis for establishing healthcare needs and determining nursing care acuity., (© Copyright 2020 Springer Publishing Company, LLC.)

The ultimate outcomes for succeeding in a collegiate prelicensure nursing program are earning a Bachelor of Science in Nursing degree and passing the NCLEX-RN®. The Risk Assessment Profile, Strategies for Success (RAPSS) is a criterion-based instrument that incorporates demographic and academic risk indicators. A convenience sample (N = 255) obtained retrospectively from student files was used to determine whether the RAPSS could be used to predict whether completers of a baccalaureate, prelicensure program will pass or fail the NCLEX-RN. Results indicate that the scale does discriminate between candidates who fail and pass, even with as few as three of the 13 items., (Copyright 2012, SLACK Incorporated.)

A convenience sample of 1,741 Internet users completed a 12-item financial risk-tolerance questionnaire. They also rated themselves on their tolerance for financial risk using a 4-point rating scale. The 12-item summated rating score was used to predict the self-rating. The residual between actual and predicted self-rating was compared by sex. The residual for males was positive, indicating that men tended to overestimate their proclivity for taking risks. Conversely, the residual for females was negative, suggesting that women underestimate their tolerance for risk. The relationship held when controlling for other factors linked to risk tolerance, i.e., age, household income, marital status, and education. It was also noted that risk tolerance was overestimated by younger respondents and those with a graduate education.

In infective endocarditis vegetations are stabilized by fibrin. To learn if fibrin digestion would be therapeutic, experimental endocarditis was induced in rabbits by inoculation with a platelet-aggregating strain (Agg+) of Streptococcus sanguis and treated with recombinant tissue plasminogen activator (rt-PA), rt-PA with penicillin, or penicillin alone. Control rabbits were inoculated with saline. All treatments of Agg+ endocarditis reduced the mass of valvular vegetations and clinical signs of endocarditis, including the frequency of left axis deviation and heart ischemia. rt-PA with penicillin was more effective than penicillin or rt-PA alone, reducing the mass of vegetations and clinical signs to that of saline controls. Within 50 min, rt-PA cleared 5-fold more 111Indium-labelled platelets from the heart than untreated rabbits and 1.4-fold more after 3 days. Combined with penicillin, thrombolytic therapy for human endocarditis should be reconsidered.

In a recent article in this journal, Hellige (Brain and Cognition, 2, 199-203, 1983) presented a critique of the chimeric-face technique that was used by us to validate a hand preference questionnaire. Data were presented by Hellige to show that the left visual field (LVF) bias that occurs on this task is due primarily to differences in detail in the features of the two faces and not because of right hemisphere dominance for face perception. In our rebuttal, we acknowledge that the two faces are not mirror-image duplicates of each other, but contend that this fact does not explain why differences between left-handers and right-handers have been observed on this task. Further data on the role of handedness as well as other variables impacting on this task are presented. A possible explanation is also offered for the rather small extent of LVF bias that Hellige obtained when he used corrected (i.e., true mirror-image) versions of Jaynes' chimeric faces.

The correlation between the Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS) and the Vineland Social Maturity Scale (the Vineland) was investigated using a sample of 98 subjects from a state residential facility for mentally retarded individuals. Pearson correlations between the raw scores of the two scales revealed a high degree of association between the Vineland and Part One of the ABS. The correlation between the Vineland total score and ABS Part One sum score equaled .79. The Part One domain correlations ranged from .44 (Physical Development) to .77 (Language Development), with a mean of .64. Part Two of the ABS showed little relationship to the Vineland. The Part Two total score correlation was .11, and the mean Part Two domain correlations was .20.

An analysis was conducted on the association between weight and overactivity in a sample of 148 mentally retarded adults. The results indicate an inverse relationship between weight and degree of overactivity.

The internal consistency reliability of the domains on the Adaptive Behavior Scale was examined using ratings provided by client care-staff on 265 institutionalized, mentally retarded persons. Nine of the 10 Part I domains and 6 of the 14 Part II domains had coefficient alpha reliabilities of .80 or greater. An item analysis was obtained by correlating each ABS item with each domain score. About 62% of Part I items and 61% of Part II items were judged as satisfactory by item analytic criteria. The implications of these results for users of the ABS were discussed.

The relationship between the adaptive and the maladaptive aspects of the construct of adaptive behavior was examined by means of a canonical correlation between Part One and Part Two of the AAMD Adaptive Behavior Scale (ABS). The sample consisted of 439 institutionalized mentally retarded persons. Four significant canonical correlations (.68, .49, .39, .28) were derived, three of which were interpretable. The redundancy index was 30 percent with Part One as the criterion and 14 percent with Part Two as the criterion. A redundancy of about 30 percent was calculated. An analysis of the pattern of canonical components suggested that the three major dimensions responsible for the overlap between ABS Parts One and Two are intellectual ability, sociability, and physical ability. An attempt to cross validate these results was made using another sample of 157 mentally retarded persons. Considerable shrinkage was observed on three of the roots.

The test-retest reliability and predictive validity of a five-item hand preference questionnaire (writing, drawing, throwing a baseball, brushing teeth, and cutting with scissors) were investigated in a sample of 80 children attending first and second grade. After 1 month, 81% of the second choices were the same as the first choices. There were interitem differences in the reliabilities of the five items. Writing and drawing hand exhibited the greatest degree of temporal stability. Writing hand was the one task which was significantly related to visual field bias as indexed by a face perception task.

A factor analysis, measures of internal consistency, and item analyses were conducted on the self-reported hand preference for the 15 activities recommended by Raczkowski, Kalat, and Nebes (1974) as reliable and valid indices of hand preference. Data from 1952 subjects, ranging in age from 8 to 70 years, were analyzed in toto as well as by age and sex. The factor analysis revealed the presence of only a single dimension. The internal consistency was uniformly high for all age and sex cohorts (a greater than or equal to .91). The item analyses showed that, in the aggregate, preference for hammering, drawing, and writing were the activities most strongly correlated with hand dominance determined on the basis of an unweighted composite of all the tasks. However, at ages 9 and 10, the hand used for hammering was not as strong an indicator of overall hand preference as writing and drawing. In contrast, with adult subjects (19 years and older), writing and drawing were slightly less satisfactory measures of overall manual preference, while use of hammer retained its high predictive value.