ENTREPRENEURSHIP EDUCATION: DO STUDENT-COMPANIES OFFER SUPERIOR VALUE?

An entrepreneurship course for academic students is expected to be a vital stimulus to promote entrepreneurship and the setup of creative new businesses. But do the students learn the right things? A comparison is made between the more classic “business plan” course and the setup of an actual student company.entrepreneurship, education, students

Identifying binge drinkers based on parenting dimensions and alcohol-specific parenting practices: building classifiers on adolescent-parent paired data.

BACKGROUND: Most Dutch adolescents aged 16 to 18 engage in binge drinking. Previous studies have investigated how parenting dimensions and alcohol-specific parenting practices are related to adolescent alcohol consumption. Mixed results have been obtained on both dimensions and practices, highlighting the complexity of untangling alcohol-related factors. The aim of this study was to investigate (1) whether parents' reports of parenting dimensions and alcohol-specific parenting practices, adolescents' perceptions of these dimensions and practices, or a combination are most informative to identify binge drinkers, and (2) which of these parenting dimensions and alcohol-specific parenting practices are most informative to identify binge drinkers. METHODS: Survey data of 499 adolescent-parent dyads were collected. The computational technique of data mining was used to allow for a data driven exploration of nonlinear relationships. Specifically, a binary classification task, using an alternating decision tree, was conducted and measures regarding the performance of the classifiers are reported after a 10-fold cross-validation. RESULTS: Depending on the parenting dimension or practice, parents' reports correctly identified the drinking behaviour of 55.8% (using psychological control) up to 70.2% (using rules) of adolescents. Adolescents' perceptions were best at identifying binge drinkers whereas parents' perceptions were best at identifying non-binge drinkers. CONCLUSIONS: Of the parenting dimensions and practices, rules are particularly informative in understanding drinking behaviour. Adolescents' perceptions and parents' reports are complementary as they can help identifying binge drinkers and non-binge drinkers respectively, indicating that surveying specific aspects of adolescent-parent dynamics can improve our understanding of complex addictive behaviours

A longitudinal study on determinants of the intention to start smoking among Non-smoking boys and girls of high and low socioeconomic status

BACKGROUND: This study identifies differences in socio-cognitive factors as they relate to the intention to smoke among boys and girls living in high socioeconomic status (HSES) and low socioeconomic status (LSES) neighborhoods. METHODS: A total of 1,643 children (aged 10–12 years) completed a web-based questionnaire assessing their intention, attitude, social influences, and self-efficacy toward smoking at baseline and at one year follow-up. Logistic regression analyses were conducted to examine the relations between intention and predictor variables (i.e. attitude, social influence, and self-efficacy). Three-way interaction terms were added to the first analysis to examine potential interactions of gender, socioeconomic status and predictor variables. A 3-way interaction effect was present, and therefore subgroup analyses for HSES and LSES boys and girls were warranted. RESULTS: The results indicated that positive attitudes toward smoking were related to the intention to smoke among HSES boys, whereas HSES girls had higher intentions to smoke if they perceived fewer disadvantages of smoking (OR: 0.42; 95 % CI: 0.22–0.82). The intention to smoke among LSES boys was predicted by perceived social norms (OR: 0.49; 95 % CI: 0.25–0.93); in LSES girls, the smoking behavior of people in their environment was most strongly related to their smoking intention (OR: 5.55; 95 % CI: 2.81–10.93). CONCLUSIONS: To prevent youth smoking, HSES boys and girls may benefit from interventions that address attitudes. Boys from an LSES neighborhood may profit from smoking prevention interventions that target social norms, while LSES girls may benefit from strategies aimed at resisting the influence of smokers in their environment. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The ‘Fun without Smokes’ study is approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of the Atrium-Orbis-Zuyd Hospital (NL32093.096.11/MEC 11-T-25) and registered in the Dutch Trial Register (NTR3116)

Calorie restriction in humans inhibits the PI3K/AKT pathway and induces a younger transcription profile

Caloric restriction (CR) and down-regulation of the insulin/IGF pathway are the most robust interventions known to increase longevity in lower organisms. However, little is known about the molecular adaptations induced by CR in humans. Here, we report that long-term CR in humans inhibits the IGF-1/insulin pathway in skeletal muscle, a key metabolic tissue. We also demonstrate that CR induces dramatic changes of the skeletal muscle transcriptional profile that resemble those of younger individuals. Finally, in both rats and humans, CR evoked similar responses in the transcriptional profiles of skeletal muscle. This common signature consisted of three key pathways typically associated with longevity: IGF-1/insulin signaling, mitochondrial biogenesis, and inflammation. Furthermore, our data identify promising pathways for therapeutic targets to combat age-related diseases and promote health in humans.American Federation for Aging ResearchNational Center for Research Resources (U.S.) (Grant UL1 RR024992)National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (U.S.) (Grant P30DK056341

Entrepreneurship education : do student-companies offer superior value?

An entrepreneurship course for academic students is expected to be a vital stimulus to promote entrepreneurship and the setup of creative new businesses. But do the students learn the right things? A comparison is made between the more classic“ business plan” course and the setup of an actual student company

No more replicating portfolios : a simple convex combination to understand the risk-neutral valuation method for the multi-step binomial valuation of a call option

This paper covers the valuation, from beginning to implementation, of a European call option on a stock using the multi-step binomial model in a risk-neutral world. The aim is to introduce this model in a simple but rather unconventional way. The usual presentation of the risk-neutral valuation, see Hull (2009), among others, relies on replicating portfolios. For most practitioners, this technique looks rather mysterious. We present a new transparent analysis requiring no replicating portfolios. The new finding to understand why the risk-neutral pricing is consistent with investors being risk-averse is the notion of a convex combination

Plasticity of lifelong calorie-restricted C57BL/6J mice in adapting to a medium-fat diet intervention at old age

Calorie restriction (CR) is a dietary regimen that supports healthy aging. In this study we investigated the systemic and liver-specific responses caused by a diet switch to a medium-fat (MF) diet in 24-month-old life-long, CR-exposed mice. This study aimed to increase the knowledge base on dietary alterations of gerontological relevance. Nine-week-old C57BL/6J mice were exposed either to a control, CR or MF diet. At the age of 24 months, a subset of mice of the CR group was transferred to ad libitum MF feeding (CR-MF). The mice were sacrificed at the age of 28 months, then biochemical and molecular analyses were performed. Our results showed that, despite the long-term exposure to the CR regimen, mice in the CR-MF group displayed hyperphagia, rapid weight gain, and hepatic steatosis. However, no hepatic fibrosis/injury or alteration in CR-improved survival was observed in the diet switch group. The liver transcriptomic profile of CR-MF mice largely shifted to a profile similar to the MF-fed animals but leaving ~22% of the 1578 differentially regulated genes between the CR and MF diet groups comparable with the expression of the life-long CR group. Therefore, although the diet switch was performed at an old age, the CR-MF-exposed mice showed plasticity in coping with the challenge of a MF diet without developing severe liver pathologies

The effect of parental drinking on alcohol use in young adults: the mediating role of parental monitoring and peer deviance

Background and Aims Evidence demonstrating an association between parental alcohol use and offspring alcohol use from robust prospective studies is lacking. We tested the direct and indirect associations between parental and young adult alcohol use via early alcohol initiation, parental monitoring and associating with deviant peers. Design Prospective birth cohort study. Path analysis was used to assess the possible association between parental alcohol use (assessed at 12 years) and alcohol use in young adults (assessed at 18 years) via potential mediators (assessed at 14 and 15.5 years, respectively). Setting South West England. Participants Data were available on 3785 adolescents and their parents from the Avon Longitudinal Study of Parents and Children. Measurements The continuous Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) score was used as the primary outcome measure. Maternal alcohol use was defined as light (< 4 units on any day), moderate (≥ 4 units on 1–3 days) and high‐risk (≥ 4 units on ≥ 4 days in 1 week). Partner alcohol use was also defined as light, moderate and high risk. Socio‐economic variables were included as covariates. Findings There was strong evidence of a total effect from maternal alcohol use to young adult alcohol use [moderate: b = 1.07, 95% confidence interval (CI) = 0.64, 1.49, P < 0.001; high risk: b = 1.71, 95% CI = 1.07, 2.35, P < 0.001]. The majority of this association was explained through early alcohol initiation (moderate: b = 0.14, 95% CI = 0.04, 0.25, P = 0.01; high risk: b = 0.24, 95% CI = 0.07, 0.40, P < 0.01) and early alcohol initiation/associating with deviant peers (moderate: b = 0.06, 95% CI = 0.02, 0.10, P < 0.01; high risk: b = 0.10, 95% CI = 0.03, 0.16, P < 0.01). There was strong evidence of a remaining direct effect (moderate: b = 0.81, 95% CI = 0.39, 1.22, P < 0.001; high risk: b = 1.28, 95% CI = 0.65, 1.91, P < 0.001). A similar pattern of results was evident for partner alcohol use. Conclusions Young adults whose parents have moderate or high‐risk alcohol consumption are more likely to consume alcohol than those with parents with lower alcohol consumption. This association appears to be partly accounted for by earlier alcohol use initiation and higher prevalence of association with deviant peers

Incentives for preventing smoking in children and adolescents (Review)

BackgroundAdult smoking usually has its roots in adolescence. If individuals do not take up smoking during this period it is unlikely that they ever will. Further, once smoking becomes established, cessation is challenging; the probability of subsequently quitting is inversely proportional to the age of initiation. One novel approach to reducing the prevalence of youth smoking is the use of incentives.ObjectivesTo determine whether incentives prevent children and adolescents from starting to smoke. We also attempted to assess the dose-response of incentives, the costs of incentive programmes, whether incentives are more or less effective in combination with other interventions to prevent smoking initiation and any unintended consequences arising from the use of incentives.Search methodsWe searched the Cochrane Tobacco Addiction Group Specialized Register, with additional searches of MEDLINE, EMBASE, CINAHL, CSA databases and PsycINFO for terms relating to incentives, in combination with terms for smoking and tobacco use, and children and adolescents. The most recent searches were in May 2012.Selection criteriaWe considered randomized controlled trials allocating children and adolescents (aged 5 to 18 years) as individuals, groups or communities to intervention or control conditions, where the intervention included an incentive aimed at preventing smoking uptake. We also considered controlled trials with baseline measures and post-intervention outcomes.Data collection and analysisData were extracted by two authors and assessed independently. The primary outcome was the smoking status of children or adolescents at follow-up who reported no smoking at baseline. We required a minimum follow-up of six months from baseline and assessed each included study for risk of bias. We used the most rigorous definition of abstinence in each trial; we did not require biochemical validation of self-reported tobacco use for study inclusion. Where possible we combined eligible studies to calculate pooled estimates at the longest follow-up using the Mantel-Haenszel fixed-effect method, grouping studies by study design.Main resultsWe identified seven controlled studies that met our inclusion criteria, including participants with an age range of 11 to 14 years. Of the seven trials identified, only five had analysable data relevant for this review and contributed to the meta-analysis (6362 participants in total who were non-smokers at baseline; 3466 in intervention and 2896 in control). All bar one of the studies was a trial of the so-called Smokefree Class Competition (SFC), which has been widely implemented throughout Europe. In this competition, classes with youth generally between the ages of 11 to 14 years commit to being smoke free for a six month period. They report regularly on their smoking status; if 90% or more of the class is non-smoking at the end of the six months, the class goes into a competition to win prizes. The one study that was not a trial of the SFC was a controlled trial in which schools in two communities were assigned to the intervention, with schools in a third community acting as controls. Students in the intervention community with lower smoking rates at the end of the project (one school year) received rewards.Only one study of the SFC competition, a non-randomized controlled trial, reported a significant effect of the competition on the prevention of smoking at the longest follow-up. However, this study had a risk of multiple biases, and when we calculated the adjusted RR we no longer detected a statistically significant difference. The pooled RR for the more robust RCTs (3 studies, n = 3056 participants) suggests that, from the available data, there is no statistically significant effect of incentives to prevent smoking initiation among children and adolescents in the long term (RR 1.00, 95% CI 0.84 to 1.19). Pooled results from non-randomized trials also did not detect a significant effect, and we were unable to extract data on our outcome of interest for the one trial that did not study the SFC. There is little robust evidence to suggest that unintended consequences (such as youth making false claims about their smoking status and bullying of smoking students) are consistently associated with such interventions, although this has not been the focus of much research. There was insufficient information to assess the dose-response relationship or to report costs.Authors\u27 conclusionsTo date, incentive programmes have not been shown to prevent smoking initiation among youth, although there are relatively few published studies and these are of variable quality. Trials included in this meta-analysis were all studies of the SFC competition, which distributed small to moderately sized prizes to whole classes, usually through a lottery system.Future studies might investigate the efficacy of incentives given to individual participants to prevent smoking uptake. Future research should consider the efficacy of incentives on smoking initiation, as well as progression of smoking, evaluate these in varying populations from different socioeconomic and ethnic backgrounds, and describe the intervention components in detail