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The problem of handling non-ignorable non-response has been typically addressed under the design-based approach using the well-known sub-sampling technique introduced by Hansen and Hurwitz [1946, Journal of the American Statistical Association, Vol 41(236), Page 517- 529]. Alternatively, the model-based paradigm emphasizes on utilizing the underlying model relationship between the outcome variable and one or more covariate(s) whose population values are known prior to the survey. This article utilizes the model relationship between the study variable and covariate(s) for handling non-ignorable non-response and obtaining an unbiased estimator for the population total under the sub-sampling technique. The main idea is to combine the estimates obtained from the sample on first call and the sub-sample from second call using separate model relationships. The contribution of this paper helps us in providing unbiased estimates with an improved efficiency under model-based paradigm in presence of non-ignorable non-response. The provided method is more economical than the available estimators under callback methods as we are working sub-sampling and also increase response rate as a stronger mode of interview is employed for data collection. A numerical study using Monte Carlo is presented to illustrate the behavior of the proposed and the efficiency comparison. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research in the field of work and organizational psychology more and more highlights the importance of employees’ experience of meaningful work. Adding to this area of research, the present study among teachers examined the relationship between meaningful work and resilience and tested whether this proposed relationship is mediated by teachers’ work engagement and job crafting behaviour. Data for this study was collected among a group of Dutch teachers working in a school for primary education (N = 174). To test the hypothesized relationships, we conducted a bootstrapping analysis. The outcomes revealed that work engagement and job crafting fully mediated the relationship between meaningful work and teacher’s resilience. The insights provided in this study may be useful for the deliberate cultivation of teachers’ resilience and may help them to stay enthusiastic in their meaningful but demanding profession. Theoretical contributions, limitations, suggestions for future research and practical implications are discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Multiple sclerosis (MS) requires multidisciplinary management. We evaluated differences in healthcare resource utilization and costs between Federico II and Vanvitelli MS Centres of Naples (Italy), representative of centralised (i.e., MS Care Unit) and local service-based models of multidisciplinary care, respectively. Methods: We included MS patients continuously seen at the same local healthcare services and MS Centre (Federico II = 187; Vanvitelli = 90) from 2015 to 2017. Healthcare resources for MS treatment and management were collected and costs were calculated. Adherence was estimated as the rate of medication possession ratio (MPR) during 3-years of follow-up. Mixed-effect linear regression models were used to estimate differences in all outcomes between Federico II and Vanvitelli. Results: Patients at Federico II had more consultations within the MS centre (p<0.001), blood tests (p<0.001), and psychological/cognitive evaluations (p = 0.040). Patients at Vanvitelli had more consultations at local services (p<0.001). Adherence was not-significantly lower at Vanvitelli (p = 0.060), compared with Federico II. Costs for MS treatment and management were 10.6% lower at Vanvitelli (12417.08±8448.32EUR) (95%CI = -19.0/-2.7%;p = 0.007), compared with Federico II (15318.57±10919.59EUR). Discussion: Healthcare services were more complete (and expensive) at the Federico II centralised MS Care Unit, compared with the Vanvitelli local service-based organizational model. Future research should evaluate whether better integration between MS Centres and local services can lead to improved MS management and lower costs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Although trachoma causes more cases of preventable blindness than any other infectious disease, a combination of strategies is reducing its global prevalence. As a district moves toward eliminating trachoma as a public health problem, national programs conduct trachoma impact surveys (TIS) to assess whether to stop preventative interventions and trachoma surveillance surveys (TSS) to determine whether the prevalence of active trachoma has rebounded after interventions have halted. In some contexts, programs also conduct trachomatous trichiasis (TT)-only surveys. A few costing studies of trachoma prevalence surveys exist, but none examine TIS, TSS, or TT-only surveys. Methodology/Principal findings: We assessed the incremental financial cost to the national program of TIS, TSS, and TT-only surveys, which are standardized cluster-sampled prevalence surveys. We conducted a retrospective review of expenditures and grant disbursements for TIS and TSS in 322 evaluation units in 11 countries between 2011 and 2018. We also assessed the costs of three pilot and five standard TT-only surveys in four countries between 2017 and 2018. The median cost of TIS and TSS was $8,298 per evaluation unit [interquartile range (IQR): $6,532–$10,111, 2017 USD]. Based on a linear regression with bootstrapped confidence intervals, after controlling for country, costs per survey did not change significantly over time but did decline by $83 per survey implemented in a single round (95% CI: -$108 –-$63). Of total costs, 80% went to survey fieldwork; of that, 58% went towards per diems and 38% towards travel. TT-only surveys cost a median of $9,707 (IQR: $8,537–$11,635); within a given country, they cost slightly more (106% [IQR: 94%–136%]) than TIS and TSS. Conclusions/Significance: The World Health Organization requires trachoma prevalence estimates for validating the elimination of trachoma as a public health problem. This study will help programs improve their planning as they assemble resources for that effort. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: It is important for patients of working age to resume work after total hip or knee arthroplasty (THA/TKA). A higher preoperative level of physical activity is presumed to lead to a better or faster recovery. Aim is to examine the association between preoperative physical activity (PA) level (total and leisure-time) and time to return-to-work (RTW). Methods: A prospective multicenter survey study. Time to RTW was defined as the length of time (days) from surgery to RTW. PA level was assessed with the SQUASH questionnaire. Questionnaires were filled in before surgery and 6 weeks and 3, 6 and 12 months post-surgery. Multiple regression analyses were conducted separately for THA and TKA patients. Results: 243 patients were enrolled. Median age was 56 years; 58% had undergone a THA. Median time to RTW was 85 (THA) and 93 (TKA) days. In the multiple regression analysis, neither preoperative total PA level nor leisure-time PA level were significantly associated with time to RTW. Conclusions: Preoperative physical activity level is not associated with a shorter time to RTW in either THA or TKA patients. Neither preoperative total PA level nor leisure-time PA level showed an association with time to RTW, even after adjusting for covariates. Trial registry: Dutch Trial Register: . [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this research letter, we examine the impact of municipal budget policy on the percentage of votes for the incumbent majority parties in subsequent elections. We contribute to the academic literature by examining the combined influence of taxes, expenditures and debt. Based on data for Flanders (Belgium) between 1994 and 2012, we find no significant association between these budget variables and the actual election results. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Active living approaches seek to promote physical activity and reduce sedentary time across different domains, including through active travel. However, there is little information on how movement behaviours in different domains relate to each other. We used compositional data analysis to explore associations between active commuting and patterns of movement behaviour during discretionary time. Methods and findings: We analysed cross-sectional and longitudinal data from the UK Biobank study. At baseline (2006–2010) and follow up (2009–2013) participants reported their mode of travel to work, dichotomised as active (walking, cycling or public transport) or inactive (car). Participants also reported activities performed during discretionary time, categorised as (i) screen time; (ii) walking for pleasure; and (iii) sport and do-it-yourself (DIY) activities, summed to produce a total. We applied compositional data analysis to test for associations between active commuting and the composition and total amount of discretionary time, using linear regression models adjusted for covariates. Adverse events were not investigated in this observational analysis. The survey response rate was 5.5%. In the cross-sectional analysis (n = 182,406; mean age = 52 years; 51% female), active commuters engaged in relatively less screen time than those who used inactive modes (coefficient -0.12, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.13 to -0.11), equating to approximately 60 minutes less screen time per week. Similarly, in the longitudinal analysis (n = 4,323; mean age = 51 years; 49% female) there were relative reductions in screen time in those who used active modes at both time points compared with those who used inactive modes at both time points (coefficient -0.15, 95% confidence interval [CI] -0.24 to -0.06), equating to a difference between these commute groups of approximately 30 minutes per week at follow up. However, as exposures and outcomes were measured concurrently, reverse causation is possible. Conclusions: Active commuting was associated with a more favourable pattern of movement behaviour during discretionary time. Active commuters accumulated 30–60 minutes less screen time per week than those using inactive modes. Though modest, this could have a cumulative effect on health over time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: People with disability (PWD) often rely on others, both for direct support and for the creation of enabling environments to meet their needs. This need makes it crucial for professionals to be willing to work with PWD, and for people to pursue careers that focus on supporting PWD. Objectives: To explore self-other overlap as a unique predictor of willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s career, using three studies. Methods: Studies 1 and 2 used cross-sectional surveys of college undergraduates to explore: 1. whether an association between self-other overlap and willingness to work with PWD exists, and 2. whether self-other overlap is a unique predictor, controlling for attitudes and empathy. Study 3 investigated whether self-other overlap is associated with the groups with whom the students indicated they want (and do not want) to work as part of their career. Results: Across the three studies, self-other overlap was uniquely associated with students’ willingness to work with PWD as part of one’s profession, even when controlling for attitudes and empathy. Conclusions: Self-other overlap may be an important additional factor to take into consideration when developing interventions targeted toward promoting working with PWD. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Executives act based on their experiences, values, personality and personal interpretation of the situations which they face in their companies. Investigations in the field of Behavioral Corporate Finance have determined that there are some relations between CEOs’ personal traits and financial decisions of large companies, but these results are based on indirect personal trait measurements and on public companies. To see whether such relations also exist between CEOs’ personal traits and the financial structure of large private companies, we used psychometric tests to measure their level of optimism, risk attitude and affect heuristic, collected financial data for a period of fourteen years, and considered the economic situation of the country as a key factor in these relations. This paper reports the relationship of executives’ personal traits with the financial structure of large Spanish companies for the period 2001–2014. We observed that executives’ high optimism (and risk aversion attitude) is positively (negatively) related to long-term debt, whilst positive affect is directly associated to the financial leverage and short-term debt. This paper also reports a change of relations when taking into account the country’s economic situation. In effect, by considering this new variable, executives’ risk aversion is seen to be associated to financial leverage and short-term debt, whilst CEOs’ positive affect is linked to long-term debt. These relations are strongly moderated and they become statistically significant in a contracting economic period. In conclusion, the links between CEOs’ personal traits and financial structure of large private Spanish companies make sense when the effect of the economic situation is taken into account. Furthermore, the awareness of these links helps to understand the financial decisions taken within large Spanish companies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The adoption of the shared prosperity goal by the World Bank in 2013 and Sustainable Development Goal 10, on inequality, by the United Nations in 2015 should strengthen the focus of development interventions and cooperation on the income growth of the bottom 40 percent of the income distribution. This paper contributes to the incipient literature on within-country allocations of development institutions and assesses the geographic targeting of World Bank projects to the bottom 40 percent. Bivariate correlations between the allocation of project funding approved over 2005–14 and the geographical distribution of the bottom 40 as measured by survey income or consumption data are complemented by regressions with population and other potential factors affecting the within-country allocations as controls. The correlation analysis shows that, of the 58 countries in the sample, 41 exhibit a positive correlation between the shares of the bottom 40 and World Bank funding, and, in almost half of these, the correlation is above 0.5. Slightly more than a quarter of the countries, mostly in Sub-Saharan Africa, exhibit a negative correlation. The regression analysis shows that, once one controls for population, the correlation between the bottom 40 and World Bank funding switches sign and becomes significant and negative on average. This is entirely driven by Sub-Saharan Africa and not observed in the other regions. Hence, the significant and positive correlation in the estimations without controlling for population suggests that World Bank project funding is concentrated in administrative areas in which more people live (including the bottom 40) rather than in poorer administrative areas. Furthermore, capital cities receive disproportionally high shares of World Bank funding on average. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper aims to demonstrate the impact of coal enterprises’ vertical integration on the performance of innovation corporate social responsibility (ICSR) and to elaborate its specific transmission path through financing structure and market power. This paper takes the data of A-share listed coal company from 2008 to 2017 as samples, uses input-output table method to measure the degree of vertical integration, and explores the relationship between the four factors through multiple linear regression and Bootstrap method. We found that: (1) the vertical integration of coal enterprises has positive incentives for the promotion of ICSR. (2) Financing structure and market power play a chain intermediary role in this process of incentive. (3) In areas with high marketization process, vertical integration has more significant incentive effect on ICSR. The paper extends the research on the relationship between vertical integration and innovation, which provides a reference for the improvement of China’s supply-side reform and corporate social responsibility (CSR) fulfillment policy. It is helpful to promote the sustainable development of the coal industry, stimulate the innovation vitality of enterprises, and improve the fulfillment of CSR. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The assessment of daily living activities could provide information about daily functions and participation restrictions to develop intervention strategies. The purposes of this study were to assess the scores of the Barthel Index (BI) and Lawton Instrumental Activities of Daily Living (IADL) scale in older adults with cognitive impairment and to explore the different effects that levels of cognitive functions have on changes in IADL functions. We recruited 31 participants with dementia, 36 with mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and 35 normal controls (NCs) from the neurology outpatient department of a regional hospital. The results of the demographic and clinical characteristics through the Lawton IADL scale, BI, Quick Mild Cognitive Impairment (Qmci) screen, Montreal Cognitive Assessment (MoCA), and Mini-Mental State Examination (MMSE), were collected on the same day and compared with the Kruskal–Wallis test, Wilcoxon rank-sum test, Fisher’s exact test, and a multiple linear regression analysis, as appropriate. In the BI, bathing was the most discriminating activity to differentiate patients with MCI and dementia; in the Lawton IADL scale, medication responsibility and shopping were the most discriminating activities to differentiate NCs and patients with MCI, and patients with MCI and dementia, respectively. In addition, the predictors of changes in Lawton IADL scale scores were the problem-solving score of the Clinical Dementia Rating scale, a Qmci score of > 20.4 and an age of ≤ 81.2 years, a MoCA score of < 9.4 and an age of > 81.2 years, and the MMSE score and an age of > 81.2 years. This study adds to the evidence that the description of basic and instrumental daily activities is integrated in older adults with cognitive impairment. Notably, the Qmci is the most significant predictor of changes in IADL function for “young” older adults, as are the MoCA and MMSE for “old” older adults. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we designed a delayed payment mechanism in laboratory second price auctions (SPAs), under which subjects received a cash endowment two weeks after the experiment day and had to use their own money to pay the experimental losses (if any) on the experiment day. We compared the effect of delayed payment on overbidding in the induced value SPAs with the conventional “on-the-spot” payment mechanism where the subjects received an endowment on the experiment day, and the prepaid mechanism where the subjects received the endowment two weeks before the experiment day. Each auction was repeated for 20 rounds to provide sufficient learning opportunities to the bidders. Our results showed that bids converged to the corresponding values over auction rounds and overbidding was reduced by previous losses, consistently with the adaptive learning theory. Moreover, overbidding seems to depend significantly on bidders’ cash holding, and the magnitude of the payment treatment effects depends crucially on liquidity constraints. In the presence of liquidity constraints, both delayed and prepaid payment mechanisms reduced overbidding, while in the absence of liquidity constraints, only the delayed endowment mechanism reduced overbidding. Furthermore, when controlling the degree of liquidity constraints, subjects with higher GPAs were less likely to overbid and the delayed endowment mechanism significantly reduced overbidding compared to other payment mechanisms. These results suggest that overbidding in SPAs might be caused by bounded rationality and could be reduced by adaptive learning especially when overbidding becomes “truly” costly to subjects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Quigley derived his hybrid price model to improve the precision of predicted prices of sold homes by statistically merging data of resold homes in a repeat sales model with that of once-sold homes in a single sales hedonic price model. The literature has few applications of the hybrid model aside from those by Quigley and his collaborators. Two reasons for this underuse may be its computational intensiveness and its marginal empirical improvement in comparison with two other models. This paper first demystifies this computational intensiveness by calibrating models in Microsoft Excel with transferable procedures into other software. It second evaluates the hybrid price model’s empirical improvement as a reason for its underuse by predicting prices of 2,559 sold and resold homes observed in two inner-city neighbourhoods in Windsor, Ontario, during a 30-year period. The results as hypothesized are its lower standard errors of regression coefficients and higher simple R-squared than those of a single sales hedonic price model. Moreover, the hybrid model’s predictions have higher correlations than those of the single sales model with not only in-sample observed prices or changes in prices but also out-of-sample ones. The conclusion speculates in plans for future research about reasons for two models’ similar or dissimilar regression coefficients and standard errors predicting correspondingly similar or dissimilar sale prices of homes through time. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: This study aimed to investigate the distribution of European Union (EU) healthcare research grants across EU countries, and to study the effect of the potential influencing factors on grant allocation. Methods: We analysed publicly available data on healthcare research grants from the 7th Framework Programme and the Horizon 2020 Programme allocated to beneficiaries between 2007 and 2016. Grant allocation was analysed at the beneficiary-, country-, and country group-level (EU-15 versus newer Member States, defined as EU-13). The investigated country-level explanatory variables included GDP per capita, population size, overall disease burden, and healthcare research excellence. Grant amounts per 100,000 inhabitants were used as an outcome variable in the regression analyses. Results: Research funds were disproportionally allocated to EU-15 versus the EU-13, as 96.9% of total healthcare grants were assigned to EU-15 countries. At the beneficiary level, EU funding was positively influenced by participating in previous grants. The average grant amount per beneficiary was higher for EU-15 organizations. In the multiple regression analysis GDP per capita (p = 0.002) and research excellence (p<0.001) had a significant positive association with EU funding. Population size had an inverted U-shaped relationship with EU funding for healthcare research, having the largest per capita funding in second and the third quartiles (p = 0.03 and p = 0.02). Conclusion: The uneven allocation of healthcare research funds across EU countries was influenced by GDP per capita, medical research excellence and population size. Wealthier countries with an average population size and strong research excellence in healthcare had more EU funding for healthcare research. Higher disease burden apparently was not associated with more EU research funding. While our findings are in line with analyses on previous periods, they suggest that the EU did not implement any effective policy measures to improve the unfair allocation of research grants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Saving is an important financial behavior that provides an individual with psychological security and boosts his/her overall sense of well-being. For this reason, scientists and practitioners have attempted to understand why some people save when others do not. One of the most common explanations for this phenomenon is that those individuals who earn more should be more willing to save their money. In line with this logic, people who have more money should be more likely to have savings. Considering the results of prior research, we expected objective financial situation (income) to be positively linked to having savings (i.e., propensity to have savings and the exact amount of savings). At the same time, however, we assumed that subjective financial situation (perception) should also be positively related to these variables. To test our assumptions, we conducted a nationwide representative survey (N = 1048) among Polish respondents, asking them about their objective and subjective financial situation. The results of a regression analysis showed that objective financial situation was indeed significantly positively related to having savings. However, subjective financial situation was also positively correlated with having savings (even when we controlled for objective financial situation and demographic variables). We discuss the implications of the links between objective versus subjective financial situations and having savings. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Payers and providers still primarily use ordinary least squares (OLS) to estimate expected economic and clinical outcomes for risk adjustment purposes. Penalized linear regression represents a practical and incremental step forward that provides transparency and interpretability within the familiar regression framework. This study conducted an in-depth comparison of prediction performance of standard and penalized linear regression in predicting future health care costs in older adults. Methods and findings: This retrospective cohort study included 81,106 Medicare Advantage patients with 5 years of continuous medical and pharmacy insurance from 2009 to 2013. Total health care costs in 2013 were predicted with comorbidity indicators from 2009 to 2012. Using 2012 predictors only, OLS performed poorly (e.g., R2 = 16.3%) compared to penalized linear regression models (R2 ranging from 16.8 to 16.9%); using 2009–2012 predictors, the gap in prediction performance increased (R2:15.0% versus 18.0–18.2%). OLS with a reduced set of predictors selected by lasso showed improved performance (R2 = 16.6% with 2012 predictors, 17.4% with 2009–2012 predictors) relative to OLS without variable selection but still lagged behind the prediction performance of penalized regression. Lasso regression consistently generated prediction ratios closer to 1 across different levels of predicted risk compared to other models. Conclusions: This study demonstrated the advantages of using transparent and easy-to-interpret penalized linear regression for predicting future health care costs in older adults relative to standard linear regression. Penalized regression showed better performance than OLS in predicting health care costs. Applying penalized regression to longitudinal data increased prediction accuracy. Lasso regression in particular showed superior prediction ratios across low and high levels of predicted risk. Health care insurers, providers and policy makers may benefit from adopting penalized regression such as lasso regression for cost prediction to improve risk adjustment and population health management and thus better address the underlying needs and risk of the populations they serve. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Stock trend prediction is a challenging task due to the market’s noise, and machine learning techniques have recently been successful in coping with this challenge. In this research, we create a novel framework for stock prediction, Dynamic Advisor-Based Ensemble (dynABE). dynABE explores domain-specific areas based on the companies of interest, diversifies the feature set by creating different “advisors” that each handles a different area, follows an effective model ensemble procedure for each advisor, and combines the advisors together in a second-level ensemble through an online update strategy we developed. dynABE is able to adapt to price pattern changes of the market during the active trading period robustly, without needing to retrain the entire model. We test dynABE on three cobalt-related companies, and it achieves the best-case misclassification error of 31.12% and an annualized absolute return of 359.55% with zero maximum drawdown. dynABE also consistently outperforms the baseline models of support vector machine, neural network, and random forest in all case studies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Introduction: Prenatal androgen exposure has important organizing effects on brain development and therefore on future behavior. Previous research has shown, that the ratio between index finger (2D) and ring finger (4D) (2D:4D) could function as a marker of prenatal androgen effects, with a relatively shorter 2D indicating a higher prenatal androgen exposure. 2D:4D is associated with status-seeking and competitive behavior but also with altruism. Therefore, 2D:4D should be related to academic success. Methods: We examined the 2D:4D of both hands, as well as the difference between both variables (Dr-l), of 209 university graduates (74 women) employed at the Medical Faculty of the Friedrich-Alexander-University Erlangen-Nürnberg, Germany, and we assessed the relationship of these variables with academic career performance. Career performance was measured by the number of publications as first or last author, and by achievement of an academic degree used in many European countries, the so-called “Habilitation”. Results: In a within-sex analysis we found a non-monotonic association between the right hand digit ratio and the probability of having a “Habilitation” in females. Academic success, measured by the number of publications as first or last author and the probability of a "Habilitation", increases with age. In agreement with the literature, we found higher academic success in men. Conclusion: We found a non-monotonic relationship between right hand 2D:4D and academic success in females. However, the significance of this relationship was weak. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: We aimed to examine the association between immigrant generation and obesity among Californian adults and Asian Americans. Methods: We pooled weighted data (n = 2,967) on Asian Americans from the 2013–2014 California Health Interview Survey. Overweight and obesity were defined using body mass indices (BMI) of 25 kg/m2 and 30 kg/m2, respectively, in non-Asians, compared with BMI of 23 kg/m2 (for being overweight) and 27.5 kg/m2 (for being obese) in Asians. First-generation or immigrant Asian Americans were defined as those born outside of the U.S. Second-generation Asian Americans were defined as those born in the U.S. with at least one foreign-born parent. All other Asian participants were classified as third-generation or higher. Multiple logistic regression analyses were used with adjustment for age, sex, family income, smoking status, marital status, education, physical activity, and fast food consumption. Results: Overall, 23.3% of the Asian population was obese, and 40.0% was overweight. The percentage of 1st, 2nd, and 3rd generation were 72.7%, 22.6%, and 4.6%, respectively. Overall, 1st generation of Asians had lower odds of being obese compared to Whites (OR = 0.34, 95%CI = 0.26–0.45). Multiple logistic regression analyses showed that overall, 2nd generation (OR = 1.69, 95%CI = 1.10–2.60) and 3rd generation (OR = 2.33, 95%CI = 1.29–4.22) Asians had higher odds of being obese compared to 1st generation Asians. Among Chinese, compared to the 1st generation, the 3rd generation had increased likelihood of being obese (OR = 6.29, 95%CI = 2.38–16.6). Conclusion: Compared to Whites, Hispanics, and Blacks, Asian immigrants are less likely to be obese. Among Asians, 2nd and 3rd generations were more likely to be obese compared to 1st generation. The obesity rate seems to increase the longer Asian immigrants remain in the U.S. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many systems in various scientific fields like medicine, ecology, economics or climate science exhibit so-called critical transitions, through which a system abruptly changes from one state to a different state. Typical examples are epileptic seizures, changes in the climate system or catastrophic shifts in ecosystems. In order to predict imminent critical transitions, a mathematical apparatus called early warning signals has been developed and this method is used successfully in many scientific areas. However, not all critical transitions can be detected by this approach (false negative) and the appearance of early warning signals does not necessarily proof that a critical transition is imminent (false positive). Furthermore, there are whole classes of systems that always show early warning signals, even though they do not feature critical transitions. In this study we identify such classes in order to provide a safeguard against a misinterpretation of the results of an early warning signal analysis of such systems. Furthermore, we discuss strategies to avoid such systematic false positives and test our theoretical insights by applying them to real world data. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Aim: To gain a better understanding of the complex relationships of different measures of social position, educational level and income with alcohol consumption in England. Method: Between March 2014 and April 2018 data were collected on n = 57,807 alcohol drinkers in England taking part in the Alcohol Toolkit Study (ATS). Respondents completed the AUDIT-C measure of frequency of alcohol consumption, amount consumed on a typical day and binge drinking frequency. The first two questions were used to derive a secondary measure of quantity: average weekly unit consumption. Socio-economic factors measured were: social-grade (based on occupation), employment status, educational qualifications, home and car ownership and income. Models were constructed using ridge regression to assess the contribution of each predictor taking account of high collinearity. Models were adjusted for age, gender and ethnicity. Results: The strongest predictor of frequency of alcohol consumption was social-grade. Those in the two lowest occupational categories of social grade (e.g. semi-skilled and unskilled manual workers, and unemployed, pensioners, casual workers) has fewer drinking occasions than those in professional-managerial occupations (β = -0.29, 95%CI -0.34 to -0.25; β = -0.31, 95%CI -0.33 to -0.29). The strongest predictor of consumed volume and binge drinking frequency was lower educational attainment: those whose highest qualification was an A-level (i.e. college/high school qualification) drank substantially more on a typical day (β = 0.28, 95%CI 0.25 to 0.31) and had a higher weekly unit intake (β = 3.55, 95%CI 3.04 to 4.05) than those with a university qualification. They also reported a higher frequency of binge drinking (β = 0.11, 95%CI 0.09 to 0.14). Housing tenure was a strong predictor of all drinking outcomes, while employment status and car ownership were the weakest predictors of most outcomes. Conclusion: Social-grade and educational attainment appear to be the strongest socioeconomic predictors of alcohol consumption indices in England, followed closely by housing tenure. Employment status and car ownership have the lowest predictive power. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Despite the recent increase in economic evaluations of health care programs in low and middle income countries, there is still a surprising gap in evidence on the appropriate discount rate and the discounting of health outcomes such as quality adjusted life years (QALYs). Our study aimed to calculate the implied time preference rate for health outcomes in Iran and its key determinants. Data were gathered from one family member from each of the 650 households randomly selected in Tehran. The respondents’ private and social preferences for health outcomes were calculated using the time trade-off (TTO) technique based on the discounted utility model. We investigated the main assumptions of the discounted utility model through equality of mean comparison, and the association between private time preference and key socio-economic determinants using multilevel regression analysis. The mean and median implied rates were 5.8% and 4.9% for private time preference and 25.6% and 20% for social time preference respectively. Our study confirmed that magnitude, framing and time effects have a significant impact on implied discount rates, which means that the conventional discounted utility model’s main assumptions are violated in the Iranian general population. Other models of discounting which apply lower rates for far health outcomes might provide a more sensible solution to discounting health interventions with long-term impacts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: To evaluate knowledge of secondhand smoke (SHS) risks, sources of information, and associated factors and behaviors among hospital staff. Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional survey using a 40-item self-administered questionnaire among 328 employees at a university hospital. The questions on representative diseases related to SHS were used to measure the degree of knowledge of SHS. Multiple regression analysis was used to determine the correlation between SHS knowledge scores and variables. Results: Females had better SHS knowledge scores than males, regardless of smoking status (p<0.05). SHS knowledge was positively correlated with cessation education in males, non-smokers, and the total sample (β = 3.950, 2.356, and 2.684, respectively, p<0.05). It was correlated with the experience of any SHS exposure-related symptoms in males, non-smokers, and the total sample (β = 3.950, 2.356, and 2.684, respectively, p<0.05) and discomfort when exposed to SHS in non-smokers and the total sample (β = 0.670 and 0.821, respectively, p<0.05). Conclusion: SHS knowledge is high among females, when hospital staff are educated about SHS risks, and when they have experienced any SHS exposure-related symptoms or felt uncomfortable when exposed to SHS. SHS risk education is an effective tool to increase SHS knowledge in hospital staff. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Long acting reversible and permanent contraception (LARPs) offer promising opportunities for addressing the high and growing unmet need for modern contraception and helps to reduce unintended pregnancies and abortion rates in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This study examines the contextual factors that influence the use of long acting reversible and permanent contraception among married and fecund women in Ethiopia. Method: We use data from the 2016 Ethiopian Demographic and Health Survey to examine the contextual factors that influence choice of long acting reversible and permanent contraception among married, non-pregnant and fecund women. The DHS collects detailed information on individual and household characteristics, contraception, and related reproductive behaviors from women of reproductive age. In addition, we created cluster level variables by aggregating individual level data to the cluster level. Analysis was done using a two-level multilevel logistic regression with data from 6994 married (weighted = 7352) women residing in 642 clusters (communities). Results: In 2016, 12% of married, non-pregnant and ‘fecund’ women were using long-acting reversible and permanent methods of contraception in Ethiopia. A higher proportion of women with secondary and above education (17.6%), urban residents (19.7%), in the richest wealth quintile (18.3%) and in paid employment (18.3%) were using LARP methods compared to their counterparts. Regression analysis showed that community level variables such as women’s empowerment, access to family planning information and services, region of residence and knowledge of methods were significantly associated with use of LARP methods. Age, wealth status, employment status and women’s fertility preferences were among the individual and household level variables associated with choice of LARP methods. With regards to age, the odds of using LARP methods was significantly lower among adolescents (OR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.32–0.85) and women over the age of 40 (OR, 0.63; 95% CI, 0.44–0.90) compared to women in their 20’s. Conclusion: The findings of this study indicate that the demand for long-acting reversible and permanent contraception is influenced not only by women’s individual and household characteristics but also by the community’s level of women’s empowerment, socio-economic development, as well as access and exposure to family planning information and services. Thus, improving knowledge of long-acting reversible and permanent methods, improving women’s decision making autonomy and upgrading the capacity and skills of health workers particularly the midlevel providers and community health extension workers on the provision of LARP methods and rights-based approach is important to improve the uptake of LARP methods. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Problem: Do conservative econometric models that comply with the Golden Rule of Forecasting provide more accurate forecasts? Methods: To test the effects of forecast accuracy, we applied three evidence-based guidelines to 19 published regression models used for forecasting 154 elections in Australia, Canada, Italy, Japan, Netherlands, Portugal, Spain, Turkey, U.K., and the U.S. The guidelines direct forecasters using causal models to be conservative to account for uncertainty by (I) modifying effect estimates to reflect uncertainty either by damping coefficients towards no effect or equalizing coefficients, (II) combining forecasts from diverse models, and (III) incorporating more knowledge by including more variables with known important effects. Findings: Modifying the econometric models to make them more conservative reduced forecast errors compared to forecasts from the original models: (I) Damping coefficients by 10% reduced error by 2% on average, although further damping generally harmed accuracy; modifying coefficients by equalizing coefficients consistently reduced errors with average error reductions between 2% and 8% depending on the level of equalizing. Averaging the original regression model forecast with an equal-weights model forecast reduced error by 7%. (II) Combining forecasts from two Australian models and from eight U.S. models reduced error by 14% and 36%, respectively. (III) Using more knowledge by including all six unique variables from the Australian models and all 24 unique variables from the U.S. models in equal-weight “knowledge models” reduced error by 10% and 43%, respectively. Originality: This paper provides the first test of applying guidelines for conservative forecasting to established election forecasting models. Usefulness: Election forecasters can substantially improve the accuracy of forecasts from econometric models by following simple guidelines for conservative forecasting. Decision-makers can make better decisions when they are provided with models that are more realistic and forecasts that are more accurate. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Clinician turnover is a major concern as mental health systems and organizations invest substantial resources in the implementation of evidence-based practice (EBP). In this study, we identify malleable factors associated with reduced clinician turnover during a system-wide EBP implementation initiative. Specifically, we examine how proficient organizational culture (i.e., norms and behavioral expectations that clinicians prioritize improvement in client well-being and exhibit competence in up-to-date treatment practices), EBP implementation climate (i.e., perceptions that the organization’s policies, procedures, and practices support EBP use), and change in these organizational characteristics relate to clinician turnover during a system-wide EBP transformation. Method: Data were collected from 236 clinicians in 19 mental health clinics across 3 years of a system-wide EBP implementation initiative in the City of Philadelphia. Clinicians reported on proficient organizational culture and EBP implementation climate at baseline (T1) and two-year follow-up (T2). Administrators reported on clinician turnover at three-year follow-up (T3). Hypotheses were tested via multilevel mediation analyses incorporating mixed effects logistic regression models. Results: Controlling for organization size, clinician job satisfaction, attitudes towards EBP, job tenure, and age, higher levels of proficient organizational culture and improvement in proficient culture from baseline to two-year follow-up predicted reduced clinician turnover in the year following; these effects were mediated by EBP implementation climate and by improvement in EBP implementation climate, respectively. Conclusions: Organizations with more proficient cultures have more supportive EBP implementation climates that predict reduced clinician turnover during system-wide EBP implementation initiatives. Strategies that target these antecedents in mental health service organizations may contribute to reduced clinician turnover. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

We conducted a randomized control study to improve equity in how work is taken up, assigned and rewarded in academic departments. We used a four-part intervention targeting routine work practices, department conditions, and the readiness of faculty to intervene to shape more equitable outcomes over an 18-month period. Our goal was to (a) increase the number of routine work practices that department faculty could enact to ensure equity, (b) enhance conditions within the department known to positively enhance equity, and (c) improve the action readiness of department faculty to ensure equity in division of labor. Post intervention faculty in participating departments were more likely than before the intervention to report work practices and conditions that support equity and action readiness in their department, and that teaching and service work in their department is fair. Participating departments were significantly more likely than control departments to report practices and conditions that support equity and greater action readiness to address issues of workload equity in their department. Finally, participating department faculty were more likely than control department faculty to report increased self-advocacy and were more likely than control department faculty to report that the distribution of teaching and service work in their department is fair. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There is a growing interest to understand financial markets as ecological systems, where the variety of trading strategies correspond to that of biological species. For this purpose, transaction data for individual traders are studied recently as empirical analyses. However, there are few empirical studies addressing how traders submit limit and market order at the level of individual traders. Since limit and market orders are key ingredients finally leading to transactions, it would be necessary to understand what kind of strategies are actually employed among traders before making transactions. Here we demonstrate the variety of limit-order and market-order strategies and show their roles in the financial markets from an ecological perspective. We find these trading strategies can be well-characterized by their response pattern to historical price changes. By applying a clustering analysis, we provide an overall picture of trading strategies as an ecological matrix, illustrating that liquidity consumers are likely to exhibit high trading performances compared with liquidity providers. Furthermore, we reveal both high-frequency traders (HFTs) and low-frequency traders (LFTs) exhibit high trading performance, despite the difference in their trading styles; HFTs attempt to maximize their trading efficiency by reducing risk, whereas LFTs make their profit by taking risk. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Distance to health services is known to be negatively associated with usage and needle and syringe programs (NSPs) for people who inject drugs (PWID) are no different. Australia has a mixture of NSP modalities (primary or secondary fixed-site NSPs), which may present unique barriers to access. In this study, we explore 1) the effect of distance to NSPs on individual-level needle and syringe coverage, and 2) differences in coverage dependent on NSP modality. Using data from 219 PWID in an ongoing cohort study in Melbourne, Australia, we measured the straight-line distance from participants’ residence to their nearest primary or secondary fixed-site NSP. We analysed the relationship between geographical distance and coverage via regression analysis. The median distance to any type of NSP was 1872 metres. Regardless of service type, 52% of participants lived within 2 kms of a fixed-site NSP and 87% lived within 5 kms. We found no association between distance to NSPs and syringe coverage or a significant difference in coverage by nearest service type. Our findings suggest that the number and distribution of NSPs in Melbourne, Australia caters adequately for the population of PWID. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: In 2011, the Australian government introduced national healthcare reforms aimed at increasing the timeliness and quality of hospital care. The healthcare reforms included, but were not limited to, emergency department (ED) time-based targets, financial incentives, and public performance reporting of hospital data. We sought to evaluate the impact of the national healthcare reforms on ED time-based process outcomes. Methods: A quasi-experimental study of ED presentations from 2006 to 2016 in the state of Victoria, Australia. Uncontrolled, interrupted time-series analyses were used to evaluate, by hospital peer groups, the effect of national healthcare reforms on: patient wait times for treatment; treatment within recommended time; and patient departure within four hours of arrival in ED. Results: There were small improvements in ED time-based process outcomes following the introduction of the national healthcare reforms. These occurred in most hospital peer groups immediately and over the longer term, across the various triage categories. The largest improvements occurred in small hospitals and smallest improvements in medium sized hospitals. ED time-based targets, now abolished by the Australian government, were not achieved in any hospital peer groups. Conclusions: Our findings suggest that national healthcare reforms had the potential to prompt fundamental changes in ED processes leading to significant improvements in ED performances across most hospital peer groups but were generally unable to reach the ED targets imposed nationally. ED performances also varied by hospital peer groups. Attention to ED time-based process outcomes within hospital peer groups may provide insights into hospital practices that could improve the quality and efficiency of ED care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background/Objectives: To analyse the relationship between caregiver burden and severity of patients’ cognitive impairment. Design: Data were drawn from the cross-sectional 2015/2016 Adelphi Real World Dementia Disease-Specific Programme. Setting: This research was multi-national and studied physicians and their consulting patients with cognitive impairment. Participants: 1,201 caregivers completed self-assessment forms. Measurements: Validated instruments of caregiver wellbeing and burden (EQ-5D-3L questionnaire, EQ-VAS, Zarit Burden Interview, and Work Productivity and Activity Impairment questionnaire) and number of caregiver hours were analysed by severity of patients’ cognitive impairment, categorised according to the Mini-Mental State Examination. Data were analysed using Spearman’s rank correlation coefficients and ordinary least squares regression models, to compare outcomes between caregivers of patients with prodromal, mild, moderate, and severe dementia. Results: The majority of caregivers were female (69.1%), lived with the patient they cared for (75.8%), and only approximately one third (28.3%) were in part- or full-time employment. There were statistically significant (p<0.001) increases in caregiver time (36.9 versus 108.6 hours per week for prodromal versus severe dementia, respectively) and measures of caregiver burden and health status (EQ-5D-3L, EQ-VAS, and Zarit Burden Interview) and increases in measures of work productivity and activity impairment with increasing severity of patients’ disease. Conclusion: This study of real-world data confirmed an association between increased caregiver burden and severity of patients’ cognitive impairment by analysis of a wide range of validated measures of caregiver burden. These findings suggest that maintaining patients in the earliest stages of their disease for as long as possible may potentially help to protect caregiver wellbeing, although further research is required to confirm this hypothesis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Cryptocurrencies have recently received large media interest. Especially the great fluctuations in price have attracted such attention. Behavioral sciences and related scientific literature provide evidence that there is a close relationship between social media and price fluctuations of cryptocurrencies. This particularly applies to smaller currencies, which can be substantially influenced by references on Twitter. Although these so-called “altcoins” often have smaller trading volumes they sometimes attract large attention on social media. Here, we show that fluctuations in altcoins can be predicted from social media. In order to do this, we collected a dataset containing prices and the social media activity of 181 altcoins in the form of 426,520 tweets over a timeframe of 71 days. The containing public mood was then estimated using sentiment analysis. To predict altcoin returns, we carried out linear regression analyses based on 45 days of data. We showed that short-term returns can be predicted from activity and sentiments on Twitter. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Trade networks, across which countries distribute their products, are crucial components of the globalized world economy. Their structure affects the mechanism of propagation of shocks from country to country, as observed in a very sharp way in the past decade, characterized by economic uncertainty in many parts of the world. Such trade structures are strongly heterogeneous across products, given the different features of the countries which buy and sell goods. By using a diversified pool of indicators from network science and product complexity theory, we quantitatively demonstrate that, overall, products with higher complexity—i.e., with larger technological content and/or number of components—are traded through more centralized networks—i.e., with a smaller number of countries concentrating most of the export flow. Since centralized networks are known to be more vulnerable, we argue that the current composition of production and trading is associated to high fragility at the level of the most complex—thus strategic—products. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objective: Over 12% of women in the United States have reduced fertility and/or fecundity. Environmental factors, such as temperature, and socioeconomic factors have been implicated in reducing female fecundity. The purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of environmental factors coupled with socioeconomic factors on birth rate at the country-level. We use birth rate as a proxy for female fecundity. This will enable us to identify the most important factors affecting female fecundity. Methods: Using country-specific data from 182 countries, we constructed a regression model of the effects of environmental and socioeconomic factors on birth rate at the country-level. Our model assesses the role of temperature, Gross Domestic Product (GDP) per capita, fine air particulate matter (PM 2.5), and prevalence of male and female Body Mass Index (BMI) > = 25 (age-standardized) on birth rate per country. Because many of these factors are inter-dependent, we include all possible two-way interaction terms to assess the role of individual factors and interactions between multiple factors in the model. Results: In the full regression model, we found that GDP per capita along with 5 interaction terms were significant after adjusting for multiple testing. Female BMI was only nominally significant. GDP per capita was independently associated with birth rate (adjusted p-value <0.001). Prevalence of BMI > = 25 age-standardized in males and females were also significant when interacting with air pollution or GDP on female fecundity (birth rate). Temperature did not affect birth rate either independently or as an interaction unless BMI was removed from the model. Conclusion: A country’s economic wealth was the most significant factor in predicting birth rate in a statistical model that includes environmental and socioeconomic variables. This is important for future studies investigating environmental factors involved in increasing or decreasing female fecundity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: With the increase of the statutory retirement age, the number of self-employed older workers will most likely increase. Therefore, this study aimed to explore: 1) the differences in self-rated health and work ability of self-employed workers and employees, 1) whether self-employment is associated with better self-rated health and work ability across three years, than employment, and 3) the role of sociodemographic, health- and work-related characteristics (e.g., mental load, physical load, and autonomy) in these relationships. Methods: Data was used from the Study on Transitions in Employment, Ability and Motivation, where self-employed (n = 1,029) and employees (n = 12,055) aged 45–64 years were followed during 2010–2013. Linear regression and generalized estimating equations analyses were carried out to study the differences in self-rated health and work ability (i.e., self-assessed work ability in relation to an individual’s resources and work demands) of self-employed and employees. To explore the role of sociodemographic, health-and work-related characteristics in these associations, we included interaction terms between these characteristics and employment status. Results: The self-employed had better work ability (8.3 versus 8.2), and better self-rated health (3.4 versus 3.3) than employees. Work ability of self-employed improved over time, compared to the changes over time in work ability among employees, but not no difference in change over time in self-rated health was found. None of the interaction terms were statistically significant (p>0.05). Conclusion: We observed higher scores in self-rated health and work ability among the self-employed than employees. Being self-employed leads to an increase in work ability across three years. The differences in work ability can be considered small, and more research is needed to establish the role of self-employment as a potential facilitator for sustainable employment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The aim of this study was to assess the concurrent validity of the IsoKai isokinetic lift test peak force (IsoKaiPeak) in comparison to a submaximal 5-10RM deadlift test (5-10RMDL), and to develop an equation for converting the IsoKaiPeak in Newton (N) to an estimated 1RM (1RMest) deadlift load in kilograms (kg). The participants included 28 males and 16 female employees in the Swedish Armed Forces (20–59 years). Each participant conducted the IsoKai lift test, followed by the 5-10RMDL test at one occasion. The Pearson′s correlation coefficient, with a 95% confidence interval was calculated to evaluate the validity between the IsoKaiPeak and the 1RMest deadlift load derived from the 5-10RMDL test. Univariate and multivariable linear regressions were used to derive the equation for calculating the 1RMest deadlift load based on the IsoKaiPeak. The IsoKaiPeak showed good- to-excellent correlation with the 1RMest deadlift weight with a correlation coefficient of 0.84 (0.72–0.91) for the total sample, and 0.65 (0.37–0.83) and 0.81 (0.53–0.93) in males and females, respectively. The final equation, 1RMest deadlift weight (kg) = -51.63 + (0.08 x IsoKaiPeak) + (2.28 x BMI), explained 72% (adjusted R2 = 0.72) of the total variance in the 1RMest, and had a standard error of the estimate (SEE) of 16.57 kg. In conclusion, the IsoKai isokinetic lift test could be considered a highly valid measure of maximal dynamic muscular strength in comparison to the 5-10RMDL. The equation can be used to convert the IsoKai lift test (N) results to an 1RMest deadlift load (kg), but with consideration of the relative large SEE. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Violence against women by an intimate partner (DV) is a serious public health and human rights issue. Attitudes justifying DV strongly predict its perpetration and victimisation. This paper presents gendered ecological analyses of the societal acceptance of DV in 49 low- and middle-income countries (LMICs) across geographical regions. Methods and findings: We utilised data from 49 Demographic and Health Surveys conducted between 2005 and 2017, United Nations Statistics and topic-specific meta-databases. DV acceptance was measured as the justification of ‘wife-beating’ in at least one of five circumstances, and by the summative scale. Stepwise multiple linear regression examined country-level social, economic and political empowerment predictors of societal acceptance of DV amongst women, men, and the aggregate gender difference. Women were more likely than men to justify DV in Sub-Saharan Africa and South (east) Asia with societal acceptance of DV being more widespread in these regions compared with Latin America, the Caribbean, Central/West Asia and Europe. Political conflict and limited economic rights for women were associated with higher levels of DV acceptance amongst women and men. Men in more democratic countries were less likely to justify DV. Amongst women, higher national female literacy rates predicted lower levels of justification. There were higher levels of DV acceptance amongst women and a wider aggregate gender difference in countries with a larger representation of women in national parliament. Conclusion: Justification of DV is widespread amongst women and men in LMICs with acceptance rates varying across countries and regions. Gender differences in the impact of contextual factors on DV acceptance supports a gendered approach to national-level interventions. Our findings highlight the need for tailored interventions targeting DV acceptance in conflict-impacted societies. The emphasis of inter(national) policies on the ‘empowerment’ domains of widely-used gender (in)equality indices need to be coupled with strategies tackling discriminatory gender norms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: The South Korean government required the submission of economic evidence when it implemented the Positive-List System in December 2006. This study investigates the key factors that influenced actual public insurance reimbursement decisions, including the role of economic evidence, after 10 years of decision practice under compulsory health technology assessment (HTA) for new drugs. Method: Logistic regression analysis was used to estimate the impact of the variables involved, including cost-effectiveness ratio as a key variable, on reimbursement decisions. The latter were defined as “yes” or “no” at a submitted price and indication. Only cases (n = 91) that present a cost-effectiveness ratio, and that have been reviewed based on this ratio from January 2007 to December 2016, were included in the analysis. Results: Cases with higher cost-effectiveness ratios were less likely to be accepted. In addition, drugs that were used to treat severe diseases and drugs with no substitute were more likely to be recommended. The probability of acceptance declined along with the level of uncertainty in the submitted evidence. The acceptance rate for severe-disease drugs has increased since 2013, when the government introduced several policies that lowered the existing barriers to positive reimbursement. However, such an increase was not statistically significant. Conclusions: Cost-effectiveness is one of the most influential factors in drug-reimbursement decisions. However, inclusion of other explanatory variables, in addition to the cost-effectiveness ratio, predicted the results of decisions more accurately. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background: Antimicrobial resistance is a global public health problem with some socially patterned drivers. The objective of the study was to investigate associations between use of and trust in the Internet as a source of health-related information and the public’s knowledge, attitudes, and behaviours regarding antibiotics. Methods: Two representative cross-sectional surveys (the 2015 Wellcome Monitor (n = 1524) and UK segment (n = 1330) of the 2016 Eurobarometer 85.1) covering knowledge about antibiotics and antibiotic consumption were analysed. Knowledge, attitude, and behaviour variables were analysed using regression in relation to demographic characteristics and use and trust in the Internet as a source of information. Results: The key findings of the analysis are that both use of the Internet as a source of medical research information (variable from the Wellcome Monitor) and trust in the Internet as a source of information about antibiotics (variable from the Eurobarometer) were independently and positively associated with knowledge, attitude, and behaviour regarding antibiotics. Additionally, knowledge about antibiotics was positively associated with behaviour with antibiotics (Wellcome Monitor) and attitude towards finishing antibiotic prescriptions (Eurobarometer). Higher levels of education were associated with better knowledge about antibiotics in both datasets. Older age was positively associated with behaviour and attitude regarding antibiotic consumption. Conclusions: The Internet is a resource for disseminating quality health information that has the potential to improve stewardship of antibiotics in the community. This study suggests that members of the UK public that use the Internet as a source of health-related information are more likely to be better informed about, and be more responsible with, antibiotics. This mode of information dissemination should be capitalised on to improve antimicrobial stewardship, and further research should examine what the most effective online information sources are in the UK and to what extent their association with behaviour is causal. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Prior research in organizations has shown that the spanning of distinct social categories usually leads to an unfavorable reaction from the audience. In the music field, however, a recombination of categories has long been celebrated as a major source of innovation. In this research, we conduct a systematical research on the effect of spanning behavior by musicians with a particular focus on the structural heterogeneity of categorical boundaries. We first ask whether the blending of distinct music genres is penalized in the music field, and then investigate how the outcomes of spanning behavior are differentiated by the structural characteristics of each genres. After collecting a comprehensive dataset of musicians in the United States from diverse sources including AllMusic, iTunes, and MusicBrainz, we construct a two-mode network of musicians and subgenres. In calculating musicians’ genre-spanning behavior, we suggest a new diversity metric by incorporating the affinity between genres. Our results suggest that genre-generalist musicians who combine distinct music genres are more likely to be devaluated by listeners compared to genre-specialists who adhere to a single genre. Moreover, we find that musicians tend to be more penalized when they blend genres that have nonporous boundaries rather than penetrable boundaries. This research expands our understanding of the conditions under which boundary crossing leads to negative audience evaluation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recent mental health (MH) reforms have had a sharp impact on practices among MH professionals. A deeper understanding of factors contributing to their job satisfaction, in this context, may help improve quality and continuity of care. The purpose of this study was to identify variables associated with job satisfaction for 315 MH professionals in Quebec (Canada) after implementation of wide-ranging MH reforms. Job satisfaction was measured with the Job Satisfaction Survey. Independent variables were conceptualized within five domains: 1) Professional Characteristics, 2) Team Attributes, 3) Team Processes, 4) Team Emergent States, and 5) Organizational Culture. Univariate, bivariate and multivariate analyses were performed. Job satisfaction was significantly associated with absence of team conflict, stronger team support, better team collaboration, greater member involvement in the decision-making process (Team Processes), Affective commitment toward the team (Team Emergent States), as well as lack of a market/rational culture (Organizational Culture). Job satisfaction was strongly related to team processes and, to a lesser extent, team emergent states. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]