scholarly journals The New Brunswick Act Respecting Research Three Years Later: A Data Trickle Turns into a Flood

2020 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
Author(s):  
Ted McDonald
Keyword(s):  
New Brunswick ◽  
Standardized Testing ◽  
Provincial Government ◽  
Enabling Factors ◽  
Research Partnerships ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Department Of Health ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
National Networks

IntroductionIn New Brunswick Canada (NB) in 2017, the Provincial Government passed a bill called the Act Respecting Research. This Act took the form of an omnibus bill modifying 20 pieces of legislation to define a legal authority for the New Brunswick Institute for Research, Data and Training (NB-IRDT) to receive prepared, linkable microdata from multiple public bodies in NB. This was followed in 2019 by a second Act Respecting Research that broadened the scope of the first. Together this legislation has helped to expand NB-IRDT’s data holdings from its first dataset – hospital records received in 2015 – to over 40 different linkable datasets as of March 2020. These datasets are underpinning ambitious research partnerships between NB-IRDT and the Provincial Government. Objectives and ApproachThis presentation will detail the rapid progress made since the first Act was passed in 2017 and presented at IPDLN-2018. It will outline enabling factors, including secured funding, the central role of the Department of Health, engagement with senior decisionmakers, and interaction with other provincial data centres and national networks including HDRN Canada. Ongoing and new challenges arising from the rapid increase in the scale of data collection and their resolution will be discussed. ResultsIn addition to a wide range of provincial health administrative and clinical datasets, recent datasets include school records (report cards, standardized testing, attendance), income support data, workers compensation claims data, higher education program and graduation data, court appearances, adult training/retraining programs and immigration landing records. All files are linkable at the individual level. Multi-year research projects to support program evaluation are underway, with departments now able to access other agency data through NB-IRDT. Conclusion / ImplicationsNB-IRDT and the experience in NB offer important lessons for other jurisdictions aiming to expand access to linkable multi-agency data for research and evaluation.

scholarly journals A Tale of Odds and Ratios: Political Preference Formation in Postindustrial Democracies

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
David M. Wineroither ◽  
Rudolf Metz
Keyword(s):  
Social Stratification ◽  
Political Process ◽  
Environment Interaction ◽  
Preference Formation ◽  
Political Preference ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Gene Environment Interaction ◽  
Gene Environment ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

AbstractThis report surveys four approaches that are pivotal to the study of preference formation: (a) the range, validity, and theoretical foundations of explanations of political preferences at the individual and mass levels, (b) the exploration of key objects of preference formation attached to the democratic political process (i.e., voting in competitive elections), (c) the top-down vs. bottom-up character of preference formation as addressed in leader–follower studies, and (d) gene–environment interaction and the explanatory weight of genetic predisposition against the cumulative weight of social experiences.In recent years, our understanding of sites and processes of (individual) political-preference formation has substantially improved. First, this applies to a greater variety of objects that provide fresh insight into the functioning and stability of contemporary democracy. Second, we observe the reaffirmation of pivotal theories and key concepts in adapted form against widespread challenge. This applies to the role played by social stratification, group awareness, and individual-level economic considerations. Most of these findings converge in recognising economics-based explanations. Third, research into gene–environment interplay rapidly increases the number of testable hypotheses and promises to benefit a wide range of approaches already taken and advanced in the study of political-preference formation.

Culture’s Constraints

2018 ◽  
pp. 61-78 ◽  
Author(s):  
Michele J. Gelfand ◽  
Nava Caluori ◽  
Sarah Gordon ◽  
Jana Raver ◽  
Lisa Nishii ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Differences ◽  
Psychological Processes ◽  
Social Situations ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Societal Factors ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cultural Processes ◽  
The Individual

Research on culture has generally ignored social situations, and research on social situations has generally ignored culture. In bringing together these two traditions, we show that nations vary considerably in the strength of social situations, and this is a key conceptual and empirical bridge between macro and distal cultural processes and micro and proximal psychological processes. The model thus illustrates some of the intervening mechanisms through which distal societal factors affect individual processes. It also helps to illuminate why cultural differences persist at the individual level, as they are adaptive to chronic differences in the strength of social situations. The strength of situations across cultures can provide new insights into cultural differences in a wide range of psychological processes.

scholarly journals The Scanian Economic-Demographic Database (SEDD)

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin Dribe ◽  
Luciana Quaranta
Keyword(s):  
Data Resource ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Intermediate Data ◽  
Linkage Methods ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Rural Parishes ◽  
The Family ◽  
Source Data ◽  
The Individual ◽  
The City

The Scanian Economic-Demographic Database (SEDD) is a high-quality longitudinal data resource spanning the period 1646-1967. It covers all individuals born in or migrated to the city of Landskrona and five rural parishes in western Scania in southern Sweden. The entire population present in the area is fully covered after 1813. At the individual level, SEDD combines various demographic and socioeconomic records, including causes of death, place of birth and geographic data on the place of residence within a parish. At the family level, the data contain a combination of demographic records and information on occupation, landholding and income. The data for 1813-1967 was structured in the model of the Intermediate Data Structure (IDS). In addition to storing source data in the SEDD IDS tables, a wide range of individual- and context-level variables were constructed, which means that most types of analyses using SEDD can be conducted without the need of further elaboration of the data. This article discusses the source material, linkage methods, and structure of the database.

scholarly journals Anti-Corruption Expertise in Evaluating the Effectiveness of the Anti-Corruption Policy

2018 ◽  
Vol 12 (5) ◽  
pp. 689-698
Author(s):  
Tatyana Sudakova ◽  
Natalya Vasilyeva
Keyword(s):  
Public Relations ◽  
Expert Evaluation ◽  
Important Place ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Irkutsk Region ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Strategic Measures ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Quantitative Indicators

The effectiveness of currently implemented wide range of strategic measures aimed at reducing the corruption and criminogenic potential in many spheres of life directly depends on their effectiveness in some key areas. The institute of anti-corruption expertise (ACE) of legislation, which now incorporates a considerable theoretical and methodological basis, requires further improvement and elimination of identified drawbacks. An almost decade of its history has been characterized by a steadily growing number of expert evaluations and the corresponding increase in the number of identified corruption-generating factors and the number of changes and amendments to normative acts. However, this dynamics is subject to controversial evaluations by analysts who talk about a routine formalistic approach and stereotyped, one-size-fits-all actions of experts and other parties involved in the multilateral mechanism of ACE. The analysis of information on the websites of professional bodies implementing ACE from the standpoint of quantitative indicators shows that this institute is effective. At the same time, the true criteria of effectiveness, connected with the improvements in the quality of the lawmaking process as a desirable result of implementing ACE, cannot be reduced to the evaluation of quantitative indicators alone. The monitoring of the effectiveness of measures implemented today within the ACE framework duly stresses the qualitative criteria of such effectiveness. Using them in the expert evaluation of municipal normative legal acts (NLA) and draft acts makes it possible to update the task of improving the quality of the lawmaking process at all levels of public administration. Municipal NLAs hold an important place both in the volume of the decisions made and the scope of public relations that they regulate, which sets the task of evaluating the quality of such acts to a new level. The analysis of the regional expert evaluation of municipal NLAs (using the example of Irkutsk Region) made it possible to compare the existing practices in this sphere and to identify typical circumstances that reduce the anti-criminogenic potential of ACE. The expertise aimed at identifying the corruption-generating factors in the law enforcement acts - in the personified decisions of the municipal bodies - is not common practice. At the same time, such NLAs at the individual level act as serious regulators of the legal sphere of peoples lives because they are connected with decisions on the provision of state support, the allocation of quotas, the distribution of expenses, etc.

scholarly journals The forward testing effect is reliable and independent of learners’ working memory capacity

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bernhard Pastötter ◽  
Christian Frings
Keyword(s):  
Working Memory ◽  
Testing Effect ◽  
Retrieval Practice ◽  
Working Memory Capacity ◽  
Memory Capacity ◽  
Retest Reliability ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Test Retest Reliability

The forward testing effect refers to the finding that retrieval practice of previously studied information enhances learning and retention of subsequently studied other information. While most of the previous research on the forward testing effect examined group differences, the present study took an individual differences approach to investigate this effect. Experiment 1 examined whether the forward effect has test-retest reliability between two experimental sessions. Experiment 2 investigated whether the effect is related to participants’ working memory capacity. In both experiments (and each session of Experiment 1), participants studied three lists of items in anticipation of a final cumulative recall test. In the testing condition, participants were tested immediately on lists 1 and 2, whereas in the restudy condition, they restudied lists 1 and 2. In both conditions, participants were tested immediately on list 3. On the group level, the results of both experiments demonstrated a forward testing effect, with interim testing of lists 1 and 2 enhancing immediate recall of list 3. On the individual level, the results of Experiment 1 showed that the forward effect on list 3 recall has moderate test-retest reliability between two experimental sessions. In addition, the results of Experiment 2 showed that the forward effect on list 3 recall does not depend on participants’ working memory capacity. These findings suggest that the forward testing effect is reliable at the individual level and affects learners at a wide range of working memory capacities alike. The theoretical and practical implications of the findings are discussed.

scholarly journals Means, Motives and Opportunity: determinants of community health worker performance

2019 ◽  
Vol 4 (5) ◽  
pp. e001790 ◽  
Author(s):  
Aparna John ◽  
Thomas Newton-Lewis ◽  
Shuchi Srinivasan
Keyword(s):  
Community Health ◽  
Health Workers ◽  
Policy Makers ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Worker Performance ◽  
Performance Problem ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Job Role

The performance of community health workers (CHWs) typically depends on the interaction between their motivation (their intent to achieve personal and organisational goals) and the constraints that they face in doing so. These constraints can be both at the individual level, for example, whether the worker has the skills and knowledge required to deliver on their job role, and the organisational level, for example, whether the worker is provided with the resources required to perform. Designing interventions to improve the performance of CHWs requires identifying the constraints to performance in a particular context. Existing frameworks on CHW performance tend to be derived empirically, identifying a broad range of intervention design and contextual factors that have been shown to influence CHW performance. These may not always be able to guide policy makers to identify the precise cause of a specific performance problem in a particular context and develop an appropriate policy response. This article presents a framework to help practitioners and researchers diagnose the constraints to performance of CHWs and guide programmatic and policy responses. The Means, Motives and Opportunity (MMO) framework has been adapted from the SaniFOAM framework used to identify the determinants of sanitation behaviours. It is based on three interdependent and interacting domains: means (whether an individual is capable of performing), motives (whether an individual wants to perform) and opportunity (whether the individual has the chance to perform). A wide range of data sources are expected to be used when applying the MMO framework, especially qualitative research that captures the perspectives and lived realities of CHWs and their communities. In this article, we demonstrate how the MMO framework can be applied to identify the constraints to CHW performance using the case study of Anganwadi Workers (village nutrition workers) in Bihar, India.

A review of noteworthy/major innovations in wearable clothing for thermal and moisture management from material to fabric structure

2021 ◽  
pp. 004051752110277
Author(s):  
Hafiz Muhammad Kaleem Ullah ◽  
Joseph Lejeune ◽  
Aurélie Cayla ◽  
Mélanie Monceaux ◽  
Christine Campagne ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Thermal Comfort ◽  
The Body ◽  
Innovative Strategies ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Thermal Range ◽  
Moisture Management ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Air Conditioning Systems ◽  
Body Heat

The human body exchanges heat through the environment by various means, such as radiation, evaporation, conduction, and convection. Thermo-physiological comfort is associated with the effective heat transfer between the body and the atmosphere, maintaining the body temperature in a tolerable thermal range (36.5–37.5ºC). In order to ensure comfort, the body heat must be preserved or emitted, depending on external conditions. If the body heat is not properly managed, it can cause hyperthermia, heatstroke, and thermal discomfort. Conventionally, heating, ventilation, and air conditioning systems are used to provide comfort. However, they require a huge amount of energy, leading to an increase in global warming, and are limited to indoor applications. In recent decades, scientists across the world have been working to provide thermal comfort through wearable innovative textiles. This review article presents recent innovative strategies for moisture and/or thermal management at the material, filament/fiber, yarn, and fabric scales. It also summarizes the passive/active textile models for comfort. Integrating electrical devices in garments can rapidly control the skin temperature, and is dynamic and useful for a wide range of environmental conditions. However, their use can be limited in some situations due to their bulky design and batteries, which must be frequently recharged. Furthermore, adaptive textiles enable the wearer to maintain comfort in various temperatures and humidity without requiring batteries. Using these wearable textiles is convenient to provide thermal comfort at the individual level rather than controlling the entire building temperature.

Variability of Executive Function Performance in Preschoolers with Developmental Language Disorder

2019 ◽  
Vol 40 (04) ◽  
pp. 243-255
Author(s):  
Leah L. Kapa ◽  
Jessie A. Erikson
Keyword(s):  
Executive Function ◽  
Language Disorder ◽  
Large Body ◽  
Developmental Language Disorder ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Number Of Children ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Memory Inhibition ◽  
The Individual ◽  
Nonverbal Measures

AbstractAlthough results vary across individual studies, a large body of evidence suggests that children with developmental language disorder (DLD) have domain-general deficits in executive function compared with peers with typically developing language. Poorer performance for children with DLD has been reported on verbal and nonverbal measures of sustained selective attention, working memory, inhibition, and shifting. However, examination of the variability of task scores among both children with and without DLD reveals a wide range of executive function performance for both groups. Additionally, using executive function scores to classify children into DLD versus typical groups results in classification accuracy that is not clinically useful. This evidence indicates that group-level differences in executive function abilities between children with and without DLD cannot be applied at the individual level. Many children with DLD appear to have intact executive function abilities, which undermines the possibility that poor executive functioning causes language deficits in this population. However, a substantial number of children with DLD also have executive function deficits, and, therefore, therapy approaches with this population should consider both their language and executive function abilities.

scholarly journals On the effect of asymmetrical trait inheritance on models of trait evolution

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Pablo Duchen ◽  
Michael L. Alfaro ◽  
Jonathan Rolland ◽  
Nicolas Salamin ◽  
Daniele Silvestro
Keyword(s):  
Quantitative Trait ◽  
Comparative Methods ◽  
Simulation Framework ◽  
Trait Evolution ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Parameter Estimations ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Biological Interpretation ◽  
Individual Based Simulation ◽  
The Individual

AbstractCurrent phylogenetic comparative methods modeling quantitative trait evolution generally assume that, during speciation, phenotypes are inherited identically between the two daughter species. This, however, neglects the fact that species consist of a set of individuals, each bearing its own trait value. Indeed, because descendent populations after speciation are samples of a parent population, we can expect their mean phenotypes to randomly differ from one another potentially generating a “jump” of mean phenotypes due to asymmetrical trait inheritance at cladogenesis. Here, we aim to clarify the effect of asymmetrical trait inheritance at speciation on macroevolutionary analyses, focusing on model testing and parameter estimation using some of the most common models of quantitative trait evolution. We developed an individual-based simulation framework in which the evolution of species phenotypes is determined by trait changes at the individual level accumulating across generations and cladogenesis occurs then by separation of subsets of the individuals into new lineages. Through simulations, we assess the magnitude of phenotypic jumps at cladogenesis under different modes of trait inheritance at speciation. We show that even small jumps can strongly alter both the results of model selection and parameter estimations, potentially affecting the biological interpretation of the estimated mode of evolution of a trait. Our results call for caution when interpreting analyses of trait evolution, while highlighting the importance of testing a wide range of alternative models. In the light of our findings, we propose that future methodological advances in comparative methods should more explicitly model the intra-specific variability around species mean phenotypes and how it is inherited at speciation.

scholarly journals Music, Brain and Health

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
pp. 38
Author(s):  
Ante L. Padjen
Keyword(s):  
Positive Emotions ◽  
Music Perception ◽  
Human Life ◽  
Musical Training ◽  
Music Performance ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Self Awareness ◽  
Individual Level ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
The Individual

Music, like language, is a uniquely human experience, ubiquitous across human cultures and across the human life span.Musical capacity appears early in evolution and it seems to be innate to most of the human population. Neurobiological studies of music perception and music performance profoundly affect the brain, in an acute and chronic way, by modulating networks involved in cognition, sensation, emotion, reward, and movement corresponding to the empirical findings why people listen to music: pleasure, self-awareness, social relatedness, and arousal and mood regulation.Most intriguing is “salutogenic” effect of musical activities, such as instrumental and choral “musicking” (particularly in non-professional musicians), both on the individual level and in populations. Musical training can promote the development of non-musical skills as diverse as language development, attention, visuospatial perception, and executive functions.Music is also a prophylactic resource, it improves the bonding of mother and child. There is a wide range of therapeutic domains and disorders where musical interventions improve the outcome. As an example, familiar music has an exceptional ability to elicit memories, movements, motivation and positive emotions from adults affected by dementia.Considering that one of the most important problems in biomedicine is “understanding what is to be human” then “music should be an essential part of this pursuit” – of an understanding of the whole person. Despite evidence of significant effects of music on health and well-being - music is not well present in current re-humanization of medicine 

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