scholarly journals Does Regional Political Representation affect the Provision of Childcare in Austria?

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Carmen Walenta-Bergmann
Keyword(s):  
Interaction Effect ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Catch Up ◽  
Longitudinal Dataset

Historically the provision of childcare was one of the forgotten areas of Austrian family policy. During the last decade, a lot of effort was made to catch up with other European countries, but notable subnational differences between the regions and municipalities persist. This paper engages with the arising question: Does regional political representation affect the provision of childcare in Austria? Based on a unique longitudinal dataset (2003-2018) containing yearly measures for 1789 Austrian municipalities, several hierarchical regression models are calculated. The results reveal a significant effect of gender and partisan dimension, as well as an interaction effect between those dimensions.

scholarly journals Dual Decline in Gait and Cognition Is Associated With Future Dementia: Evidence for a Phenotype

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 264-264
Author(s):  
Manuel Montero Odasso ◽  
Mark Speechley ◽  
Richard Camicioli ◽  
Nellie Kamkar ◽  
Qu Tian ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Gait Speed ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Community Dwelling ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Chi Square ◽  
Cox Models ◽  
Incident Dementia ◽  
Risk Of Progression ◽  
Community Dwelling Older Adults

Abstract BACKGROUND: The concurrent decline in gait speed and cognition are associated with future dementia. However, the clinical profile of those who present with dual-decline has not yet been described. We aimed to describe the phenotype and risk for incident dementia of individuals who present a dual-decline in comparison with non dual-decliners. METHODS: Prospective cohort of community-dwelling older adults free of dementia at baseline. We evaluated participants’ gait speed, cognition, medical status, functionality, incidence of adverse events, and dementia biannually over 7 years. Gait speed was assessed with a 6-meter electronic-walkway, and global cognition was assessed using the MoCA test. We compared characteristics between dual-decliners and non dual-decliners using t-test, Chi-square, and hierarchical regression models. We estimated incident dementia using Cox models. RESULTS: Among 144 participants (mean age 74.23 ± 6.72 years, 54% women), 17% progressed to dementia. Dual-decliners had a three-fold risk (HR: 3.12, 95%CI:1.23-7.93, p=0.017) of progression to dementia compared with non dual-decliners. Dual-decliners were significantly older with a higher prevalence of hypertension and dyslipidemia (p=0.002). Hierarchical regression models show that age and sex alone explained 3% of the variation in the dual-decliners group, while adding hypertension and dyslipidemia increased the explained variation to 8% and 10 %, respectively. The risk of becoming a dual-decliner was 4-fold if hypertension was present. CONCLUSION: Older adults with concurrent decline in gait speed and cognition represent a group at the highest risk of progression to dementia. These dual-decliners have a distinct phenotype with a higher prevalence of hypertension, a potentially treatable condition.

scholarly journals Social Investment in an Age of Austerity: A Comparison of Family Policy Reforms in Four European Countries

2020 ◽  
Vol 27 (3) ◽  
pp. 249-267
Author(s):  
Sonja Blum ◽  
Tatjana Rakar ◽  
Karin Wall
Keyword(s):  
Social Protection ◽  
Family Policy ◽  
Parental Leave ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Crowding Out ◽  
Social Investment ◽  
Policy Reforms ◽  
The Great Recession ◽  
The Social ◽  
Post War

The focus of this article is on family policy reforms in four European countries – Austria, Finland, Portugal, and Slovenia – between 2008 and 2015. These years were marked by the ‘Great Recession’, and by the rise of the social-investment perspective. Social investment is an umbrella concept, though, and it is also somewhat ambiguous. This article distinguishes between different social-investment variants, which emerge from a focus on its interaction with alternative social-policy perspectives, namely social protection and austerity. We identify different variants along the degree of social-investment: from comprehensive, over crowding out, towards lean forms. While the empirical analysis highlights variation, it also shows how there is a specific crisis context, which may lead to ‘crowding out’ of other policy approaches and ‘leaner’ forms of social investment. This has led to strong cutbacks in family cash benefits, while public childcare and parental leaves have proved more resilient in the investigated countries. Those findings are revelatory in the current Covid-19 pandemic, where countries are entering a next, possibly larger economic crisis. Key words: family policy; crisis; social investment; austerity; case studies denoted as the end of the ‘golden age’ of the welfare state, putting a halt to its expansion in post-war prosperity. Faced with low growth rates and rising unemployment, the recipe chosen by many countries was to ‘relieve’ labour markets. Alongside such measures as early retirement schemes, family policy was a key part of the reform programme and recourse to parental leave

scholarly journals Khat Use Patterns, Associated Features, and Psychological Problems in a Khat-Treatment-Seeking Student Sample of Jimma University, Southwestern Ethiopia

2021 ◽  
Vol 9 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mekdem Tesfamichael Hassen ◽  
Matiwos Soboka ◽  
Marina Widmann ◽  
Lucas Keller ◽  
Anja C. Zeller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Mental Health ◽  
Mental Disorders ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Psychological Problems ◽  
Treatment Seeking ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Motivation To Change ◽  
Southwestern Ethiopia ◽  
Khat Use ◽  
Jimma University

Background: Khat (Catha edulis) is a traditionally used substance in African and Arab countries that contains the amphetamine-like alkaloid cathinone. Khat use among Ethiopian students is a growing concern. This study aims to describe khat use, psychological problems, and motivation to change and to determine associated factors of khat use among students from Jimma University seeking psychological assistance.Methods: In a cross-sectional study, a sample of 717 students from Jimma University, southwestern Ethiopia, who seek assistance to reduce khat use were recruited. The study used Amharic and Afaan Oromoo language versions of common psychological instruments and employed them as part of a comprehensive tablet computer-delivered self-report assessment battery, comprising the SRQ-20, the PCL-5, the LEC-5, the AUDIT, and the SOCRATES-khat. In addition, socio-demographic, economic variables, and functioning problems due to severe mental disorders were assessed. The analysis relied on the data of the 575 included participants and used clinical cut-off values to describe this treatment-seeking sample and hierarchical regression models to determine variables associated with khat use.Results: The sample showed high khat use in the past month (M = 31.55 bundles, SD = 28.53, on M = 15.11 days, SD = 8.54); 17.0% showed highly problematic use. The sample was extremely burdened with comorbid psychiatric problems: 21.6% reported functioning problems due to past mental disorders, 60.2% scored above the cut-off for current common mental disorders, 37.9% screened positive for PTSD, and 47.1% reported hazardous alcohol use. Small to medium intercorrelations between variables were detected, and in hierarchical regression models, higher motivation to change khat use was associated with higher use of the substance.Conclusions: This study clearly shows the need to develop research instruments, screening methods, and assistance services for khat-using students at Jimma University. Study participants' high mental health burden shows the need for targeted intervention programs that go beyond brief interventions for khat use. Furthermore, the study highlights challenges for implementing such services: the barriers to utilization for females and khat users without comorbid mental health problems.

Women in the Legislatures and Executives of the World: Knocking at the Highest Glass Ceiling

1999 ◽  
Vol 51 (4) ◽  
pp. 547-572 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Reynolds
Keyword(s):  
Multivariate Regression ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Socioeconomic Development ◽  
Party System ◽  
Political Representation ◽  
Parliamentary System ◽  
Dependent Variables ◽  
The World ◽  
Political Office ◽  
Women In Parliament

This article reports the results of a survey of women in legislatures and executives around the world as they were constituted in 1998 (N = 180). The chief hypotheses regarding the factors hindering or facilitating women's access to political representation were tested by multivariate regression models. The regression models juxtaposed a cocktail of institutional, political, cultural, and socioeconomic variables with the following dependent variables: (1) the percentage of MPs who are women and (2) the percentage of cabinet ministers who are women.A number, although not all, of the cited hypotheses were statistically confirmed and more finely quantified. The socioeconomic development of women in society has an effect on the number of women in parliament but not in the cabinet. A country's length of experience with multipartyism and women's enfranchisement correlates with both the legislative and the executive percentage. Certain electoral systems are more women friendly than others. The ideological nature of the party system affects the number of women elected and chosen for cabinet posts. And last, the state's dominant religion, taken as a proxy for culture, also statistically relates to the number of women who will make it to high political office. However, other long-held hypotheses were not proved. The degree of democracy is not a good indicator of the percentage of women who will make it into the legislature or the cabinet, nor is the dichotomy between a presidential or parliamentary system.

The Association Between Femoral Neck-Shaft Angle and Aging and Its Influence on the Performance of Functional Activity: A Cross-Sectional Investigation

2020 ◽  
Vol 28 (2) ◽  
pp. 250-254
Author(s):  
Ibrahim M. Altubasi
Keyword(s):  
Femoral Neck ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Walking Speed ◽  
Functional Performance ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Performance Tests ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Neck Shaft Angle ◽  
Functional Activities ◽  
Shaft Angle

The purposes of this study were first to examine the association between aging and both the magnitude and asymmetry in the femoral neck-shaft angle (NSA). The second purpose was to determine the effects of both the magnitude and NSA asymmetry on the performance of functional activities in healthy individuals. Fifty-one subjects participated in this study. The femoral NSA was measured on computed tomography scout images. The participants performed four performance tests. Four hierarchical regression models were constructed to explore the effect of each predictor on the outcomes. Aging was associated with NSA asymmetry, but not with the degree of NSA. Age contributed significantly to the variability of all functional performance tests except the 10-m walking speed. The degree of the NSA did not contribute to the prediction of the functional performance tests. However, asymmetry in the NSA added significantly to the prediction of all functional performance tests except the 10-m walking speed.

scholarly journals Comparing Annoyance Potency Assessments for Odors from Different Livestock Animals

Atmosphere ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 10 (11) ◽  
pp. 659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hanns Moshammer ◽  
Dietmar Oettl ◽  
Michael Mandl ◽  
Michael Kropsch ◽  
Lisbeth Weitensfelder
Keyword(s):  
Regression Models ◽  
Important Influence ◽  
European Countries ◽  
Profile Method ◽  
Odor Quality ◽  
Personal Variables ◽  
Polarity Profile ◽  
Hedonic Quality ◽  
The Given

(1) Background: When it comes to estimating the annoyance potency of odors, European countries relate to different guidelines. In a previous study we compared complaint rates for different agricultural odors, but due to different guidelines, the results we obtained are hard to generalize. (2) Methods: We compare our findings on complaint rates to Dutch and German findings on annoyance rates, using diverse regression models. We also discuss whether the use of the polarity profile for hedonic odor quality could improve annoyance potency assessment. This is demonstrated by comparing the graphical profiles of two different odor types (swine and cattle). (3) Results: Official complaint rates are comparable to a percentage of annoyed residents. Confounder variables such as personal variables do not greatly contribute to annoyance. However, individual emission sites also showed an important influence on complaints and hence on annoyance. Considering the hedonic quality of odors via the polarity profile method for improving an annoyance potency assessment cannot be recommended when using the given state of the method. This is particularly true when it comes to the rating of specific odors, as the method then seems to lack reliability. (4) Conclusions: Where data on annoyance rates are lacking, complaint data could be used instead.

scholarly journals An application of Bayesian multilevel model to evaluate variations in stochastic and dynamic transition of traffic conditions

2019 ◽  
Vol 27 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-249 ◽  
Author(s):  
Emmanuel Kidando ◽  
Ren Moses ◽  
Thobias Sando ◽  
Eren Erman Ozguven
Keyword(s):  
Intelligent Transportation Systems ◽  
Regression Models ◽  
Transition Probabilities ◽  
Management Strategies ◽  
Gaussian Mixture ◽  
Transportation Systems ◽  
Hierarchical Regression ◽  
Dynamic Transition ◽  
Traffic Conditions ◽  
Traffic Speed

Abstract This study seeks to investigate the variations associated with lane lateral locations and days of the week in the stochastic and dynamic transition of traffic regimes (DTTR). In the proposed analysis, hierarchical regression models fitted using Bayesian frameworks were used to calibrate the transition probabilities that describe the DTTR. Datasets of two sites on a freeway facility located in Jacksonville, Florida, were selected for the analysis. The traffic speed thresholds to define traffic regimes were estimated using the Gaussian mixture model (GMM). The GMM revealed that two and three regimes were adequate mixture components for estimating the traffic speed distributions for Site 1 and 2 datasets, respectively. The results of hierarchical regression models show that there is considerable evidence that there are heterogeneity characteristics in the DTTR associated with lateral lane locations. In particular, the hierarchical regressions reveal that the breakdown process is more affected by the variations compared to other evaluated transition processes with the estimated intra-class correlation (ICC) of about 73%. The transition from congestion on-set/dissolution (COD) to the congested regime is estimated with the highest ICC of 49.4% in the three-regime model, and the lowest ICC of 1% was observed on the transition from the congested to COD regime. On the other hand, different days of the week are not found to contribute to the variations (the highest ICC was 1.44%) on the DTTR. These findings can be used in developing effective congestion countermeasures, particularly in the application of intelligent transportation systems, such as dynamic lane-management strategies.

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