scholarly journals An Analysis of Heterogeneity in German Speaking Birdwatchers Reveals Three Distinct Clusters and Gender Differences

Birds ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 2 (3) ◽  
pp. 250-260
Author(s):  
Christoph Randler
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Social Bonding ◽  
Cluster Solution ◽  
Novice Group ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
German Speaking ◽  
Group Members ◽  
Bird Group ◽  
And Gender

The purpose of this study was to segment birdwatchers into clusters. Members from a wide range of bird related organizations, from highly specialized birders as well as Facebook bird group members were studied to provide a diverse dataset (n = 2766; 50.5% men). Birding specialization was measured with a battery of questionnaires. Birding specialization encompassed the three constructs of skill/competence, behavior, personal and behavioral commitment. Additionally, involvement, measured by centrality to lifestyle, attraction, social bonding, and identity, was used. The NbClust analyses showed that a three-cluster solution was the optimal solution. Then, k-means cluster analysis was applied on three groups: casual/novice, intermediate, and specialist/advanced birdwatchers. More men than women were in the specialist/advanced group and more women than men in the casual/novice group. As a conclusion, this study confirms a three-cluster solution for segmenting German birdwatchers based on a large and diverse sample and a broad conceptualization of the construct birding specialization. These data can be used to address different target audiences (novices, advanced birders) with different programs, e.g., in nature conservation.

DSM-5 alcohol use disorder features among treatment-seeking older adults

2018 ◽  
Vol 64 (4) ◽  
pp. 185-196 ◽  
Author(s):  
Silke Behrendt ◽  
Barbara Braun ◽  
Randi Bilberg ◽  
Gerhard Bühringer ◽  
Michael Bogenschutz ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Older Adults ◽  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Alcohol Use Disorder ◽  
The Elderly ◽  
Treatment Seeking ◽  
Controlled Clinical Trial ◽  
Dsm 5 ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
And Gender ◽  
International Multicenter

Abstract. Background: The number of older adults with alcohol use disorder (AUD) is expected to rise. Adapted treatments for this group are lacking and information on AUD features in treatment seeking older adults is scarce. The international multicenter randomized-controlled clinical trial “ELDERLY-Study” with few exclusion criteria was conducted to investigate two outpatient AUD-treatments for adults aged 60+ with DSM-5 AUD. Aims: To add to 1) basic methodological information on the ELDERLY-Study by providing information on AUD features in ELDERLY-participants taking into account country and gender, and 2) knowledge on AUD features in older adults seeking outpatient treatment. Methods: baseline data from the German and Danish ELDERLY-sites (n=544) were used. AUD diagnoses were obtained with the Mini International Neuropsychiatric Interview, alcohol use information with Form 90. Results: Lost control, desired control, mental/physical problem, and craving were the most prevalent (> 70 %) AUD-symptoms. 54.9 % reported severe DSM-5 AUD (moderate: 28.2 %, mild: 16.9 %). Mean daily alcohol use was 6.3 drinks at 12 grams ethanol each. 93.9 % reported binging. More intense alcohol use was associated with greater AUD-severity and male gender. Country effects showed for alcohol use and AUD-severity. Conclusion: European ELDERLY-participants presented typical dependence symptoms, a wide range of severity, and intense alcohol use. This may underline the clinical significance of AUD in treatment-seeking seniors.

scholarly journals Information and information resources in COVID-19: Awareness, control, and prevention

2021 ◽  
pp. 096100062110165
Author(s):  
Mohammadhiwa Abdekhoda ◽  
Fatemeh Ranjbaran ◽  
Asghar Sattari
Keyword(s):  
Low Cost ◽  
Information Resources ◽  
Age And Gender ◽  
Use Of Resources ◽  
Strategic Approach ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Data Collection Instrument ◽  
Control And Prevention ◽  
And Gender ◽  
And Control

This study was conducted with the aim of evaluating the role of information and information resources in the awareness, control, and prevention of COVID-19. This study was a descriptive-analytical survey in which 450 participants were selected for the study. The data collection instrument was a researcher-made questionnaire. Descriptive and inferential statistics were used to analyze the data through SPSS. The findings show that a wide range of mass media has become well known as information resources for COVID-19. Other findings indicate a significant statistical difference in the rate of using information resources during COVID-19 based on age and gender; however, this difference is not significant regarding the reliability of information resources with regard to age and gender. Health information has an undisputable role in the prevention and control of pandemic diseases such as COVID-19. Providing accurate, reliable, and evidence-based information in a timely manner for the use of resources and information channels related to COVID-19 can be a fast and low-cost strategic approach in confronting this disease.

scholarly journals The CoGenT3 Study: Cognition and Gender Trends in Three American Generations

2020 ◽  
Vol 4 (Supplement_1) ◽  
pp. 817-817
Author(s):  
Shana Stites
Keyword(s):  
Cognitive Impairment ◽  
Quantitative Methods ◽  
Cognitive Testing ◽  
Library Science ◽  
Sexual And Gender Minorities ◽  
Functional Impairments ◽  
Gender Minorities ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
And Gender ◽  
New Research

Abstract Many studies find gender differences in how older adults’ report on their memory, perform on cognitive testing, and manage functional impairments that can accompany cognitive impairment. Thus, understanding gender’s effects in aging and Alzheimer’s research is key for advancing methods to prevent, slow, manage, and diagnosis cognitive impairment. Our study, CoGenT3 – The study of Cognition and Gender in Three Generations – seeks to disambiguate the effects of gender on cognition in order to inform a conceptual model, guide innovations in measurement, and support future study. To accomplish this ambitious goal, we have gathered an interdisciplinary team with expertise in psychology, cognition, sexual and gender minorities, library science, measurement, quantitative methods, qualitative methods, and gender and women’s studies. The team benefits from the intersections of expertise in being able to build new research ideas, gain novel insights, and evaluate a wide-range of actions and re-actions but this novelty can also raise challenges.

scholarly journals Temporal concatenation for Markov decision processes

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-28
Author(s):  
Ruiyang Song ◽  
Kuang Xu
Keyword(s):  
Markov Decision Processes ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Upper Bounds ◽  
Black Box ◽  
Decision Processes ◽  
Optimal Solutions ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Markov Decision ◽  
Speed Up

We propose and analyze a temporal concatenation heuristic for solving large-scale finite-horizon Markov decision processes (MDP), which divides the MDP into smaller sub-problems along the time horizon and generates an overall solution by simply concatenating the optimal solutions from these sub-problems. As a “black box” architecture, temporal concatenation works with a wide range of existing MDP algorithms. Our main results characterize the regret of temporal concatenation compared to the optimal solution. We provide upper bounds for general MDP instances, as well as a family of MDP instances in which the upper bounds are shown to be tight. Together, our results demonstrate temporal concatenation's potential of substantial speed-up at the expense of some performance degradation.

Does crossing the road in a group influence pedestrians’ gaze behavior?

2020 ◽  
Vol 64 (1) ◽  
pp. 1938-1942
Author(s):  
Mirjam Lanzer ◽  
Martin Baumann
Keyword(s):  
Group Size ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Gaze Behavior ◽  
The Road ◽  
Road Users ◽  
Gender Influence ◽  
Vulnerable Road Users ◽  
Group Members ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Group Characteristics

So far, research on pedestrians’ gaze behavior while crossing roads has mainly focused on individual pedestrians rather than groups. However, pedestrians often travel in groups especially in downtown areas. This observational study investigated how group characteristics (group size and movement of the group), situational factors (presence of traffic), and demographic variables (age and gender) influence pedestrians’ gaze behavior towards traffic during road crossing. A total of N = 197 pedestrians were observed of whom n = 24 traveled alone, n = 128 traveled in groups of two or three, and n = 45 traveled in groups of four or more. Results indicated that with increasing group size, the odds to observe traffic decreased. Diffusion of responsibility among group members might explain this effect. Finally, pedestrians’ group characteristics should be considered when developing automated vehicles that interact with vulnerable road users.

Young People’s Motivational Profiles in Physical Activity: A Cluster Analysis

2001 ◽  
Vol 23 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
C.K. John Wang ◽  
Stuart J.H. Biddle
Keyword(s):  
Physical Activity ◽  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Young People ◽  
Large Scale ◽  
Goal Orientations ◽  
National Sample ◽  
Achievement Goal Orientations ◽  
Athletic Ability ◽  
Self Worth ◽  
And Gender

A great deal has been written about the motivation of young people in physical activity, and the determinants of activity for this age group have been identified as a research priority. Despite this, there are few large-scale studies identifying “types” or “clusters” of young people based on their scores on validated motivation inventories. This study reports the results of a cluster analysis of a large national sample (n = 2,510) of 12- to 15-year-olds using contemporary approaches to physical activity motivation: achievement goal orientations, self-determination theory (including amotivation), the nature of athletic ability beliefs, and perceived competence. Five meaningful clusters were identified reflecting two highly motivated and two less well-motivated clusters, as well as a clearly amotivated cluster. Groupings were validated by investigating differences in physical activity participation and perceptions of physical self-worth. Some clusters reflected age and gender differences. The results provide valuable information for likely strategies to promote physical activity in young people.

Disability and the Posthuman

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Stuart Murray
Keyword(s):  
Cultural Theory ◽  
Cultural Practice ◽  
Cultural Representations ◽  
Work Time ◽  
Diverse Range ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Cultural Spaces ◽  
War And Conflict ◽  
And Gender ◽  
Contemporary Writing

Disability and the Posthuman is the first study to analyse cultural representations and deployments of disability as they interact with posthumanist theories of technology and embodiment. Working across a wide range of texts, many new to critical enquiry, in contemporary writing, film and cultural practice from North America, Europe, the Middle East and Japan, it covers a diverse range of topics, including: contemporary cultural theory and aesthetics; design, engineering and gender; the visualisation of prosthetic technologies in the representation of war and conflict; and depictions of work, time and sleep. While noting the potential limitations of posthumanist assessments of the technologized body, the study argues that there are exciting, productive possibilities and subversive potentials in the dialogue between disability and posthumanism as they generate dissident crossings of cultural spaces. Such intersections cover both fictional/imagined and material/grounded examples of disability and look to a future in which the development of technology and complex embodiment of disability presence align to produce sustainable yet radical creative and critical voices.

Optimal Design of Power System Stabilizer Using a Novel Evolutionary Algorithm

2018 ◽  
Vol 7 (3) ◽  
pp. 24-46
Author(s):  
Sourav Paul ◽  
Provas Roy
Keyword(s):  
Optimal Design ◽  
Power System ◽  
Search Algorithm ◽  
Low Frequency ◽  
Optimal Solution ◽  
Power System Stabilizer ◽  
Low Frequency Oscillation ◽  
Large Power ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
System Stabilizer

In this article, an Oppositional Differential search algorithm (ODSA) is comprehensively developed and successfully applied for the optimal design of power system stabilizer (PSS) parameters which are added to the excitation system to dampen low frequency oscillation as it pertains to large power system. The effectiveness of the proposed method is examined and validated on a single machine infinite bus (SMIB) using the Heffron-Phillips model. The most important advantage of the proposed method is as it reaches toward the optimal solution without the optimal tuning of input parameters of the ODSA algorithm. In order to verify the effectiveness, the simulation was made for a wide range of loading conditions. The simulation results of the proposed ODSA are compared with those obtained by other techniques available in the recent literature to demonstrate the feasibility of the proposed algorithm.

THE MUSIC OF NICOLAUS A. HUBER

Tempo ◽  
2003 ◽  
Vol 57 (224) ◽  
pp. 22-38
Author(s):  
John Warnaby
Keyword(s):  
Instrumental Music ◽  
Contemporary Music ◽  
Substantial Body ◽  
The Past ◽  
Music Scene ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
German Speaking

There is a school of thought in Britain which suggests that the rigours of modernist composition resulted in sterility and uniformity. Yet in the German-speaking world, composers have explored a wide range of expressive possibilities within a modernist sensibility. They have proved that the discipline of modernism is capable of stimulating genuine individuality, and over the past 30 years, Nicolaus A. Huber has emerged as one of the most distinctively radical, yet equally recognizable personalities on the German contemporary music scene. In contrast to Lachenmann, Rihm, or Höller, Huber has not attempted anything on the largest scale, but in the spheres of orchestral, chamber and instrumental music, he has produced a substantial body of work of considerable originality and dramatic power, frequently involving theatrical elements.

A taxonomy of the scope and organization of local sexually transmitted disease services for policy and practice

2018 ◽  
Vol 29 (14) ◽  
pp. 1375-1383
Author(s):  
Hector P Rodriguez ◽  
Summer Starling ◽  
Zosha Kandel ◽  
Robert Weech-Maldonado ◽  
Nicholas J Moss ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Discriminant Analysis ◽  
Critical Role ◽  
Transmitted Disease ◽  
The United States ◽  
Incidence Rates ◽  
Contact Tracing ◽  
Cluster Solution ◽  
Local Health ◽  
Sexually Transmitted

Local health departments (LHDs) and their organizational partners play a critical role in controlling sexually transmitted diseases (STDs) in the United States. We examine variation in the differentiation, integration, and concentration (DIC) of STD services and develop a taxonomy describing the scope and organization of local STD services. LHD STD programs (n = 115) in Alabama (AL) and California (CA) responded to surveys assessing STD services available in 2014. K-means cluster analysis identified LHD groupings based on DIC variation. Discriminant analysis validated cluster solutions. Differences in organizational partnerships and scope of STD services were compared by taxonomy category. Multivariable regression models estimated the association of the STD services organization taxonomy and five-year (2010–2014) gonorrhea incidence rates, controlling for county-level sociodemographics and resources. A three-cluster solution was identified: (1) low DIC (n = 74), (2) moderate DIC (n = 31), and (3) high DIC (n = 10). In discriminant analysis, 95% of jurisdictions were classified into the same types as originally assigned through K-means cluster analysis. High DIC jurisdictions were more likely (p < 0.001) to partner with most organizations than moderate and low DIC jurisdictions, and more likely (p < 0.001) to conduct STD needs assessment, comprehensive sex education, and targeted screening. In contrast, contact tracing, case management, and investigations were conducted similarly across jurisdictions. In adjusted analyses, there were no differences in gonorrhea incidence rates by category. Jurisdictions in CA and AL can be characterized into three distinct clusters based on the DIC of STD services. Taxonomic analyses may aid in improving the reach and effectiveness of STD services.

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