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The purpose of this study was twofold. First, to explore middle and high school students’ intuitively-based (mis)conceptions in probability, particularly availability and representativeness heuristics. Second, to investigate teachers’ awareness of these intuitively-based (mis)conceptions and the effectiveness of their instructional practices to support students’ understanding of probability beyond heuristics. The participants were two middle school mathematics teachers, three high school mathematics teachers and their students. Data were collected through a diagnostic test administered to students as a pretest and posttest, interviews with the teachers and two students from each class and classroom observations. The findings indicated the existence of intuitively-based (mis)conceptions regarding availability and representativeness heuristics among middle and high school students. In general, the teachers did not consider the students’ intuitions and difficulties in probability in their instructions. Not only did they rarely guide students to analyze and solve the tasks coherently and deliberately, but they also did not discuss students’ intuitively-based (mis)conceptions. The results highlighted that if teachers do not attend to student thinking and change their instructional practices accordingly, their knowledge about students’ difficulties will not necessarily help students overcome their intuitions and attain a probabilistic way of thinking.

Exploring questions of representativeness, balance and comparability is essential to tailoring corpus design and compilation to research goals, and to ensuring the validity of research results. This is especially true when the target population of texts under examination is very large and transcends a restricted area of specialization and/or covers multiple genres, as in the case of texts translated in institutional settings. This paper describes the multilayered sequential approach to corpus building applied in a comparative study on legal translation in three of these settings. The approach is based on a full mapping and categorization of institutional texts from a legal perspective; it applies an innovative combination of stratified sampling techniques integrating quantitative and qualitative criteria adapted to the research aims. The resulting corpora, categorization matrix and selection records, together with the methodological detail provided, can be useful for building other multi-genre corpora in translation studies and further afield.

The problem of maximizing diversity or dispersion deals with selecting a subset of elements from a given set in such a way that the distance among the selected elements is maximized. The definition of distance between elements is customized to specific applications, and the way that the overall diversity of the selected elements is computed results in different mathematical models. Maximizing diversity by means of combinatorial optimization models has gained prominence in Operations Research (OR) over the last two decades, and constitutes nowadays an important area. In this paper, we review the milestones in the development of this area, starting in the late eighties when the first models were proposed, and identify three periods of time. The critical analysis from an OR perspective of the previous developments, permits us to establish the most appropriate models, their connection with practical problems in terms of dispersion and representativeness, and the open problems that are still a challenge. We also revise and extend the library of benchmark instances that has been widely used in heuristic comparisons. Finally, we perform an empirical review and comparison of the best and more recently proposed procedures, to clearly identify the state-of-the art methods for the main diversity models.

Purpose: The primary purpose of this article is to explore the speech-language pathology (SLP) Praxis test, a barrier to culturally and linguistically diverse (CLD) individuals entering the profession, by investigating first-time pass rates and mean scores by test taker race/ethnicity. Other potential barriers to licensure and certification, as well as solutions for mitigating these barriers, will also be addressed. Method: SLP Praxis test data from two windows of time, 2008–2011 and 2014–2020, were compared for the following: (a) proportions of test taker race/ethnicity relative to U.S. demographic estimates of racial/ethnic group proportions overall, (b) proportions of racial/ethnic groups, and (c) trends in test-taker mean scores by race/ethnicity. First-attempt pass rates by racial/ethnic groups were also calculated for the 2014–2020 testing window. Results: The percentage of some CLD SLP Praxis test-taker groups increased since the 2008–2011 testing window but is still not representative of U.S. racial/ethnic demographics. The first-attempt pass rates and overall mean scores of CLD test-taker groups remained substantially lower than White non–Hispanic/Latinx test takers. Conclusions: Despite the encouraging trends in SLP Praxis test-taker racial/ethnic diversity, disparities persist between the racial/ethnic makeup of SLP Praxis test takers and the demographic makeup of the United States. Consequently, these disparities have implications for the continued lack of cultural representativeness seen in our workforce.

Large changes in the Arctic carbon balance are expected as warming linked to climate change threatens to destabilize ancient permafrost carbon stocks. The eddy covariance (EC) method is an established technique to quantify net losses and gains of carbon between the biosphere and atmosphere at high spatiotemporal resolution. Over the past decades, a growing network of terrestrial EC tower sites has been established across the Arctic, but a comprehensive assessment of the network's representativeness within the heterogeneous Arctic region is still lacking. This creates additional uncertainties when integrating flux data across sites, for example when upscaling fluxes to constrain pan-Arctic carbon budgets and changes therein. This study provides an inventory of Arctic (here > = 60∘ N) EC sites, which has also been made available online (https://cosima.nceas.ucsb.edu/carbon-flux-sites/, last access: 25 January 2022). Our database currently comprises 120 EC sites, but only 83 are listed as active, and just 25 of these active sites remain operational throughout the winter. To map the representativeness of this EC network, we evaluated the similarity between environmental conditions observed at the tower locations and those within the larger Arctic study domain based on 18 bioclimatic and edaphic variables. This allows us to assess a general level of similarity between ecosystem conditions within the domain, while not necessarily reflecting changes in greenhouse gas flux rates directly. We define two metrics based on this representativeness score: one that measures whether a location is represented by an EC tower with similar characteristics (ER1) and a second for which we assess if a minimum level of representation for statistically rigorous extrapolation is met (ER4). We find that while half of the domain is represented by at least one tower, only a third has enough towers in similar locations to allow reliable extrapolation. When we consider methane measurements or year-round (including wintertime) measurements, the values drop to about 1/5 and 1/10 of the domain, respectively. With the majority of sites located in Fennoscandia and Alaska, these regions were assigned the highest level of network representativeness, while large parts of Siberia and patches of Canada were classified as underrepresented. Across the Arctic, mountainous regions were particularly poorly represented by the current EC observation network. We tested three different strategies to identify new site locations or upgrades of existing sites that optimally enhance the representativeness of the current EC network. While 15 new sites can improve the representativeness of the pan-Arctic network by 20 %, upgrading as few as 10 existing sites to capture methane fluxes or remain active during wintertime can improve their respective ER1 network coverage by 28 % to 33 %. This targeted network improvement could be shown to be clearly superior to an unguided selection of new sites, therefore leading to substantial improvements in network coverage based on relatively small investments.

Summary Background In early 2020, the response to the SARS-CoV-2 pandemic focused on non-pharmaceutical interventions, some of which aimed to reduce transmission by changing mixing patterns between people. Aggregated location data from mobile phones are an important source of real-time information about human mobility on a population level, but the degree to which these mobility metrics capture the relevant contact patterns of individuals at risk of transmitting SARS-CoV-2 is not clear. In this study we describe changes in the relationship between mobile phone data and SARS-CoV-2 transmission in the USA. Methods In this population-based study, we collected epidemiological data on COVID-19 cases and deaths, as well as human mobility metrics collated by advertisement technology that was derived from global positioning systems, from 1396 counties across the USA that had at least 100 laboratory-confirmed cases of COVID-19. We grouped these counties into six ordinal categories, defined by the National Center for Health Statistics (NCHS) and graded from urban to rural, and quantified the changes in COVID-19 transmission using estimates of the effective reproduction number (Rt) between Jan 22 and July 9, 2020, to investigate the relationship between aggregated mobility metrics and epidemic trajectory. For each county, we model the time series of Rt values with mobility proxies. Findings We show that the reproduction number is most strongly associated with mobility proxies for change in the travel into counties (0·757 [95% CI 0·689 to 0·857]), but this relationship primarily holds for counties in the three most urban categories as defined by the NCHS. This relationship weakens considerably after the initial 15 weeks of the epidemic (0·442 [−0·492 to −0·392]), consistent with the emergence of more complex local policies and behaviours, including masking. Interpretation Our study shows that the integration of mobility metrics into retrospective modelling efforts can be useful in identifying links between these metrics and Rt. Importantly, we highlight potential issues in the data generation process for transmission indicators derived from mobile phone data, representativeness, and equity of access, which must be addressed to improve the interpretability of these data in public health. Funding There was no funding source for this study.

We aimed to analyze the representativeness of women surgeons in academic and leadership positions in Brazil. We investigated women representativeness across surgical departments of 25 Brazilian universities (2020); across boards of 10 Brazilian surgical societies (2020), and, as speakers, in 281 surgical events (Jan-2014 to Dec-2020). From 383 individuals in university departments, 43 (11.2 %) were women (p 0.001). Only three universities had women as department chairs. From 163 positions in surgical societies, only 14 positions (8.6 %) were held by women (p 0.001). The underrepresentation is worse in prestigious positions (presidency and vice-presidency), in which only 1 (5 %) were women. In 281 surgical events, there were 6686 speakers, of which only 886 (13.3 %) of these were women (p 0.001). Further studies are needed to elucidate the possible causes for the gender gap in these scenarios in Brazil, so as to implement effective strategies to improve gender representativeness in surgery in the country.

Modeling and simulation are recognized as important aspects of the scientific method for more than 70 years but its adoption in biology has been slow. Debates on its representativeness, usefulness, and whether the effort spent on such endeavors is worthwhile, exist to this day. Here, I argue that most of learning is modeling; hence, arriving at a contradiction if models are not useful. Representing biological systems through mathematical models can be difficult but the modeling procedure is a process in itself that follows a semi-formal set of rules. Although seldom reported, failure in modeling is not a rare event but I argue that this is usually a result of erroneous underlying knowledge or mis-application of a model beyond its intended purpose. I argue that in many biological studies, simulation is the only experimental tool. In others, simulation is a means of reducing possible combinations of experimental work; thereby, presenting an economical case for simulation; thus, worthwhile to engage in this endeavor. The representativeness of simulation depends on the validation, verification, assumptions, and limitations of the underlying model. This will be illustrated using the inter-relationship between population, samples, probability theory, and statistics.

Psychological Aspects Affecting Judges' Decision Making with a Focus on Civil Procedure The diploma thesis examines the impact of cognitive biases as psychological aspects influencing judicial decision-making and their implications for justice in the legal system. The thesis delves into the intersection of psychology and law, with the central idea being the hypothesis that a judge cannot be just or impartial if his or her decision-making is contaminated by cognitive biases. The focus is on the dissection of the legal conditions that a candidate for judicial office must meet in order to be appointed to that office since the selection of a suitable judge is critical to the fulfilment of the right to a fair trial. The thesis highlights the demandingness of holding the judgeship itself. Then examines the legal and procedural principles that guide judicial decision- making, explaining and emphasizing the importance of understanding the role of the judge in the judicial process. The diploma thesis then dives into the field of cognitive psychology and presents a Kahneman- Frederick model (dual system) dividing the human mind into System 1 and System 2, through which the cognitive biases influencing judicial decision-making can be explained. They are often rooted in intuition, which leads to the...

Purpose The advocates of behavioural finance have denounced the existing literature on investors’ rationality in the decision-making process and questioned the existence of efficient markets and rational investors. Although diversified research has been conducted in the area of behavioural finance, yet there is a need of further explorations into the field as the available knowledge base is confined to one or a few behavioural biases confronted by investors while making investment decisions. Hence, this study aims to develop a comprehensive, reliable and valid scale to measure the behavioural biases affecting investors’ decision-making process. Design/methodology/approach To develop a comprehensive, reliable and valid scale for measuring the behavioural biases affecting investors’ decision-making process, rigorous multi-stage scale development methodology has been followed. Stage one started with an extensive review of the literature followed by interviews from experienced stockbrokers to clarify construct and getting novel insights about dimensions of behavioural biases. In stage two, 52 items measuring the dimensions of behavioural biases were generated and got evaluated from panel of judges. Pilot testing was done in the third stage which gave a set of 39 items. Finally, in fourth stage, data were collected from 332 individual equity investors on a 7-point Likert scale using the snowball sampling technique. Findings The results of the study highlighted that behavioural biases is a multidimensional phenomenon that significantly affects investors’ decisions and has different dimensions, namely, Availability Bias, Representativeness Bias, Overconfidence Bias, Market Factors, Herding, Anchoring, Mental Accounting, Regret Aversion, Gamblers’ Fallacy and Loss Aversion. The present research has developed a comprehensive, reliable and valid scale for measuring behavioural biases affecting equity investors’ decision-making process. Originality/value Behavioural finance is an emerging area in the field of research particularly in the Indian context which needs further exploration. The present research concentrates on rendering an empirically tested scale to the researchers for measuring the behavioural biases and its impact on investor’s decision-making. Such an instrument can contribute to making progress in the area of behavioural finance and other research studies may also find it useful to achieve their goals.

PurposeWith the increasing digitalization processes taking place in different industries, the success of family small and medium-sized enterprises (SMEs) appears to be more under threat than for any other types of organizations, especially when information technologies (ITs) are not adequately used and managed. To grow and increase the chances of survival, family SMEs need more than ever IT. Stemming from agency theory, the aim of this article is to understand whether family harmony impacts the performance of family SMEs and to what extent IT mediates this relationship.Design/methodology/approachThe research follows a quantitative approach, based on a sample of 182 family SMEs. Structured equation modeling, through SmartPLS, was employed to validate the research model.FindingsThis study’s main findings suggest that family harmony positively impacts firm performance and that IT governance and strategy mediate positively this relationship.Research limitations/implicationsFirst, the relatively limited number of respondents limits the degree of representativeness of all family SMEs. Replicating the research with a larger number of respondents could strengthen the findings. Second, this study is limited to French firms and future research could extend the findings by looking at cross-country comparisons.Practical implicationsFamily SMEs are encouraged to link their IT governance with their IT strategy in order to increase their organizational performance. A favorable family harmony will make it easier to choose and implement a richer IT strategy and put in place an adequate IT governance function.Originality/valueThis research offers an enriched knowledge of the roles of family harmony and technological innovation in family SMEs and IT contexts as significant predictors of organizational performance. It contributes to family firm theory through the identification of three determinants of family SMEs' performance.

Retail distribution is one of the major challenges in emerging economies. These economies are volatile and filled with inefficiencies, and the representativeness of unstructured retail increases the complexity of distribution systems for consumer packaged-goods companies. We analyze 644 brands to extend the existing literature by modeling the retail distribution and market share in an emerging market according to the type of retail channel (full- and self-service channels), moderated by economic fluctuations and the market position of a brand (high- and low-share brands). Our model controls for endogeneity using instrumental variables (IVs) and accommodates heterogeneity across brands and categories by means of a fixed-effects robust regression. Our study highlights that the relationship between distribution and market share exhibits greater convexity in the self-service channel than in the full-service channel. Further, we contribute to the existing research in distribution effectiveness in emerging markets by showing the convex effect of distribution on market share could vary when the economy changes. Distribution gains are more effective in the self-service channel than in the full-service channel in times of economic decline. Also, the results indicate the higher degree of convexity in the relationship between distribution and market share for the self-service channel compared with the full-service channel is increased further for high-share brands than for low-share brands.

Fixed site monitoring is the primary method of measuring surface ozone pollution for health advisories and pollutant reduction, but the spatial scale may not reflect the current population distribution or its future growth. Moreover, formal methods for the placement of ozone monitoring sites within populations regions omit important spatial criteria producing monitoring locations that could unintentionally bias the exposure burden. Because ozone pollution endangers human health, triggering shortness of breath, causing asthma attacks and mortality, a need exists for assessing the spatial representativeness and data gaps of existing pollution monitors and to evaluate future placement strategies of additional monitors. A new metric, the potency index, for assessing the placements of monitors in relation to population distribution was developed. This index was used to evaluate the configuration of the ozone pollution monitoring network in relation to the population distribution in Dallas-Fort Worth (DFW). Location-allocation models were used to optimize future sensor quantity and placement. Finally, we propose the development of a decision support system that uses evaluation and optimization methods to improve air pollution monitoring objectives.

Background Since early March 2020, the COVID-19 epidemic across the United Kingdom has led to a range of social distancing policies, which resulted in changes to mobility across different regions. An understanding of how these policies impacted travel patterns over time and at different spatial scales is important for designing effective strategies, future pandemic planning and in providing broader insights on the population geography of the country. Crowd level data on mobile phone usage can be used as a proxy for population mobility patterns and provide a way of quantifying in near-real time the impact of social distancing measures on changes in mobility. Methods Here we explore patterns of change in densities, domestic and international flows and co-location of Facebook users in the UK from March 2020 to March 2021. Results We find substantial heterogeneities across time and region, with large changes observed compared to pre-pademic patterns. The impacts of periods of lockdown on distances travelled and flow volumes are evident, with each showing variations, but some significant reductions in co-location rates. Clear differences in multiple metrics of mobility are seen in central London compared to the rest of the UK, with each of Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland showing significant deviations from England at times. Moreover, the impacts of rapid changes in rules on international travel to and from the UK are seen in substantial fluctuations in traveller volumes by destination. Conclusions While questions remain about the representativeness of the Facebook data, previous studies have shown strong correspondence with census-based data and alternative mobility measures, suggesting that findings here are valuable for guiding strategies.

In the VerICiguaT Global Study in Subjects with Heart Failure with Reduced Ejection Fraction (VICTORIA) trial, vericiguat reduced the risk of mortality due to cardiovascular problems and of hospitalization due to heart failure (HF) among patients with HF with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF) and recent worsening HF events (WHFEs). The representativeness of the VICTORIA population of patients with WHFE in clinical practice is unknown.Patients with HF and ejection fraction45% were identified in the Practice Innovation And Clinical Excellence (PINNACLE) registry and were stratified by the occurrence of WHFEs. Characteristics and outcomes of patients in the PINNACLE registry with and without WHFEs were compared to the VICTORIA population. Of the 14,180 PINNACLE patients identified with HFrEF, 26.5% had had a WHFE. The VICTORIA population was similar to PINNACLE patients with WHFEs in mean age (67.3 vs 66.7), ejection fraction (28.9% vs 28.3%), body mass index (26.8 vs 27.6), and comorbidity burden. The rate of hospitalization because of HF at 1 year was 29.6% in the placebo group of VICTORIA, compared to 35.8% in PINNACLE patients with WHFEs and 13.3% in patients without WHFEs.The PINNACLE patients with WHFEs meeting the VICTORIA definition resembled the VICTORIA population in characteristics and outcomes, suggesting that VICTORIA's population may be generalizable to patients with WHFEs in clinical practice.

The purpose of the study was to investigate gender stereotypes and prejudices that negatively affect women and men. It is important that students be aware of gender issues and are able to critically reflect on their own prejudices and gender "matrices" of the education system in the context of ‘gender v sex’. A questionnaire was the main method of data collection. A sociological survey, "Students on the problems of gender equality" was conducted at V.N. Karazin Kharkiv National University (Ukraine). The survey was conducted based on a three-level probability sample, which ensures the representativeness of the data. The effectiveness of aspects of gender education in secondary schools and higher education institutions has been assessed. At school, the problems of gender equality are not discussed enough; more than 80% of all respondents did not learn anything at school on this topic. Every third student discussed the issues of gender parity in the university classes. As a rule, this was done in general courses (sociology, philosophy, law), as there are no special disciplines on gender parity in society. The study reached the conclusion that respondents were unfamiliar with gender issues, so they might sometimes not see (perceive) certain gender prejudices and oppression in a student body, which encourages more attention to the development of gender-oriented disciplines of Ukrainian universities. https://doi.org/10.26803/ijlter.20.11.17

Despite being one of the most biodiverse countries in the world, the inclusion and representativeness of samples from Colombia in taxonomic and systematic studies are still low in the herpetological literature. Currently, there are 80 herpetological collections in Colombia, which house more than 214 000 specimens with wide geographic coverage and extensive metadata. Here, I review the main herpetological literature in the Neotropics for the last 20 years, to explore the inclusion and representativeness of Colombian samples in taxonomic and systematic studies. I also compile the data available in Colombian herpetological collections, to provide a picture of its current status. I found that quantifying the inclusion and representativeness requires an indirect approach, since their dependence on the taxa distribution and sample availability mask the true extent of the gaps. Then, I discuss five possible reasons that may explain this phenomenon, including the absence of data, how bureaucracy may constrain researchers, the visibility of the data through online platforms, the participation of local taxonomists in publications, and difficulties accessing the existing material. I close with a discussion of the consequences and possible solutions.

Aesthetic landscape assessments are difficult studies, mostly based on subjective methods and hybrid research tools. The need for aesthetic landscape research derives from the care and concern not only for spatial order, but also for the quality of life and the of living, work and leisure environment. The landscape discussed in the article will be considered aesthetically in physiognomic terms as an perceived visual landscape. The first problem in the aesthetic assessments of landscape is the choice of the appropriate spatial unit that can reflect the real features of that landscape. It is postulated to use of landscape and urban enclosures designated according to the viewing and urban planning criteria as the basic units for the perception of the urban landscape.In the next part there will be a two-stage analysis of landscape and urban enclosures in terms of value and visual attractiveness. The fist stage is the identification and assessment of urban aesthetic landscapes – this indicator is used to assess the value of aesthetic urban landscape. The recommended groups of indicators include such landscape features as: colour and lighting, cleanliness and order, accessibility, functionality of enclosures resources, quality and technical condition, composition and arrangement, enclosures morphology and construction, decorativeness and urban furniture, proportionality of enclosures elements, spatiality (spaciousness), representativeness of the enclosures, diversity of enclosures resources, identity and symbolism, visibility as well as the compactness and coherence of enclosures walls. The second step is to specify the positive and negative landscape and aesthetic patterns in order to develop guidelines for the protection or improvement of the landscape with the highest and lowest values. In these studies, a view-composition analysis should be used based on the research methods and tools already available from the literature. The result of the research is a graphic design in the form of a choropleth map showing urban aesthetic landscapes and a series of guidelines for shaping and protecting the aesthetics of the landscape.The case study was based on the center of the town of Wieliczka, as it has the features typical of inner-city areas of small and medium-sized town in Poland. In the structure of the examined town center, 42 landscape and urban enclosures were determined based on the viewing and urban planning criteria. Among the best rated indicators there are those related to cleanliness and order, proportionality of enclosures elements, spatiality and accessibility, which are very often ascribed in geographical research (and not only) to the concept of spatial order. The enclosures with the highest rating are located in the central and northern part of the center of Wieliczka, covering the historic urban complex and a sequence of enclosures along the most important communication artery in the town. The lowest aesthetic rating was given to the enclosures located on the outskirts of the center. They are characterized by the dominance of the communication function (parking lots) with no or a cut line of buildings with a fairly free arrangement. In the article, the composition and viewing analysis was carried out for one of the highest-rated enclosure – Skulimowski Square. This enclosure creates an exceptionally harmonious landscape with a share of disharmonious objects not exceeding 1% of the enclosure view. The research emphasized the special function of tall greenery as a form binding the enclosure composition and building walls and “sealing” gaps in the coherence of the building line.The method is a proposal and a voice in the discussion on the identification of aesthetic landscapes in urban space, fitting into research on the landscape of the city in the physiognomic and aesthetic trend in geography (especially socio-economic geography and spatial management). Oceny estetyczne krajobrazu są badaniami trudnymi, opartymi przeważnie na subiektywnych metodach i hybrydowych narzędziach badawczych. Potrzeba badań estetycznych krajobrazu wyrasta z dbałości i troski nie tylko o ład przestrzenny, ale także o jakość życia oraz środowiska zamieszkania, pracy i wypoczynku. Omawiany w artykule krajobraz rozpatrywany będzie w ujęciu estetycznym w kategoriach fizjonomicznych jako percypowany krajobraz wizualny.Pierwszym problem w ocenach estetycznych krajobrazu jest wybór właściwej jednostki przestrzennej mogącej oddać rzeczywiste cechy krajobrazu. W artykule postuluje się wykorzystanie jako podstawowych jednostek dla percepcji krajobrazu miejskiego wnętrz krajobrazowo-urbanistycznych wyznaczonych według kryteriów widokowego i urbanistycznego. W kolejnej części przeprowadzona zostanie dwuetapowa analiza wnętrz krajobrazowo-urbanistycznych pod względem wartości i atrakcyjności wizualnej. Pierwszym etapem jest identyfikacja i ocena miejskich krajobrazów estetycznych – temu służyć ma wskaźnikowa ocena wartości estetycznej krajobrazu miejskiego. Wśród zalecanych grup wskaźników znalazły się takie cechy krajobrazu jak: barwność i oświetlenie, czystość i porządek, dostępność wnętrza, funkcjonalność zasobów wnętrza, jakość i stan techniczny wnętrza, kompozycja i rozplanowanie, morfologia i budowa wnętrza, ozdobność i umeblowanie, proporcjonalność elementów wnętrza, przestrzenność (przestronność) wnętrza, reprezentatywność wnętrza, różnorodność zasobów wnętrza, tożsamość i symboliczność, widoczność oraz zwartość i spoistość ścian wnętrza. Drugim etapem jest wyszczególnienie negatywnych i pozytywnych wzorców krajobrazowo-estetycznych dla wypracowania wytycznych w celu ochrony lub poprawy krajobrazu o najwyższych i najniższych ocenach. W badaniach tych należy zastosować analizę widokowo-kompozycyjną (przy wykorzystaniu fotografii widoku lub panoramy) w oparciu o dostępne już metody i narzędzia badawcze pochodzące z literatury. Wynikiem badań jest opracowanie graficzne w postaci kartogramu pokazującego miejskie krajobrazy estetyczne oraz serii wytycznych odnośnie kształtowania i ochrony estetyki krajobrazu.Studium przypadku oparto na centrum miasta Wieliczki, gdyż posiada cechy typowe dla obszarów śródmiejskich miast małych i średnich w Polsce. W strukturze badanego centrum miasta w oparciu o kryteria widokowe i urbanistyczne wyznaczono 42 wnętrza krajobrazowo-urbanistyczne. W badaniach najwyższe oceny wartości estetycznej uzyskały wnętrza placowe, następnie parkowe, na końcu uliczne. Wśród wskaźników najlepiej ocenianych znalazły się te związane z „czystością i porządkiem”, „proporcjonalnością elementów wnętrza”, „przestrzennością wnętrza” i „dostępnością”, które bardzo często przypisywane są w badaniach geograficznych (i nie tylko) pojęciu „ładu przestrzennego”. Wnętrza z najwyższą oceną zlokalizowane są w centralnej i północnej części centrum Wieliczki obejmując swym zasięgiem historyczny zespół urbanistyczny i ciąg wnętrz wzdłuż ważniejszej arterii komunikacyjnej w mieście. Najniższą ocenę estetyczną uzyskały wnętrza zlokalizowane na obrzeżach centrum. Cechują się one dominacją funkcji komunikacyjnej (parkingi) z brakiem lub pociętą linią zabudowy o dość swobodnym rozplanowaniu. W artykule analizę kompozycyjno-widokową przeprowadzono dla jednego z wnętrz o najwyższej ocenie – plac Skulimowskiego. Wnętrze tego placu miejskiego tworzy wyjątkowo harmonijny krajobraz z nieprzekraczającym 1% widoku wnętrza udziałem obiektów dysharmonijnych. W badaniach uwydatniła się szczególna funkcja zieleni wysokiej jako formy wiążącej kompozycję wnętrz oraz budującej ściany i „plombującej” luki w spójności linii zabudowy.Metoda stanowi propozycję i głos w dyskusji na temat identyfikacji krajobrazów estetycznych w przestrzeni miejskiej wpisując się w kierunek krajobrazowy badań nad miastem w nurcie fizjonomiczno-estetycznym na gruncie geografii (szczególnie geografii społeczno-ekonomicznej i gospodarki przestrzennej).

Team-based models that use medical assistants (MAs) to provide self-management support for adults with type 2 diabetes (T2D) have not been pragmatically tested in diverse samples. This cluster-randomized controlled trial compares MA health coaching with usual care in adults with T2D and poor clinical control (“MAC Trial”). The purpose was to conduct a multi-method process evaluation of the MAC Trial using the Reach, Effectiveness, Adoption, Implementation, and Maintenance framework. Reach was assessed by calculating the proportion of enrolled participants out of the eligible pool and examining representativeness of those enrolled. Key informant interviews documented adoption by MA Health Coaches. We examined implementation from the research and patient perspectives by evaluating protocol adherence and the Patient Perceptions of Chronic Illness Care (PACIC-SF) measure, respectively. Findings indicate that the MAC Trial was efficient and effective in reaching patients who were representative of the target population. The acceptance rate among those approached for health coaching was high (87%). Both MA Health Coaches reported high satisfaction with the program and high levels of confidence in their role. The intervention was well-implemented, as evidenced by the protocol adherence rate of 79%; however, statistically significant changes in PACIC-SF scores were not observed. Overall, if found to be effective in improving clinical and patient-reported outcomes, the MAC model holds potential for wider-scale implementation given its successful adoption and implementation and demonstrated ability to reach patients with poorly controlled T2D who are at-risk for diabetes complications in diverse primary care settings.

Background: The Peritoneal Dialysis Outcomes and Practice Patterns Study (PDOPPS) is an international, prospective study following persons treated by peritoneal dialysis (PD) to identify modifiable practices associated with improvements in PD technique and person survival. The aim of this study was to assess the representativeness of the Australian cohort included in PDOPPS compared to the complete Australian PD population, as reported to the Australia and New Zealand Dialysis and Transplant (ANZDATA) Registry. Methods: Adults with at least one PD treatment reported to ANZDATA Registry during the census period of PDOPPS Phase I (November 2014 to April 2018) were compared to the Australian PDOPPS cohort. The primary outcomes were the representativeness of centres and persons. Secondary outcomes explored the association of person characteristics with consent to study participation. Results: After data linkage, 511 PDOPPS participants were compared to 5616 Australians treated with PD. Within centres eligible for PDOPPS, selected centres were similar to other Australian centres. The PDOPPS participants’ cohort tended to include older persons, more males, a higher proportion of Caucasians and more persons with higher socioeconomic advantage compared to the Australian PD population. Differences in distribution across sex and ethnicities between the PDOPPS cohort and the overall PD population were in part due to the selection and consent processes, during which females and non-Caucasians were more likely to not consent to PDOPPS participation. Conclusion: Sampling methods used in PDOPPS allowed for good national representativeness of the included centres. However, representativeness of the unweighted PDOPPS sample was suboptimal in regard to some participant characteristics.

Background Both theoretical and empirical evidence supports the potential of modest financial incentives to increase the reach of evidence-based weight control programs. However, few studies exist that examine the best incentive design for achieving the highest reach and representativeness at the lowest cost and whether or not incentive designs may be valued differentially by subgroups that experience obesity-related health disparities. Methods A discrete choice experiment was conducted (n = 1232 participants; over 90% of them were overweight/obese) to collect stated preference towards different financial incentive attributes, including reward amount, program location, reward contingency, and payment form and frequency. Mixed logit and conditional logit models were used to determine overall and subgroup preference ranking of attributes. Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey data sample weights and the estimated models, we predicted US nationally representative participation rates by subgroups and examined the effect of offering more than one incentive design. External validity was checked by using a completed cluster randomized control trial. Results There were significant subgroup differences in preference toward incentive attributes. There was also a sizable negative response to larger incentive amounts among African Americans, suggesting that higher amounts would reduce participation from this population. We also find that offering participants a menu of incentive designs to choose from would increase reach more than offering higher reward amounts. Conclusions We confirmed the existence of preference heterogeneity and the importance of subgroup-targeted incentive designs in any evidence-based weight control program to maximize population reach and reduce health disparities. National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of HealthUnited States Department of Health & Human ServicesNational Institutes of Health (NIH) - USANIH National Heart Lung & Blood Institute (NHLBI) [1R21HL097308-01A2] Published version Research reported in this publication was supported by the National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute of the National Institutes of Health under award number 1R21HL097308-01A2. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the sponsoring agencies.

This article presents a methodological proposal for using the Linguistic Landscape (LL) to examine the intersection of multilingualism and social class in urban settings. The article draws from a study that considered how patterns of linguistic diversity in public signage in a mid-sized US city mapped onto socioeconomic levels. The main innovation for LL methodology is the study’s use of census data and geographic information system (GIS) to increase representativeness using two main constructs (social class and linguistic diversity). After presenting the project design, the challenge of creating representative mapping in the LL is considered, with the solutions the research team generated. Finally, we discuss several practical issues specific to doing LL fieldwork in urban contexts: access, safety, and photography.

Previous research has shown that the judged probability of an event depends on whether its description mentions examples (“What is the probability that a randomly chosen Italian businessman will tr...

Background. According to the Center for Medical Statistics of the Ministry of Health of Ukraine, the number of children with ophthalmic diseases has increased significantly over the last decade. The purpose of the study was to determine the awareness of teachers of secondary schools (schools, lyceums) on the problem of visual impairment among schoolchildren with the identification of their willingness to participate in preventive measures. Materials and methods. The materials of the study were the results of a sociological survey of teachers of schools and lyceums in Ukraine (a total of 6215 questionnaires were subject to analysis). We used the method of sociological research and methods of medical statistics, in particular to calculate the representativeness and reliability of the survey results. The study complied with modern European requirements for anonymity; each of the respondents was involved in the survey only after prior oral voluntary consent. The results revealed a lack of awareness of teachers in the prevention of visual impairment among schoolchildren, their willingness to participate in prevention activities and the high need for information support for modern prevention technologies. The majority of respondents supported the need to introduce regular vision testing in childhood, including in the framework of the relevant state prevention program. Conclusions. The majority of teachers (99.40 ± 0.10 %) supporting the expediency of introducing regular vision testing in children, (97.38 ± 0.20 %) support the introduction of a state prevention program to preserve vision from childhood. Based on the results of the study, promising for further research is the study of the possibility of involving teachers in preventive measures and participation in comprehensive programs for the prevention of ophthalmic pathology among students. It is also important to find effective ways of information support for educators on modern prevention technologies, risk factors for the formation of visual impairments in schoolchildren in order to prevent the formation of stigma against children with visual impairments and disorders in their environment.