Context matters: Construct framing in measures of physical activity engagement among African American women

Assessment of psychosocial factors influencing health behavior typically privileges conceptual consistency (framing constructs similarly across contexts) over conceptual specificity (context-specific framing). Modest statistical relationships between these factors and health behaviors, and persistent racial disparities in health outcomes raise questions about whether conceptually consistent framing fully captures relevant predictors. Ethnographic studies suggest not - that perceptions influencing health behaviors are multifaceted and contextual. To test this, we added items querying contextualized predictors of intention to engage in leisure-time physical activity (LTPA) to a Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB)-based survey and examined the psychometrics of the adapted subscales. We measured internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) and construct validity (exploratory factor analysis using polychoric correlations for ordinal data). Participants were a convenience sample of 200 African American women in a Midwestern, suburban University-affiliated family medicine practice. Reliability of the adapted subscales was notably lower than the original subscales. A two-factor model fit best for the attitudes subscale, but explained slightly less than 50% of the variance. The new items loaded strongly on one factor. A three-factor model best fit the norms subscale and accounted for around 57% of the variance. Two of the three new items loaded strongly on one factor. Factor analysis for the perceived control subscale was not possible due to low number of items; however, two of the three new items were highly correlated (.73). Including context-specific factors may improve assessment of intention to engage in LTPA. Further study of this question with a larger, representative sample is warranted

Prevalence, underlying causes, and preventability of sepsis-associated mortality in US acute care hospitals

Importance: Sepsis is present in many hospitalizations that culminate in death. The contribution of sepsis to these deaths, and the extent to which they are preventable, is unknown. Objective: To estimate the prevalence, underlying causes, and preventability of sepsis-associated mortality in acute care hospitals. Design, Setting, and Participants: Cohort study in which a retrospective medical record review was conducted of 568 randomly selected adults admitted to 6 US academic and community hospitals from January 1, 2014, to December 31, 2015, who died in the hospital or were discharged to hospice and not readmitted. Medical records were reviewed from January 1, 2017, to March 31, 2018. Main Outcomes and Measures: Clinicians reviewed cases for sepsis during hospitalization using Sepsis-3 criteria, hospice-qualifying criteria on admission, immediate and underlying causes of death, and suboptimal sepsis-related care such as inappropriate or delayed antibiotics, inadequate source control, or other medical errors. The preventability of each sepsis-associated death was rated on a 6-point Likert scale. Results: The study cohort included 568 patients (289 [50.9%] men; mean [SD] age, 70.5 [16.1] years) who died in the hospital or were discharged to hospice. Sepsis was present in 300 hospitalizations (52.8%; 95% CI, 48.6%-57.0%) and was the immediate cause of death in 198 cases (34.9%; 95% CI, 30.9%-38.9%). The next most common immediate causes of death were progressive cancer (92 [16.2%]) and heart failure (39 [6.9%]). The most common underlying causes of death in patients with sepsis were solid cancer (63 of 300 [21.0%]), chronic heart disease (46 of 300 [15.3%]), hematologic cancer (31 of 300 [10.3%]), dementia (29 of 300 [9.7%]), and chronic lung disease (27 of 300 [9.0%]). Hospice-qualifying conditions were present on admission in 121 of 300 sepsis-associated deaths (40.3%; 95% CI 34.7%-46.1%), most commonly end-stage cancer. Suboptimal care, most commonly delays in antibiotics, was identified in 68 of 300 sepsis-associated deaths (22.7%). However, only 11 sepsis-associated deaths (3.7%) were judged definitely or moderately likely preventable; another 25 sepsis-associated deaths (8.3%) were considered possibly preventable. Conclusions and Relevance: In this cohort from 6 US hospitals, sepsis was the most common immediate cause of death. However, most underlying causes of death were related to severe chronic comorbidities and most sepsis-associated deaths were unlikely to be preventable through better hospital-based care. Further innovations in the prevention and care of underlying conditions may be necessary before a major reduction in sepsis-associated deaths can be achieved

Fallstudien: kritische einschatzung

Das Ziel dieses Artikels ist es, das Wesentliche bei der Fallstudie festzustellen und eine kritische Einschatzung dieser Methode durchzufuhren. Infolgedessen wird zunachst der Versuch gemacht, den Begriff des Falls und der Fallstudie darzustellen. Anschlie?end werden die Vor- und Nachteile, d.h. die Moglichkeiten und die Grenzen der Fallstudie diskutiert und entsprechende Folgerungen gemacht.Статья посвящена проблеме определения "кейса" и "метода кейсов", а также возможностям применения и недостаткам данного метода

Public policy and the promise of digital credit for financial inclusion

Digital credit products are characterized by a lending process that is instantaneous, automated, and remote. While digital credit has the potential to reach less collateralized, less mobile, and more remote cohorts of borrowers, there are also risks in relying on digital credit for financial inclusion. This paper investigates the digital credit policy environment and the extent to which it may support pro-poor digital credit market development using two types of documents: a set of 23 regulatory documents specifically mentioning either digital or online credit or lending, and another set of 298 informal documents relevant to digital credit based on a systematic web search. After reviewing the literature on the effects of credit expansion and automated credit scoring, we summarize the characteristics of the current digital credit regulatory environment in low- and middle-income countries. Our findings suggest that few regulations specifically target digital credit markets, and that the current regulatory environment may not support the full potential of digital credit to reach historically underserved credit consumers. Most countries do not explicitly target financial inclusion as part of their digital credit policies. However, we do find evidence that informal web documents consider financial inclusion to a greater extent than formal regulatory documents

Modeling the cost of bird strikes to US civil aircraft

The objective of our analysis is to develop a model of damage costs that arise from collisions between aircraft and birds, based on data drawn from the Federal Aviation Administration National Wildlife Strike Database (NWSD). We develop a two-part model, composed of two separate statistical models, that accounts for the effects of aircraft mass category, engine type, component of the aircraft struck, and the size and number of birds struck. Our results indicate the size of bird, number of birds, and engine ingestions are the largest determinants of strike-related costs. More generally, our result is a model that provides a better understanding of the determinants of damage costs and that can be used to interpolate the substantial amount of missing data on damage costs that currently exists within the NWSD. A more complete accounting of damage costs will allow a better understanding of how damage costs vary geographically and temporally and, thus, enable more efficient allocation of management resources across airports and seasons

The Vehicle, Fall 2004

Table of Contents Six-Billion to One AgainstRyan Maneypage 5 May 25th, 2004Megan Rankinpage 6 Summer DeliveryAnthony Shootpage 7 A Young Family, Smithland, Kentucky. October 1935.Clementinepage 8 UntitledJonathan M. Cookpage 9 October 23, 2021Ryan Maneypage 10 Last NightKaty Dwigginspage 11 UntitledMegan Rankinpage 12 Clever DisguiseSarah Johnsonpage 13 conspiracy against grandmaClementinepage 14 ThunderKitty Apodacapage 15 UntitledJonathan M. Cookpage 16 Self PortraitAnnette Carlinpage 17 LeavesAnthony Shootpage 18 UntitledKaty Dwigginspage 19 The Woman I Almost UnderstoodGreg Lyonspage 20 Flesh and SandJonathan M. Cookpage 21 Lunch DateAlisa Habelpage 22 Like and Unlike Everyone ElseC. Alan Doughtypage 23 Thankfully SwayedSarah Johnsonpage 24 A Warm Winter DayJoshua D. Andersonpage 25-26 Oak, Maple, SassafrasClementinepage 27-30https://thekeep.eiu.edu/vehicle/1080/thumbnail.jp

Innovative customer loyalty programs

Currently, the vast majority of demanding consumers has tired of monotonous bonuses and benefits companies. Today innovations play an important role in all areas of our lives. And marketing is not an exception. So, the marketers make innovative and personalized solutions to create loyal customers. In this connection, in the present conditions the development of innovative customer loyalty program is one of the priorities of any company.Инновации в различных сферах деятельности играют важную роль. В настоящее время преобладающее большинство требовательных и взыскательных потребителей уже перенасыщено однообразными бонусами и льготами компаний. Поэтому производители акцентируют внимание на инновационных и персонализированных решениях формирования контингента приверженных клиентов компании. В связи с этим в современных условиях разработка инновационной программы лояльности клиентов является одним из приоритетных направлений развития любого предприятия