He's a chip off the old block: The persistency of occupational choices among generations

The purpose of this paper is to assess if parents exert an influence on the occupation choices of their children. Using data from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we find a high persistency of occupational decisions across fathers and children using nested and conditional logit models. To separate effects related to genetic factors (nature) and parental education or role models (nurture), we determine the persistency separately for children who grew up with their biological fathers and for those who did not. Our results suggest that especially nurture plays a decisive role in explaining the choice of one's occupation

He's a Chip Off the Old Block - The Persistence of Occupational Choices Across Generations

The purpose of this paper is to assess intergenerational occupational mobility in Germany. Using data from the Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), we find a high persistence of occupational choices across fathers and children. To separate effects related to parental advice and influence (nurture) from genetic factors (nature), we determine the persistence separately for children who grew up with their biological fathers and those who did not. The results suggest that nurture-related effects explain a significant fraction of the observed correlation of fathers' and children's occupational choices. We discuss policy implications that follow from the analysis

Usage and User Characteristics - Insights from MOIA, Europe’s Largest Ridepooling Service

New, i.e., shared and digitized, mobility services have been entering urban mobility markets around the globe. Among these new offerings is ridepooling, a mobility solution that bundles requests from passengers with similar routes in real-time and matches them with a vehicle. Ridepooling is quite novel in Germany and knowledge about users, changes in travel behavior, and impacts on the urban traffic system is scarce. To address this gap, we conducted an online survey among users and non-users of MOIA, a German ridepooling provider. Over 12,000 respondents completed the survey. The article presents results on ridepooling users’ characteristics and usage patterns. We found that MOIA users cover all age groups and are multimodal travelers—which leads us to assume that ridepooling enriches mobility portfolios and also serves as an alternative to the private car. MOIA is mostly used occasionally and, in particular, during the evening or the night. A specific focus of the article lies on users with mobility impairments as well as how and by whom ridepooling is used on work-related trips. Both topics are particularly relevant in light of changing travel patterns and transforming urban transport systems towards more sustainability

Contentious issues related to auditory processing disorder

A number of children undergo audiometric evaluation due to suspected hearing difficulties. Yet for some, their hearing sensitivity is found to be normal (Iliadou et al., 2017; Sharma, Purdy, & Kelly, 2009). Often, these children are described by parents and teachers as having difficulties to follow several instructions or attend to a conversation, and getting distracted when background noise is present (Iliadou et al., 2017; Witton, 2010). There are also reports of these children either misunderstanding or taking longer to understand simple verbal directions, and demonstrating selective hearing (Johnson, Benson, & Seaton, 1997). These weaknesses often cause educational, vocational and social challenges (American Speech-Language-Hearing Association (ASHA), 2005; British Society of Audiology (BSA, 2007). Children exhibiting these problems could be diagnosed with Auditory Processing Disorder (APD) (American Academy of Audiology (AAA), 2010; ASHA, 2005; BSA, 2007; Iliadou et al., 2017).peer-reviewe

A re-evaluation of the central velocity-dispersion profile in NGC 6388

Recently, two independent groups found very different results when measuring the central velocity dispersion of the galactic globular cluster NGC 6388 with different methods. While L\"utzgendorf et al. (2011) found a rising profile and a high central velocity dispersion (23.3 km/s), measurements obtained by Lanzoni et al. (2013) showed a value 40% lower. The value of the central velocity dispersion has a serious impact on the mass and possible presence of an intermediate-mass black hole at the center of NGC 6388. We use a photometric catalog of NGC 6388 to create a simulated SINFONI and ARGUS dataset. The construction of the IFU data cube is done with different observing conditions reproducing the conditions reported for the original observations as closely as possible. In addition, we produce an N-body realization of a 10^6 M_SUN stellar cluster with the same photometric properties as NGC 6388 to account for unresolved stars. We find that the individual radial velocities, i.e. the measurements from the simulated SINFONI data, are systematically biased towards lower velocity dispersions. The reason is that due to the wings in the point spread function the velocities get biased towards the mean cluster velocity. This study shows that even with AO supported observations, individual radial velocities in crowded fields are likely to be biased. The ARGUS observations do not show this kind of bias but were found to have larger uncertainties than previously obtained. We find a bias towards higher velocity dispersions in the ARGUS pointing when fixing the extreme velocities of the three brightest stars but find those variations are within the determined uncertainties. We rerun Jeans models and fit the kinematic profile with the new uncertainties. This yields a BH mass of M_BH = (2.8 +- 0.4) x 10^4 M_SUN and M/L ratio M/L = (1.6 +- 0.1) M_SUN/L_SUN, consistent with our previous results.Comment: 8 pages, 8 figure, accepted for publication in A&

PTSD and complex PTSD manifestations in Sub-Saharan Africa: A systematic review of qualitative literature

Complex post-traumatic stress disorder (CPTSD) was introduced in the ICD-11 as a new diagnosis and was framed in accordance with WHO guidelines of clinical utility and cross-cultural applicability. CPTSD diagnosis comprises PTSD symptoms in addition to specific symptoms related to the organization of the self (DSO). Cross-cultural validity of the DSO symptoms is still being debated as cultural norms significantly influence how individuals perceive themselves and manage their emotions and relationships. The aim of this systematic review was to understand how PTSD and DSO symptoms were experienced and expressed by individuals from Sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) by exploring qualitative literature. Searches were conducted on nine databases using search terms for countries, methods, symptoms, and trauma exposure. Fifty studies were included. Results confirmed the presence of the three DSO clusters. However, their manifestation differed significantly from the defined diagnostic criteria, highlighting the importance of considering cultural factors in the diagnostic process. Additionally, the review indicated that structural factors played significant roles in shaping the interpretation of traumarelated distress in this cultural context. Thus, we propose to create and implement a cultural module as an add on to the actual CPTSD assessment tools to account for cultural and structural variations in the SSA population and improve diagnosis accuracy. In this perspective, more emic research is needed to gain a deeper understanding of how trauma-related distress is perceived, experienced, and interpreted in SSA

Chances and Limits of Community-Based Hate Speech Detection – Results from a Combined Behavioral-NeuroIS Study

Communication via social media is characterized by immediacy and anonymity, enabling free expression and sharing of opinions, but also the abuse of language in form of hate speech. Given the volume of online content, IS research offers approaches to efficiently detect hate speech. However, research and politics call for more independent, transparent, and social approaches to increase credibility and acceptance. In response, this two-part behavioral and neural study investigates flagging as a community-based solution to hate speech detection. By experimentally varying the displayed shares of flagging users and testing behavioral responses, results reveal opposing behavioral patterns as a function of the valuation of hate speech prevention. Moreover, by framing the display of the user community’s flagging behavior as a sort of social normative information and hate speech prevention as a public good, the theoretical model might help explain (seemingly) conflicting results in social norm and public goods research

The impact of socioeconomic status on auditory processing skills in Maltese children

Auditory processing skills (APS) may affect the development of language. Understanding the impact that socioeconomic status (SES) has on APS can help to identify individuals at risk of poor auditory processing skills and in turn develop more focused intervention strategies to target these skills before serious repercussions emerge. This study explored the impact of SES on the auditory processing skills of 41 Maltese children aged between 7 and 9 years. A self-devised questionnaire was used to gather information relating to the SES of the children, using maternal education and occupation to categorise SES. Such information was compared with the children’s performance on an auditory processing test battery in order to analyse its effect. Results demonstrated a significant correlation between SES groups and performance on the Duration Patterns Test (DPT), an auditory processing subtest which presents tones of varying duration as a stimulus. In addition, overall higher mean scores on almost all the tests were observed for the mid and high-mid socioeconomic groups. This study provides the first preliminary indications that lower SES could be associated with poorer APS in Maltese children.peer-reviewe

a comparison of prevalence and comorbidity rates with the DSM-IV PTSD classification in two post-conflict samples

Background: The World Health Organization recently proposed significant changes to the posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) diagnostic criteria in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases (ICD-11). Objective: The present study investigated the impact of these changes in two different post-conflict samples. Method: Prevalence and rates of concurrent depression and anxiety, socio-demographic characteristics, and indicators of clinical severity according to ICD-11 in 1,075 Cambodian and 453 Colombian civilians exposed to civil war and genocide were compared to those according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, Fourth Edition (DSM-IV). Results: Results indicated significantly lower prevalence rates under the ICD-11 proposal (8.1% Cambodian sample and 44.4% Colombian sample) compared to the DSM-IV (11.2% Cambodian sample and 55.0% Colombian sample). Participants meeting a PTSD diagnosis only under the ICD-11 proposal had significantly lower rates of concurrent depression and a lower concurrent total score (depression and anxiety) compared to participants meeting only DSM-IV diagnostic criteria. There were no significant differences in socio- demographic characteristics and indicators of clinical severity between these two groups. Conclusions: The lower prevalence of PTSD according to the ICD-11 proposal in our samples of persons exposed to a high number of traumatic events may counter criticism of previous PTSD classifications to overuse the PTSD diagnosis in populations exposed to extreme stressors. Also another goal, to better distinguish PTSD from comorbid disorders could be supported with our data