Questionnaire design considerations with planned missing data

This article explores considerations that emerge when using a planned missing data design (PMDD). It describes scenarios where a PMDD can be useful and reveals implications of a PMDD for questionnaire design in terms of the optimal number of questionnaire versions. It takes a confirmatory factor model to explore the PMDD performance. Findings suggest that increasing the number of versions to maximize uniformity of missing data yields no advantage over minimizing data collection cost and complexity. The paper makes recommendations concerning different missing data patterns that can be used. And finally, this article points out how certain fit statistics could be misleading with PMDD. The one fit statistics that consistently performed well with the PMDD is the SRMR

Questionnaire design considerations with planned missing data

This article explores considerations that emerge when using a planned missing data design (PMDD). It describes scenarios where a PMDD can be useful and reveals implications of a PMDD for questionnaire design in terms of the optimal number of questionnaire versions. It takes a confirmatory factor model to explore the PMDD performance. Findings suggest that increasing the number of versions to maximize uniformity of missing data yields no advantage over minimizing data collection cost and complexity. The paper makes recommendations concerning different missing data patterns that can be used. And finally, this article points out how certain fit statistics could be misleading with PMDD. The one fit statistics that consistently performed well with the PMDD is the SRMR

Environmental Judicial Interpretation and Agency Review: An Empirical Investigation of Judicial Decision-Making in the Clean Water Act and the Clean Air Act

Political ideology has long been associated with the manner in which judges make judicial decisions. Extensive empirical research has established the link between a judge s political ideology and how they rule on cases. However, little research has been conducted specifically in environmental law. Indeed, what research is available looks at environmental law in general and has not asked any questions concerning how political ideology might affect decision-making concerning specific environmental statutes. This article seeks to partially fill this void by looking specifically at how political ideology affects whether judges affirm or reverse agency action with respect to the Clean Water Act versus the Clean Air Act. The data used in this analysis were collected from seventy environmental law cases, which include 116 instances of statutory interpretation and 347 judicial votes concerning cases appealed to the U.S. Courts of Appeal over a three-year period from 2003 to 2005. Findings indicate that political ideology is a much more important factor in Clean Water Act cases as compared to Clean Air Act cases. Furthermore, evidence shows that panel composition was much more important for Clean Water Act decisions as opposed to Clean Air Act decisions. These findings are placed within the genera/framework of understanding legal decisions as a product of both legal interpretation and political preferences

On the affinities (and differences) between populism and a belief in conspiracy theories

Populist rhetorics and conspiracy theories share common traits: both portray a manipulative and secretive elite that govern in their own self-interest. Bruno Castanho Silva, Federico Vegetti and Levente Littvay find that belief in particular forms of conspiracy, though not all, go hand in hand with populist attitudes, which has implications for political trust

Effect of genetic and environmental influences on cardiometabolic risk factors: a twin study

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Both genetic and environmental factors play a role in the pathogenesis of type 2 diabetes and cardiovascular diseases. The magnitude of genetic and environmental influences may vary in different populations and can be investigated by twin studies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>In this cross-sectional study, 101 (63 monozygotic and 38 dizygotic) adult twin pairs (n = 202; mean age: 44.3 ± 15.8 years) were investigated. Past medical history was recorded and physical examination was performed. Fasting venous blood samples were taken for measuring laboratory parameters. For assessing heritability of 14 cardiovascular risk factors, the structural equation (A-C-E) model was used.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The following risk factors were highly (> 70.0%) or moderately (50.0 - 69.0%) heritable: weight (88.1%), waist circumference (71.0%), systolic blood pressure (57.1%), diastolic blood pressure (57.7%), serum creatinine (64.1%), fibrinogen (59.9%), and serum C-reactive protein (51.9%). On the other hand, shared and unique environmental influences had the highest proportion of total phenotypic variance in serum total cholesterol (46.8% and 53.2%), serum HDL-cholesterol (58.1% and 14.9%), triglycerides (0.0% and 55.9%), fasting blood glucose (57.1% and 42.9%), fasting insulin (45.4% and 54.5%), serum uric acid (46.0% and 31.3%), and serum homocysteine (71.8% and 28.2%, respectively).</p> <p>Conclusion</p> <p>Some cardiometabolic risk factors have strong heritability while others are substantially influenced by environmental factors. Understanding the special heritability characteristics of a particular risk factor can substantiate further investigations, especially in molecular genetics. Moreover, identifying genetic and environmental contribution to certain cardiometabolic risk factors can help in designing prevention and treatment strategies in the population investigated.</p

Immigrants’ intragroup moral exclusion predicts ingroup-directed behavioral intentions: The mediating role of disidentification

Previous research documents the relationship between negative treatments of outgroup members and moral exclusion. In this study, we expect negative treatments of the ingroup members to be also related to a moral exclusionary mechanism. Next, we hypothesize that the relationship between intragroup moral exclusion and behavioral intentions (both positive and negative ones) targeting the ingroup members, to be mediated by immigrants’ disidentification with their ethnic identity. Using two samples of Iranians (n=385) and Tunisians (n=124) living in Italy, we test the two hypotheses. Results provided evidence that moral exclusion is negatively associated with positive behavioral intentions (active facilitation) and positively associated with the negative behavioral intentions (passive facilitation and passive harm). Results also suggest that this relationship is mediated by disidentification with immigrants’ own ethnic group

Genetic and environmental influence on thyroid gland volume and thickness of thyroid isthmus: a twin study

ABSTRACT Objectives: Decreased thyroid volume has been related to increased prevalence of thyroid cancer. Subjects and methods: One hundred and fourteen Hungarian adult twin pairs (69 monozygotic, 45 dizygotic) with or without known thyroid disorders underwent thyroid ultrasound. Thickness of the thyroid isthmus was measured at the thickest portion of the gland in the midline using electronic calipers at the time of scanning. Volume of the thyroid lobe was computed according to the following formula: thyroid height*width*depth*correction factor (0.63). Results: Age-, sex-, body mass indexand smoking-adjusted heritability of the thickness of thyroid isthmus was 50% (95% confidence interval [CI], 35 to 66%). Neither left nor right thyroid volume showed additive genetic effects, but shared environments were 68% (95% CI, 48 to 80%) and 79% (95% CI, 72 to 87%), respectively. Magnitudes of monozygotic and dizygotic co-twin correlations were not substantially impacted by the correction of covariates of body mass index and smoking. Unshared environmental effects showed a moderate influence on dependent parameters (24-50%). Conclusions: Our analysis support that familial factors are important for thyroid measures in a general twin population. A larger sample size is needed to show whether this is because of common environmental (e.g. intrauterine effects, regional nutrition habits, iodine supply) or genetic effects. Arch Endocrinol Metab. 2015;59(6):487-9