National Identification Counteracts the Sedative Effect of Positive Intergroup Contact on Ethnic Activism

Positive intergroup contact with socially and economically advantaged national majorities has been shown to reduce ethnic identification among minorities, thereby undermining ethnic minority activism. This finding implies that ethnic identity is the relevant social identity driving ethnic minorities’ struggle for equality. We argue that the study of the “sedating” effect of positive intergroup contact for minorities should be more nuanced. The existence of multiple and sometimes interplaying social identities can foster a reinterpretation of the meaning of “ethnic” activism. This study therefore examines how the interplay of ethnic and national identities shapes the sedating effect of contact on minority activism. We expect national identification to buffer the sedated activism resulting from reduced ethnic identification. That is, the mediation from intergroup contact to reduced ethnic activism through weakened ethnic identification is expected to be moderated by national identification. With survey data from Bulgaria, we investigated support for ethnic activism among Bulgarian Roma (N D 320) as a function of their contact with the national majority as well as their degree of ethnic and national identification. The predicted moderated mediation was revealed: a negative indirect relationship between contact and activism through decreased ethnic identification occurred among Roma with low national identification, whereas no sedating effect occurred among Roma identifying strongly as members of the Bulgarian nation. We discuss the meaning of national identification for the Roma minority, who experience harsh discrimination in countries where they have been historically settled, as well as convergence of these findings with work on dual identification. We highlight the role of interacting social identities in mobilizing resources for activism and the importance of adopting a critical view on ethnic discourse when studying activism in both traditional and immigrant minoritie

Degrowth scenarios for biodiversity? Key methodological steps and a call for collaboration

Studies show that economic growth contributes to biodiversity loss and that, after a certain threshold, it does not contribute to wellbeing. Thus, when developing biodiversity scenarios, considering societal futures where economic growth is not a pre-condition deserves special attention. However, to date, degrowth scenarios have not been explored for biodiversity conservation and human wellbeing. In this paper, we explain how the Nature Futures Framework (NFF) and other approaches could be used to generate degrowth scenarios for biodiversity, nature’s contributions to people (NCP) and good quality of life (GQL) based on multiple societal values. We present key methodological steps of such an endeavour, including: (i) producing degrowth visions for high-income countries; (ii) identifying leverage points and imagining degrowth pathways; (iii) identifying key social–ecological interactions; and (iv) modelling biodiversity, NCP, and GQL along degrowth scenarios. Our proposal is framed within current theoretical, empirical, and modelling work as well as within efforts to improve scenario development across the biodiversity and climate communities. To develop degrowth scenarios for biodiversity, NCP, and GQL, we call for collaboration across natural and social sciences, quantitative and qualitative approaches, and northern and southern perspectives. This collaboration could lead to a community of practice that tests and improves the degrowth scenarios in national and international science–policy interfaces as they set out to achieve the Convention on Biological Diversity’s 2050 vision of living in harmony with nature

Illness management and recovery in community practice

Objective To examine provider competence in providing Illness Management and Recovery (IMR), an evidence-based self-management program for people with severe mental illness, and the association between implementation supports and IMR competence. Methods IMR session recordings, provided by 43 providers/provider pairs, were analyzed for IMR competence using the IMR treatment integrity scale. Providers also reported on receipt of commonly available implementation supports (e.g., training, consultation). Results Average IMR competence scores were in the “Needs Improvement” range. Clinicians demonstrated low competence in several IMR elements: significant other involvement, weekly action planning, action plan follow-up, cognitive-behavioral techniques, and behavioral tailoring for medication management. These elements were commonly absent from IMR sessions. Competence in motivational enhancement strategies and cognitive-behavioral techniques differed based on the module topic covered in a session. Generally, receipt of implementation supports was not associated with increased competence; however, motivational interviewing training was associated with increased competence in action planning and review. Conclusions and Implications for Practice IMR, as implemented in the community, may lack adequate competence and commonly available implementation supports do not appear to be adequate. Additional implementation supports that target clinician growth areas are needed

MRBrainS Challenge: Online Evaluation Framework for Brain Image Segmentation in 3T MRI Scans

Many methods have been proposed for tissue segmentation in brain MRI scans. The multitude of methods proposed complicates the choice of one method above others. We have therefore established the MRBrainS online evaluation framework for evaluating (semi) automatic algorithms that segment gray matter (GM), white matter (WM), and cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) on 3T brain MRI scans of elderly subjects (65-80 y). Participants apply their algorithms to the provided data, after which their results are evaluated and ranked. Full manual segmentations of GM, WM, and CSF are available for all scans and used as the reference standard. Five datasets are provided for training and fifteen for testing. The evaluated methods are ranked based on their overall performance to segment GM, WM, and CSF and evaluated using three evaluation metrics (Dice, H95, and AVD) and the results are published on the MRBrainS13 website. We present the results of eleven segmentation algorithms that participated in the MRBrainS13 challenge workshop at MICCAI, where the framework was launched, and three commonly used freeware packages: FreeSurfer, FSL, and SPM. The MRBrainS evaluation framework provides an objective and direct comparison of all evaluated algorithms and can aid in selecting the best performing method for the segmentation goal at hand.This study was financially supported by IMDI Grant 104002002 (Brainbox) from ZonMw, the Netherlands Organisation for Health Research and Development, within kind sponsoring by Philips, the University Medical Center Utrecht, and Eindhoven University of Technology. The authors would like to acknowledge the following members of the Utrecht Vascular Cognitive Impairment Study Group who were not included as coauthors of this paper but were involved in the recruitment of study participants and MRI acquisition at the UMC Utrecht (in alphabetical order by department): E. van den Berg, M. Brundel, S. Heringa, and L. J. Kappelle of the Department of Neurology, P. R. Luijten and W. P. Th. M. Mali of the Department of Radiology, and A. Algra and G. E. H. M. Rutten of the Julius Center for Health Sciences and Primary Care. The research of Geert Jan Biessels and the VCI group was financially supported by VIDI Grant 91711384 from ZonMw and by Grant 2010T073 of the Netherlands Heart Foundation. The research of Jeroen de Bresser is financially supported by a research talent fellowship of the University Medical Center Utrecht (Netherlands). The research of Annegreet van Opbroek and Marleen de Bruijne is financially supported by a research grant from NWO (the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research). The authors would like to acknowledge MeVis Medical Solutions AG (Bremen, Germany) for providing MeVisLab. Duygu Sarikaya and Liang Zhao acknowledge their Advisor Professor Jason Corso for his guidance. Duygu Sarikaya is supported by NIH 1 R21CA160825-01 and Liang Zhao is partially supported by the China Scholarship Council (CSC).info:eu-repo/semantics/publishedVersio

Protocol for the development and validation of a risk prediction model for stillbirths from 35 weeks gestation in Australia

Abstract: Background: Despite advances in the care of women and their babies in the past century, an estimated 1.7 million babies are born still each year throughout the world. A robust method to estimate a pregnant woman’s individualized risk of late-pregnancy stillbirth is needed to inform decision-making around the timing of birth to reduce the risk of stillbirth from 35 weeks of gestation in Australia, a high-resource setting. Methods: This is a protocol for a cross-sectional study of all late-pregnancy births in Australia (2005–2015) from 35 weeks of gestation including 5188 stillbirths among 3.1 million births at an estimated rate of 1.7 stillbirths per 1000 births. A multivariable logistic regression model will be developed in line with current TransparentReporting of a multivariable prediction model forIndividualPrognosis orDiagnosis (TRIPOD) guidelines to estimate the gestation-specific probability of stillbirth with prediction intervals. Candidate predictors were identified from systematic reviews and clinical consultation and will be described through univariable regression analysis. To generate a final model, elimination by backward stepwise multivariable logistic regression will be performed. The model will be internally validated using bootstrapping with 1000 repetitions and externally validated using a temporally unique dataset. Overall model performance will be assessed with R2, calibration, and discrimination. Calibration will be reported using a calibration plot with 95% confidence intervals (α = 0.05). Discrimination will be measured by the C-statistic and area underneath the receiver-operator curves. Clinical usefulness will be reported as positive and negative predictive values, and a decision curve analysis will be considered. Discussion: A robust method to predict a pregnant woman’s individualized risk of late-pregnancy stillbirth is needed to inform timely, appropriate care to reduce stillbirth. Among existing prediction models designed for obstetric use, few have been subject to internal and external validation and many fail to meet recommended reporting standards. In developing a risk prediction model for late-gestation stillbirth with both providers and pregnant women in mind, we endeavor to develop a validated model for clinical use in Australia that meets current reporting standards

Replacements of small- by large-ranged species scale up to diversity loss in Europe’s temperate forest biome

The loss of biodiversity at the global scale has been difficult to reconcile with observations of no net loss at local scales. Vegetation surveys across European temperate forests show that this may be explained by the replacement of small-ranged species with large-ranged ones, driven by nitrogen deposition. Biodiversity time series reveal global losses and accelerated redistributions of species, but no net loss in local species richness. To better understand how these patterns are linked, we quantify how individual species trajectories scale up to diversity changes using data from 68 vegetation resurvey studies of seminatural forests in Europe. Herb-layer species with small geographic ranges are being replaced by more widely distributed species, and our results suggest that this is due less to species abundances than to species nitrogen niches. Nitrogen deposition accelerates the extinctions of small-ranged, nitrogen-efficient plants and colonization by broadly distributed, nitrogen-demanding plants (including non-natives). Despite no net change in species richness at the spatial scale of a study site, the losses of small-ranged species reduce biome-scale (gamma) diversity. These results provide one mechanism to explain the directional replacement of small-ranged species within sites and thus explain patterns of biodiversity change across spatial scales

Protocol for the development and validation of a risk prediction model for stillbirths from 35 weeks gestation in Australia

Abstract: Background: Despite advances in the care of women and their babies in the past century, an estimated 1.7 million babies are born still each year throughout the world. A robust method to estimate a pregnant woman’s individualized risk of late-pregnancy stillbirth is needed to inform decision-making around the timing of birth to reduce the risk of stillbirth from 35 weeks of gestation in Australia, a high-resource setting. Methods: This is a protocol for a cross-sectional study of all late-pregnancy births in Australia (2005–2015) from 35 weeks of gestation including 5188 stillbirths among 3.1 million births at an estimated rate of 1.7 stillbirths per 1000 births. A multivariable logistic regression model will be developed in line with current TransparentReporting of a multivariable prediction model forIndividualPrognosis orDiagnosis (TRIPOD) guidelines to estimate the gestation-specific probability of stillbirth with prediction intervals. Candidate predictors were identified from systematic reviews and clinical consultation and will be described through univariable regression analysis. To generate a final model, elimination by backward stepwise multivariable logistic regression will be performed. The model will be internally validated using bootstrapping with 1000 repetitions and externally validated using a temporally unique dataset. Overall model performance will be assessed with R2, calibration, and discrimination. Calibration will be reported using a calibration plot with 95% confidence intervals (α = 0.05). Discrimination will be measured by the C-statistic and area underneath the receiver-operator curves. Clinical usefulness will be reported as positive and negative predictive values, and a decision curve analysis will be considered. Discussion: A robust method to predict a pregnant woman’s individualized risk of late-pregnancy stillbirth is needed to inform timely, appropriate care to reduce stillbirth. Among existing prediction models designed for obstetric use, few have been subject to internal and external validation and many fail to meet recommended reporting standards. In developing a risk prediction model for late-gestation stillbirth with both providers and pregnant women in mind, we endeavor to develop a validated model for clinical use in Australia that meets current reporting standards

A large-scale test of the link between intergroup contact and support for social change

Guided by the early findings of social scientists, practitioners have long advocated for greater contact between groups to reduce prejudice and increase social cohesion. Recent work, however, suggests that intergroup contact can undermine support for social change towards greater equality, especially among disadvantaged group members. Using a large and heterogeneous dataset (12,997 individuals from 69 countries), we demonstrate that intergroup contact and support for social change towards greater equality are positively associated among members of advantaged groups (ethnic majorities and cis-heterosexuals) but negatively associated among disadvantaged groups (ethnic minorities and sexual and gender minorities). Specification-curve analysis revealed important variation in the size—and at times, direction—of correlations, depending on how contact and support for social change were measured. This allowed us to identify one type of support for change—willingness to work in solidarity— that is positively associated with intergroup contact among both advantaged and disadvantaged group members

Need satisfaction in intergroup contact:A multinational study of pathways toward social change

none43siFinanziamenti esterni a vari co-autoriWhat role does intergroup contact play in promoting support for social change toward greater social equality? Drawing on the needs-based model of reconciliation, we theorized that when inequality between groups is perceived as illegitimate, disadvantaged group members will experience a need for empowerment and advantaged group members a need for acceptance. When intergroup contact satisfies each group's needs, it should result in more mutual support for social change. Using four sets of survey data collected through the Zurich Intergroup Project in 23 countries, we tested several preregistered predictions, derived from the above reasoning, across a large variety of operationalizations. Two studies of disadvantaged groups (Ns = 689 ethnic minority members in Study 1 and 3,382 sexual/gender minorities in Study 2) support the hypothesis that, after accounting for the effects of intergroup contact and perceived illegitimacy, satisfying the need for empowerment (but not acceptance) during contact is positively related to support for social change. Two studies with advantaged groups (Ns = 2,937 ethnic majority members in Study 3 and 4,203 cis-heterosexual individuals in Study 4) showed that, after accounting for illegitimacy and intergroup contact, satisfying the need for acceptance (but also empowerment) is positively related to support for social change. Overall, findings suggest that intergroup contact is compatible with efforts to promote social change when group-specific needs are met. Thus, to encourage support for social change among both disadvantaged and advantaged group members, it is essential that, besides promoting mutual acceptance, intergroup contact interventions also give voice to and empower members of disadvantaged groups.mixedHässler, Tabea; Ullrich, Johannes; Sebben, Simone; Shnabel, Nurit; Bernardino, Michelle; Valdenegro, Daniel; Van Laar, Colette; González, Roberto; Visintin, Emilio Paolo; Tropp, Linda R; Ditlmann, Ruth K; Abrams, Dominic; Aydin, Anna Lisa; Pereira, Adrienne; Selvanathan, Hema Preya; von Zimmermann, Jorina; Lantos, Nóra Anna; Sainz, Mario; Glenz, Andreas; Kende, Anna; Oberpfalzerová, Hana; Bilewicz, Michal; Branković, Marija; Noor, Masi; Pasek, Michael H; Wright, Stephen C; Žeželj, Iris; Kuzawinska, Olga; Maloku, Edona; Otten, Sabine; Gul, Pelin; Bareket, Orly; Corkalo Biruski, Dinka; Mugnol-Ugarte, Luiza; Osin, Evgeny; Baiocco, Roberto; Cook, Jonathan E; Dawood, Maneeza; Droogendyk, Lisa; Loyo, Angélica Herrera; Jelić, Margareta; Kelmendi, Kaltrina; Pistella, JessicaHässler, Tabea; Ullrich, Johannes; Sebben, Simone; Shnabel, Nurit; Bernardino, Michelle; Valdenegro, Daniel; Van Laar, Colette; González, Roberto; Visintin, Emilio Paolo; Tropp, Linda R; Ditlmann, Ruth K; Abrams, Dominic; Aydin, Anna Lisa; Pereira, Adrienne; Selvanathan, Hema Preya; von Zimmermann, Jorina; Lantos, Nóra Anna; Sainz, Mario; Glenz, Andreas; Kende, Anna; Oberpfalzerová, Hana; Bilewicz, Michal; Branković, Marija; Noor, Masi; Pasek, Michael H; Wright, Stephen C; Žeželj, Iris; Kuzawinska, Olga; Maloku, Edona; Otten, Sabine; Gul, Pelin; Bareket, Orly; Corkalo Biruski, Dinka; Mugnol-Ugarte, Luiza; Osin, Evgeny; Baiocco, Roberto; Cook, Jonathan E; Dawood, Maneeza; Droogendyk, Lisa; Loyo, Angélica Herrera; Jelić, Margareta; Kelmendi, Kaltrina; Pistella, Jessic

Directional turnover towards larger-ranged plants over time and across habitats

Species turnover is ubiquitous. However, it remains unknown whether certain types of species are consistently gained or lost across different habitats. Here, we analysed the trajectories of 1827 plant species over time intervals of up to 78 years at 141 sites across mountain summits, forests, and lowland grasslands in Europe. We found, albeit with relatively small effect sizes, displacements of smaller- by larger-ranged species across habitats. Communities shifted in parallel towards more nutrient-demanding species, with species from nutrient-rich habitats having larger ranges. Because these species are typically strong competitors, declines of smaller-ranged species could reflect not only abiotic drivers of global change, but also biotic pressure from increased competition. The ubiquitous component of turnover based on species range size we found here may partially reconcile findings of no net loss in local diversity with global species loss, and link community-scale turnover to macroecological processes such as biotic homogenisation