Differential Item Functioning and educational risk factors in Guatemalan reading assessment

Examinamos indicadores de Funcionamiento Diferencial de Ítemes (FDI) asociados a cuatro variables que han demostrado de manera repetida ser factores de riesgo para el logro escolar. Estos factores son el sobre-edad para el grado de matriculación, área de residencia urbana/rural, etnia y género. Para este estudio utilizamos los datos de las evaluaciones nacionales del tercer grado. Dado que en la literatura se reporta con frecuencia que los indicadores de FDI son inestables, utilizamos tres diferentes métodos para estimarlo (chi-cuadrado, Rasch, regresión logística) y evaluamos su consistencia en datos de tres diferentes años de evaluaciones. Encontramos evidencia de FDI. Sin embargo, la eliminación de ítemes con FDI no cambió las diferencias entre grupos que se encontraron en las puntuaciones de las evaluaciones. Los hallazgos sugieren que los factores de riesgo educativo actúan de manera conjunta en esta población guatemalteca y que hay alguna interacción entre estos factores de riesgo para generar sesgo. Concluimos que será de beneficio tomar en cuenta múltiples variables de contexto asociadas al riesgo educativo de forma simultanea al analizar FDI y al desarrollar evaluaciones

Ongoing Themes in Psychology and Culture

Selected Papers from the Sixteenth International Congress of the International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychology, 2002, Yogyakarta, Indonesia. (c) 2004, International Association for Cross-Cultural Psychologyhttps://scholarworks.gvsu.edu/iaccp_proceedings/1007/thumbnail.jp

Associations between daily sitting time and the combinations of lifestyle risk factors in men

Background: Understanding the reciprocal role that multiple problematic behaviours play in men's health is important for intervention delivery and for reducing the healthcare burden. Data regarding the concurrence of problematic health behaviours is currently limited but offers insights into risk profiles, and should now include total time spent sitting/day. Methods: Self-reported data on lifestyle health behaviours was collected from 232 men aged ≥18 years who engaged in a men's health promotion programme delivered by 16 English Premier League Clubs. Results: Men at risk due to high sitting display multiple concurrent lifestyle risk factors, 88.6% displayed at least two ancillary risk factors and were three times more likely to report ≥2 lifestyle risk factors (OR. =3.13, 95% confidence interval (CI). =1.52-6.42) than those with low sitting risk. Significant differences in the mean number of risk factors reported between those participants in the higher risk (2.43. ±. 0.90) and lower risk (2.13. ±. 0.96) sitting categories were also found (P=0.015). Conclusions: Hard-to-reach men displayed multiple problematic concurrent behaviours, strongly linked to total sitting time. © 2012 WPMH GmbH

Spatio-temporal variability in accretion and erosion of coastal foredunes in the Netherlands: regional climate and local topography

Research objective Investigation of the relation between foredune erosion/accretion in relation to storminess, aeolian transport potential and beach width. Type of research The research is a statistical analysis of a long time series of beach profiles. Six sections of the Dutch coast are considered:Noord-Holland, Texel, Vlieland, Terschelling, Ameland, Schiermonnikoog. Method of data collection Original data were obtained from other producers: see "calculated from" links. Relevant parameters were derived from these datasets using simple algorithms. • From yearly beach profile: beach width, dune volume • From hourly sea level data: maximum sea level between profile measurements • From hourly wind data: yearly transport potential for each site, with 4 different upper limits on wind velocity. Derived data are that were used in this study are provided in separate files: • beach_and_dune_data.nc: yearly values of beach width and dune volume for all profiles • max_sea_level_data.nc: yearly maximum sea level between profile measurements • transport_potential_data.nc: yearly transport potential for each sit

MOSAICC: An inter-disciplinary system of models to evaluate the impact of climate change on agriculture.

ABSTRACT Climate change potentially threatens the livelihood of many people who depend on local food production. Information from different disciplines has become an essential to estimate and predict the impact of climate change on local food production. However, data is often scattered and specifically focused on one scientific domain. Therefore, the FAO in partnership with European research institutes developed a web-based interactive toolbox (called MOSAICC) which integrates climate scenarios with crop growth simulations, hydrological modeling and economic predictions on a national level. In the first (alfa) version of the toolbox, all models are interconnected in terms of input and output, and can be accessed through a web interface. The models are chosen because of their generic nature and low data requirements. However, the toolbox needs testing, as not all questions regarding the model use and integration have been addressed yet. The real innovation of the overall project lies in the socio-technical integration and contextualization of domain-specific information in an interactive learning process of the different users. The toolbox should be regarded as a common pool of knowledge, accessible by all stakeholders (e.g. scientists, policy makers and civilians) as an integral part of an interactive, participative and interdisciplinary decision making process regarding e.g. land-use planning or climate mitigation measures. Therefore, the MOSAICC toolbox is a novel, agile and versatile adaptive management support systems, combining state-of-the-art technologies with aimed at empowerment and participation

A Self-calibrating Runoff and Streamflow Remote Sensing Model for Ungauged Basins Using Open-access Earth Observation Data

Due to increasing pressures on water resources, there is a need to monitor regional water resource availability in a spatially and temporally explicit manner. However, for many parts of the world, there is insufficient data to quantify stream flow or ground water infiltration rates. We present the results of a pixel-based water balance formulation to partition rainfall into evapotranspiration, surface water runoff and potential ground water infiltration. The method leverages remote sensing derived estimates of precipitation, evapotranspiration, soil moisture, Leaf Area Index, and a single F coefficient to distinguish between runoff and storage changes. The study produced significant correlations between the remote sensing method and field based measurements of river flow in two Vietnamese river basins. For the Ca basin, we found R2 values ranging from 0.88–0.97 and Nash–Sutcliffe efficiency (NSE) values varying between 0.44–0.88. The R2 for the Red River varied between 0.87–0.93 and NSE values between 0.61 and 0.79. Based on these findings, we conclude that the method allows for a fast and cost-effective way to map water resource availability in basins with no gauges or monitoring infrastructure, without the need for application of sophisticated hydrological models or resource-intensive data

Effects of national housing quality standards on hospital emergency admissions: a quasi-experiment using data-linkage

Background National housing quality standards are now being applied throughout the UK. The Welsh Government has introduced the Welsh Housing Quality Standards. A housing improvement programme in Wales has been delivered through one local authority to bring 9500 homes up to standard. Homes received multiple elements, including new kitchens, bathrooms, windows and doors, boilers, insulation, and wiring, through an 8 year rolling work programme. The study aimed to determine the impacts of the different housing improvements on hospital emergency admissions for residents over 60 years of age. Methods Intervention homes (council homes that received at least one element of work) were data linked to individual health records of residents. Counts of admissions for respiratory and cardiovascular conditions, and for falls and burns, were obtained retrospectively for each individual in a dynamic housing cohort (Jan 1, 2005, to March 31, 2015). The criterion for the intervention cohort was for someone to have lived in any one of the 9500 intervention homes for at least 3 months within the intervention period. Counts were captured for up to 123 consecutive months for 7054 individuals in the intervention cohort and analysed in a multilevel approach to account for repeated observations for individuals, nested within geographical areas. Negative binomial regression models were constructed to determine the effect on emergency admissions for those living in homes compliant for each element of work compared with those living in homes that were non-compliant at that time. We adjusted for background trends in the regional general population, and for other confounding factors. Findings For residents 60 years old and over there was a reduction in admissions for people with compliant boilers (rate ratio 0·71, 95% CI 0·67–0·76), loft insulation (0·87, 0·80–0·95), wall insulation (0·74, 0·69–0·80), and windows and doors (0·56, 0·52–0·61) compared with those living in homes that were non-compliant for those work elements. Interpretation Improving housing to national standards reduces the number of emergency admissions to hospital for older residents. Strengths of the data-linkage approach included the retrospective collection of complete baseline and follow-up data using routine data for a long-term intervention, and large scale regional adjustment