Validity and reproducibility of an interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire for healthy French-Canadian men and women

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the validity (study 1) and the reproducibility (study 2) of an interviewer-administered food frequency questionnaire (FFQ). METHOD: The FFQ was designed at Laval University and contains 91 items and 33 subquestions. Study 1: The FFQ was compared against a 3-day food record (2 week-days and 1 weekend-day), at week 0, 6 and 12 of a nutritional intervention. Study 2: In order to evaluate the reproducibility of the FFQ, 2 registered dietitians administered the FFQ 4-weeks apart among subjects who were not part of the nutritional intervention. RESULTS: Study 1: Mean values for intake of most nutrients assessed by the FFQ and by the 3-day food record were not statistically different. Energy-adjusted correlation coefficients for major macronutrients ranged from 0.36 for proteins to 0.60 for carbohydrates (p ≤ 0.01). Agreement analysis revealed that on average, 35% of the subjects were classified in the same quartile when nutrients were assessed by either the 3-day food record or the FFQ. Study 2: Significant associations were observed between dietary measurements derived from the two FFQs administered 4 weeks apart. Correlation coefficients for the reproducibility of macronutrients ranged from 0.66 for carbohydrates to 0.83 for lipids after energy adjustment. On average, 46% of the subjects were classified in the same quartile when nutrient intakes were assessed by either FFQ. CONCLUSION: These data indicated that the FFQ developed has a good validity and is reproducible

Opposition and dissidence: two modes of resistance against international rule

Rule is commonly conceptualized with reference to the compliance it invokes. In this article, we propose a conception of rule via the practice of resistance instead. In contrast to liberal approaches, we stress the possibility of illegitimate rule, and, as opposed to critical approaches, the possibility of legitimate authority. In the international realm, forms of rule and the changes they undergo can thus be reconstructed in terms of the resistance they provoke. To this end, we distinguish between two types of resistance - opposition and dissidence - in order to demonstrate how resistance and rule imply each other. We draw on two case studies of resistance in and to international institutions to illustrate the relationship between rule and resistance and close with a discussion of the normative implications of such a conceptualization

Between autonomy and secession: Decentralization and regionalist party ideological radicalism

The literature on regionalist parties has traditionally focused on the origins of their electoral strength while their ideology remains an under-explored aspect of territorial party politics. This is surprising because for the question of whether decentralization ‘accommodates’ or ‘empowers’ regionalist pressure one needs to consider both. In this paper we single out the factors that increase the probability of adopting a radical (secessionist) as opposed to a moderate (autonomist) ideological stance, with a particular focus on the effect of decentralization. We make use of a large and original dataset, covering 11 countries, 49 regions, and 78 parties for the 1940s–2000s. Beyond the level of decentralization and decentralization reforms, we analyze the impact of two sets of factors: the first concerns regional identity and includes regional language, regional history and geographical remoteness; while the second concerns institutional/political variables which include voting systems, competition from statewide parties and from other regionalist parties, and office responsibility. We find that all variables matter for regionalist party ideology but with different effects across regional and national electoral arenas. We also find that level of decentralization and regional reform is significantly associated with radicalism, which suggests that policy success and accommodative strategies by statewide parties may lead to a polarization on the centre-periphery dimension