Military Men Head Honours List

Three top military hires lead the honours listen conjunction with the Sultan of Kelantan Sultan Ismail Petra's 58th birthday celebration today

Worries about inadequate medical treatment in case of a COVID-19 infection

Background This study investigates individual and regional determinants of worries about inadequate medical treatment in case of a COVID-19 infection, an important indicator of mental wellbeing in pandemic times as it potentially affects the compliance with mitigation measures and the willingness to get vaccinated. The analyses shed light on the following questions: Are there social inequalities in worries about inadequate medical treatment in case of a COVID-19 infection? What is the role of the regional spread of COVID-19 infections and regional healthcare capacities? Methods Based on data derived from the German Socioeconomic Panel (SOEP), a representative sample of the German population aged 18 years and over, we estimated multilevel logistic regression models with individual-level (level 1) and regional-level (level 2) variables. The regional variables of interest were (a) the number of COVID-19 infections, (b) the number of hospital beds as an overall measure of the regional healthcare capacities, and (c) the number of free intensive care units as a measure of the actual capacities for treating patients with severe courses of COVID-19. Results Women, older respondents, persons with migrant background and those with a lower socioeconomic status were more likely to report worries about inadequate medical treatment in case of a COVID-19 infection. Moreover, respondents with chronic illness, lower subjective health and those who consider COVID-19 as a threat for their own health were more likely to report worries. In addition, also regional characteristics were relevant. Worries were more common in poorer regions with higher COVID-19 infections and worse health infrastructure as indicated by the number of hospital beds. Conclusions The analysis not only indicates that several social groups are more concerned about inadequate medical treatment in case of a COVID-19 infection, but also highlights the need for considering regional-level influences, such as the spread of the virus, poverty rates and healthcare infrastructure, when analyzing the social and health-related consequences of the pandemic

The reaction of some winter wheat variety at cultivation in the conservative system in the Transylvanian Plain area

Introduction: In Europe between wheat cultivators countries, Romania ranks fifth with an area of 2.07 million hectares with a production of 7.45 million tonnes and production obtained is just 3601 kg /ha (www.ager.press.ro).Aims: Through the experience realised at ARDS Turda we follow the behavior of native varieties grȃu autumn, compared È‹n varieties of foreign origin, to make recommendations on their pretability to different systems of culture and levels of fertilization.Materials and Method: The experiment realized at the ARDS Turda, includes two ways to work the soil, a classic conventional system (with autumn ploughing, land preparation, sowing and fertilized) in parallel with the conservative ("no-tillage†with stubble crop directly into the preemergent plant). Experimental factors: A - soil tillage system; B - winter wheat variety; C - fertilization.Results: Of the eight winter wheat varieties, in the experiment is remarkable the variety Capo    that registered highest values of the gluten content at the level of fertilization c2, c3 and c4 at cultivation in both work systems (classic and “no tillageâ€). At most varieties, the highest protein content is at the c2 level of fertilization, except Capo and Exotic that react the best at c3 level of fertilization, in the system "no tillage". Conclusion: The winter wheat  indigenous Andrada, Dumbrava, Arieșan and line T-29-04 and cultivar Renan (Limagrain) reacts most favorable in  gluten content at level of  fertilization c2 (at sowing 250 kg/ ha NPK 20: 20: 0 + resumption spring vegetation È‹n 214 kg/ ha ammonium nitrate).The productions obtained at all varieties wheat,  is not existlarge quantitative differences (200-700 kg/ha differences), but  variety Apache, Exotic, Ariesan and Dumbrava had reached over 7,400 kg / ha. Acknowledgments: This work was supported by a grant of the Romanian National Authority for Scientific Research and Innovation, CNCS - UEFISCDI, project number PN-II-RU-TE-2014-4-0884.  References*** www.ager.press.roÂ

Disfluencies in German adult- and infant-directed speech

Bellinghausen C, Betz S, Zahner K, Sasdrich A, Schröer M, Schröder B. Disfluencies in German adult- and infant-directed speech. In: Proceedings of SEFOS: 1st International Seminar on the Foundations of Speech. Breathing, Pausing and The Voice. 2019: 44-46

Modelling Resource Dependencies

The major research in the resource management literature focuses primarily on two directions: 1) specification languages for formulating resource requests and 2) constraint problems modelling allocation and scheduling. Both directions assume the knowledge of the underlying platform architecture and the dependencies it induces on the usage of the various resources. In this report we bridge this gap, by introducing Constraint-Flow Nets (cfNets). A cfNet is defined by a set of resources and dependencies between them, each dependency having an associated constraint. The model is inspired by Petri Nets, with resources corresponding to places and dependencies—to transitions. Given an architecture of dependent resources, an initial resource request is propagated through the dependencies. The generated constraints are then conjuncted into the global allocation constraint. We study the notion of conflicts in cfNets and prove that for conflict-free cfNets the global allocation constraint can be constructed unambiguously. Furthermore, we provide an efficient algorithm for conflict detection

How I See Me-A Meta-Analysis Investigating the Association Between Identities and Pro-environmental Behaviour

Prolific research suggests identity associates with pro-environmental behaviours (PEBs) that are individual and/or group focused. Individual PEB is personally driven, self-reliant, and are conducted on one’s own (e.g., home recycling). Group focused PEB is other people-reliant and completed as part of a group (e.g., attending meetings of an environmental organisation). A wide range of identities have been related to PEBs. For example, a recent systematic qualitative review revealed 99 different types of identities studied in a PEB context. Most studies were correlational, few had an experimental design. However, the relationships between all these identities and PEBs have so far not been tested quantitatively with meta-analytical techniques. As such, a clear overview of this field is currently lacking. Due to the diverse nature of the field, a priori hypotheses were not possible and relatively broad definitions of identity had to be used to encompass all types of identities and the diverse meanings of identity that have been included in PEB research. What prior theory did allow for was to assess the distinction between two main types of identity, namely how people label, describe, and recognise oneself individually (individual identity), or as part of a group (group identity). Our overall goal was thus to assess the current state of knowledge on identities and PEBs. In 104 studies using a meta-regression following the preferred reporting items for systematic reviews and meta-analyses guidelines, our random-effects meta-analysis showed that the overall concept of identity associated with PEB with a medium Pearson’s r (Aim 1). Furthermore, we found that individual identities associated more strongly with PEBs than group identities (Aim 2). The associations between individual and group identities were stronger when the identity and PEB were from the same category (e.g., when both were group-focused; Aim 3). Methodologically, the findings revealed that group identities and group PEBs were most strongly associated for self-reported rather than observed PEBs (Aim 4). Overall identity associated most strongly with group PEBs in the field rather than in the lab (Aim 5) and in student- rather than non-student samples (Aim 6). We discuss the theoretical and practical implications

Understanding the associations between information sources, sociodemographics, and views on public health measures: evidence from the COVID-19 pandemic in Austria

Background: Throughout the COVID-19 pandemic, it was a key priority for governments globally to ensure agreement with, and subsequently adherence to, imposed public health measures, specifically non-pharmaceutical interventions (NPIs). Prior research in this regard highlighted the role of COVID-19 information sources as well as sociodemographic and other personal characteristics, however, there is only limited evidence including both. To bridge this gap, this study investigated the associations of COVID-19 information sources such as social media and participant characteristics with agreement with and adherence to NPIs during the first lockdown in Austria. Methods: An online survey was conducted in May 2020 among adult Austrian residents asking about their experiences during the first lockdown. Collected data included sociodemographic characteristics, main COVID-19-related information sources, agreement with/adherence to three NPIs (no physical contact to family members not living in the same household, leisurely walks restricted to members of the same household, mandatory face masks) and information about perceived social support using the Multidimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support (MSPSS), anxiety/depression levels using the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale (HADS), whether participants felt well advised by the government, and whether participants perceived the pandemic to threaten their income. Ordered and multinomial logistic regression models were employed to achieve the research aims. Results: The cross-sectional sample consisted of 559 Austrian residents. Using social media as main COVID-19 information source was consistently associated with lower agreement with NPIs. A positive association with agreement with measures was found for higher educational backgrounds and higher anxiety levels. By contrast, higher levels of depression, not feeling well advised by the government, and perceiving the pandemic as an economic threat were negatively associated with agreement with measures. Moreover, the use of social media as main COVID-19 information source and not feeling well advised by the government were associated with lower adherence to NPIs. By contrast, higher levels of education were associated with higher adherence. Conclusions: This comprehensive analysis emphasizes the associations of COVID-19 information sources as well as sociodemographic and other participant characteristics with agreement with and adherence to NPIs, bearing important implications for future public health crisis communication strategies

Forecasting Brain Activity Based on Models of Spatio-Temporal Brain Dynamics: A Comparison of Graph Neural Network Architectures

Comprehending the interplay between spatial and temporal characteristics of neural dynamics can contribute to our understanding of information processing in the human brain. Graph neural networks (GNNs) provide a new possibility to interpret graph structured signals like those observed in complex brain networks. In our study we compare different spatio-temporal GNN architectures and study their ability to model neural activity distributions obtained in functional MRI (fMRI) studies. We evaluate the performance of the GNN models on a variety of scenarios in MRI studies and also compare it to a VAR model, which is currently often used for directed functional connectivity analysis. We show that by learning localized functional interactions on the anatomical substrate, GNN based approaches are able to robustly scale to large network studies, even when available data are scarce. By including anatomical connectivity as the physical substrate for information propagation, such GNNs also provide a multi-modal perspective on directed connectivity analysis, offering a novel possibility to investigate the spatio-temporal dynamics in brain networks