‘One of the most important questions that human beings have to understand’: Salafism as Islamic deferentialist fundamentalism

In the present article, the authors argue that the study of Salafism as a contemporary Islamic new religious movement could benefit from an analytical perspective separating fundamentalism into the modes of inferentialism and deferentialism. The basics of these concepts are outlined and discussed in relation to different aspects of contemporary Salafism as well as in relation to previous tendencies in Islamic history. As a case study, the authors employ the concept in an analysis of a contemporary Swedish Salafi discourse on the ‘wiping of the (leather) socks’ in the context of ritual purity. The authors argue that the concept of ‘deferential fundamentalism’ has a potential in the study of Salafism in that it allows for comparative analysis, both cross-religiously and diachronically, in contextualising Salafism historically. It also allows for an analysis of Salafi thought and practice in relation to theories of how human beings in general process social information

Engineered reporter phages for detection of Escherichia coli, Enterococcus, and Klebsiella in urine

The rapid detection and species-level differentiation of bacterial pathogens facilitates antibiotic stewardship and improves disease management. Here, we develop a rapid bacteriophage-based diagnostic assay to detect the most prevalent pathogens causing urinary tract infections: Escherichia coli, Enterococcus spp., and Klebsiella spp. For each uropathogen, two virulent phages were genetically engineered to express a nanoluciferase reporter gene upon host infection. Using 206 patient urine samples, reporter phage-induced bioluminescence was quantified to identify bacteriuria and the assay was benchmarked against conventional urinalysis. Overall, E. coli, Enterococcus spp., and Klebsiella spp. were each detected with high sensitivity (68%, 78%, 87%), specificity (99%, 99%, 99%), and accuracy (90%, 94%, 98%) at a resolution of ≥1

Determinants of organised sports participation patterns during the transition from childhood to adolescence in Germany: results of a nationwide cohort study

Abstract Background Organised sports (OS) participation is an important health behaviour but it seems to decline from childhood to adolescence. The aim of this study was to investigate OS participation patterns from childhood to adolescence and potential determinants for those patterns. Methods Data from the German Health Interview and Examination Survey for Children and Adolescents (KiGGS) cohort study with a 6 year follow-up period were used (KiGGS0: 2003-06, KiGGS1: 2009-12). Participants aged 6–10 years at KiGGS0, who were aged 12–16 at KiGGS1, were included (n = 3790). The outcome variable was ‘OS participation’ between KiGGS0 and KiGGS1 with the categories ‘maintenance’ (reference), ‘dropout’, ‘commencement’ and ‘nonparticipation’. Relative risk ratios (RRRs) were calculated using multinomial logistic regression to identify potential predictors for OS patterns. Socio-demographic, family-related, health-related, behavioural and environmental factors were considered as independent variables. Results 48.5 % maintained OS, 20.5 % dropped out, 12.3 % commenced OS between KiGGS0 and KiGGS1 and 18.7 % did not participate at both times. The RRRs for dropout rather than maintenance were 0.6 (95 % Cl 0.5–0.7) for boys versus girls, 1.5 (1.3–1.9) for the age group 8–10 versus 6–7 years, 0.7 (0.5–0.9) for high versus intermediate parental education, 1.4 (1.1–1.8) for low versus middle household income, 1.4 (1.0–1.8) for below-average versus average motor fitness. The RRRs for commencement rather than maintenance were 0.6 (0.5–0.8) for boys versus girls, 0.6 (0.5–0.8) for the age group 8–10 versus 6–7 years, 1.5 (1.1–2.1) for low versus intermediate parental education, 1.5 (1.1–2.0) for low versus middle household income, 0.7 (0.5–1.0) for no single-parent versus single parent family, 1.8 (1.3–2.5) for below-average and 0.6 (0.4–0.8) for above-average versus average motor fitness, and 1.4 (1.1–1.9) for high versus middle screen-based media use. The RRRs for abstinence rather than maintenance were 0.6 (0.4–0.7) for boys versus girls, 1.5 (1.1–2.0) for low versus intermediate parental education, 2.2 (1.7–2.8) for low and 0.6 (0.5–0.8) for high versus middle household income, 1.6 (1.2–2.1) for psychopathological problems versus no problems, 1.7 (1.3–2.2) for below-average and 0.4 (0.3–0.6) for above-average versus average motor fitness, and 1.6 (1.0–2.6) for rural versus metropolitan residential area. Conclusions OS participation rates among all children living in Germany need to be improved. More tailored offerings are needed which consider the preferences and interests of adolescents as well as a cooperation between public health actors to reduce barriers to OS

Automatic Transcription of English and German Qualitative Interviews

Recording and transcribing interviews in qualitative social research is a vital but time-consuming and resource-intensive task. To tackle this challenge, researchers have explored various alternative approaches; automatic transcription utilising speech recognition algorithms has emerged as a promising solution. The question of whether automated transcripts can match the quality of transcripts produced by humans remains unanswered. In this paper we systematically compare multiple automatic transcription tools: Amberscript, Dragon, F4x, Happy Scribe, NVivo, Sonix, Trint, Otter, and Whisper. We evaluate aspects of data protection, accuracy, time efficiency, and costs for an English and a German interview. Based on the analysis, we conclude that Whisper performs best overall and that similar local-automatic transcription tools are likely to become more relevant. For any type of transcription, we recommend reviewing the text to ensure accuracy. We hope to shed light on the effectiveness of automatic transcription services and provide a comparative frame for others interested in automatic transcription.Die Aufnahme und Transkription von Interviews sind zentrale, aber ressourcen- und zeitintensive Schritte in der qualitativen Sozialforschung. In Bezug darauf haben Forscher*innen verschiedene Alternativen vorgeschlagen, unter anderem automatische Transkription mithilfe von Spracherkennungsalgorithmen. Ob solche automatisch erstellten Transkripte die Qualität von durch Menschen erstellte Transkripte erreichen, ist noch unklar. In diesem Beitrag vergleichen wir systematisch mehrere automatische Transkriptionswerkzeuge: Amberscript, Dragon, F4x, Happy Scribe, NVivo, Sonix, Trint, Otter und Whisper. Wir bewerten Aspekte des Datenschutzes, der Genauigkeit, der nötigen Zeit und der Kosten anhand eines englischsprachigen und eines deutschsprachigen Interviews. Unsere Analyse ergibt, dass Whisper insgesamt am besten abschneidet und dass ähnliche lokal-automatische Transkriptionswerkzeuge in der Zukunft wahrscheinlich relevanter werden. Um höchstmögliche Genauigkeit zu erreichen, empfehlen wir ein Durchlesen des Texts für jegliche Art der Transkription. Wir stellen einen Rahmen zum Vergleich von Transkriptionswerkzeugen bereit und hoffen, einen Beitrag zur Diskussion der Brauchbarkeit von automatischer Transkription leisten zu können

Statin Medication Improves Five-Year Survival Rates in Patients with Head and Neck Cancer: A Retrospective Case-Control Study of about 100,000 Patients

Introduction: The overall survival among head and neck cancer patients is still low, even in a time of new therapy regimes. Regarding cancer patients' survival, statin use has already proven to be associated with favorable survival outcomes. Our objective was to investigate the influence of statin medication on the overall survival of head and neck cancer patients. Methods: Retrospective clinical data of patients diagnosed with head and neck cancer (International Classification of Diseases codes: C00-C14) were retrieved from a real-world evidence database. The initial cohort was divided into patients with statin medication, who were assigned to building cohort I, and subjects without statin medication, who were assigned to cohort II, both matched by age, gender, and risk factors (nicotine and alcohol abuse/dependence). Subsequently, Kaplan-Meier and risk analyses were performed, and odds and hazard ratios were calculated. Results: After matching, each cohort contained 48,626 patients (cohort I = females: 15,409; (31.7%), males 33,212 (68.3%); mean age & PLUSMN; standard deviation (SD) at diagnosis 66.3 & PLUSMN; 11.4 years; cohort II = females: 15,432; (31.7%), males 33,187 (68.2%); mean age & PLUSMN; standard deviation (SD) at diagnosis 66.4 & PLUSMN; 11.5 years). Five-year survival was found to be significantly higher for cohort I, with 75.19%, respectively 70.48% for cohort II. These findings were correlated significantly with a risk of death of 15.9% (cohort I) and 17.2% (cohort II); the odds ratio was 0.91 (95% CI: 0.881-0.942) and the hazard ratio 0.80 (0.777-0.827). Conclusions: The results indicate that the five-year survival of head and neck cancer patients is significantly improved by statin medication. As this study was conducted retrospectively, our data must be interpreted with caution, especially since other potential influencing factors and the initial tumor stage were not available

The ethnic diversity and collective action survey (EDCAS): technical report

"The EDCA-Survey is a large scale CATI telephone survey conducted in three countries: Germany, France and the Netherlands. The survey was designed to test theoretical arguments on the effects of ethnic diversity on social capital and civic engagement. This aim demands for a sophisticated design. The survey is not representative for the entire populations of Germany, France or the Netherlands. Instead, the basic population is the population over the age of 18 in 74 selected regions in Germany, France and the Netherlands that have sufficient language skills to conduct an interview in the language of their country of residence, or in the case of the oversample of people with Turkish migration background to conduct the interview in Turkish. The aim of the survey is to enable the comparison of these 74 regions, which vary on contextual characteristics of interest. In addition, the EDCA-Survey includes one oversample of migrants in general (24%) and an additional second oversample of Turkish migrants in particular (14%). The oversampling is the same within each of the 74 regions, each of which has about 100 observations and seven specially chosen cities even 500. This survey design is an important characteristic of the EDCA-Survey and distinguishes it from other available data. This is important since one aim of the EDCA-Survey is to enable the aggregation of contextual characteristics from the survey itself. Overall, 10.200 completed interviews were conducted - 7500 in Germany, 1400 in France and 1300 in the Netherlands." (author's abstract)"Der EDCA-Survey ist eine CATI gestützte Telefonumfrage, die in Deutschland, Frankreich und den Niederlanden durchgeführt wurde. Die Umfrage wurde mit dem Ziel erhoben, Effekte ethnischer Diversität auf Sozialkapital und Zivilengagement zu untersuchen. Dieses Vorhaben setzt ein komplexes Surveydesign voraus. So ist die Umfrage nicht repräsentativ für die Bevölkerungen von Deutschland, Frankreich und den Niederlanden. Stattdessen bildet die Grundgesamtheit die Bevölkerung von 74 ausgewählten Regionen der drei Länder, die über die Sprachfertigkeit verfügen, ein Interview in der Landessprache oder gegebenenfalls auf Türkisch zu führen. Ziel ist der Vergleich dieser 74 Regionen, die sich hinsichtlich verschiedener Charakteristika unterscheiden. Darüber hinaus weist der EDCA-Survey eine überproportionale Stichprobe von Personen mit Migrationshintergrund (24%) und eine zweite überproportionale Stichprobe von Personen mit türkischem Migrationshintergrund (14%) auf. Diese überproportionale Stichprobe wurde in jeder der 74 Regionen gezogen, in denen jeweils ca. 100 Interviews durchgeführt wurden. In sieben speziell ausgesuchten Regionen wurden 500 Interviews geführt. Dieses Surveydesign ist ein zentrales Charakteristikum des EDCA-Surveys und ermöglicht die Aggregation von Kontextmerkmalen aus dem Survey. Insgesamt wurden 10.200 vollständige Interviews erhoben – 7500 in Deutschland, 1400 in Frankreich und 1300 in den Niederlanden." (Autorenreferat

Determinants of work-related training: an investigation of observed and unobserved firm-, job- and worker-heterogeneity

One of the most important policy goals in industrialized countries is to increase the skill level of the labor force by life-long-learning strategies. In this paper our aim is to explain to what extent the variation in training investments is determined either by (observed and unobserved) heterogeneity of firms or of workers, hence we put a new perspective on the determinants of training. Rather than analyzing single determinants or groups of variables, we decompose the variation into a worker-specific and a firm-specific part and show how much of the unexplained variation is independent of both. Our results show that both firm-, job- and worker-level heterogeneity explains training participation and that firm heterogeneity is far less important compared to the others. Also interesting, is the finding that a large part of the overall variance is not driven by firm- or worker heterogeneity, hence training participation seems to be to some extent an unexplained event which happens by chance

Motivational readiness for physical activity and health literacy: results of a cross-sectional survey of the adult population in Germany

Background: Health literacy, defined as the knowledge, motivation, and competences to use health information to improve health and well-being, is associated with regular physical activity. However, there is limited evidence on whether health literacy is also related to the motivational readiness for physical activity in a general population. The aim of this study was to investigate whether motivational readiness for leisure-time physical activity is associated with health literacy. Methods: Analyses were based on data of 21,895 adults from the cross-sectional German Health Update and European Health Interview Survey 2014/2015 (GEDA 2014/2015-EHIS). Motivational readiness for leisure-time physical activity was assessed with stages of change for physical activity with a set of validated items. It was then classified, according to an established algorithm, into five stages: precontemplation, contemplation, preparation, action, and maintenance. Health literacy was measured with the short form of the European Health Literacy Survey Questionnaire (HLS-EU-Q16) and categorised as low, medium, and high. For bivariate and multinomial logistic regression analyses, the stages were categorised in three phases as: (1) no intention (precontemplation), (2) planning (contemplation or preparation), and (3) in activity (action or maintenance). The models were adjusted for sex, age, education, health consciousness, self-efficacy, and self-perceived general health status. Results: High compared to low health literacy was associated with a 1.65-times (95% CI = 1.39-1.96) greater probability of being in activity than planning. High compared to low health literacy was associated with a reduced risk of having no intention to change physical activity behaviour (relative risk ratio, RRR = 0.84, 95% CI = 0.75-0.95). The associations persisted after adjusting for covariates. Conclusion: High health literacy was positively associated with more advanced phases of motivational readiness for leisure-time physical activity. Therefore, taking health literacy into account in interventions to promote motivational readiness for leisure-time physical activity could be a useful approach