Multiple document comprehension of university students and its training

Akademisches Lesen erfordert von Studierenden häufig, mehrere Dokumente zu einemThema zu verstehen und miteinander in Beziehung zu setzen. Viele Studierende beherrschen ein solches Lesen jedoch zumindest zu Beginn ihres Studiums nicht in ausreichendem Maße. Klassische Lesekompetenz kann sie bei der Bewältigung anstehender Anforderungen unterstützen, reicht aber oft allein nicht aus. Im vorliegenden Beitrag werden die Fähigkeit des Verstehens multipler Dokumente sowie Befunde zum Zusammenhang mit anderen Variablen dargestellt und Fördermöglichkeiten skizziert. Dabei wird insbesondere auf einen Ansatz eingegangen, in dem Studierenden eine Möglichkeit zur eigenständigen Leistungsüberprüfung (Self-Assessment) mit anschließendem Feedback und darauf abgestimmtem Fördermaterial angeboten wird.Academic reading often requires students to understand and relate multiple documents on a topic. However, many students have not mastered such academic reading to a sufficient degree, at least at the beginning of their studies. Classical reading skills can support them in coping with the demands at hand but are often not sufficient on their own. In this article, the ability to comprehend multiple documents as well as findings on its relationship to other variables are presented. Support options are outlined. In particular, an approach is discussed in which students are offered a self-assessment program with subsequent feedback and support material tailored to their needs

Treatment Motivations and Expectations in Patients with Actinic Keratosis: A German-Wide Multicenter, Cross-Sectional Trial

Patient-centered motives and expectations of the treatment of actinic keratoses (AK) have received little attention until now. Hence, we aimed to profile and cluster treatment motivations and expectations among patients with AK in a nationwide multicenter, cross-sectional study including patients from 14 German skin cancer centers. Patients were asked to complete a self-administered questionnaire. Treatment motives and expectations towards AK management were measured on a visual analogue scale from 1–10. Specific patient profiles were investigated with subgroup and correlation analysis. Overall, 403 patients were included. The highest motivation values were obtained for the items “avoid transition to invasive squamous cell carcinoma” (mean ± standard deviation; 8.98 ± 1.46), “AK are considered precancerous lesions” (8.72 ± 1.34) and “treating physician recommends treatment” (8.10 ± 2.37; p < 0.0001). The highest expectation values were observed for the items “effective lesion clearance” (8.36 ± 1.99), “safety” (8.20 ± 2.03) and “treatment-related costs are covered by health insurance” (8.00 ± 2.41; p < 0.0001). Patients aged ≥77 years and those with ≥7 lesions were identified at high risk of not undergoing any treatment due to intrinsic and extrinsic motivation deficits. Heat mapping of correlation analysis revealed four clusters with distinct motivation and expectation profiles. This study provides a patient-based heuristic tool for a personalized treatment decision in patients with AK

High-Risk Teen Compliance With Prescription Contraception: An Analysis Of Ohio Medicaid Claims

Study Objective: This study examines utilization of and compliance with prescription contraception by adolescents. Design: Retrospective cohort analysis of billing and pharmacy claims. Setting: Ohio Medicaid fee-for-service enrollees. Participants: Claims data of 12- to 19-year-olds identified at high risk for pregnancy by sexually related service billing or procedure code. Main Outcome Measure: Prescription contraception use and compliance patterns were examined over a 12-month study period. Results: During a 6-month enrollment period, 3338 females were identified at risk for pregnancy. Over one-fourth (920) became pregnant. Across the 12-month follow-up, 40% (1328) used no prescription contraception and 33% (1090) used some prescribed contraceptive. Most teens used injectable medroxyprogesterone (517) or oral contraceptive pills (492). About 20% of those using any type of prescribed contraceptive were compliant for the full year; less than 30% used a method for 3 months or less. Whites were more compliant with contraception than nonwhites. Younger age and concurrent mental health condition were also predictors of noncompliance. Conclusions: Teens at risk for pregnancy demonstrated poor compliance with prescribed contraceptives. Billing/pharmacy claims analysis is a useful tool for identifying teens at risk for pregnancy in order to target and evaluate interventions or to benchmark care provided to adolescents

High-Risk Teen Compliance With Prescription Contraception: An Analysis Of Ohio Medicaid Claims

Study Objective: This study examines utilization of and compliance with prescription contraception by adolescents. Design: Retrospective cohort analysis of billing and pharmacy claims. Setting: Ohio Medicaid fee-for-service enrollees. Participants: Claims data of 12- to 19-year-olds identified at high risk for pregnancy by sexually related service billing or procedure code. Main Outcome Measure: Prescription contraception use and compliance patterns were examined over a 12-month study period. Results: During a 6-month enrollment period, 3338 females were identified at risk for pregnancy. Over one-fourth (920) became pregnant. Across the 12-month follow-up, 40% (1328) used no prescription contraception and 33% (1090) used some prescribed contraceptive. Most teens used injectable medroxyprogesterone (517) or oral contraceptive pills (492). About 20% of those using any type of prescribed contraceptive were compliant for the full year; less than 30% used a method for 3 months or less. Whites were more compliant with contraception than nonwhites. Younger age and concurrent mental health condition were also predictors of noncompliance. Conclusions: Teens at risk for pregnancy demonstrated poor compliance with prescribed contraceptives. Billing/pharmacy claims analysis is a useful tool for identifying teens at risk for pregnancy in order to target and evaluate interventions or to benchmark care provided to adolescents

Brown rats (Rattus norvegicus) in urban ecosystems: are the constraints related to fieldwork a limit to their study?

Nowadays, the majority of human beings live in urban ecosystems, with this proportion expected to continue increasing in the future. With the growing importance of urban rat-associated issues (e.g. damages to urban infrastructures, costs of rat-control programs, rat-associated health risks), it is becoming indispensable to fill the identified gaps in knowledge on the urban brown rat regarding, among others, its density, home range, genetic structure, and infectious status. In this context, live-trapping is a crucial prerequisite to any scientific investigation. This paper assesses the main constraints and challenges regarding the urban field and describes the major steps to be considered when planning research on urban rats. The primary challenges are i) the characteri zation of the urban experimental unit; ii) the choice of a trapping design: the use of live-trapping in capture-mark-recapture design, in association with modern statistics, is highly recommended to answer ecological questions (although these methods, mostly developed in natural ecosystems, need to be implemented for the urban field); iii) the potential ethical considerations with regard to animal welfare and field-worker safety; iv) the building of mutually-beneficial collaborations with city stakeholders, pest control professionals, and citizens. Emphasis must be put on communication to the public and education of field-workers. One major need of modern urban rat research is a peer-validated field methodology allowing reproducibility, repeatability, and inference from urban field studies and enabling researchers to answer long-standing key questions about urban rat ecology.Hoy en día, la mayoría de los seres humanos viven en ecosistemas urbanos, y se espera que esta proporción siga aumentando en el futuro. Con la creciente importancia de los problemas asociados a las ratas urbanas (por ejemplo, daños a las infraestructuras urbanas, costes de los programas de control de ratas, riesgos para la salud asociados a las ratas), se hace indispensable llenar las lagunas identificadas en el conocimiento de la rata. de control de ratas, riesgos para la salud asociados a las ratas), se hace indispensable llenar las lagunas identificadas en el conocimiento de la rata parda urbana en lo que respecta, entre otras cosas, a su densidad, área de distribución, estructura genética y estado infeccioso. En este contexto, la captura de animales vivos es un En este contexto, el trampeo en vivo es un prerrequisito crucial para cualquier investigación científica. En este artículo se evalúan las principales limitaciones y retos en el ámbito urbano y se describe los principales pasos a tener en cuenta a la hora de planificar la investigación sobre las ratas urbanas. Los principales retos son: i) la caracterización de la unidad experimental urbana; ii) la elección de un diseño de trampeo: el uso de trampas vivas en un diseño de captura-marcado-recaptura de captura-marcado-recaptura, en asociación con la estadística moderna, es muy recomendable para responder a cuestiones ecológicas (aunque estos métodos (aunque estos métodos, desarrollados en su mayoría en ecosistemas naturales, deben aplicarse en el ámbito urbano); iii) las posibles consideraciones éticas con iii) las posibles consideraciones éticas en relación con el bienestar de los animales y la seguridad de los trabajadores sobre el terreno; iv) la creación de colaboraciones mutuamente beneficiosas con las partes interesadas de la ciudad, los profesionales del control de plagas y los ciudadanos. Hay que hacer hincapié en la comunicación con el público y la educación de los trabajadores de campo. Una de las principales necesidades de la investigación moderna sobre las ratas urbanas es una metodología de campo validada por pares que permita la reproducibilidad, repetibilidad y y permitir a los investigadores responder a las preguntas clave sobre la ecología de las ratas urbanas.Universidad Nacional, Costa RicaEscuela de Medicina Veterinari

Fox sightings in a city are related to certain land use classes and sociodemographics: results from a citizen science project

Abstract Background Red foxes (Vulpes vulpes L.) have become successful inhabitants of urban areas in recent years. However, our knowledge about the occurrence, distribution and association with land uses of these urban foxes is poor, partly because many favoured habitats are on private properties and therefore hardly accessible to scientists. We assumed that citizen science, i.e. the involvement of the public, could enable researchers to bridge this information gap. We analysed 1179 fox sightings in the city of Vienna, Austria reported via citizen science projects to examine relationships between foxes and the surrounding land use classes as well as sociodemographic parameters. Results Conditional probabilities of encountering foxes were substantially higher in gardens, areas with a low building density, parks or squares as compared to agricultural areas, industrial areas or forests. Generalized linear model analyses showed that sociodemographic parameters such as education levels, district area, population density and average household income additionally improved the predictability of fox sightings. Conclusions Reports of fox sightings by citizen scientists might help to support the establishment of wildlife management in cities. Additionally, these data could be used to address public health issues in relation with red foxes as they can carry zoonoses that are also dangerous to humans

StadtWildTiere – added value and impact of transnational urban wildlife community science projects

We present and exemplify the potential of the long-term community science (= citizen science) project StadtWildTiere (German for 'urban wildlife') in a transnational context. StadtWildTiere gathers opportunistic sightings of urban wildlife to raise awareness of, increase knowledge of, and promote biodiversity in urban areas across Central Europe. Transnationally similar methodologies enable direct comparisons concerning occurrence, distribution, and trends of urban wildlife populations and allow for new insights into and potential conservation and management measures of these otherwise unmonitored wildlife populations. We advocate the use and promotion for such community-based science projects, which align with the guiding principles of awareness, knowledge, and action. Such projects should whenever possible connect with similar initiatives in other countries to benefit from comparisons and get a strong impact on a transnational level.ISSN:2296-701