The psychometric properties of a shortened Dutch version of the consequences scale used in the core alcohol and drug survey

<div><p>Background</p><p>Alcohol and drug misuse among college students has been studied extensively and has been clearly identified as a public health problem. Within more general populations alcohol misuse remains one of the leading causes of disease, disability and death worldwide. Conducting research on alcohol misuse requires valid and reliable instruments to measure its consequences. One scale that is often used is the consequences scale in the Core Alcohol and Drug Survey (CADS). However, psychometric studies on the CADS are rare and the ones that do exist report varying results. This article aims to address this imbalance by examining the psychometric properties of a Dutch version of the CADS in a large sample of Flemish university and college students.</p><p>Methods</p><p>The analyses are based on data collected by the inter-university project ‘Head in the clouds’, measuring alcohol use among students. In total, 19,253 students participated (22.1% response rate). The CADS scale was measured using 19 consequences, and participants were asked how often they had experienced these on a 6-point scale. Firstly, the factor structure of the CADS was examined. Two models from literature were compared by performing confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) and were adapted if necessary. Secondly, we assessed the composite reliability as well as the convergent, discriminant and concurrent validity.</p><p>Results</p><p>The two-factor model, identifying personal consequences (had a hangover; got nauseated or vomited; missed a class) and social consequences (got into an argument or fight; been criticized by someone I know; done something I later regretted; been hurt or injured) was indicated to be the best model, having both a good model fit and an acceptable composite reliability. In addition, construct validity was evaluated to be acceptable, with good discriminant validity, although the convergent validity of the factor measuring ‘social consequences’ could be improved. Concurrent validity was evaluated as good.</p><p>Conclusions</p><p>In deciding which model best represents the data, it is crucial that not only the model fit is evaluated, but the importance of factor reliability and validity issues is also taken into account. The two-factor model, identifying personal consequences and social consequences, was concluded to be the best model. This shortened Dutch version of the CADS (CADS_D) is a useful tool to screen alcohol-related consequences among college students.</p></div

The medicalisation of female genital cutting : harm reduction or social norm?

Today, female genital cutting is increasingly practised by trained healthcare providers. While opposition to medicalised female genital cutting (FGC) is strong, little is known about the underlying motivation for this medicalisation trend in practising communities. We formulated three hypotheses based on medicalisation theories. The medicalisation of FGC: (i) is stratified and functions as a status symbol, (ii) functions as a harm-reduction strategy to conform to social norms while reducing health risks and (iii) functions as a social norm itself. Conducting multilevel multinomial regressions using the 2005, 2008 and 2014 waves of the Egyptian Demographic Health Survey, we examined the relationship between the mother's social position, the normative context in which she lives and her decision to medicalise her daughter's cut, compared to the choice of a traditional or no cut. We found that an individual woman's social position, as well as the FGC prevalence and percentage of medicalisation at the governorate level, was associated with a mother's choice to medicalise her daughter's cut. Further research on factors involved in decision-making on the medicalisation of FGC is recommended, as an in-depth understanding of why the decision is made to medicalise the FGC procedure is relevant to both the scientific field and the broader policy debate

An Imaging and Spectroscopic Study of the z=3.38639 Damped Lyman Alpha System in Q0201+1120: Clues to Star Formation Rate at High Redshift

We present the results of a series of imaging and spectroscopic observations aimed at identifying and studying the galaxy responsible for the z = 3.38639 damped lya system in the z = 3.61 QSO Q0201+1120. We find that the DLA is part of a concentration of matter which includes at least four galaxies (probably many more) over linear comoving dimensions, greater than 5h^-1Mpc. The absorber may be a 0.7 L* galaxy at an impact parameter of 15 h^-1 kpc, but follow-up spectroscopy is still required for positive identification. The gas is turbulent, with many absorption components distributed over approximately 270 km/s and a large spin temperature, T_s greater than 4000K. The metallicity is relatively high for this redshift, Z(DLA) approximately 1/20 Z(solar). From consideration of the relative ratios of elements which have different nucleosynthetic timescales, it would appear that the last major episode of star formation in this DLA occurred at z greater than 4.3, more than approximately 500 Myr prior to the time when we observe it.Comment: Accepted for publication in Ap

A search for damped Lyman-alpha systems towards radio-loud quasars I: The optical survey

We present the results from the optical component of a survey for damped Lyman-alpha systems (DLAs) towards radio-loud quasars. Our quasar sample is drawn from the Texas radio survey with the following primary selection criteria: z_em > 2.4, optical magnitudes B < 22 and 365 MHz flux density S_365 > 400 mJy. We obtained spectra for a sample of 45 QSOs with the William Herschel Telescope, Very Large Telescope and Gemini-North, resulting in a survey redshift path Delta z = 38.79. We detect nine DLAs and one sub-DLA with a mean absorption redshift = 2.44. The DLA number density is n(z) = 0.23^{+0.11}_{-0.07}, in good agreement with the value derived for DLAs detected in the Sloan Digital Sky Survey at this redshift. The DLA number density of our sample is also in good agreement with optically-complete radio-selected samples, supporting previous claims that n(z) is not significantly affected by dust obscuration bias. We present N(HI) column density determinations and metal line equivalent width measurements for all our DLAs. The low frequency flux density selection criterion used for the quasar sample implies that all absorbers will be suitable for follow-up absorption spectroscopy in the redshifted HI 21 cm line. A following paper (Kanekar et al.) will present HI 21 cm absorption studies of, and spin temperature determinations for, our DLA sample.Comment: Accepted for publication in the MNRA

Translating Marine Animal Tracking Data into Conservation Policy and Management

There have been efforts around the globe to track individuals of many marine species and assess their movements and distribution with the putative goal of supporting their conservation and management. Determining whether, and how, tracking data have been successfully applied to address real-world conservation issues is however difficult. Here, we compile a broad range of case studies from diverse marine taxa to show how tracking data have helped inform conservation policy and management, including reductions in fisheries bycatch and vessel strikes, and the design and administration of marine protected areas and important habitats. Using these examples, we highlight pathways through which the past and future investment in collecting animal tracking data might be better used to achieve tangible conservation benefits

Measurement of differential cross sections for top quark pair production using the lepton plus jets final state in proton-proton collisions at 13 TeV

National Science Foundation (U.S.

Identification of heavy-flavour jets with the CMS detector in pp collisions at 13 TeV

Many measurements and searches for physics beyond the standard model at the LHC rely on the efficient identification of heavy-flavour jets, i.e. jets originating from bottom or charm quarks. In this paper, the discriminating variables and the algorithms used for heavy-flavour jet identification during the first years of operation of the CMS experiment in proton-proton collisions at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV, are presented. Heavy-flavour jet identification algorithms have been improved compared to those used previously at centre-of-mass energies of 7 and 8 TeV. For jets with transverse momenta in the range expected in simulated $\mathrm{t}\overline{\mathrm{t}}$ events, these new developments result in an efficiency of 68% for the correct identification of a b jet for a probability of 1% of misidentifying a light-flavour jet. The improvement in relative efficiency at this misidentification probability is about 15%, compared to previous CMS algorithms. In addition, for the first time algorithms have been developed to identify jets containing two b hadrons in Lorentz-boosted event topologies, as well as to tag c jets. The large data sample recorded in 2016 at a centre-of-mass energy of 13 TeV has also allowed the development of new methods to measure the efficiency and misidentification probability of heavy-flavour jet identification algorithms. The heavy-flavour jet identification efficiency is measured with a precision of a few per cent at moderate jet transverse momenta (between 30 and 300 GeV) and about 5% at the highest jet transverse momenta (between 500 and 1000 GeV)

Evidence for the Higgs boson decay to a bottom quark–antiquark pair

info:eu-repo/semantics/publishe

Particle-flow reconstruction and global event description with the CMS detector

The CMS apparatus was identified, a few years before the start of the LHC operation at CERN, to feature properties well suited to particle-flow (PF) reconstruction: a highly-segmented tracker, a fine-grained electromagnetic calorimeter, a hermetic hadron calorimeter, a strong magnetic field, and an excellent muon spectrometer. A fully-fledged PF reconstruction algorithm tuned to the CMS detector was therefore developed and has been consistently used in physics analyses for the first time at a hadron collider. For each collision, the comprehensive list of final-state particles identified and reconstructed by the algorithm provides a global event description that leads to unprecedented CMS performance for jet and hadronic tau decay reconstruction, missing transverse momentum determination, and electron and muon identification. This approach also allows particles from pileup interactions to be identified and enables efficient pileup mitigation methods. The data collected by CMS at a centre-of-mass energy of 8 TeV show excellent agreement with the simulation and confirm the superior PF performance at least up to an average of 20 pileup interactions