A comparison of plots for monothetic clustering, with applications to microbial communities and educational test development

Monothetic clustering for multivariate binary data provides a method of identifying variables whose levels identify the different patterns of responses. The default graphical summary of the standard version of this method provides information on the variables used to split the observations into groups and the proportions of the responses in the groups but not the levels of the responses in each cluster. A modified graph is proposed to provide fuller interpretations of the clustering results. The methods are applied to two examples and contrasted with other approaches to clustering multivariate binary responses. One application involves the clustering different bacterial clones presence/absence throughout distinct strata (or sections) in ice cores from Pony Lake, Antarctica, where the interest is in the full patterns of responses in the different clusters. The second is from a test developed to measure elementary education mathematics coaches knowledge of different aspects of mathematics coaching. In this second application, the interest lies more with questions that define distinct groups of individuals than with the entire pattern of responses

The relationship between insomnia and depressive symptoms: genuine or artifact?

Fadia Isaac, Kenneth Mark GreenwoodSchool of Health Sciences, RMIT University, Bundoora, Victoria, AustraliaBackground: Somatic symptom overlap between depression and insomnia has emerged as a major concern. Self-report measures such as the Beck Depression Inventory Second Edition (BDI-II) include somatic symptoms related to depression that are also present in the research diagnostic criteria for insomnia. This study aimed firstly to examine the relationship between the cognitive and somatic factors of the BDI-II and global scores on the Pittsburgh Sleep Quality Index (PSQI) in individuals presenting for insomnia treatment and secondly to examine whether treating insomnia in depressed individuals with insomnia will lead to a reduction in their depressive symptoms and whether this reduction is related to a decrease in the somatic or cognitive factors of depressive symptoms.Methods: A total of 379 individuals (133 males and 246 females), with a mean (M) age of 49.95 (standard deviation [SD] = 14.15) years, were used to address the first aim. To address the second aim, a total of 64 participants (27 males and 37 females) with both insomnia and depressive symptoms were treated for their insomnia. Their ages ranged between 22 and 87 (M = 50.97, SD = 15.13) years.Results: A significant relationship was found between both the cognitive and somatic factors of the BDI-II and global scores on the PSQI. Furthermore, although results in this study are only suggestive, they lend support to the idea that the relationship between insomnia and depression is not due to somatic symptom overlap. Results may also support the hypothesis that insomnia is primary to the presentation of depressive symptoms.Conclusion: Clinicians and health care providers could initially treat insomnia in individuals suffering from insomnia who also experience depressive symptoms, as this will not only remit insomnia but also abate the accompanying depressive symptoms.Keywords: cognitive depressive symptoms, somatic depressive symptoms, symptom overla

Marktorientierung und Anstellungsverhältnisse in der Aktivierungsindustrie: Fallstudie zu Großbritannien und Deutschland

In diesem Beitrag beschreiben wir »Aktivierung« als staatlich finanzierte Industrie mit einem großen Personalbestand. Wir untersuchen die Beispiele Großbritannien und Deutschland, wo die wichtigsten Akteure die öffentlichen Arbeitsämter sind. Gemeint sind damit insbesondere die Bundesagentur für Arbeit (BA) und das Jobcentre Plus (JCP), welche selber Arbeitsvermittlung betreiben sowie Weiterbildung und Beratung für Erwerbslose an externe Unternehmen auslagern. Als weitere wichtige Akteure sind große Anbieter wie die deutschen Sozialverbände und die nationalen karitativen Verbände Großbritanniens zu nennen, aber auch Konzerne wie A4e, Maximus oder Ingeus. In vielen Ländern expandierte die Aktivierungsindustrie zusammen mit den steigenden finanziellen Mitteln für Aktivierungsprogramme. Auch veränderte sie sich durch die Einführung eines Preiswettbewerbs unter den Anbietern. Wie zahlreiche andere Bereiche der Sozialpolitik hängt »Aktivierung« maßgeblich von den Beschäftigten der unteren Stufen der Bürokratie (»street-level bureaucracy«, Lødemel/Trickey 2000) ab. Wie aber sieht die Entwicklung der Arbeitsbeziehungen in diesem Sektor aus

Using and appropriating the smart city for community and capacity building amongst migrant language learners

Smart cities promise citizens access to networked services to improve their urban living, whilst offering city planners and managers detailed and current information about how services are used to enable better provision and responsive developments. We explore two educational approaches that enable citizens to take advantage of network infrastructures found in smart cities and other highly developed urban environments, combined with domesticated mobile devices (smartphones) to meet their needs and build community. We focus on a group that is particularly at risk of exclusion: recent migrants to the city who are language learners. This group faces challenges of cultural, social and linguistic inclusion. Providing information resources and language learning via smartphones which are integrated into their daily routines, and leveraging a city’s network infrastructure facilitates not only individual knowledge development, but also the opportunity to build communities. We suggest how technologies devised to support a top-down service provision model might also be used to enable a community managed knowledge repository triggering location-specific resources, the Open Beacons concept

The need for psychological therapies for sleep disorders other than insomnia: potential for mindfulness

[Extract] The nature of the symptoms of sleep disorders and the impact they have on sleep and waking function mean that distress and negative emotionality are common accompanying features to many sleep disorders. Even though there are specific biological treatments, such as medication for restless legs syndrome, wake-promoting medication for narcolepsy and positive airway pressure for obstructive sleep apnoea, these are not always perfectly effective and there may be a role for adjunctive treatments that address the distress and emotion that become part of these chronic conditions and add to their impact. For people with milder symptoms, psychological treatment alone may provide sufficient symptomatic relief. Many sleep disorders occur in association with other physical or psychiatric conditions, which may contribute to the distress experienced