A Conversation About Current Issues Facing the Global Financial Industry

https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/filler_institute_events/1014/thumbnail.jp

Rasch Analysis, Dimensionality, and Scoring of the Neuropsychiatric Inventory Irritability and Aggression Subscales in Individuals With Traumatic Brain Injury

Objectives To develop, for versions completed by individuals with traumatic brain injury (TBI) and an observer, a more precise metric for the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (NPI) Irritability and Aggression subscales using all behavioral item ratings for use with individuals with TBI and to address the dimensionality of the represented behavioral domains. Design Rasch and confirmatory factor analyses of retrospective baseline NPI data from 3 treatment studies. Setting Postacute rehabilitation clinic. Participants NPI records (N = 525) consisting of observer ratings (n = 287) and self-ratings (n = 238) by participants with complicated mild, moderate, or severe TBI at least 6 months postinjury. Interventions Not applicable. Main Outcome Measures Frequency and severity ratings from NPI Irritability/Lability and Agitation/Aggression subscales. Results Confirmatory factor analyses of both observer and participant ratings showed good fit for either a 1-factor or a 2-factor solution. Consistent with this, the Rasch model also fit the data well with aggression items indicating the more severe end of the construct and irritability items populating the milder end. Conclusions Irritability and aggression appear to represent different levels of severity of a single construct. The derived Rasch metric offers a measure of this construct based on responses to all specific items that is appropriate for parametric statistical analysis and may be useful in research and clinical assessments of individuals with TBI

A Conversation About Current Issues Facing the Global Financial Industry

https://digitalcommons.nyls.edu/filler_institute_events/1014/thumbnail.jp

Effect of Short-Term Free Fatty Acids Elevation on Mitochondrial Function in Skeletal Muscle of Healthy Individuals

Context: Mitochondrial dysfunction has been proposed as an underlying mechanism in the pathogenesis of insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes mellitus

The Relationship of Jewish Community Contexts and Jewish Identity: A 22-Community Study

This paper explores the manner in which Jewish community contexts relate to Jewish identity. We employ the Decade 2000 Data Set that contains almost 20,000 randomly selected Jewish households from 22 American Jewish communities interviewed from 2000 to 2010. Because of the large sample size, and its incorporation of community infrastructure data, this research also is able to examine various influences on Jewish identity that have not been definitively addressed in previous research, including the manner in which characteristics of Jewish community infrastructure are related to individuals’ Jewish identity. The Decade 2000 Data Set used for the analysis is described and some of the methodological considerations involved in its use are presented. Jewish identity is conceptualized as multidimensional, and a factor analysis results in four Jewish identity factors: a communal religious factor, a private religious factor, a broader ethnic factor, and a local ethnic factor. Multiple regressions for each of the Jewish identity factors are related to Jewish community characteristics; more commonly researched individual-level variables (Jewish background and connections, family status, socioeconomic status, demographic/geographic characteristics); and survey-level variables (such as size of sample and year of study) are also controlled. Surprisingly, except for the local ethnic factor, Jewish community characteristics have little relationship to individual Jewish identity. The contributions to a “sociology of Jewish place” and suggestions for further research are also discussed