Factors Influencing the Participation of Older People in Clinical Trials : Data Analysis from the MAVIS Trial

Peer reviewedPostprin

Self-determined motivation in sport predicts anti-doping motivation and intention: A perspective from the trans-contextual model

Objectives: Motivation in sport has been frequently identified as a key factor of young athletes’ intention of doping in sport, but there has not been any attempt in scrutinizing the motivational mechanism involved. The present study applied the trans-contextual model of motivation to explain the relationship between motivation in a sport context and motivation and the social-cognitive factors (attitude, subjective norm, perceived behavioral control, and intention) from the theory of planned behavior (TPB) in an anti-doping context. Design: A cross-sectional survey was conducted. Methods: Questionnaire data was collected from 410 elite and sub-elite young athletes in Australia (Mean age [17.7 ± 3.9 yr], 55.4% male, Years in sport [9.1 ± 3.2]). We measured the key model variables of study in relation to sport motivation (Behavioral Regulation in Sport Questionnaire), and the motivation (adapted version of the Treatment Self-Regulation Questionnaire) and social cognitive patterns (the theory of planned behavior questionnaire) of doping avoidance. The data was analyzed by variance-based structural equation modeling with bootstrapping of 999 replications. Results: The goodness-of-fit of the hypothesized model was acceptable. The bootstrapped parameter estimates revealed that autonomous motivation and amotivation in sport were positively associated with the corresponding types of motivation for the avoidance of doping. Autonomous motivation, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control in doping avoidance fully mediated the relationship between autonomous motivation in sport and intention for doping avoidance. Conclusions: The findings support the tenets of the trans-contextual model, and explain how motivation in sport is related to athletes’ motivation and intention with respect to anti-doping behaviors

Potential for comparative public opinion research in public administration

The public administration and public services have always taken a marginal place in the political scientists’ behavioural research. Public administration students on the other hand tend to focus on political and administrative elites and institutions, and largely ignored citizens in comparative research. In this article we make a plea for international comparative research on citizens’ attitudes towards the public administration from an interdisciplinary perspective. Available international survey material is discussed, and main trends in empirical practice and theoretical approaches are outlined, especially those with a potential impact on public sector reform

Impact of abstinence and of reducing illicit drug use without abstinence on human immunodeficiency virus viral load

Background. Substance use is common among people living with human immunodeficiency virus (PLWH) and a barrier to achieving viral suppression. Among PLWH who report illicit drug use, we evaluated associations between HIV viral load (VL) and reduced use of illicit opioids, methamphetamine/crystal, cocaine/crack, and marijuana, regardless of whether or not abstinence was achieved. Methods. This was a longitudinal cohort study of PLWH from 7 HIV clinics or 4 clinical studies. We used joint longitudinal and survival models to examine the impact of decreasing drug use and of abstinence for each drug on viral suppression. We repeated analyses using linear mixed models to examine associations between change in frequency of drug use and VL. Results. The number of PLWH who were using each drug at baseline ranged from n = 568 (illicit opioids) to n = 4272 (marijuana). Abstinence was associated with higher odds of viral suppression (odds ratio [OR], 1.4-2.2) and lower relative VL (ranging from 21% to 42% by drug) for all 4 drug categories. Reducing frequency of illicit opioid or methamphetamine/crystal use without abstinence was associated with VL suppression (OR, 2.2, 1.6, respectively). Reducing frequency of illicit opioid or methamphetamine/crystal use without abstinence was associated with lower relative VL (47%, 38%, respectively). Conclusions. Abstinence was associated with viral suppression. In addition, reducing use of illicit opioids or methamphetamine/crystal, even without abstinence, was also associated with viral suppression. Our findings highlight the impact of reducing substance use, even when abstinence is not achieved, and the potential benefits of medications, behavioral interventions, and harm-reduction interventions

Customer emotions in service failure and recovery encounters

Emotions play a significant role in the workplace, and considerable attention has been given to the study of employee emotions. Customers also play a central function in organizations, but much less is known about customer emotions. This chapter reviews the growing literature on customer emotions in employee–customer interfaces with a focus on service failure and recovery encounters, where emotions are heightened. It highlights emerging themes and key findings, addresses the measurement, modeling, and management of customer emotions, and identifies future research streams. Attention is given to emotional contagion, relationships between affective and cognitive processes, customer anger, customer rage, and individual differences

Star clusters near and far; tracing star formation across cosmic time

© 2020 Springer-Verlag. The final publication is available at Springer via https://doi.org/10.1007/s11214-020-00690-x.Star clusters are fundamental units of stellar feedback and unique tracers of their host galactic properties. In this review, we will first focus on their constituents, i.e.\ detailed insight into their stellar populations and their surrounding ionised, warm, neutral, and molecular gas. We, then, move beyond the Local Group to review star cluster populations at various evolutionary stages, and in diverse galactic environmental conditions accessible in the local Universe. At high redshift, where conditions for cluster formation and evolution are more extreme, we are only able to observe the integrated light of a handful of objects that we believe will become globular clusters. We therefore discuss how numerical and analytical methods, informed by the observed properties of cluster populations in the local Universe, are used to develop sophisticated simulations potentially capable of disentangling the genetic map of galaxy formation and assembly that is carried by globular cluster populations.Peer reviewedFinal Accepted Versio

Search for gravitational waves from Scorpius X-1 in the second Advanced LIGO observing run with an improved hidden Markov model

We present results from a semicoherent search for continuous gravitational waves from the low-mass x-ray binary Scorpius X-1, using a hidden Markov model (HMM) to track spin wandering. This search improves on previous HMM-based searches of LIGO data by using an improved frequency domain matched filter, the J-statistic, and by analyzing data from Advanced LIGO's second observing run. In the frequency range searched, from 60 to 650 Hz, we find no evidence of gravitational radiation. At 194.6 Hz, the most sensitive search frequency, we report an upper limit on gravitational wave strain (at 95% confidence) of h095%=3.47×10-25 when marginalizing over source inclination angle. This is the most sensitive search for Scorpius X-1, to date, that is specifically designed to be robust in the presence of spin wandering. © 2019 American Physical Society

True substrates: The exceptional resolution and unexceptional preservation of deep time snapshots on bedding surfaces

Abstract: Rock outcrops of the sedimentary–stratigraphic record often reveal bedding planes that can be considered to be true substrates: preserved surfaces that demonstrably existed at the sediment–water or sediment–air interface at the time of deposition. These surfaces have high value as repositories of palaeoenvironmental information, revealing fossilized snapshots of microscale topography from deep time. Some true substrates are notable for their sedimentary, palaeontological and ichnological signatures that provide windows into key intervals of Earth history, but countless others occur routinely throughout the sedimentary–stratigraphic record. They frequently reveal patterns that are strikingly familiar from modern sedimentary environments, such as ripple marks, animal trackways, raindrop impressions or mudcracks: all phenomena that are apparently ephemeral in modern settings, and which form on recognizably human timescales. This paper sets out to explain why these short‐term, transient, small‐scale features are counter‐intuitively abundant within a 3.8 billion year‐long sedimentary–stratigraphic record that is known to be inherently time‐incomplete. True substrates are fundamentally related to a state of stasis in ancient sedimentation systems, and distinguishable from other types of bedding surfaces that formed from a dominance of states of deposition or erosion. Stasis is shown to play a key role in both their formation and preservation, rendering them faithful and valuable archives of palaeoenvironmental and temporal information. Further, the intersection between the time–length scale of their formative processes and outcrop expressions can be used to explain why they are so frequently encountered in outcrop investigations. Explaining true substrates as inevitable and unexceptional by‐products of the accrual of the sedimentary–stratigraphic record should shift perspectives on what can be understood about Earth history from field studies of the sedimentary–stratigraphic record. They should be recognized as providing high‐definition information about the mundane day to day operation of ancient environments, and critically assuage the argument that the incomplete sedimentary–stratigraphic record is unrepresentative of the geological past