Self- vs proxy-reported mobility using the mobility assessment tool-short form in elderly preoperative patients

Background

Mobility is fundamental to maintenance of an independent lifestyle and can predict clinical outcomes after health events among older individuals. However, certain clinical situations do not accommodate physical or self-assessments. This investigation examines whether proxy-reported assessments of function using the Mobility Assessment Tool-short (MAT-sf) form is a reliable alternative.

Methods

Sixty-six older persons (≥ age 70) and their proxies were enrolled. Proxies rated patients’ mobility using the MAT-sf as did the patients.

Results

The mean age of patients was 78.4 yr. (±6.2); 44% were female and 86% were white. Spouses made up 55% of the proxies, while 39% were children/in-laws. The correlation coefficient between patient and proxy MAT-sf scores was 0.81 (p?<?0.01); a comparison of the slope of the regression line relating patient- and proxy-reported MAT-sf to a line of identity showed disagreement (p?<?0.01), with proxy reports underreporting patient responses by 8.3% in lower mobility patients. The intra-class correlation characterizing agreement between repeated proxy reports 0.81.

Conclusion

Proxy reports of mobility in older patients have good reliability. However, in patients with poor mobility, the proxies tend to report a lower mobility than the patients.

     

Ownership concentration,contestability, family firms,and capital structure

This study analyses the distribution of power among the several blockholders of a firm and the identity of those blockholders as a determinant of firm leverage. Using a sample of 694 firms from 12 Western European countries, our results support a negative relationship between ownership concentration in the hands of the main blockholder and firm leverage. Moreover, we detect that the presence of a second and third large shareholder (beyond the first blockholder) has a significant positive effect on the leverage ratio. In addition, the results show that contestability in family firms plays a more relevant role. Finally, we show that family firms do have significant impact on firm leverage level, and this impact varies depending on the legal framework and institutional environment. In our main sample the results show family firms negatively affect market leverage, supporting the theory that family firms are more averse to an increase in the debt level due to the risk of bankruptcy and financial distress as a result of having an under-diversified portfolio. In contrast, the opposite effect is found in the sample that excludes the United Kingdom. This last result cannot be explained by agency theory, given that family businesses are those that suffer less from Type I agency problems. This result suggests either some difficulty in financing their investments by issuing new equity or the need to use debt as a signal of the quality of its investments. Our results prove to be stable against a battery of robustness tests.     

Emotion-regulation knowledge predicts perceived stress early but not later in soldiers’ careers

Although emotion-regulation competencies have been found to help people overcome negative experiences, such benefits may depend on the context. In the present study, the authors examined whether knowledge about effective emotion regulation would be associated with lower perceived stress in a population with extremely high job demands. The authors studied 492 German soldiers. Results showed that soldiers with higher emotion-regulation knowledge reported lower levels of perceived stress, which was partly due to a greater tendency to use effective emotion-regulation strategies such as reappraisal instead of suppression. When the authors distinguished career stages, however, the authors found that emotion-regulation knowledge was a significant predictor of perceived stress for soldiers in early but not in later career stages. The authors interpret this finding in terms of the context-dependency of emotion-regulation effectiveness. Especially young soldiers can benefit from higher emotion-regulation knowledge possibly due to the fact that they have fewer job resources overall than their senior colleagues.     

Agiles Sprintlernen – ein Konzept für dezentrales betriebliches Lernen: Empirische Begründung und praktische Erfahrungen

Gruppe. Interaktion. Organisation. Zeitschrift für Angewandte Organisationspsychologie (GIO) - Agiles Sprintlernen ist ein didaktisches Rahmenkonzept für kontextbezogenes und...     

Oral,systemic and socioeconomic factors associated with preterm birth

Background

The rates of preterm births have been increasing worldwide. Complications related to preterm births are associated with increased costs of care, and have a direct impact on the health system of the countries. Therefore, it is important to address factors associated with preterm birth in order to provide prevention strategies.

Bottom-up Nation-building: National Censuses and Local Administration in Nineteenth-Century Spain

It is customary to consider population censuses (and statistics in general) as exclusive to the modern State, appearing in the second half of the eighteenth century but being developed and spreading in the West during the nineteenth century. Indeed, censuses help to strengthen and legitimize such states. However, in Spain, just as in Europe and the United States, the first population censuses considered modern were the result of, on the one hand, the directives and general and provincial coordination provided by the new state statistical institutions, such as the Statistics Commission or the Institute of Geography and, on the other, municipal personnel and the previous knowledge of local conditions held by the councils and other agents, such as the clergy, intellectuals, and notables. The media were also availed of for the cause. Let us recall that the municipalities were an explicit part of the state apparatus, therefore their relevance in carrying out censuses is not an indication of failure or weakness on the part of the Spanish State regarding the process of “bottom-up nation-building”, but rather a way to imagine the nation through which collective involvement would build the nation from the locality.     

Migration as Social Movement: Voluntary Group Migration and the Crimean Tatar Repatriation

Voluntary group migration occurs when a collectivity reaches a group‐level decision to migrate and does so as a community without external compulsion. Typical examples include collective settler movements and voluntary repatriations of refugee communities. We demonstrate the distinctive characteristics of voluntary group migration that make it hard to analyze with current migration theories, and we develop an initial theoretical framework identifying the conditions that typically produce this type of population flow. Recognizing the collective nature of the mobilization that leads to voluntary group migration, we turn to social movement theory as a source of analytical tools that, in combination with concepts offered by prior migration theories, help us build an initial theory. To illustrate our ideas, we discuss an especially revealing contemporary case: the resettlement of Crimean Tatars to their original homeland.     

Carers and Professionals' Perspectives on Foster Care Outcomes: The Role of Contact

This study investigates the association between the contact of children or young people in care with their family, and the foster care placement evaluation (positive or negative) in Portugal. According to the perspectives of foster carers and service professionals' perceptions regarding children and young people's reactions, during and after the visits, are measured. Utilizing a quantitative approach, two fostering services teams and 140 foster carers completed questionnaires, which had 212 children in common. Results indicated that despite the importance of continued contact, especially for children and their parents, it was not determined to be essential to long-term placement. On one hand, there was the perception that a high percentage of children expressed positive reactions during and after the visit, while on the other hand, this didn't influence the perception of placement success. This study also showed significant differences between foster carers' and the professionals' perceptions on several dimensions of foster care, especially the children's reactions during visits. These differences need to be further analyzed in future research and the outcomes used to help improve contact management.     

The inclusion of the other in ourselves: reception and comprehension of refugees in Portugal

Abstract

The intensification of different types of migration movements during the last decades is an expression of growing interconnections at the global level. The so called ‘refugee crisis’ is the most visible sign of this intensification. It currently challenges societies to rethink the processes of integrating those fleeing from humanitarian crises and wars. Portuguese civil society has pioneered the creation of a Refugee Support Platform, aimed to address the challenges associated with the arrival of refugee families. Within this platform, an e-learning course was created to help institutions and host families prepare for this task. In the article we first describe this course, focusing our analysis on the relevance of this initiative for institutions, families, and private citizens that wish to welcome refugees in Portugal. We then briefly reflect on the literature pertaining to intercultural dialogue and social tensions. In the final section we analyse the voices of those who attended the course. We conclude with an analysis of the contents of the course modules and the participation of the trainees as a contribution to their self-transformation.