The Multisurface Obstacle Test for Older Adults (MSOT): development and reliability of a novel test for older adults

Locomotion is an essential component of independence and well-being at old age. Performance deficits in the gait of older adults most often become evident on multisurface and varying terrains. Research results substantiate that falls occur in everyday movement situations that are characterized by instability. A test track, the Multisurface Obstacle Test for Older Adults (MSOT), was developed to diagnose individual performance. The 10-m track consists of different obstacles and varying surfaces, which represent everyday movement situations in a compact way. Twenty-nine untrained, healthy older adults (11 men, 18 women) were tested on three different days at 1-week intervals in a test–retest design by the same conductor. Mean age of the participants was 68.8?±?5.3 years with a mean body mass index of 24.4?±?2.5 kg/m². The measured outcome variable was the required time (seconds) on the MSOT. The feasibility for the tested sample of untrained older adults was very good. The MSOT was undertaken safely by the participants, and no falls occurred. The range of the mean for time was between 8.12?±?1.53 s and 9.00?±?1.62 s. Regarding intertrial reliability, mean differences (MD) of ?3.39 to ?5.52 % and coefficients of variation (CV) of 2.72 to 4.19 % between the first and second trials and MD of ?0.69 to ?0.85 % and CV of 2.57 to 4.54 % over the three test sessions were observed. The correlation coefficients between the sessions were .92–.98. There were significant differences (p?<?.05) between the first and second trials of each session and between the first and second sessions. The smallest detectable differences (SDD) revealed that a small improvement is enough to detect changes in performance in the MSOT. Selecting tasks from real-life situations of older adults contributes to substantiate practical usability of the MSOT. The measured time on the MSOT showed high relative and absolute reliability in the target group of older adults between 60 and 80 years.     

Externe Organisationsberatung und Schulentwicklung

External organization counseling and school development Modernizing schools by internal school development is an important issue in Germany. This article discusses the conditions for successful processes in school development from the view of organization counseling. Which conditions for external counseling are necessary, how does a professional process steering function, and which tasks external counselors have to fulfil in the development process? Because of the very high demands on external counselors and coaches, an competence profile is presented and the necessary frame conditions for the setup of a counseling system are discussed.     

Shared Values, Social Trust, and the Perception of Geographic Cancer Clusters

Extensive scientific investigations often fail to identify specific carcinogens that have caused geographic clusters of cancer cases. In many such examples, public health officials and other experts have concluded that the cluster is not the result of a particular local environmental condition. Despite this conclusion by experts, concerned members of local communities often persist in believing that the cancer cluster was not random. The present study accounts for the persistence of this belief on the basis of two factors: (a) the tendency of the human mind to identify patterns (and causes), rather than randomness; and (b) a lack of social trust in public health experts. It was expected that perceived shared values evoke social trust. Individuals who conclude that public health experts share their values should be more likely to accept the experts' conclusion that a cancer cluster reflects randomness, not a particular local cause. Individuals who trust authorities should be more inclined than individuals not having trust to accept that a geographic cluster of cancer cases is a coincidence. Data from Swiss students (N = 334) supported these expectations. Additionally, significant gender differences were observed. Females had less trust in authorities and perceived the cancer cluster as less likely to be a result of pure chance than did males. Practical implications of the results are discussed.     

Under the Rainbow Flag: Webbing Global Gay Identities

This essay analyzes contemporary global and local constructions of gay identities on World Wide Web sites. The authors rely on core cultural symbol analysis and visual imagery content analysis in their rhetorical-critical examination of texts and images. Three heavily trafficked, U.S.-domained Web sites are analyzed first, acknowledging the hegemonic positioning of U.S. cultural space as a physical, ideological, and cyber realm that enables the coming out process but also a realm in which cultural imperialism and commodification of other experiences reign. By comparing and contrasting the analyses of these sites with gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender sites originating in Mainland China, Japan, and Germany, the authors document both the transformative and empowering aspects of transnational identity constructions and the dynamics of localized constructions that take part in, support, negotiate, and resist such global constructions.     

Is the Austrian Labour Market Ethnically Segmented?

The foreign population from former Yugoslavia and Turkey have not yetsucceeded in doing what the post-war migrants and cold war refugees havedone, namely, integrate into the Austrian middle class. Based on threemicro-census it can be shown that the thesis of an ethnically segmentedlabour market is valid.     

The "Trust Gap" Hypothesis: Predicting Support for Biotechnology Across National Cultures as a Function of Trust in Actors

Using results from the 1999 Eurobarometer survey and a parallel telephone survey done in the United States in 2000, this study explored the relationship between levels of knowledge, educational levels, and degrees of encouragement for biotechnology development across a number of medical and agricultural applications. This cross-cultural exploration found only weak relationships among these variables, calling into question the common assumption that higher science literacy produces greater acceptance (whether or not mediated by lower perceived risk). The relationship between encouragement and trust in specific social institutions was also weak. However, regression analysis based on "trust gap" variables (defined as numerical differences between trust in specific pairs of actors) did predict national levels of encouragement for several applications, suggesting an opinion formation climate in which audiences are actively choosing among competing claims. Differences between European and U.S. reactions to biotechnology appear to be a result of different trust and especially "trust gap" patterns, rather than differences in knowledge or education.     

Asymptotic inference in discrete response models

Regression models for discrete responses have found numerous applications. We consider logit, probit and cumulative logit models for qualitative data, and the loglinear and linear Poisson model for counted data. Statistical analysis of these models relies heavily on asymptotic likelihood theory, i.e. asymptotic properties of the maximum likelihood estimator and the likelihood ratio as well as related test statistics. In practical situations, previously published conditions assuring these properties may be too strong, or it is difficult to see whether they apply. This paper contributes to a clarification of this point and characterizes to some extent situations where asymptotic theory is applicable and where it is not. In particular, sharp upper bounds on the admissible growth of regressors are given.