Resistance training is linked to heightened positive motivational state and lower negative affect among healthy women aged 65–70

Resistance training (RT) improves overall health, but the psychological effects of RT in healthy old adults have not been tested. The aim of this study was to investigate a sample of 65–70-year-old healthy and physically active women to assess their sense of coherence, health-related quality of life, hope, and affect, before and after taking part in a 24-week RT intervention (N = 14), compared to controls (N = 18). Findings showed a significant increase in hope (p = 0.013) and a significant decrease in negative affect (p = 0.002). Starting RT after age 65 does not appear to negatively impact on women’s psychological health but seems to be associated with important psychological health benefits.     

Prior specification for binary Markov mesh models

Statistics and Computing - We propose prior distributions for all parts of the specification of a Markov mesh model. In the formulation, we define priors for the sequential neighborhood, for the...     

The educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation in Europe

Nearly every European Country has experienced some increase in nonmarital childbearing, largely due to increasing births within cohabitation. Relatively few studies in Europe, however, investigate the educational gradient of childbearing within cohabitation or how it changed over time. Using retrospective union and fertility histories, we employ competing risk hazard models to examine the educational gradient of childbearing in cohabitation in eight countries across europe. In all countries studied, birth risks within cohabitation demonstrated a negative educational gradient. When directly comparing cohabiting fertility with marital fertility, the negative educational gradient persists in all countries except Italy, although differences were not significant in Austria, France, and West Germany. To explain these findings, we present an alternative explanation for the increase in childbearing within cohabitation that goes beyond the explanation of the Second Demographic Transition and provides a new interpretation of the underlying mechanisms that may influence childbearing within cohabitation.     

Adoption of ergonomic features in a new reach truck cabin design--a usability study

The task of handling reach trucks frequently involves poor working postures. The location of the steering wheel in most reach trucks is in front of the operator which requires the drivers to bend forward and stretch their hands for holding onto the steering wheel. To overcome visibility restrictions, this posture is aggravated by twisting and bending their torso sideways. This paper presents a usability study which was conducted to compare adoption of ergonomic features in a new reach truck cabin with the way they were intended to be employed for improving physical working conditions. Participants drove the reach truck on a test track performing tasks of varying complexity. Video recordings were utilized to facilitate the observations. The results indicate that improved ergonomics features of the reach truck are not used as intended. The test subjects instead adopted postures that they were accustomed to when driving common reach trucks. The possible contributing factors to this posture regression are discussed. The procedure used in this study is recommended for the companies to determine the effectiveness and adoption of ergonomics solutions.     

A Bayesian model for cross-study differential gene expression

In this paper we define a hierarchical Bayesian model for microarray expression data collected from several studies and use it to identify genes that show differential expression between two conditions. Key features include shrinkage across both genes and studies, and flexible modeling that allows for interactions between platforms and the estimated effect, as well as concordant and discordant differential expression across studies. We evaluated the performance of our model in a comprehensive fashion, using both artificial data, and a "split-study" validation approach that provides an agnostic assessment of the model's behavior not only under the null hypothesis, but also under a realistic alternative. The simulation results from the artificial data demonstrate the advantages of the Bayesian model. The 1 - AUC values for the Bayesian model are roughly half of the corresponding values for a direct combination of t- and SAM-statistics. Furthermore, the simulations provide guidelines for when the Bayesian model is most likely to be useful. Most noticeably, in small studies the Bayesian model generally outperforms other methods when evaluated by AUC, FDR, and MDR across a range of simulation parameters, and this difference diminishes for larger sample sizes in the individual studies. The split-study validation illustrates appropriate shrinkage of the Bayesian model in the absence of platform-, sample-, and annotation-differences that otherwise complicate experimental data analyses. Finally, we fit our model to four breast cancer studies employing different technologies (cDNA and Affymetrix) to estimate differential expression in estrogen receptor positive tumors versus negative ones. Software and data for reproducing our analysis are publicly available.     

Have Authoritarian Parenting Practices and Roles Changed in the Last 50 Years?

This study examined changes in authoritarian parenting practices and family roles in Sweden over the last 50 years. Data came from 3 cohorts (1958, 1981, and 2011) of young to middle‐age adults living in a suburb of Stockholm who answered questions about how they were raised (N₁₉₅₈ = 385, N₁₉₈₁ = 207, N₂₀₁₁ = 457). The results showed a dramatic decrease in parents' directive control. Also, over time, parents increasingly allowed children to express anger toward them. Parents' roles changed from stereotyped versions of fathers as decision makers and mothers as caregivers to both parents sharing decisions and garnering respect from children. Overall, the results suggest that authoritarian parenting practices have declined dramatically and moved toward more egalitarian family environments. Virtually all these changes in parental practices and parental roles happened between the last 2 cohorts.     

Bridging the Gap: How do EU-Based Civil Society Organisations Acquire Their Internal Representation?

In recent decades, the emergence and development of pan-European civil society organisations have been prominent, including those representing interests of marginalised groups and raising related social issues. Typically composed of national and European level umbrella organisations, some of these organisations have grown as important interlocutors between EU institutions and civil society, and derive legitimacy for their advocacy and lobbying activities by claiming broad representativeness. Through a comparative study of five principal EU-based civil society organisations, the present article analyses how these organisations, operating at multiple levels with their membership based on extensive geographical areas, acquire internal representation of members and beneficiaries.     

Effects of ground surface permeability on the growth of urban linden trees

Street trees are an important part of urban vegetation due to their provisioning of different types of ecosystem services such as local climate regulation and contribution to aesthetical and recreational values. In order to provide these services, urban trees need to endure many stress factors not present in natural environments, such as the widespread use of impervious surfaces in the vicinity of street trees. However, few studies have evaluated the effect of this potential stress factor on urban tree growth. The aim of this study was therefore to investigate how ground surface permeability affects stem and current-year shoot growth of linden (Tilia europaea) street trees in Gothenburg, Sweden. We found that a small fraction of permeable ground surface in the vertically projected tree crown area caused lower stem growth and strongly suppressed current-year shoot growth. This finding can guide future city planning, demonstrating that the vitality of street trees is compromised when the permeable surface area in the vicinity of the tree is small.     

Investigating the Risks of Spiritual Leadership

The spiritual leadership literature suggests that such leadership has a positive influence on organizations’ productivity and profitability as well as on employees’ enjoyment and well‐being. In a qualitative study conducted at a Swedish abbey for nuns, using interviews, observations, correspondence, and documents, this research indicates that spiritual leadership may pose negative risks to organizations and their leaders. Risks in spiritual leadership that are indicated include a culture of narrow‐mindedness and leadership rotation failure that can lead to rigidity and to the leader's work overload because of the demand for limitless empathy and for personal sacrifice. The findings should be viewed as an inspiration for further research.     

Approximate computations for binary Markov random fields and their use in Bayesian models

Discrete Markov random fields form a natural class of models to represent images and spatial datasets. The use of such models is, however, hampered by a computationally intractable normalising constant. This makes parameter estimation and a fully Bayesian treatment of discrete Markov random fields difficult. We apply approximation theory for pseudo-Boolean functions to binary Markov random fields and construct approximations and upper and lower bounds for the associated computationally intractable normalising constant. As a by-product of this process we also get a partially ordered Markov model approximation of the binary Markov random field. We present numerical examples with both the pairwise interaction Ising model and with higher-order interaction models, showing the quality of our approximations and bounds. We also present simulation examples and one real data example demonstrating how the approximations and bounds can be applied for parameter estimation and to handle a fully Bayesian model computationally.