Demographic differences in response rates for PHQ9 in a university student population

Objective: To examine differences in complete response rates for depression screening questions based on demographic characteristics. Methods: Cross-sectional study examining associations between demographic characteristics and completely responding depression-screening questions. Participants: “Healthy Minds Study” data, collected in a public University in February 2016, where 7,326 students participated. Results: women (AOR: 0.69; 95% CI =0.57–0.83) and gay/lesbian students (AOR: 0.24; 95% CI =0.10–0.60) had better complete response rates. Non-US (AOR: 1.46; 95% CI =1.03–2.07), black (AOR: 3.32; 95% CI =1.92–5.77), and Middle-Eastern students (AOR: 3.73; 95% CI =1.73–8.02) had lower complete response rates. Conclusions: Our study shows sex, gender, citizenship, and race categories have significant differences in complete response rates for the outcome. Our findings have several implications; including recognizing interventions for depression based on responders may not target those that tend to be “partial-responders”. Efforts in survey design, recruiting and completion of surveys should be maximized.     

博洛尼亚进程中的意大利大学改革

对于欧洲大学而言,“博洛尼亚进程”是近年来居于首位的大事件。作为最早的倡导国和参与国之一,意大利积极融入博洛尼亚进程,并以此为契机改革弊端日益呈现的大学体制。改革既有历史的原因,也是社会经济发展的必然结果。1 861年意大利统一以来,意大利大学呈现出从精英到大众, 从分权到集权的特征。20世纪80年代以来的改革主要围绕“赋予大学更多自主权”和“提升大学质量”展开。1 999年《捷其诺条例》的颁布对意大利大学改革具有里程碑的意义。之后,意大利大学进行了大刀阔斧的改革 :建立基于“欧洲学分互认体系”的学分制,重置本科课程,引入“3+2”学位体系,引入“Y”体系,颁发文凭补充文件等。这些改革对意大利大学体制产生了深远的影响。     

Size matters: vegetation patch size and surface temperature relationship in foothills cities of northwestern Argentina

Urbanization is one of the most extreme forms of land alteration. Energy fluxes are severely affected and cities tend to have the Urban Heat Island (UHI) phenomenon, although vegetated areas inside cities could have a positive effect in mitigating UHI effect. Our main objective was to analyze the relationship between vegetation characteristics, patch size and land surface temperature (LST) in three urban areas of northwestern Argentina. We selected 38 green spaces of different size distributed in four cities, all located in the eastern foothills of the subtropical mountain forests. We used Landsat TM satellite images to calculate Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) and LST. We assessed the net effect of patch size on LST by computing a Difference Temperature Index. At the regional scale, our results showed that vegetation patch size had a direct effect on reducing the LST of the green space. At a local scale, the analysis of the relationship between vegetation on urban green spaces and LST along a gradient of urbanization showed that green spaces with more vegetation tends to reduce LST. The results showed that largest green spaces were between 1.5 and 2.8 °C cooler than the surrounding built. In order to mitigate the UHI effect in cities, larger green spaces appear to be a possible solution.