Discrepancies In Attitudes Research Articles

Old Age Dementias: Factors Associated with Dementia Progression Rate. Part 2

Background: steady progression of dementia is characterized with various rates, which specified clinical differentiation of dementias with rapid and slow increase of cognitive decline severity. The search for clinical factors, hypothetically responsible for differences in late age dementia progression rate, is one of the aspects of investigation of late age dementias.The objectivewas to generalize the results of the study of separate clinical factors effect on the differences in the late age dementia progression rate.Material and methods: papers in MEDLINE/PubMed bases from 1990 to 2020 were selected and analyzed according to the key words: “late age”, “dementia”, “progression rate”, “age of onset”, “non-cognitive disorders”, “nosomodifying therapy”, as well as relevant papers in the literature of the analyzed works.Conclusion: various parameters of the disease were studied as associated with dementia progression pattern. As regards part of them the results achieved compliance in recognition of association with dementia progression rate. As for the others this evidence is ambiguous. There are large discrepancies in attitudes to gender differences, while early age of disease onset, initially great intensity of neuropsychiatric disorders are concordantly admitted as associated with dementia rapid progression. The researchers are united with steady idea of nonlinear character of dementia progression at the stages of mild, moderate and severe dementia.The resultsof study of comorbidity are basically similar with regard to recognition of SFD influence, first of all, of arterial hypertension on dementia progression rate. The evidence of the efficacy of nosomodifying therapy, decelerating dementia progression, is unanimously considered an urgent problem. The development of new dementia pathogenesis concepts and the search for new therapy targets, are conducive to the solution of this problem. The results of the investigated direction of studies confirm the hypothesis of the fact that dementia progression occurs according to various pathogenetic mechanisms, which determine the dementia increasing rate. The management of patients with dementia in practice presupposes taking into account of various factors, influencing dementia progression rate, for planning of the volume and character of medical care.

Consumers' Emotion Attitudes towards Organic and Conventional Food: A Comparison Study of Emotional Profiling and Self-Reported Method.

Emotions represent a major driver behind a consumption behavior. It may provide more important information beyond consumers’ preferences. This study contributes to a better understanding of the discrepancy in emotion attitudes towards organic versus conventional food using a cognitive survey and real food consumption experience. An emotional profiling under informed and uninformed condition, a cognitive survey, and a rapid forced-choice test were carried out with 46 consumers. Our work detected a yawning gap in consumers’ declared emotion attitudes in the cognitive survey and elicited emotion attitudes in the food consumption experience. Results showed that consumers exaggerate their positive emotion attitudes towards organic over conventional and their negative emotion attitudes towards conventional over organic. Even though consumers expressed higher negative emotion attitudes towards conventional food than organic in a cognitive survey, during the emotional profiling they had nearly equal emotion attitudes towards both conventional and organic samples. Moreover, positive declared emotions in a cognitive survey formed a good predictor of the final choice of conventional products over organic under time pressure. However, preferences, declared emotion, as well as elicited emotion attitudes were less useful as predictors of organic choice under time pressure. These results show the importance of taking into consideration the type of applied method when investigating consumers’ emotion attitudes towards organic and conventional products.

Право и политика в сфере миграционного регулирования

The paper is focused on the contradiction between legal and political rationales in the field of migration regulation on national and international levels. The fundamental norms laid down in the corpus of law may conflict with the politicians’ views on the viability of various courses of action. This opens the door to serious collisions between agents motivated by divergent rationales. In practice, however, the subject matter is not so much the difference in rationales but rather differences in interpretation of legal arguments by various actors. They resort to these arguments to the extent that one or another of legal provisions helps legitimizing their political position and actions. Discrepancy in attitudes towards migratory issues creates a number of conflicts which can be classified as follows. (a) The collision of priorities (namely, protection of human rights versus concerns on national security); (b) the collision between proclaimed values and pragmatic rationales; (c) the collision between public rhetoric of the right populists and the game rules set up by liberal-conservative consensus of the political mainstream. The first collision is illustrated by the controversy between American judiciary and D. Trump administration around the travel ban imposed on citizens of Muslim countries as well as the conflict between Executives and the Legislative power on Trump’s project to build a wall on Mexican border. The second collision is being played out in the European Union after the refugee crisis (2015): mainstream politicians have to balance between their agenda and pressure from the far-right, so they tend to combine liberal rhetoric with restrictive policies. The example for the third collision is the behaviour of the Italian governing coalition 2018–2019, when Matteo Salvini and his adherents turned out to be less resolute in implementing anti-immigration measures than they promised during election campaign.

Migrant categorizations and European public opinion: diverging attitudes towards immigrants and refugees

ABSTRACTIn recent years, European media and public discourse have been increasingly categorising newcomers using terminology like ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. The aim of this practice is to distinguish legitimate from illegitimate newcomers in the wake of the 2015 ‘refugee crisis’ in Europe. Drawing on data from an online survey in Belgium, France, the Netherlands and Sweden (n = 6000) in September and October of 2017, this article investigates how the use of these categories relates to public opinion on ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’. Findings show that people hold more positive attitudes towards ‘refugees’ than towards ‘immigrants’, a process which is likely driven by media framing. Attitude discrepancies within ‘immigrant’ and ‘refugee’ categories are also investigated, as categorical fetishism causes further differentiation of attitudes within these groups. Public opinion differences within ‘immigrants’ and ‘refugees’ are found along three cleavages: ethnicity, the economic situation of the origin country, and region of origin. Newcomers with the same ethnicity (vs. a different ethnicity), from ‘rich’ countries (vs. ‘poor’ countries), and from European countries (vs. non-European countries) are preferred in both categories. With these findings, this article reveals important aspects of the influence of migrant categorizations on public opinion towards vulnerable groups of newcomers.

Swiss gynecologists' opinions and perceptions concerning the use of intrauterine devices by nulliparous and multiparous women: an online survey study.

ObjectiveThe aim of this study was to 1) evaluate the Swiss physicians’ attitudes and beliefs on intrauterine device (IUD) use in multiparous and nulliparous women and 2) determine whether the woman’s parity was a factor influencing the gynecologists’ IUD practice.Material and methodsThe Global Survey questionnaire investigating IUD use was modified and adapted to the Swiss guidelines. A link to the online questionnaire was sent to gynecologists practicing in the French- and German-speaking parts of Switzerland. We defined IUD use as frequent whenever it was prescribed by gynecologists for 25% or more out of all women consulting for contraception.ResultsA total of 299/1,696 gynecologists completed the online questionnaire (17.6%). Frequent IUD prescription was found in 72.9% of multiparous and in 11.8% of nulliparous women. The most frequently reported barriers to IUD use in nulliparous women were as follows: concern over a painful insertion, difficulty of insertion, higher risk of perforation, pelvic inflammatory disease, changes in bleeding pattern, high cost, and risk of extrauterine pregnancy. The presence of such perceived obstacles was associated with less frequent IUD insertion in nulliparous women.ConclusionThe results of this study provide a valuable insight into the attitudes and opinions of Switzerland’s gynecologists on the use of IUDs in nulliparous and multiparous women, showing that the women’s parity is a factor influencing the physicians’ attitudes and opinions. Further health education might help minimize the physicians’ attitude discrepancies in IUD prescription to nulliparous and multiparous women.

Double standards? Attitudes towards immigrant and emigrant dual citizenship in the Netherlands

ABSTRACTDespite increasingly liberal practices around the world, dual citizenship acceptance is still contested. Surprisingly, few studies exist on what drives public attitudes towards political membership in two or more states. Based on data from the 2012 Dutch Parliamentary Election Study (N = 1,677) we investigate the discrepancy in negative attitudes in the Netherlands towards dual citizenship of immigrants who acquire Dutch citizenship, on the one hand, and more positive attitudes towards Dutch citizens acquiring a foreign citizenship, on the other. We find that negative views of immigrant dual citizenship are associated with strong in-group identification and out-group derogation, whereas experiencing a sense of symbolic group threat is associated with negative views of both immigrant and emigrant dual citizenship.

What Can Instrumental Variables Tell Us About Nonresponse In Household Surveys and Political Polls?

This paper introduces an instrumental variables framework for analyzing how external factors that affect survey response rates can also affect the composition of the sample of respondents. The method may be useful for studying survey representativeness, and for assessing the effectiveness of some of the conventional corrections for survey nonresponse bias.The paper applies the method to data collected in the 2011 Swiss Electoral Study (SES), in which survey participation incentives were randomly assigned across members of the original survey sample. The empirical analysis shows that the incentives increased response rates substantially. Estimates of a new instrumental variable parameter called the Complier Average Survey Response (CASR) suggest that the incentives induced participation among people with more nationalist political opinions than those who would have participated without the incentives. Weighting the respondent data to match the covariate distribution in the target population did not account for the discrepancy in attitudes between the two groups, suggesting that the weights would not succeed in removing nonresponse bias.

Role of Food Allergy Education: Measuring Teacher Knowledge, Attitudes, and Beliefs.

IntroductionAlmost 6 million children suffer from food allergies with roughly 2 affected per classroom. Deficiencies in knowledge and discrepancies in attitudes within school staff when addressing food allergies are associated with barriers to care. In this study, school teacher knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes were measured before and after a food allergy educational session.MethodsThree hundred seventy-five personnel of similar age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and educational level completed the Chicago Food Allergy Research survey before and after a 1-hour educational session in 6 private schools in Houston randomly assigned into an intervention (n = 4) and control group (n = 2). Responses were measured using frequencies and percentages. The group score differences and survey question comparisons were evaluated with a linear mixed-effects model.ResultsPosttest, the intervention group had knowledge scores 19.58% points higher than control (95% confidence interval = 16.62–22.53; P < .001) with no differences pretest. Odds of agreeing that injectable epinephrine is important was higher in the intervention schools posteducation. Within the intervention group, personnel were more likely to agree to injectable epinephrine use for children posteducation.ConclusionA 1-hour educational session improved knowledge and attitudes in personnel in the intervention schools. Given the growing prevalence of food allergy, the emphasis on food allergy education is crucial to allow for familiarization of the condition, early recognition of anaphylaxis, and promotion of injectable epinephrine use.

A comparison between human-carnivore conflicts and local community attitudes toward carnivores in Westgate Community Conservancy, Samburu, Kenya

ABSTRACTHuman-wildlife conflicts are increasing globally, especially involving livestock depredation by carnivores. To understand the relationship between predation frequency and attitudes toward predators, researchers quantified livestock losses for four carnivore species—African wild dog, spotted hyena, leopard, and lion—as well as attitudes toward these carnivores in Westgate Community Conservancy, Samburu, Kenya. Methods included a three-year data collection period of conflict incidents followed by structured interviews to assess community attitudes. Results demonstrated that livestock depredation mainly involved leopards and spotted hyenas, preying most often on sheep and goats. Attitudes toward lions and hyenas were generally proportionate to their predation involvement. However, the frequency of predation did not always elicit such an expected response, as community members held positive attitudes toward leopards despite their high involvement in conflict, but disliked African wild dogs regardless of their low involvement. The discrepancy in attitudes could be attributed to cultural values, economic losses, and perceived risk.

Evaluation of a Social Norms Sexual Violence Prevention Marketing Campaign Targeted Toward College Men: Attitudes, Beliefs, and Behaviors Over 5 Years.

The article evaluates the effectiveness of a 5-year social norms sexual violence prevention marketing campaign designed specifically for men on a large public university in the Southeastern United States. From 2010 through 2014, 4,158 men were asked about their self-reported attitudes, beliefs, and behavior related to sexual violence as well as their perception of their peers' attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Using social norms theory, a social norms marketing campaign was developed to target highly discrepant attitudes, beliefs, and behaviors. Results indicate that both self-reported and perception of peer attitudes and beliefs improved over time, and the discrepancy between the two reduced over time. In addition, the frequency of positive and prosocial self-reported behavior increased on five of the six indicators. This study represents a significant contribution to the literature, as it uses 5 years of data and includes behavioral indicators to add evidence for the efficacy of targeting misperceptions of social norms as a mechanism to engage men in gender-based violence prevention.

The Role of Food Allergy Education in Schools: Measuring Attitudes, Beliefs, and Knowledge

Abstract Introduction Almost 6 million children suffer from food allergies with roughly 2 affected per classroom. However, deficiencies in knowledge and discrepancy in attitudes within school staff when addressing food allergies are associated with barriers to care. In this study, school personnels’ knowledge, beliefs, and attitudes were measured before and after a food allergy educational workshop. Methods Six schools in Houston Independent School District were randomly assigned into an interventional (n=4) and control group (n=2). Seven-hundred and thirty-three personnel matched for age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, and educational level completed the Chicago Food Allergy Research survey before and after a one-hour didactic session. Responses were measured using frequencies and percentages. The group score differences and survey question comparisons were measured with a linear mixed effects model. Results Post-test, the intervention group had knowledge scores 19.58% higher than control (95% CI=16.62, 22.53; p&amp;lt;0.001) with no differences pre-test. Odds of agreeing that injectable epinephrine is important was 874 times higher in the interventional schools post lecture. Within the interventional group, personnel were 207 times more likely to agree to an epi-pen for children post-education. Conclusion A didactic session improved knowledge and attitudes in personnel in the intervention schools. Given the growing prevalence of food allergy, the emphasis on food allergy education is crucial to allow for familiarization of the condition, early recognition of anaphylaxis, and promotion of injectable epinephrine use.

Urologists' attitudes to sexual complications of LUTS/BPH treatments.

Many LUTS/BPH treatments currently available may affect sexual function (SD). We wished to assess urologists' attitude and practice in this area. Attendees of an international meeting were randomly selected, interviewed and stratified by professional status and LUTS/BPH cases seen per month. There were four questions: treatment options offered, frequency of discussing erectile dysfunction (ED) with each treatment, frequency of discussing ejaculatory dysfunction (EjD) with each treatment, and offering alternative treatment based on the risks of sexual dysfunction. 199 of the 245 interviewed (81%) were urologists. The most common treatments offered were α-blockers (99.5%), 5-ARI (95.0%) and TURP (92.5%). About 70% of the specialists discuss ED before α-blockers (not known to cause ED). Regarding EjD, 70% discuss this prior to prescribing α-blockers, 60% before 5-ARI therapy, while 80% before TURP. A significant minority fails to discuss this complication in all areas. Many respondents do not routinely discuss alternative therapies on the risk of SD. The higher the caseload, the less likely was a urologist to offer alternative therapies, with 37% of urologists seeing over 30 LUTS/BPH patients per month stating they would "Not at all often" offer alternative therapies for this reason. There is a significant discrepancy in attitudes to counselling patients on SD related to LUTS/BPH treatments. This may, in some cases, affect the validity of consent to the treatment. Most urologists do not discuss alternative treatments with patients based on the risks of different outcomes and complications, and this seems more marked in those with the busier practices. This may sit ill with the concept of personalised healthcare.

Congenital Toxoplasmosis: A Plea for a Neglected Disease.

Maternal infection by Toxoplasma gondii during pregnancy may have serious consequences for the fetus, ranging from miscarriage, central nervous system involvement, retinochoroiditis, or subclinical infection at birth with a risk of late onset of ocular diseases. As infection in pregnant women is usually symptomless, the diagnosis relies only on serological tests. Some countries like France and Austria have organized a regular serological testing of pregnant women, some others have no prenatal program of surveillance. Reasons for these discrepant attitudes are many and debatable. Among them are the efficacy of antenatal treatment and cost-effectiveness of such a program. A significant body of data demonstrated that rapid onset of treatment after maternal infection reduces the risk and severity of fetal infection. Recent cost-effectiveness studies support regular screening. This lack of consensus put both pregnant women and care providers in a difficult situation. Another reason why congenital toxoplasmosis is disregarded in some countries is the lack of precise information about its impact on the population. Precise estimations on the burden of the disease can be achieved by systematic screening that will avoid bias or underreporting of cases and provide a clear view of its outcome.

Competition or cooperation? Jewish day schools, synagogues and the (re)construction of young people’s Jewish identities in England

ABSTRACTDiasporic synagogues have historically provided a number of educational and social functions. However, the growing popularity of state-funded Jewish schools in England necessitates analysis of these institutions’ changing roles and their implications for performances of Jewishness. Drawing upon interviews with rabbis, and interviews and focus groups with parents and students at a Jewish school, this article demonstrates three challenges for synagogues associated with the recent growth in Jewish day schooling: the instigation of instrumental attendance at services in order to secure a school place; and the co-option of synagogues’ traditional functions as both education and social centres. In the process, it illustrates how conceptualisations of Jewish identity are contested, resulting in discrepant attitudes towards Jewish education. Consequently, the article contributes to understandings of the spaces in which young people practise their Jewishness, and highlights the challenges for community leaders in ensuring that Jewish schools and synagogues cooperate rather than compete.

GEN_MAT: A MATLAB‐based map generalization algorithm toolbox

AbstractAssistive tools are important for improving teaching and learning quality in courses that involve practical work. This article presents an overview of GEN_MAT, the first MATLAB‐based map generalization algorithm toolbox. The toolbox provides 42 map generalization algorithms for aggregation, selective omission, simplification, smoothing, collapse, agglomeration, merging, dissolving, displacement, and typification. A beta test of the application of GEN_MAT in teaching and learning was conducted. Evaluations showed that GEN_MAT has positive effects on teaching and learning. Comparing tool‐based and non‐tool‐based courses indicated that the experimental group performed better than the control group, and the two groups exhibited significant discrepancy (p &lt; 0.05) in confidence, awareness, skills and attitudes or behaviors.

The Anxious and the Climbers: Ambivalent Attitudes Towards Democracy Among South Africa's Middle Class

Beyond the hopes placed in Africa’s emergent middle class as an engine of economic growth, some analysts see this group as a bastion of political stability and enduring de-mocratisation across the continent. This paper’s approach differs from that of most studies, which treat the middle class as a homogeneous group, through two key contributions. First, using cluster analysis, I propose a novel way of conceptualising social class that broadly draws on the Weberian idea of shared life chances. I apply this method to South Africa and identify five social classes characterised by their members’ living standards, overall life satisfaction, and self-perceived upward mobility. Second, the empirical analysis reveals significant discrepancies in attitudes towards democracy between the downwardly and upwardly mobile strata of the middle class, which I term the “anxious” and the “climbers,” respectively. On the one hand, the “climbers” show the highest generic support for democracy as a form of government, whereas the “anxious” middle class displays feelings of resignation. On the other hand, I find indicative evidence of a status-quo bias among the “climbers.” Rather than assuming a more demanding or critical stance in politics, they allow their political priorities to be at least partly shaped by an interest in securing and expanding attained living standards; being upwardly mobile is even associated with a higher tolerance for government attempts to constrain freedom of information, opinion, or expression.

Exploring the de-stigmatizing effect of social media on homosexuality in China: an interpersonal-mediated contact versus parasocial-mediated contact perspective

ABSTRACTThe subject of homosexuality remains taboo in contemporary China, given that the public maintains a considerably negative attitude toward the subject. Recent Pew Research indicates that, on average, 21% of Chinese respondents believe that homosexuality should be accepted. However, parallel surveys of Internet users paint a different picture, as online surveys found a more liberal atmosphere toward homosexuality and same-sex marriage. The online and offline discrepancy in attitudes toward homosexuality begs the question of whether the Internet carries a stigma-reducing function in terms of views on sexual minority groups. Guided by the contact hypothesis and parasocial contact theory, the current study investigates the de-stigmatizing effect of the social media on homosexuality in China. A web-based survey with 980 social media users with a heterosexual orientation confirmed the positive role of interpersonal-mediated contact with lesbian and gay celebrities via social media venues in stigma reduction; but findings did not lend support to the parasocial-mediated contact hypothesis.

Comparison of implicit and explicit attitudes towards food between normal- and overweight French children

In the food domain, attitudes reflect one’s acquired predisposition towards food and combine hedonic and nutritional components. Implicit attitudes are assumed to influence spontaneous behaviors, whereas explicit attitudes are assumed to influence deliberative behaviors. The aim of this study was to compare hedonic- versus nutrition-based attitudes towards food between normal- and overweight children using both implicit and explicit tasks. Normal-weight (n=81; mean BMI z-score=0.06±0.97) and overweight children (n=57; mean BMI z-score=3.5±1.17) performed three tasks: an implicit pairing task in which they had to choose the two food items that “go best together” for 11 triplets that were either hedonically or nutritionally associated; an explicit forced-choice categorization task in which they were asked to categorize 48 foods into one of the following four categories: “yummy”, “yucky” (i.e., hedonic categories), “makes you strong”, or “makes you fat” (i.e., nutritional categories); a liking task in which they had to assign liking scores to the same 48 food items. No effect of weight status on the liking scores by food groups (all P>0.44) or on the implicit pairing task (P=0.82) were found; however, on the explicit categorization task, overweight children chose more nutritional categories than their lean peers (P=0.001). Cluster analysis showed higher proportion of “dissonant attitudinal pattern” (characterized by many hedonic pairings but few hedonic categorizations) in overweight compared with normal-weight children. Thus, a discrepancy between implicit hedonic and explicit nutritional attitudes is more common in overweight children than in normal-weight children. Further studies are needed to understand the behavioral implications of such discrepancy in attitudes towards food in children.

Spotlight on the March 7 issue

#### Notable in Neurology This issue features an article that investigates whether variations in fasting plasma glucose are predictors of diabetic polyneuropathy risk and another that determines the association of lesion location with speech comprehension deficits in chronic aphasia. A featured Views and Reviews paper reports a lack of consensus on the definition of familial amyotrophic lateral sclerosis, and discrepancy in attitudes and practices related to genetic testing in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis. ### Blood-based NfL: A biomarker for differential diagnosis of parkinsonian disorder![Graphic][1]</img>![Graphic][2]</img> ### Neurofilament as a blood marker for diagnosis and monitoring of primary progressive aphasias![Graphic][3]</img> Blood-based neurofilament light chain (NfL) markers were found in parkinsonian disorders and primary progressive aphasia (PPA), offering a method to distinguish Parkinson disease from atypical parkinsonian disorders, and to differentiate … [1]: /embed/inline-graphic-1.gif [2]: /embed/inline-graphic-2.gif [3]: /embed/inline-graphic-3.gif

Persuasive message scrutiny as a function of implicit-explicit discrepancies in racial attitudes

Past research has shown that individuals low in prejudice think more carefully when information is from or about stigmatized individuals than non-stigmatized individuals. One explanation for this effect is that the heightened scrutiny stems from a motivation to guard against potential prejudice toward stigmatized others (i.e. “watchdog motivation”). The present research tested a variation of the watchdog hypothesis based on the idea of implicit ambivalence. Specifically, we argue that among individuals low in explicit (i.e., deliberative) prejudice, it is those who are also relatively high in implicit (i.e., automatic) prejudice who will do the most processing in prejudice relevant contexts. The implicit ambivalence framework also makes a novel prediction that individuals who are relatively high in explicit prejudice but low in implicit prejudice would also engage in enhanced information processing. As predicted, people with racial implicit-explicit attitude discrepancies, regardless of the direction of discrepancy, were found to engage in greater of scrutiny of a message about the hiring of Black faculty (study 1), a message about a Black job candidate (study 2), and even when the Black concept was merely primed subliminally prior to reading a race-irrelevant message (study 3).