Measures Of Dimensions Research Articles

Fractal dimension: analyzing its potential as a neuroimaging biomarker for brain tumor diagnosis using machine learning.

Purpose: The main purpose of this study was to comprehensively investigate the potential of fractal dimension (FD) measures in discriminating brain gliomas into low-grade glioma (LGG) and high-grade glioma (HGG) by examining tumor constituents and non-tumorous gray matter (GM) and white matter (WM) regions. Methods: Retrospective magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) data of 42 glioma patients (LGG, n = 27 and HGG, n = 15) were used in this study. Using MRI, we calculated different FD measures based on the general structure, boundary, and skeleton aspects of the tumorous and non-tumorous brain GM and WM regions. Texture features, namely, angular second moment, contrast, inverse difference moment, correlation, and entropy, were also measured in the tumorous and non-tumorous regions. The efficacy of FD features was assessed by comparing them with texture features. Statistical inference and machine learning approaches were used on the aforementioned measures to distinguish LGG and HGG patients. Results: FD measures from tumorous and non-tumorous regions were able to distinguish LGG and HGG patients. Among the 15 different FD measures, the general structure FD values of enhanced tumor regions yielded high accuracy (93%), sensitivity (97%), specificity (98%), and area under the receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) score (98%). Non-tumorous GM skeleton FD values also yielded good accuracy (83.3%), sensitivity (100%), specificity (60%), and AUC score (80%) in classifying the tumor grades. These measures were also found to be significantly (p < 0.05) different between LGG and HGG patients. On the other hand, among the 25 texture features, enhanced tumor region features, namely, contrast, correlation, and entropy, revealed significant differences between LGG and HGG. In machine learning, the enhanced tumor region texture features yielded high accuracy, sensitivity, specificity, and AUC score. Conclusion: A comparison between texture and FD features revealed that FD analysis on different aspects of the tumorous and non-tumorous components not only distinguished LGG and HGG patients with high statistical significance and classification accuracy but also provided better insights into glioma grade classification. Therefore, FD features can serve as potential neuroimaging biomarkers for glioma.

The Role of Narcissism and Attachment in Adult Romantic Relationships: A Study of Greek-speaking Adult Participants

The present study examined the relationship between narcissism and attachment dimensions in adult romantic relationships. One hundred and fifty one adults from the general population completed self-report measures of attachment dimensions, grandiose and vulnerable narcissism. The results indicated that both types of narcissism were significantly correlated to insecure attachment dimensions (anxiety and avoidance). Additionally, the results of the hierarchical multiple regression initially showed a significant prediction of grandiose narcissism in the insecure attachment dimensions, which was then counterweighted by the stronger contribution of vulnerable narcissism. The most significant variable in the overall examination of narcissism was vulnerable narcissism, significantly predicting both insecure attachment dimensions. Results are discussed in light of attachment theory and implications for clinical practice and future research are also considered.

Free to be me with you: Development of the Individuality in Couples Questionnaire.

Despite multiple theories and treatment modalities emphasizing the importance of individuality in couple relationships, the field is lacking a reliable and valid measure of this construct. In the present study, we developed the Individuality in Couples (ICQ) questionnaire and demonstrated its strong psychometric properties across two samples of participants in committed intimate relationships (Sample 1 = 580 undergraduates; Sample 2 = 445 community members). The ICQ is comprised of 25 items that can be combined into a reliable total score to measure individuality in the context of couple relationships (i.e., the extent to which someone feels respected by their partner for their individuality and experiences personal autonomy in the relationship). Scores on the ICQ demonstrated high internal consistency, excellent construct replicability, convergent and divergent validity with measures of other relationship dimensions (i.e., intimacy, support, sexual satisfaction, psychological aggression, communication), criterion validity with measures of relationship satisfaction and partner health, and incremental predictive validity for explaining relationship satisfaction and partner well-being when controlling for other relationship dimensions. Results suggest that individuality in couples is largely a unidimensional construct that is distinct from more severe patterns of control and coercion characteristic of psychological aggression. The ICQ holds promise for identifying and promoting dynamics essential for healthy couple relationships. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2023 APA, all rights reserved).

Methods of Assessing Nailfold Capillaroscopy Compared to Video Capillaroscopy in Patients with Systemic Sclerosis—A Critical Review of the Literature

Introduction: Nailfolds of patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc) provide an opportunity to directly visualize microvascular remodeling in SSc. Nailfold video capillaroscopy (NVC) remains the gold standard for assessing nailfold capillaroscopy (NFC). However, access to NVC is limited by expense and expertise. This review aims to synthesize current research on other NFC devices compared to NVC. Methods: The literature search included the primary research of adult patients with SSc as defined by the 2013 ACR/EULAR criteria. Methods of assessing NFC included stereomicroscopy/wide-field microscopy, ophthalmoscopy, dermatoscopy, smartphone devices, and digital USB microscopy. Primary outcomes included both qualitative (normal vs. abnormal nailfolds, overall pattern recognition, presence/absence of giant capillaries, hemorrhages, and abnormal morphology) and quantitative (capillary density and dimension) measures. Results: The search yielded 471 studies, of which 9 were included. Five studies compared NVC to dermatoscopy, two compared it to widefield/stereomicroscopy, one to smartphone attachments, and one to USB microscopy. In dermatoscopy studies, NVC had a higher percentage of images that were interpretable (63–77% vs. 100%), classifiable (70% vs. 84%), or gradable (70% vs. 79.3%) across three studies. Dermatoscopy had a lower sensitivity (60.2% vs. 81.6%) and higher specificity (92.5% vs. 84.6%) compared to NVC. One stereomicroscopy study found a significant difference between methods in capillary density in limited cutaneous SSc, while another found correlations in all parameters between stereomicroscopy and NVC. One smartphone lens had good agreement with NVC on abnormal capillary morphology and density. USB microscopy was able to differentiate between SSc and healthy controls using mean capillary width but not by capillary density. Discussion: A dermatoscope may serve as a more portable and affordable screening tool to identify a normal “scleroderma pattern”, and images that need further corroboration by NVC. NFC parameters reported are heterogenous and the standardization of these parameters is important, especially in non-gold-standard devices.

Energy Efficiency Model Construction of Building Carbon Neutrality Design

We aim to create a feasible quantitative method to calculate the energy efficiency of building designs that are carbon-neutral and to develop a workable way of calculating energy efficiency in buildings that achieve carbon neutrality and the system for such a building’s design energy efficiency function. This paper first clarifies the idea of the design energy efficiency function for a carbon-neutral building over its whole life cycle. Subsequently, through the efficient analysis of carbon-neutral design dimension measures, this paper summarizes and integrates the mature theories of various disciplines, puts forward the energy efficiency function model of carbon-neutral design background, propulsion, and coverage, and implements the energy efficiency function model of carbon-neutral design in the whole life cycle of buildings. The index value of a building’s carbon emission factor is established based on the carbon accounting factor published by the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change, and a carbon neutrality energy efficiency model for buildings over the duration of their whole life cycle is constructed. The results were as follows. 1. Technology energy efficiency is far better than scale energy efficiency and comprehensive energy efficiency. 2. The better the energy efficiency value inside the building stage, the less consumption and the higher the production. 3. Construction is when technical energy is used the least. This paper refers to a systematic design method that makes the level of building carbon neutrality design technologically advanced with the aid of all types of big data related to the building life cycle and various innovative design theories in order to fully represent the fundamental level, development potential, and the effectiveness of choosing the strategy of building carbon neutrality.

Predicting Success: An Examination of the Predictive Validity of a Measure of Motivational-Developmental Dimensions in College Admissions.

Amid the COVID-19 pandemic, an unprecedented number of higher education institutions adopted test-optional admissions policies. The proliferation of these policies and the criticism of standardized admissions tests as unreliable predictors of applicants' postsecondary educational promise have prompted the reimagining of evaluative methodologies in college admissions. However, few institutions have designed and implemented new measures of applicants' potential for success, rather opting to redistribute the weight given to other variables such as high school course grades and high school GPA. We use multiple regression to investigate the predictive validity of a measure of non-cognitive, motivational-developmental dimensions implemented as part of a test-optional admissions policy at a large urban research university in the United States. The measure, composed of four short-answer essay questions, was developed based on the social-cognitive motivational and developmental-constructivist perspectives. Our findings suggest that scores derived from the measure make a statistically significant but small contribution to the prediction of undergraduate GPA and 4-year bachelor's degree completion. We also find that the measure does not make a statistically significant nor practical contribution to the prediction of 5-year graduation.

Causes and Measures of Soil Erosion in Loess Plateau, China

Soil erosion is one of the key research topics in the world today, and it is a serious hazard to the natural environment and economic and social development. The researcher has found that soil erosion in China is regional, widespread and high-intensity. Of all the erosion areas, the Loess plateau is the most severe and the most representative. Therefore, this paper investigates the current situation of soil erosion in China and focuses on the erosion on the Loess Plateau, for its causes and remediation measures. Loess plateau has an inferior erosion-carrying capability, so the gully slopes and hilly areas of the Loess Plateau are prone to landslides and crumbling phenomena. Other erosion reasons include the fragmented high loess terrain with a lot of gorges and ravines, heavy rainfall, and low vegetation coverage. This study also proposes remediation measures by analyzing the different natural characteristics that cause soil erosion on the Loess Plateau. It is found that soil erosion control has a regional dimension and control measures should be closely related to the regional environment and the causes of soil erosion. Practice shows that the erosion control measures proposed in this paper greatly improve erosion in the Loess Plateau region, but the current state of soil erosion on the Loess plateau remains bleak.

New PET Measures of Functional Brain Fractal Dimensions Show Significant Differences for Cortical Grey and White Matter and also in Near Normal vs. Insulin Resistant Patients

New PET Measures of Functional Brain Fractal Dimensions Show Significant Differences for Cortical Grey and White Matter and also in Near Normal vs. Insulin Resistant Patients

Quantitative Brain MRI Metrics Distinguish Four Different ALS Phenotypes: A Machine Learning Based Study.

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is a fatal neurodegenerative disease whose diagnosis depends on the presence of combined lower motor neuron (LMN) and upper motor neuron (UMN) degeneration. LMN degeneration assessment is aided by electromyography, whereas no equivalent exists to assess UMN dysfunction. Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) is primarily used to exclude conditions that mimic ALS. We have identified four different clinical/radiological phenotypes of ALS patients. We hypothesize that these ALS phenotypes arise from distinct pathologic processes that result in unique MRI signatures. To our knowledge, no machine learning (ML)-based data analyses have been performed to stratify different ALS phenotypes using MRI measures. During routine clinical evaluation, we obtained T1-, T2-, PD-weighted, diffusion tensor (DT) brain MRI of 15 neurological controls and 91 ALS patients (UMN-predominant ALS with corticospinal tract CST) hyperintensity, n = 21; UMN-predominant ALS without CST hyperintensity, n = 26; classic ALS, n = 23; and ALS patients with frontotemporal dementia, n = 21). From these images, we obtained 101 white matter (WM) attributes (including DT measures, graph theory measures from DT and fractal dimension (FD) measures using T1-weighted), 10 grey matter (GM) attributes (including FD based measures from T1-weighted), and 10 non-imaging attributes (2 demographic and 8 clinical measures of ALS). We employed classification and regression tree, Random Forest (RF) and also artificial neural network for the classifications. RF algorithm provided the best accuracy (70-94%) in classifying four different phenotypes of ALS patients. WM metrics played a dominant role in classifying different phenotypes when compared to GM or clinical measures. Although WM measures from both right and left hemispheres need to be considered to identify ALS phenotypes, they appear to be differentially affected by the degenerative process. Longitudinal studies can confirm and extend our findings.

What to Look for in Relationships: Development, inter-rater reliability, and initial validity estimates for a young child-caregiver relationship assessment.

Observational assessments are important for understanding a range of behaviors and emotions in the young child-caregiver relationship. This paper provides initial data on a multidimensional assessment for professionals who work with young children and their caregivers, the What to Look for in Relationships (WLR). The WLR was designed to assist providers in evaluating strengths and areas for improvement in five areas of young child-caregiver relationship dimensions. This paper reports on the development, interrater reliability, initial convergent and discriminant validity, and incremental utility of the scales. Data were collected from caregiver-child dyads, who participated in a semi-structured observational caregiver-child interaction session as part of a clinic evaluation for relationship-based therapeutic services for young children in child protection. Recorded interactions were coded using the WLR scales with 146 interactions coded by at least two independent observers for interrater reliability analyses. The scales showed adequate internal consistency, good inter-rater reliability, strong convergent associations with a single dimension measure (i.e., the Parent-Infant Relationship Global Assessment Scale; PIR-GAS) and discriminated those in the clinical range from those with adaptive functioning on the PIR-GAS. This study provides initial support for the usefulness of the WLR scales for assessing dimensions of caregiver-child relationships during early childhood that may be useful targets of intervention.

Measures of maximal and full dimension for smooth maps

AbstractFor a $C^1$ non-conformal repeller, this paper proves that there exists an ergodic measure of full Carathéodory singular dimension. For an average conformal hyperbolic set of a $C^1$ diffeomorphism, this paper constructs a Borel probability measure (with support strictly inside the repeller) of full Hausdorff dimension. If the average conformal hyperbolic set is of a $C^{1+\alpha }$ diffeomorphism, this paper shows that there exists an ergodic measure of maximal dimension.

What words best capture the symptom of breathlessness in Uganda?

Introduction: Anecdotal experience suggests that Ugandan patients complain infrequently of breathlessness. The Luganda language, spoken in Uganda, does not have one word to express breathlessness but uses various phrases. Therefore, many of these patients may not be able to express what they feel when they are breathless by a single English word. Our aim was to determine the frequency and severity of the symptoms captured by a Luganda translation of the Dyspnea-12 (D12) questionnaire, a well validated measure of different dimensions of breathlessness.&#x0D; Method: All alert non-pregnant adult patients fluent in Luganda who presented to the hospital’s combined outpatient and emergency department were asked to complete the D12 questionnaire.&#x0D; Results: Out of 466 patients, 137 (29.4%) had at least one D12 symptom. Patients’ D12 responses expressed as a numerical severity score was only weakly associated with a respiratory rate &gt;20 bpm. Two questions (“My breathing requires more work” and “My breathing is uncomfortable”) identified &gt;90% of patients likely to be breathless.&#x0D; Conclusion: For patients whose first language is Luganda a translation of the D12 questionnaire captures the symptom of dyspnoea.

FRACTAL DIMENSION TECHNIQUES FOR ANALYSIS OF CARDIAC AUTONOMIC NEUROPATHY (CAN)

Identifying Cardiac Autonomic Neuropathy (CAN) in the early stages of proliferation demands more prominent techniques with a reliable significance of identification. CAN being a subclinical consequence that is the leading cause of death in individuals with diabetes mellitus (DM), which is common among one in four people above an average age of 45 years, calls for a more dependable technique for analysis. This study investigates the complexity in prominent time segments (RR, QT and ST) of ECG using different entropy measures and four nonlinear fractal dimension (FD) measures including box counting, Petrosian, Higuchi’s and Katz’s methods. Measures of statistical significance were implemented using Wilcoxon, Mann–Whitney and Kruskal–Wallis tests. The results of the study provide an original approach to diagnostics that reveals the fact that, instead of analyzing the signal running for the whole length, complexity measures can be achieved, if the intervals of the signal are studied including a combination of features rather than any one feature considered for diagnosis. A significance level of [Formula: see text] is achieved in more segments of ECG considered at intervals of time compared to one data recorded at the 20th minute between CAN+ and CAN− groups for both FD and entropy. Neural Network (NN) classification shows the accuracies of 84.61% and 60% in FD and entropy, respectively, computed every fifth minute. The accuracies from the model for the data collected at the 20th minute for FD and entropy are 50.22% and 30.33%, respectively, between the groups.

Examining a third level of police organizational climate: Does organizational self-legitimacy shape officer attitudes on the job?

PurposeThis study builds on recent efforts to take a broader (organizational climate) perspective of organizational justice by adding the role of peer officers and supervisor-induced self-legitimacy in modeling the impact of agency supervision on policing outcomes. MethodsThis study regresses measures of supervisory, peer, and officer-level dimensions of organizational climate on Croatian officer (N = 638) judgments of job satisfaction, trust in the public, and external-audience self-legitimacy. ResultsWe find that a third (personal) level of organizational climate, organizationally induced self-legitimacy, was the dominant predictor of the three separate policing outcomes. The three models did not support supervisor procedural justice as an antecedent to positive police attitudes toward their job, but peer officer procedural justice had a modest role as a predictor of officers' perceptions of external audience self-legitimacy. ConclusionsWhile criminal justice scholars have demonstrated the role that perceptions of supervisor fairness have on shaping officer attitudes and behavior across a wide range of institutions, this study suggests that other facets of organizational culture may have a greater impact on officer attitudes toward their job.

Eliminating Food Insecurity in the USA: a Target Trial Emulation Using Observational Data to Estimate Effects on Health-Related Quality of Life.

Food insecurity is associated with many aspects of poor health. However, trials of food insecurity interventions typically focus on outcomes of interest to funders, such as healthcare use, cost, or clinical performance metrics, rather than quality of life outcomes that may be prioritized by individuals who experience food insecurity. To emulate a trial of a food insecurity elimination intervention, and quantify its estimated effects on health utility, health-related quality of life, and mental health. Target trial emulation using longitudinal, nationally representative data, from the USA, 2016-2017. A total of 2013 adults in the Medical Expenditure Panel Survey screened positive for food insecurity, representing 32 million individuals. Food insecurity was assessed usingthe Adult Food Security Survey Module. The primary outcome was the SF-6D (Short-Form Six Dimension) measure of health utility. Secondary outcomes were mental component score (MCS) and physical component score (PCS) of the Veterans RAND 12-Item Health Survey (a measure of health-related quality of life), Kessler 6 (K6) psychological distress, and Patient Health Questionnaire 2-item (PHQ2) depressive symptoms. We estimated that food insecurity elimination would improve health utility by 80 QALYs per 100,000 person-years, or 0.008 QALYs per person per year (95% CI 0.002 to 0.014, p = 0.005), relative to the status quo. We also estimated that food insecurity elimination would improve mental health (difference in MCS [95% CI]: 0.55 [0.14 to 0.96]), physical health (difference in PCS: 0.44 [0.06 to 0.82]), psychological distress (difference in K6: -0.30 [-0.51 to -0.09]), and depressive symptoms (difference in PHQ-2: -0.13 [-0.20 to -0.07]). Food insecurity elimination may improve important, but understudied, aspects of health. Evaluations of food insecurity interventions should holistically investigate their potential to improve many different aspects of health.

A Death in the Family: Links between Religion, Parenting, and Family Communication about Death

The present study assessed the frequency and nature of parent–child communication about death and identified predictors of such communication. The sample comprised 24 families who had recently lost a family member. Parents completed survey measures of global parenting dimensions (warmth/acceptance, psychological control, behavioral control), parental coping (religious and secular coping), parental religiosity, and parent–child communication about death. Almost 80% of parent–child dyads discussed death at least once a week, and children initiated approximately half of these conversations. Parental warmth/acceptance was positively associated with the frequency of parent–child communication about death, whereas psychological control, negative religious coping, private religious practices, and religious focus were negatively associated with the frequency of parent–child communication about death. Results from hierarchical linear regression analyses suggest that even when controlling for parental warmth/acceptance and psychological control, parents’ private religious practices and religious focus negatively predicted the frequency of parent–child communication about death.

Restoring the missing person to personalized medicine and precision psychiatry.

Precision psychiatry has emerged as part of the shift to personalized medicine and builds on frameworks such as the U.S. National Institute of Mental Health Research Domain Criteria (RDoC), multilevel biological "omics" data and, most recently, computational psychiatry. The shift is prompted by the realization that a one-size-fits all approach is inadequate to guide clinical care because people differ in ways that are not captured by broad diagnostic categories. One of the first steps in developing this personalized approach to treatment was the use of genetic markers to guide pharmacotherapeutics based on predictions of pharmacological response or non-response, and the potential risk of adverse drug reactions. Advances in technology have made a greater degree of specificity or precision potentially more attainable. To date, however, the search for precision has largely focused on biological parameters. Psychiatric disorders involve multi-level dynamics that require measures of phenomenological, psychological, behavioral, social structural, and cultural dimensions. This points to the need to develop more fine-grained analyses of experience, self-construal, illness narratives, interpersonal interactional dynamics, and social contexts and determinants of health. In this paper, we review the limitations of precision psychiatry arguing that it cannot reach its goal if it does not include core elements of the processes that give rise to psychopathological states, which include the agency and experience of the person. Drawing from contemporary systems biology, social epidemiology, developmental psychology, and cognitive science, we propose a cultural-ecosocial approach to integrating precision psychiatry with person-centered care.

Complexity and Entropy in Physiological Signals (CEPS): Resonance Breathing Rate Assessed Using Measures of Fractal Dimension, Heart Rate Asymmetry and Permutation Entropy.

As technology becomes more sophisticated, more accessible methods of interpretating Big Data become essential. We have continued to develop Complexity and Entropy in Physiological Signals (CEPS) as an open access MATLAB® GUI (graphical user interface) providing multiple methods for the modification and analysis of physiological data. To demonstrate the functionality of the software, data were collected from 44 healthy adults for a study investigating the effects on vagal tone of breathing paced at five different rates, as well as self-paced and un-paced. Five-minute 15-s recordings were used. Results were also compared with those from shorter segments of the data. Electrocardiogram (ECG), electrodermal activity (EDA) and Respiration (RSP) data were recorded. Particular attention was paid to COVID risk mitigation, and to parameter tuning for the CEPS measures. For comparison, data were processed using Kubios HRV, RR-APET and DynamicalSystems.jl software. We also compared findings for ECG RR interval (RRi) data resampled at 4 Hz (4R) or 10 Hz (10R), and non-resampled (noR). In total, we used around 190-220 measures from CEPS at various scales, depending on the analysis undertaken, with our investigation focused on three families of measures: 22 fractal dimension (FD) measures, 40 heart rate asymmetries or measures derived from Poincaré plots (HRA), and 8 measures based on permutation entropy (PE). FDs for the RRi data differentiated strongly between breathing rates, whether data were resampled or not, increasing between 5 and 7 breaths per minute (BrPM). Largest effect sizes for RRi (4R and noR) differentiation between breathing rates were found for the PE-based measures. Measures that both differentiated well between breathing rates and were consistent across different RRi data lengths (1-5 min) included five PE-based (noR) and three FDs (4R). Of the top 12 measures with short-data values consistently within ± 5% of their values for the 5-min data, five were FDs, one was PE-based, and none were HRAs. Effect sizes were usually greater for CEPS measures than for those implemented in DynamicalSystems.jl. The updated CEPS software enables visualisation and analysis of multichannel physiological data using a variety of established and recently introduced complexity entropy measures. Although equal resampling is theoretically important for FD estimation, it appears that FD measures may also be usefully applied to non-resampled data.

Defining despair: Assessing the multidimensionality of despair and its association with suicidality and substance use in early to middle adulthood

Despite considerable scientific interest in documenting growing despair among U.S. adults, far less attention has been paid to defining despair and identifying appropriate measures. Emerging perspectives from social science and psychiatry outline a comprehensive, multidimensional view of despair, inclusive of individuals’ cognitive, emotional, biological and somatic, and behavioral circumstances. The current study assesses the structure and plausibility of this framework based on longitudinal data spanning early to middle adulthood. We identified 40 measures of different dimensions of despair in Wave IV (2008–2009) of the National Longitudinal Study of Adult to Adolescent Health (n = 9149). We used structural equation modeling to evaluate hypothesized relationships among observed and latent variables; we then regressed Wave V (2016–2018) suicidality, heavy drinking, marijuana use, prescription drug misuse, and illicit drug use on latent despair. Our analyses find that models for separate dimensions of despair and overall despair demonstrated excellent fit. Overall despair was a significant predictor of Wave V outcomes, especially suicidality, accounting for 20% of its variation, as compared to 1%–7% of the variation in substance use. Suicidality was consistently associated with all domains of despair; behavioral despair explained the most variation in substance use. Given these results we contend that, lacking direct measures, latent despair can be modeled using available survey items; however, some items are likely better indicators of latent dimensions of despair than others. Moreover, the association between despair and key health behaviors varies considerably, challenging its status as a mechanism simultaneously underlying increased substance use and suicide mortality in the United States. Critically, further validation of measures in other surveys can improve the operationalization of despair and its associated conceptual and theoretical frameworks, thus advancing our understanding of this concept.

Food integrity culture in food businesses in view of organizational and employees' demographic characteristics

Scope and approachThe prevailing food integrity culture of four Belgian food companies was assessed through a validated method triangulation. The relation between the perceived food integrity climate, the performed food integrity and the companies' food fraud vulnerability was analyzed in view of employees' demographic characteristics (i.e. age, seniority, job function, contract type) and organizational characteristics (i.e. product type, service type, company size and certifications status). Results and conclusionsResults from this semi-quantitative study revealed that all the participating companies recorded a positive food integrity culture, as their food integrity climate and performance were medium-high and their fraud vulnerability was medium-low. Minor differences among companies were identified depending on their specific organizational characteristics and employees' demographic characteristics. People integrity was the lowest-perceived food integrity dimension and specific food fraud control measures were lacking in the majority of the participating companies. Managers perceived their company's food integrity climate higher than the operators in contact with food, implying that employees in different job functions may hold differing perceptions of their company's climate. For the other demographic characteristics analyzed (age, seniority and contract type), a statistical correlation with the perceived food integrity climate was not revealed. Results suggest that product type, company size and certifications status may also promote (or hinder) the achievement of a positive food integrity culture. The applied food integrity culture method triangulation has demonstrated to assist food companies in acknowledging potential weaknesses in their food integrity climate, food integrity performance and food fraud control measures, allowing them to improve key human, operational, technical and managerial aspects to achieve an overall consolidated food integrity culture.