Project description:This article introduces data collected in the Citizens' Attitudes Under Covid-19 Project (CAUCP), which surveyed public opinion throughout the Covid-19 pandemic in 11 democracies between March and December 2020. In this paper, we present a unique cross-country panel survey of citizens' attitudes and behaviors during a worldwide unprecedented health, governance, and economic crisis. This dataset investigates the behavioral and attitudinal consequences of multifaceted Covid19 crisis across time and contexts. In this paper, we describe the design of the CAUCP and the descriptive features of the dataset; we also present promising research prospects.
Project description:The aim of this study was to picture perceived problems amongst older citizens in the traffic environment. Moreover, answers to the question why measures that are known to be efficient concerning the mobility of senior citizens are often not implemented. Eight EU countries participated in the study, involving both senior citizens and experts (researchers, decision makers and practitioners who deal with all aspects of seniors' mobility). Focus group interviews and personal interviews involving 487 senior citizens and 225 experts were carried out in order to chart problems. These were followed by quantitative surveys with 3,309 senior citizens and 490 experts that had the scope to measure the distribution of charted problems in the population. Finally, five workshops were carried out in order to discuss results and to formulate assumptions why promising measures are not implemented, as it appears. Barriers to mobility are by both experts and senior citizens attributed to traffic and infrastructure characteristics, to legal issues, to vehicle design problems, to inter-personal and inter-generational frictions, to lacking lobby power, but also to individual health problems. In order to improve mobility it is suggested by both senior citizens and experts to enforce vehicle speeds. Both groups also agree that public transport vehicles should be brought into an appropriate standard (low floor vehicles, kneeling busses). Senior citizens more than the experts ask for measures to support the sense of security and safety in the public space (police should be visible, appropriate design of infrastructure, public lighting).
Project description:Low public concern about anthropogenic climate change (ACC)-due in part to distrust in the scientific community-may decrease demand for policies aimed at mitigating its deleterious effects. Encouragingly, though, recent research finds that experiences with the COVID-19 pandemic has elevated trust in scientific expertise worldwide. We explore the possibility that positive attitudes toward the medical community are "spilling over" to increase ACC acceptance via globally representative survey data from 107 countries (N = 119,088) conducted during the COVID-19 pandemic. We show that trust in medical experts' handling of the COVID-19 pandemic is associated with increased ACC acceptance, worldwide. Problematically, though, we also show that the effects of trust in medical professionals is strongest in countries experiencing the most positive change in attitudes toward the scientific community, which tend to be disproportionately wealthy, and less likely to bear the unequal effects of climate change.
Project description:Background: Environmental awareness (EA) is a part of character education ignored by most students. This indifference tends to affect other students' by not only in protecting and preserving the current environment but also in preventing and repairing the damage that occurs in the environment. This research analyses students' EA profile, based on the findings of LISREL 8.8 Confirmatory Factor Analysis. Methods: Research subjects included 131 students from Senior High School State 1 Selomerto Wonosobo, Central Java Province, Indonesia. Based on the Slovin formula, the number of samples is representative of the total population (N: 185; error tolerance: 0.05). Data were collected through non-test questionnaires and observation of Strategic Environmental Awareness (SEA). Quantitative descriptive data analysis on EA indicators (Care, Curiosity, Critical, Dependability, Responsibility, and Local Wisdom). Results: The EA profile of high school students was categorised sufficiently. This revealed the following results: a) the SEA instrument is effective in identifying students' awareness about current environmental issues and meets model fit criteria (P-value 0.25>0.05; RMSEA 0.095; NFI 0.67); b) the SEA instrument is valid and reliable in accurately determining students' EA profile; c) although the Responsibility profile was significant (t >1.96), other variables did not meet this significance criteria (EA 1a: 'Care towards environmental damage' under the Care profile; EA 3b: 'Contributing towards preserving the environment' under the Critical profile; and EA 6b: 'Aware of local potentials' under the Local Wisdom profile); d) evaluation of the expected changes in SEA is modified through an ethnoscience approach and the socioscientific issues strategy. Conclusions: Students' lack of awareness of the environment and understanding of their regional potential fails to contribute towards creating a sustainable environment. Profile analysis in exploring attitudes, values, and ethics towards the environment are important, as it helps recognize students' behaviour.
Project description:MotivationThe datasets generated by DNA methylation analyses are getting bigger. With the release of the HumanMethylationEPIC micro-array and datasets containing thousands of samples, analyses of these large datasets using R are becoming impractical due to large memory requirements. As a result there is an increasing need for computationally efficient methodologies to perform meaningful analysis on high dimensional data.ResultsHere we introduce the bigmelon R package, which provides a memory efficient workflow that enables users to perform the complex, large scale analyses required in epigenome wide association studies (EWAS) without the need for large RAM. Building on top of the CoreArray Genomic Data Structure file format and libraries packaged in the gdsfmt package, we provide a practical workflow that facilitates the reading-in, preprocessing, quality control and statistical analysis of DNA methylation data.We demonstrate the capabilities of the bigmelon package using a large dataset consisting of 1193 human blood samples from the Understanding Society: UK Household Longitudinal Study, assayed on the EPIC micro-array platform.Availability and implementationThe bigmelon package is available on Bioconductor (http://bioconductor.org/packages/bigmelon/). The Understanding Society dataset is available at https://www.understandingsociety.ac.uk/about/health/data upon request.Supplementary informationSupplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Project description:IntroductionOptimising abdominal aortic aneurysm surveillance intervals will improve current surveillance programmes. To the author's knowledge, no known study has exclusively asked patient opinion with regards to their surveillance interval. The aim of this study was to therefore determine a patient's perspective of their optimal intervals, encouraging shared decision-making and creating a patient-focused service.MethodsFifty patients, currently under abdominal aortic aneurysm surveillance, were interviewed. Patients were asked their opinions before and after seeing a patient decision aid. A patient decision aid presents information of risk in an easy-to-understand format. This specific patient decision aid, designed and created for this study, informed patients of the 'risk of exceeding the 5.5 cm surgical threshold' with regards to various surveillance intervals. The chosen optimal surveillance interval was recorded for each patient, and a median interval was calculated for each abdominal aortic aneurysm group. Groups were categorised based upon maximum aortic diameter (3.0-3.4 cm, 3.5-3.9 cm, 4.0-4.4 cm and 4.5-4.9 cm).ResultsAfter assessing the patient decision aid, the median surveillance interval calculated for each abdominal aortic aneurysm group was 24 months (3.0-3.4 cm), 12 months (3.5-3.9 cm), 12 months (4.0-4.4 cm) and 6 months (4.5-4.9 cm), respectively. The majority of patients (78%, n = 39) agreed that the patient decision aid was a useful tool to help make an informed choice.ConclusionOverall, patients in abdominal aortic aneurysm groups 3.0-3.4 cm and 4.5-4.9 cm would choose to lengthen abdominal aortic aneurysm surveillance intervals. Lengthening the current surveillance intervals to 24 months (currently 12 months) for abdominal aortic aneurysm group 3.0-3.4 cm and to 6 months (currently 3 months) for abdominal aortic aneurysm group 4.5-4.9 cm would not only increase capacity but also reflect the needs and wishes of those using the National Health Service. The use of a patient decision aid is an effective way of communicating, to the patient, the risk of the proposed changes and thus alleviating potential anxiety.
Project description:Dependent peptide searching is a method for detecting modified peptides using data from shotgun proteomics analyses. We have developed a set of tools for visualising the results of dependent-peptide searches (as performed in MaxQuant). The tools were developed using four sets of search results: two sets for a sample of N-ethylmaleimide-treated bovine serum albumin (BSA), and two sets for a corresponding control sample (replicates = different LC-MS/MS analyses). This submission includes our raw data, MaxQuant output files, and a *.fasta file containing the sequence of mature BSA. An accompanying *.csv file summarises the structure of the data set.
Project description:ObjectivesTo analyse demographic, social and geographic predictors of incompliant attitudes towards prescription completion in the UK.MethodsTwo waves of the Eurobarometer survey (85.1 and 90.1) were analysed, with a final sample size of 2016. Using logistic regression, the best-fitting combination of a set of identified variables was specified. The regression output and the model-averaged importance of each variable were analysed.ResultsCompared with a median prevalence region, respondents in the Nomenclature of Territorial Units for Statistics (NUTS) 1 London (OR = 2.358, 95% CI = 1.100-5.398) and Scotland (OR = 2.418, 95% CI = 1.083-5.693) regions were most likely to report an incompliant attitude. Respondents who correctly answered questions about whether unnecessary use of antibiotics could make them ineffective in future (OR = 0.353, 95% CI = 0.230-0.544), whether antibiotics kill viruses (OR = 0.644, 95% CI = 0.450-0.919) and whether antibiotics treat colds (OR = 0.412, 95% CI = 0.287-0.591) were less likely to report incompliant attitudes. Conversely, respondents who correctly responded that antibiotics can cause side effects (OR = 1.419, 95% CI = 1.014-1.999) were more likely to report incompliant attitudes. There was some evidence of associations between political orientation and level of compliance. Uncooperative survey respondents (OR = 2.001, 95% CI = 1.108-3.526) were more likely to report incompliant attitudes.ConclusionsIncompliant attitudes towards antibiotic prescription compliance in the UK are associated with a variety of factors, including regional geographic variation in attitudes. Knowledge about antibiotics can relate to good stewardship attitudes, but concerns over side effects are associated with poor attitudes. Further research should examine the underlying attitudes and beliefs that political orientation may be a marker for in the context of antibiotic stewardship. Survey samples reliant on self-selection are likely to be biased towards good stewardship.
Project description:The Sonic Kayak is a musical instrument used to investigate nature and developed during open hacklab events. The kayaks are rigged with underwater environmental sensors, which allow paddlers to hear real-time water temperature sonifications and underwater sounds, generating live music from the marine world. Sensor data is also logged every second with location, time and date, which allows for fine-scale mapping of water temperatures and underwater noise that was previously unattainable using standard research equipment. The system can be used as a citizen science data collection device, research equipment for professional scientists, or a sound art installation in its own right.
Project description:People residing in rural communities are more likely to be physically inactive and subsequently have elevated risks for chronic disease. Recent evidence has shown this could stem from environmental barriers, inadequate programming and policies directed at the promotion of physical activity (PA) in rural settings. The objective of this research was to assess active living features in rural towns and townships (n = 16) across seven counties in northwestern North Carolina (NC). The study utilized the Town-Wide and Street Segment components of the Rural Active Living Assessment (RALA) as well as the 2014 American Community Survey results. The assessments were conducted in the summer of 2016 in the rural Appalachia region of NC. Using the RALA town-wide assessment scoring system (0 - 100), the range of scores was 18-84, with the mean being 50.06. Three towns had no sidewalks, nine towns had sidewalks on only one side of the main streets, and four had sidewalks on both sides of the main streets. One town was rated as highly walkable, seven towns as moderately walkable, five towns as moderately unwalkable, and three towns as highly unwalkable. The rural Appalachia region of NC offers unique topographic, geographic and environmental barriers to PA. However, our findings indicate many rural towns offer common PA amenities. Future research should utilize qualitative methods and a community-based participatory research approach to more fully understand the challenges with increasing PA in the rural and often isolated Appalachia communities.