Italian Ragweed Pollen Inventory

This study provides the first spatially detailed and complete inventory of Ambrosia pollen sources in Italy – the third largest centre of ragweed in Europe. The inventory relies on a well tested top-down approach that combines local knowledge, detailed land cover, pollen observations and a digital elevation model that assumes permanent ragweed populations mainly grow below 745m. The pollen data were obtained from 92 volumetric pollen traps located throughout Italy during 2004-2013. Land cover is derived from Corine Land cover information with 100m resolution. The digital elevation model is based on the NASA shuttle radar mission with 90m resolution. The inventory is produced using a combination of ArcGIS and Python for automation and validated using cross-correlation and has a final resolution of 5km x 5km. The method includes a harmonization of the inventory with other European inventories for the Pannonian Plain, France and Austria in order to provide a coherent picture of all major ragweed sources. The results show that the mean annual pollen index varies from 0 in South Italy to 6779 in the Po Valley. The results also show that very large pollen indexes are observed in the Milan region, but this region has smaller amounts of ragweed habitats compared to other parts of the Po Valley and known ragweed areas in France and the Pannonian Plain. A significant decrease in Ambrosia pollen concentrations was recorded in 2013 by pollen monitoring stations located in the Po Valley, particularly in the Northwest of Milan. This was the same year as the appearance of the Ophraella communa leaf beetle in Northern Italy. These results suggest that ragweed habitats near to the Milan region have very high densities of Ambrosia plants compared to other known ragweed habitats in Europe. The Milan region therefore appears to contain habitats with the largest ragweed infestation in Europe, but a smaller amount of habitats is a likely cause the pollen index to be lower compared to central parts of the Pannonian Plain. A low number of densely packed habitats may have increased the impact of the Ophraella beetle and might account for the documented decrease in airborne Ambrosia pollen levels, an event that cannot be explained by meteorology alone. Further investigations that model atmospheric pollen before and after the appearance of the beetle in this part of Northern Italy are needed to assess the influence of the beetle on airborne Ambrosia pollen concentrations. Future work will focus on short distance transport episodes for stations located in the Po Valley, and long distance transport events for stations in Central Italy that exhibit peaks in daily airborne Ambrosia pollen levels.

Propiedades psicométricas del Sexuality and the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory (SMRAI) en estudiantes universitarios de Lima

El objetivo fue analizar las propiedades psicométricas del Sexuality and the Mental Retardation Attitude Inventory (SMRAI) en una muestra de 144 estudiantes universitarios de la carrera de psicología de una universidad privada de Lima Metropolitana, del 2do al 9no ciclo, de los cuales 44 fueron varones (30.6%) y 100 mujeres (69.4%), con edades comprendidas entre 17 y 43 años (M: 21.9). El análisis factorial confirmatorio realizado revela que dicha prueba presenta una estructura de dos factores con índices de ajuste adecuados. Por otro lado, con relación a la confiabilidad del constructo mediante el coeficiente Rho se obtuvo un indicador de .80. Se concluye que la SMRAI cuenta con propiedades psicométricas adecuadas para implementarlo en estudios orientados a conocer más facetas de las actitudes hacia la sexualidad de las personas con discapacidad intelectual.

Quantifying Barriers to Meditation as a Health Behavior: Exploratory and Confirmatory Factor Analysis of the Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory

Although the benefits of mindfulness meditation practices have been widely documented, research data suggest that there are barriers to regularly engaging in meditation behavior. In order to explore research questions pertaining to meditation initiation and adherence, psychometrically valid scales to assess barriers to meditation practice are necessary. The aim of the present study was to explore the factor structure and construct validity of the Determinants of Meditation Practice Inventory (DMPI) (Williams et al., 2011), a perceived barriers to meditation scale. Exploratory and confirmatory factor analyses along with construct validity tests were performed on data obtained from two large, community samples. Results supported the DMPI as a valid scale assessing perceived barriers with four factors, Lack of Interest, Knowledge Concerns, Pragmatic Concerns and Sociocultural Beliefs. The present study offers a DMPI-revised scale that may be reliably used to assess attitudes and beliefs that might impede meditation behavior.

Contributos para a validação do Music Performance Anxiety Inventory for Adolescents (MPAI-A) na língua portuguesa

A ansiedade na performance musical (MPA-music performance anxiety) surge como um fenómeno fisiológico, psicológico, cognitivo e emocional que abrange todos os músicos independentemente da sua idade, experiência, dedicação ou tipo de instrumento. Pelo seu carácter crónico, e pela dificuldade que provoca na progressão na carreira, a MPA é uma patologia nefasta que, quando toma proporções exageradas, consegue afastar os músicos do seu ideal e objetivo de vida, pois o prazer de tocar é substituído pelo medo de ser julgado e observado por uma plateia ou júri. Pela necessidade de conhecer e saber reagir perante esta situação é imperativo aprofundar os conhecimentos acerca desta, para uma identificação precoce dos alunos em quem a ansiedade atinge níveis preocupantes nas atuações, quer a solo ou em orquestra. A correta abordagem deste problema por parte dos professores pode ser benéfica, levando os alunos a confiarem mais nas suas capacidades e a obterem resultados positivos. Este trabalho surge da necessidade de conseguir quantificar a ansiedade nos adolescentes e para tal o uso de uma escala previamente existente em inglês. O objetivo é explorar a ansiedade na performance musical através da tradução e aplicação do Music Performance Anxiety Inventory- Adolescents (MPAI-A) para a língua portuguesa, contribuindo para a sua posterior validação.

Down scaling to regional assessment of greenhouse gas emissions to enable consistency in accounting for emissions reduction projects and national inventory accounts for northern beef production in Australia

This paper explores the effect of using regional data for livestock attributes on estimation of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions for the northern beef industry in Australia, compared with using state/territory-wide values, as currently used in Australia’s national GHG inventory report. Regional GHG emissions associated with beef production are reported for 21 defined agricultural statistical regions within state/territory jurisdictions. A management scenario for reduced emissions that could qualify as an Emissions Reduction Fund (ERF) project was used to illustrate the effect of regional level model parameters on estimated abatement levels. Using regional parameters, instead of state level parameters, for liveweight (LW), LW gain and proportion of cows lactating and an expanded number of livestock classes, gives a 5.2% reduction in estimated emissions (range +12% to –34% across regions). Estimated GHG emissions intensity (emissions per kilogram of LW sold) varied across the regions by up to 2.5-fold, ranging from 10.5 kg CO2-e kg–1 LW sold for Darling Downs, Queensland, through to 25.8 kg CO2-e kg–1 LW sold for the Pindan and North Kimberley, Western Australia. This range was driven by differences in production efficiency, reproduction rate, growth rate and survival. This suggests that some regions in northern Australia are likely to have substantial opportunities for GHG abatement and higher livestock income. However, this must be coupled with the availability of management activities that can be implemented to improve production efficiency; wet season phosphorus (P) supplementation being one such practice. An ERF case study comparison showed that P supplementation of a typical-sized herd produced an estimated reduction of 622 t CO2-e year–1, or 7%, compared with a non-P supplemented herd. However, the different model parameters used by the National Inventory Report and ERF project means that there was an anomaly between the herd emissions for project cattle excised from the national accounts (13 479 t CO2-e year–1) and the baseline herd emissions estimated for the ERF project (8 896 t CO2-e year–1) before P supplementation was implemented. Regionalising livestock model parameters in both ERF projects and the national accounts offers the attraction of being able to more easily and accurately reflect emissions savings from this type of emissions reduction project in Australia’s national GHG accounts.

Psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI) in older people

The aim of this study was to evaluate the psychometric properties of the Coping Strategies Inventory (CSI) in a sample of 243 people aged 55 to 99 years old. The first order factorial structure was similar to the structure of the original version of the CSI and to the Spanish adaptation with general population. Furthermore, high levels of internal consistency and of convergent validity were observed in the different primary scales. Nevertheless, the problem avoidance scale did not surpass the validity and reliability tests. Due to it we propose to delete two of the items of this scale. On the other hand, in this study we confirmed the secondary and tertiary structure obtained in the original version of the inventory that was neither confirmed in the Spanish adaptation study nor the other studies on the psychometric properties of the Spanish version of the CSI.

Coordinated pricing and inventory management

This dissertation mainly focuses on coordinated pricing and inventory management problems, where the related background is provided in Chapter 1. Several periodic-review models are then discussed in Chapters 2,3,4 and 5, respectively. Chapter 2 analyzes a deterministic single-product model, where a price adjustment cost incurs if the current selling price is changed from the previous period. We develop exact algorithms for the problem under different conditions and find out that computation complexity varies significantly associated with the cost structure. %Moreover, our numerical study indicates that dynamic pricing strategies may outperform static pricing strategies even when price adjustment cost accounts for a significant portion of the total profit. Chapter 3 develops a single-product model in which demand of a period depends not only on the current selling price but also on past prices through the so-called reference price. Strongly polynomial time algorithms are designed for the case without no fixed ordering cost, and a heuristic is proposed for the general case together with an error bound estimation. Moreover, our illustrates through numerical studies that incorporating reference price effect into coordinated pricing and inventory models can have a significant impact on firms' profits. Chapter 4 discusses the stochastic version of the model in Chapter 3 when customers are loss averse. It extends the associated results developed in literature and proves that the reference price dependent base-stock policy is proved to be optimal under a certain conditions. Instead of dealing with specific problems, Chapter 5 establishes the preservation of supermodularity in a class of optimization problems. This property and its extensions include several existing results in the literature as special cases, and provide powerful tools as we illustrate their applications to several operations problems: the stochastic two-product model with cross-price effects, the two-stage inventory control model, and the self-financing model.

University students' engagement: Development of the university student engagement inventory (USEI)

Student engagement is a key factor in academic achievement and degree completion, though there is much debate about the operationalization and dimensionality of this construct. The goal of this paper is to describe the development of an psycho-educational oriented measure – the University Student Engagement Inventory (USEI). This measure draws on the conceptualization of engagement as a multidimensional construct, including cognitive, behavioural and emotional engagement. Participants were 609 Portuguese University students (67 % female) majoring in Social Sciences, Biological Sciences or Engineering and Exact Sciences. The content, construct and predictive validity, and reliability of the USEI were tested. The validated USEI was composed of 15 items, and supported the tri-factorial structure of student engagement. We documented evidence of adequate reliability, factorial, convergent and discriminant validities. USEI’s concurrent validity, with the Utrecht Work Engagement Scale-Student Survey, and the predictive validity for self-reported academic achievement and intention to dropout from school were also observed.

School Anxiety Inventory: Reliability and Validity Evidence in a Sample of Slovenian Adolescents

The purpose of this study was to examine the reliability and validity of the School Anxiety Inventory (SAI) using a sample of 646 Slovenian adolescents (48% boys), ranging in age from 12 to 19 years. Single confirmatory factor analyses replicated the correlated four-factor structure of scores on the SAI for anxiety-provoking school situations (Anxiety about School Failure and Punishment, Anxiety about Aggression, Anxiety about Social Evaluation, and Anxiety about Academic Evaluation), and the three-factor structure of the anxiety response systems (Physiological Anxiety, Cognitive Anxiety, and Behavioral Anxiety). Equality of factor structures was compared using multigroup confirmatory factor analyses. Measurement invariance for the four- and three-factor models was obtained across gender and school-level samples. The scores of the instrument showed high internal reliability and adequate test–retest reliability. The concurrent validity of the SAI scores was also examined through its relationship with the Social Anxiety Scale for Adolescents (SASA) scores and the Questionnaire about Interpersonal Difficulties for Adolescents (QIDA) scores. Correlations of the SAI scores with scores on the SASA and the QIDA were of low to moderate effect sizes.

APPLICATION OF AN IMPUTATION METHOD FOR GEOSPATIAL INVENTORY OF FOREST STRUCTURAL ATTRIBUTES ACROSS MULTIPLE SPATIAL SCALES IN THE LAKE STATES, U.S.A.

Credible spatial information characterizing the structure and site quality of forests is critical to sustainable forest management and planning, especially given the increasing demands and threats to forest products and services. Forest managers and planners are required to evaluate forest conditions over a broad range of scales, contingent on operational or reporting requirements. Traditionally, forest inventory estimates are generated via a design-based approach that involves generalizing sample plot measurements to characterize an unknown population across a larger area of interest. However, field plot measurements are costly and as a consequence spatial coverage is limited. Remote sensing technologies have shown remarkable success in augmenting limited sample plot data to generate stand- and landscape-level spatial predictions of forest inventory attributes. Further enhancement of forest inventory approaches that couple field measurements with cutting edge remotely sensed and geospatial datasets are essential to sustainable forest management. We evaluated a novel Random Forest based k Nearest Neighbors (RF-kNN) imputation approach to couple remote sensing and geospatial data with field inventory collected by different sampling methods to generate forest inventory information across large spatial extents. The forest inventory data collected by the FIA program of US Forest Service was integrated with optical remote sensing and other geospatial datasets to produce biomass distribution maps for a part of the Lake States and species-specific site index maps for the entire Lake State. Targeting small-area application of the state-of-art remote sensing, LiDAR (light detection and ranging) data was integrated with the field data collected by an inexpensive method, called variable plot sampling, in the Ford Forest of Michigan Tech to derive standing volume map in a cost-effective way. The outputs of the RF-kNN imputation were compared with independent validation datasets and extant map products based on different sampling and modeling strategies. The RF-kNN modeling approach was found to be very effective, especially for large-area estimation, and produced results statistically equivalent to the field observations or the estimates derived from secondary data sources. The models are useful to resource managers for operational and strategic purposes.

The posttraumatic growth inventory: Factor structure and invariance in a sample ofbreast cancer patients and in a non-clinical sample

The Posttraumatic Growth Inventory (PTGI) is frequently used to assess positive changes following a traumatic event. The aim of the study is to examine the factor structure and the latent mean invariance of PTGI. A sample of 205 (M age = 54.3, SD = 10.1) women diagnosed with breast cancer and 456 (M age = 34.9, SD = 12.5) adults who had experienced a range of adverse life events were recruited to complete the PTGI and a socio-demographic questionnaire. We use Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) to test the factor-structure and multi-sample CFA to examine the invariance of the PTGI between the two groups. The goodness of fit for the five-factor model is satisfactory for breast cancer sample (χ2(175) = 396.265; CFI = .884; NIF = .813; RMSEA [90% CI] = .079 [.068, .089]), and good for non-clinical sample (χ2(172) = 574.329; CFI = .931; NIF = .905; RMSEA [90% CI] = .072 [.065, .078]). The results of multi-sample CFA show that the model fit indices of the unconstrained model are equal but the model that uses constrained factor loadings is not invariant across groups. The findings provide support for the original five-factor structure and for the multidimensional nature of posttraumatic growth (PTG). Regarding invariance between both samples, the factor structure of PTGI and other parameters (i.e., factor loadings, variances, and co-variances) are not invariant across the sample of breast cancer patients and the non-clinical sample.

Metacognitive awareness inventory (MAI): Adaptação e validação da versão portuguesa

O Metacognitive Awareness Inventory (MAI) de Schraw e Dennison (1994) avalia duas dimensões metacognitivas de natureza geral nos adolescentes e adultos: o conhecimento da cognição, que inclui três subprocessos, e a regulação da cognição, que compreende cinco subprocessos. Neste estudo apresenta-se o processo de tradução e de adaptação do MAI à população portuguesa. A consistência interna nas dimensões conhecimento e regulação da cognição foi 0,82 e 0,90, respetivamente. Os resultados da Análise Fatorial Confirmatória sugerem um fator de segunda ordem com base na correlação dos resultados nas duas dimensões. A subescala conhecimento declarativo apresentou melhor validade relativa ao critério comparativamente com as demais subescalas. O MAI constitui-se um instrumento adaptado à realidade portuguesa, tanto para a avaliação da metacognição no global, como nas suas dimensões principais, permitindo apoiar a investigação relativa ao rendimento em processos de aprendizagem e formação na população adulta e de adolescentes.