Models and Strategies for Factor Mixture Analysis: An Example Concerning the Structure Underlying Psychological Disorders

The factor mixture model (FMM) uses a hybrid of both categorical and continuous latent variables. The FMM is a good model for the underlying structure of psychopathology because the use of both categorical and continuous latent variables allows the structure to be simultaneously categorical and dimensional. This is useful because both diagnostic class membership and the range of severity within and across diagnostic classes can be modeled concurrently. Although the conceptualization of the FMM has been explained in the literature, the use of the FMM is still not prevalent. One reason is that there is little research about how such models should be applied in practice and, once a well-fitting model is obtained, how it should be interpreted. In this article, the FMM is explored by studying a real data example on conduct disorder. By exploring this example, this article aims to explain the different formulations of the FMM, the various steps in building a FMM, and how to decide between an FMM and alternative models.     

NEGOTIATING POLITICIANS’ RESPONSIBILITIES IN NEWS INTERVIEWS

News interviews are contexts in which political responsibilities are articulated and negotiated. Although the accountability interview is recognized as a commonsense practice in journalism, and the research on political interviews is substantial, it partly remains to explore how responsibilities are negotiated in different forms of questioning in journalism. This study investigates three generic forms of questioning: accountability questioning, the clarifying of promises, and the principal assessments. Key features of the different forms are specified. The empirical study investigates how the questionings are performed in news on industrial crises in Sweden, in the different political regimes in the 1970s and the 2000s. The data consist of 27 news interviews with the formally responsible Ministers. The method is based on Conversation Analysis and includes detailed analyses of questions and answers. The study shows (1) how the forms of questioning differ when it comes to the action agenda and in how responsibilities are invoked and negotiated; (2) how the questionings tend to reproduce particular expectations of Governmental interventions; (3) how increased assertiveness and adversarialness in interviewing coincide with reduced expectations of political responsibilities.     

Funeral Processions, Street Urchins, Education, and Surveillance - The Relationship Between Education, State Building, Vagrancy, and Cultural Change in Stockholm, Sweden in the Latter Half of the Seventeenth Century

A modernization of the educational system was an important priority for the government. Sweden emerged as a dominant military power during the 17th century. The new schools were then established in the midst of a social, political, and cultural transformation with fundamental effects on the school system. The new schools had difficulties freeing themselves from old traditions, depended on an old economic structure, and filled a role as a system of population control. The latter was also related to the organization of the early modern educational system as well as systems of supporting the poor by conspicuous — personal — distribution of money and presents, which during the course of the 17th century was to be replaced by institutionalized care of the poor and new systems of surveillance. An important aspect of the article is a discussion of the role of early modern education for the material well being of poor families of Stockholm.     

Number of Subjects and Time Points Needed for Multilevel Time-Series Analysis: A Simulation Study of Dynamic Structural Equation Modeling

Dynamic structural equation modeling (DSEM) is a novel, intensive longitudinal data (ILD) analysis framework. DSEM models intraindividual changes over time on Level 1 and allows the parameters of these processes to vary across individuals on Level 2 using random effects. DSEM merges time series, structural equation, multilevel, and time-varying effects models. Despite the well-known properties of these analysis areas by themselves, it is unclear how their sample size requirements and recommendations transfer to the DSEM framework. This article presents the results of a simulation study that examines the estimation quality of univariate 2-level autoregressive models of order 1, AR(1), using Bayesian analysis in Mplus Version 8. Three features are varied in the simulations: complexity of the model, number of subjects, and number of time points per subject. Samples with many subjects and few time points are shown to perform substantially better than samples with few subjects and many time points.     

Improving near‐peer teaching quality in anatomy by educating teaching assistants: An example from Sweden

Peer‐assisted learning has gained momentum in a variety of disciplines, including medical education. In Gothenburg, Sweden, medical students who have finished their compulsory anatomy courses have the option of working as teaching assistants (TAs). Teaching assistants provide small group teaching sessions as a complement to lectures given by faculty. Previously, TAs were left to handle the role as junior teachers by themselves, but since 2011, a continuation course in anatomy has been developed with the aim of providing the TAs better anatomy knowledge and guidance for teaching. The course was designed to comprise 7.5 ECTS credits (equivalent to 5 weeks of full‐time studies), and today all TAs are required to take this course before undertaking their own teaching responsibilities. This study aims to compare course evaluations of TA teaching before and after the introduction of the anatomy continuation course, in order to understand how students perceived teaching performed by self‐learned versus trained TAs. The results of this study demonstrate that there was a trend towards better teaching performed by trained TAs. The variability in rankings decreased significantly after the introduction of the continuation course. This was mainly due to an improvement among the TAs with the lowest levels of performance. In addition to comparing student rankings, TAs were interviewed regarding their experiences and perceptions within the continuation course. The course was generally positively regarded. The TAs described a sense of cohesion and appreciation since the institute invested in a course dedicated specifically for them. Anat Sci Educ 11: 403–409. © 2018 American Association of Anatomists.     

(4) The Sarawak State Museum reference library and archives

Abstract

This study focuses on collection development in the library of the University of Agriculture from 1983 through 1993. The metamorphosis through which the university has passed is highlighted to show the effects of policy instability on collection development efforts. Methods used for gathering facts and figures for the study included a questionnaire distributed to staff and students, interviews, and official records searches. The study showed that over the years, resources for collection development have been declining in real terms leading to a reduction in the student-book ratio from 1:40 in 1983 to 1:9 in 1993. Problems confronting collection development such as escalating costs of foreign currency, import restrictions, and the politics of resource allocation are also highlighted. Strict compliance with the National Universities Commission's (NUC) funding standard for university libraries is recommended.     

Contents

Volume Contents

Contents     

Stimulus blocking during compound discrimination training with pentobarbital and visual stimuli

Learning & Behavior - To investigate blocking by drug-induced stimuli and visual stimuli, three groups of rats were trained to escape shock in a T-maze by choosing the left or right arm. During...