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Level Factors (level + factor)
Selected AbstractsRACE, ETHNICITY, THREAT AND THE LABELING OF CONVICTED FELONS,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 3 2005STEPHANIE BONTRAGER Florida law allows judges to withhold adjudication of guilt for persons who have either pled guilty or been found guilty of a felony. This provision may apply only to persons who will be sentenced to probation, and it allows such individuals to retain all civil rights and to truthfully assert they had not been convicted of a felony. This paper examines the effects of race and Hispanic ethnicity on the withholding of adjudication for 91,477 males sentenced to probation in Florida between 1999 and 2002. Hierarchical Generalized Linear Modeling is used to assess the direct effects of defendant attributes as well as the cross-level interactions between race, ethnicity and community level indicators of threat, such as percentage black and Hispanic and concentrated disadvantage. Our results show that Hispanics and blacks are significantly less likely to have adjudication withheld when other individual and community level factors are controlled. This effect is especially pronounced for blacks and for drug offenders. Cross-level interactions show that concentrated disadvantage has a substantial effect on the adjudication withheld outcome for both black and Hispanic defendants. The implications of these results for the conceptualization of racial/ethnic threat at the individual, situational and social levels are discussed. [source] Factors affecting human supragingival biofilm composition.JOURNAL OF PERIODONTAL RESEARCH, Issue 4 2009Background and Objective:, Little is known regarding the factors that affect the microbial composition of supragingival biofilms. This study was designed to test the hypothesis that tooth location affects the microbial composition of supragingival plaque beyond the effect due to plaque mass as reflected by total DNA probe count. Material and Methods:, Supragingival plaque samples were taken from the mesiobuccal aspect of each tooth in 187 subjects (n = 4745 samples). All samples were individually analyzed for their content of 40 bacterial species using checkerboard DNA,DNA hybridization. Significance of differences in mean species counts and proportions were determined among tooth surfaces and six tooth type categories: molars, bicuspids, incisors/canines in the mandible and maxilla separately using the Kruskal,Wallis test. Stepwise multiple linear regression was employed to examine the relationship between species proportions and total DNA probe count, tooth location, periodontal and smoking status, age and sex. Results:, All species differed significantly among tooth types and among the six tooth categories. Higher plaque levels were seen on molars and lower incisors. Some differences observed between tooth types could be partly explained by the level of plaque. Teeth with high plaque mass exhibited high levels of Capnocytophaga gingivalis, Actinomyces naeslundii genospecies 2, Campylobacter rectus and Campylobacter showae. However, certain species, such as Veillonella parvula and Streptococcus sanguinis, differed significantly at different tooth locations despite similarities in plaque mass. Twenty of the test species exhibited a significant association with tooth location after adjusting for total DNA probe count and subject level factors. Conclusion:, While plaque mass was associated with differences in proportions of many species in supragingival biofilms, tooth location also was strongly associated with species proportions in both univariate and multivariate analyses. [source] Hierarchical related regression for combining aggregate and individual data in studies of socio-economic disease risk factorsJOURNAL OF THE ROYAL STATISTICAL SOCIETY: SERIES A (STATISTICS IN SOCIETY), Issue 1 2008Christopher Jackson Summary., To obtain information about the contribution of individual and area level factors to population health, it is desirable to use both data collected on areas, such as censuses, and on individuals, e.g. survey and cohort data. Recently developed models allow us to carry out simultaneous regressions on related data at the individual and aggregate levels. These can reduce ,ecological bias' that is caused by confounding, model misspecification or lack of information and increase power compared with analysing the data sets singly. We use these methods in an application investigating individual and area level sociodemographic predictors of the risk of hospital admissions for heart and circulatory disease in London. We discuss the practical issues that are encountered in this kind of data synthesis and demonstrate that this modelling framework is sufficiently flexible to incorporate a wide range of sources of data and to answer substantive questions. Our analysis shows that the variations that are observed are mainly attributable to individual level factors rather than the contextual effect of deprivation. [source] E-satisfaction and e-loyalty: A contingency frameworkPSYCHOLOGY & MARKETING, Issue 2 2003Rolph E. Anderson The authors investigate the impact of satisfaction on loyalty in the context of electronic commerce. Findings of this research indicate that although e-satisfaction has an impact on e-loyalty, this relationship is moderated by (a) consumers' individual level factors and (b) firms' business level factors. Among consumer level factors, convenience motivation and purchase size were found to accentuate the impact of e-satisfaction on e-loyalty, whereas inertia suppresses the impact of e-satisfaction on e-loyalty. With respect to business level factors, both trust and perceived value, as developed by the company, significantly accentuate the impact of e-satisfaction on e-loyalty. © 2003 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. [source] Network positioning and R&D activity: a study of Italian groupsR & D MANAGEMENT, Issue 1 2003Igor Filatotchev Traditionally, R&D studies focus on organisational characteristics and internal context factor effects on a firm's R&D activities. This paper extends previous research by analysing firm,level R&D expenditures in the wider context of inter,organisational networks. Using sample of 2002 manufacturing firms in Italy, it provides evidence that R&D intensity is linked to a firm's positioning within an industrial group's hierarchy. Further tests on the antecedents of R&D expenditures are carried out in relation to the effects of firm characteristics and industry factors. Important findings include a significant and positive association between R&D intensity and the firm's size, performance, intangible assets and industry concentration. These findings suggest that, in addition to firm,level factors and its market environment, network resources and organisation may play an important role in driving the intensity of the firm's R&D expenditures. [source] Health behaviours of young, rural residents: A case studyAUSTRALIAN JOURNAL OF RURAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2009Lisa Bourke Abstract Objective:,To analyse self-reported health behaviours of young people from a rural community and the factors influencing their behaviours. Methods:,Interviews were conducted with 19 young people, 11 parents and 10 key informants from a small rural Victorian community, asking about teenage health behaviours and the factors influencing these behaviours. Results:,Young people ate both healthy and unhealthy foods, most participated in physical activity, few smoked and most drank alcohol. The study found that community level factors, including community norms, peers, access issues and geographic isolation, were particularly powerful in shaping health behaviours, especially alcohol consumption. Smoking was influenced by social participation in the community and national media health campaigns. Diet and exercise behaviour were influenced by access and availability, convenience, family, peers and local and non-local cultural influences. Conclusion and implications:,The rural context, including less access to and choice of facilities and services, lower incomes, lack of transport and local social patterns (including community norms and acceptance), impact significantly on young people's health behaviours. Although national health promotion campaigns are useful aspects of behaviour modification, much greater focus on the role and importance of the local contexts in shaping health decisions of young rural people is required. [source] |