Relinquishing Owners Underestimate Their Dog's Behavioral Problems: Deception or Lack of Knowledge?

Undesirable behavior is a leading cause of canine relinquishment. Relinquishing owners could provide valuable information about their dog's behavior, although the reliability of their reports has been questioned by the sheltering community. This study aimed to investigate (a) whether relinquishing owners' reports of dog behavior differed based on the behavioral screening method; (b) whether relinquishing owners' reports were impacted by the confidentiality of their responses; and (c) whether relinquishing and non-relinquishing owners perceived the behavior of their dogs differently. The sample included 427 relinquished dogs from three animal shelters and 427 pet dogs, matched for sex and breed. Owners responded to a direct question about whether they were experiencing problems with their dog's behavior and completed the mini C-BARQ which includes 42 questions about the frequency and severity of specific canine behaviors in various circumstances. More than two-thirds (69.3%) of relinquishing owners indicated they were not experiencing problems with their dog's behavior when asked directly, compared with only 34.5% of pet owners. Yet, relinquished dogs had significantly higher (less desirable) scores than pet dogs across most C-BARQ scales. The disparity between C-BARQ scores and the single, direct question does not appear to be the result of deliberately biased reporting by relinquishing owners as the perceived confidentiality (or lack thereof) did not affect their responses (X2 = 1.44, p = 0.97). It is possible that relinquishing owners had less understanding of dog behavior and did not recognize behavior problems as a problem. Our findings support the use of standardized behavioral questionnaires, such as the mini C-BARQ, to collect behavioral information from owners at the time of relinquishment and highlight opportunities for animal shelters to reduce relinquishment by assisting owners to recognize and manage behavioral problems.

Discourse, difference, and dehumanization: justifying the Canadian Japanese internment, 1940-1949

This thesis argues Canadian Members of Parliament used the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour as an opportunity to enforce a dominant “us versus them” narrative in order to justify the internment of approximately 22,000 Canadians of Japanese ancestry. National and local newspapers reinforced this narrative through uncritical and biased reporting which negatively framed the Japanese against a more idealized and white “Canadian” identity. Critical discourse analysis was applied on several debates in the House of Commons and news articles in the Daily Colonist and the Globe and Mail between 1940 and 1949, to examine the articulation of social relations – in this case, race and ethnicity – with the goal of uncovering the power relations embedded within the discourse. The findings reveal a clear “us versus them” narrative, whereby Canadians of Japanese ancestry were constructed as “yellow,” “bad,” and “unwanted,” as opposed to white Canadians who were “good” and “loyal.”

Discourse, difference, and dehumanization: justifying the Canadian Japanese internment, 1940-1949

This thesis argues Canadian Members of Parliament used the December 7, 1941 attack on Pearl Harbour as an opportunity to enforce a dominant “us versus them” narrative in order to justify the internment of approximately 22,000 Canadians of Japanese ancestry. National and local newspapers reinforced this narrative through uncritical and biased reporting which negatively framed the Japanese against a more idealized and white “Canadian” identity. Critical discourse analysis was applied on several debates in the House of Commons and news articles in the Daily Colonist and the Globe and Mail between 1940 and 1949, to examine the articulation of social relations – in this case, race and ethnicity – with the goal of uncovering the power relations embedded within the discourse. The findings reveal a clear “us versus them” narrative, whereby Canadians of Japanese ancestry were constructed as “yellow,” “bad,” and “unwanted,” as opposed to white Canadians who were “good” and “loyal.”

Re: Results of a randomized trial of treatment modalities in patients with low or early‑intermediate risk prostate cancer (PREFERE trial)

The authors of this “Letter to the Editors” express their major concern about selective and biased reporting in this paper.

Safety Aboard Chinese Vessels

The aim of this chapter is to explore the factors that affect ship to shore safety reporting in the Chinese shipping industry. The study was motivated by of the paucity of research in this specific area. Previous research in shore-based industries suggests that there may be cause for concern in shipping as ashore there is evidence of significant underreporting across a wide range of industries. This study, though it is small in scale, was conducted to partially fill the existing gap. The data used was collected from two major chemical shipping companies in China. Both employers and employees’ perspectives were considered in the process of data analysis. Furthermore, the ‘social factors’ behind the scene of reporting—underreporting, or biased reporting—were explored.

Are Video Games Still a Boys’ Club? How German Public Television Covers Video Games

Games shape our understanding of culture. As market figures demonstrate, video games as digital successors of traditional games are now the economic drivers of the media and entertainment industry and form a part of our daily media habits. Since the mid-1970s, journalistic coverage has presented video games as a controversial issue, an image that has crucially shaped public opinion to this day. In the case of Germany, the Interstate Broadcasting Treaty (Rundfunkstaatsvertrag) demands that public broadcast services provide balanced reporting. However, to date, there has been no comprehensive investigation into the media’s coverage of video games. With this in mind, the study at hand seeks to conduct the first explorative and quantitative content analysis of how the German public broadcast channels report on video games. The findings of the study support the assumption of generally biased reporting.

How biased media generate support for the ruling authorities: Causal mediation analysis of evidence from Russia

If a medium has a monopoly in covering political news and daily distorts the news in favor of the ruling autocrat, how large will the persuasion effect be? Through which channels will such persuasion operate most? Working with a representative sample of the Russian population, I use a causal mediation analysis to explore whether (1) frequency of exposure and/or (2) reliance on biased reporting mediate the link between how people voted for incumbent elites and how they evaluate these elites in the present. Perceiving explicitly biased information as credible transmits a large and robust effect from voting to evaluation, while frequent exposure to this information produces an insignificant mediating effect. Another important finding is that the effect of perceived news credibility overrides the effect of previous electoral support: Accepting state propaganda as credible information converts people into regime supporters even if they did not support these elites at previous election.

On the art of doing surveys among adolescents

The aim is to discuss methodological challenges for research on adolescent positive mental health. A first consideration is which questions should the measurement instrument answer. In the clinical context it should have the properties of giving enough information for making a diagnosis of high quality. In the public health context, its objective may be to give information that enables the researcher to describe trends at the population level and provide guidance on areas of intervention. The HBSC study is monitoring the health and health behaviour of school-aged children in a public health context. It is a population survey, defined by the form of data collection and the method of analysis. The data is collected by questionnaire from a representative sample of school-aged children. It tries to answer descriptive questions (What, who, when?), but also tries to explore causal associations (Why?), given the limitations of the cross-sectional design. Surveys have advantages: Good for gathering descriptive data; Can cover a wide range of topics. Are relatively inexpensive to use; Can include large number of respondents; and Can be analysed using a variety of existing software. Among the disadvantages can be mentioned: Self-report may lead to biased reporting; Data may provide a general picture but lack depth; Difficult to obtain adequate information on context; and Differences in understanding: it is difficult to formulate questions in such a way that it will mean exactly same thing to each respondent. The choice of measurement tools or indicators involves both theoretical and practical issues. Multidisciplinary research teams may include different theoretical traditions, which is an asset but also make it necessary to be explicit regarding overall aims of the study. Most often the theoretical issues focus one of three topics: the value of the types of data; the relative scientific rigor of the data; or basic, underlying philosophies of evaluation.

Serum α-fetoprotein in pediatric oncology: not a children’s tale

BackgroundMeasurement of α-fetoprotein (AFP) concentrations in the serum of infants is useful for the management of testicular germ cell tumors, hepatoblastoma and hepatocellular carcinoma. Here, we provide a critical review of the available information about pediatric reference intervals (RI), focusing on their utility in interpreting AFP as an aid for cancer diagnosis.ContentEvidence sources in the available literature were critically appraised. Out of 3873 retrieved papers, 24 were finally selected and carefully inspected, and six of them overcame exclusion criteria (i.e. methodological limitations in the study design, statistical gaps, drawbacks in traceability of the AFP assay to higher order materials and/or biased reporting of AFP results). Preterm and term infants up to the 3rd month of life exhibited the highest average AFP concentrations, but the attempt of defining RI by data pooling and partitioning for age intervals was impeded by the wide variability of data. The inability of defining robust RI in the first months of life made difficult, if not impossible, using upper reference limits for ruling out malignancies with a single AFP result. Evaluating the behavior of AFP concentrations 5 days from the baseline result, if this exceeds risk thresholds partitioned for age, according to the formula Xt=X0*2−t/HL(where: t=days elapsed for AFP retest; HL=AFP half-life according to age; X0=AFP baseline concentration, and Xt=predicted AFP concentration at day 5), could give a better information.SummaryNovel studies defining AFP RI in infants based on robust methodology are warranted to improve the interpretation of AFP results in pediatric oncology. In the meantime, algorithms based on both serum AFP absolute concentrations and HL may aid in cancer diagnosis.