text:
Psychological intimate partner violence against women in the European Union: a cross-national invariance study
Manuel Martín-Fernández ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-3606-35591,
Enrique Gracia ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0003-0514-29831 &
Marisol Lila ORCID: orcid.org/0000-0002-0522-74611
Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a worldwide public health problem. One of the most frequent forms of this type of violence in western societies is psychological IPVAW. According to the European Union (EU) Fundamental Rights Association (FRA) the prevalence of psychological IPVAW in the EU is 43%. However, the measurement invariance of the measure addressing psychological IPVAW in this survey has not yet been assessed.
The aim of this study is to ensure the cross-national comparability of this measure, by evaluating its measurement invariance across the 28 EU countries in a sample of 37,724 women, and to examine how the levels of this type of violence are distributed across the EU.
Our results showed that the psychological IPVAW measure presented adequate psychometric properties (reliability and validity) in all countries. A latent structure of one factor was supported and scalar invariance was established in all countries. The average levels of psychological IPVAW were higher in countries like Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Sweden compared to the rest of the EU countries. In many of the other countries the levels of this type of violence overlapped.
Our findings underlined the importance of using appropriate statistical methods to make valid cross-national comparisons in large population surveys.
Intimate partner violence against women (IPVAW) is a worldwide social and public health problem [1,2,3], with serious consequences not only for the victims' physical and psychological well-being, but also for their children, and the wider community [4,5,6,7].
One of the most frequent forms of this type of violence in western societies is psychological IPVAW, which can occur either in isolation, or in conjunction with other forms of intimate partner violence [8,9,10,11]. There is, however, a strong link between psychological and physical IPVAW, since psychological violence often precedes physical IPVAW, and it is considered one of its main risk factors [12, 13].
The average prevalence of psychological IPVAW in large population surveys varies largely depending on how this type of violence is defined and measured, with some studies estimating its prevalence at around 10–20% while others found prevalence rates of around 80–90% [14,15,16,17,18,19,20]. The frequency and severity of psychological IPVAW can also differ widely from one country to another [2, 14], implying that the way in which this type of violence is perceived and interpreted can vary across countries and cultures.
Most surveys addressing psychological IPVAW have followed the tradition of the Conflict Tactics Scale (CTS) in defining it through specific behaviors [2, 21, 22]. Two aspects are usually considered in the assessment of this type of violence: emotional abuse and controlling behavior [11, 12, 23,24,25]. Emotional abuse involves behaviors intended to generate emotional harm or threat of harm, such as belittling, humiliating, threatening or intimidating the victim, whereas controlling behavior entails monitoring partner's behaviors or isolating them by limiting actions, such as forbidding them to leave the house, restricting contact with other people, or continually insisting on knowing the victim's whereabouts [2, 14, 26, 27].
In the European Union (EU), a survey conducted by the EU Agency for Fundamental Rights (FRA) across the 28 member countries found that the average prevalence of psychological IPVAW was 43%, ranging from 31% in Ireland to 60% in Latvia [26]. The main advantage of this survey is that it also followed the CTS tradition, using the same set of questions addressing emotional abuse and controlling behavior in the 28 EU member states. Nevertheless, as is the case in most surveys, the measurement invariance of these questions has not yet been assessed, which calls into question the validity of these cross-national comparisons. It is therefore not possible to ensure whether the differences in psychological IPVAW prevalence across the EU countries reflects actual differences between countries, or whether they are the result of different cultural beliefs or expectations about intimate partner violence that may distort the interpretation of the FRA survey questions.
Therefore, before making any comparison across countries it is necessary to address the measurement invariance of the set of questions used in different countries [28,29,30]. Measurement invariance is an important prerequisite in cross-national research as it allows meaningful comparisons to be made across countries by ruling out the possibility of cultural bias in the respondents' answers [31,32,33]. When measurement invariance is not supported, it cannot be assumed that respondents from different countries interpret and answer the questions in the same way, and hence their scores cannot be directly compared [34]. Thus, obtaining prevalence rates to compare samples from different countries without first assessing measurement invariance could lead to inaccurate and biased conclusions, since the validity of such comparisons may become compromised.
The principal aim of this study is to ensure the cross-national comparability of the set of questions addressing psychological IPVAW used in the FRA survey, by evaluating whether respondents of each country conceptualize and interpret these questions in the same way. For validity purposes, we also examined the relationships of psychological IPVAW to other forms of partner violence, such as physical and sexual IPVAW, and to other related sociodemographic and background variables, such as self-perceived health, household income, and experiences of child abuse [4, 11, 13, 35,36,37,38,39]. Once the measurement invariance of this measure and his validity were established, we aim to make valid and appropriate comparisons of the psychological IPVAW levels across all EU countries.
The sample used in the present study consisted of the responses of 37,724 women to the survey conducted by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights on violence against women [26]. Respondents to this survey were ever-partnered women, aged from 18 to 74 years old, from the 28 EU countries. The responses were collected following a two-stage clustered stratified sampling design with equal probability of selection of households within clusters; structured interviews were conducted in person [40]. The average response rate to the survey was 42.1%, ranging from 18.5% in Luxembourg to 84.0% in Hungary [40]. Quality control checks were made for 10% of the interviewed women [40]. A license for secondary data analysis was granted by the FRA for all the analyses (Reference No. 102577).
The sample used in this study comprised the responses from respondents who answered all of the items addressing psychological partner violence. Socio-demographical information of the sample by country can be found in Table 1.
Table 1 Sociodemographic characteristics of the sample in each country (N = 37,724)
Psychological violence
The FRA survey includes two sets of items addressing psychological IPVAW in the first part of the interview. The first set contains eight items assessing controlling behavior (e.g., "Insisting on knowing where she is in a way that goes beyond general concern"), and economic violence (e.g., "Preventing you from making decisions about family finances or from shopping independently"). The second set is comprised of five items evaluating emotional abuse (e.g, "Belittling or humiliating you in front of other people"). The response format for all the items was a 4-point Likert-type scale indicating the frequency of such behaviors (1: "Never", 2: "Sometimes", 3: "Often", 4: "All the times"). Given that in most of the countries the frequencies of the upper two categories were extremely low (less than 2%, even when merged together), we decided to dichotomize the responses in order to set the same metric in all the items (0: "Never", 1: "Sometimes or more often").
Validity evidence based on relations to other variables
We used the following variables to test the validity of the psychological IPVAW measure [41]:
Physical violence. Physical IPVAW is assessed in the FRA survey with a set of eight items describing episodes of physical violence perpetrated by either the current or any previous partner (e.g., "Has your current/previous partner ever slapped you?"). The response format of the items was dichotomized (0: "Never", 1: "Once or more times"). The factor scores of this measure were used for the validity analyses.
Sexual violence. Sexual IPVAW is evaluated in the FRA survey with a set of four items addressing sexual violence committed by the current or any previous partner (e.g., "Has your current/previous partner made you take part in any form of sexual activity when you did not want to or you were unable to refuse?"). The responses to these items were also dichotomized (0: "Never", 1: "Once or more times"). The factor scores of this measure were also used for the validity analyses.
Self-perceived health. The FRA survey used a single item inquiring about the general health of the respondents at the beginning of the interview, using a 5-point Likert type graded response (from 1 = "Very Bad" to 5 = "Very Good").
Experiences of child abuse. This variable was assessed in the FRA survey using a set of 11 questions asking about experiences of childhood physical and sexual abuse before the age 15 (e.g., "Did an adult who was 18 years or over hit you very hard so that it hurt?", "has an adult who was 18 years or over expose their genitals to you?"). If any of these questions were answered affirmatively, we considered that the participant had experienced abuse during their childhood.
Income. The FRA survey includes a single item of reported income in each country (i.e., "under lowest quartile", "between lowest quartile and median", "between median and highest quartile", "above highest quartile"). To answer this item, respondents informed the interviewer about their monthly income or chose between four income bands. These bands varied depending on the country to make the quartiles comparable across all EU member states [40] (e.g., in Austria: "up to €1,600", "€1601–€2300", "€2300–€3000", "over €3000").
The main objective of this study is to assess the measurement invariance of the items addressing psychological IPVAW included in the FRA Survey, and to examine how the levels of this type of violence are distributed across the EU. To do so, we carried out the following analyses.
We first conducted a descriptive analysis of the set of items addressing psychological IPVAW, obtaining the mean, standard deviation, skew, and kurtosis statistics, as well as the correlation of each item with the rest of the scale (i.e., item-test corrected correlation). We then analyzed the latent structure of this measure carrying out a confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) for each country separately. We compared two models: a one-factor model, where all the items loaded onto a single factor, and a two-factor correlated models, in which all the items of the first set—controlling behavior and economic violence—loaded on one factor, and the items of the second set—emotional abuse—loaded onto a second factor. Although the first set of questions has items of controlling behavior and economic violence, we decided to maintain the structure used in the FRA survey. To this end, both types of items were included in the same factor, since there were not enough indicators to estimate a separate factor of economic violence—the FRA survey only included two items of economic violence, and a minimum of three indicators are usually required [42, 43]. Given the categorical nature of the data, we used weighted least squares means and variances adjusted (WLSMV) as the estimation method. The fit of the models was evaluated by a combination of fit indices: the comparative fit index (CFI), the Tucker-Lewis index (TLI), and the root mean squared error of approximation (RMSEA). CFI and TLI values above .95 are indicative of good fit [44], whereas RMSEA values below .08 and .06 were considered as mediocre and excellent fit, respectively [45]. The internal consistency of the resulting factors was assessed using Revelle's omega total [46], as it does not assume tau-equivalence for the items [47]. Omega values above .70 are indicative of good internal consistency.
Once the latent structure of the scale was established, we carried out a series of multi-group confirmatory factor analyses (MG-CFA) to test the measurement invariance of the psychological IPVAW measure across the 28 EU countries. To this end, a series of nested models were evaluated: configural, metric and scalar invariance models [28]. In the configural invariance model, the same factor structure is applied for all countries, assuming no equality constraints for any parameters. The metric invariance model holds the item loadings to the same value across countries. The scalar invariance model constraints both item loadings and thresholds to be invariant across countries, ensuring that respondents from different countries with the same pattern of responses will obtain the same factor score. If the scalar invariance model is supported, then the factor means on the psychological IPVAW measure can be compared across countries.
To assess the fit of the invariance models, we computed the change in the CFI (ΔCFI) and RMSEA (ΔRMSEA), using the general guidelines of Cheung and Rensvold [48] and Chen [49]. These guidelines, however, were developed for continuous data, and thus the interpretation of such indices should be made with caution when dealing with categorical data [50]. For this reason, we used the cut-off values proposed by Meade, Johnson, and Brady [51], as it is currently the most conservative approach for assessing the change in the fit indices: ΔCFI ≤ .002 and ΔRMSEA ≤ .007. The performance of these cut-offs with categorical data tend to be similar to maximum likelihood based procedures when the sample size is large and the items are not normally distributed [50].
After establishing an invariant factorial model, we used the invariant factor scores of the psychological IPVAW measure to test validity evidence based on relationships to other variables in all countries. Pearson correlations were obtained between the psychological IPVAW measure and the measures of physical and sexual IPVAW. In addition, we computed a one-way ANOVA, testing differences in psychological IPVAW by self-perceived health, experiences of child abuse, and income. The size effect of the variables was assessed with the partial eta-squared statistic, using values above .01, .06, and .14, as indicative of small, medium, and large size effects, respectively [52].
Finally, we compared the factor means of psychological IPVAW across countries through a latent means analysis. This procedure takes into account the different weights of the items (i.e., item loadings) to measure the construct and all the constraints of the invariance analyses, leading to a more appropriate and sophisticated comparison of psychological IPVAW levels across all EU countries. We evaluated the magnitude of these cross-national comparisons using Cohen's d statistic. Values of this statistic above .20, .50, and .80 indicate small, medium and large size effects, respectively [53]. In addition to Cohen's d, we also computed the Cohen's U3 statistic, which reflects the percentage of cases of one country that is higher than the average of another [54, 55]. Cohen's U3 between each pair of countries can be found on the Additional file 1.
All analyses were conducted with the library psych of the statistical package R [46, 56], with the exception of the CFA and the MG-CFA, which were computed using Mplus 8.3 [57].
Descriptive analysis
All the items presented means close to zero, as well as high skew and kurtosis statistics, showing that most of the respondents reported never having experienced the episodes described by the items (Table 2). The item-test corrected correlations were high in general, indicating a strong relationship between the items.
Table 2 Descriptive statistics of the psychological violence items
Confirmatory factor analysis and internal consistency
Two models where tested in each country: a one-factor model assuming that all the items are grouped onto a single factor, and a two-factor model, distinguishing between the controlling behavior and the emotional abuse items.
The one-factor model yielded a very good fit in all countries, showing excellent CFI and TLI values in the 28 EU countries (Table 3). The RMSEA, however, indicated only excellent fit in Bulgaria, Estonia, Finland, Ireland, Luxembourg, Malta, Romania, and Spain, presenting a mediocre model fit in the rest of the countries, with the exception of Croatia, where the RMSEA for the one-factor model was poor. Regarding the two-factor model, all the fit indices were excellent, showing almost a perfect fit. Nevertheless, the correlations between the two factors of this second model were very strong, yielding values around .85 in most of the countries (ranging from .73 in Croatia to .93 in Ireland), which in turn may be indicating that both factors are measuring the same construct. Given the suitability of both factorial solutions, we decided to keep both factor structures for the measurement invariance analysis in order to then choose the one better supported by the data.
Table 3 Confirmatory factor analysis fit indices by country
The internal consistency was very good in both models. In particular, the omega total for the one-factor solution was ω = .90 in the complete sample (ranging from .88 in Denmark to .93 in Bulgaria, Croatia, and Ireland). For the two-factor solution the omega total was ω = .91 (ranging from .88 in Denmark to .95 in Croatia).
Measurement invariance
The analysis of measurement invariance supported the configural, metric, and scalar invariance models for the psychological IPVAW measure across all EU countries for the one-factor solution (Table 4). When the factor loadings were constrained to have the same value in all the countries, the metric model fit did not differ substantially from the configural model (∆CFI = .000, ∆RMSEA = .006). Similarly, constraining the item thresholds as well as the item loadings to be equal across countries did not substantially reduce the fit of the model (∆CFI = .001, ∆RMSEA = .002), supporting the scalar invariance model.
Table 4 Measurement invariance fit indices
Regarding the two-factor solution, however, the data only supported the configural invariance model. Constraining the loadings to be equal in all the countries reduced the fit of the metric invariance model (∆CFI = .004, ∆RMSEA = .006), above the ∆CFI .002 cut-off suggested by Meade et al. [51]. We thus decided to keep the one-factor solution as the latent structure of the psychological IPVAW measure for the rest of the analyses.
The standardized item loadings of the one-factor model were high in general, with values above .90 for most of the items and low standard errors (Fig. 1). There were, however, small differences between the items, pointing out that not all the items contribute equally to the factor, and that some items were more relevant than others to assess the construct. Regarding the item thresholds, they were around 1 for most of the items, ranging from 0.60 for the item "Get angry if you speak with another man/woman?" to 2.11 for the item "Made you watch or look at pornographic material against your wishes?", covering a wide area of the latent trait continuum. The items with the lowest factor loadings ("Made you watch or look at pornographic material against your wishes?", and "Threatened to hurt or kill someone you care about?"), were also the items with the highest thresholds (i.e., 2.11 and 2.08, respectively), indicating that they were addressing more severe forms of violence but with somewhat less precision.
Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis: scalar invariance model. The standardized factor loadings belong to the reference country (i.e., Ireland). As in the standardized solution the factor variances are fixed to 1, there are slight differences in the decimals of the loadings in each country
We used the factor scores of the invariant one-factor model for the validity analyses in all countries. We found a positive and strong relationship between the psychological IPVAW factor scores and the physical and sexual IPVAW factor scores (r = .85 and r = .75, respectively), indicating that those women with higher levels of psychological IPVAW also tend to show higher levels of physical and sexual IPVAW.
Significant differences with a small size effect were found in the psychological IPVAW scores when experiences of child abuse were taken into account (F (1) = 1548, p < .001, η2 = .040), as respondents with a background of child abuse showed higher psychological IPVAW levels. Significant differences were found in self-perceived health (F (4) = 47.4, p < .001, η2 = .001) and income (F (1) = 138.9, p < .001, η2 = .004), although the size effect of both variables was negligible.
Latent means analysis
After determining that the psychological IPVAW measure is psychometrically sound and establishing an invariant model across all EU countries, the means of the psychological violence factor can now be properly compared across countries by carrying out a MG-CFA. We used Ireland as the reference group, as it was the country with the lowest rates of psychological IPVAW [26]. We fixed the latent mean for this country to zero and its variance to one, whereas in the rest of the countries these parameters were freely estimated. The model converged normally and showed a good fit (CFI = .986, TLI = .986, RMSEA = .061 [.060–.062]). The standardized latent mean of each country represents the difference in standard deviations from Ireland. The estimated latent means for each country and their confidence intervals are displayed in Fig. 2.
Psychological IPVAW latent means across the EU. IPVAW: Intimate partner violence against women. AT: Austria, BE: Belgium, BG: Bulgaria, CY: Cyprus, CZ: Czech Republic, DK: Denmark, EE: Estonia, FI: Finland, FR: France, DE: Germany, EL: Greece, ES: Spain, HR: Croatia, HU: Hungary, IE: Ireland, IT: Italy, LT: Lithuania, LV: Latvia, LU: Luxembourg, MT: Malta, NL: Netherlands, PL: Poland, PT: Portugal, RO: Romania, SE: Sweden, SI: Slovenia, SK: Slovakia, UK: United Kingdom. Ireland is the reference country
Croatia showed a lower latent mean than Ireland, although these differences were not significant (z = − 0.05, p = .554, d = 0.06). Similarly, no significant differences were found between Ireland and Slovenia (z = 0.05, p = .771, d = 0.05), Spain (z = 0.11, p = .405, d = 0.11), Greece (z = 0.16, p = .339, d = 0.14), and Romania (z = 0.18, p = .144, d = 0.17). We found significant differences with a large size effect between Ireland and Latvia (z = 1.38, p < .001, d = 0.93), Lithuania (z = 1.26, p < .001, d = 0.88), Finland (z = 1.16, p < .001, d = 0.81), and Sweden (z = 1.19, p < .001, d = 0.80).
The confidence intervals (CI) of the psychological IPVAW factor means were overlapped between many of the EU countries, showing that there were no significant differences between them. However, we grouped the countries using the CI of Croatia and Latvia, the countries with the lowest and highest levels of psychological IPVAW. Therefore, countries whose factor mean fell within the CI of Croatia showed on average lower levels of psychological IPVAW (Ireland, Slovenia, and Spain). On the other hand, countries with factor means that fell within the CI of Latvia presented higher levels of this type of violence (Lithuania, Finland, Sweden, and Estonia). The rest of the countries fell in a middle area, with countries like Greece or Romania closer to those countries with the lowest levels of psychological IPVAW, and others like Germany or Denmark closer to those countries with the highest levels of this type of violence.
The psychological IPVAW factor scores can also be compared between each pair of countries. As an illustrative example, we compare the factor scores of Sweden, Austria, and Spain—countries with high, moderate and low levels of psychological IPVAW— using Cohen U3 statistic. We found small differences between Sweden and Austria (d = .41, U3 = .659), showing that the 65.9% of the Swedish sample has higher values in the psychological IPVAW factor than the average of the Austrian sample. We found moderate differences between Sweden and Spain (d = .74, U3 = .770), with 77.0% of the Swedish sample presenting higher scores in this factor than the average of the Spanish sample. Smaller differences were found between Austria and Spain (d = .36, U3 = .641), as the 64.1% of the Austrian sample had higher factor scores in the psychological IPVAW factor than the mean of the Spanish sample. A table detailing the comparisons between each pair of countries and as its associated size effect is provided in the supplementary information section.
Although psychological IPVAW is one of the most extended forms of partner violence, little attention has been paid to the cross-national comparability of the data used in large population and health surveys. In this study we tackled this issue through a set of analyses to test the measurement invariance of the set of questions addressing this type of violence in the FRA survey, and then examining how psychological IPVAW levels were distributed across all EU countries.
The first set of analyses aimed to assess the psychometric properties (i.e., latent structure, reliability, and validity) of the set of questions assessing psychological IPVAW in each of the EU countries. The initial CFA suggested that the items of this measure could be mapping either a one- or a two-factor latent structure. Currently, there is not a clear consensus on how psychological IPVAW should be conceptualized and measured in cross-national research, and although a two-factor structure seems to be theoretically preferred, the number of studies addressing the latent structure of this type of IPVAW is rather scarce [2, 58]. Even though previous studies have established a two-factor structure for psychological IPVAW, distinguishing between emotional abuse and other forms of controlling behavior with similar items, the correlation between emotional abuse and controlling behavior is usually strong, which in turn may indicate than a one-factor structure could be sufficient to account for the variability of the construct [12, 23, 58]. This idea was supported by the measurement invariance analyses, where we found that metric and scalar invariance only held under the one-factor structure, underlining that the items addressing emotional abuse and controlling behavior of the FRA survey could be grouped into a single factor across the EU (i.e., psychological IPVAW). The resulting factor showed high internal consistency, with ω values above .85 in all countries.
Regarding the validity evidence based on relations with other variables, our results pointed out that, as expected, psychological IPVAW was strongly related to physical and sexual IPVAW. The co-occurrence of psychological IPVAW with other forms of violence is a well-known phenomenon in the literature, and it is often considered as an antecedent of physical IPVAW [11, 13]. In addition, we found that the women who reported experiences of child abuse also presented higher levels of psychological IPVAW, which is in line with previous research indicating that women who have been victimized in childhood have higher risk of being victimized as adults [35, 36, 59].
The second set of analyses aimed to test the measurement invariance of the psychological IPVAW measure used in the FRA survey across all EU countries. Establishing measurement invariance is a necessary prerequisite in cross-national research before conducting any comparison between countries [31]. To this end, we carried out a series of MG-CFA models to examine whether the psychological IPVAW measure is comparable across the 28 EU countries, testing configural, metric, and scalar invariance. We were able to hold these three invariance models (i.e., same factors with equal loadings and thresholds) under the one-factor latent structure across countries, despite the difficulties frequently found into achieving this with many groups [60, 61]. This may be due to the behavioral nature of the items used in the FRA survey, since they address the frequency of concrete episodes which may be difficult to misinterpret (e.g., "insisting on knowing where you are in a way that goes beyond general concern", "doing things to scare or intimidate her on purpose").
We were able to make appropriate and valid comparisons between countries once an invariant model was established for the psychological IPVAW measure. This is one of the main strengths of this study, since it allowed us to conduct a latent means analysis to compare the factor means of each country, a procedure that unlike computing the raw prevalence, takes into account the latent structure of the construct and the weight of each item to assess it [28, 29]. Our findings showed that there were almost no differences between most of the countries, as the confidence intervals of the factor means overlapped, indicating that the levels of psychological IPVAW were quite similar between them. We found, however, substantial differences between the countries with higher and lower levels of psychological IPVAW. For example, countries like Latvia, Lithuania, Finland, and Sweden presented average levels of psychological IPVAW significantly higher than countries such as Croatia, Ireland, Slovenia and Spain. Given the close relationship between different forms of IPVAW, this finding may further support the idea of the Nordic paradox [62, 63], as despite being the EU member states with the highest levels of gender equality, the Nordic countries —Denmark, Sweden, and Finland—are also among the EU countries with the highest levels of psychological IPVAW.
This study has some limitations. The first one is the cross-sectional nature of the survey design, as it did not allow us to evaluate measurement invariance across different periods of time, neither to monitor whether the levels of psychological IPVAW change or remain constant over time. A second limitation is the tradeoff associated with the dichotomization of the items of the psychological IPVAW measure. This transformation was necessary to set the same metric for all the items, but we lose a small percentage of information (i.e., less than a 2%) about the most continued forms of this type of violence. The third limitation of this study refers to the assessment of the latent structure of the psychological IPVAW measure used in the FRA survey. Although this measure includes three forms of psychological violence (i.e., controlling behavior, economic violence, and emotional abuse), it was not possible to test a three-factor structure differentiating between these three aspects due to the reduced number of items addressing economic violence included in the FRA survey, since estimating a third factor with only two indicators loading on it could yield an unstable and unreliable solution [42, 43]. Our results are restricted to the measure used in the FRA survey, and thus it should be taken with caution when generalizing to other psychological IPVAW measures. The latent structure of this construct is still a matter of debate, and further research is needed to test different models using more items mapping the different forms of psychological IPVAW [58]. The fourth limitation concern the estimation method used to establish the measurement invariance of the set of questions included in the FRA survey, that is, WLSMV for categorical indicators. We decided to rely on the CFI and RMSEA fit indices to assess the goodness of fit of the invariance models rather than using chi-squared based tests, which are known to be sensible to large sample sizes. However, utilizing fit indices to study the measurement invariance with categorical data could lead to higher rates of Type I errors, assuming an invariant model when actually the instrument is non-invariant [50]. To tackle this issue, instead of the usual cut-offs for the TLI and RMSEA proposed by Chen [49], we decided to use the cut-off values proposed by Meade et al. [51], a much more restrictive approach. A fifth limitation of this study is the wide range of the confidence intervals of the psychological IPVAW factor means, which suggest that this measure could be improved in order to yield more accurate estimations of the IPVAW levels. Self-selection bias is another limitation, since only a 42% of the participants agreed initially to be interviewed. This is also reflected in the wide variability in the response rates across the EU countries, with some countries presenting response rates lower than 30% (e.g., Luxembourg, Netherlands, or Sweden), whereas others showed response rates above 60% (e.g., Cyprus, Hungary, or Latvia) [40]. Finally, the results of this study are limited to IPVAW, and the question of whether measurement invariance holds across countries when the perpetrators of the psychological violence against women are non-partners remains unexplored.
This study underlined the importance of using appropriate and robust statistical methods to test the measurement invariance of the measures used in large population surveys. Although psychological IPVAW is one the most frequent form of intimate partner violence, and one of the main risk factors of physical IPVAW, to the best of our knowledge, no previous study has addressed the measurement invariance of the measures used in any large survey to assess this construct. Our findings showed that the psychological IPVAW measure used in the FRA survey is invariant across all EU countries, allowing us to conduct a more refined analysis of how the levels of this variable are distributed across the EU. This is an important step towards a rigorous assessment of cross-national differences in psychological IPVAW, and further research is needed to evaluate the role that the country plays in accounting for the differences across EU countries [64].
The data that support the findings of this study are available from the UK Data Service (https://www.ukdataservice.ac.uk), but restrictions apply to the availability of these data, which were used under license for the current study, and so are not publicly available. The dataset details are the following: Title: European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights: Violence Against Women Survey, 2012: Special Licence Access. Alternative title: FRA VAW Survey, Persistent identifier: https://doi.org/10.5255/UKDA-SN-7730-1.
CFA:
CFI:
Comparative fit index
CTS:
Conflict Tactics Scale
European Union Fundamental Rights Agency
IPVAW:
Intimate partner violence against women
MG-CFA:
Multi-group confirmatory factor analysis
RMSE:
Root mean squared error of approximation
TLI:
Tucker-Lewis index
WLSMV:
weighted least squares means and variances adjusted
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Gracia E, Merlo J. Intimate partner violence against women and the Nordic paradox. Soc Sci Med. 2016;157:27–30.
Gracia E, Martín-Fernández M, Lila M, Merlo J, Ivert AK. Prevalence of intimate partner violence against women in Sweden and Spain: A psychometric study of the 'Nordic paradox'. PLoS One. 2019;14. https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0217015.
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Ivert AK, Gracia E, Lila M, Wemrell M, Merlo J. Does country-level gender equality explain individual risk of intimate partner violence against women? A multilevel analysis of individual heterogeneity and discriminatory accuracy (MAIHDA) in the European Union. Eur J Pub Health. 2019;ckz162. https://doi.org/10.1093/eurpub/ckz162.
This research was supported by Grants PSI2017–84764-P (EG, ML), and BES-2015-075576 (MM-F) from the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness (http://www.mineco.gob.es). The funding body had no role in the design of the study, collection, analysis, and interpretation of data, and in writing the manuscript.
Department of Social Psychology, University of Valencia, Avda. Blasco Ibañez 21, 46010, Valencia, Spain
Manuel Martín-Fernández, Enrique Gracia & Marisol Lila
Manuel Martín-Fernández
Enrique Gracia
Marisol Lila
MM-F designed the analytic strategy, conducted the statistical analysis and wrote the manuscript. EG conceived the study, supervised the writing of the manuscript, and acquired the funding and the FRA special license. ML supervised the writing of the manuscript, and acquired the funding. All authors read and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Correspondence to Manuel Martín-Fernández.
The European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights supervised and approved the secondary data analyses conducted in this study, as well as the study design, granting a special license for this purpose (reference number 102577). Informed consent from all participants was obtained verbally by the interviewers of the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights. The reason for not collecting written consent was to ensure that respondents would not be put in danger by having any written documents which associate the name of the respondent and their participation in the survey. It was also important that interviewers would not leave any material behind which could potentially jeopardize the safety of the respondents, such as copies of consent forms that disclose the name of the survey.
Patient consent detail was removed from this study to ensure anonymity. The data set provided by the European Union Agency for Fundamental Rights did not contain personal information about the women who agreed to be interviewed.
Additional file 1.
Psychological IPVAW comparisons between countries.
Martín-Fernández, M., Gracia, E. & Lila, M. Psychological intimate partner violence against women in the European Union: a cross-national invariance study. BMC Public Health 19, 1739 (2019). https://doi.org/10.1186/s12889-019-7998-0
Controlling behavior
Cross-national research


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Have electronic medical records made a difference in patient care?
According to a new study looking at the digital medical record adoption of 3,000 hospitals, electronic records have made little difference in healthcare costs or the quality of medical care.
That's discouraging, considering that the government is investing billions of dollars into the technology.
Electronic medical records: Expensive . . . and ineffective?


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The Rise of Big Business
The New Scale of Business. There were large factories in the United States before 1880—businesses that were heavily capitalized, employing several thousand
workers each. But over the next two decades an altogether new type of business, a new scale of doing business, swept over the American landscape. Once conditions were in place—including a nationally integrated railroad infrastructure, new technologies of mass production, and increasingly concentrated, urbanized markets—economic transformation happened with astonishing speed, over a dozen years or so, running from the late 1880s through the 1890s. In this short span, in a series of industries, new businesses were organized and old businesses reorganized to create enterprises that encompassed huge manufacturing plants spread over several geographic locations, coupled with nationalized systems of distribution and marketing. Big business thus joined mass production to mass distribution and in the process fostered mass consumption.
Mass Production. The industrial key to the rise of big business was the emergence of automated technologies of manufacturing, which appeared in dozens of industries in the 1870s and 1880s. Match production was one. After the Civil War, match-making machinery began replacing hand-production methods, and in the wake of this development the industry rapidly Consolidated; by the early 1870s, four firms using various new machines pumped out 80 percent of the nation's total supply of matches. Then, in 1881, the four companies combined, merging the best attributes of their various machines, to form the Diamond Match Company. Within a decade, after additional modest improvements, the new giant's output had increased to the point that it could fill two million matchboxes a day, and do so with only seventy-five workers. Before the introduction of automated methods, this rate of production would have taken five hundred workers. The company also automated in-house manufacturing of boxes to package the matches. Diamond gradually Consolidated its production in one giant plant at Barberville, Ohio. And as it grew it expanded vertically as well, putting together a national organization to coordinate the selling of its matches to wholesalers and eventually acquiring its own sawmills to ensure a steady supply of the raw materials. Thus the advent of mass production drove the industry toward monopoly and vertical integration.
Trend toward Monopoly. The story of automated production and corporate consolidation repeated itself in many other industries during this period. The tobacco industry, for example, underwent much of the same transformation in response to the invention of cigarette-making machinery by James Bonsack in 1882. At the time a skilled worker could roll by hand approximately 3,000 cigarettes a day. After a few years of tinkering, one of Bonsack's machines was churning out 120,000 cigarettes daily. North Carolina tobacco manufacturer James Buchanan Duke moved quickly to take advantage of this new technology, installing two Bonsack machines in 1884 and, once the machines had proven themselves, contracting with Bonsack the following year to lease his machinery to make ali the cigarettes he produced. In this arrangement Duke secured a low lease rate from Bonsack, improving his competitive edge. Other major cigarette producers were forced to match Duke's moves to compete. Then in January 1890 the big players decided to merge and form the American Tobacco Company. The company dominated cigarette production, as well as plug tobacco and snuff.
Marketing the Cigarette. The deployment of machinery enabling the mass production of cigarettes and subsequent rise of Duke and the American Tobacco Company played a major role in making cigarettes a widespread commodity. Before 1880 most Americans who consumed tobacco did so in the form of cigars, pipes, chewing tobacco, or snuff. Once producers developed the capacity to produce in mass quantities, they had to build up a base of consumers. Among his competitors, Duke proved especially assiduous on this front, designing packaging (Duke designed the familiar slide-and-shell box to protect cigarettes from being crushed during shipping) and creating brand names that he promoted in national advertising campaigns via cards, circulars, and handbills. In 1889, with sales of $4.5 million and profits near $400,000, Duke poured $800,000 into advertising costs, plastering his name on billboards, storefront Windows, and the sides of barns across the country. These tactics pushed the cigarette market from 409 million in 1880 to 2.2 billion by the middle of the decade. Americans in large numbers learned to smoke cigarettes, first in urban markets (Duke moved to New York to coordinate his national growth) and gradually in the countryside as well.
Emergence of Brand Packaging. Flour milling illustrated a parallel trend in big business. Because flour was produced and consumed so widely, it resisted effective monopolization. And yet the industry underwent profound transformation that, in other respects, duplicated the rise of companies such as Diamond Matches and American Tobacco. In the early 1890s leading millers in Minneapolis and elsewhere weighed plans for merger, but the suggestion failed to attract support from ali of the leading companies. Their efforts at monopoly blocked, two major millers combined to form the Pillsbury-Washburn Flour Company, which created in-firm organizations to handle the purchasing of unmilled wheat from farms throughout the West as well as the marketing of milled product. The company became the largest miller in the nation, operating a chain of grain elevators across the nation's wheat-growing regions. Unable to swallow up competitors altogether, Pillsbury-Washburn began packaging and advertising its wheat products as brands—Gold Medal Flour and Pillsbury Flour—in an effort to stay ahead of the competition and keep its product flowing smoothly into markets.
Breakfast Cereal. The same kinds of market imperatives drove the growth of another giant in the grain and cereal industry, Quaker Oats. This company had its roots in 1882, when oatmeal producer Henry P. Crowell built a new mill that highly automated the grading, cleaning, hulling, cutting, and packaging of oatmeal in a continuous process that amounted to a prototypical version of the modern assembly line. Like Duke, though, Crowell found he had to create a market to consume his product: Americans thought of oats as animal feed, rather than table fare. So in a campaign that paralleled Duke's, Crowell promoted his brand, Quaker Oats, using box top premiums and prizes, as well as rounding up testimonial and scientific endorsements encouraging the consumption of oat-based breakfast cereal. Meanwhile Crowell joined with several other major producers in 1888 to form the American Cereal Company, which would become Quaker Oats in 1901.
So men such as Crowell transformed the American breakfast table, creating a new association for the very word cereal.
Modern Consumer Economy. The arrival of big business had a broad and far-reaching impact on the American economy and on American society. These companies created new types of products, new ways to make money, and new kinds of workplaces. Perhaps most fundamentally, they transformed how Americans bought goods—they created new kinds of marketplaces and, so, new kinds of customers. These businesses depended on high volumes of production and steady rates of sale in order to operate at maximum efficiency. In their effort to craft national marketplaces for their product, they packaged their products in new ways that would be recognizable in an impersonal marketplace extending across the country and overseas. They advertised their products under brand names, and in the process they created new habits of consumption. Before 1880 few Americans smoked cigarettes or ate oats for breakfast cereal; other examples abound. George Eastman in 1887 invented a small, inexpensive hand-held camera that amateurs could use, and when he began mass-producing and marketing it the next year, families discovered that they could take their own pictures and portraits. Asa Candler bought a soft-drink formula from pharmacist John S. Pemberton in 1891 and patented Coca-Cola. William Wrigley Jr. first distributed chewing gum as a gimmick to promote his company's baking powder and soap; in 1899 he introduced a new flavor, spearmint, and pushed it with his customary vigor. ("Tell 'em quick and tell 'em often," was Wrigley's dictum.) Also by this time H. J. Heinz and Company had devised new canned foods; the Borden Milk Company condensed milk; and the Campbell Preserve Company condensed soup. By 1900 businesses had learned to stock and sell in a new consumer-oriented mass market in order to survive.
Alfred D. Chandler Jr., The Visible Hand: The Managerial Revolution in American Business (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1977).
American Eras
"The Rise of Big Business ." American Eras . . Encyclopedia.com. 15 Jan. 2020 <https://www.encyclopedia.com>.
"The Rise of Big Business ." American Eras . . Encyclopedia.com. (January 15, 2020). https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/rise-big-business
"The Rise of Big Business ." American Eras . . Retrieved January 15, 2020 from Encyclopedia.com: https://www.encyclopedia.com/history/news-wires-white-papers-and-books/rise-big-business

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


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Dishing up Some Hanukkah Soul (Food)
Betsy Becker
Chicken soup may be the "Jewish penicillin," but latkes are the "Jewish soul food." And there's nothing I'm craving more this Hanukkah than a plateful of earthy, humble, pan-fried potato pancakes opens in a new tab – warm and crispy on the outside, soft and savory on the inside – shared with friends and loved ones, with a little sour cream on the side.Latkes are cooked in oil to remind us of a 2000-year-old story of hope, the story of the Maccabees, a plucky band of five brothers turned freedom-fighters, who successfully overthrew an oppressive Greco-Syrian regime, and allowed the Jews to reclaim their land, their faith and their holy Temple in Jerusalem after years of persecution. After cleansing and repairing the Temple, the Maccabees found a tiny flask of oil to light a menorah (ritual lamp) as part of the Temple's big rededication ceremony. The oil was supposedly only enough to light up the Temple for one day, but it miraculously kept the lamp burning for eight days. Hence, Jews around the world commemorate Hanukkah with eight days of candle lighting and feasting on soul-satisfying foods opens in a new tab, such as hearty lentil stew, tender roast brisket, ginger-spiked applesauce and latkes galore – from no-frills potato opens in a new tab to zesty zucchini opens in a new tab to this Southern-bred girl's personal favorite, the sweet potato pancake opens in a new tab.Looking for more latke love to get you through the eight days of Hanukkah? Check out these soulful recipes and latke love stories from a talented cadre of food bloggers and journalists:
An Equal Opportunity Sweet Potato Latke with Ruby Red Cranberry Sauce
You don't have to be vegan or gluten-sensitive to enjoy these egg-free, gluten-free sweet potato latkes opens in a new tab and ruby red cranberry sauce from Karina's Kitchen opens in a new tab. And as Karina reminds us, you certainly don't have to be Jewish to love the latke:
"Latkes. Oy, how I love them. What's not to love? You have my favorite comfort food- potatoes. You have olive oil. And with a little bit of elbow grease (grating said potatoes) you have crispy tender goodness. You don't have to be Jewish to love the pure genius of latkes. You can be Half- Jewess, like yours truly, or even Honorary Jewish like Diane Keaton seems to be, slipping in Bubbe and schmata and drek in casual conversation. They say on St. Patrick's Day that everyone is Irish. Maybe during Hanukkah, everyone is Jewish?"
An Indian-inspired latke and some fun facts on oil
While most people don't equate oily,deep-fried foods with optimal health, Jodi of Food Touring opens in a new tab points out that we need dietary fats for our health including glowy skin, regulation of cholesterol metabolism, and to carry and aid the absorption of vitamins. Unsaturated fats from fish, nuts, and vegetable oils are good for us in moderation and reduce high cholesterol levels that can lead to heart disease.In addition to dishing up a good rationalization on why it's ok to induldge in a second or third helping of deep-fried potato pancakes, Jodi also graciously shares a recipe for Indian curry-seasoned sweet potato latkes opens in a new tab.
Latkes: easy on the wallet, big on taste, potentially potato free and oh-so-versatile
Our Jewish grandmothers from The Old Country knew a thing or two about stretching their meager food rations, and hence the traditional potato latke was born. Phyllis Glazer of the L.A. Times shares a brief history opens in a new tab on the traditional latke and some very non-traditional latke recipes:
"The word latke derives from Yiddish, the Jewish language spoken by East European Jews. For Jewish villagers living in Russia or Poland, pickings were slim in winter, and potatoes were cheap and available from the root cellar. Grating and making potatoes into little patties to be fried, millions of Jewish mothers provided sustenance to their hungry children with just a few potatoes and very little fuel….."
Ms. Glazer also reminds us that it's the olive oil, not the potato, which is central to the story of Hanukkah. Forego the potatoes all together and try these latke recipes using olives opens in a new tab, sweet ricotta opens in a new tab, even beets opens in a new tab.What's your favorite spin on the soul-satisfying latke?


By The Bubble Hour. Discovered by Player FM and our community — copyright is owned by the publisher, not Player FM, and audio streamed directly from their servers.
The Bubble Hour is hosted by Jean M., a sober woman dedicated to breaking down the walls of stigma and denial surrounding the disease of alcoholism. Alcoholism effects more than 50% of American adults, either directly or indirectly, and yet it still remains a "taboo" topic and is still mostly misunderstood by the majority of people (even those effected by alcoholism and their loved ones). The Bubble Hour seeks to inform, educate and help people identify with the stories they hear, the conversations and interviews with people who are just like they are, and let people know they aren't alone. Nobody can take the first tentative steps towards sobriety without first getting past denial, but even once they are past denial the stigma surrounding alcoholism is so strong that people are reluctant to seek help. The Bubble Hour would like to change that stigma. Jean and the vibrant community of sober people who join her here, will be recording and offering this show for anyone to listen to for information, community, empathy and understanding. We are so grateful for the sober people who came before us to help find this path; this is one way to give back. Please help us spread the word about this website and the pod casts; you may be helping someone you know well but don't even know they have a problem. Alcoholism thrives in the dark. Together, we bring light. And hope.
285 episodes available. A new episode about every 8 days averaging 66 mins duration .
Liz realized quite some time ago that she had a problematic relationship with alcohol, and it took several stops and starts before she dug into sobriety and began living alcohol free. Now into her seventh month of recovery, Liz reflects on her experiences and shares her insights.
Jill had offered to tell her story as a way to mark a significant milestone in her recovery: the one year mark. Reflecting on the ups and downs of the past twelve months, plus a previous 90 day stint of sobriety and what happened in between.
Welcome to Season 7 of The Bubble Hour. Since January can be a time of new recovery for so many, Jean shares recent recordings of conversations with women in the earliest days of their sobriety.
Sara is a therapist who has been alcohol-free for three months. She reflects on what has made the difference after unsuccessful attempts in the past, and why people in the mental health profession may feel additional shame and stigma in recovery.
Brid is a fitness professional, wife and mother of two who lives in Ireland. She blogs about life after alcohol at www.melivingfree.ie and hopes to bring a new energy and message of hope to women in Ireland who are struggling to find recovery in an alcogenic culture.
Becky just celebrated a year of sobriety, after being in and out of addiction for a lifetime. She has hit some low bottoms and burned a lot of bridges along the way, but the words that changed her life came from the most unexpected source. Becky considers why, this time, sobriety is here to stay.
Having recently celebrated two yearsof sobriety, Pete reflects on some of the reasons he may have developed an addictive pattern with alcohol and how leaving it behind has changed his life for the better.
Jean talks to a member of her online group who she has always wanted to have on the show. With humor and insight, Shelli reveals her story of addiciton and how she changed her life for the better.
Start listening to The Bubble Hour on your phone right now with Player FM's free mobile app, the best podcasting experience on both iPhone and Android. Your subcriptions will sync with your account on this website too. Podcast smart and easy with the app that refuses to compromise.


This big Viking sword starts with a tri-claw pommel and matching, studded guard with quillian that form the horns of a Viking hat rendered in the hilt-wrap around the short ricasso.
The hardwood handle with pewter detailing makes for a unique, fearsome sword. The double-edged stainless steel blade of this sword is crafted in the wide, flat style Vikings favored (which allowed them to slap opponents with the face of the sword as well as using it as a cutting and stabbing implement). This sword measures a lengthy 47″ and weighs in at a hefty 10 pounds with a 31 ½" blade.
Hardwood display plaque is included.


Private investigators and private detectives call for knowledge within the various locations of investigation; 1 principal region where a private investigator or perhaps a private detective need to be really nicely versed on will be the area of surveillance. Surveillance is a process that is essential to the approach of investigation. It truly is critical because it assists investigators observe target individuals or suspects on their day-to-day routine, which may possibly give clues vital to the investigation. Surveillance is a very hazardous field. If the surveillance approach is compromised, it might then result to a legal battle or worst a physical altercation, which could lead to injury or even death of either the suspect or the private investigator.
Because of the hazardous nature of surveillance that private investigators and private detectives are usually encouraged to practice appropriate surveillance approach so as not to compromise their position and ultimately not to jeopardise their investigation and their life. Here are some standard suggestions in surveillance that might prove to be helpful for private detectives and private investigators.
1. When tailing a car at close distance in an area where there is heavy visitors, you have to remain calm and inconspicuous. Remaining calm and unsuspecting is important, just act like any other motorist. Acting like will make it less likely to shed the suspects' vehicle specifically in locations where there are plenty of traffic lights.
two. Use slightly tinted glass in your vehicles' windows will avoid becoming effortlessly seen by the suspect.
three. Constantly have your recording materials at hand including your audio recorder or pen and paper as you only have a couple of minutes to record any observations that you simply think is important to the investigation. It truly is also a great thought to record events, as they take place to keep away from either forgetting times or missing out essential information.
4. Be careful in making use of the video recorders, don't be too obvious if you utilise a video recorder. If the suspect gets a glimpse of you using a video camera suspicions may possibly simply arise and that might compromise your position or your investigation. Care is needed when performing surveillance on a suspect, remember that above all your life is of paramount importance, by no means do something that would compromise your position, your investigation and most of all your life.


What really excites as every time we visit this place is that you can get a great combination of wholesome comfort foods that you're familiar with, yet stay healthy at the same time. There is no need to sacrifice flavors for health, as these guys do it right. The 24-hour menu never limits your cravings. They specialize in their creme brulee French toast, but also with the Butter Burger!


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Intelligent Animals: New-generation Army Becoming Groomed In African Desert Is Able
Who is Smart Animals: New Generation Army Being Groomed In African Desert Is Ready?
These creatures believe they are able to out perform humans in regards to parade without a commander that is certified plus so they establish themselves below. What you'd notice in this video could be that the least of things you'd have imagined — a New Generation Army. A shepherd has brought his occupation into the next degree by "recruitment " and training a set of critters as a brand fresh creation army. He's leadingthis dedicated bunch of critters, demonstrating time consuming along with a paradewith uniformity. This might have passed in the humorous Hollywood monster film except it just happened in Africa an excerpt. The 1-5 minutes video reveals a choice of creatures including sheep rams and a donkey. The parade is due to the rebel who's closely aided by means of a donkey at a march that was quick you need to feature a salutation until the band comes to a block.
They appear to be aware of stop and then when to begin the parade. The video is merely yet another proof that creatures can understand and understand for. Exactly what makes the newest creation army much more shocking is that that the creatures who make the officers aren't specially considered creatures. Some of the animals on earth comprises the next; 1 ). Chimpanzees: It's stated that chimpanzees share about 99 per cent of the DNA. They reside in communities that are societal and enjoy individuals may adjust to different environments. 2. Bottlenose Dolphins: All these angels can create that manner can communicate with one another and in their very own vocal whistle. By cooperating together with humans they also have been recognized to capture fish. 3. Elephants: They've brains that are bigger. The cells of the brains has too much neurons as a brain. They have a power. 4. African Gray Parrots Known as the Einsteins of the world. A number of studies have proven that birds possess reasoning abilities that were abstract. 5. Rats: Rats are considered to be more intelligent. They fantasy develop once they called, know their names and just like humans. It's been found that rats don't understand or make conclusions based on just what they do. 6. Crows: They can address issues that are complex although their brain is approximately the size of a forget. It's been found which they could recognize faces. 7. Dogs: Dogs are the only creatures besides chimps that scientists believe more like humans. They're deemed smart by humans predicated in their capacity. Dogs possess feelings, understand tricks, comprehend their owners, plus so they could feel the others ' feelings. Pigeons: Studies reveal that pigeons can learn rules that are abstract, and infact are the aside from rhesus monkeys using this skill. In addition, they are able to comprehend men and women, most likely. 9. Pigs: Researchers have discovered that pigs certainly will grasp a speech that is simple, and have excellent memories, so solve mazes readily. 10. Octopuses: Octopuses are the biggest brains of any invertebrate. It's roughly 130 million neurons within its brain. All its arms may do things when take away and features a mind of its own. 1-1. Racoons: Ethologist H. B. David ran an odd analysis in 1908 that revealed that racoons could pick complex locks at fewer than 10 efforts, even with the guards were calibrated or reversed upside. Studies by the into the '90s that was discovered that racoons could remember answers, also boasted an memory ago 1 2. Honey-bees: The chiefs of all "swarm intelligence. " They've upto 50,000 workers in one colony arriving together to produce democratic decisions. After things become too cramped in a location, they dance-off to pick about where their thing should be built by the colony. The production army at the video above is signs which creatures aren't so much different than humans. They will have the capability to check out orders and to understand. Kudos also have to be supplied to the shepherd that had been patient enough to get a diverse set of critters participate from the parade that was and to collaborate.
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Fares, Ticketing & Routeing
Disputes & Prosecutions
Fraudster sold fake LNER first class tickets - suspended sentence
Thread starter mikeg
I've seen someone has been caught selling fake LNER first class tickets and received... a suspended sentence. Now I'm not normally someone who believes in filling up our gaols and am normally quite liberal on crime, taking a pragmatic 'what works' approach but given that he could have easily got several of his passengers in trouble with the law, don't you think the suspension seems a bit lenient?
I wonder what happened to the couple who were stopped with the fake tickets? Were they prosecuted too? How many victims have been created by them being made criminals? One hopes LNER's prosecutions department dropped the cases of those who said where they bought the tickets but I won't hold my breath. I hope they go totally POCA on Sufi's ass myself.
The article is here.
Following a lengthy British Transport Police investigation, a fraudster who made more than £29,000 through the sale of fake train tickets has been sentenced.
Muhammed Sufi of York Lane, Mitcham, pleaded guilty to fraud by false representation. He was sentenced to nine months suspended for two years and 100 hours unpaid work .
Sufi had manufactured fake tickets which allowed the holder complimentary first-class travel on LNER, before selling them on eBay. Sufi had opened the eBay account in the name of an LNER employee with addresses in London and Yorkshire.
spyinthesky
Bulford
Surely the people buying the tickets are as guilty as any other without a valid ticket.
Unless he has created a valid looking platform to be bought from, but on eBay!!!
Deafdoggie
I would have sympathy with anyone genuinely buying fake tickets. But cheap tickets on eBay, they knew they weren't legit in some way didn't they.
Darandio
spyinthesky said:
Certainly guilty of being naive.
ainsworth74
Yes I was in agreement with the OP up until the eBay bit. Unless this fraudster had created a very legit looking store page on eBay (after all not everyone is as savvy so if it was very well done it could confuse people into thinking LNER have opened a new retail channel) then I'm far less sympathetic to those who bought their tickets via eBay. I still have some but it's significantly reduced!
Haywain
If you are buying a complimentary ticket through eBay it's difficult to see how you can be surprised when it turns out to be dodgy.
John Luxton
Just cannot see how people fall for things like this. There are two ways to buy a ticket at the station or online at the train operator's web site.
alistairlees
John Luxton said:
Or online from an independent retailer (or another train operator's website), or via your corporate travel account, or on the train itself (in certain circumstances).
Haywain said:
eBay itself doesn't even allow sale of transport tickets as they are mostly non-transferrable, so I'm surprised he wasn't caught out.
alistairlees said:
Yes okay - I am a bit traditional and "old school" when it comes to train travel. I wouldn't consider buying on train any different from a ticket office at unstaffed stations. As for other train operator's web site site - personally I would stick to the operator I am using. Less chance for things to go wrong? - Bit traditional and old school hence I would not consider an independent retailer.
I am rather the same when it comes to hotels. Only book direct on a Hotel's own web site. I once did a trip with a friend and he wondered why he paid more for using a third party web site rather than the hotel web site. The receptionist stated that using a third party means we have to pay commission. Presume that is the same with railway travel.
deltic
The sale of advance rail tickets that someone no longer wants was pretty common on Ebay pre-Covid and I doubt many people will think anything of it - as is the sale of unwanted store vouchers and the like - so I cant see people thinking the sale of a complimentary ticket as dodgy.
Starmill
Associate Staff
Events Co-ordinator
Tickets are for sale from any authorised retailer, only some of which are train companies.
Ebay do not seem at all hot at enforcement. There have been loads of cases of RTVs, Advance tickets, likely used tickets etc. for sale there, for years.
The receptionist stated that using a third party means we have to pay commission. Presume that is the same with railway travel.
Commission for the sale will be paid to whomever sold the ticket, but third party authorised retailers of train tickets specifically aren't permitted to increase ticket prices. They must use the fares set by the relevant train companies.
They may or may not be guilty of avoiding payment of fare. They are very unlikely to be guilty of fraud by false representation.
Simply passing the custody threshold does not mean necessarily that a community order is inappropriate.
A few points on Community Orders from the Sentencing Council that may be of use here:
A suspended sentence MUST NOT be imposed as a more severe form of community order. A suspended sentence is a custodial sentence.
Community orders can fulfil all of the purposes of sentencing. In particular, they can have the effect of restricting the offender's liberty while providing punishment in the community, rehabilitation for the offender, and/or ensuring that the offender engages in reparative activities.
A community order must not be imposed unless the offence is 'serious enough to warrant such a sentence'. Where an offender is being sentenced for a non-imprisonable offence, there is no power to make a community order.
Sentencers must consider all available disposals at the time of sentence; even where the threshold for a community sentence has been passed, a fine or discharge may be an appropriate penalty. In particular, a Band D fine may be an appropriate alternative to a community order.
Fraud – Sentencing
Last edited: 18 Oct 2021
greyman42
I wonder how long he had been at it before he got arrested.
Regarding the purchasers, on various occasions I've had BTP out to people with fake e-tickets - they definitely turn out in force for it but from what I can see provided the person in question cooperates with them in terms of providing the purchasing information etc they don't treat them as criminals themselves, mostly getting a ticking off instead regarding being naive about what is really "a good deal".
WesternLancer
LowLevel said:
Thanks for insight. Do they get asked to buy a valid ticket?
WesternLancer said:
Not sure really - certainly once I've gone down the route of reporting a ticketing offence I don't sell a ticket for the journey myself. I've done ticket irregularity reports with zero fare excesses and never heard back from the prosecution team over it so it may be that if they're cooperative they decide to leave it at that with a telling off.
Most of the cases I've come across have been daft students trying to save a few quid buying tickets off Facebook groups and so on.
Very rarely you come across people who clearly know what they're doing but that's more unusual. County lines drugs couriers more often than not and relying on people not bothering to scan the ticket but just glance at it.
Trackman
No proceeds of crime hearing?
Fawkes Cat
Trackman said:
Don't these normally follow quite some way behind the conviction and sentencing?


The change will see annual rate on the TSB Classic Plus Current Account tumble from five percent to three percent on balances up to £1,500 from July 2, 2019. TSB previously increased the rate to five percent in May 2018 after the bank suffered a huge IT meltdown last year which saw customers struggling to gain access to their accounts. The bank has begun writing to customers to notify them of the change but has yet to specify how many people will be affected. In an email sent by TSB, customers are advised to do nothing if they are happy with the change.
But for those who are unhappy, the bank says customers also have the option to close or switch account without charge at any time.
TSB said it constantly reviews its rates to make sure they are both sustainable for the bank and right for its customers.
The three percent interest rate applies to customers who pay in at least £500 a month into their current account and have registered for internet banking as well as having chosen paperless statements and correspondence.
In some better news, the bank said TSB current account customers can earn up to £375 for recommending TSB's Classic or Classic Plus Current Account to up to five friends if they all switch.
Mr Bundell continued: "Giving something back to our customers has always been important to us and so I'm delighted that we're today also launching our popular refer a friend offer.
The news from TSB comes as rival NatWest announced it was unveiling the largest cash bonus currently offered by UK banks.
NatWest is currently offering new and existing customers £175 for switching their main account in an offer running until June 7.
The £175 will be split into two payments – £125 after the first few months and a further payment of £50 once the account has been open for a year.
Rachel Springall, a finance expert at Moneyfacts.co.uk, said: "It's disappointing news that TSB will be dropping its lucrative credit interest rate by 2 percent in July.


Assura 2-piece urostomy is available with standard and extended wear adhesive barriers. The full range of barriers includes flat, convex light, and convex barriers, available pre-cut (already cut to size) or "cut-to-fit" (meaning they can be cut to achieve a custom fit). The full line includes transparent and white-colored pouches, which correspond to the Assura or SenSura Click barriers based on a color-coded coupling system. Thus, a barrier with a "blue" coupling size must be matched to a "blue" pouch.
Assura 2-piece urostomy is available with two different levels of convexity, designed to accommodate a stoma that is difficult to manage: for example, a stoma that is flush, retracted, or located in a skin fold. It applies pressure on the peristomal skin to reduce the risk of leakage by allowing the stoma to protrude.


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Shop New Edition Books and Maps- Buy Now!
Northeast of Ouray
Wetterhorn Peak
Written on 11 June 2015 .
Wetterhorn Peak Trail
NOTE: Wetterhorn Peak is a CLIMB--not a hike!
TRAILHEAD:
The trail to the peak breaks off the Ridge Stock Driveway Trail on the southeast side of Wetterhorn. From Wetterhorn Basin, a poorly marked trail ascends a west ridge coming off Wetterhorn Peak and then descends to the Ridge Stock trail (about 3 miles). Follow the Ridge Stock east for about 2 miles to the trailhead.
ATTRACTIONS AND FEATURES:
(Note: See the Special Precautions in the Wetterhorn Basin description). The trail switchbacks up a steep valley to a bench below Wetterhorn, follows the south edge of the bench for about 0.3 mile, and then the climb begins up the edge of a ridge coming southeast off the peak. Beautuful views all around.
Perimeter Trail
Trails from Ouray
Northwest of Ouray
Ironton Red Mountain
Ouray Mountain Rescue, under the direction of the Ouray County Sheriff's Office, is always on call for assistance. The Rescue Team is a volunteer organization of mountaineers, technical climbers, paramedical personnel and a K-9 team. All are experienced in rescue techniques. In order to offset training and equipment expenses, tax-deductible donations are gratefully appreciated. Thank you for your support.
OURAY MOUNTAIN RESCUE
PO Box 50 | Ouray, CO 81427 | https://ouraytrails.org | ouray.otg@gmail.com
We are a non-profit corporation of volunteers, founded in 1986, dedicated to the preservation and safe public use of Ouray area trails, working in cooperation with the U.S. Forest Service, Ouray Ranger District. Copyright 2021 Ouray Trail Group.
Designed and maintained by OTG Volunteers! Hosted by PMC.


Located in Tangalle and with Hummanaya Blow Hole reachable within 2.5 km, Taru Villas – Mawella provides an outdoor swimming pool, non-smoking rooms, free WiFi throughout the property and a garden. Featuring a terrace, this 5-star hotel has air-conditioned rooms with a private bathroom. The property is 5 km from Mulkirigala Rock Monastery. All guest rooms at the hotel are equipped with a seating area and a flat-screen TV. Taru Villas – Mawella features certain rooms with sea views, and each room has a terrace. The units will provide guests with a desk and a kettle.


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Axiom Space outlines research plans for first ISS mission
by Jeff Foust — November 21, 2021
The four members of the Ax-1 crew (right) undergo training at NASA's Johnson Space Center for their commercial mission to the International Space Station. Credit: Axiom Space
LAS VEGAS — The three private astronauts on Axiom Space's first mission to the International Space Station next February will perform more than 100 hours of research on their flight as the company works to advance plans for its own space station.
Axiom Space announced Nov. 17 that the three customers it is flying on the Ax-1 mission, scheduled for launch Feb. 21 on a SpaceX Crew Dragon spacecraft, will perform 25 experiments during the roughly one week they will spend on the station.
Larry Connor, an American real estate entrepreneur, will be conducting research for the Mayo Clinic and the Cleveland Clinic. That research will focus on heart health and the effects of space environment on spinal and brain tissue.
Mark Pathy, chief executive of a Canadian investment firm, will conduct research for several Canadian organizations. That work includes research on chronic pain and sleep disturbances experienced by space travelers, studies on changes in visual acuity, and Earth observation for climate change and ecology research.
Eytan Stibbe, a former Israeli Air Force pilot who is the founding partner of an "impact investment" fund, will do research for the Ramon Foundation and Israel Space Agency. He will conduct a suite of experiments in a wide range of disciplines as part of a mission called "Rakia" by its Israeli sponsors.
Axiom executives emphasized the research focus on the mission. "It's the first commercial mission to the ISS. It's a pathfinder and it's very research focused," said Christian Maender, in-space manufacturing and research director at Axiom, during a panel discussion at the ASCEND conference by the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Nov. 17. "They're going to be adding an increasingly complex number of projects to the ISS during their mission."
Axiom's three customers will be joined on that mission by Michael López-Alegría, a former NASA astronaut who will be commander of the mission. The four are currently in training for the mission, including at the Johnson Space Center.
Ax-1 is the first in a series of private missions Axiom has planned before installing a commercial module there as soon as 2024. Maender said the company is targeting the third quarter of 2022 for its Ax-2 mission, with former NASA astronaut Peggy Whitson as commander and one customer, John Shoffner, as pilot. The company has not announced the other two people flying that mission, and NASA has not confirmed that launch date.
"We're doing these series of missions in order to do a couple of things," Maender said. "First, to develop markets, but also to do pathfinder work towards what is eventually our Axiom station."
Axiom plans to install a series of modules on the ISS starting in 2024, building up a commercial segment that will eventually be separated from the ISS to form a commercial station. That could happen as soon as 2027, he said. "We'll be ready to separate when the business drives us to separate and also when the lifetime of ISS decides that maybe it's time to go," he said.
"We applaud the Ax-1 crew's commitment to advancing scientific inquiry and kicking off this civilizational leap," said Michael Suffredini, president and chief executive of Axiom Space, in a statement. "We're confident this mission will become not just a monumental moment in space travel, but the true beginning of making space's potential for meaningful discovery available to private citizens and organizations for the first time."
Commercial	Axiom SpaceISSLEO commercialization


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Darts - Cricket Rules
1. Aim of the game
The object of Cricket is to close all numbers from 15 to 20, and the bull's eye before the opponent does. To close a number, a player must score three of that number (any combination of singles doubles and triples).
2. Scoring
Once a player closes a number every subsequent score on that number increases their score, unless the other player has closed that number as well.
3. Play & Win
The player who has closed all numbers and whose score is not lower than the opponent's, wins the game. The player who has the highest score when 20 turns are over, wins the game. If the scores are tied after the 20th turn, the player who has closed the more numbers wins. If the number of the closed numbers is equal, there are 10 possible extra turns to decide the winner.
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Home » World-Region » Iran to release seized Maersk vessel after 'debt settled'
Iran to release seized Maersk vessel after 'debt settled'
Iran will release a cargo vessel chartered by Danish shipping group A.P. Moeller-Maersk as soon as the company settles a debt stemming from a long-running business dispute, the Iranian embassy in Denmark said Thursday.
A.P. Moeller-Maersk says it does not employ the crew or own the vessel seized by Iran
"Iranian authorities reiterate that there has been absolutely no political or security intentions or considerations behind the incident," the statement said.
"The seizure of the ship was solely an enforcement of a judicial court ruling resulting from a commercial dispute between two private parties," it added.
Maersk said it was told by the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organisation at a meeting Wednesday that an Iranian court had ordered it to pay $3.6 million (3.2 million euros) in compensation in the case.
Iran's elite Revolutionary Guards seized the Maersk Tigris on Tuesday in the strategic and highly militarised Strait of Hormuz with 24 crew members aboard.
According to Iranian state TV the crew members are from Bulgaria, Myanmar, Romania and Britain. The Iranian embassy said diplomats can visit the crew "in case of need or request."
"Naturally the ship will be released after settlement of debts by Maersk Shipping Line and will be allowed to sail to its final destination," the Iranian statement said.
Maersk on Thursday urged Iran to release the crew and vessel, saying: "The crew is not employed by Maersk Line, nor is the vessel owned by Maersk Line."
The Marshall Islands-flagged vessel was operated by Rickmers Ship Management and was carrying cargo for Maersk Line.
The shipping giant said it had been told by the Iranian Ports and Maritime Organisation that the seizure was linked to the loss of 10 containers it had shipped to Dubai for an Iranian company in January 2005.
"The containers were never collected by the consignee or any other party. After 90 days and in accordance with United Arab Emirates law, the cargo was disposed of by (the) authorities," Maersk said.
The Pentagon said on Wednesday that Iran's Revolutionary Guards had "harassed" a US-flagged commercial ship last week in the Gulf, raising security concerns over shipping lanes in the Strait of Hormuz, through which a third of global marine oil traffic passes.


SAN FRANCISCO - The bull run in Microsoft's (MSFT) stock this past year has helped the tech giant surpass Exxon Mobil (XOM) and seize the rank of the second most valuable company, behind Apple (AAPL).
Under new CEO Satya Nadella, Microsoft has worked to overcome its reputation as a clumsy behemoth struggling to keep up with new tech trends and consumer habits. Nadella has cut expenses , and jobs, while pledging to refocus the company on mobile technology and cloud computing. His efforts have fueled a stock surge that drove Microsoft's total market value above $410 billion on Friday. That leapfrogged Exxon's value of $404 billion, which has been dinged by the drop in oil prices.
"Microsoft has made a strategic change," said Daniel Ives, a tech analyst at FBR Capital Markets. He said Nadella still faces challenges with a company that's heavily reliant on the declining personal computer market. But compared with other longtime tech stalwarts, such as IBM, Hewlett-Packard and Oracle, "Microsoft has done the best job of trying to skate where the puck is going," Ives said.
Apple is the world's most valuable company, with a market capitalization of more than $668 billion. That's more than the $616 billion that Microsoft was worth when it was No. 1 in December 1999. Microsoft shares fell sharply the next year.
But the Redmond, Washington, company has earned greater cachet on Wall Street over the last 18 months. Its stock has risen nearly 70 percent since April 2013, when activist investment firm ValueAct Capital announced it had taken a $2 billion stake in the company and would scrutinize its strategy. Within a few months, longtime CEO Steve Ballmer announced plans to retire. The move was described as unrelated.
Since then, Nadella has announced new initiatives to expand in cloud computing, which promises to be more lucrative than the traditional model of selling software that is installed on clients' computers. Microsoft has also promised a redesign of its flagship Windows operating system and released versions of other popular software for smartphones and tablets, including devices made by competitor Apple.
Microsoft shares have outperformed the tech-heavy NASDAQ Composite Index, which gained about 45 percent in the same 18-month period. The stock hit $50.04 on Friday, its highest point since early 2000, before slipping to the $49.50 range in afternoon trading.