University of Westminster

About: University of Westminster is a education organization based out in London, United Kingdom. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Politics. The organization has 2944 authors who have published 8426 publications receiving 200236 citations. The organization is also known as: Westminster University & Royal Polytechnic Institution.

Individual differences in music consumption are predicted by uses of music and age rather than emotional intelligence, neuroticism, extraversion or openness:

Abstract: The current study examined the association of different uses of music, music consumption, and individual differences in personality, trait emotional intelligence, and demographics. A total of 535 British participants completed a battery of scales including the Uses of Music Inventory, the International Personality Item Pool, and the Trait Emotional Intelligence Questionnaire (Short-Form), a novel scale designed to assess music consumption, and provided their demographic details. Results showed significant positive effects of all music uses factors, as well as negative effects of age, onto music consumption. In addition, effects of Neuroticism on emotional music use and Openness on cognitive music use were replicated, though the hypotheses of a positive effect of Extraversion onto background music use or trait EI onto emotional use of music were not supported. Results are discussed in terms of their applied implications for consumer research, as well as their theoretical implications with regard to the psychology of musical preferences.

Individual Predisposition, Household Clustering and Risk Factors for Human Infection with Ascaris lumbricoides: New Epidemiological Insights

Abstract: Background Much of our current understanding of the epidemiology of Ascaris lumbricoides infections in humans has been acquired by analyzing worm count data. These data are collected by treating infected individuals with anthelmintics so that worms are expelled intact from the gastrointestinal tract. Analysis of such data established that individuals are predisposed to infection with few or many worms and members of the same household tend to harbor similar numbers of worms. These effects, known respectively as individual predisposition and household clustering, are considered characteristic of the epidemiology of ascariasis. The mechanisms behind these phenomena, however, remain unclear. In particular, the impact of heterogeneous individual exposures to infectious stages has not been thoroughly explored. Methodology/Principal Findings Bayesian methods were used to fit a three-level hierarchical statistical model to A. lumbricoides worm counts derived from a three-round chemo-expulsion study carried out in Dhaka, Bangladesh. The effects of individual predisposition, household clustering and household covariates of the numbers of worms per host (worm burden) were considered simultaneously. Individual predisposition was found to be of limited epidemiological significance once household clustering had been accounted for. The degree of intra-household variability among worm burdens was found to be reduced by approximately 58% when household covariates were included in the model. Covariates relating to decreased affluence and quality of housing construction were associated with a statistically significant increase in worm burden. Conclusions/Significance Heterogeneities in the exposure of individuals to infectious eggs have an important role in the epidemiology of A. lumbricoides infection. The household covariates identified as being associated with worm burden provide valuable insights into the source of these heterogeneities although above all emphasize and reiterate that infection with A. lumbricoides is inextricably associated with acute poverty.