Všechny publikace
Trends in Active School Transport Among Czech Adolescents Between 2006–2022: Findings from the HBSC Study
Objectives: Active school transport (AST), such as walking or cycling to and from school, represents an important source of daily physical activity for adolescents. In recent decades, however, many hi…
Objectives: Active school transport (AST), such as walking or cycling to and from school, represents an important source of daily physical activity for adolescents. In recent decades, however, many high-income countries have reported a steady decline in AST. The main objective of this study was to describe long-term trends in active travel to and from school among Czech adolescents aged 11, 13, and 15 years, using nationally representative data collected in five waves of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children (HBSC) study between 2006 and 2022. A secondary aim was to explore selected individual and socioeconomic factors associated with AST participation. Methods: The analysis is based on a total sample of 50,713 adolescents (boys: n=25,628; girls: n=25,085) aged 10.5–16.5 years, with valid self-reported data on travel modes to and from school. AST was defined as walking or cycling as the primary mode of transport. The prevalence of AST was analyzed over time by gender and age category. Binary logistic regression was used to assess the associations between AST and survey year, gender, age group, socioeconomic status (Family Affluence Scale), and commuting time to school. Results: Between 2006 and 2022, the prevalence of AST to school declined from 71.6% to 54.9% among boys and from 71.8% to 54.8% among girls. A similar trend was observed for AST from school, although participation remained consistently higher than in the morning. The strongest negative predictors of AST were longer commuting time and higher socioeconomic status. Girls had slightly lower odds of AST than boys, and older adolescents were more likely to engage in AST.
The Mirror of Erised: a retrospective population-wide study of Czech all-cause mortality data by COVID-19 vaccination status
Background: In this study, we investigated the association between COVID-19 vaccination status and all-cause mortality (ACM) rate in the population of the Czech Republic between January 2020 and …
Background: In this study, we investigated the association between COVID-19 vaccination status and all-cause mortality (ACM) rate in the population of the Czech Republic between January 2020 and December 2022. Methods: In this retrospective study based on official population-wide individual (record-level) data, we analyzed monthly ACM rates stratified by COVID-19 vaccination status, sex, and age. The ACM was compared to expected mortality based on pre-COVID data. The recipients of the Janssen vaccine were excluded from the study. The final dataset comprised N = 5,636,949 individuals from the Czech Republic, encompassing all residents born between 1925 and 1980 who were alive on January 1, 2020. Results: Multiple peculiar patterns in ACM were revealed. The ACM of vaccinated individuals across several age cohorts was greatly diminished compared to the ACM of the unvaccinated, even in periods when virtually no COVID-19-related deaths were observed, suggesting a strong selection/indication bias. A similar drop in the ACM of newly vaccinated individuals was observed again during the booster campaign. With time from vaccination, the differences in ACM between groups with different vaccination statuses dwindled. Indication bias was observed at the beginning of the vaccination campaign when the frailest individuals were preferentially vaccinated. Conclusions: The population-wide data strongly suggest the presence of selection/indication bias, warranting careful interpretation of vaccination effectiveness estimates derived from observational studies. Keywords: All-cause mortality; COVID-19; Healthy user bias; Healthy vaccinee effect; Individual-level data; Vaccination status; Vaccine effectiveness.
Associations between adolescents oral health and health literacy, gender and family affluence: perspective of the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study data from Slovakia and Poland
Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the association between oral health and health literacy, gender, age, family affluence and country of origin amongst adolescents from Slovakia and Pola…
Objectives: The aim of this study was to examine the association between oral health and health literacy, gender, age, family affluence and country of origin amongst adolescents from Slovakia and Poland, using data from the Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study. Methods: We analysed data from the cross-sectional Health Behaviour in School-aged Children study conducted in 2022 on a representative sample of 6,289 Slovak and Polish 13- and 15-year old adolescents (mean age 14.48; SD = 1.01; 50.5% boys). Data was collected through self-administered online questionnaires completed by respondents in schools during classes. Binomial logistic regression models were used to assess associations between oral health and health literacy, gender, age, family affluence and country of origin amongst adolescents from Slovakia and Poland. Results: The results indicate that boys (odds ratio/95% confidence interval OR/95% CI 0.431/0.381–0.489) are substantially less likely to engage in regular toothbrushing compared to girls, highlighting a persistent gender disparity in oral hygiene behaviour. Additionally, lower socioeconomic status, as measured by family affluence, is associated with a decreased likelihood of frequent toothbrushing (OR/95% CI 0.486/0.399–0.592 for low family affluence; OR/95% CI 0.761/0.647–0.895 for medium family affluence). Similarly, health literacy emerges as a key determinant, with adolescents exhibiting lower health literacy levels demonstrating significantly reduced engagement in regular toothbrushing (OR/95% CI 0.475/0.384–0.587 for low health literacy; OR/95% CI 0.666/0.550–0.808 for medium health literacy). Conclusion: This study highlights the significant impact of gender, family affluence and health literacy on toothbrushing frequency amongst adolescents in Poland and Slovakia. The findings underscore the need for targeted oral health promotion strategies that consider gender differences, socioeconomic inequalities and the importance of health literacy in improving oral hygiene practises amongst adolescents.
The source code of paper "A Refined Approach to Interactive Division of Fuzzy Numbers under Complete Correlation"
The code used to generate the results in the paper "A Refined Approach to Interactive Division of Fuzzy Numbers under Complete Correlation" is publicly available and can be accessed at [htt…
The code used to generate the results in the paper "A Refined Approach to Interactive Division of Fuzzy Numbers under Complete Correlation" is publicly available and can be accessed at [https://github.com/ZahraAlijani/interactivity]. This includes all scripts and relevant documentation necessary to reproduce the experiments described in themanuscript. Any additional data or materials can be made available upon reasonable request to the corresponding author.
Repository to "Virtual neural networks: hundreds of souls in a body" article
Virtual neural networks: hundreds of souls in a body This repository presents relevant source code for the paper Virtual neural networks: hundreds of souls in a body. This paper introduces a novel par…
Virtual neural networks: hundreds of souls in a body This repository presents relevant source code for the paper Virtual neural networks: hundreds of souls in a body. This paper introduces a novel paradigm called virtual neural networks, where the concept of an ensemble approach involving many 'virtual' models that share weights determined by a few 'physical' models. The ensemble consists of up to hundreds of virtual models that are trained concurrently. Moreover, all virtual networks share the same input, and their complex structure creates a form of inner augmentation that enhances the robustness of the entire ensemble. A more detailed explanation is available in the paper Virtual neural networks: hundreds of souls in a body (full reference to the article will be provided after the publication). The implementation converts virtual models for the EfficientNet architecture. The implementation is realized in Python 3.8 using IPython notebooks.
The network dynamics of antiprejudice norms: A fieldexperiment testing antiprejudice interventions inreal groups
This dataset contains information on students attending a psychology program. There are two tracks, one national and one international. The data also contains social network data, representing their r…
This dataset contains information on students attending a psychology program. There are two tracks, one national and one international. The data also contains social network data, representing their relationships. Students were subjected to a network experiment described in the article. The data belong to the following publications:Long, F., Scheepers, D., Zingora, T., & Pliskin, R. (2025). The network dynamics of antiprejudice norms: A field experiment testing antiprejudice interventions in real groups. Political Psychology, 00, 1–26. https://doi.org/10.1111/pops.70029
