Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The impact of minority stress on mental health and substance use among sexual minority women.

OBJECTIVE We examined the direct and indirect impact of minority stress on mental health and substance use among sexual minority women. METHOD A combination of snowball and targeted sampling strategies was used to recruit lesbian and bisexual women (N = 1,381) for a cross-sectional, online survey. Participants (M age = 33.54 years; 74% White) completed a questionnaire assessing gender expression, minority stressors (i.e., victimization, internalized homophobia, and concealment), social-psychological resources (i.e., social support, spirituality), and health-related outcomes. We used structural equation modeling to test associations among these factors, with gender expression as an antecedent and social-psychological resources as a mediator between minority stress and health. RESULTS The final model demonstrated acceptable fit, χ²(79) = 414.00, p < . 05, confirmatory fit index = . 93, Tucker-Lewis index = . 91, standardized root-mean-square residual = . 05, root-mean-square error of approximation = . 06, accounting for significant portions of the variance in mental health problems (56%) and substance use (14%), as well as the mediator social-psychological resources (24%). Beyond indirect effects of minority stress on health outcomes, direct links emerged between victimization and substance use and between internalized homophobia and substance use. CONCLUSIONS Findings indicate a significant impact of minority stressors and social-psychological resources on mental health and substance use among sexual minority women. The results improve understanding of the distinct role of various minority stressors and their mechanisms on health outcomes. Health care professionals should assess for minority stress and coping resources and refer for evidence-based psychosocial treatments.
Implications for Utility Analysis

Utility analysis suggests that human resources policies can have an economically significant impact on business organizations. Confidence in such conclusions, however, requires an accurate estimate of SDy. This article provides a validity check on prevailing subjective methods of SDy estimation by directly estimating SDy from unique field data. Using both simulated and field data, we first illustrate the range of potential bias associated with predictor unreliability y in regression analysis and show how to calculate corrected values. We then discuss the methodological problems of directly estimating SDy with organizational data and provide a range of estimates for SDy. Our direct estimation of SDy yielded values ranging from 74% to 100% of mean salary, which are considerably greater than conventional subjective judgments. Recent work in the area of utility analysis suggests that human resources policies and interventions can have a significant economic influence on business organizations. Yet confidence in such conclusions must in large part turn on what has often been considered the weakest link in conventional utility analysis (Boudreau, 1991), the subjective estimation of SDy. Although utility models will no doubt continue to dominate the field, we believe that more attention should be given to validating this approach with field research designed to directly estimate the magnitude of SDy. The purpose of this article is to illustrate such a study and to discuss several of the methodological problems inherent in such an effort. In particular, we consider the problems and solutions associated with unreliability in the predictors in a regression model. On the basis of data uniquely suited for such a task, we show that changes in employee performance have a statistically and economically significant impact on firm profits. Compared with conventional benchmarks of 40% and 70% of mean salary, our calculations of SDy fall in the range of 74%- 100% of mean salary. Following recent work by Raju, Burke, and Normand (1990), we drew on accounting and economic concepts of firm performance and developed a simple model of organization performance as a function of individual employee performance. The fact that our data were drawn from a sample of retail outlets enabled us to directly estimate in dollars the effects of employee productivity. Although the model, and its limitations, are discussed in more detail later in the article, this brief description highlights the nature of our estimate, which is the change in firm profits associated with a one-unit change in an individual’s performance rating. Because this result provided the basis for a straightforward calculation of SDy, it allowed for a direct test of the 40% and 70% rules associated with Schmidt and Hunter’s model (Boudreau, 1991; Vance & Colella, 1990).
Dose-Escalated Irradiation and Overall Survival in Men With Nonmetastatic Prostate Cancer.

IMPORTANCE In 5 published randomized clinical trials, dose-escalated external-beam radiation therapy (EBRT) for prostate cancer resulted in improved biochemical and local control. However, scarce evidence addresses whether dose escalation improves overall survival. OBJECTIVE To examine the association between dose-escalated EBRT and overall survival among men with nonmetastatic prostate cancer. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS We conducted a retrospective, nonrandomized comparative effectiveness study of dose-escalated vs standard-dose EBRT for prostate cancer diagnosed from 2004 to 2006 using the National Cancer Database (NCDB), which includes data from patients treated at Commission on Cancer-accredited community, academic, and comprehensive cancer facilities. Three cohorts were evaluated: men with low-risk (n = 12,229), intermediate-risk (n = 16,714), or high-risk (n = 13,538) prostate cancer. EXPOSURES We categorized patients in each risk cohort into 2 treatment groups: standard-dose (from 68.4 Gy to <75.6 Gy) or dose-escalated (≥75.6 Gy to 90 Gy) EBRT (1 Gy = 100 rad). MAIN OUTCOMES AND MEASURES We compared overall survival between treatment groups in each analytic cohort using Cox proportional hazard models with an inverse probability weighted propensity score (IPW-PS) approach. In secondary analyses, we evaluated dose response for survival. RESULTS Dose-escalated EBRT was associated with improved survival in the intermediate-risk (IPW-PS adjusted hazard ratio [HR], 0.84; 95% CI, 0.80-0.88; P < .001) and high-risk groups (HR, 0.82; 95% CI, 0.78-0.85; P < .001) but not the low-risk group (HR, 0.98; 95% CI, 0.92-1.05; P = .54). For every incremental increase of about 2 Gy in dose, there was a 7.8% (95% CI, 5.4%-10.2%; P < .001) and 6.3% (95% CI, 3.3%-9.1%; P < .001) reduction in the hazard of death for intermediate- and high-risk patients, respectively. CONCLUSIONS AND RELEVANCE Dose-escalated EBRT is associated with improved overall survival in men with intermediate- and high-risk prostate cancer but not low-risk prostate cancer. These results add to the evidence questioning aggressive local treatment strategies in men with low-risk prostate cancer but supporting such treatment in men with greater disease severity.
The Surface Electromyogram (EMG) Gauges Subjective Effort

In a previous study it was observed that, whenever one maintains until "exhaustion" a sustained isometric muscular contraction of constant magnitude, the magnitude of the surface EMG progressively increases with time ( 1 ) . This effect was attributed to the gradual recruiunent of additional motor units in the muscle through increased voluntary effort, thereby compensating for the loss in efficiency of fatigued units. Further evidence for this interpretation was provided by each S who stated that, as the muscles became progressively more fatigued, additional effort was needed to hold physical force constant. In the present study the hypothesis chat the surface EMG reflects the amount of effort required to maintain voluntarily a sustained contraction was tested in terms of the following prediction. Whenever S (without visual or auditory cues) attempts to maintain a constant amount of effort during a sustained voluntary contraction, the EMG level should remain constant and therefore parallel to that obtained when S (with visual cues) intentionally holds EMG output constant. In both instances the physical force should decay with time since it is known that, when force is held constant, the EMG output progressively increases.
Approximating Capacitated Routing and Delivery Problems

We provide approximation algorithms for some capacitated vehicle routing and delivery problems. These problems can all be viewed as instances of the following k-delivery TSP: given n source points and n sink points in a metric space, with exactly one item at each source, find a minimum length tour by a vehicle of finite capacity k to pick up and deliver exactly one item to each sink. The only known approximation algorithm for this family of problems is the 2.5-approximation algorithm of Anily and Hassin [ Networks, 22 (1992), pp. 419--433] for the special case k=1. For this case, we use matroid intersection to obtain a 2-approximation algorithm. Based on this algorithm and some additional lower bound arguments, we devise a factor-approximation for k-delivery TSP with arbitrary finite k. We also present a 2-approximation algorithm for the case $k = \infty$. We then initiate the study of dynamic variants of k-delivery TSP that model problems in industrial robotics and other applications. Specifically, we consider the situation where a robot arm (with finite or infinite capacity) must collect n point-objects moving in the Euclidean plane, and deliver them to the origin. The point-objects are moving in the plane with known, identical velocities---they might, for instance, be on a moving conveyor belt. We derive several useful structural properties that lead to constant-factor approximations for problems of this type that are relevant to the robotics application. Along the way, we show that maximum latency TSP is implicit in the dynamic problems, and that the natural "farthest neighbor" heuristic produces a good approximation for several notions of latency.
The Military Socialization of University Students

The effects of military training in a university setting on the attitudes of prospective U.S. Army officers are examined with a questionnaire administered to all Army Reserve Officers Training Corps cadets at the University of Oregon and to a comparison sample of male university undergraduates. Although the Army cadets do not differ greatly from the university undergraduates on background variables, there are significant differences in personality traits and attitudes related to the “military mind. ” Cadets score higher than the campus average on scales measuring: personality authoritarianism, misanthropy, punitiveness, intolerance, aggressive nationalism, political-economic conservatism, belief in imperialism, and preference for vocational training as opposed to liberal education. They score lower on scales of peace responsibility and political alienation. The Army ROTC selectively recruits students with more militaristic attitudes, and there is some evidence that the Corps serves to insulate the cadets from the liberalizing effects of the university.
Gender and Racial Equity of the Air Force Officer Qualifying Test in Officer Training School Selection Decisions

Using Cleary's (1968) model of test bias, relations between aptitude scores and training performance were evaluated for race and gender subgroups of military officer candidates. Regression analyses revealed level bias with minority performance being overpredicted by a small and constant amount at all aptitude levels, suggesting that test usage results in higher selection rates for female and Black cadets. These results are consistent with the literature in education, industry, and prior studies conducted in the military.
Changes in Striatal Dopamine Release Associated with Human Motor-Skill Acquisition

The acquisition of new motor skills is essential throughout daily life and involves the processes of learning new motor sequence and encoding elementary aspects of new movement. Although previous animal studies have suggested a functional importance for striatal dopamine release in the learning of new motor sequence, its role in encoding elementary aspects of new movement has not yet been investigated. To elucidate this, we investigated changes in striatal dopamine levels during initial skill-training (Day 1) compared with acquired conditions (Day 2) using 11C-raclopride positron-emission tomography. Ten volunteers learned to perform brisk contractions using their non-dominant left thumbs with the aid of visual feedback. On Day 1, the mean acceleration of each session was improved through repeated training sessions until performance neared asymptotic levels, while improved motor performance was retained from the beginning on Day 2. The 11C-raclopride binding potential (BP) in the right putamen was reduced during initial skill-training compared with under acquired conditions. Moreover, voxel-wise analysis revealed that 11C-raclopride BP was particularly reduced in the right antero-dorsal to the lateral part of the putamen. Based on findings from previous fMRI studies that show a gradual shift of activation within the striatum during the initial processing of motor learning, striatal dopamine may play a role in the dynamic cortico-striatal activation during encoding of new motor memory in skill acquisition.
Job Values in Professional Education: The role of achievement goals

What kind of jobs students prefer after having completed their professional education may have important personal and organisational consequences. It is therefore essential to gain a better understanding of the job values they pursue, as well as of the antecedents of such values. In this longitudinal study, we first showed that the job values of the 152 participating Norwegian student nurses and student teachers could be divided into extrinsic job values, such as high salary and good opportunities for advancement, and intrinsic job values, such as good social relations and interesting work. Moreover, we found that an important aspect of academic motivation, that is, students' achievement goals, predicted their job values. Specifically, students adopting performance‐approach goals were more likely to pursue extrinsic job values and students adopting mastery goals were more likely to pursue intrinsic job values. Ways in which the findings address current controversies in the literature on achievement goals are discussed.
Regional brain and ventricular volumes in Tourette syndrome.

BACKGROUND The pathophysiology of Tourette syndrome (TS) is thought to involve disturbances in cortico-striato-thalamo-cortical circuitry. The morphological characteristics of the cortical and associated white matter portions of these circuits have not been previously examined in TS subjects. METHODS High-resolution anatomical magnetic resonance images were acquired in 155 TS and 131 healthy children and adults. The cerebrums and ventricles were isolated and then parcellated into subregions using standard anatomical landmarks. RESULTS For analyses that included both children and adults, TS subjects were found to have larger volumes in dorsal prefrontal regions, larger volumes in parieto-occipital regions, and smaller inferior occipital volumes. Significant inverse associations of cerebral volumes with age were seen in TS subjects that were not seen in healthy controls. Sex differences in the parieto-occipital regions of healthy subjects were diminished in the TS group. The age-related findings were most prominent in TS children, whereas the diminished sex differences were most prominent in TS adults. Group differences in regional ventricular volumes were less prominent than in the cerebrum. Regional cerebral volumes were significantly associated with the severity of tic symptoms in orbitofrontal, midtemporal, and parieto-occipital regions. CONCLUSIONS Broadly distributed cortical systems are involved in the pathophysiology of TS. Developmental processes, sexual dimorphisms, and compensatory responses in these cortical regions may help to modulate the course and severity of tic symptoms.
Negative Effects of Competition on Children's Intrinsic Motivation

Abstract This study examined the effects of competition on intrinsic motivation. Subjects (N = 23) were randomly assigned to conditions of competition or intrinsic-mastery orientation. In the competition condition, subjects were instructed to perform an interesting activity with the explicit goal of “beating” other participants. In the intrinsic-mastery orientation condition, subjects were told to do as well as they could while looking for novel ways to perform the activity. Results showed that subjects in the competition condition displayed less subsequent intrinsic motivation than did mastery-oriented subjects. The present findings corroborate predictions based on cognitive evaluation theory (Deci & Ryan, 1985) that competition can have deleterious consequences on intrinsic motivation.
A Novel Comprehensive Approach for Estimating Concept Semantic Similarity in WordNet

Computation of semantic similarity between concepts is an important foundation for many research works. This paper focuses on IC computing methods and IC measures, which estimate the semantic similarities between concepts by exploiting the topological parameters of the taxonomy. Based on analyzing representative IC computing methods and typical semantic similarity measures, we propose a new hybrid IC computing method. Through adopting the parameter dhyp and lch, we utilize the new IC computing method and propose a novel comprehensive measure of semantic similarity between concepts. An experiment based on WordNet "is a" taxonomy has been designed to test representative measures and our measure on benchmark dataset R&G, and the results show that our measure can obviously improve the similarity accuracy. We evaluate the proposed approach by comparing the correlation coefficients between five measures and the artificial data. The results show that our proposal outperforms the previous measures.
Representations of the human circulatory system

There is no agreement about the robustness of intuitive representations of the circulatory system and their susceptibility to change by instruction. In this paper, we analyse to what extent students with varying degrees of biology instruction and different ages (High School Health Science and Social Science students and first and final year University Psychology students) have been able to change their intuitive beliefs into scientific representations of the workings of the human circulatory system. We analysed two aspects of the representation of the circulatory system: models of the circulatory system (the relationship between the heart and lungs in the blood pathway) and the circulatory system pattern (the blood pathway between organs). In relation to the models of the circulatory system, we found differences among the different groups of students according to the amount of biological instruction they had. The majority of participants (High School Social Science students and both University Psychology student groups) had an incomplete model, which did not include the lungs while the High School Health Science students group had a scientific representation. As for the circulatory system pattern, we did not find differences among groups. However, we cannot conclude that the representations of the two aspects of the circulatory system (model and pattern) are independent. The data in this study show that compulsory human physiology instruction did not enhance the acquisition of a scientific representation of the human circulatory system.
Utopianism and Environmentalism

This paper examines the ways in which utopianism permeates both radical and reformist environmentalism. Utopianism has created 'ecotopia', the radical environmentalist's utopia which has evolved from writing and action over the past half century. Ecotopianism's 'transgressive' potential in assisting change towards an ecological society is examined, and judged to be limited by idealism and unrealistic assessments of existing socio-economic dynamics. Reformist environmentalism is also considered; it is argued that this, too, can rest on unrealistic premises, reflecting liberal-capitalist utopian fantasies.
Assessment of cognitive development in adolescents by means of neuropsychological tasks

Development of the frontal lobes of the brain is known to continue through late adolescence, in contrast to the earlier maturation of other cortical regions. Because cortical regions appear to mature at different rates, neuropsychological tests that are differentially sensitive to functioning of specific cortical regions were used to examine developmental trends in cognitive performance. Seventy‐two participants were classified into 3 stages of development: prepubertal, pubertal, and postpubertal. The results demonstrated that performance improved throughout adolescence on 9 of the 11 neuropsychological tasks. The few sex differences that were identified primarily consisted of male participants performing better than female participants on visual‐spatial tasks. Results from the a priori comparisons indicate that the tasks associated with frontal lobe functioning showed more improvement across maturational stages than tasks associated with parietal lobe functioning. Results are discussed in terms of the re.
Talk or Conversation? Dimensions of Interpersonal Discussion and Their Implications for Participatory Democracy

Discussion among citizens has long been identified as a necessary condition for a healthy and functioning democracy. This study uses telephone survey data to examine empirically Michael Schudson's assumption that discussion is not singular, but actually a concept involving social conversation and political talk. It operationalizes the concepts of political talk and conversation and examines their implications for indicators of democratic citizenship. Findings show that indeed there is a conceptual distinction between talk and conversation. Hard news media use was more strongly related to political talk than to sociable conversations. Similarly, people who talked about politics more frequently also displayed higher levels of political factual knowledge and political participation. These findings suggest interesting directions for further research about discussion and democracy.
Complicated Grief Reactions in Children and Adolescents

An understanding of complicated grief in youth is incomplete, because the full range of observed, theorized, and studied symptoms and reactions has not yet been examined in different age groups. Until recently, scales to assess complicated grief in youth were based on adult constructs of complicated grief and did not include many of the symptoms and reactions proposed for posttrauma grief. Much can be learned from adult theories and findings. Nevertheless, future prospective studies are needed that include children from different age groups and with different personal traits, environmental conditions, relationships with the deceased, and circumstances of loss.