Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The cost of self-protective measures : psychological predictors of saving money for a financial buffer

With the government increasingly redistributing responsibility to citizens, individuals require resources to take self-protective measures and to recuperate themselves from setbacks with financial consequences. This study examines which psychological constructs are predictive of self-reported saving behaviour. A theoretical model, based on the Theory of Planned Behaviour but with several new and previously unexamined features, is introduced and empirically tested using a heterogeneous sample (n = 272). Results supported several assumptions and showed that self-reported saving behaviour was predicted by perceived financial self-efficacy and saving intention. Saving intention was, in turn, predicted by perceived financial self-efficacy, regulatory focus, and financial risk tolerance. An individual’s attitude towards financial risk taking (i.e., financial risk tolerance) was predicted by situational economic trust, subjective financial knowledge, and regulatory focus. Implications for stimulating saving behaviour and recommendations for further research are given.
ALLIANCE CAPABILITY & SUCCESS: A KNOWLEDGE-BASED APPROACH.

In the age of alliances, the competitive advantage of a firm would reside in its capability to manage alliances better than peers or competitors. Adopting a knowledge-based approach, we examine the antecedent organizational processes that underlie the development of a firm's Alliance Capability. We find that organizational processes that facilitate the accumulation, codification and sharing of alliance management know-how embedded in the firm's prior and on-going alliance experience, are central to the firm's alliance capability and success. A multi-method approach comprising large sample survey and in-depth fieldwork on the alliance management practices and performance of US-based firms is used to test the theoretical framework. While the present research is restricted to examining the development of alliance capability, it has the potential to inform the development of organizational capabilities in other settings as well.
Core needle biopsy of thyroid nodules - evaluation of diagnostic utility and pain experience.

OBJECTIVE A crucial problem in the non-operative diagnosis of thyroid nodules is the significant amount of non-diagnostic biopsies. This is a challenge for practicing endocrinologists especially when the results of the repeated biopsies remain non-diagnostic. The lack of a concrete preoperative diagnosis may result in unnecessary thyroidectomies in patients. Alternatively, it may also lead to the delayed diagnosis of cancer. One method of biopsy specimen acquisition that could potentially increase the diagnostic accuracy of thyroid biopsies is the application of core-needles. The aim of the study was to compare the diagnostic value and patient tolerability of core-needle aspiration biopsies (CNAB) with fine-needle aspiration biopsies (FNAB). PATIENTS AND METHODS The study included patients with thyroid nodular goiter in whom previous conventional FNAB yielded non-diagnostic results. CNABs were performed using 22G core-needles. The control group consisted of patients undergoing conventional FNAB with 25G fine-needles. Pain during core-needle biopsies of thyroid nodules was assessed using the 10-point visual analog scale. RESULTS There were a total of 30 lesions in 26 patients undergoing CNAB (22 women, 4 men, mean age 48.3) and a total of 59 lesions in 40 patients undergoing FNAB (34 women, 6 men, mean age 57.3). 56.6% of CNABs and 50.8% of FNABs were diagnostic (p=0.60). When assessing pain via the visual analog scale, the median score for biopsies performed with core-needles was four. 60.0% of patients considered the pain of core-needle aspiration biopsies to be similar to the pain experienced during the previous conventional fine-needle aspiration biopsies, while 40% of patients claimed that the pain was more intense. CONCLUSIONS CNAB did not prove to be superior to FNAB. Despite the larger needle gauge used during core-needle biopsies, the patients' tolerability was comparable to conventional fine-needle biopsies.
Caring about Care; investigating the effects of different Communication styles in medical and educational credence Services

Tremendous changes in medical services and increasing costs of noncompliance have aroused research interest in these credence services. Therefore, this study emphasizes the physician-patient interaction as a central part of medical services. Drawing from marketing, healthcare, and psychological literature, this study explores physician–patient communication and its effects on patient outcome variables. The study consists of four stages: (1) a pilot study with 84 respondents to test the manipulation, realism, and scale reliabilities; (2) a 2x2 between-subjects experimental design with 127 respondents to demonstrate main effects of communication on outcome variables; (3) a second 2x2 between-subjects experimental design with 143 respondents (using both analyses of variance and structural equation modeling by means of SmartPLS) in which we incorporate feelings as mediators; and (4) in depth interviews with 16 internal physicians, to validate our findings. The findings reveal a chain of reciprocity from the physician’s communication style – care and cure – to patient evoked affective and cognitive feelings ultimately resulting in satisfaction and compliance. These findings specify the effects that different communication styles of the physician have on patients’ satisfaction and compliance, enabling the physician to tune the communication style towards desirable outcomes. 2 Kilic, R.I. , Odekerken-Schroder, G. , Van Emmerik, IJ.H. (2011). How Communication Impacts Satisfaction and Compliance: the Mediating Role of Feelings in a Medical Services Setting, submitted to Journal of Service Research.
Anti-social motives explain increased risk aversion for others in decisions from experience

When deciding for others based on explicitly described odds and outcomes, people often have different risk preferences for others than for themselves. In two pre-registered experiments, we examine risk preference for others where people learn about the odds and outcomes by experiencing them through sampling. In both experiments, on average, people were more risk averse for others than for themselves, but only when the risky option had a higher expected value. Furthermore, based on a separate set of choices, we classified people as pro- or anti-social. Only those people classified as anti-social were more risk averse for others, whereas those classified as prosocial chose similarly for themselves and others. When the uncertainty was removed, however, all participants exhibited less anti-social behavior. Together, these results suggest that anti-social motives contribute to the observed limited risk taking for others and that outcome uncertainty facilitates the expression of these motives.
Equity of access to specialist chronic fatigue syndrome (CFS/ME) services in England (2008–2010): a national survey and cross-sectional study

Objectives Provision of National Health Service (NHS) specialist chronic fatigue syndrome or myalgic encephalomyelitis (CFS/ME) services in England has been deemed patchy and inconsistent. Our objective was to explore variation in the provision of NHS specialist CFS/ME services and to investigate whether access is related to measures of deprivation and inequality. Design Survey of all CFS/ME clinical teams in England, plus cross-sectional data from a subset of teams. Setting Secondary care. Outcome measures We used clinic activity data from CFS/ME clinical teams in England to describe provision of specialist CFS/ME services (referral, assessment and diagnosis rates per 1000 adults per year) during 2008–2011 according to Primary Care Trust (PCT) population estimates, and to investigate whether use of services was related to PCT-level measures of deprivation and inequality. We used postcode data from seven services to investigate variation in provision by deprivation. Results Clinic activity data were obtained from 93.9% (46/49) of clinical teams in England which between them received referrals from 84.9% (129/152) of PCTs. 12 PCTs, covering a population of 2.08 million adults, provided no specialist CFS/ME service. There was a six-fold variation in referral and assessment rates between services which could not be explained by PCT-level measures of deprivation and inequality. The median assessment rate in 2010 was 0.25 (IQR 0.17, 0.35) per 1000 adults per year. 91.9% (IQR 76.5%, 100.0%) of adults assessed were diagnosed with CFS/ME. Postcode data from seven clinical teams showed that assessment rates were equal across deprivation quartiles for four teams but were 40–50% lower in the most deprived compared with the most affluent areas for three teams. Conclusions Two million adults in England do not have access to a specialist CFS/ME service. In some areas which do have a specialist service, access is inequitable. This inequity may worsen with the impending fragmentation of NHS commissioning across England.
Power from the People Domestic Microgeneration and the Low Carbon Buildings Programme

About the Lower Carbon Futures team Lower Carbon Futures (LCF) is the Environmental Change Institute's energy research team. We develop policy ideas to support a transition to an equitable, low-carbon society. Our work is funded by grants from UK research councils and the EU, and through consultancy contracts with government departments, quangos and clients from industry and civil society. We also engage in postgraduate teaching within Oxford University. We focus on policy analysis and the development of new policy ideas for energy savings and adoption of low-carbon energy generation technologies in the medium-to long-term. We use computer modelling and back-casting techniques (i.e., starting with long-term targets and working backwards from the future to the present) to analyse how current policy needs to change in order to meet long-term targets for reducing greenhouse gas emissions. Our research is inter-disciplinary, combining analysis of technology and behaviour, as well as tracking demographic trends and the future impacts of a changing climate. We typically develop scenarios using bottom-up modelling techniques to quantify how CO 2 emissions might change in the future, built on detailed assumptions about how society and the economy might develop. We explore the potential for reducing demand for energy as well as developing low-carbon supply options, giving equal weight to the technological and social drivers of change. By comparing these future scenarios with current policy and practice, we are able to highlight priorities for policy and set out key strategic issues for the future. We often work collaboratively with other academic research groups and partners from government and industry. At any one time we are normally working with over a dozen such organisations on various projects. We produce policy proposals, research reports, responses to government consultations on energy and climate change, consultancy reports, conference and journal papers, presentations to a wide variety of audiences, and contributions to the wider debate in the general media (press, TV, radio and internet). is the focal point for UK research on sustainable energy. It takes an independent, whole-systems approach, drawing on engineering, economics and the physical, environmental and social sciences. The Centre's role is to promote cohesion within the overall UK energy research effort. It acts as a bridge between the UK energy research community and the wider world, including business, policymakers and the international energy research community and is the centrepiece of the Research Councils Energy Programme The data for this piece of work …
NEUROBEHAVIORAL SIGNATURES IN CHILDREN-VICTIM OF BULLYING

Experiencing bullying victimization can lead to detrimental damage to a child’s life potential, reduced long-term contributions to society, and in severe cases, to suicide or desperate acts of defensive aggression, such as school shootings. The current study aimed to examine risk factors that may increase the vulnerability of a child to become a target of bullying victimization and the related consequences of victimization, using rigorous neuropsychological and EEG measures. The end-goal is to translate these findings into a program of preventive intervention increasing the child’s resilience and improving social culture among youth in the academic environment. We propose a twocomponent novel model for examining child-victim characteristics: Trait Signatures, as crystalized, long-term neurobehavioral and brain neurophysiology (EEG) markers and State Signatures, the psychological, somatic, and cognitive acute consequences of bullying victimization. Results from 16 Children-Victim (VC) and 16 non-exposed to bullying, Control Children (CC), ages 6-17 are presented. Our key findings in VC as compared to CC show: In Trait Signatures significantly higher scores on measures of
Health Services Industry: Still a Job Machine?

In recent years, the Nation’s health care system has undergone a major transition in the way health care is financed, in the settings where care is provided, and in the process by which care is delivered. Privately managed health care institutions emerged as the regulator of services and costs. As growth in health care costs slowed, health care workers experienced smaller gains in employment and earnings in the late 1990s, compared with those in the 1980s. Health services had been a growing portion of the private economy until the latter half of the 1990s, when employment growth fell below the rate of other industries. This article examines changes in the industry’s employment and earnings from 1987 to 1997 and in 1998.
Outsourcing decision support: a survey of benefits, risks, and decision factors

Purpose – The purpose of this study is twofold. The first is to provide a structured review of the vast amount of outsourcing literature that has accumulated in the past two decades using a decision support framework. The second purpose is to statistically analyze the contents of the studies to identify commonalities as well as gaps, in order to suggest directions for future research.Design/methodology/approach – The contents of more than 200 publications are analyzed using a variety of approaches. A decision support framework is used to first classify whether the studies address outsourcing benefits, risks, motivations or factors. Next, each classification is further described by the type of benefits, risks, etc. Additional relevant contents such as type of organization, and the location of the outsourcing practice are also considered. Multivariate analyses consisting of cross tabulations, chi‐square testing and cluster analysis are used for categorizing the studies with the aim of identifying relationsh.
Risk of Colorectal Cancer in Patients with Acute Myocardial Infarction and Stroke: A Nationwide Cohort Study

Background: An association between colorectal cancer and acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and stroke has been suggested, but evidence is conflicting. Method: We conducted a population-based cohort study (1978–2010) of the association between AMI/stroke and colorectal cancer by linking nationwide Danish registries. We calculated standardized incidence ratios (SIR) of colorectal cancer after AMI/stroke as the ratios of observed to expected incidence. Results: A total of 297,523 patients with AMI (median age, 69.4 years; 64% men) were followed for a median of 3.1 years (range, 0–33 years) and 4,387 developed colorectal cancer [SIR, 1.08; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.05–1.11; P < 0.001]. In the first year of follow-up, the SIR was 1.85 (95% CI, 1.73–1.98; P < 0.001), whereas it was 0.98 (95% CI, 0.95–1.02; P = 0.318) in the second and subsequent years. We followed 246,998 patients with stroke (median age, 72.4 years; 52% men) for a median of 2.9 years (range, 0–33 years) and 3,035 developed colorectal cancer (SIR, 1.04; 95% CI, 1.00–1.07; P = 0.053). In the first year of follow-up, the SIR was 1.42 (95% CI, 1.31–1.53; P < 0.001), whereas it was 0.96 (95% CI, 0.93–1.00; P = 0.072) thereafter. We found no difference between the SIRs for ischemic and hemorrhagic stroke. The increased one-year relative risks for AMI and stroke corresponded to a 0.3% absolute risk. Conclusions: Our findings reflect detection of occult cancer at the time of the vascular event. The lack of increased risk after one year suggests that an association based on shared risk factors or chronic inflammation is unlikely. Impact: In patients with AMI/stroke, the diagnostic workup including screening for colorectal cancer should follow that of the general population. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 22(11); 1994–9. ©2013 AACR.
Viral Proteins Originated De Novo by Overprinting Can Be Identified by Codon Usage: Application to the “Gene Nursery” of Deltaretroviruses

A well-known mechanism through which new protein-coding genes originate is by modification of pre-existing genes, e.g. by duplication or horizontal transfer. In contrast, many viruses generate protein-coding genes de novo, via the overprinting of a new reading frame onto an existing (“ancestral”) frame. This mechanism is thought to play an important role in viral pathogenicity, but has been poorly explored, perhaps because identifying the de novo frames is very challenging. Therefore, a new approach to detect them was needed. We assembled a reference set of overlapping genes for which we could reliably determine the ancestral frames, and found that their codon usage was significantly closer to that of the rest of the viral genome than the codon usage of de novo frames. Based on this observation, we designed a method that allowed the identification of de novo frames based on their codon usage with a very good specificity, but intermediate sensitivity. Using our method, we predicted that the Rex gene of deltaretroviruses has originated de novo by overprinting the Tax gene. Intriguingly, several genes in the same genomic region have also originated de novo and encode proteins that regulate the functions of Tax. Such “gene nurseries” may be common in viral genomes. Finally, our results confirm that the genomic GC content is not the only determinant of codon usage in viruses and suggest that a constraint linked to translation must influence codon usage.
Comparison of 1.5T and 3T 1H MR Spectroscopy for Human Brain Tumors

Objective We wanted to estimate the practical improvements of 3T proton MR spectroscopy (1H MRS) as compared with 1.5T 1H MRS for the evaluation of human brain tumors. Materials and Methods Single voxel 1H MRS was performed at both 1.5T and 3T in 13 patients suffering with brain tumors. Using the same data acquisition parameters at both field strengths, the 1H MRS spectra were obtained with a short echo time (TE) (35 msec) and an intermediate TE (144 msec) with the voxel size ranging from 2.0 cm3 to 8.7 cm3. The signal to noise ratios (SNRs) of the metabolites (myoinositol [MI], choline compounds [Cho], creatine/phosphocreatine [Cr], N-acetyl-aspartate [NAA], lipid and lactate [LL]) and the metabolite ratios of MI/Cr, Cho/Cr, Cho/NAA and LL/Cr were compared at both TEs between the two field strengths in each brain tumor. The degrees of spectral resolution between the Cho and Cr peaks were qualitatively compared between the two field strengths in each brain tumor. Results The SNRs of the metabolites at 3T demonstrated 49-73% increase at a short TE (p < 0.01) and only 2-12% increase at an intermediate TE (p > 0.05) compared with those of 1.5T. The SNR of inverted lactate at an intermediate TE decreased down to 49% with poorer inversion at 3T (p < 0.05). There was no significant difference in the metabolite ratios between the two field strengths. The degrees of the spectral resolution at 3T were slightly superior to those of 1.5T at a short TE. Conclusion As compared with 1.5T, 3T 1H MRS demonstrated 49-73% SNR increase in the cerebral metabolites and slightly superior spectral resolution only at a short TE, but little at an intermediate TE, in the brain tumors. There was no significant difference in the metabolite ratios between the two field strengths.
Optimistic Risk Perception in the Temporal Difference error Explains the Relation between Risk-taking, Gambling, Sensation-seeking and Low Fear

Understanding the affective, cognitive and behavioural processes involved in risk taking is essential for treatment and for setting environmental conditions to limit damage. Using Temporal Difference Reinforcement Learning (TDRL) we computationally investigated the effect of optimism in risk perception in a variety of goal-oriented tasks. Optimism in risk perception was studied by varying the calculation of the Temporal Difference error, i.e., delta, in three ways: realistic (stochastically correct), optimistic (assuming action control), and overly optimistic (assuming outcome control). We show that for the gambling task individuals with 'healthy' perception of control, i.e., action optimism, do not develop gambling behaviour while individuals with 'unhealthy' perception of control, i.e., outcome optimism, do. We show that high intensity of sensations and low levels of fear co-occur due to optimistic risk perception. We found that overly optimistic risk perception (outcome optimism) results in risk taking and in persistent gambling behaviour in addition to high intensity of sensations. We discuss how our results replicate risk-taking related phenomena.
Dietary self-control influences top–down guidance of attention to food cues

Motivational objects attract attention due to their rewarding properties, but less is known about the role that top–down cognitive processes play in the attention paid to motivationally relevant objects and how this is affected by relevant behavioral traits. Here we assess how thinking about food affects attentional guidance to food items and how this is modulated by traits relating to dietary self-control. Participants completed two tasks in which they were presented with an initial cue (food or non-food) to either hold in working memory (memory task) or to merely attend to (priming task). Holding food items in working memory strongly affected attention when the memorized cue re-appeared in the search display. Tendency towards disinhibited eating was associated with greater attention to food versus non-food pictures in both the priming and working memory tasks, consistent with greater attention to food cues per se. Successful dieters, defined as those high in dietary restraint and low in tendency to disinhibition, showed reduced attention to food when holding food-related information in working memory. These data suggest a strong top–down effect of thinking about food on attention to food items and indicate that the suppression of food items in working memory could be a marker of dieting success.