Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Online self-guided interventions for the treatment of problem gambling

A minority of problem gamblers access formal treatment. Factors contributing to this low service utilization rate include geographical and time constraints, a desire to self-manage problems, shame, denial and concerns over privacy/confidentiality. The Internet is an effective medium for the delivery of health-related information, self-assessment, counselling, peer-based support and other therapeutic interventions. Consequently, online self-help programs should be offered as an alternative means to access treatment for gamblers reluctant to pursue traditional options. Benefits of the Internet include its capacity to provide a systematic delivery of cognitive-behavioural therapies, practical visual demonstrations of probabilities correcting erroneous beliefs, accessibility, convenience, cost-effectiveness, anonymity and privacy. We conducted a review of the literature to outline the advantages and current status of self-guided online interventions for gambling-related problem. Although this is a new field, empirical evidence indicates that online self-guided interventions are efficacious and represent an important treatment adjunct for individuals with gambling-related problems.
The moderating role of personality characteristics on the relationship between job insecurity and strain

The experience of job insecurity has been linked to several different outcomes, such as negative attitudes towards work and the organization, turnover intention, as well as health complaints. However, since the strength of these effects have been found to vary across studies, it is vital to identify factors that could influence the relationships. The present study examines the moderating role of three personality characteristics (negative affectivity, positive affectivity, and external locus of control) on the relation between job insecurity and outcomes (mental health complaints, job dissatisfaction, and job-induced tension). Data from 400 nurses at a Swedish acute care hospital (response rate 71%; 91% women, aged 20–68 years) showed that both job insecurity and personality were related to strain. Also, the data indicated some buffering effect of personality. Despite the gender bias of the sample, the study provides additional support for the notion that job insecurity affects strain even after controlling for individual characteristics. The study also expands the literature on job insecurity by pointing out the influence of personality characteristics on the relationship between stressors and strain.
Cost-effectiveness of intensive v. standard case management for severe psychotic illness

Background Intensive case management is commonly advocated for the care of the severely mentally ill, but evidence of its cost-effectiveness is lacking. Aims To investigate the cost-effectiveness of intensive compared with standard case management for patients with severe psychosis. Method 708 patients with psychosis and a history of repeated hospital admissions were randomly allocated to standard (case-loads 30–35) or intensive (case-loads 10–15) case management. Clinical and resource use data were assessed over two years. Results No statistically significant difference was found between intensive and standard case management in the total two-year costs of care per patient (means £24 550 and £22 700, respectively, difference £1850, 95% Cl – £1600 to £5300). There was no evidence of differential effects in African–Caribbean patients or in the most disabled. Psychiatric in-patient hospital stay accounted for 47% of the total costs, but neither such hospitalisation nor other clinical outcomes differed between the randomised groups. Conclusion Reduced case-loads have no clear beneficial effect on costs, clinical outcome or cost-effectiveness. The policy of advocating intensive case management for patients with severe psychosis is not supported by these results.
Analysis of Telomere Length in the Aged mdx Diaphragm with and without Transgenic IGF-I Expression

Chromosomal telomere length can help to indicate of the number of divisions a somatic cell has undergone. Telomere length was assessed in diaphragm muscles from mdx mice and mdx mice expressing high levels of insulin-like growth factor I (mdx:mIgf) to test if the hypertrophy and hyperplasia observed in the mdx:mIgf diaphragm was associated with increased satellite cell division and a detectable change in telomere length. Southern blotting of digested genomic DNA was performed using a probe for telomeric repeats. DNA from young and aged mdx and aged mdx:mIgf diaphragms displayed similar patterns of telomere repeat fragments. Therefore, no difference in number of satellite cell divisions could be detected. We postulate that inherently long telomere length and telomerase activity which are present in murine muscle obscure the telomere length measurement even when high levels of muscle regeneration exist. Therefore, the effect of IGF-I on cell replicative age will need to be determined in a species without telomerase, such as the canine model for muscular dystrophy.
A continuum model of transcriptional bursting

Transcription occurs in stochastic bursts. Early models based upon RNA hybridisation studies suggest bursting dynamics arise from alternating inactive and permissive states. Here we investigate bursting mechanism in live cells by quantitative imaging of actin gene transcription, combined with molecular genetics, stochastic simulation and probabilistic modelling. In contrast to early models, our data indicate a continuum of transcriptional states, with a slowly fluctuating initiation rate converting the gene between different levels of activity, interspersed with extended periods of inactivity. We place an upper limit of 40 s on the lifetime of fluctuations in elongation rate, with initiation rate variations persisting an order of magnitude longer. TATA mutations reduce the accessibility of high activity states, leaving the lifetime of on- and off-states unchanged. A continuum or spectrum of gene states potentially enables a wide dynamic range for cell responses to stimuli. DOI: http://dx.doi. org/10.7554/eLife.13051. 001
Exemplar Prototypes and Clinical Diagnosis: Toward a Cognitive Economy

Diagnostic categories are analogous to fuzzy concepts. As a result, the current classification system of mental disorders (DSM-III) describes diagnostic categories as prototypes with sets of “correlated features” rather than selected “necessary and sufficient” criteria. The correlated-features assumption implies that category membership is a matter of degree: Cases can vary in typicality on a continuum of goodness of fit from the typical instances to the borderline, atypical ones. The studies reported in this paper tested the utility of different representations of diagnostic information in aiding the detection of this continuum and increasing confidence in diagnosing typical cases. Results replicated the typicality effect (i.e., reliability of diagnostic judgments is greater for typical than atypical cases; Cantor, Smith, French, & Mezzich, 1980) and suggested that summary prototypes served untrained diagnosticians especially well in recognizing variations in typicality and enhancing confidence, whereas .
Case Studies on the Use of Solar Irradiance Forecast for Optimized Operation Strategies of Solar Thermal Power Plants

The Spanish Royal Decree 661/2007 for the regulation of renewable energy allows operators of power plants to participate directly on the electricity market instead of reverting to flat-rate prices. The premium tariff option motivates operators of renewable energy plants to increasingly act like managers of conventional plants, selling electricity at the liberalized market. Just like a normal market participant, the operator places bids in advance on the day-ahead market and is obliged to fulfill them. Thus, there is the need for operators of renewable energy plants to be able to provide predictable and dispatchable energy in the profitable premium tariff. This legal setting motivates the following analysis on the value of irradiance forecasts for determining optimal operation strategies of solar power plants. The scientific background of this study are ongoing research activities on the use of satellite-based now casting of solar irradiance using cloud motion vector techniques and on data assimilation of aerosols into air quality models as a basis for day-ahead irradiance forecasts. The influence of a schedule based on imperfect forecasts on the daily revenue for a solar thermal power plant is assessed. Three typical weather situations are analyzed: clear-sky, overcast, and aerosol-charged situations. This paper shows the economic potential of the participation at the premium tariff with optimized operation strategies using direct solar irradiance forecasts based on Earth observation techniques.
HRM, Communication, Satisfaction, and Perceived Performance

Employee perceptions of HR practices are often assumed to play an important mediating role in the relationship between HR systems and HR outcomes. In a multisource, multilevel study of 2,063 employees and 449 managers in 119 branches of a single large firm, the authors tested how managers’ perceptions of the HR practices implemented in the unit relate to employee perceptions of these HR practices. The authors’ main aim is to explore managers’ communication quality as a moderator of the relationship between manager-rated and employee-rated HR practices. They also tested whether perceived human resource management (HRM) perceptions in turn relate to perceived unit performance and satisfaction. Multilevel structural equation modeling analyses showed that HRM perceptions mediated the relationship between implemented HRM and both satisfaction and unit performance and that communication moderated the relationship between manager-rated and employee-rated HRM. These findings contribute to scholars’ understanding of how HRM affects employee-related outcomes.
Wiki-supported learning and knowledge building: effects of incongruity between knowledge and information

This study describes the empirical test of a theoretical model of knowledge building with wikis that was recently introduced by Cress and Kimmerle. The underlying assumption of this model is that both learning (as an internal, individual process) and knowledge building (as the creation of public knowledge) are based on the interplay between an individual's knowledge and the information available in the wiki. Incongruity between individual knowledge and the information contained in the wiki will lead to learning (through the acquisition of factual and conceptual knowledge) and to knowledge building (through assimilation and accommodation). In three conditions, the experiment provided the participants with different levels of incongruity between their individual knowledge and information in the wiki by varying the amount of information that was contained in the wiki, while the amount of information that the participants possessed was kept constant. As predicted, the results confirmed that a medium level of incongruity between an individual's knowledge and the information that a wiki contains will best support learning. Moreover, a medium level of incongruity leads to more accommodative knowledge building despite the fact that high and medium levels of incongruity will result in similar amounts of assimilative knowledge building. The implications of these findings were discussed in the concluding remarks.
Patent Thickets, Licensing and Innovative Performance

We examine the relationship between fragmented intellectual property (IP) rights and innovative performance, taking into consideration the role played by in-licensing of IP. Controlling for a variety of firm and market characteristics, we find that firms facing more fragmented IP landscapes are more likely to report expenditures on in-licensing and for those firms that do incur license costs we find a weak positive association between licensing expenditure and fragmented IP rights in the relevant technology. We also observe a negative relationship between IP fragmentation and innovative performance, but only for firms that engage in in-licensing and only for product innovation. The relationship between fragmentation and innovative performance also depends on the size of a firm's patent portfolio, which suggests an important strategic role for defensive patenting in the context of fragmented property rights.
Predicting Beliefs About Wife Beating Among Engaged Arab Men In Israel

This article presents one of the first studies dealing with beliefs about wife beating in Arab societies. The data were collected from a random sample of 434 engaged Arab men from Israel, in an attempt to explain their different beliefs about wife beating, based on variables representing three frameworks: (a) male dominance; (b) intergenerational learning; and (c) interpersonal skills deficit. The results revealed that a combination of predictors from disparate frameworks best explained the variance in the different criterion variables of the study. The study finds that different beliefs about wife beating among engaged Arab men are explained by the following variables: Patriarchal and nonegalitarian expectations of marriage; inability to establish positive communication; negative attitudes toward women; sex role stereotypes; and witnessing or experiences with violence in their families of origin. The implications of the results are discussed.
Reduced Multidimensional Co-Occurrence Histograms in Texture Classification

Textures are frequently described using co-occurrence histograms of gray levels at two pixels in a given relative position. Analysis of several co-occurring pixel values may benefit texture description but is impeded by the exponential growth of histogram size. To make use of multidimensional histograms, we have developed methods for their reduction. The method described here uses linear compression, dimension optimization, and vector quantization. Experiments with natural textures showed that multidimensional histograms reduced with the new method provided higher classification accuracies than the channel histograms and the wavelet packet signatures. The new method was significantly faster than our previous one.
Trends in quality of end-of-life care for Taiwanese cancer patients who died in 2000-2006.

BACKGROUND Quality of end-of-life care received by cancer patients has never been explored in an entire Asian country for all ages and cancer groups. PATIENTS AND METHODS Retrospective cohort study to examine trends in quality of end-of-life care among a cohort of 242 530 Taiwanese cancer patients who died in 2000-2006. RESULTS In the last month of life, cancer care tended to become increasingly aggressive as shown by (i) intensive use of chemotherapy (15.45%-17.28%), (ii) frequent emergency room visits (15.69%-20.99%) and >14-day hospital stays (41.48%-46.20%), (iii) admissions to intensive care units (10.04%-12.41%), and (iv) hospital deaths (59.11%-65.40%). Use of cardiopulmonary resuscitation (13.09%-8.41%), intubation (26.01%-21.07%), and mechanical ventilation (27.46%-27.05%) decreased, whereas use of hospice services increased considerably (7.34%-16.83%). Among those receiving hospice services, rates of referrals to hospice services in the last 3 days of life decreased from 17.88% to 17.13% but remained steady after adjusting for selected covariates. CONCLUSIONS The quality of end-of-life care for Taiwanese cancer decedents was substantially inferior to that previously reported and to that recommended as benchmarks for not providing overly aggressive care near the end of life.
Challenges to Identifying and Prosecuting Sex Trafficking Cases in the Midwest United States

Drawing from 12 in-depth interviews and two focus groups with prosecutors, attorneys, victim advocates, social service providers, and police in an urban Midwestern city, challenges to identifying and prosecuting sex trafficking cases are examined. Challenges to identification included trafficking techniques such as coercion, online solicitation, hidden venues, and interstate movement, as well as issues with police reporting and investigation. Challenges to prosecution involved police reporting errors and evidentiary requirements, the statute of limitations, overlapping jurisdictions, and issues with victim testimony. The aim in highlighting such obstacles is to emphasize the dynamics that may contribute to lowered numbers of identified and prosecuted cases, and consequent underestimation of sex trafficking prevalence. Implications for policy and practice are drawn from these findings.
The Redress of Distributive Injustice

Distributive injustice was experimentally induced in a dyad where a stooge claimed a share of credit incommensurate with his contribution to a joint task. Redressive behavior on part of subjects was of two kinds-involving the allocation of rewards in a subsequent work session, and the granting of esteem to the other person. With some exception, the tendency was for beneficiaries of injustice to be more extreme in redress than were its victims. Females, individuals high in Machiavellianism, and those high in Need for Approval did not redress in reward allocation when victimized. Those low in Machiavellianism redressed more when they were victims.
An Exploration of First-Generation College Students’ Career Development Beliefs and Experiences

First-generation college students (FGCS) represent a large proportion of individuals seeking higher education in the United States; yet this population does not perform as well academically as, and persist to graduation at lower rates than, their peers who have more familial context for the college-going experience. Completing a college degree is clearly tied to employability and mental wellness, which makes FGCS’s plight an important issue. Although there is a significant body of research about FGCS’s academic performance and experiences, there is little research about this population’s beliefs and experiences along their career path. Using an exploratory qualitative approach (Consensual Qualitative Research) and a well-researched model of career development (Social Cognitive Career Theory), we asked 15 FGCS about external influences on, and internal beliefs about, their career development process. Three major domains emerged from the data—external influences on the career development process, understanding of the career development process, and self-concept. These results provide a foundation for future research, as well as implications for practice with this population.
Race, Ethnicity, and Structural Variations in Youth Risk of Arrest

Missing from the considerable body of literature on disproportionate minority contact is an examination of the factors that influence risk of juvenile arrest. Using the National Longitudinal Survey of Youth 1997, the author examines racial/ethnic disparities in youth arrest, net of self-reported delinquency. Drawing from research using a minority threat perspective, this study examines whether disparities are exacerbated by macro levels of the relative size of the minority population and minority economic inequality. The results indicate Black youth have a higher risk of arrest than White youth in all contextual climates, but this disparity is magnified in predominantly non-Black communities. Differences between Hispanic and White youths’ risk of arrest did not reach statistical significance or vary across communities. The findings failed to yield support for the threat perspective but strongly supported the benign neglect thesis. Implications for theory and future research are discussed.
Human gingival fibroblasts produce nitric oxide in response to proinflammatory cytokines.

BACKGROUND Although nitric oxide (NO) synthesis is increased in periodontal disease (PD), little is known about the possible sources of production by gingival tissues. In fact, gingival tissues from patients with periodontitis demonstrate greater levels of inducible nitric oxide (iNOS) expression than healthy tissue. Macrophages are the source of the iNOS expression, with endothelial cells also contributing. In the present study, our hypothesis has been that human gingival fibroblasts (HGF) also have the ability to produce NO. We have established for the first time that HGF express increased levels of iNOS and modulate NO synthesis in response to proinflammatory cytokines that act synergistically. METHODS NO production under basal conditions or following incubation with tumor necrosis factor (TNF-alpha), interleukin (IL)-1beta, and interferon (IFN)-gamma was assessed by measurement of stable NO metabolites, nitrite, and nitrate, in a microplate adaptation of the Griess assay. Total RNA was isolated from HGF for determination of iNOS mRNA levels. RESULTS We have shown that NO production is elevated in HGF that are stimulated simultaneously by TNF-alpha, IL-1beta, and IFN-gamma. Northern blot analysis confirmed that the production of iNOS mRNA by HGF is upregulated in the presence of these cytokines. Addition of mercaptoethyl guanidine (MEG), a specific inhibitor of iNOS, profoundly reduced the production of NO in HGF. Non specific inhibitors of iNOS, L-NG-monomethyl arginine (L-NMMA), and L-arginine-methyl ester (L-NAME) had little or no effect on NO produced in HGF. CONCLUSIONS These results suggest that elevated NO production could be important in the pathogenesis of PD, and also suggest the ability of an iNOS inhibitor to modulate the disease. Treatments with drugs to block the production of nitric oxide or block its effects might be therapeutically valuable.
Proteomic analyses of arsenic‐induced cell transformation with SELDI‐TOF ProteinChip® technology

In this study, we demonstrated that low levels (1.5 μM) of arsenite induces B[a]P‐treated lung cell transformation. We then used a proteomic approach to identify protein expression by ProteinChips, which could potentially be important for transformation induced by this toxic metal. Most of the protein peaks in cell extracts of all samples, including the control, B[a]P‐treated, and B[a]P + As‐treated cells are identical. However, surface‐enhanced laser desorption/ionization time of flight (SELDI‐TOF) analysis with Cu‐ProteinChips and WCX‐ProteinChips revealed several dramatically different protein peaks that appeared in lung cells after being transformed by a treatment of 1.5 μM arsenite for 12 weeks. SAX2 ProteinChip also identified a prominent protein peak that was preferentially expressed in control cells. Interestingly, by using a SAX2 chip, we were able to detect several protein peaks that increased their expression in lung epithelial cells (LEC) treated with only B[a]P. Identification and characterization of these proteins may reveal the molecular basis of As‐induced cell transformation and provide insight into the mechanisms by which arsenic induces carcinogenesis. © 2002 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Molecular Epidemiology and Prevalence of Macrolide Efflux Genes mef(A) and mef(E) in Streptococcus pneumoniae Obtained in Canada from 1997 to 2002

ABSTRACT One hundred forty M phenotype Streptococcus pneumoniae isolates were evaluated by PCR-restriction fragment length polymorphism, serotyping, and pulsed-field gel electrophoresis. Molecular genotyping revealed that the predominant macrolide resistance mechanism in S. pneumoniae in Canada is mef(E) and resistance dissemination is due to both spread of the genetic element MEGA as well as clonal dissemination of penicillin- and/or macrolide-resistant strains.