Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Work-Life Balance: A Study In The Petroleum Industry

A qualitative study was completed to discover how employees of a company in the petroleum industry define and experience the phenomenon of work-life balance, to identify the workplace determinants of work-life imbalance and to elicit some solutions for the problem. It was found that work-life balance is a personal issue that varies across time and situations and the underlying conflict experienced pertains to role overload and role interference. The most significant work-life conflict arises from complex workplace issues, including managing change, supervisory and technical competences, leadership, roles and accountabilities, and culture. Solutions to address the workplace issues, as well as the development of individual balance-enabling skills, are suggested. Opsomming ’n Kwalitatiewe studie is onderneem om vas te stel hoe die werknemers van ’n maatskappy in die petroleumnywerheid die fenomeen van die werk-lewe ewewig definieer en ervaar, om die werkpleksdeterminante van ’n werk-lewe onewewigtigheid te identifiseer en om sekere oplossings vir die probleem aan die hand te doen. Dit is gevind dat werk-lewe ewewig ’n persoonlike saak is wat oor tyd en omstandighede varieer en die ervaarde onderliggende konflik na roloorladingsrolle en -inmenging verwys. Die mees betekenisvolle werk-lewe konflik tree na vore vanuit komplekse werkplekaangeleenthede, insluitende die bestuur van veranderings, toesighoudende en tegniese vaardighede, leierskap, rolle en aanspreeklikheid, asook kultuur. Oplossings om die werkpleksake aan te spreek, asook die ontwikkeling van individuele vaardighede om ’n ewewig teweeg te bring, word voorgestel.
A brief anti-stigma intervention for Chinese immigrant caregivers of individuals with psychosis: Adaptation and initial findings

Mental illness stigma has adverse effects on both the caregivers’ psychological well-being and the effectiveness of care that consumers receive. While anti-stigma interventions for family caregivers from Western settings have recently shown efficacy, these interventions may not be equally applicable across culturally diverse groups. Specifically, Chinese immigrant caregivers experience heightened internalized stigma, which predisposes the adoption of harmful coping strategies and reduced quality of social networks. We present an anti-stigma intervention based on a peer-family group format, co-led by a clinician and a trained family caregiver, to counter stigma among Chinese immigrants. Data are presented from a brief intervention administered to a pilot sample of 11 Chinese immigrant caregivers that provides: psychoeducation, strategies to counter experienced discrimination, and techniques to resist internalized stigma. Case vignettes illustrate implementation of this intervention, and how the peer-family format via interactive contact counteracts internalized stereotypes, encourages adaptive coping strategies, and reinvigorates social networks. Quantitative results further suggest preliminary efficacy in reducing internalized stigma for caregivers who evidenced at least some prior internalized stigma. This study constitutes an initial but important step towards reducing mental illness stigma among Asian Americans, for whom stigma has played a powerful role in the delay and underuse of treatment.
Patient profiles and clinical utility of mepolizumab in severe eosinophilic asthma

Mepolizumab (Nucala®) is an effective and specific anti-eosinophil molecular therapy that has recently been approved as add-on therapy for the management of severe eosinophilic asthma by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA), European Medicines Agency (EMA; European Union) and more recently National Institute for Health and Care Excellence (NICE; UK). It is one of several molecular therapies in development for this indication and is illustrative of the strategic trajectory for pharmaceutical drug development taken over the past decade in several disease areas. Molecular therapies offer the prospect of improved specificity and effectiveness of biological effect. However, this necessitates a clear understanding of the underlying mechanistic pathways underpinning pathological processes, to inform drug development that yields novel more efficacious treatment options with a better clinical profile than existing agents. For the first time, utilization of molecular therapies in clinical trials is providing a novel in vivo model to characterize the association between specific pathways and clinical disease expression. It is increasingly recognized that asthma exhibits both clinical and pathological heterogeneity. It follows that a one-size-fits-all approach will not be appropriate and cost-effectiveness may only be achieved by identifying responder subgroups. This so-called personalized approach to therapy is being supported by the parallel development of companion biomarkers for clinical application. In this review, the author summarizes the clinical studies, their interpretation and the lessons learnt with mepolizumab that have informed our understanding of the approach to personalized molecular therapy in asthma.
ApoE4 and Aβ Oligomers Reduce BDNF Expression via HDAC Nuclear Translocation

Apolipoprotein E4 (ApoE4) is a major genetic risk factor for several neurodegenerative disorders, including Alzheimer's disease (AD). Epigenetic dysregulation, including aberrations in histone acetylation, is also associated with AD. We show here for the first time that ApoE4 increases nuclear translocation of histone deacetylases (HDACs) in human neurons, thereby reducing BDNF expression, whereas ApoE3 increases histone 3 acetylation and upregulates BDNF expression. Amyloid-β (Aβ) oligomers, which have been implicated in AD, caused effects similar to ApoE4. Blocking low-density lipoprotein receptor-related protein 1 (LRP-1) receptor with receptor-associated protein (RAP) or LRP-1 siRNA abolished the ApoE effects. ApoE3 also induced expression of protein kinase C ε (PKCε) and PKCε retained HDACs in the cytosol. PKCε activation and ApoE3 supplementation prevented ApoE4-mediated BDNF downregulation. PKCε activation also reversed Aβ oligomer- and ApoE4-induced nuclear import of HDACs, preventing the loss in BDNF. ApoE4 induced HDAC6–BDNF promoter IV binding, which reduced BDNF exon IV expression. Nuclear HDAC4 and HDAC6 were more abundant in the hippocampus of ApoE4 transgenic mice than in ApoE3 transgenic mice or wild-type controls. Nuclear translocation of HDA6 was also elevated in the hippocampus of AD patients compared with age-matched controls. These results provide new insight into the cause of synaptic loss that is the most important pathologic correlate of cognitive deficits in AD.
Learning in Adulthood: A Comprehensive Guide

This monograph, which builds on material presented in the 1999 edition, is presented in four main parts. The first part, ‘Adult learning in contemporary society’, describes the context of adult learning and contains: The social context of learning; Learning environments and learning concepts; Adult learners: who participates and why. Part two, Adult learning theory and models’, builds on foundational material in adult learning and contains: Knowles’s andragogy, and models of adult learning by McClusky, Illeris, and Jarvis; Self-directed learning; Transformational learning; Experience and learning. Part three, ‘New approaches to adult learning’, reflects the burgeoning interest in embodied or somatic learning, spirituality and learning, and narrative approaches to learning. It contains: Embodied, spiritual, and narrative learning; Learning and knowing - non-Western perspectives; Critical theory, postmodern, and feminist perspectives. Part four, ‘Learning and development’, draws together material on topics such as philosophy, psychology and sociology that have a bearing on adult learning. It contains: Traditional learning theories; Adult development; Cognitive development in adulthood; Intelligence and aging; Memory, cognition, and the brain. The final chapter, ‘Reflections on learning in adulthood’, is a summary and synthesis of material presented in the earlier chapters.
Smartphone Overuse and Upper Extremity Pain, Anxiety, Depression, and Interpersonal Relationships among College Students

This study aimed to survey the impact of smartphone overuse on upper extremity pain, anxiety, depression, and interpersonal relationships among college students. Subjects completed a structured questionnaire consisting of the Smartphone Addiction Inventory, the Musculoskeletal Symptom Checklist, the State-Trait Anxiety Inventory, the Beck Depression Inventory-II, and the Relationship Change Scale from May to June 2012. We analyzed the survey data from 525 responses, excluding unreturned or incomplete surveys. Data were analyzed using the test and t-test to determine the differences in smartphone overuse and its impact on upper extremity pain, anxiety, depression, and interpersonal relationships between two groups: the overuse and normal use groups. Moreover, Pearson`s correlation coefficient was used to examine the correlation between smartphone overuse and upper extremity pain, anxiety, depression, and interpersonal relationships. The results placed 62 people (11.8%) in the smartphone overuse group. The extent of smartphone overuse was more severe among female than male college students, and longer time spent using smartphones per day was directly related to smartphone overuse. The smartphone overuse group evidenced higher shoulder pain than the normal use group did, but no differences were found in other sites of the upper extremities. State anxiety, trait anxiety, and depression were higher in the smartphone overuse group than in the normal use group. Subjects with a higher extent of smartphone overuse experienced increased state-anxiety, trait-anxiety, and depression. Moreover, subjects with higher state-anxiety, trait-anxiety, and depression scores were more likely to have poor interpersonal relationships. Therefore, early screening for smartphone overuse should be evaluated, because it can be useful in developing addiction prevention programs to improve posture, stress coping, positive mental health, and effective interpersonal relationships.
Understanding Public and Nonprofit Managers' Motivation Through the Lens of Self-Determination Theory

Abstract Contemporary public and nonprofit management research has disproportionally emphasized the importance of intrinsic motivation (especially service motivation) but has given comparatively little attention to non-intrinsic motivation. According to self-determination theory (SDT), non-intrinsic motivation moves from identified motivation, introjected motivation, external motivation, to amotivation, depending on their disparate levels of self-determination. The authors examine empirically whether public managers differ from nonprofit managers on these intrinsic and non-intrinsic motivational styles. The findings show that public managers exhibit stronger service motivation, identified motivation, external motivation, and amotivation when compared to their nonprofit peers. In addition, public managers' strong external motivation and amotivation compromise their overall level of self-determination, suggesting that they may be less motivated by their work requirements than are nonprofit counterparts.
The Reliability and Validity of the Brief Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II for Children and Adolescents

This study investigated the reliability and validity of the Brief Acculturation Rating Scale for Mexican Americans-II (ARSMA-II) using two samples of Mexican American children: 292 middle school students from a mid-sized culturally diverse southwestern city, and 116 third-through fifth graders in culturally homogeneous rural elementary schools. Results provided evidence of the reliability and validity of this measure of acculturation for both age levels. Factor analysis supported the two-scale structure reported by Cuéllar. Internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha) was adequate for both samples. Validity was demonstrated by the significant association between the distribution of acculturation status and sample group. Language of form (English or Spanish) selected by the student was correlated with acculturation status.
Concreteness effects on memory: when and why?

Two experiments studied the effects of concreteness and relatedness of noun pairs on free recall, cued recall, and memory integration. Dual-coding theory (DCT) implies that concreteness and relatedness should have independent and additive effects on memory performance, whereas relational-distinctiveness processing theory implies that the 2 variables should interact. Their effects proved to be statistically independent in cued-recall and memory integration tests in both studies. In free recall, the effects were independent in Experiment 1 and interactive over subjects, but not over items in Experiment 2. Results were most consistent with the DCT and, regarding integration, with the hypothesis that strong verbal relations are necessary for integrative recall of abstract pairs, whereas high imagery is sufficient for integrative recall of concrete pairs
Social networks and subjective wellbeing among older Europeans: does age make a difference?

ABSTRACT This inquiry examined whether social networks are associated with wellbeing among older-old people in the same way that they are among younger-old persons. The study focused on family respondents, aged 60 and older, from the second wave of the Survey of Health, Ageing and Retirement in Europe (N=14,728). The statistical analysis regressed two wellbeing measures (the CASP quality of life scale and life satisfaction) on a range of social network variables from three domains: family structure and interaction, social exchange and social engagement. In addition, the inquiry viewed these associations through the lens of age-based interaction terms, controlling for background characteristics, health status and region. The analysis revealed that the associations between subjective wellbeing and social network vary according to age. Among younger-old respondents, aged 60–79, more significant associations were found between social network variables and wellbeing outcomes in comparison to older-old respondents, aged 80 or older. Differences between age groups also emerged with the direction of the associations between social network variables and subjective wellbeing. The study results reveal that social networks do matter in very old age, but not in the same way as among younger-old persons. This finding is one indication of the differences that may emerge between third-age adults and those approaching the fourth age.
Analysing the requirements for monitoring and switching : a problem-oriented approach

Context-aware applications monitor changes in their environment and switch their behaviour in order to continue satisfying requirements. Specifying monitoring and switching in such applications can be difficult due to their dependence on varying environmental properties. Two problems require analysis: the detection of changes in the operating environment to assess their impact on requirements satisfaction, and the adaptation of application behaviour to ensure requirements satisfaction. This thesis borrows from the world of problem-oriented software system development and product-lines to analyse monitoring and switching problems on one hand and contextual changes on the other. It proposes a shift of focus from treating monitoring and switching as activities to be analysed as part of the design, to treating them as part of the problem whose requirements are analysed. We claim three novel contributions: (1) we provide concepts and mechanisms for analysing monitoring and switching problems in context; (2) we formulate and prove two theorems for monitoring and switching, which define the necessary and sufficient conditions for monitoring a contextual variable and for switching application behaviour to restore requirements satisfaction when they are violated; and (3) we provide a tool for automated derivation of the conditions for monitoring and switching. Our approach is evaluated using two case studies of a proof of concept mobile phone productline and a logistics company that delivers and monitors products across the UK. We found the applications of the approach to be effective in analysing unforeseen requirements violations caused by changes in the systems operating environments. Furthermore, the monitoring and switching mechanisms derived from the analysis enabled the software to become, to some extent, context-aware.
Psychological targeting as an effective approach to digital mass persuasion

Significance Building on recent advancements in the assessment of psychological traits from digital footprints, this paper demonstrates the effectiveness of psychological mass persuasion—that is, the adaptation of persuasive appeals to the psychological characteristics of large groups of individuals with the goal of influencing their behavior. On the one hand, this form of psychological mass persuasion could be used to help people make better decisions and lead healthier and happier lives. On the other hand, it could be used to covertly exploit weaknesses in their character and persuade them to take action against their own best interest, highlighting the potential need for policy interventions. People are exposed to persuasive communication across many different contexts: Governments, companies, and political parties use persuasive appeals to encourage people to eat healthier, purchase a particular product, or vote for a specific candidate. Laboratory studies show that such persuasive appeals are more effective in influencing behavior when they are tailored to individuals’ unique psychological characteristics. However, the investigation of large-scale psychological persuasion in the real world has been hindered by the questionnaire-based nature of psychological assessment. Recent research, however, shows that people’s psychological characteristics can be accurately predicted from their digital footprints, such as their Facebook Likes or Tweets. Capitalizing on this form of psychological assessment from digital footprints, we test the effects of psychological persuasion on people’s actual behavior in an ecologically valid setting. In three field experiments that reached over 3.5 million individuals with psychologically tailored advertising, we find that matching the content of persuasive appeals to individuals’ psychological characteristics significantly altered their behavior as measured by clicks and purchases. Persuasive appeals that were matched to people’s extraversion or openness-to-experience level resulted in up to 40% more clicks and up to 50% more purchases than their mismatching or unpersonalized counterparts. Our findings suggest that the application of psychological targeting makes it possible to influence the behavior of large groups of people by tailoring persuasive appeals to the psychological needs of the target audiences. We discuss both the potential benefits of this method for helping individuals make better decisions and the potential pitfalls related to manipulation and privacy.
Automatic UAV Forced Landing Site Detection Using Machine Learning

The commercialization of aerial image processing is highly dependent on the platforms such as UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles). However, the lack of an automated UAV forced landing site detection system has been identified as one of the main impediments to allow UAV flight over populated areas in civilian airspace. This article proposes a UAV forced landing site detection system that is based on machine learning approaches including the Gaussian Mixture Model and the Support Vector Machine. A range of learning parameters are analysed including the number of Guassian mixtures, support vector kernels including linear, radial basis function Kernel (RBF) and polynormial kernel (poly), and the order of RBF kernel and polynormial kernel. Moreover, a modified footprint operator is employed during feature extraction to better describe the geometric characteristics of the local area surrounding a pixel. The performance of the presented system is compared to a baseline UAV forced landing site detection system which uses edge features and an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) region type classifier. Experiments conducted on aerial image datasets captured over typical urban environments reveal improved landing site detection can be achieved with an SVM classifier with an RBF kernel using a combination of colour and texture features. Compared to the baseline system, the proposed system provides significant improvement in term of the chance to detect a safe landing area, and the performance is more stable than the baseline in the presence of changes to the UAV altitude.
Design and control of an electromagnetic valve actuator

In this paper we present theoretical and experimental results for designing and operating a special linear electromagnetic motor as a variable engine valve actuator. Detailed description is given to the design procedure to meet the requirements of high dynamic and low power consumption, including the determination of actuator topology and parameters, the force, dynamic and power loss calculations. Based on a non-linear model a control strategy is presented and discussed as well. Both computer simulation and laboratory experimental results which demonstrate the excellent behavior of the developed system are presented.
Ieee Transactions on Communications, Accepted for Publication 1 Optimal Channel and Relay Assignment in Ofdm-based Multi-relay Multi-pair Two-way Communication Networks

— Efficient utilization of radio resources in wireless networks is crucial and has been investigated extensively. This letter considers a wireless relay network where multiple user pairs conduct bidirectional communications via multiple relays based on orthogonal frequency-division multiplexing (OFDM) transmission. The joint optimization of channel and relay assignment , including subcarrier pairing, subcarrier allocation as well as relay selection, for total throughput maximization is formulated as a combinatorial optimization problem. Using a graph theoretical approach, we solve the problem optimally in polynomial time by transforming it into a maximum weighted bipartite matching (MWBM) problem. Simulation studies are carried out to evaluate the network total throughput versus transmit power per node and the number of relay nodes.