Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of postprandial and fasting triglycerides with traits of the metabolic syndrome in the Metabolic Intervention Cohort Kiel.

OBJECTIVE Postprandial (pp) lipid metabolism is associated with insulin resistance and type 2 diabetes. In young men, pp triglycerides (TGs) are more strongly associated with traits of metabolic syndrome (MS) than fasting TGs. We established a cohort of middle-aged men selected for traits of MS and pp lipid metabolism to determine if fasting TGs or pp TGs are more closely related to MS. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A total of 1558 men were characterized for MS. A total of 755 men underwent an oral metabolic tolerance test consisting of a standardized high-fat meal and an oral glucose tolerance test. Blood samples were drawn in the fasting state and hourly until 9 h to determine pp TGs and free fatty acids. Glucose and insulin were analyzed until 5 h pp. RESULTS In the overall cohort, 329 subjects (21.1%) had a complete MS based on the Adult Treatment Panel III criteria, and 650 subjects (41.7%) had a complete MS based on the International Diabetes Federation criteria. The association of pp TGs with MS parameters was not stronger than the association of fasting TGs with them. Pp TGs were independently associated with beta-cell function. CONCLUSIONS Pp TGs did not show a higher correlation with MS traits than fasting TGs. This finding is probably due to the high incidence of overweight subjects in this middle-aged cohort.
Functional Studies of Multiple Thioredoxins from Mycobacterium tuberculosis

ABSTRACT Cytoplasmic protein reduction via generalized thiol/disulfide exchange reactions and maintenance of cellular redox homeostasis is mediated by the thioredoxin superfamily of proteins. Here, we describe the characterization of the thioredoxin system from Mycobacterium tuberculosis, whose genome bears the potential to encode three putative thioredoxins from the open reading frames designated trxAMtb , trxBMtb , and trxCMtb . We show that all three thioredoxins, overproduced in Escherichia coli, are able to reduce insulin, a model substrate, in the presence of dithiothreitol. However, we observe that thioredoxin reductase is not capable of reducing TrxA Mtb in an NADPH-dependent manner, indicating that only TrxB Mtb and TrxC Mtb are the biologically active disulfide reductases. The absence of detectable mRNA transcripts of trxAMtb observed when M. tuberculosis strain H37Rv was cultivated under different growth conditions suggests that trxAMtb expression may be cryptic. The measured redox potentials of TrxB Mtb and TrxC Mtb (−262 ± 2 mV and −269 ± 2 mV, respectively) render these proteins somewhat more oxidizing than E. coli thioredoxin 1 (TrxA). In E. coli strains lacking components of cytoplasmic protein reduction pathways, heterologous expression of the mycobacterial thioredoxins was able to effectively substitute for their function.
Across the divide: teaching a transnational MBA in a second language

China is a growing market for the provision of transnational programs. However, there are many challenges associated with providing good—quality learning opportunities while ensuring cost‐effectiveness, particularly in bilingual programs. This paper describes the experience of business academics teaching a postgraduate MBA program in Mandarin to students located in China. The academics found that their attempts to provide an effective teaching/learning environment while teaching through translators led to many additional challenges, including increased rigidity of teaching processes and difficulties in monitoring learning outcomes. The paper identifies some ways in which staff teaching transnationally might be supported, while also suggesting that teaching across a language divide needs to be carefully considered before universities venture into this complex educational setting.
PERSONALITY AND SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY BULLETIN Wenzlaff, LePage / EMOTIONAL IMPACT OF THOUGHTS The Emotional Impact of Chosen and Imposed Thoughts

Two studies tested the idea that perceptions of choice can alter the self-relevance and emotional impact of thoughts. Participants who were initially in either a positive or negative mood engaged in a thought exercise that involved either positive or negative thinking. Half of the participants received information stressing the optional nature of the task, thereby fostering a sense of choice and personal determination. The results indicate that under high-choice, mood-incongruent thinking was especially selfrelevant, memorable, and produced the most mood change. The findings raise new considerations for self-perception and cognitive dissonance theories and offer insights into the relationship between cognition and emotion.
Assessing the Economic Impact of Sports Facilities on Residential Property Values

We estimate the effect of proximity to two sports facilities in Columbus, OH, on residential property values. Results from a spatial hedonic model indicate that the presence of sports facilities in Columbus have a significant, positive, and distance-decaying effect on surrounding residential housing values, supporting the idea that professional sports facilities generate intangible benefits in the local economy. Ordinary least square (OLS) overestimates the hedonic model parameters compared with maximum likelihood and spatial two-stage least squares, suggesting that spatial autocorrelation plays an important role in this setting.
Running head : GOAL DISENGAGEMENT AND ACTION CRISES Goal Disengagement and Action Crises

In emerging adulthood, being committed to and making progress on important personal goals constitutes a source of identity and wellbeing. Goal striving, however, does not always go without problems. Even though highly committed to a goal, individuals may experience recurring setbacks and, consequently, increasing doubts about the goal that might culminate in an action crisis, that is, an intrapsychic decisional conflict about whether to disengage from or to continue on their way. Action crises have been shown to lead to negative consequences on well-being and performance. Besides these negative consequences, however, an action crisis is hypothesized to have an adaptive side that is addressed in the present paper. Actively questioning the pursuit of a goal should allow for weighing up the focal goal against alternative and possibly more desirable goals. This open-minded re-evaluation, in the event of goal disengagement, is assumed to avoid the emergence of action crises in subsequently formed goals. As expected, in a longitudinal study over one and a half years with n 1⁄4 207 freshman students, the degree of experienced action crisis prior to goal disengagement predicted the desirability and decisional certainty of the subsequently formed alternative goal. Theoretical implications of the results for research on self-regulation and identity formation in emerging adulthood are discussed. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025415597550 Posted at the Zurich Open Repository and Archive, University of Zurich ZORA URL: https://doi.org/10.5167/uzh-112469 Accepted Version Originally published at: Brandstätter, Veronika; Herrmann, Marcel (2016). Goal disengagement in emerging adulthood: The adaptive potential of action crises. International Journal of Behavioral Development, 40(2):117-125. DOI: https://doi.org/10.1177/0165025415597550 Running head: GOAL DISENGAGEMENT AND ACTION CRISES Goal Disengagement and Action Crises Veronika Brandstätter* & Marcel Herrmann University of Zurich Chapter to appear in N. Baumann, T. Goschke, M. Kaz én, S. Koole, & M. Quirin (Eds.), Volition, motivation, and personality: A Festschrif t in honor of Julius Kuhl . Berlin, Germany: Springer.
Reasons for the preference for symmetry

Why did Homo erectus begin to craft symmetric tools? A parsimonious account assumes that preference for symmetry is inherent in all visual systems. This preference can be explained by a broader preference for perceptual fluency. The perceptual fluency account does not assume that selection for mate health or the production of symbolic art is a prerequisite for symmetry preference.
Exploring Maternal Grief: A Mixed-Methods Investigation of Mothers’ Responses to the Death of a Child From Cancer

This study investigated the meaning-making phenomena underlying the responses of 13 bereaved mothers to the death of a child from cancer. Using a mixed-methods research design incorporating constructivist data collection methods, we found specific characteristics, coping processes, and factors to distinguish adaptive as opposed to complicated grief responses to this type of loss. However, the findings did not distinguish the bereaved mothers themselves as “adaptive” or “complicated grievers,” as they all evidenced both types of responses to their loss within or across different datasets. Despite this finding, the mothers’ results varied in terms of the proportions of adaptive as compared to complicated grief responses to their loss, which in turn were related to features of their self-construing, change or reinforcement of their world assumptions, ongoing relationship to their child and others in their social world, and management of loss- and restoration-oriented coping. Results suggest the utility of constructivist and cognitive coping models and methods in illuminating the experience of parental bereavement.
A Joinpoint regression analysis of long‐term trends in cancer mortality in Japan (1958–2004)

Cancer is one of the major targets of disease control programs in Japan. A Joinpoint regression model was used to analyze the long‐term trends of mortality related to overall cancer and the 15 most common cancers based on published data from the National Vital Statistics of Japan between 1958 and 2004. Since 1996, a decline has been seen in overall cancer for both sexes in Japan. Most of the common sites, including cancers of the stomach, colon, liver, gallbladder and lung and leukemia in both sexes, cancer of esophagus in men and rectal and ovarian cancers in women showed a decreasing trend, and cancers of the rectum, pancreas, prostate and urinary bladder and malignant lymphoma in men and cancers of the esophagus and uterus in women leveled off during the most recent period. However, an increasing trend was confirmed for cancers of the pancreas, breast and urinary bladder and malignant lymphoma in women. An effective cancer control program including prevention, early detection and treatment should be implemented to further reduce the cancer mortality, particularly for cancer sites that show higher mortality rates or increasing trends. © 2008 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Antecedents and Outcomes of Challenging Job Experiences: A Social Cognitive Perspective

Research on employee learning and development has traditionally focused on off-the-job activities. Drawing on Tesluk and Jacobs's (1998) model of work experience and grounded in social cognitive theory, we conceptualized perceived challenging job experiences as a form of on-the-job learning and development and examined its antecedents and outcomes. Data were obtained from 248 subordinate–supervisor dyads in multiple service sector organizations in northeastern China. The results of structural equation modeling revealed transformational leadership and learning orientation to be related to perceived challenging job experiences. Furthermore, perceived challenging job experiences related to task performance and promotability assessment but indirectly through task-specific self-efficacy.
Effect of domestic violence training: systematic review of randomized controlled trials.

OBJECTIVE To describe and evaluate the effectiveness of domestic violence education in improving physicians' knowledge, recognition, and management of abused women. DATA SOURCES The Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews, MEDLINE, PubMed, PsycINFO, ERIC, and EMBASE were searched for articles published between January 1, 2000, and November 1, 2012. This search was supplemented by manual searches for relevant articles using a combined text-word and MeSH-heading search strategy. STUDY SELECTION Randomized controlled trials were selected that used educational interventions among physicians and provided data on the effects of the interventions. SYNTHESIS Nine randomized controlled trials were included that described different educational approaches with various outcome measures. Three studies examined the effects of educational interventions among postgraduate trainee physicians and found an increase in knowledge but no change in behaviour with regard to identifying victims of domestic violence. Six studies examined educational interventions for practising physicians. Three of these studies used multifaceted physician training that combined education with system support interventions to change physician behaviour, such as increasing general awareness of domestic violence with brochures and posters, providing aids to remind physicians how to identify victims, facilitating physician access to victim support services, and providing audits and feedback. Multifaceted educational interventions included interactive workshops, Web-based learning, and experiential training. Another study used focus-group discussions and training, and showed improved domestic violence reporting among physicians. The remaining 2 studies showed improved perceptions of practising physicians' self-efficacy using problem-based online learning. CONCLUSION It was difficult to determine the most effective educational strategy, as the educational interventions and the outcome measures varied among the selected studies. Brief interventions for postgraduate trainee physicians improved knowledge but did not seem to affect behaviour. Online education using a problem-based learning format improved practising physicians' perceptions, knowledge, and skills in managing domestic violence. Physician training combined with system support interventions seemed to benefit domestic violence victims and increase referrals to domestic violence support resources.
Confabulation: sense-making, self-making and world-making in dementia

This study is concerned with the productive aspects of confabulation as it occurs spontaneously in dementia care, in its context, and in interaction with other care recipients. Confabulation is approached as a social and discursive event with distinct narrative features; plots and formerly established genres of plots, storylines, are used by confabulators in order to understand, manage and interact socially in the present situation. Three main functions of confabulation are discerned: 1) making sense of the current situation (sense-making); 2) maintaining a personal identity in interaction with others (self-making); and 3) organizing and legitimizing joint action in the world (world-making). The resources used by confabulating subjects are sparse and not well adjusted to changing conditions, as the number of accessible storylines is limited. This makes it difficult to apply storylines that explain the current situation satisfactorily, provide useful guidelines for how to act, as well as preserve a positive self-identity. Helping with this constitutes a major challenge in dementia care.
Binary intersymbol interference channels: Gallager codes, density evolution, and code performance bounds

We study the limits of performance of Gallager codes (low-density parity-check (LDPC) codes) over binary linear intersymbol interference (ISI) channels with additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN). Using the graph representations of the channel, the code, and the sum-product message-passing detector/decoder, we prove two error concentration theorems. Our proofs expand on previous work by handling complications introduced by the channel memory. We circumvent these problems by considering not just linear Gallager codes but also their cosets and by distinguishing between different types of message flow neighborhoods depending on the actual transmitted symbols. We compute the noise tolerance threshold using a suitably developed density evolution algorithm and verify, by simulation, that the thresholds represent accurate predictions of the performance of the iterative sum-product algorithm for finite (but large) block lengths. We also demonstrate that for high rates, the thresholds are very close to the theoretical limit of performance for Gallager codes over ISI channels. If C denotes the capacity of a binary ISI channel and if C/sub i.i. d. / denotes the maximal achievable mutual information rate when the channel inputs are independent and identically distributed (i.i.d.) binary random variables (C/sub i.i.d.//spl les/C), we prove that the maximum information rate achievable by the sum-product decoder of a Gallager (coset) code is upper-bounded by C/sub i.i. d. /. The last topic investigated is the performance limit of the decoder if the trellis portion of the sum-product algorithm is executed only once; this demonstrates the potential for trading off the computational requirements and the performance of the decoder.
Perceived Collective Efficacy, Subjective Well-Being And Task Performance Among Electronic Work Groups

This study investigates the effects of e-groups on well-being and performance, using a collective approach and an objective performance indicator. Furthermore, it includes collective efficacy as a moderator and negative (anxiety) as well as positive (engagement) well-being. A lab experiment with an interval of 3 weeks was performed among 140 students who were randomly distributed across 18 groups using a chat-internet program and 10 groups working face to face. Half the groups performed under time pressure. Results confirm the moderating role of perceived collective efficacy on well-being and task performance. All groups working under time pressure and low in collective efficacy show an increase in collective anxiety. Chat-internet groups under time pressure show an increase in collective engagement but only when they feel high in collective efficacy. Finally, task performance was poorer in chat groups, working under time pressure, and with low levels of collective efficacy than in the other groups.
Self-Management Efficacy as a Mediator of the Relation Between Job Design and Employee Motivation

Existing job design models have been criticized for being able to explain affective outcomes more consistently than they do those of task motivation and performance. This study presents an empirical test of several propositions relating to the role of task-related efficacy beliefs as mediators of the relation between job design and task motivation and performance. We begin by highlighting gaps in job design theory, particularly in respect to performance within contemporary work contexts with their increased emphasis on self-management, and draw on social cognitive theory to describe the role of self-management efficacy beliefs as a mediator between job design and task motivation. We hypothesize that self-management efficacy will be a first-level outcome of jobs offering opportunities for self-management and also that these beliefs will mediate the relation between opportunities for self-management and task motivation. We tested these hypotheses in a cross-sectional field study (N = 270). The results support the need to differentiate between paths from job design that lead to affect and paths that lead to task motivation. There was a strong direct relation between skill utilization and affect (job satisfaction) and task motivation. In contrast, self-management efficacy mediated the path between work method control and task motivation, and the relation between work method control and affect was not significant. Finally, we discuss implications of these results for future research and practice.
Markor: A Measure of Market Orientation

In recent years, academic and practitioner interest has focused on market orientation and factors that engender this orientation in organizations. However, much less attention has been devoted to developing a valid measure of market orientation. Here we define market orientation as the organizationwide generation of market intelligence pertaining to current and future needs of customers, dissemination of intelligence horizontally and vertically within the organization, and organization-wide action or responsiveness to market intelligence. The authors describe a procedure to develop a measure of the construct. Key features of the research methodology include several rounds of pretesting, a single-informant assessment, and a multi-informant (both marketing and nonmarketing executives) replication and extension. The multi-informant results indicate that the proposed 20-item market orientation scale (MARKOR) may be best represented by a factor structure that consists of one general market orientation factor, one factor for intelligence generation, one factor for dissemination and responsiveness, one marketing informant factor, and one nonmarketing informant factor. Taking into account the informant factors, the subsequent validation tests are moderately supportive of the market orientation construct. The authors discuss methodological, substantive, and application directions for future research in light of these findings.
Design of High Performance MVAPICH2: MPI2 over InfiniBand

MPICH2 provides a layered architecture for implementing MPI-2. In this paper, we provide a new design for implementing MPI-2 over InfiniBand by extending the MPICH2 ADI3 layer. Our new design aims to achieve high performance by providing a multi-communication method framework that can utilize appropriate communication channels/devices to attain optimal performance without compromising on scalability and portability. We also present the performance comparison of the new design with our previous design based on the MPICH2 RDMA channel. We show significant performance improvements in micro-benchmarks and NAS Parallel Benchmarks.
Self-Esteem and Coping in Children with Developmental Coordination Disorder

This study investigated self-esteem in children with developmental coordination disorder (DCD). Fifteen children between the ages of 8 and 12 years diagnosed with DCD were compared with a typically developing group comprising 30 children with average and good motor abilities, using measures of perceived competence, social support and self-esteem. The types of coping strategy generated in response to example vignettes were also compared. There was no significant difference between the groups in global self-esteem, but the children with DCD reported lower athletic and scholastic competence than their typically developing peers. No difference was found between the groups in level of perceived social support. The DCD group generated fewer coping strategies overall, but more passive and avoidant strategies than the typically developing children. The implications of the study are discussed with regard to future research directions, such as the investigation of the effects of motor skill intervention on self-esteem and the development of strategies to protect children's self-esteem.
Creating a place to ‘be’: unpacking the facilitation role in three supported playgroups in Australia

Supported playgroups are a service model used widely in Australia with the dual focus of providing stimulating early childhood environments for children and supportive environments for parents. This article describes research findings from a recent doctoral study that explored three supported playgroups in western Sydney. In particular it focuses on the multi-dimensional and complex facilitation role in these groups. It shows how the creation of inclusive and engaging playgroup environments was inextricably tied to eight categories of support that a diverse range of parents experienced. The research findings demonstrate how effective facilitation in these groups led to parents experiencing increased emotional support, decreased feelings of isolation and inequality and increased confidence in parenting. It also draws attention to the training needs of early childhood professionals who undertake the complex role of facilitation in groups that work with parents and children together.