Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Significance of Platelet-Derived Microparticles and Activated Platelets in Diabetic Nephropathy

We measured levels of platelet-derived microparticles (PMP), which have coagulative activity and are produced by platelet activation or physical stimulation, and CD62P/CD63-positive platelets in patients with diabetes mellitus to determine their clinical significance and effects on complications of diabetes including diabetic nephropathy. We also compared these levels before and after administration of the antiplatelet drug cilostazol. Plasma PMP and CD62P/CD63-positive platelet levels were significantly higher in patients with diabetes mellitus than normal controls. CD62P-positive platelet levels were significantly higher in patients with nephropathy than in patients without complications. After administration of cilostazol, PMP and CD62P/CD63-positive platelet levels were significantly decreased. The increases in platelet activity and its related procoagulant activity appear to account in part for the hypercoagulability observed in diabetes mellitus. Our findings suggest that activated platelets might play a role in the development of diabetic nephropathy. Furthermore, antiplatelet therapy with cilostazol for diabetic patients may be useful as antithrombin therapy including antiplatelet therapy, since it suppresses the production of intrinsic coagulants produced by platelet activation.
Involvement of fathers in therapy: A survey of clinicians

Clinicians providing treatment for children and families often question which family members to include in therapy. Historically, mothers were included in child-oriented therapy to a greater degree than were fathers. To determine actual rates of including fathers in therapy, 219 clinicians with specialization in clinical child psychology and family therapy were surveyed. In addition, personal and professional characteristics of clinicians were examined to establish the association between these characteristics and inclusion of fathers in treatment. Ways to help clinicians include fathers in child-oriented therapy are discussed in light of the findings. When referring children for treatment, parents or other family members frequently ask clinicians whom should be present at the first appointment. It is typically in the first contact with the clinician or the office staff that parents are educated as to how the treatment will involve them in their child’s therapeutic services. Traditionally, parents’ inclusion in treatment has been a theoretical matter—that is, depending on the type of treatment the therapist conducts. Most cognitive– behavioral therapies focus solely on the child (Hibbs & Jensen, 1996; LeCroy, 1994), including parents in these sessions only in a psychoeducational manner to teach the parents what the children have been taught. Conversely, most family therapies focus on all family members and include parents in nearly all of the therapy sessions (Becvar & Becvar, 1993; Kaslow, Kaslow, & Farber, 1999). In fact, some family therapists do not include the children themselves in treatment depending on the focus of the problem. In a survey of family therapists, Johnson and Thomas (1999) found that family therapists were less likely to include children in therapy sessions when the children’s problem was externalizing in nature, perhaps because children with these types of problems are considered challenging and disruptive in family sessions. Their findings also indicated that children were less likely to be included in sessions when the identified problem focused on one of the parent’s issues. The issue of involving parents in child-oriented therapy, other than behavioral parent training or family therapy, has largely been ignored (Kaslow & Thompson, 1998; Mash, 1998), often leaving the clinician with little guidance from an empirical viewpoint as to whom to include in treatment. Parental issues, such as parental psychopathology, living cir
Subjective relative income and lottery ticket purchases

Despite a return of only $. 53 on the dollar, state lotteries are extremely popular, especially among the poor, who play the most but can least afford to play. In two experiments conducted with low-income participants, we examine how implicit comparisons with other income classes increase low-income individuals' desire to play the lottery. In Experiment 1, participants were more likely to purchase lottery tickets when they were primed to perceive that their own income was low relative to an implicit standard. In Experiment 2, participants purchased more tickets when they considered situations in which rich people or poor people receive advantages, implicitly highlighting the fact that everyone has an equal chance of winning the lottery. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bone mineral density and bone turnover markers in patients on long-term suppressive levothyroxine therapy for differentiated thyroid cancer

Purpose Current management for patients with differentiated thyroid cancer includes near total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine therapy followed by administration of supraphysiological doses of levothyroxine (L-T4). Although hyperthyroidism is a well known risk factor for osteoporosis, the effects of L-T4 treatment on bone mineral density (BMD) in patients with thyroid cancer do not appear to be as significant as with endogenous hyperthyroidism. In this study, we evaluated the impact of long-term suppressive therapy with L-T4 on BMD and bone turn over markers in Korean female patients receiving L-T4 suppressive therapy. Methods We enrolled 94 female subjects (mean age, 50.84 ± 11.43 years) receiving L-T4 after total or near total thyroidectomy and radioactive iodine therapy for thyroid cancer (mean follow-up period, 12.17 ± 4.27 years). The subjects were divided into three groups by thyroid stimulating hormone (TSH) level (group 1 with TSH level ≤0.001 µIU/mL, group 2 with TSH level between 0.001 and 0.17 µIU/mL, group 3 with TSH level >0.17 µIU/mL) and four groups by quartile of free T4 level. L-T4 dosage, BMD (examined by dual-energy x-ray absorptiometry), and bone turnover markers were evaluated according to TSH and free T4 levels. Results No significant decrease was detected in BMD or bone turnover markers according to TSH level or free T4 level. Also, the prevalence of osteoporosis and osteopenia was not different among groups. Conclusion Long-term L-T4 suppressive therapy after thyroid cancer management did not affect bone density or increase the prevalence of osteoporosis even though TSH levels were supraphysiologically suppressed.
A Norwegian Strategy for Democratization of Industry

The paper describes certain parts of "The Industrial Democracy Program, " (IDP), an action research project which was started in Norwegian industry in 1962 with the joint sponsorship of the Norwegian Trade Union Confederation and the Confederation of Employers. Although the emphasis is on the practical application of a strategy for social change, some background information and description of the content of this program is also given. Under the assumption that changes in the concrete work situation might be the key to a process whereby employees could improve their conditions for taking part in decisions, a series of experiments have been staged in companies representing different technologies. Some results from the program are discussed. One conclusion is that it is possible within existing companies and under the existing economic system to make changes in work organization, job design, etc., so that workers experience a more meaningful and rewarding situation, become more committed to their work, and take a more extensive part in decision-making. Under certain conditions, as demonstrated in a number of cases, this leads to developments through which employees' influence in the organization increases considerably beyond the immediate daily shop-floor matters. Some of the conditions for such development are discussed. As a central conclusion stands the assumption that lack of a general breakthrough for IDP ideas in Norway is due to the combined effect of company and trade union bureaucracy. The social-science-based program which aimed at conveying a strategy for direct participation and the debureaucratization of organizations thus has contributed to strengthening the bureaucracies that have been under attack. This is because some of the central ideas which have been strongly promoted through the project have been picked up by the establishment and made the subject for legislation and bureaucratic control.
Delivery of evidence-based treatment for multiple anxiety disorders in primary care: a randomized controlled trial.

CONTEXT Improving the quality of mental health care requires moving clinical interventions from controlled research settings into real-world practice settings. Although such advances have been made for depression, little work has been performed for anxiety disorders. OBJECTIVE To determine whether a flexible treatment-delivery model for multiple primary care anxiety disorders (panic, generalized anxiety, social anxiety, and posttraumatic stress disorders) would be better than usual care (UC). DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS A randomized controlled effectiveness trial of Coordinated Anxiety Learning and Management (CALM) compared with UC in 17 primary care clinics in 4 US cities. Between June 2006 and April 2008, 1004 patients with anxiety disorders (with or without major depression), aged 18 to 75 years, English- or Spanish-speaking, were enrolled and subsequently received treatment for 3 to 12 months. Blinded follow-up assessments at 6, 12, and 18 months after baseline were completed in October 2009. INTERVENTION CALM allowed choice of cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT), medication, or both; included real-time Web-based outcomes monitoring to optimize treatment decisions; and a computer-assisted program to optimize delivery of CBT by nonexpert care managers who also assisted primary care clinicians in promoting adherence and optimizing medications. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Twelve-item Brief Symptom Inventory (BSI-12) anxiety and somatic symptoms score. Secondary outcomes included proportion of responders (> or = 50% reduction from pretreatment BSI-12 score) and remitters (total BSI-12 score < 6). RESULTS A significantly greater improvement for CALM vs UC in global anxiety symptoms was found (BSI-12 group mean differences of -2.49 [95% confidence interval {CI}, -3.59 to -1.40], -2.63 [95% CI, -3.73 to -1.54], and -1.63 [95% CI, -2.73 to -0.53] at 6, 12, and 18 months, respectively). At 12 months, response and remission rates (CALM vs UC) were 63.66% (95% CI, 58.95%-68.37%) vs 44.68% (95% CI, 39.76%-49.59%), and 51.49% (95% CI, 46.60%-56.38%) vs 33.28% (95% CI, 28.62%-37.93%), with a number needed to treat of 5.27 (95% CI, 4.18-7.13) for response and 5.50 (95% CI, 4.32-7.55) for remission. CONCLUSION For patients with anxiety disorders treated in primary care clinics, CALM compared with UC resulted in greater improvement in anxiety symptoms, depression symptoms, functional disability, and quality of care during 18 months of follow-up. TRIAL REGISTRATION clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00347269.
Language and Sex: The Relationship of Language to Behavior

Long before linguists have focused on the role language plays in the position of women in society, they had studied and are still studying the presence of lexical, phonological, and morphological forms that are used only or predominantly by speakers of one sex or the other. Now linguists are interested in sociolinguistic variation: men’s and women’s speech is investigated along with social status, style, age, and ethnicity. Studies of linguistic variation related to sex in some Arab, American, and British communities reveal the fact that women are more conservative than men in their tendency to standard linguistic forms. Women are sensitive to linguistic variants that are socially stigmatized; therefore, they consistently produce forms which approach those of the standard language. And because women feel socially insecure, they are more status conscious than men are in the equivalent social roles. It follows from this that women tend more than men to use the forms of language that carry higher status connotations. In this paper, the author will attempt to investigate the hypothesis that the same holds true for sex-linked variation not only in highly sophisticated countries but also in still developing and non-developing communities which have been studied.
Community Careers in Crime

Urban ecologists have documented the stages through which residential communities in American metropolitan areas move as they undergo physical and social deterioration. Criminologists have documented the roles of deteriorated urban neighborhoods as areas of high rates of crime and delinquency. Less is known about how neighborhoods evolve into high-crime areas. Using a developmental model, this research investigated the twenty-year histories of Los Angeles County's highest-crime-rate neighborhoods in 1970. Three distinct stages were identified: emerging, transitional, and enduring. Use of cross-sectional and time-series analyses revealed that neighborhood deterioration precedes rising crime early in the cycle but that, as neighborhoods move into the later enduring stage, rising crime rates precede further neighborhood deterioration. Among the changes signaling neighborhood deterioration and rising crime rates were a shift from single- to multiple-family dwellings, a rise in residential mobility, unrelated individuals and broken families, the ratio of children to adults, minority group populations, females in the labor force, and nonwhite and Spanish surname population with advanced education. Early in the cycle, the speed of change in neighborhood characteristics exceeds the rate of increase in crime, while later, the accelerating crime rise outstrips the velocity of neighborhood change. Efforts to prevent the development of new high-crime areas must focus on neighborhoods in the emerging stage of the deterioration cycle.
Teaching Leadership: Do Students Remember and Utilize the Concepts We Teach?.

The purpose of this study was to determine how leadership competencies are remembered and utilized following instruction in a structured collegiate leadership course. The population for this study consisted of experienced collegiate leaders who completed an introductory leadership theory course. The purposive sample included 74 students who completed the course during a semester within a three year period. For this study, a three-part instrument was used. The study focused on the comprehension and use of leadership competencies presented in the course. Comparisons were made between the different classes in regards to self-perceived leadership competency knowledge (retained comprehension) as well as selfperceived leader competency use. Results showed statistically significant differences were found among students and self-perceived knowledge of Task v. Relationship and Blake and Mouton’s Managerial Grid. Findings also showed that there was no statistically significant difference between self-perceived leadership competency use and the number of years post collegiate leadership course.
Dynamic changes in T cell compartments and new approaches in evaluating DSS induced and Gai2 deficient colitis

The overall aim of this thesis was to increase the understanding of the immunopathology of Inflammatory Bowel Disease (IBD). The first aim was to elucidate how the thymus and the gut epithelium were affected by colitis. The second aim was to investigate new ways of assessing and monitoring colitis. Two mouse models of colitis were used, the dextran sodium sulfate (DSS) induced model and the Gαi2 deficient (Gαi2 -/- ) mouse model, which spontaneously develops colitis. These two models were compared throughout the study. Colitis-induced changes were analysed in thymocytes and intestinal intraepithelial lymphocytes (IEL). To monitor and evaluate colitis, cultures of mouse and human colonic tissue were set up and the colon wall thickness was measured by micro-Computed Tomography (micro-CT). During acute DSS induced colitis, the thymocytes were shifted towards a more mature phenotype, with loss of double positive (DP) thymocytes, paralleled by an increase in the absolute number of double negative (DN1) thymocytes. These changes were transient and returned to normal as the mice recovered or progressed into the chronic phase. In colitic Gαi2 -/- mice, CD4 + IELs increased in the large intestine, while CD4 + CD8αα + DP IELs increased in the small intestine. The dynamic changes in thymocyte and IEL composition demonstrates that colitis affect other T cell compartments than the colon. Thymic involution and the increase in immature DN1 thymocytes during acute colitis may result in an increased export of immature T cells to the gut. The different responses in the small and large intestine during colitis suggest that the two microenvironments induce either an uncontrolled inflammation in the large intestine or suppression in the small intestine. Approximately 75% of the genes detected in DSS induced and Gαi2 -/- colitic mice were similarly regulated in ex vivo cultures and in vivo, and belonged to cytokines and T and B cell markers. A similar gene profile was obtained in human UC ex vivo cultures compared to mouse. Measurements of the colon wall in DSS treated mice demonstrated a significantly thicker colon wall during the acute phase of colitis compared to healthy controls, and correlated to the macroscopic scoring of colitis. The similar gene expression profile in mouse and human cultures and the finding that colon wall thickness can be used to identify responding animals support the relevance of these systems in monitoring colitis and evaluating new substances for the treatment of IBD.
The Conceptualisation and Measurement of Pacing Styles

Pacing style reflects how individuals distribute their effort over time in working toward deadlines. As a new construct introduced in 2002, the notion of pacing style has intuitive appeal, but has been under-researched, in part, due to a measurement need. Therefore, the purpose of this research was to improve the conceptualisation of pacing style and to develop and validate a new scale-based measure. The result was the nine-item Pacing Action Categories of Effort Distribution (PACED), consisting of deadline (complete work in a short time period just before the due date), steady (spread task activities evenly over time), and U-shaped (invest most of the effort at the start and finish of a task, with a break in between) action styles. Across eight independent samples of students, faculty, and organisational employees, we examined the dimensionality, internal consistency, stability (temporal and situational), and validity (construct, convergent, discriminant, predictive) of PACED. Results support the use of PACED as a reliable and valid measure, and we discuss several research avenues that would benefit from incorporating the concept of pacing style.
BCS superconductivity in metallic nanograins: Finite-size corrections, low-energy excitations, and robustness of shell effects

We combine the BCS self-consistency condition, a semiclassical expansion for the spectral density and interaction matrix elements to describe analytically how the superconducting gap depends on the size and shape of a two- and three-dimensional superconducting grain. In chaotic grains mesoscopic fluctuations of the matrix elements lead to a smooth dependence of the order parameter on the excitation energy. In the integrable case we find shell effects; i.e., for certain values of the electron number N a small change in N leads to large changes in the energy gap. With regard to possible experimental tests we provide a detailed analysis of the dependence of the gap on the coherence length and the robustness of shell effects under small geometrical deformations.
Contextualized Videos: Combining Videos with Environment Models to Support Situational Understanding

Multiple spatially-related videos are increasingly used in security, communication, and other applications. Since it can be difficult to understand the spatial relationships between multiple videos in complex environments (e.g. to predict a person's path through a building), some visualization techniques, such as video texture projection, have been used to aid spatial understanding. In this paper, we identify and begin to characterize an overall class of visualization techniques that combine video with 3D spatial context. This set of techniques, which we call contextualized videos, forms a design palette which must be well understood so that designers can select and use appropriate techniques that address the requirements of particular spatial video tasks. In this paper, we first identify user tasks in video surveillance that are likely to benefit from contextualized videos and discuss the video, model, and navigation related dimensions of the contextualized video design space. We then describe our contextualized video testbed which allows us to explore this design space and compose various video visualizations for evaluation. Finally, we describe the results of our process to identify promising design patterns through user selection of visualization features from the design space, followed by user interviews.
Social Research Methods: Qualitative and Quantitative Approaches

The sociologist, then, is someone concerned with understanding society in a disciplined way. The nature of this discipline is scientific. This means that what the sociologist finds and says about the social phenomena he studies occurs within a certain rather strictly defined frame of reference. —Peter Berger, An Invitation to Sociology, p. 16 URI http://lib.hpu. edu.vn/handle/123456789/28691 Collections Sociology [2834] DSpace software copyright © 2002-2016 DuraSpace Contact Us | Send Feedback Theme by Social research methods: Qualitative and quantitative approaches 
La satisfacción del usuario desde el modelo de la confirmación de expectativas: respuesta a algunos interrogantes

Customer satisfaction from the expectation disconfirmation model: responding to some questions. Following the expectation disconfirmation model, this paper aims to ans wer three questions related to the prediction of customer sa tisfaction with services. First, we test the r elative importance of discrepancy and performance for tangible and intangible facets of services. Secondly, we study the role of custo mer expectations. Thirdly, we examine the mediator effect of satisfaction in predicting customer loyalty. Two independent survey studies are performed. Results show that performance of service tangi ble facet is the main constr uct in predicting customer satisfaction. Additionall y, an assimila tion effect of customer expectation is found. Finally, customer satisfaction is confirmed as a significant mediator between customer cognitive judgements and customer loy alty.