Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The interaction of alcohol expectancies and drinking refusal self-efficacy in high and low risk drinkers

While the impact of both alcohol expectancies (AE) and drinking refusal self-efficacy (DRSE) on drinking behaviours are well documented in the literature, there has been some debate, but little empirical investigation, about the relative contribution of these constructs to drinking behaviour. According to both Bandura's (1977; 1986) original formulations of Social Learning Theory, self-efficacy expectancies are a more salient influence on consumption. The results of a discriminant function analysis showed that expectancy variables represented a reliable dimension along which high and low risk drinkers differed. In support of theoretical expectations, variables that are thought to indicate drinking refusal self-efficacy were the best discriminators.
Clinical variables impacting on the estimation of utilities in chronic obstructive pulmonary disease

Purpose Health utilities are widely used in health economics as a measurement of an individual’s preference and show the value placed on different health states over a specific period. Thus, health utilities are used as a measure of the benefits of health interventions in terms of quality-adjusted life years. This study aimed to determine the demographic and clinical variables significantly associated with health utilities for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) patients. Patients and methods This was a multicenter, observational, cross-sectional study conducted between October 2012 and April 2013. Patients were aged ≥40 years, with spirometrically confirmed COPD. Utility values were derived from the preference-based generic questionnaire EQ-5D-3L applying weighted Spanish societal preferences. Demographic and clinical variables associated with utilities were assessed by univariate and multivariate linear regression models. Results Three hundred and forty-six patients were included, of whom 85.5% were male. The mean age was 67.9 (standard deviation [SD] =9.7) years and the mean forced expiratory volume in 1 second (%) was 46.2% (SD =15.5%); 80.3% were former smokers, and the mean smoking history was 54.2 (SD =33.2) pack-years. Median utilities (interquartile range) were 0.81 (0.26) with a mean value of 0.73 (SD =0.29); 22% of patients had a utility value of 1 (ceiling effect) and 3.2% had a utility value lower than 0. The factors associated with utilities in the multivariate analysis were sex (beta =-0.084, 95% confidence interval [CI]: −0.154; -0.013 for females), number of exacerbations the previous year (−0.027, 95% CI: −0.044; -0.010), and modified Medical Research Council Dyspnea Scale (mMRC) score (−0.123 [95% CI: −0.185; −0.061], −0.231 [95% CI: −0.301; −0.161], and −0.559 [95% CI: −0.660; −0.458] for mMRC scores 2, 3, and 4 versus 1), all P<0.05. Conclusion Multivariate analysis showed that female sex, frequent exacerbations, and an increased level of dyspnea were the main factors associated with reduced utility values in patients with COPD.
Visual Tracing of Automatic Ontology Merging

Modern distributed systems frequently use autonomous software agents that use ontologies for communication. If each agent owns an ontology as knowledge base and these ontologies change over time, every communication attempt requires merge and revision processes. We discuss visualization possibilities to assist agent developers and researches in understanding these merge and revision processes. In an example we show how these possibilities can help to analyze and explain merging in a complex multi agent system.
Engendered ideologies and leisure policy in the UK. Part 2: professional ideologies

This article draws upon PhD research to examine the restructuring of engendered ideologies in leisure policy in the UK in the late 1980s and early 1990s, and to consider the implications for leisure provision for women. The article is in two parts. In Part 1 the kinds of gender ideologies circulating in leisure policy were outlined; in this second part of the article, the articulation of gender and professional ideologies is examined in order to trace the historical emergence and predominance of particular configurations of ideologies from the mid 1970s to the early 1990s. The research on which this article draws indicates that in the emergence of welfare reformist and community development ideologies in the late 1970s and the mid 1980s respectively, feminist ideologies made a significant impact, but that with the emergence of market ideology in the late 1980s, feminist ideologies were losing ground. It is argued that the predominance of market ideology at a time of economic restraint fuelled by the emerg.
Parental Methamphetamine Use and Implications for Child Welfare Intervention: A Review of the Literature

Methamphetamine abuse appears to be increasing in previously unaffected parts of the United States, despite criminal justice deterrent strategies and local, state, and federal efforts to control access to production materials. Methamphetamine manufacture and addiction can impact users, families, children, and entire communities. This literature review describes the effects of methamphetamine use on parents, children, and families; summarizes research findings on efficacious or promising intervention and treatment for methamphetamine addiction; and suggests evidenced-based strategies for increasing positive outcomes for children and families affected by methamphetamine.
Safe and dynamic traffic rate control for networks-on-chips

Networks-on-Chip (NoCs) for real-time systems require solutions for a safe and predictable sharing of resources between transmissions with different quality-of service (QoS) requirements. In this work, we present a mechanism which allows to apply existing wormhole-switched and performance optimized NoCs in safety critical domains, without requiring complex hardware modifications. For this purpose, we introduce a global and dynamic admission control mechanism implemented in the form of an access layer, controlling the rates at which running applications can access the NoC. The mechanism allows to enforce behavioral models for different data streams as well as to dynamically adapt the rates values to the number of currently active applications. We prove this important feature using formal timing analysis. Our approach results in a higher performance and tighter guarantees while simultaneously decreasing hardware (up to 60%) and temporal overhead (up to 80%) when compared with existing solutions.
Working conditions predicting interpersonal relationship problems at work

Interpersonal relationships have been shown to be an important component of the psychosocial work environment that may affect health, job satisfaction, and productivity. The question whether interpersonal relationships at work are influenced by other psychosocial working conditions such as demands and control has not been studied. The aim of the present study is to investigate if high work demands and aspects of low work control could predict three indicators of detrimental interpersonal relationships at work. In a representative Swedish cohort study, data were obtained in two waves three years apart from 4049 participants, who did not change their jobs between the waves. These data were analysed by multiple logistic regression analyses. Odds ratios adjusted for possible confounders and negative interpersonal relationships at base-line showed that high demands predicted serious conflict and exclusion by co-workers. Low skill discretion predicted exclusion by co-workers. It is argued that these prospective findings are of relevance to interventions targeting troublesome and detrimental interpersonal relationships at work and that the findings can be important in understanding the development of work-related mental ill-health.
Management-by-results and performance measurement in universities – implications for work motivation

The article focuses on the effects of management-by-results from the perspective of the work motivation of university employees. The study is based on extensive survey data among employees at Finnish universities. According to the results, performance measurement is based on quantitative rather than qualitative measures, and the current management-by-results system has a negative effect on work motivation among experts. The motivation to engage in creative, knowledge-intensive work, such as the work carried out at universities, is typically intrinsic. In the light of the empirical findings of the study it seems that management-by-results is in conflict with intrinsic motivation and the very essence of the expert work undertaken in universities.
Confinement of the Sun's Interior Magnetic Field: Some Exact Boundary‐layer Solutions

High‐latitude laminar confinement of the interior field Bi is shown to be possible. Mean downwelling U as weak as 2×10−6 cm s−1‐gyroscopically pumped by turbulent stresses in the overlying convection zone and/or tachocline—can hold the field in advective‐diffusive balance within a confinement layer of thickness scale δ∼1.5 Mm∼0.002R⊙. The confinement layer sits at the base of the high‐latitude tachocline, near the top of the radiative envelope and just above the ‘tachopause’ marking the top of the helium settling layer. A family of exact, laminar, frictionless, axisymmetric confinement‐layer solutions is obtained in cylindrical polar coordinates, for uniform downwelling in the limit of strong rotation Ωi and stratification N. The downwelling cannot penetrate the helium layer and must therefore feed into an equatorward flow immediately above the tachopause. The retrograde Coriolis force on that flow is balanced by a prograde Lorentz force within the confinement layer. Buoyancy forces keep the tachopause ap.
Issues in Informing Science and Information Technology Volume 7 , 2010 Reflections on the Gestation of Polymorphic Innovation : The Exploitation of Emergence in Social Network Development via Text Messaging

The impact of mobile text messaging is re-interpreted as an emergent technology that has accidentally been instrumental in the configuration of new social networks on a global scale. Using the unintended consequences of this implicit revolution in interpersonal communication as a catalyst for the generation of ideas, the argument is advanced that this is a manifestation of a new type of creative communication which we have identified as Polymorphic Innovation, a quasiintuitive perturbation on conventional notions of originality in the business development process. This paper describes the qualitative data collected during a pilot of a Short Messaging service (SMS) system in a University. The effect SMS use had on communication style and the construction of social networks are discussed.
A VACINAÇÃO INFANTIL E AS REAÇÕES EMOCIONAIS DAS MÃES: ANÁLISE E CONTRIBUIÇÕES DO DESIGN PARA EXPERIÊNCIA

This paper presents an exploratory study that sought to identify possible emotional reactions of mothers during the vaccination process of their children, as well, the causes of these emotions and the concerns related to the use of products and services involved in child immunization process. In this way, the study relies in the context of design for experience and the appraisals theory for applying thematic evaluation model on interviews. To support the theory of design for experience, emotions and
Learning to invoke Web forms and services

Emerging Web standards promise a network of heterogeneous yet interoperable Web Services. Web Services would greatly simplify the development of many kinds of information agents and knowledge management applications. Unfortunately, this vision requires that services provide large amounts of semantic metadata “glue”. As a step to automatically generating such metadata, we present an algorithm that learns to attach semantic labels to Web forms, and evaluate our approach on real Web data. The key idea is to cast Web form classification as Bayesian learning and inference over a stochastic generative model of the Web form design process.
Performance characterization of a low-cost dual-channel camera-based microarray scanner

In this paper, we have proposed, designed, implemented, and characterized a low-cost camera-based microarray scanner which is capable of imaging fluorescently-labeled DNA or Protein microarrays. The proposed system is designed to simultaneously measure two different fluorescent dyes using two parallel channels which increase the overall scan speed. We have shown that the wide dynamic range of system makes it able to detect fluorophore densities from 100-106 molecule/μm2. In each capture, a 5.6 mm × 3.7 mm field is imaged on a 22.3 mm × 14.9 mm (18 megapixels) CMOS sensor. Therefore, the microarray can be scanned with ~ 1μm2 spatial resolution which is high enough to distinguish borders of spots with less than 50μm diameter. To characterize the scanner performance, we have used molecules labeled with fluorescent cyanine dyes, including Cy3 and Cy5; however, the proposed scanner can be modified to detect any other fluorescent dye with emission spectra within 400-800 nm. We believe it is the most cost-efficient microarray scanner ever achieved.
On the all-pairs shortest-path algorithm of Moffat and Takaoka

We review how to solve the all-pairs shortest-path problem in a nonnegatively weighted digraph with n vertices in expected time O(n2 log n). This bound is shown to hold with high probability for a wide class of probability distributions on nonnegatively weighted digraphs. We also prove that, for a large class of probability distributions, Ω(n log n) time is necessary with high probability to compute shortest-path distances with respect to a single source. © 1997 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. Random Struct. Alg. , 10, 205–220 (1997)
A videotaped self‐modelling and self‐monitoring treatment program to decrease off‐task behaviour in children with autism

The value of a videotaped self‐modelling and self‐monitoring treatment program was investigated in the present study. The focus was the effect of the treatment program on the off‐task classroom behaviour of 3 male children with autism. The participants were aged between 9 and 11 years. Two of the children were described as severely autistic and the other was described as moderately autistic. All 3 had deficient cognitive skills. Each of the studies in the research project employed a single‐subject withdrawal design. The first two studies followed an A‐B‐A design and the third followed an A‐B‐A‐C‐A design. The results indicated considerable decreases in off‐task behaviour during the period of intervention. Both short‐term and long‐term maintenance gains were in evidence. The intervention was then reimplemented during follow‐up and similar reductions in off‐task behaviour were demonstrated. Attention theory was used to support the outcomes of the research.
Targeting beta-cell function early in the course of therapy for type 2 diabetes mellitus.

OBJECTIVE This report examines current perspectives regarding likely mechanisms of beta-cell failure in type 2 diabetes and their clinical implications for protecting or sparing beta-cells early in the disease progression. In addition, it considers translation strategies to incorporate relevant scientific findings into educational initiatives targeting clinical practice behavior. PARTICIPANTS On January 10, 2009, a working group of basic researchers, clinical endocrinologists, and primary care physicians met to consider whether current knowledge regarding pancreatic beta-cell defects justifies retargeting and retiming treatment for clinical practice. Based on this meeting, a writing group comprised of four meeting participants subsequently prepared this consensus statement. The conference was convened by The Endocrine Society and funded by an unrestricted educational grant from Novo Nordisk. EVIDENCE Participants reviewed and discussed published literature, plus their own unpublished data. CONSENSUS PROCESS The summary and recommendations were supported unanimously by the writing group as representing the consensus opinions of the working group. CONCLUSIONS Workshop participants strongly advocated developing new systems to address common barriers to glycemic control and recommended several initial steps toward this goal. These recommendations included further studies to establish the clinical value of pharmacological therapies, continuing basic research to elucidate the nature and mechanisms of beta-cell failure in type 2 diabetes mellitus, and exploring new educational approaches to promote pathophysiology-based clinical practices. The Endocrine Society has launched a new website to continue the discussion between endocrinologists and primary care physicians on beta-cell pathophysiology in type 2 diabetes and its clinical implications. Join the conversation at http://www.betacellsindiabetes. org
A Stochastic Decentralized Control Problem with Noisy Communication

A simple decentralized stochastic control problem is considered where the nonclassical nature of the information pattern is induced by the uncertainty on the information transmission in the system. This is, in fact, a reformulation of the Witsenhausen counterexample, where the first station is allowed to send its information to the second station through a noisy channel. Nonconvexity of the problem in this new formulation has been established, and it is shown how this formulation relates to a classical problem and the Witsenhausen problem, respectively, when the transmission noise intensity goes to zero or infinity. Assuming small transmission noise intensity, we then use an asymptotic approach in order to find an approximated cost. A necessary condition for asymptotically optimal strategies has been obtained using a variational approach, and it is shown that the linear strategies, with slightly different coefficients than the noiseless transmission case, satisfy the necessary condition.
Book Review: Roger Billingsley, Teresa Nemitz and Philip Bean (eds) Informers: Policing, Policy Practice Cullompton, Devon: Willan, 2001. 179 pp. (incl. index). £25.00 ISBN 1—903240—07—7 (hbk)

extreme and problematic of the strategies that may follow from risk calculation. Risk management and risk reduction are more common. This is an insightful chapter, reflecting the realism of writers working with the criminal justice system to improve rehabilitation and reintegration, rather than sitting comfortably outside and hurling ‘critiques’. In this respect, O’Malley’s chapter is refreshing for the acknowledgement that some of his earlier argument about individualization of risk was ‘probably overstated’. In other essays, Stenson and Edwards grapple with the implications of the ‘Third Way’ for liberal governance and discuss with reference to case studies of local crime prevention partnerships; O’Malley neatly exposes the tensions inherent in new right and neo-liberal approaches to crime control; and McLaughlin and Murji examine the influence of neo-liberalism in models of managerialism and modernization applied to the British police. Thoughtful and diverse chapters concerning media, populism, risk and crime/control are provided by Reiner et al., Sparks and Green. For me, the most striking chapter is by Simon. Here he pursues the questions of ‘whether’, and if so ‘why’, we are seeing a rise in cruelty in modern criminal justice and social life, after several centuries of what Elias called the civilizing process? If this really reflects ‘a present in which so many of the Enlightenment’s fondest constructions are eroding’ then this argument will be influential elsewhere. Paradoxically, societies today seem more aware and intolerant of violations and abuses, e.g. of children, prisoners, older people, human and animal rights. Yet, at the same time, as Simon argues, there are undercurrents to the sensibilities of modern society that mean cruelty is appealing in a seductive sense (following Katz). If Simon is correct, Hudson’s valuable discussion of the contemporary appeal of vengeance over justice connects well. The book has a few production errors and the focus on the Blair/Clinton ‘Third Way’ agenda issues is already looking a little dated. However, overall this is a collection to be warmly welcomed, both for its reflections on the recent past and its suggestions for future work.
Apprentissage et culture d'entreprise dans les PME : une analyse explorative intersectorielle

Le developpement des processus d’apprentissage est un phenomene influence par IInteraction systemique de facteurs de differentes natures. Parmi les variables critiques du processus d'apprentissage au sein des PME se degage notamment le role de l’entrepreneur et de sa culture qui peut devenir le volant ou, au contraire, le frein des processus d’evolution stimules par les relations que l’entreprise entretient avec son milieu economique de reference par le biais de differents canaux relationnels. La these soutenue dans cet article est que les processus d’apprentissage des PME sont influences par la typologie des relations que ces dernieres etablissent avec leur milieu economique de reference. Notre objectif est de verifier le caractere significatif de deux differents canaux relationnels des PME (apprentissage par la proximite du marche et par l’exportation) a travers l’analyse des caracteristiques de la culture d’entreprise dans les differents secteurs examines.A cet effet, une analyse explorative a ete menee a partir d’un echantillon de 104 PME italiennes appartenant a des secteurs « matures ». On a analyse dans le detail cinq groupes de variables representatives a la fois de la dimension interne (entrepreneur, entreprise) et de la dimension externe a l’entreprise (intensite des processus d’exportation, concentration territoriale, marches de debouches intermediaires ou finaux) dans le but de souligner les particularites du processus d’apprentissage de la PME. Les donnees ont ete elaborees grâce a des methodes statistiques multivariees (analyse en composantes principales et analyse des groupes) qui permettent d’interpreter les effets systematiques engendres par l’interaction de variables de nature differente. Les resultats de l’elaboration ont confirme le « role critique » que revet la figure de l’entrepreneur pour le developpement du processus d’apprentissage et la « non-planification », etapes du developpement de ce processus dans les PME. Quant aux caracteristiques des canaux d’apprentissage analyses, il est apparu que les processus d’apprentissage sont plus influences par le contact direct que l’entreprise entretient avec le marche final que par sa presence sur les marches etrangers.