Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing Effect of Prosocial Silence and Voice

This study assesses the effects of prosocial silence and voice on organizational citizenship behaviors directed towards individuals under the “Too-Much-of-a-Good-Thing” theory. It is assumed that greater prosocial silence and voice lead to organizational citizenship. However, the theory of too-much-of-a-good-thing suggests that extreme behaviors may perversely have a negative effect raising the possibility that the relationship is curvilinear rather than linear. A similar nonlinear relationship is suggested in this study. Standardized measures of prosocial voice, prosocial silence and organizational citizenship were collected from 381 faculty members from three mid-cycle universities. Regression analyses revealed a significant curvilinear (an inverted U-Shaped) relationship between prosocial voice and organizational citizenship and likewise prosocial silence and organizational citizenship. Too little and, similarly, too much prosocial voice and silence were associated with worse organizational citizenship

Compulsive buying and branding phenomena

The purpose of this paper was to explore the impact of brand variables such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand attachment, and perceived brand quality on compulsive buying behavior. A self-administered questionnaire, containing demographic items and items related to compulsive buying, brand awareness, brand loyalty, brand attachment and perceived quality, was used to collect data. Participants were 269 US university students at a large mid-western university (138 men, 131 women; mean age = 21.96). Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, t-test and MANOVA/ANOVA. Reliability of all scales was acceptable. In the current study, 18% of the participants were classified as compulsive buyers. Women showed higher compulsive buying tendency than men. Participants with greater compulsive buying tendency scored higher on brand attachment and brand loyalty and lower on brand awareness; there was no difference in scores on perceived brand quality. Results support that brand variables such as brand awareness, brand loyalty, and brand attachment are related to compulsive buying behavior. New perceptions and implications for both academicians and practitioners are provided

Polymorphisms near TBX5 and GDF7 are associated with increased risk for Barrett's esophagus.

BACKGROUND & AIMS: Barrett's esophagus (BE) increases the risk of esophageal adenocarcinoma (EAC). We found the risk to be BE has been associated with single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) on chromosome 6p21 (within the HLA region) and on 16q23, where the closest protein-coding gene is FOXF1. Subsequently, the Barrett's and Esophageal Adenocarcinoma Consortium (BEACON) identified risk loci for BE and esophageal adenocarcinoma near CRTC1 and BARX1, and within 100 kb of FOXP1. We aimed to identify further SNPs that increased BE risk and to validate previously reported associations. METHODS: We performed a genome-wide association study (GWAS) to identify variants associated with BE and further analyzed promising variants identified by BEACON by genotyping 10,158 patients with BE and 21,062 controls. RESULTS: We identified 2 SNPs not previously associated with BE: rs3072 (2p24.1; odds ratio [OR] = 1.14; 95% CI: 1.09-1.18; P = 1.8 × 10(-11)) and rs2701108 (12q24.21; OR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.86-0.93; P = 7.5 × 10(-9)). The closest protein-coding genes were respectively GDF7 (rs3072), which encodes a ligand in the bone morphogenetic protein pathway, and TBX5 (rs2701108), which encodes a transcription factor that regulates esophageal and cardiac development. Our data also supported in BE cases 3 risk SNPs identified by BEACON (rs2687201, rs11789015, and rs10423674). Meta-analysis of all data identified another SNP associated with BE and esophageal adenocarcinoma: rs3784262, within ALDH1A2 (OR = 0.90; 95% CI: 0.87-0.93; P = 3.72 × 10(-9)). CONCLUSIONS: We identified 2 loci associated with risk of BE and provided data to support a further locus. The genes we found to be associated with risk for BE encode transcription factors involved in thoracic, diaphragmatic, and esophageal development or proteins involved in the inflammatory response

Volcano eruption algorithm for solving optimization problems

This is an accepted manuscript of an article published by Springer in Neural Computing and Applications on 30/06/2020, available online at https://doi.org/10.1007/s00521-020-05124-x The accepted version of the publication may differ from the final published version.Meta-heuristic algorithms have been proposed to solve several optimization problems in different research areas due to their unique attractive features. Traditionally, heuristic approaches are designed separately for discrete and continuous problems. This paper leverages the meta-heuristic algorithm for solving NP-hard problems in both continuous and discrete optimization fields, such as nonlinear and multi-level programming problems through extensive simulations of volcano eruption process. In particular, a new optimization solution named Volcano Eruption Algorithm (VEA) proposed in this paper, which is inspired from the nature of volcano eruption. The feasibility and efficiency of the algorithm are evaluated using numerical results obtained through several test problems reported in the state-of-theart literature. Based on the solutions and number of required iterations, we observed that the proposed meta-heuristic algorithm performs remarkably well to solve NP-hard problem. Furthermore, the proposed algorithm is applied to solve some large-size benchmarking LP and Internet of Vehicles (IoV) problems efficiently

Bait attractants based on artificial fruit-essence for trapping and monitoring Drosophila suzukii (Diptera : Drosophilidae) females in Peshawar-Pakistan

The spotted-wing drosophila, Drosophila suzukii (Matsumura) (Diptera: Drosophilidae), native to Asia was reported for the first time in Pakistan in 2005 from Islamabad. Following the recent detection of D. suzukii in cherry orchards at Kalam (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa) a trapping system was developed to monitor it on fruits. The efficacy of three baited trap attractants using apple cider vinegar, yeast sugar solution and synthetic fruits-essence solution (using banana, guava or strawberry as fruit) were tested. Traps were installed at fruit markets at three different locations in Peshawar. The bait based on synthetic fruit-essence solution yielded the highest captures. Among the baits based on synthetic fruit-essence solution, the highest captures were obtained with strawberry essence

Joint user grouping and power control using whale optimization algorithm for NOMA uplink systems

The non-orthogonal multiple access (NOMA) scheme has proven to be a potential candidate to enhance spectral potency and massive connectivity for 5G wireless networks. To achieve effective system performance, user grouping, power control, and decoding order are considered to be fundamental factors. In this regard, a joint combinatorial problem consisting of user grouping and power control is considered, to obtain high spectral-efficiency for NOMA uplink system with lower computational complexity. To solve the joint problem of power control and user grouping, for Uplink NOMA, we have used a newly developed meta-heuristicnature-inspired optimization algorithm i.e., whale optimization algorithm (WOA), for the first time. Furthermore, for comparison, a recently initiated grey wolf optimizer (GWO) and the well-known particle swarm optimization (PSO) algorithms were applied for the same joint issue. To attain optimal and sub-optimal solutions, a NOMA-based model was used to evaluate the potential of the proposed algorithm. Numerical results validate that proposed WOA outperforms GWO, PSO and existing literature reported for NOMA uplink systems in-terms of spectral performance. In addition, WOA attains improved results in terms of joint user grouping and power control with lower system-complexity when compared to GWO and PSO algorithms. The proposed work is a novel enhancement for 5G uplink applications of NOMA systems

Ramadan is not associated with increased infection risk in Pakistani and Bangladeshi populations: Findings from controlled interrupted time series analysis of UK primary care data.

BACKGROUND The effect of fasting on immunity is unclear. Prolonged fasting is thought to increase the risk of infection due to dehydration. This study describes antibiotic prescribing patterns before, during, and after Ramadan in a primary care setting within the Pakistani and Bangladeshi populations in the UK, most of whom are Muslims, compared to those who do not observe Ramadan. METHOD Retrospective controlled interrupted time series analysis of electronic health record data from primary care practices. The study consists of two groups: Pakistanis/Bangladeshis and white populations. For each group, we constructed a series of aggregated, daily prescription data from 2007 to 2017 for the 30 days preceding, during, and after Ramadan, respectively. FINDINGS Controlling for the rate in the white population, there was no evidence of increased antibiotic prescription in the Pakistani/Bangladeshi population during Ramadan, as compared to before Ramadan (IRR: 0.994; 95% CI: 0.988-1.001, p = 0.082) or after Ramadan (IRR: 1.006; 95% CI: 0.999-1.013, p = 0.082). INTERPRETATION In this large, population-based study, we did not find any evidence to suggest that fasting was associated with an increased susceptibility to infection