Assessing the symptoms of Internet Gaming Disorder among college/university students: An international validation study of a self-report

The present study evaluated the psychometric properties of a self-report scale for assessing Internet Gaming Disorder (IGD) symptoms according to the DSM-5 and ICD-11 among 3270 college/university students (2095 [64.1%] females; age mean 21.6 [3.1] years) from different countries worldwide. Croatian, English, Polish, Portuguese, Serbian, Turkish, and Vietnamese versions of the scale were tested. The study showed that symptoms of IGD could be measured as a single underlying factor among college/university students. A nine item-symptom scale following DSM-5, and a short four-item scale representing the main ICD-11 symptoms, had sound internal consistency and construct validity. Three symptom-items were found non-invariant across the language samples (i.e., preoccupation with on-line gaming, loss of interests in previous hobbies and entertainment, and the use of gaming to relieve negative moods). This study provides initial evidence for assessing IGD symptoms among college/university students and will hopefully foster further research into gaming addiction in this population worldwide especially with taking into account language/cultural differences

Cost-effectiveness of six strategies for Helicobacter pylori diagnosis and management in uninvestigated dyspepsia assuming a high resource intensity practice pattern

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Initial assessment of dyspepsia often includes noninvasive testing for <it>Helicobacter pylori </it>infection. Commercially available tests vary widely in cost and accuracy. Although there is extensive literature on the cost-effectiveness of <it>H. pylori </it>treatment, there is little information comparing the cost-effectiveness of various currently used, noninvasive testing strategies.</p> <p>Methods</p> <p>A Markov simulation was used to calculate cost per symptom-free year and cost per correct diagnosis. Uncertainty in outcomes was estimated using probabilistic sensitivity analysis.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>Under the baseline assumptions, cost per symptom-free year was $122 for empiric proton pump inhibitor (PPI) trial, and costs for the noninvasive test strategies ranged from$123 (stool antigen) to $129 (IgG/IgA combined serology). Confidence intervals had significant overlap.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Under our assumptions for how testing for <it>H. pylori </it>infection is employed in United States medical practice, the available noninvasive tests all have similar cost-effectiveness between one another as well as with empiric PPI trial.</p

COMPUTING TECHNIQUES IN AUTOMATIC CONTROL Skew Minimization Problem with Possible Sink Displacement

Abstract-In applications such as design of integrated circuits (chips), it is sometimes required to connect the terminals (receivers) and the central vertex (source) by a weight-minimal tree where the signal delays between the source and the terminals are the same or differ by a minimal value. Simple necessary conditions for existence of the desired tree, heuristic rules for displacement of the terminals for which these conditions are not satisfied, and a new polynomial algorithm to determine an approximate solution were presented. FORMULATION OF THE PROBLEM As the need for high-speed integrated circuits (chips) is growing from one year to the next, design of their signal systems becomes pivotal. The signal network is responsible for clocking the computer system. The command signal is generated outside the chip and fed into it through the input (source or root). Each functional element for which the signal is destined is connected to the source via a signal network. Each element performs a series of logic operations (functions) and until the beginning of the next cycle of computations waits for a signal to transmit the results to other element(s). Thereby the flows of information within the computer system are checked. The clock skew is the maximum difference between the instants of signal arrivals to different system components. Its increase results in lower speed of computations. In the existing systems where the size of elements is substantially smaller than one micron, clock skew is one of the main factors defining operation of the system. It reduces the clock frequency because the time between two successive signals must be increased so as to enable all system components to receive the signal. It is currently believed that the clock skew in the high-speed circuits should not exceed 5% of the maximum (critical) signal transmission time (critical delay). As will be shown in what follows, it does not always happen that there are clock trees with zero clock skew. In such an event, it is sometimes admitted to displace the terminals from their initial positions at a distance of at most two units. The possibility of displacing the terminals makes the construction of the zero-skew clock tree especially difficult. The problem of constructing a min-skew clock tree is known to be NP-hard [3] even without displacement of the terminals. The problem of clocking the arrivals of command signals to the elements of integrated circuit can be stated as follows. Each terminal (circuit element) executes certain operations. All terminals execute part of the general program, and their operation must be coordinated. The requirement of simultaneous arrival of signals to all terminals can be satisfied if one constructs a tree where all paths from the source to the terminals have identical delays. Additionally, from all the admissible trees the minimum-weight (cost) one must be selected in order to minimize the space occupied. I