Content analysis: What are they talking about?

Quantitative content analysis is increasingly used to surpass surface level analyses in Computer-Supported Collaborative Learning (e.g., counting messages), but critical reflection on accepted practice has generally not been reported. A review of CSCL conference proceedings revealed a general vagueness in definitions of units of analysis. In general, arguments for choosing a unit were lacking and decisions made while developing the content analysis procedures were not made explicit. In this article, it will be illustrated that the currently accepted practices concerning the ‘unit of meaning’ are not generally applicable to quantitative content analysis of electronic communication. Such analysis is affected by ‘unit boundary overlap’ and contextual constraints having to do with the technology used. The analysis of e-mail communication required a different unit of analysis and segmentation procedure. This procedure proved to be reliable, and the subsequent coding of these units for quantitative analysis yielded satisfactory reliabilities. These findings have implications and recommendations for current content analysis practice in CSCL research

The SGLT2 Inhibitor Dapagliflozin Reduces Liver Fat but Does Not Affect Tissue Insulin Sensitivity: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled Study With 8-Week Treatment in Type 2 Diabetes Patients

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to investigate tissue-specific effects of dapagliflozin on insulin sensitivity and liver and body fat in patients with type 2 diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This randomized, double-blind, parallel group, placebo-controlled study recruited 32 patients with type 2 diabetes. Enrolled patients were to have HbA(1c) 6.5-10.5% (48-91 mmol/mol) and >= 3 months of stable treatment with metformin, dipeptidyl peptidase 4 inhibitor, or their combination. Patients were randomized 1:1 to receive 10 mg dapagliflozin or placebo daily for 8 weeks. Before and after the intervention, tissue insulin sensitivity was measured using [F-18]-fluorodeoxyglucose and positron emission tomography during hyperinsulinemic-euglycemic clamp. Liver proton density fat fraction (PDFF) and adipose tissue volumes were assessed using MRI, and blood biomarkers were analyzed. RESULTS After 8 weeks, glycemic control was improved by dapagliflozin (placebo-corrected change in HbA(1c) -0.39%, P < 0.01), but whole-body glucose uptake was not increased (P = 0.90). Tissue-specific insulin-stimulated glucose uptake did not change in skeletal muscle, liver, myocardium, or white and brown adipose tissue, and endogenous glucose production remained unaffected. However, there were significant placebo-corrected decreases in liver PDFF (-3.74%, P < 0.01), liver volume (-0.10 L, P < 0.05), visceral adipose tissue volume (-0.35 L, P < 0.01), interleukin-6 (-1.87 pg/mL, P < 0.05), and N-terminal prohormone of brain natriuretic peptide (-96 ng/L, P = 0.03). CONCLUSIONS In this study, 8 weeks of treatment with dapagliflozin reduced liver PDFF and the volume of visceral adipose tissue in obese patients with type 2 diabetes. Although glycemic control was improved, no effect on tissue-level insulin sensitivity was observed

A partial loss-of-function variant in AKT2 is associated with reduced insulin-mediated glucose uptake in multiple insulin-sensitive tissues: A genotype-based callback positron emission tomography study

Rare fully penetrant mutations in AKT2 are an established cause of monogenic disorders of glucose metabolism. Recently, a novel partial loss-of-function AKT2 coding variant (p.Pro50Thr) was identified that is nearly specific to Finns (frequency 1.1%), with the low-frequency allele associated with an increase in fasting plasma insulin level and risk of type 2 diabetes. The effects of the p.Pro50Thr AKT2 variant (p.P50T/AKT2) on insulin-stimulated glucose uptake (GU) in the whole body and in different tissues have not previously been investigated. We identified carriers (N = 20) and matched noncarriers (N = 25) for this allele in the population-based Metabolic Syndrome in Men (METSIM) study and invited these individuals back for positron emission tomography study with [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose during euglycemic hyperinsulinemia. When we compared p.P50T/AKT2 carriers to noncarriers, we found a 39.4% reduction in whole-body GU (P = 0.006) and a 55.6% increase in the rate of endogenous glucose production (P = 0.038). We found significant reductions in GU in multiple tissues—skeletal muscle (36.4%), liver (16.1%), brown adipose (29.7%), and bone marrow (32.9%)—and increases of 16.8–19.1% in seven tested brain regions. These data demonstrate that the p.P50T substitution of AKT2 influences insulin-mediated GU in multiple insulin-sensitive tissues and may explain, at least in part, the increased risk of type 2 diabetes in p.P50T/AKT2 carriers

Stress ocupacional no ensino : um estudo com professores dos 3º ciclo e ensino secundário

Este trabalho foi realizado com 689 professores portugueses, a leccionarem nos terceiro ciclo e ensino secundário. Foram avaliados indicadores de stress, “burnout”, saúde física e satisfação profissional. Observaram-se valores significativos de stress ocupacional (perto de 40%), e de “burnout” (10% na exaustão emocional, 3% na baixa realização pessoal e 1% na despersonalização), vários problemas de saúde física e valores de insatisfação profissional perto dos 20%. As análises de regressão múltipla apontaram diferentes variáveis preditoras para as três dimensões do “burnout” (62% de variância explicada na exaustão emocional, 16% na realização pessoal e 13% na despersonalização). As análises discriminantes e “t-test” para amostras independentes demonstraram maior stress ocupacional nas mulheres, nos professores mais velhos, nos profissionais com vínculos profissionais mais precários, nos professores com mais horas de trabalho e com mais alunos em sala de aula. No final, apresentam-se as limitações do estudo e as implicações para a investigação futura.(undefined

Sense of coherence and intentions to retire early among Finnish women and men

Peer reviewe

A Partial Loss-of-Function Variant in AKT2 is Associated with Reduced Insulin-Mediated Glucose Uptake in Multiple Insulin Sensitive Tissues: a Genotype-Based Callback Positron Emission Tomography Study

Rare fully penetrant mutations in AKT2 are an established cause of monogenic disorders of glucose metabolism. Recently, a novel partial loss-of-function AKT2 coding variant (p.Pro50Thr) was identified that is nearly specific to Finns (frequency 1.1%), with the low-frequency allele associated with an increase in fasting plasma insulin level and risk of type 2 diabetes. The effects of p.Pro50Thr on insulin-stimulated glucose uptake (GU) in the whole body and in different tissues have not previously been investigated.  We identified carriers (N=20) and matched non-carriers (N=25) for this allele in the population-based METSIM study and invited these individuals back for positron emission tomography study with [18F]-fluorodeoxyglucose during euglycemic hyperinsulinemia. When we compared p.P50T/AKT2 carriers to non-carriers, we found a 39.4% reduction in whole body GU (P=0.006) and a 55.6% increase in the rate of endogenous glucose production (P=0.038). We found significant reductions in GU in multiple tissues: skeletal muscle (36.4%), liver (16.1%), brown adipose (29.7%), and bone marrow (32.9%), and increases of 16.8-19.1% in 7 tested brain regions. These data demonstrate that the P50T substitution of AKT2 influences insulin-mediated GU in multiple insulin sensitive tissues, and may explain, at least in part, the increased risk of type 2 diabetes in p.P50T/AKT2 carriers.</p

Leadership = Communication? The relations of leaders' communication styles with leadership styles, knowledge sharing and leadership outcomes

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to investigate the relations between leaders' communication styles and charismatic leadership, human-oriented leadership (leader's consideration), task-oriented leadership (leader's initiating structure), and leadership outcomes. Methodology: A survey was conducted among 279 employees of a governmental organization. The following six main communication styles were operationalized: verbal aggressiveness, expressiveness, preciseness, assuredness, supportiveness, and argumentativeness. Regression analyses were employed to test three main hypotheses. Findings: In line with expectations, the study showed that charismatic and human-oriented leadership are mainly communicative, while task-oriented leadership is significantly less communicative. The communication styles were strongly and differentially related to knowledge sharing behaviors, perceived leader performance, satisfaction with the leader, and subordinate's team commitment. Multiple regression analyses showed that the leadership styles mediated the relations between the communication styles and leadership outcomes. However, leader's preciseness explained variance in perceived leader performance and satisfaction with the leader above and beyond the leadership style variables. Implications: This study offers potentially invaluable input for leadership training programs by showing the importance of leader's supportiveness, assuredness, and preciseness when communicating with subordinates. Originality/value: Although one of the core elements of leadership is interpersonal communication, this study is one of the first to use a comprehensive communication styles instrument in the study of leadership. © 2009 The Author(s)

A combined approach for analysing heuristic algorithms

When developing optimisation algorithms, the focus often lies on obtaining an algorithm that is able to outperform other existing algorithms for some performance measure. It is not common practice to question the reasons for possible performance differences observed. These types of questions relate to evaluating the impact of the various heuristic parameters and often remain unanswered. In this paper, the focus is on gaining insight in the behaviour of a heuristic algorithm by investigating how the various elements operating within the algorithm correlate with performance, obtaining indications of which combinations work well and which do not, and how all these effects are influenced by the specific problem instance the algorithm is solving. We consider two approaches for analysing algorithm parameters and components—functional analysis of variance and multilevel regression analysis—and study the benefits of using both approaches jointly. We present the results of a combined methodology that is able to provide more insights than when the two approaches are used separately. The illustrative case studies in this paper analyse a large neighbourhood search algorithm applied to the vehicle routing problem with time windows and an iterated local search algorithm for the unrelated parallel machine scheduling problem with sequence-dependent setup times.PostprintPeer reviewe

Generation in vivo of peptide-specific cytotoxic T cells and presence of regulatory T cells during vaccination with hTERT (class I and II) peptide-pulsed DCs

Optimal techniques for DC generation for immunotherapy in cancer are yet to be established. Study aims were to evaluate: (i) DC activation/maturation milieu (TNF-α +/- IFN-α) and its effects on CD8+ hTERT-specific T cell responses to class I epitopes (p540 or p865), (ii) CD8+ hTERT-specific T cell responses elicited by vaccination with class I alone or both class I and II epitope (p766 and p672)-pulsed DCs, prepared without IFN-α, (iii) association between circulating T regulatory cells (Tregs) and clinical responses