The Toolkit for Social Support and Social Anxiety: S*A*S*S*

The purpose of this study was to create a toolkit for social support and social anxiety using the Communal Coping method. There was background research conducted on social anxiety and social support, COVID impact, Communal Coping, and resilience and skill building. Before constructing the toolkit, a survey was conducted with 29 Eastern Illinois University students to measure their assessment of their social anxiety and social support. The results of this survey found that students have a need for social support and are affected by their anxiety. Once the toolkit: the workbook and the facilitator’s manual, were completed, a pilot class was conducted. Students were recruited to be a part of the pilot from the promotion of EIU’s Health Education Resource Center. There were seven participants. Results of the pilot class found that the S*A*S*S* toolkit generally decreases the amount of social anxiety that participants experience and increases their social support systems. The feedback received during the sessions and on the evaluations positively showed that discussing topics and performing research-backed activities around social anxiety and social support were beneficial to the students\u27 goals. Using the concept of Communal Coping was shown to add to the benefits of the toolkit as well

Electronic Structure of Transition-Metal Dicyanamides Me[N(CN)2_2]2_2 (Me = Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu)

The electronic structure of Me[N(CN)$_2$]$_2$ (Me=Mn, Fe, Co, Ni, Cu) molecular magnets has been investigated using x-ray emission spectroscopy (XES) and x-ray photoelectron spectroscopy (XPS) as well as theoretical density-functional-based methods. Both theory and experiments show that the top of the valence band is dominated by Me 3d bands, while a strong hybridization between C 2p and N 2p states determines the valence band electronic structure away from the top. The 2p contributions from non-equivalent nitrogen sites have been identified using resonant inelastic x-ray scattering spectroscopy with the excitation energy tuned near the N 1s threshold. The binding energy of the Me 3d bands and the hybridization between N 2p and Me 3d states both increase in going across the row from Me = Mn to Me = Cu. Localization of the Cu 3d states also leads to weak screening of Cu 2p and 3s states, which accounts for shifts in the core 2p and 3s spectra of the transition metal atoms. Calculations indicate that the ground-state magnetic ordering, which varies across the series is largely dependent on the occupation of the metal 3d shell and that structural differences in the superexchange pathways for different compounds play a secondary role.Comment: 20 pages, 11 figures, 2 table

Noncollinear antiferromagnetic structure of the molecule-based magnet Mn[N(CN)2]2

Journal ArticleThe crystallographic and magnetic properties of the Mn[N(CN)2]2 compound have been investigated by dc magnetization, ac susceptibility, specific heat, and zero-field neutron diffraction on polycrystalline samples. The magnetic structure consists of two sublattices which are antiferromagnetically coupled and spontaneously canted. The spin orientation is mainly along the a axis with a small uncompensated moment along the b axis. The ground state is a crystal-field sextet with large magnetic anisotropy. The crystal structure consists of discrete octahedra which are axially elongated and successively tilted in the ab plane. Comparisons of the magnetic structures for the isostructural M[N(CN)2] 2 (M=Mn, Fe, Co, Ni) series suggest that the spin direction is stabilized by crystal fields and the spin canting is induced by the successive tilting of the octahedra. We propose that the superexchange interaction is the mechanism responsible for the magnetic ordering in these compounds and we find that a crossover from noncollinear antiferromagnetism to collinear ferromagnetism occurs for a superexchange angle of ac=142.0(5)°

Collinear ferromagnetism and spin orientation in the molecule-based magnets M[N(CN)2]2 (M=Co,Ni)

Journal ArticleZero-field unpolarized neutron powder diffraction has been used to study the low-T magnetic structure and T-dependent crystal structure of M[N(CN)2]2 (M=Co,Ni). Both compounds show collinear ferromagnetism with spin orientation along the c axis. The results provide the determination of a complete magnetic structure in the ordered state for a molecule-based magnet. The c lattice parameter exhibits negative thermal expansion, explained by a wine-rack-like deformation

Publishing as a subject of the creative industries in the context of its economic performance and protection of intellectual property rights

Creativity has been considered a new type of competitive advantage in recent years. It becomes the basis of a new direction, a new economic paradigm - creative economy. The aim of this paper is to evaluate the economic performance of creative industries in the publishing segment. The indicator dependence of profit on sales, with the exception of other publishing activities (issuing stamps, checks, banknotes, etc.), reaches Multiple R values close to 1, it confirms a strong addiction, it is moving in the range of 0.98-0.36. The strongest dependence is shown in other software publishing activities. The strong dependence of profit on sales is a signal for the companies to carefully monitor the causes of changes in their revenues, to use qualified tools to increase revenues such as discounts, rebates, delivery terms, etc. The dependence of profit on assets shows lower values, with the exception of publishing magazines and periodicals, Multiple R is in the range of 0.99-0.50. The protection of intellectual property thus becomes an elementary precondition for preserving the potential of the creative and cultural industries. There is a need to raise European citizens' awareness of the value of copyright, as well as the benefits for the development of a prosperous European legal market

Pricing strategy as a leading predictor of the profitability in creative industry companies

Background: Price setting is a determinant of a company's profitability especially in the sector of creative industry (CI) and is intensively discussed in academic and business area. Purpose: The aim of this research paper is to investigate whether a well-defined and successfully implemented pricing strategy can significantly affect the profitability of companies in the creative industry. Study design/methodology/approach: This study investigates the differences in interval variables, including financial indicators, number of price management techniques, and price management metrics, between companies that have implemented pricing strategies and those that have not. To assess this, a two-sample t-test was used to compare the variables between the two groups. Since the creative industry is highly heterogeneous, we have analyzed the profitability of creative sub-industries more in detail through ANOVA test. Findings/conclusions: As it turned out, the analyzed parameters do not differ significantly in their average values, except for the parameter "Gross margin", where a statistically significant difference in average values was confirmed. Based on the findings of studies conducted by other authors as well as our own analyses, we conclude that assessing CI's profitability relative to other industries is inappropriate and represents only a simplistic view of the industry's performance. It is important to observe the profitability in each subindustry of CI, because the nature of the product (output) is different in each segment of this industry. Limitations/future research: Despite the initial findings, it was recognized that the research was limited to a single country and a specific industry. To gain further insight into the pricing and profitability of companies in the creative sub-industries and cultural industry, subsequent research should be conducted. It would also be useful to link the topic of pricing and profitability with the theme of revenue models including pricing models, pricing metrics and payment systems

Application and Validation of PFGE for Serovar Identification of Leptospira Clinical Isolates

Serovar identification of clinical isolates of Leptospira is generally not performed on a routine basis, yet the identity of an infecting serovar is valuable from both epidemiologic and public health standpoints. Only a small number of reference laboratories worldwide have the capability to perform the cross agglutinin absorption test (CAAT), the reference method for serovar identification. Pulsed-field gel electrophoresis (PFGE) is an alternative method to CAAT that facilitates rapid identification of leptospires to the serovar level. We employed PFGE to evaluate 175 isolates obtained from humans and animals submitted to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) between 1993 and 2007. PFGE patterns for each isolate were generated using the NotI restriction enzyme and compared to a reference database consisting of more than 200 reference strains. Of the 175 clinical isolates evaluated, 136 (78%) were identified to the serovar level by the database, and an additional 27 isolates (15%) have been identified as probable new serovars. The remaining isolates yet to be identified are either not represented in the database or require further study to determine whether or not they also represent new serovars. PFGE proved to be a useful tool for serovar identification of clinical isolates of known serovars from different geographic regions and a variety of different hosts and for recognizing potential new serovars

Genetic Affinities within a Large Global Collection of Pathogenic Leptospira: Implications for Strain Identification and Molecular Epidemiology

Leptospirosis is an important zoonosis with widespread human health implications. The non-availability of accurate identification methods for the individualization of different Leptospira for outbreak investigations poses bountiful problems in the disease control arena. We harnessed fluorescent amplified fragment length polymorphism analysis (FAFLP) for Leptospira and investigated its utility in establishing genetic relationships among 271 isolates in the context of species level assignments of our global collection of isolates and strains obtained from a diverse array of hosts. In addition, this method was compared to an in-house multilocus sequence typing (MLST) method based on polymorphisms in three housekeeping genes, the rrs locus and two envelope proteins. Phylogenetic relationships were deduced based on bifurcating Neighbor-joining trees as well as median joining network analyses integrating both the FAFLP data and MLST based haplotypes. The phylogenetic relationships were also reproduced through Bayesian analysis of the multilocus sequence polymorphisms. We found FAFLP to be an important method for outbreak investigation and for clustering of isolates based on their geographical descent rather than by genome species types. The FAFLP method was, however, not able to convey much taxonomical utility sufficient to replace the highly tedious serotyping procedures in vogue. MLST, on the other hand, was found to be highly robust and efficient in identifying ancestral relationships and segregating the outbreak associated strains or otherwise according to their genome species status and, therefore, could unambiguously be applied for investigating phylogenetics of Leptospira in the context of taxonomy as well as gene flow. For instance, MLST was more efficient, as compared to FAFLP method, in clustering strains from the Andaman island of India, with their counterparts from mainland India and Sri Lanka, implying that such strains share genetic relationships and that leptospiral strains might be frequently circulating between the islands and the mainland