Gambling in older adults: Factors associated with problem gambling behaviour in older adults.

Increase in the accessibility and social acceptance of gambling activities and venues has resulted in a significant rise in the number of individuals gambling. Older adults in particular appear to be gambling at a much higher rate, although relatively little research has examined this population with respect to gambling. The purpose of this study was to examine the etiological, social, emotional, and situational variables related to the onset and maintenance of problem gambling in older adults. Specifically, the relationship between depression, stress, coping styles, health, dissociation, and childhood trauma, and gambling seventy were investigated from the frameworks of Jacobs\u27 General Theory of Addictions. This study also examined whether or not early dissociative states as a result of childhood trauma predict a relationship between later dissociation during gambling and whether or not dissociation was related to degree of problem gambling. Ninety-one older adults (age 55+) were recruited from a treatment group and from the general population and completed several measures. A subset of the sample also participated in semi-structured interviews allowing for a qualitative analyses. Results indicated that 30.8% of the sample scored in the Moderate/High Risk to Problem Gambling range. This group, compared with No-to-Low Risk gamblers, demonstrated significantly higher scores on measures of depressive symptomatology, perceived stress, health difficulties, negative coping strategies and dissociation. Regression analyses indicated that the combination of dissociation during gambling, emotion-focused coping, depressive symptomatology and the interactive effects of childhood trauma significantly predicted gambling severity scores. Qualitative investigation suggested that negative life-events, depression, and the desire to escape were involved in both the onset and maintenance of problem gambling behaviour. Findings are interpreted and discussed with respect to theories in the literature and implications for identification, prevention, and intervention with older problem gamblers.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis2003 .L355. Source: Dissertation Abstracts International, Volume: 65-07, Section: B, page: 3692. Adviser: G. R. Frisch. Thesis (Ph.D.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 2004

Localization of the Rf3 restorer-of-fertility gene for maize S-type cytoplasmic male sterility

Title from PDF of title page (University of Missouri--Columbia, viewed on April 23, 2014).The entire dissertation/thesis text is included in the research.pdf file; the official abstract appears in the short.pdf file (which also appears in the research.pdf); a non-technical general description, or public abstract, appears in the public.pdf file.VitaMaize S-type cytoplasmic male sterility (CMS-S) is a maternally inherited trait that prevents pollen grains from developing to maturity. CMS-S is associated with the high levels of a novel mitochondrial transcript, orf355/orf77. Cleavage of this RNA, mediated by the nuclear restorer Rf3, reverses the sterility. Rf3 was previously mapped on the long arm of chromosome 2. The goals of this research were to fine-map the locus and to identify Rf3 using a candidate gene approach. Genotyping of nearisogenic lines (NILs) mapped Rf3 to a 1.98 Mb region of 2L. Six candidate genes, all predicted to code for mitochondrially targeted pentatricopeptide repeat proteins (PPR), were PCR-amplified, sequenced, and compared from multiple Rf3-containing NILs and non-restoring rf3 inbreds. One PPR-Rf3 candidate gene had two consistent differences between multiple restoring and non-restoring lines. Gene expression in pre-emergent tassels from the fertility-restored and non-restored plants was compared. Within the 3 Mb region surrounding Rf3, 9 genes were differentially expressed between restoring and non-restoring lines, including genes that could code for an ATP-binding protein, an ATPase, and four PPR proteins. Although Rf3 has not yet been identified, this study has revealed five promising candidates.Includes bibliographical reference

Uncertainty and sensitivity analysis for long-running computer codes : a critical review

Thesis (S.M.)--Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Dept. of Nuclear Science and Engineering, 2010."February 2010." Cataloged from PDF version of thesis.Includes bibliographical references (p. 137-146).This thesis presents a critical review of existing methods for performing probabilistic uncertainty and sensitivity analysis for complex, computationally expensive simulation models. Uncertainty analysis (UA) methods reviewed include standard Monte Carlo simulation, Latin Hypercube sampling, importance sampling, line sampling, and subset simulation. Sensitivity analysis (SA) methods include scatter plots, Monte Carlo filtering, regression analysis, variance-based methods (Sobol' sensitivity indices and Sobol' Monte Carlo algorithms), and Fourier amplitude sensitivity tests. In addition, this thesis reviews several existing metamodeling techniques that are intended provide quick-running approximations to the computer models being studied. Because stochastic simulation-based UA and SA rely on a large number (e.g., several thousands) of simulations, metamodels are recognized as a necessary compromise when UA and SA must be performed with long-running (i.e., several hours or days per simulation) computational models. This thesis discusses the use of polynomial Response Surfaces (RS), Artificial Neural Networks (ANN), and Kriging/Gaussian Processes (GP) for metamodeling. Moreover, two methods are discussed for estimating the uncertainty introduced by the metamodel. The first of these methods is based on a bootstrap sampling procedure, and can be utilized for any metamodeling technique.(cont.) The second method is specific to GP models, and is based on a Bayesian interpretation of the underlying stochastic process. Finally, to demonstrate the use of these methods, the results from two case studies involving the reliability assessment of passive nuclear safety systems are presented. The general conclusions of this work are that polynomial RSs are frequently incapable of adequately representing the complex input/output behavior exhibited by many mechanistic models. In addition, the goodness-of- fit of the RS should not be misinterpreted as a measure of the predictive capability of the metamodel, since RSs are necessarily biased predictors for deterministic computer models. Furthermore, the extent of this bias is not measured by standard goodness-of-fit metrics (e.g., coefficient of determination, R 2), so these methods tend to provide overly optimistic indications of the quality of the metamodel. The bootstrap procedure does provide indication as to the extent of this bias, with the bootstrap confidence intervals for the RS estimates generally being significantly wider than those of the alternative metamodeling methods. It has been found that the added flexibility afforded by ANNs and GPs can make these methods superior for approximating complex models. In addition, GPs are exact interpolators, which is an important feature when the underlying computer model is deterministic (i.e., when there is no justification for including a random error component in the metamodel). On the other hand, when the number of observations from the computer model is sufficiently large, all three methods appear to perform comparably, indicating that in such cases, RSs can still provide useful approximations.by Dustin R. Langewisch.S.M

Gambling behavior and its relation to impulsivity, sensation seeking, and risky behaviors in males.

Sensation seeking and impulsivity are two constructs of personality that are generally believed to be associated with risky behavior, including gambling. However, little empirical research has investigated this relationship. Similarly, there has been sparse research looking at whether or not gambling is actually related to other risky behaviors. The purpose of this study is to investigate these relationships. One hundred and forty-four male undergraduate university students completed several inventories measuring sensation seeking, impulsivity, gambling, and risky behaviors. Statistical analyses including correlations and regressions were run to determine the relationship between these constructs. A very high percentage of probable pathological gamblers was found in this study. Also, a significant difference was found between the relationships of sensation seeking, impulsivity, and risky behaviors with gambling when pathological and non-pathological gamblers were examined. Results should guide future research in these areas.Dept. of Psychology. Paper copy at Leddy Library: Theses & Major Papers - Basement, West Bldg. / Call Number: Thesis1997 .L365. Source: Masters Abstracts International, Volume: 37-01, page: 0366. Adviser: G. R. Frisch. Thesis (M.A.)--University of Windsor (Canada), 1997

Calibration of quartz tuning fork spring constants for non-contact atomic force microscopy: Direct mechanical measurements and simulations

Quartz tuning forks are being increasingly employed as sensors in non-contact atomic force microscopy especially in the “qPlus” design. In this study a new and easily applicable setup has been used to determine the static spring constant at several positions along the prong of the tuning fork. The results show a significant deviation from values calculated with the beam formula. In order to understand this discrepancy the complete sensor set-up has been digitally rebuilt and analyzed by using finite element method simulations. These simulations provide a detailed view of the strain/stress distribution inside the tuning fork. The simulations show quantitative agreement with the beam formula if the beam origin is shifted to the position of zero stress onset inside the tuning fork base and torsional effects are also included. We further found significant discrepancies between experimental calibration values and predictions from the shifted beam formula, which are related to a large variance in tip misalignment during the tuning fork assembling process

Allelic Variation and Distribution of the Major Maturity Genes in Different Soybean Collections

Soybean time of flowering and maturity are genetically controlled by E genes. Different allelic combinations of these genes determine soybean adaptation to a specific latitude. The paper describes the first attempt to assess adaptation of soybean genotypes developed and realized at Institute of Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, Serbia [ Novi Sad (NS) varieties and breeding lines] based on E gene variation, as well as to comparatively assess E gene variation in North-American (NA), Chinese, and European genotypes, as most of the studies published so far deal with North-American and Chinese cultivars and breeding material. Allelic variation and distribution of the major maturity genes (E1, E2, E3, and E4) has been determined in 445 genotypes from soybean collections of NA ancestral lines, Chinese germplasm, and European varieties, as well as NS varieties and breeding lines. The study showed that allelic combinations of E1-E4 genes significantly determined the adaptation of varieties to different geographical regions, although they have different impacts on maturity. In general, each collection had one major E genotype haplogroup, comprising over 50% of the lines. The exceptions were European varieties that had two predominant haplogroups and NA ancestral lines distributed almost evenly among several haplogroups. As e1-as/e2/E3/E4 was the most common genotype in NS population, present in the best-performing genotypes in terms of yield, this specific allele combination was proposed as the optimal combination for the environments of Central-Eastern Europe

Bootstrapped-ensemble-based Sensitivity Analysis of a trace thermal-hydraulic model based on a limited number of PWR large break loca simulations

[EN] The safety verification of nuclear systems can be done by analyzing the outputs of Best-Estimate Thermal-Hydraulic (BE-TH) codes, which allow predicting the system response under safe and accidental conditions with greater realism as compared to conservative TH codes. In this case, it is necessary to quantify and control the uncertainties in the analysis, which affect the estimated safety margins. This can be achieved by Sensitivity Analysis (SA) and Uncertainty Analysis (UA) techniques tailored to handle the large computational costs of TH codes. This work presents an Ensemble-Based Sensitivity Analysis (EBSA) based on Finite Mixture Model (FMM) as an effective solution to keep low the code runs and handle the uncertainty in the SA methods. The approach proposed is challenged against a situation of a very low number of code runs: the Bootstrap method is, then, used in support. Three different strategies based on EBSA and Bootstrap are set forth (i.e., bottom-up, all-out and filter strategies). An application is provided with respect to a Large Break Loss of Coolant Accident (LBLOCA) simulated by a TRACE model of the Zion 1 Nuclear Power Plant (NPP).Di Maio, F.; Bandini, A.; Zio, E.; Carlos Alberola, S.; Sanchez Saez, F.; Martorell Alsina, SS. (2016). Bootstrapped-ensemble-based Sensitivity Analysis of a trace thermal-hydraulic model based on a limited number of PWR large break loca simulations. Reliability Engineering & System Safety. 153:122-134. doi:10.1016/j.ress.2016.04.013S12213415

PGen: large-scale genomic variations analysis workflow and browser in SoyKB

Background: With the advances in next-generation sequencing (NGS) technology and significant reductions in sequencing costs, it is now possible to sequence large collections of germplasm in crops for detecting genome-scale genetic variations and to apply the knowledge towards improvements in traits. To efficiently facilitate large-scale NGS resequencing data analysis of genomic variations, we have developed " PGen", an integrated and optimized workflow using the Extreme Science and Engineering Discovery Environment (XSEDE) high-performance computing (HPC) virtual system, iPlant cloud data storage resources and Pegasus workflow management system (Pegasus-WMS). The workflow allows users to identify single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and insertion-deletions (indels), perform SNP annotations and conduct copy number variation analyses on multiple resequencing datasets in a user-friendly and seamless way. Results: We have developed both a Linux version in GitHub (https:// github. com/ pegasus-isi/ PGen-GenomicVariationsWorkflow) and a web-based implementation of the PGen workflow integrated within the Soybean Knowledge Base (SoyKB), (http:// soykb. org/ Pegasus/ index. php). Using PGen, we identified 10,218,140 single-nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) and 1,398,982 indels from analysis of 106 soybean lines sequenced at 15X coverage. 297,245 non-synonymous SNPs and 3330 copy number variation (CNV) regions were identified from this analysis. SNPs identified using PGen from additional soybean resequencing projects adding to 500+ soybean germplasm lines in total have been integrated. These SNPs are being utilized for trait improvement using genotype to phenotype prediction approaches developed in-house. In order to browse and access NGS data easily, we have also developed an NGS resequencing data browser (http:// soykb. org/ NGS_ Resequence/ NGS_ index. php) within SoyKB to provide easy access to SNP and downstream analysis results for soybean researchers. Conclusion: PGen workflow has been optimized for the most efficient analysis of soybean data using thorough testing and validation. This research serves as an example of best practices for development of genomics data analysis workflows by integrating remote HPC resources and efficient data management with ease of use for biological users. PGen workflow can also be easily customized for analysis of data in other species.Missouri Soybean Merchandising Council [368]; United Soybean Board [1320-532-5615]This item from the UA Faculty Publications collection is made available by the University of Arizona with support from the University of Arizona Libraries. If you have questions, please contact us at [email protected]