Translation and validation of the Malay version of Shiffman-Jarvik withdrawal scale and cessation self-efficacy questionnaire: a review of psychometric properties

BACKGROUND: Smoking tobacco is a major concern in Malaysia, with 23.1% of Malaysian adults smoking tobacco in 2012. Withdrawal symptoms and self-efficacy to quit smoking have been shown to have significant effects on the outcomes of smoking cessation. The Shiffman-Jarvik Withdrawal Scale (Psychopharmacology, 50: 35-39, 1976) and the Cessation Self-Efficacy Questionnaire (Cognitive Ther Res 5: 175-187, 1981) are two questionnaires that have been widely used in various smoking cessation research. The short SJWS consists of 15 items with five subscales: physical symptoms, psychological symptoms, stimulation/sedation, appetite, and cravings. The CSEQ is a 12-item questionnaire that assesses participant's self-efficacy to avoid smoking in various situations described in each item. The aim of this study was to translate and validate the Malay language version of the SJWS and the CSEQ. METHODS: The SJWS and CSEQ were translated into the Malay language based on the back translation method. A total of 146 participants (25.08 ± 5.19 years) answered the translated questionnaires. Psychometrics properties such as reliability (internal consistency and test-retest) and validity (content validity, construct validity and face validity) were examined. RESULTS: Both questionnaires showed acceptable internal consistency; SJWS-M (α = 0.66) and CSEQ-M (α = 0.90) and good test-retest reliability; SJWS-M (r = 0.76) and the CSEQ-M (r = 0.80). SJWS-M (χ(2) = 15.964, GFI = 0.979, CFI = 1.000, RMSEA = 0.000, ChiSq/df = 0.939, AGFI = 0.933, TLI = 1.004, and NPI = 0.978) and CSEQ-M (of χ(2) = 35.16, GFI = 0.960, CFI = 0.999, RMSEA = 0.015, ChiSq/df = 1.034, AGFI = 0.908, TLI = 0.999, and NPI = 0.979) also showed good construct validity. Both questionnaires showed sufficient item to item convergent validity and item discriminant validity. Content validity was established (reassess) by experts in the field of psychology, culture and language whereas face validity was confirmed by smokers. CONCLUSIONS: The translated Malay version of the CSEQ-M and the SJWS-M showed great reliability and validity evidences therefore is an adequate and useful instrument to evaluate Malaysian smokers. Future studies could investigate differences in self-esteem between long-term and short-term smokers and evaluate the usability of these questionnaires in local smoking research and other Malay speaking countries (Brunei and Indonesia)

Preventing Advanced Persistent Threats in Complex Control Networks

An Advanced Persistent Threat (APT) is an emerging attack against Industrial Control and Automation Systems, that is executed over a long period of time and is difficult to detect. In this context, graph theory can be applied to model the interaction among nodes and the complex attacks affecting them, as well as to design recovery techniques that ensure the survivability of the network. Accordingly, we leverage a decision model to study how a set of hierarchically selected nodes can collaborate to detect an APT within the network, concerning the presence of changes in its topology. Moreover, we implement a response service based on redundant links that dynamically uses a secret sharing scheme and applies a flexible routing protocol depending on the severity of the attack. The ultimate goal is twofold: ensuring the reachability between nodes despite the changes and preventing the path followed by messages from being discovered.Universidad de Málaga. Campus de Excelencia Internacional Andalucía Tech

Estimating liver weight of adults by body weight and gender

Aim: To estimate the standard liver weight for assessing adequacies of graft size in live donor liver transplantation and remnant liver in major hepatectomy for cancer. Methods: In this study, anthropometric data of body weight and body height were tested for a correlation with liver weight in 159 live liver donors who underwent donor right hepatectomy including the middle hepatic vein. Liver weights were calculated from the right lobe graft weight obtained at the back table, divided by the proportion of the right lobe on the computed tomography. Results: The subjects, all Chinese, had a mean age of 35.8 ± 10.5 years, and a female to male ratio of 118:41. The mean volume of the right lobe was 710.14 ± 131.46 mL and occupied 64.55% ± 4.47% of the whole liver on computed tomography. Right lobe weighed 598.90 ± 117.39 g and the estimated liver weight was 927.54 ± 168.78 g. When body weight and body height were subjected to multiple stepwise linear regression analysis, body height was found to be insignificant. Females of the same body weight had a slightly lower liver weight. A formula based on body weight and gender was derived: Estimated standard liver weight (g) = 218 + BW (kg) × 12.3 + gender × 51 (R 2=0.48) (female = 0, male = 1). Based on the anthropometric data of these 159 subjects, liver weights were calculated using previously published formulae derived from studies on Caucasian, Japanese, Korean, and Chinese. All formulae overestimated liver weights compared to this formula. The Japanese formula overestimated the estimated standard liver weight (ESLW) for adults less than 60 kg. Conclusion: A formula applicable to Chinese males and females is available. A formula for individual races appears necessary. © 2006 The WJG Press. All rights reserved.published_or_final_versio

Bipolar disorder prevalence and psychotropic medication utilisation in Hong Kong and the United Kingdom

PURPOSE: Bipolar disorder (BPD) is often an under-addressed mental disorder. Limited studies have investigated its epidemiology and drug utilisation in Hong Kong (HK) and the United Kingdom (UK) and thus local prescribing practices remain unclear. This study aimed to determine the prevalence of BPD and the prescribing of psychotropic medications as maintenance treatment from 2001-2018 in HK and the UK. METHOD: A retrospective study using the data from Clinical Data Analysis and Reporting System in HK and IQVIA Medical Research Data in the UK. RESULTS: The prevalence of BPD diagnosis in HK and the UK more than doubled during the study period. Some distinct changes in prescribing patterns over time were observed. Lithium use declined by 2.46% and 14.58% in HK and the UK, respectively. By 2018, patients were 4.6 times more likely to receive antidepressant monotherapy in the UK versus HK (15.62% vs. 3.42%). In HK, 38.41% of women of childbearing age were prescribed valproate in 2018 compared with 8.46% in the UK. CONCLUSION: The prevalence of BPD diagnosis has been increasing in HK and the UK. The disparity in prescribing patterns of BPD maintenance treatment in two regions reflected three major issues in clinical practice: (1) under-prescribing of lithium in both regions, (2) antidepressant monotherapy in the UK and (3) overprescribing of valproate to women of childbearing age in HK. A review of current clinical treatment guidelines and regulations of prescribing practice by local clinicians should be immediately implemented to ensure the safe use of medications in patients with BPD

Predictive validity of the CriSTAL tool for short-term mortality in older people presenting at Emergency Departments: a prospective study

© 2018, The Author(s). Abstract: To determine the validity of the Australian clinical prediction tool Criteria for Screening and Triaging to Appropriate aLternative care (CRISTAL) based on objective clinical criteria to accurately identify risk of death within 3 months of admission among older patients. Methods: Prospective study of ≥ 65 year-olds presenting at emergency departments in five Australian (Aus) and four Danish (DK) hospitals. Logistic regression analysis was used to model factors for death prediction; Sensitivity, specificity, area under the ROC curve and calibration with bootstrapping techniques were used to describe predictive accuracy. Results: 2493 patients, with median age 78–80 years (DK–Aus). The deceased had significantly higher mean CriSTAL with Australian mean of 8.1 (95% CI 7.7–8.6 vs. 5.8 95% CI 5.6–5.9) and Danish mean 7.1 (95% CI 6.6–7.5 vs. 5.5 95% CI 5.4–5.6). The model with Fried Frailty score was optimal for the Australian cohort but prediction with the Clinical Frailty Scale (CFS) was also good (AUROC 0.825 and 0.81, respectively). Values for the Danish cohort were AUROC 0.764 with Fried and 0.794 using CFS. The most significant independent predictors of short-term death in both cohorts were advanced malignancy, frailty, male gender and advanced age. CriSTAL’s accuracy was only modest for in-hospital death prediction in either setting. Conclusions: The modified CriSTAL tool (with CFS instead of Fried’s frailty instrument) has good discriminant power to improve prognostic certainty of short-term mortality for ED physicians in both health systems. This shows promise in enhancing clinician’s confidence in initiating earlier end-of-life discussions

The Dunaliella salina organelle genomes: large sequences, inflated with intronic and intergenic DNA

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p><it>Dunaliella salina </it>Teodoresco, a unicellular, halophilic green alga belonging to the Chlorophyceae, is among the most industrially important microalgae. This is because <it>D. salina </it>can produce massive amounts of β-carotene, which can be collected for commercial purposes, and because of its potential as a feedstock for biofuels production. Although the biochemistry and physiology of <it>D. salina </it>have been studied in great detail, virtually nothing is known about the genomes it carries, especially those within its mitochondrion and plastid. This study presents the complete mitochondrial and plastid genome sequences of <it>D. salina </it>and compares them with those of the model green algae <it>Chlamydomonas reinhardtii </it>and <it>Volvox carteri</it>.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>The <it>D. salina </it>organelle genomes are large, circular-mapping molecules with ~60% noncoding DNA, placing them among the most inflated organelle DNAs sampled from the Chlorophyta. In fact, the <it>D. salina </it>plastid genome, at 269 kb, is the largest complete plastid DNA (ptDNA) sequence currently deposited in GenBank, and both the mitochondrial and plastid genomes have unprecedentedly high intron densities for organelle DNA: ~1.5 and ~0.4 introns per gene, respectively. Moreover, what appear to be the relics of genes, introns, and intronic open reading frames are found scattered throughout the intergenic ptDNA regions -- a trait without parallel in other characterized organelle genomes and one that gives insight into the mechanisms and modes of expansion of the <it>D. salina </it>ptDNA.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>These findings confirm the notion that chlamydomonadalean algae have some of the most extreme organelle genomes of all eukaryotes. They also suggest that the events giving rise to the expanded ptDNA architecture of <it>D. salina </it>and other Chlamydomonadales may have occurred early in the evolution of this lineage. Although interesting from a genome evolution standpoint, the <it>D. salina </it>organelle DNA sequences will aid in the development of a viable plastid transformation system for this model alga, and they will complement the forthcoming <it>D. salina </it>nuclear genome sequence, placing <it>D. salina </it>in a group of a select few photosynthetic eukaryotes for which complete genome sequences from all three genetic compartments are available.</p

Thermal production of axino Dark Matter

We reconsider thermal production of axinos in the early universe, adding: a) missed terms in the axino interaction; b) production via gluon decays kinematically allowed by thermal masses; c) a precise modeling of reheating. We find an axino abunance a few times larger than previous computations.Comment: 6 pages, 2 figures. Final version, to appear on JHE

What a difference a term makes:the effect of educational attainment on marital outcomes in the UK

Abstract In the past, students in England and Wales born within the first 5 monthsof the academic year could leave school one term earlier than those born later inthe year. Focusing on women, those who were required to stay on an extra termmore frequently hold some academic qualification. Using having been required tostay on as an exogenous factor affecting academic attainment, we find that holding alow-level academic qualification has no effect on the probability of being currentlymarried for women aged 25 or above, but increases the probability of the husbandholding some academic qualification and being economically active.33 Halama

Seeing Tree Structure from Vibration

Humans recognize object structure from both their appearance and motion; often, motion helps to resolve ambiguities in object structure that arise when we observe object appearance only. There are particular scenarios, however, where neither appearance nor spatial-temporal motion signals are informative: occluding twigs may look connected and have almost identical movements, though they belong to different, possibly disconnected branches. We propose to tackle this problem through spectrum analysis of motion signals, because vibrations of disconnected branches, though visually similar, often have distinctive natural frequencies. We propose a novel formulation of tree structure based on a physics-based link model, and validate its effectiveness by theoretical analysis, numerical simulation, and empirical experiments. With this formulation, we use nonparametric Bayesian inference to reconstruct tree structure from both spectral vibration signals and appearance cues. Our model performs well in recognizing hierarchical tree structure from real-world videos of trees and vessels.Comment: ECCV 2018. The first two authors contributed equally to this work. Project page: http://tree.csail.mit.edu