Extreme response bias in measuring susceptibility to smoking.

Pierce, Choi, Gilpin, Farkas, and Berry (1998) were the first to claim that they could provide causal evidence that tobacco industry advertising and promotion caused adolescent smoking. This claim continues to significantly influence the theory and conceptualization of how youth react to tobacco marketing. The Pierce et al. (1998) methodology has been used by many researchers to establish the influence of tobacco marketing on adolescent smoking (Goldberg, 2003; NCI, 2006; Sargent, Dalton, &amp; Beach, 2000). Pierce et al. (1998) selected respondents for only the second of their two survey longitudinal study because they chose the extreme-negative response. This choice could be the result of the tendency of some significant number of sample members exhibiting extreme-response bias. The results from an analysis of several questions from the original data used by Pierce et al. (1998) has suggested that there is a significant extreme-response style pattern in the Pierce et al. data. This unaccounted for bias in the responses of their sample was due to the procedure used by Pierce et al. (1998) in the selection of their respondents. The Pierce et al. (1998) sample selection procedure requires more research before the causal link can be claimed.<br /

How Does Competition Help Future Learning in Serious Games? An Exploratory Study in Learning Search Engine Optimization

Serious games, many of which are multi-player games, have been commonly used in information technology education and training. Competition can be intuitively associated with games; however, it is not always considered as a necessary attribute of serious games. Particularly, the learning impact results of competition are mixed. Challenge and control are two game attributes that are highly relevant to competition. With the use of a multi-player serious game, SEO War, this study aims to explore the relationships among competition, perceived control, perceived challenge, and self-efficacy in a game-based learning environment. Particularly, it investigates whether competition leads to self-efficacy. It also examines whether perceived challenge and perceived control mediate the relationship between competition and self-efficacy in serious games. This study contributes to the expanding literature on selecting important attributes for serious games, and it advances our understanding of the mechanism of how competition leads to self-efficacy. Moreover, it will help game designers decide on important game attributes through which games can be enhanced

Safety and preliminary efficacy of vorinostat with R-EPOCH in high-risk HIV-associated non-Hodgkin\u27s lymphoma (AMC-075)

We performed a phase I trial of vorinostat (VOR) given on days 1 to 5 with R-EPOCH (rituximab plus etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin hydrochloride) in patients with aggressive HIV-associated non-Hodgkin lymphoma. VOR was tolerable at 300 mg and seemingly efficacious with chemotherapy with complete response rate of 83% and 1-year event-free survival of 83%. VOR did not significantly alter chemotherapy steady-state concentrations, CD4+ cell counts, or HIV viral loads. Vorinostat (VOR), a histone deacetylase inhibitor, enhances the anti-tumor effects of rituximab (R) and cytotoxic chemotherapy, induces viral lytic expression and cell killing in Epstein-Barr virus-positive (EBV+) or human herpesvirus-8-positive (HHV-8+) tumors, and reactivates latent human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) for possible eradication by combination antiretroviral therapy (cART). We performed a phase I trial of VOR given with R-based infusional EPOCH (etoposide, prednisone, vincristine, cyclophosphamide, and doxorubicin hydrochloride) (n = 12) and cART in aggressive HIV-associated B-cell non-Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) in order to identify safe dosing and schedule. VOR (300 or 400 mg) was given orally on days 1 to 5 with each cycle of R-EPOCH for 10 high-risk patients with diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (1 EBV+), 1 EBV+/HHV-8+ primary effusion lymphoma, and 1 unclassifiable NHL. VOR was escalated from 300 to 400 mg using a standard 3 + 3 design based on dose-limiting toxicity observed in cycle 1 of R-EPOCH. The recommended phase II dose of VOR was 300 mg, with dose-limiting toxicity in 2 of 6 patients at 400 mg (grade 4 thrombocytopenia, grade 4 neutropenia), and 1 of 6 treated at 300 mg (grade 4 sepsis from tooth abscess). Neither VOR, nor cART regimen, significantly altered chemotherapy steady-state concentrations. VOR chemotherapy did not negatively impact CD4+ cell counts or HIV viral loads, which decreased or remained undetectable in most patients during treatment. The response rate in high-risk patients with NHL treated with VOR(R)-EPOCH was 100% (complete 83% and partial 17%) with a 1-year event-free survival of 83% (95% confidence interval, 51.6%-97.9%). VOR combined with R-EPOCH was tolerable and seemingly efficacious in patients with aggressive HIV-NHL

Interference effects in interacting quantum dots

In this paper we study the interplay between interference effects in quantum dots (manifested through the appearance of Fano resonances in the conductance), and interactions taken into account in the self-consistent Hartree-Fock approximation. In the non-interacting case we find that interference may lead to the observation of more than one conductance peak per dot level as a function of an applied gate voltage. This may explain recent experimental findings, which were thought to be caused by interaction effects. For the interacting case we find a wide variety of different interesting phenomena. These include both monotonous and non-monotonous filling of the dot levels as a function of an applied gate voltage, which may occur continuously or even discontinuously. In many cases a combination of the different effects can occur in the same sample. The behavior of the population influences, in turn, the conductance lineshape, causing broadening and asymmetry of narrow peaks, and determining whether there will be a zero transmission point. We elucidate the essential role of the interference between the dot levels in determining these outcomes. The effects of finite temperatures on the results are also examined.Comment: 11 pages, 9 fugures, REVTeX

Pure point diffraction and cut and project schemes for measures: The smooth case

We present cut and project formalism based on measures and continuous weight functions of sufficiently fast decay. The emerging measures are strongly almost periodic. The corresponding dynamical systems are compact groups and homomorphic images of the underlying torus. In particular, they are strictly ergodic with pure point spectrum and continuous eigenfunctions. Their diffraction can be calculated explicitly. Our results cover and extend corresponding earlier results on dense Dirac combs and continuous weight functions with compact support. They also mark a clear difference in terms of factor maps between the case of continuous and non-continuous weight functions.Comment: 30 page

Delocalization of electrons in a Random Magnetic Field

Delocalization problem for a two-dimensional non-interacting electron system is studied under a random magnetic field. With the presence of a random magnetic field, the Hall conductance carried by each eigenstate can become nonzero and quantized in units of $e^2/h$. Extended states are characterized by nonzero Hall conductance, and by studying finite-size scaling of the density of extended states, an insulator-metal phase transition is revealed. The metallic phase is found at the center of energy band which is separated from the localized states at the band tails by critical energies $\pm E_c$. Both localization exponent and the critical energy $E_c$ are shown to be dependent on the strength of random magnetic field.Comment: 9 pages, Revtex, 3 figures available upon reques

Pure point diffraction implies zero entropy for Delone sets with uniform cluster frequencies

Delone sets of finite local complexity in Euclidean space are investigated. We show that such a set has patch counting and topological entropy 0 if it has uniform cluster frequencies and is pure point diffractive. We also note that the patch counting entropy is 0 whenever the repetitivity function satisfies a certain growth restriction.Comment: 16 pages; revised and slightly expanded versio

Study protocol for a randomised controlled trial of invasive versus conservative management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax

INTRODUCTION: Current management of primary spontaneous pneumothorax (PSP) is variable, with little evidence from randomised controlled trials to guide treatment. Guidelines emphasise intervention in many patients, which involves chest drain insertion, hospital admission and occasionally surgery. However, there is evidence that conservative management may be effective and safe, and it may also reduce the risk of recurrence. Significant questions remain regarding the optimal initial approach to the management of PSP

Baryonium, tetra-quark state and glue-ball in large N_c QCD

From the large-N_c QCD point of view, baryonia, tetra-quark states, hybrids, and glueballs are studied. The existence of these states is argued for. They are constructed from baryons. In N_f=1 large N_c QCD, a baryonium is always identical to a glueball with N_c valence gluons. The ground state 0^{-+} glueball has a mass about 2450 MeV. f_0(1710) is identified as the lowest 0^{++} glueball. The lowest four-quark nonet should be f_0(1370), a_0(1450), K^*_0(1430) and f_0(1500). Combining with the heavy quark effective theory, spectra of heavy baryonia and heavy tetra-quark states are predicted. 1/N_c corrections are discussed.Comment: 16 pages, 3 figure