1,329 research outputs found
Standardization of the NEO-PI-3 in the Greek general population
BACKGROUND: The revised NEO Personality Inventory (NEO-PI-3) includes 240 items corresponding to the Big Five personality traits (Extraversion, Agreeableness, Conscientiousness, Neuroticism, and Openness to Experience) and subordinate dimensions (facets). It is suitable for use with adolescents and adults (12 years or older). The aim of the current study was to validate the Greek translation of the NEO-PI-3 in the general Greek population. MATERIAL AND METHODS: The study sample included 734 subjects from the general Greek population of whom 59.4% were females and 40.6% males aged 40.80 +/- 11.48. The NEO-PI-3 was translated into Greek and back-translated into English, and the accuracy of the translation was confirmed and established. The statistical analysis included descriptive statistics, confirmatory factorial analysis (CFA), the calculation of Cronbach's alpha, and the calculation of Pearson product-moment correlations. Sociodemographics groups were compared by ANOVA. RESULTS: Most facets had Cronbach's alpha above 0.60. Confirmatory factor analysis showed acceptable loading of the facets on their own hypothesized factors and very good estimations of Cronbach's alphas for the hypothesized factors, so it was partially supportive of the five-factor structure of the NEO-PI-3.The factors extracted with Procrustes rotation analysis can be considered reasonably homologous to the factors of the American normative sample. Correlations between dimensions were as expected and similar to those reported in the literature. DISCUSSION: The literature suggests that overall, the psychometric properties of NEO-PI-3 scales have been found to generalize across ages, cultures, and methods of measurement. In accord with this, the results of the current study confirm the reliability of the Greek translation and adaptation of the NEO-PI-3. The inventory has comparable psychometric properties in its Greek version in comparison to the original and other national translations, and it is suitable for clinical as well as research use
Insomnia and alcohol use as predictors of heartrate variability among veterans
"Low heart-rate variability (HRV) is an indicator of autonomic dysfunction. Low HRV has been linked to adverse cardiovascular outcomes. Low HRV has also been implicated in both alcohol use and sleep disorders. HYPOTHESIS: Heavier alcohol use and more severe insomnia will be associated with autonomic dysfunction (low HRV)."--Introduction
Periarticular Bone Changes in Osteoarthritis
Osteoarthritis (OA) can be considered an organ failure
with pathological aspects in cartilage, bone, ligaments,
and synovium. Altogether, these tissue changes can
result in pain and immobilizationâa failure of the joint.
It is well regarded that OA is a complex multifactorial
disease with many risk factors and different etiological
pathways that all lead to an apparently similar end
stage. Bony changes are clearly observed in advanced
OA. However, little understanding exists on the role of
these changes, whether they are a consequence of
cartilage damage or precede this damage and maybe
play an important role in the etiological process. Even
more important is the issue of pain. Radiological scores
of OA do not match well with pain and mobility scores,
which questions the value of these scoring systems. It
seems that we do not assess the most relevant
parameters. Evaluation of conventional and new radiographic
parameters is still an extensive part of the OA
research field. We may have overlooked certain (subtle)
parameters that can be extracted from x-rays, but other
imaging modalities such as MRI, CT, or SPECT might
better represent OA in a clinically relevant manner
Individual differences in loss aversion: conscientiousness predicts how life satisfaction responds to losses versus gains in income
Loss aversion is considered a general pervasive bias occurring regardless of context or person making the decision. We hypothesized that conscientiousness would predict an aversion to losses in the financial domain. We index loss aversion by the relative impact of income losses and gains on life satisfaction. In a representative German sample (NÂŹ = 105,558: replicated in a British sample, N = 33,848), with conscientiousness measured at baseline, those high on conscientiousness have the strongest reactions to income losses, suggesting a pronounced loss aversion effect, whilst for those moderately un-conscientious there is no loss aversion effect. Our research; (a) provides the first evidence of personality moderation of any loss aversion phenomena; (b) supports contextual perspectives that both personality and situational factors need to be examined in combination; (c) shows that the small but robust relationship with life satisfaction is primarily driven by a subset of people experiencing highly impactful losses
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The impact generated by public and charity-funded research in the UK: A systematic literature review
Objective: To identify, synthesize and critically assess the empirical evidence of the impact generated by public and charity funded health research in the United Kingdom.
Methods: We conducted a systematic literature review of the empirical evidence published in English in peer-reviewed journals between 2006 and 2017. Studies meeting the inclusion criteria were selected and their findings were analysed using the Payback Framework into five main categories: knowledge, benefits to future research and research use, benefits from informing policy and product development, health and health sector benefits and broader economic benefits. We assessed the studies for risk of selection, reporting and funding bias.
Results: Thirteen studies met the inclusion criteria. The majority of the studies (10 out of 13) assessed impact at multiple domains including the main 5 key themes of the Payback Framework. All of them showed a positive impact of funded research on outcomes. Of those studies, one presented low risk of bias (8%), 6 studies were classified as presenting moderate risk of bias (46%) and 6 studies presented high risk of bias (46%).
Conclusions: Empirical evidence on the impact of public and charity funded research is still limited and subject to funding and selection bias. More work is needed to establish the causal effects of funded research on academic outcomes, policy, practice and the broader economy
The J-elongated conformation of ÎČ2-glycoprotein I predominates in solution: implications for our understanding of antiphospholipid syndrome
ÎČ2-Glycoprotein I (ÎČ2GPI) is an abundant plasma protein displaying phospholipid-binding properties. Because it binds phospholipids, it is a target of antiphospholipid antibodies (aPLs) in antiphospholipid syndrome (APS), a life-threatening autoimmune thrombotic disease. Indeed, aPLs prefer membrane-bound ÎČ2GPI to that in solution. ÎČ2GPI exists in two almost equally populated redox states: oxidized, in which all the disulfide bonds are formed, and reduced, in which one or more disulfide bonds are broken. Furthermore, ÎČ2GPI can adopt multiple conformations (i.e. J-elongated, S-twisted, and O-circular). While strong evidence indicates that the J-form is the structure bound to aPLs, which conformation exists and predominates in solution remains controversial, and so is the conformational pathway leading to the bound state. Here, we report that human recombinant ÎČ2GPI purified under native conditions is oxidized. Moreover, under physiological pH and salt concentrations, this oxidized form adopts a J-elongated, flexible conformation, not circular or twisted, in which the N-terminal domain I (DI) and the C-terminal domain V (DV) are exposed to the solvent. Consistent with this model, binding kinetics and mutagenesis experiments revealed that in solution the J-form interacts with negatively charged liposomes and with MBB2, a monoclonal anti-DI antibody that recapitulates most of the features of pathogenic aPLs. We conclude that the preferential binding of aPLs to phospholipid-bound ÎČ2GPI arises from the ability of its preexisting J-form to accumulate on the membranes, thereby offering an ideal environment for aPL binding. We propose that targeting the J-form of ÎČ2GPI provides a strategy to block pathogenic aPLs in APS
The Five Factor Model of personality and evaluation of drug consumption risk
The problem of evaluating an individual's risk of drug consumption and misuse
is highly important. An online survey methodology was employed to collect data
including Big Five personality traits (NEO-FFI-R), impulsivity (BIS-11),
sensation seeking (ImpSS), and demographic information. The data set contained
information on the consumption of 18 central nervous system psychoactive drugs.
Correlation analysis demonstrated the existence of groups of drugs with
strongly correlated consumption patterns. Three correlation pleiades were
identified, named by the central drug in the pleiade: ecstasy, heroin, and
benzodiazepines pleiades. An exhaustive search was performed to select the most
effective subset of input features and data mining methods to classify users
and non-users for each drug and pleiad. A number of classification methods were
employed (decision tree, random forest, -nearest neighbors, linear
discriminant analysis, Gaussian mixture, probability density function
estimation, logistic regression and na{\"i}ve Bayes) and the most effective
classifier was selected for each drug. The quality of classification was
surprisingly high with sensitivity and specificity (evaluated by leave-one-out
cross-validation) being greater than 70\% for almost all classification tasks.
The best results with sensitivity and specificity being greater than 75\% were
achieved for cannabis, crack, ecstasy, legal highs, LSD, and volatile substance
abuse (VSA).Comment: Significantly extended report with 67 pages, 27 tables, 21 figure
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