Illegal Gambling and Its Operation via the Darknet and Bitcoin: An Application of Routine Activity Theory

The Darknet and Bitcoins have been widely utilized by those who wish to anonymously perform illegal activities in cyberspace. Restricted in many countries, gambling websites utilize Bitcoin payments that allow users to freely engage in illegal gambling activities with the absence of a formal capable guardian. Despite the urgency and limited knowledge available to law enforcement regarding this issue, few empirical studies have focused on illegal gambling websites. The current study attempts to examine the characteristics and operations of online gambling websites on both the Darknet and Surface Web, which allow Bitcoin payments. The findings suggest that both websites on the Surface Web and Darknet have similar and distinctive features that attract and encourage online users to engage in extensive illegal gambling activities and potentially other illegal activities as well. The study concludes with policy recommendations to remedy the issue of online gambling

Consumer Orientations of Second-Hand Shoppers by Store Type: A Profile Analysis

Second-hand clothing has long been associated with the used, worn-out, tainted and even odorous, but now consumers believe that used products have quality comparable to new clothes and even some perceive used clothing to be of superior quality than their unworn counterparts. This study examines whether consumer orientations differ among frequent shoppers of three second-hand clothing stores (consignment stores, online stores, and thrift stores). The data were collected via MTurk and consisted of 600 consumers in the US who had purchased second-hand clothing for themselves in the past 12 months. A profile analysis showed that the profiles of consumer groups in supercenters were not parallel. A subsequent ANOVA test showed that the three consumer groups exhibited significant differences in ecological consciousness, dematerialism, nostalgia proneness, and fashion-consciousness. On the contrary, the three groups did not show differences in their consumer orientations in frugality and style-consciousness

One-pot Enzymatic Synthesis of Deoxy-thymidine-diphosphate (TDP)-2-deoxy-∝-d-glucose Using Phosphomannomutase

Production of deoxy-thymidine-diphosphate (TDP)-sugars as substrates of glycosyltransferases, has been one of main hurdles for combinatorial antibiotic biosynthesis, which combines sugar moiety with aglycon of various antibiotics. Here, we report the one-pot enzymatic synthesis of TDP-2-deoxy-glucose employing high efficient TMP kinase (TMK; E.C. 2.7.2.12), acetate kinase (ACK; E.C. 2.7.1.21), and TDP-glucose synthase (TGS; E.C. 2.7.7.24) with phosphomannomutase (PMM; E.C. 5.4.2.8). In this study, replacing phosphoglucomutase (PGM; E.C. 5.4.2) by PMM from Escherichia coli gave four times higher specific activity on 2-deoxy-6-phosphate glucose, suggesting that the activity on 2-deoxy-glucose-6-phosphate was mainly affected by PMM activity, not PGM activity. Using an in vitro system starting from TMP and 2-deoxy-glucose-6-phosphate glucose, TDP-2-deoxy-glucose (63% yield) was successfully synthesized. Considering low productivity of NDP-sugars from cheap starting materials, this paper showed how production of NDP-sugars could be enhanced by controlling mutase activity

Apathy in UK Care Home Residents with Dementia: Longitudinal Course and Determinants

Background: Apathy in dementia is common and associated with worse disease outcomes. // Objective: To describe the longitudinal course of apathy in dementia and identify associated sociodemographic and disease-related factors. // Methods: Prospective cohort study of UK care home residents with dementia. At baseline, 4, 8, 12, and 16 months, care home staff rated apathy using the Neuropsychiatric Inventory (clinically-significant apathy if≥4), dementia severity, and provided other sociodemographic information about each participant. We examined the prevalence and persistence of apathy and, in mixed linear models, its association with time, age, sex, dementia severity, antipsychotic use, and baseline apathy and other neuropsychiatric symptoms. // Results: Of 1,419 included participants (mean age 85 years (SD 8.5)), 30% had mild dementia, 33% moderate, and 37% severe. The point prevalence of clinically-significant apathy was 21.4% (n = 304) and the 16-month period prevalence was 47.3% (n = 671). Of participants with follow-up data, 45 (3.8%) were always clinically-significantly apathetic, 3 (0.3%) were always sub-clinically apathetic, and 420 (36.2%) were never apathetic until death or end of follow-up. In adjusted models, apathy increased over time and was associated with having more severe dementia, worse baseline apathy and other neuropsychiatric symptoms. // Conclusion: It is important for clinicians to know that most people with dementia are not apathetic, though it is common. Most of those with significant symptoms of apathy improve without specific treatments, although some also relapse, meaning that intervention may not be needed. Future research should seek to target those people with persistent severe apathy and test treatments in this group

The Impacts of Role Overload and Role Conflict on Physicians\u27 Technology Adoption

Technology adoption is an important solution for physicians to increase work efficiency, and thus deal with role conflict among their multiple job roles. Prior studies have not investigated how multiple job roles and role conflict influence physicians’ technology adoption intentions. Based on role strain theory and role identity theory, we present a model of physicians’ technology adoption intentions to support their primary (clinical care) versus secondary (teaching or research) job roles. We test the model using surveys with 156 physicians at nine medical schools in Korea. The results of our data analysis largely support our hypotheses. Role overload in each of their job roles increases role conflict between any pair of associated roles. Furthermore, role conflict between a physician’s primary and secondary role is affected more by role overload in the secondary role than by overload in the primary role. Moreover, the impact of role conflict on technology adoption intentions is also influenced by the hierarchical relationship between two roles. This study contributes to technology adoption research by demonstrating how physicians’ job characteristics affect technology adoption

Impacts of gender, weather, and workplace differences in farm worker's gear

Background: The farmers cannot help working in outdoor conditions which have high humidity and solar radiation during the harvest period. Wearable items including clothing are the nearest environment of human body, and to understand the current state of them can be a way to set up an active prevention strategy against the health risk from heat stress in summertime agriculture. The aim of this study was to investigate the work wear and accessories which the elderly farmers used during agricultural working. Methods: One hundred twenty farmers (49 males and 71 females) working in nine separate sites on different days took part in this study. The average age of subjects was 61 years old. We examined the types of working posture, clothing, and items that the farmers used and/or wore. We also interviewed the farmers to know why they used such items while working. Results: The results of this study were as follows: (1) Farmers worked in the thermal environment which was over wet bulb globe temperature (WBGT) reference value, and the farmers could suffer heat stress due to workload induced from wearing conventional long-sleeved shirts and long trousers which were 0.66 clo in average under this summertime working thermal condition. (2) The farmers tended to change the layer of upper clothing for adapting to weather condition. (3) The types of footwear used seemed to be related with facilities as well as weather, and farmers tended to wear lighter footwear when the weather is hotter or when they work in PVC greenhouse. The majority of elderly farmers wore loafers and rubber shoes which had indistinguishable thin soles. (4) The types of hats showed the difference between facilities as well as gender and only 31.7 % of all participants used long brims. (5) Korean elderly farmers did not use any active cooling item as agricultural auxiliary tools in summer harvesting time. Conclusions: Korean elderly farmers worked in poor surroundings which could threaten their health and safety and seemed not to adjust their workload and clothing during summer harvest season. Thus, it would be necessary to monitor individual responses in order to ensure that the risk of heat stress is preventedopen

Recent Updates on Acquired Hepatocerebral Degeneration

Background: Acquired hepatocerebral degeneration (AHD) refers to a chronic neurological syndrome in patients with advanced hepatobiliary diseases. This comprehensive review focuses on the pathomechanism and neuroimaging findings in AHD. Methods: A PubMed search was performed using the terms “acquired hepatocerebral degeneration,” “chronic hepatocerebral degeneration,” “Non-Wilsonian hepatocerebral degeneration,” “cirrhosis-related parkinsonism,” and “manganese and liver disease.” Results: Multiple mechanisms involving the accumulation of toxic substances such as ammonia or manganese and neuroinflammation may lead to widespread neurodegeneration in AHD. Clinical characteristics include movement disorders, mainly parkinsonism and ataxia-plus syndrome, as well as cognitive impairment with psychiatric features. Neuroimaging studies of AHD with parkinsonism show hyperintensity in the bilateral globus pallidus on T1-weighted magnetic resonance images, whereas molecular imaging of the presynaptic dopaminergic system shows variable findings. Ataxia-plus syndrome in AHD may demonstrate high-signal lesions in the middle cerebellar peduncles on T2-weighted images. Discussion: Future studies are needed to elucidate the exact pathomechanism and neuroimaging findings of this heterogeneous syndrome