Differentiating normal and problem gambling: a grounded theory approach.

A previous study (Ricketts &amp; Macaskill, 2003) delineated a theory of problem gambling based on the experiences of treatment seeking male gamblers and allowed predictions to be made regarding the processes that differentiate between normal and problem gamblers. These predictions are the focus of the present study, which also utilised a grounded theory approach, but with a sample of male high frequency normal gamblers. The findings suggest that there are common aspects of gambling associated with arousal and a sense of achievement. The use of gambling to manage negative emotional states differentiated normal and problem gambling. Perceived self-efficacy , emotion management skills and perceived likelihood of winning money back were intervening variables differentiating problem and normal gamblers.</p

Compactness and existence results in weighted Sobolev spaces of radial functions. Part II: Existence

We prove existence and multiplicity results for finite energy solutions to the nonlinear elliptic equation $$-\triangle u+V\left( \left| x\right| \right) u=g\left( \left| x\right| ,u\right) \quad \textrm{in }\Omega \subseteq \mathbb{R}^{N},\ N\geq 3,$$ where $\Omega$ is a radial domain (bounded or unbounded) and $u$ satisfies $u=0$ on $\partial \Omega$ if $\Omega \neq \mathbb{R}^{N}$ and $u\rightarrow 0$ as $\left| x\right| \rightarrow \infty$ if $\Omega$ is unbounded. The potential $V$ may be vanishing or unbounded at zero or at infinity and the nonlinearity $g$ may be superlinear or sublinear. If $g$ is sublinear, the case with $g\left( \left| \cdot \right| ,0\right) \neq 0$ is also considered.Comment: 29 pages, 8 figure

Analysis of VNTR loci amplified by the polymerase chain reaction for investigating the origin of intimal smoth muscle cells in a coronary artery lesion developing after heart transplantation in man

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Severity of cardiomyopathy associated with adenine nucleotide translocator-1 deficiency correlates with mtDNA haplogroup

Mutations of both nuclear and mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA)-encoded mitochondrial proteins can cause cardiomyopathy associated with mitochondrial dysfunction. Hence, the cardiac phenotype of nuclear DNA mitochondrial mutations might be modulated by mtDNA variation. We studied a 13-generation Mennonite pedigree with autosomal recessive myopathy and cardiomyopathy due to an SLC25A4 frameshift null mutation (c.523delC, p.Q175RfsX38), which codes for the heart-muscle isoform of the adenine nucleotide translocator-1. Ten homozygous null (adenine nucleotide translocator-1(-/-)) patients monitored over a median of 6 years had a phenotype of progressive myocardial thickening, hyperalaninemia, lactic acidosis, exercise intolerance, and persistent adrenergic activation. Electrocardiography and echocardiography with velocity vector imaging revealed abnormal contractile mechanics, myocardial repolarization abnormalities, and impaired left ventricular relaxation. End-stage heart disease was characterized by massive, symmetric, concentric cardiac hypertrophy; widespread cardiomyocyte degeneration; overabundant and structurally abnormal mitochondria; extensive subendocardial interstitial fibrosis; and marked hypertrophy of arteriolar smooth muscle. Substantial variability in the progression and severity of heart disease segregated with maternal lineage, and sequencing of mtDNA from five maternal lineages revealed two major European haplogroups, U and H. Patients with the haplogroup U mtDNAs had more rapid and severe cardiomyopathy than those with haplogroup H

Creating university spin-offs: A science-based design perspective

Academic entrepreneurship by means of university spin-offs commercializes technological breakthroughs, which may otherwise remain unexploited. However, many universities face difficulties in creating spin-offs. This article adopts a science-based design approach to connect scholarly research with the pragmatics of effectively creating university spin-offs. This approach serves to link the practice of university spin-off creation, via design principles, to the scholarly knowledge in this area. As such, science-based design promotes the interplay between emergent and deliberate design processes. This framework is used to develop a set of design principles that are practice based as well as grounded in the existing body of research on university spin-offs. A case-study of spin-off creation at a Dutch university illustrates the interplay between initial processes characterized by emergent design and the subsequent process that was more deliberate in nature. This case study also suggests there are two fundamentally different phases in building capacity for university spin-off creation. First, an infrastructure for spin-off creation (including a collaborative network of investors, managers and advisors) is developed that then enables support activities to individual spin-off ventures. This study concludes that to build and increase capacity for creating spin-offs, universities should do the following: (1) create university-wide awareness of entrepreneurship opportunities, stimulate the development of entrepreneurial ideas, and subsequently screen entrepreneurs and ideas by programs targeted at students and academic staff; (2) support start-up teams in composing and learning the right mix of venturing skills and knowledge by providing access to advice, coaching, and training; (3) help starters in obtaining access to resources and developing their social capital by creating a collaborative network organization of investors, managers, and advisors; (4) set clear and supportive rules and procedures that regulate the university spin-off process, enhance fair treatment of involved parties, and separate spin-off processes from academic research and teaching; and (5) shape a university culture that reinforces academic entrepreneurship by creating norms and exemplars that motivate entrepreneurial behavior. These and other results of this study illustrate how science-based design can connect scholarly research to the pragmatics of actually creating spin-offs in academic institutions

The Norm Implementation Problem in Normative Multi-Agent Systems

Abstract. The norm implementation problem consists in how to see to it that the agents in a system comply with the norms specified for that system by the system designer. It is part of the more general problem of how to synthesize or create norms for multi-agent systems, by, for example, highlighting the choice between regimentation and enforcement, or the punishment associated with a norm violation. In this paper we discuss how various ways to implement norms in a multi-agent system can be distinguished in a formal game-theoretic framework. In particular, we show how different types of norm implementation can all be uniformly specified and verified as types of transformations of extensive games. We introduce the notion of retarded preconditions to implement norms, and we illustrate the framework and the various ways to implement norms in the blocks world environment

Crystallographic structure reveals phosphorylated pilin from Neisseria : phosphoserine sites modify type IV pilus surface chemistry and fibre morphology

Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/72468/1/j.1365-2958.1999.01184.x.pd

Measurement of the Charged Multiplicities in b, c and Light Quark Events from Z0 Decays

Average charged multiplicities have been measured separately in $b$, $c$ and light quark ($u,d,s$) events from $Z^0$ decays measured in the SLD experiment. Impact parameters of charged tracks were used to select enriched samples of $b$ and light quark events, and reconstructed charmed mesons were used to select $c$ quark events. We measured the charged multiplicities: $\bar{n}_{uds} = 20.21 \pm 0.10 (\rm{stat.})\pm 0.22(\rm{syst.})$, $\bar{n}_{c} = 21.28 \pm 0.46(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.41}_{-0.36}(\rm{syst.})$ $\bar{n}_{b} = 23.14 \pm 0.10(\rm{stat.}) ^{+0.38}_{-0.37}(\rm{syst.})$, from which we derived the differences between the total average charged multiplicities of $c$ or $b$ quark events and light quark events: $\Delta \bar{n}_c = 1.07 \pm 0.47(\rm{stat.})^{+0.36}_{-0.30}(\rm{syst.})$ and $\Delta \bar{n}_b = 2.93 \pm 0.14(\rm{stat.})^{+0.30}_{-0.29}(\rm{syst.})$. We compared these measurements with those at lower center-of-mass energies and with perturbative QCD predictions. These combined results are in agreement with the QCD expectations and disfavor the hypothesis of flavor-independent fragmentation.Comment: 19 pages LaTex, 4 EPS figures, to appear in Physics Letters

Search for single top quarks in the tau+jets channel using 4.8 fb−1^{-1} of ppˉp\bar{p} collision data

We present the first direct search for single top quark production using tau leptons. The search is based on 4.8 fb$^{-1}$ of integrated luminosity collected in $p\bar{p}$ collisions at $\sqrt{s}$=1.96 TeV with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron Collider. We select events with a final state including an isolated tau lepton, missing transverse energy, two or three jets, one or two of them $b$ tagged. We use a multivariate technique to discriminate signal from background. The number of events observed in data in this final state is consistent with the signal plus background expectation. We set in the tau+jets channel an upper limit on the single top quark cross section of \TauLimObs pb at the 95% C.L. This measurement allows a gain of 4% in expected sensitivity for the observation of single top production when combining it with electron+jets and muon+jets channels already published by the D0 collaboration with 2.3 fb$^{-1}$ of data. We measure a combined cross section of \SuperCombineXSall pb, which is the most precise measurement to date.Comment: 12 pages, 5 figure

Search for the standard model Higgs boson in tau final states

We present a search for the standard model Higgs boson using hadronically decaying tau leptons, in 1 inverse femtobarn of data collected with the D0 detector at the Fermilab Tevatron ppbar collider. We select two final states: tau plus missing transverse energy and b jets, and tau+ tau- plus jets. These final states are sensitive to a combination of associated W/Z boson plus Higgs boson, vector boson fusion and gluon-gluon fusion production processes. The observed ratio of the combined limit on the Higgs production cross section at the 95% C.L. to the standard model expectation is 29 for a Higgs boson mass of 115 GeV.Comment: publication versio