Group Art Therapy and Self-care for Mothers of Children with Disabilities

The purpose of this study was to examine the effectiveness of a group art therapy intervention on psychological well-being of Korean mothers of children with disabilities. This study employed a quasi-experimental pre- and post-test research design with non-random assignment of participants to either the art therapy intervention group (AG) or the control group (CG). The present study quantitatively examined the effectiveness of the group art therapy intervention using four standardized measurements (Parental Distress sub-scale from Parenting Stress Index-Short Form, Perceived Stress Scale, Beck Depression Inventory-II, & The Multidimensional Scale for Social Support) assessing parenting stress, perceived stress, depression, and perceived social support. In addition, the Draw-a-Person-in-the-Rain (the DAPR) assessment with numerical scoring system was used to assess the mothers’ stress. A total of 44 participants from multiple regions across Korea were included, and mothers in AG (n = 22) participated in 6 sessions of 100 minutes in length. The results of the statistical analysis showed significant differences between the two groups in parenting stress, perceived stress, and depression with those in the AG reporting a greater decrease in parenting stress, perceived stress, and depression than those in the CG. In terms of perceived social support, no significant difference was found between the AG and the CG. The results of the DAPR-Stress scale showed that stress indicators on the post-drawing assessment decreased significantly compared to the pre-drawing assessment after participating in the art therapy intervention. Thus, the art-based projective drawing assessment (the DAPR) supported the quantitative results of the art therapy intervention on decreasing stress. Overall findings support the effectiveness of the group art therapy intervention in enhancing psychological well-being of Korean mothers of children with disabilities

Human Factor and Hospital Design

The physical anthropologists have been concerned with the documentation and description of human body size variability and its application to design. A significant problem continues to exist, however, in the communication of such knowledge to the wide variety of potential users, the design community. The critical problem is to establish a height that will accommodate the majority of users, taking into account the significant difference in eye height between people of small and large body size. Of the drawings that follow is a series concerned exclusively with this aspect of human dimension. One interesting observation is that the difference in eye height between that of a viewer of very small body size and that of one of very large body size is almost twice as much when both people are standing than when both are in a seated position

A Simulation Study Evaluating Phase I Clinical Trial Designs for Combinational Agents

Nowadays, more and more clinical trials choose combinational agents as the intervention to achieve better therapeutic responses. However, dose-finding for combinational agents is much more complicated than single agent as the full order of combination dose toxicity is unknown. Therefore, regular phase I designs are not able to identify the maximum tolerated dose (MTD) of combinational agents. Motivated by such needs, plenty of novel phase I clinical trial designs for combinational agents were proposed. With so many available designs, research that compare their performances, explore parameters' impacts, and provide recommendations is very limited. Therefore, we conducted a simulation study to evaluate multiple phase I designs that proposed to identify single MTD for combinational agents under various scenarios. We also explored influences of different design parameters. In the end, we summarized the pros and cons of each design, and provided a general guideline in design selection

Brand Image and Evaluation Factors of Fashion Product Advertisement

Brand image is a collection of things related with brand that consumers have in the memory (Keller, 1993) and corporations are making much efforts to build a brand image and advertisement has been used as a major method to inform the brand image. Advertisement is communication message performed for the purpose of positively change the consumer’s emotion for corporations, brands and trademarks

Isolation and functional characterization of CE1 binding proteins

<p>Abstract</p> <p>Background</p> <p>Abscisic acid (ABA) is a plant hormone that controls seed germination, protective responses to various abiotic stresses and seed maturation. The ABA-dependent processes entail changes in gene expression. Numerous genes are regulated by ABA, and promoter analyses of the genes revealed that <it>cis</it>-elements sharing the ACGTGGC consensus sequence are ubiquitous among ABA-regulated gene promoters. The importance of the core sequence, which is generally known as ABA response element (ABRE), has been demonstrated by various experiments, and its cognate transcription factors known as ABFs/AREBs have been identified. Although necessary, ABRE alone is not sufficient, and another <it>cis</it>-element known as "coupling element (CE)" is required for full range ABA-regulation of gene expression. Several CEs are known. However, despite their importance, the cognate transcription factors mediating ABA response via CEs have not been reported to date. Here, we report the isolation of transcription factors that bind one of the coupling elements, CE1.</p> <p>Results</p> <p>To isolate CE1 binding proteins, we carried out yeast one-hybrid screens. Reporter genes containing a trimer of the CE1 element were prepared and introduced into a yeast strain. The yeast was transformed with library DNA that represents RNA isolated from ABA-treated Arabidopsis seedlings. From the screen of 3.6 million yeast transformants, we isolated 78 positive clones. Analysis of the clones revealed that a group of AP2/ERF domain proteins binds the CE1 element. We investigated their expression patterns and analyzed their overexpression lines to investigate the <it>in vivo </it>functions of the CE element binding factors (CEBFs). Here, we show that one of the CEBFs, AtERF13, confers ABA hypersensitivity in Arabidopsis, whereas two other CEBFs enhance sugar sensitivity.</p> <p>Conclusions</p> <p>Our results indicate that a group of AP2/ERF superfamily proteins interacts with CE1. Several CEBFs are known to mediate defense or abiotic stress response, but the physiological functions of other CEBFs remain to be determined. Our <it>in vivo </it>functional analysis of several CEBFs suggests that they are likely to be involved in ABA and/or sugar response. Together with previous results reported by others, our current data raise an interesting possibility that the coupling element CE1 may function not only as an ABRE but also as an element mediating biotic and abiotic stress responses.</p

Estimating Willingness-to-pay for Broadband Attributes among Low-income Consumers: Results from the Fcc Lifeline Pilot Projects

Recent studies have confirmed that broadband adoption (as opposed to simply having access to broadband infrastructure) is positively linked with economic growth. In light of this, federal policy efforts have switched from focusing mainly on the provision of infrastructure to more explicit adoption-oriented efforts. One of those efforts was the Federal Communications Commissions (FCC?s) Low-income Broadband Lifeline Pilot Projects, which ran from 2012 to 2013. The program worked with 14 private telecommunications firms to subsidize household broadband adoption for low-income households by providing discounted monthly and equipment costs. Low-income households are an important component of the broadband adoption puzzle: between 2003 and 2013, the adoption gap between low-income and high-income households actually increased by 5 percentage points. Further, the most recent data suggests that only half of households making less than $25,000 have a residential connection as compared to 95$100,000. Thus, if increasing broadband adoption is a policy goal, focusing on low-income households is a good starting point. This paper focuses on three specific FCC Broadband Lifeline Pilot projects (Nexus, Puerto Rico Telephone Company, and National Telecommunications Cooperative Association) that allowed consumers to make choices among different options, such as data allowance, speed, and wireless vs. wired connections. Conditional logit models are used to develop estimates of consumer?s willingness-to-pay for specific broadband attributes. The results indicate that low-income consumers have a preference for smartphone connections (versus aircards) � and that this effect is even more pronounced for those households earning less than $20,000; that low-income consumers have a preference for wired connections (vs. wireless); and that there is evidence that low-income consumers are willing to pay for an extra GB of data each month � but not for the speed of their connection. These results will be useful for the future versions of the Broadband Lifeline Program. In particular, understanding the willingness-to-pay for specific broadband attributes among low-income households will be useful as the federal program defines its baseline. Effective policies built on these results should lessen the adoption gap between different levels of household income and potentially impact the larger economy.Agricultural Economic