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Cancer-related masculinity threat in young adults with testicular cancer: the moderating role of benefit finding.
Background and Objectives: Perceiving benefit from a health-related stressor such as cancer has been associated with better psychological adjustment in various cancer populations; however, it has not been studied in the context of young adulthood or gender-related cancer threat. This study investigated the role of benefit finding in psychological adjustment among young adults with testicular cancer, and whether BF moderates cancer-related masculine threat.Design: This study utilizes a cross-sectional design with a diverse sample of young adult testicular cancer survivors.Methods: Men with a history of testicular cancer (N = 171; M age = 25.2, SD = 3.32) completed questionnaires of benefit finding, cancer-related masculine threat, and indicators of psychological adjustment.Results: Multiple regression analysis revealed that cancer-related masculine threat was associated with worse adjustment across indicators and that benefit finding was related to higher positive affect and lower depressive symptoms. Benefit finding attenuated the potentially adverse effect of cancer-related masculine threat on negative affect and depressive symptoms such that cancer-related masculine threat demonstrated a stronger association with negative affect and depressive symptoms for people with relatively low BF.Conclusions: For young adult men with testicular cancer, finding benefit appears to promote well-being in the face of masculine cancer threat
Extensions of algebraic image operators: An approach to model-based vision
Researchers extend their previous research on a highly structured and compact algebraic representation of grey-level images which can be viewed as fuzzy sets. Addition and multiplication are defined for the set of all grey-level images, which can then be described as polynomials of two variables. Utilizing this new algebraic structure, researchers devised an innovative, efficient edge detection scheme. An accurate method for deriving gradient component information from this edge detector is presented. Based upon this new edge detection system researchers developed a robust method for linear feature extraction by combining the techniques of a Hough transform and a line follower. The major advantage of this feature extractor is its general, object-independent nature. Target attributes, such as line segment lengths, intersections, angles of intersection, and endpoints are derived by the feature extraction algorithm and employed during model matching. The algebraic operators are global operations which are easily reconfigured to operate on any size or shape region. This provides a natural platform from which to pursue dynamic scene analysis. A method for optimizing the linear feature extractor which capitalizes on the spatially reconfiguration nature of the edge detector/gradient component operator is discussed
Sparse image reconstruction for molecular imaging
The application that motivates this paper is molecular imaging at the atomic
level. When discretized at sub-atomic distances, the volume is inherently
sparse. Noiseless measurements from an imaging technology can be modeled by
convolution of the image with the system point spread function (psf). Such is
the case with magnetic resonance force microscopy (MRFM), an emerging
technology where imaging of an individual tobacco mosaic virus was recently
demonstrated with nanometer resolution. We also consider additive white
Gaussian noise (AWGN) in the measurements. Many prior works of sparse
estimators have focused on the case when H has low coherence; however, the
system matrix H in our application is the convolution matrix for the system
psf. A typical convolution matrix has high coherence. The paper therefore does
not assume a low coherence H. A discrete-continuous form of the Laplacian and
atom at zero (LAZE) p.d.f. used by Johnstone and Silverman is formulated, and
two sparse estimators derived by maximizing the joint p.d.f. of the observation
and image conditioned on the hyperparameters. A thresholding rule that
generalizes the hard and soft thresholding rule appears in the course of the
derivation. This so-called hybrid thresholding rule, when used in the iterative
thresholding framework, gives rise to the hybrid estimator, a generalization of
the lasso. Unbiased estimates of the hyperparameters for the lasso and hybrid
estimator are obtained via Stein's unbiased risk estimate (SURE). A numerical
study with a Gaussian psf and two sparse images shows that the hybrid estimator
outperforms the lasso.Comment: 12 pages, 8 figure
Building on Shaky Ground: Quality and Safety in China’s Construction Industry in the Wake of the Wenchuan and Yushu Earthquakes
[In China, development of building regulations has largely been motivated by a desire to maintain the booming construction industry which has sustained strong economic growth. As a result, the government has fallen behind on ensuring quality and safety in residential housing projects. The devastation left by the Wenchuan and Yushu earthquakes was a grim reminder of this. This essay aims to draw out some of the regulatory mistakes that have been made and proposes solutions to the issues raised. Regulators must refocus their attention on protecting the public and lay the legislative groundwork for healthy development in the sector.
Cascades of Dynamical Transitions in an Adaptive Population
In an adaptive population which models financial markets and distributed
control, we consider how the dynamics depends on the diversity of the agents'
initial preferences of strategies. When the diversity decreases, more agents
tend to adapt their strategies together. This change in the environment results
in dynamical transitions from vanishing to non-vanishing step sizes. When the
diversity decreases further, we find a cascade of dynamical transitions for the
different signal dimensions, supported by good agreement between simulations
and theory. Besides, the signal of the largest step size at the steady state is
likely to be the initial signal.Comment: 4 pages, 8 figure
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