Selecting Serious or Satirical,Supporting or Stirring News? Selective Exposure to Partisan versus Mockery News Online Videos

The present investigation combines cognitive dissonance theory with entertainment-education frameworks to study selection and effects of news. Selective exposure to satirical and partisan news was examined with online clips to test hypotheses on overcoming resistance to persuasive messages. An experiment (n = 146) presented news choices, varied in stance (conservative vs. liberal) and format (serious partisan news vs. satirical news). Results show political interest fosters selection of serious partisan news. Clips with partisan alignment were more frequently selected; only for the satirical news clips, Democrats did not exhibit such confirmation bias. Selecting satirical news affected internal political efficacy, and selecting online news clips induced attitude reinforcement according to message stance.     

质性分析辅助工具在可持续建筑设计中的应用

可持续建筑的设计过程包含对可量化问题和难以量化问题的解决。随着计算机技术的发展,对于可量化问题基本可以通过性能模拟、综合计算等计算手段予以解决,而对于难以量化问题的研究进展则相对缓慢。本实验尝试将质性分析引入建筑设计过程,通过质性分析计算机辅助工具NVivo进行实验性应用。优化建筑设计质的问题层面,提高可持续建筑的整体效能。     

Consistency in inspection processes of food control officials and efficacy of official controls in restaurants in Finland

We evaluated the consistency and efficacy of inspection processes of 17 Finnish municipal food control units by analyzing inspection reports of 83 restaurants over the 2007–2011 period and by interviewing food business operators. Fifty-six officials of the food control units responded to an electronic questionnaire about their inspection activities. We found several factors related to the food establishment, the food control official and the working unit of the official that can affect the inspection processes and the efficacy of the controls. The use of checklists and templates for inspection reports enhanced the consistency and efficacy of the controls. The templates also reduced the time used for, and increased the quality of, reporting. Time limits for correcting non-compliances had a significant effect on the efficacy of controls.     

Does a positive gain spiral of resources,efficacy beliefs and engagement exist?

The present study among 110 Spanish university students expands previous research on work engagement by investigating the causal relationships between two potentially important resources in the use of Information & Communication Technology (i.e., time control and method control), efficacy beliefs and engagement. More specifically, two questions are addressed: (1) do personal resources mediate the relationship between task resources and work engagement? (2) does engagement increase personal and task resources? Results show that efficacy beliefs play a mediating role between task resources and engagement. Engagement increases efficacy beliefs, which in turn increase task resources over time. These findings suggest a positive gain spiral in which efficacy beliefs play a central role.     

Up-and-Down Designs for Selecting the Dose with Maximum Success Probability

Abstract

Assume that the probability of success is unimodal as a function of dose, such as may be the case when too much of a drug is toxic and too little is ineffective. We characterize a class of up-and-down designs, that is, treatment allocation methodologies, for identifying the dose that maximizes the patients' success probability. These designs are constructed to use accruing information to limit the number of patients that are exposed to doses with high probabilities of failure. This treatment allocation procedure is motivated by Kiefer–Wolfowitz's stochastic approximation procedure. However, we take the response to be binary and the possible treatment space to be a lattice. The procedure is shown to allocate treatments to pairs of subjects in a way that causes the treatment distribution to center around the treatment with maximum success probability. The procedure defines a nonhomogeneous random walk, so well-known theory is used to explicitly characterize the treatment distribution. As an estimator of the best dose, the mode of the empirical treatment distribution is shown to converge faster than does the last dose allocated, which is used as an estimator of the optimal dose in stochastic approximation procedures.     

Effects of flameless catalytic infrared radiation on Sitophilus oryzae (L.) life stages

A laboratory benchtop flameless catalytic infrared emitter was evaluated against all life stages of the rice weevil, Sitophilus oryzae (L.), an insect species associated with stored wheat. The emitted infrared radiation was in the 3-7 μm range. A non-contact infrared thermometer measured grain temperatures continuously during exposures of infested wheat. Insect mortality was a function of the final grain temperature attained. In general, higher grain temperatures were attained when using 113.5 versus 227.0 g of wheat, and at 8.0 cm from the emitter versus 12.7 cm, and during a 60 s exposure versus a 45 s exposure. Complete mortality of all life stages of S. oryzae was achieved at 8.0 cm from the emitter using 113.5 g of wheat, with a 60 s exposure; the mean grain temperatures attained ranged from 108.4 to 111.8 °C. The log odds ratio tests showed that eggs (0 days old) were the least susceptible stage to infrared radiation, followed by adults within kernels (28 days old), pupae (24 days old), young larvae (7 days old), larvae that were 14-21 days old, and adults (42 days old). These data using small amounts of grain indicate infrared radiation from the flameless catalytic emitter to be a viable option for disinfesting wheat containing various life stages of S. oryzae.     

Efficiency and efficacy of pre-treatment and bioreaction for bio-H2 energy production from organic waste

Two energy conversion parameters that are able to evaluate and score the pre-treatments and biohydrogen conversion processes of organic waste refuses have been introduced and applied using original experimental data. The parameters can be considered a suitable tool to score and select processes using rich lignocelluloses materials. The first efficiency (ξ) takes into account the quantity of energy that the process is able to extract as hydrogen, compared to the available amount of energy embedded in the refuse; the second efficacy (η) compares the energy conversion efficiency of the bioprocess using the refuse with the same energy conversion parameter obtained using glucose as a lignin-cellulose free substrate. Both the efficiency and efficacy have been applied in several experimental tests carried out with different kinds of experimental apparatus: an Erlenmeyer flask and bench bioreactor (2 L stirred-batch reactor STR), using mechanical (kitchen blade mixer) and chemical (HCl or NaOH for 24 h at 30 °C) pre-treated Organic Waste Market (OWM) refuse. The alkaline pre-treatment is the most efficient. A comparison of OWM efficiency with that of a glucose test under the same bench bioreactor experimental conditions, shows that the efficacy of energy production is 45%, which is equivalent to 7.3 L H2/kg as the gross material i.e. at its original undiluted strength. The paper shows that the two parameters are able to quantify the efficacy of energy production of such a bioprocess, including the pretreatment, using lignin-cellulose refuses, and to score different processes against glucose.     

中西医结合治疗不孕不育78例临床探讨

目的探讨中西医结合治疗不孕不育的病因及临床疗效情况。方法将78例随机平均分为治疗组(中西医结合治疗组)和对照组(单纯西医治疗组)各39例,对照组采用西药阿司匹林、克罗米芬、绒毛膜促性腺激素治疗;治疗组在对照组治疗的基础上加用中医中药治疗。结果治疗组(中西医结合治疗组)与对照组(单纯西医治疗组)总有效率比较,差异有显著意义(P<0.05)。男性不育患者发病的主要原因为精液异常,占61.5%;女性不孕症的病因主要为输卵管炎,占35.9%。结论中西医结合治疗不孕不育的总有效率比较高,疗效是肯定的。     

溴甲烷防除烟草苗床杂草研究

作者在云南省12个县（市），进行溴甲烷熏蒸烟草苗床防除杂草试验，结果表明：在烟草出苗前和出苗期，各处理对单、双子叶杂草防效分别为100％，94.7％～97.4％。在烟苗小十字期和五真时期，40～80g／m~2剂量对单、双子叶杂草防效分别为93.0％～96.8％、91.3％～94.3％；20g／m~2剂量对单、双子叶杂草防效较低，分别为86.8％～87.8％、81.5％～89.1％。各处理对烟草种子及烟苗安全，能间接促进烟草生长，处理区烟苗茎叶粗大，根系发达，烟苗单株茎叶鲜、干重分别比对照增1.27～1.375g、0.1～0.105g，侧根数比对照增10.4～14.7条，根鲜、干重分别比对照增0.038～0.071g、0.0083～0.01g，第五真叶长×宽比对照增1.l～2.3×1.8～1.9cm。认为40～60g/m~2剂量处理有效合理。     

Formulation and efficacy studies of new topical anesthetic creams

Local anesthetics (lidocaine or tetracaine) spontaneously melted at 25°C when mixed with thymol and aqueous isopropyl alcohol solution (IPA) at proper ratios and formed novel two-phase melt systems (TMS). The TMS consisted of a homogeneous oil phase containing primarily a local anesthetic agent (lidocaine or tetracaine) and thymol, and a homogeneous aqueous phase containing primarily IPA and pH 9.2 buffer. The relationship between melting of the solid components and system composition was determined from the phase diagram obtained by a titration method. A select TMS of a local anesthetic agent (lidocaine or tetracaine) was directly emulsified to prepare an O/W cream and tested for the anesthetic efficacy on intact human skin. While both lidocaine (6%) and tetracaine (4%) creams were highly effective for dermal anesthesia with a similar onset time, the tetracaine cream exhibited a significantly longer duration of action than the lidocaine cream. An accelerated stability study indicated that lidocaine was significantly more stable than tetracaine in the creams.