Extensive experimental data from high-energy nucleus-nucleus collisions were recorded using the PHENIX detector at the Relativistic Heavy Ion Collider (RHIC). The comprehensive set of measurements ...from the first three years of RHIC operation includes charged particle multiplicities, transverse energy, yield ratios and spectra of identified hadrons in a wide range of transverse momenta (
p
T
), elliptic flow, two-particle correlations, nonstatistical fluctuations, and suppression of particle production at high
p
T
. The results are examined with an emphasis on implications for the formation of a new state of dense matter. We find that the state of matter created at RHIC cannot be described in terms of ordinary color neutral hadrons.
This study aimed to classify distinct subgroups of people who use both smartphone and the internet based on addiction severity levels. Additionally, how the classified groups differed in terms of sex ...and psychosocial traits was examined.
A total of 448 university students (178 males and 270 females) in Korea participated. The participants were given a set of questionnaires examining the severity of their internet and smartphone addictions, their mood, their anxiety, and their personality. Latent class analysis and ANOVA (analysis of variance) were the statistical methods used.
Significant differences between males and females were found for most of the variables (all <0.05). Specifically, in terms of internet usage, males were more addicted than females (P<0.05); however, regarding smartphone, this pattern was reversed (P<0.001). Due to these observed differences, classifications of the subjects into subgroups based on internet and smartphone addiction were performed separately for each sex. Each sex showed clear patterns with the three-class model based on likelihood level of internet and smartphone addiction (P<0.001). A common trend for psychosocial trait factors was found for both sexes: anxiety levels and neurotic personality traits increased with addiction severity levels (all P<0.001). However, Lie dimension was inversely related to the addiction severity levels (all P<0.01).
Through the latent classification process, this study identified three distinct internet and smartphone user groups in each sex. Moreover, psychosocial traits that differed in terms of addiction severity levels were also examined. It is expected that these results should aid the understanding of traits of internet and smartphone addiction and facilitate further study in this field.
Research problem: Although organizations have been exerting a significant effort to leverage policies and procedures to improve information security, their impact and effectiveness is under scrutiny ...as employees' compliance with information security procedures remains problematic. Research questions: (1) What is the role of information security climate (ISC) in cultivating individual's compliance with security policy? (2) Do individual affective and normative states mediate the effect of ISC to increase security policy compliance intention while thwarting employees' security avoidance? Literature review: Drawing upon Griffin and Neal's safety climate model, which states the effect of safety climate on individual safety behaviors that lead to specific performance outcomes, we develop an ISC model to empirically examine the efficacy of security climate in governing employee's policy compliance. The literature suggests that there could be practical reasons for employees not to observe the security policies and procedures. These go beyond the simple lack of use or negligence, and include rationalizing security violation, particularly in light of the fact that they are under pressure to get something done without delays in daily work. To empirically address such employee behavior, we employed the term, security avoidance in this study-an employee's deliberate intention to avoid security policies or procedures in daily work despite the need and opportunity to do so. Methodology: We surveyed IT users in South Korea about individuals' perception about various organizational/managerial information security practices in the work environment. Results and discussion: The results from 581 participants strongly support the fundamental proposition that the information security climate has a significant positive impact on employee's conformity with the security policy. The study also reveals that the security climate nurtures the employee's affective and cognitive states through affective commitment and normative commitment. These, in turn, mediate the influence of security climate on employee policy compliance by facilitating rule adherence among employees while, at the same time, inspiring self-adjusted behaviors to neutralize their deliberate intents of negligence. Overall, the findings support our view that the creation of strong security climate is the adequate alternative to a sanction-based deterrence to employees' security policy compliance, which limits the presence of security avoidance. The implications to theory are the multidimensional nature of ISC construct and its linkage to a systematic view of individual level information security activities. The implications to practice are the ISC's favorable role of discouraging employee's security avoidance while inducing the security policy compliance intention at the same time, given the limit of sanctions.
Converging evidence has demonstrated that oxidative burdens are associated with drug dependence induced by psychostimulants. Here, we investigated whether oxidative stress directly mediates ...conditioned place preference and behavioral sensitization (drug dependence) induced by cocaine and whether glutathione peroxidase-1 (GPx-1), a major GPx, modulates cocaine-induced psychotoxic changes in mice. Cocaine-induced drug dependence was followed by increases in c-Fos-immunoreactivity (c-Fos-IR) in the nucleus accumbens. Simultaneously, cocaine significantly increased oxidative parameters and nuclear factor κB (NFκB) activity (i.e. nuclear translocation and DNA binding activity) in the striatum (including nucleus accumbens). Genetic depletion of GPx-1 made mice susceptible to drug dependence induced by cocaine in mice, while genetic overexpression of GPx-1 protected the mice from drug dependence. Pyrrolidine dithiocarbamate (PDTC), a NFκB inhibitor, significantly attenuated the sensitivity induced by the genetic depletion of GPx-1 in mice. However, PDTC did not exhibit any additive effects against the protection afforded by the genetic overexpression of GPx-1. Our results suggest that drug dependence induced by cocaine requires oxidative stress and NFκB activation, and that the GPx-1 gene is a potential protective factor against cocaine-induced drug dependence through positive modulation of NFκB.
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•Treatment with cocaine resulted in a compensative induction of GPx-1.•GPx-1 gene attenuated cocaine-induced oxidative potentials in the striatum.•NFkB is a critical target for the GPx-1 activity against cocaine drug dependence.
In this study, rice straw–wood particle composite boards were manufactured as insulation boards using the method used in the wood-based panel industry. The raw material, rice straw, was chosen ...because of its availability. The manufacturing parameters were: a specific gravity of 0.4, 0.6, and 0.8, and a rice straw content (10/90, 20/80, and 30/70 weight of rice straw/wood particle) of 10, 20, and 30 wt.%. A commercial urea–formaldehyde adhesive was used as the composite binder, to achieve 140–290 psi of bending modulus of rupture (MOR) with 0.4 specific gravity, 700–900 psi of bending MOR with 0.6 specific gravity, and 1400–2900 psi of bending MOR with a 0.8 specific gravity. All of the composite boards were superior to insulation board in strength. Width and length of the rice straw particle did not affect the bending MOR. The composite boards made from a random cutting of rice straw and wood particles were the best and recommended for manufacturing processes. Sound absorption coefficients of the 0.4 and 0.6 specific gravity boards were higher than the other wood-based materials. The recommended properties of the rice straw–wood particle composite boards are described, to absorb noises, preserve the temperature of indoor living spaces, and to be able to partially or completely substitute for wood particleboard and insulation board in wooden constructions.
We present results of a search for two hypothetical strange dibaryon states, i.e. the H-dibaryon and the possible Λn‾ bound state. The search is performed with the ALICE detector in central (0–10%) ...Pb–Pb collisions at sNN=2.76 TeV, by invariant mass analysis in the decay modes Λn‾→d‾π+ and H-dibaryon →Λpπ−. No evidence for these bound states is observed. Upper limits are determined at 99% confidence level for a wide range of lifetimes and for the full range of branching ratios. The results are compared to thermal, coalescence and hybrid UrQMD model expectations, which describe correctly the production of other loosely bound states, like the deuteron and the hypertriton.
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