Behavior Drug Use Research Articles

Bi-Polarization in Cascade Size Distributions

Predicting the final sizes of information cascades on online social networks (OSNs) has been a difficult problem. This is because OSNs may have complex topological structures and because user decisions may be influenced by several factors such as social reinforcement. Therefore, a considerable amount of research is being conducted with the objective of investigating in detail the effects of topology and user behavior on information diffusion. This study presents the cases where the final cascade size can be approximated without using further detailed information. Many cascade-size distributions obtained from Twitter-type information diffusion simulations reveal a new finding that as the retweet rates increase, cascades split more clearly into two groups: tiny and large cascades. This bi-polarization phenomenon is universal in that it always appears under various topological and user behavioral conditions. Moreover, the coefficient of variation of cascade sizes of the large cascade group decreases as the retweet rates increase. These findings suggest that the probability of the emergence of a large-scale cascade and its approximate final size are predictable if the global properties of topology and user behavior are time-invariant and given. A simple recurrence relation that generates bi-polarization is derived to verify the correctness of the simulation results.

A Frictionless and Secure User Authentication in Web-Based Premium Applications

By and large, authentication systems employed for web-based applications primarily utilize conventional username and password-based schemes, which can be compromised easily. Currently, there is an evolution of various complex user authentication schemes based on the sophisticated encryption methodology. However, many of these schemes suffer from either low impact full consequences or offer security at higher resource dependence. Furthermore, most of these schemes don’t consider dynamic threat and attack strategies when the clients are exposed to unidentified attack environments. Hence, this paper proposes a secure user authentication mechanism for web applications with a frictionless experience. An automated authentication scheme is designed based on user behavior login events. The uniqueness of user identity is validated in the proposed system at the login interface, followed by implying an appropriate user authentication process. The authentication process is executed under four different login mechanisms, which depend on the profiler and the authenticator function. The profiler uses user behavioral data, including login session time, device location, browser, and details of accessed web services. The system processes these data and generates a user profile via a profiler using the authenticator function. The authenticator provides a login mechanism to the user to perform the authentication process. After successful login attempts, the proposed system updates database for future evaluation in the authentication process. The study outcome shows that the proposed system excels to other authentication schemes for an existing web-based application. The proposed method, when comparatively examined, is found to offer approximately a 10% reduction in delay, 7% faster response time, and 11% minimized memory usage compared with existing authentication schemes for premium web-based applications.

Structural MRI and functional connectivity features predict current clinical status and persistence behavior in prescription opioid users

Prescription opioid use disorder (POUD) has reached epidemic proportions in the United States, raising an urgent need for diagnostic biological tools that can improve predictions of disease characteristics. The use of neuroimaging methods to develop such biomarkers have yielded promising results when applied to neurodegenerative and psychiatric disorders, yet have not been extended to prescription opioid addiction. With this long-term goal in mind, we conducted a preliminary study in this understudied clinical group. Univariate and multivariate approaches to distinguishing between POUD (n = 26) and healthy controls (n = 21) were investigated, on the basis of structural MRI (sMRI) and resting-state functional connectivity (restFC) features. Univariate approaches revealed reduced structural integrity in the subcortical extent of a previously reported addiction-related network in POUD subjects. No reliable univariate between-group differences in cortical structure or edgewise restFC were observed. Contrasting these mixed univariate results, multivariate machine learning classification approaches recovered more statistically reliable group differences, especially when sMRI and restFC features were combined in a multi-modal model (classification accuracy = 66.7%, p < .001). The same multivariate multi-modal approach also yielded reliable prediction of individual differences in a clinically relevant behavioral measure (persistence behavior; predicted-to-actual overlap r = 0.42, p = .009). Our findings suggest that sMRI and restFC measures can be used to reliably distinguish the neural effects of long-term opioid use, and that this endeavor numerically benefits from multivariate predictive approaches and multi-modal feature sets. This can serve as theoretical proof-of-concept for future longitudinal modeling of prognostic POUD characteristics from neuroimaging features, which would have clearer clinical utility.

The comparison of the effectiveness of contingency management and trans-theoretical model on the risk of sexual behaviors in cocaine users: A short report study

BACKGROUND: A transtheoretical model (TTM) can be considered as a cognitive and motivational view, a component which plays a significant role in addiction. Further, the theoretical basis of contingency management (CM) treatment is the origin of behaviorism and relies on operant conditioning. The present study is performed aiming to determine the effectiveness of TTM and CM on cocaine use and sexual risk behaviors in cocaine users. METHODS: In this randomized clinical trial with 6-month follow-up, which was performed from 15 December 2014 to 20 November 2015, 75 male cocaine users were selected based on a respondent-driven sampling (RDS) method and were randomly divided into three groups by block randomization. The experimental group received a 12-week CM protocol and TTM and the control group was placed on the waiting list. Pre-test, post-test (after 12 weeks of training), and follow-up (six months) were administered. Data analysis was carried out using repeated measures analysis of variance (ANOVA), Scheffe’s post hoc test, and chi-square test through SPSS software. RESULTS: The mean age of the CM group, TTM group, and control group was estimated 26.12, 25.31, and 23.91, respectively. The primary outcome showed that CM and TTM had a significant effect on decreasing the sexual thoughts, sexual hyperactivity, and high risk behaviors. This effectiveness was stable until six months (P = 0.008), however there was not a significant difference between the two treatments (P = 0.200). The secondary outcome showed that in the changing stages, TTM (F-72%) and CM (F-60%) had a significant effectiveness which maintained until the follow-up stage. CONCLUSION: The findings more enhance the hope to integrate the theoretical approaches into the clinical interventions.

From skill to value: isolating the influence of end user behavior on seasonal forecast assessment

Abstract. Recent improvements in initialization procedures and representation of large-scale hydrometeorological processes have contributed to advancing the accuracy of hydroclimatic forecasts, which are progressively more skillful over seasonal and longer timescales. These forecasts are potentially valuable for informing strategic multisector decisions, including irrigated agriculture, for which they can improve crop choices and irrigation scheduling. In this operational context, the accuracy associated with the forecast system setup does not necessarily yield proportional marginal benefit, as this is also affected by how forecasts are employed by end users. This paper aims at quantifying the value of hydroclimatic forecasts in terms of potential economic benefit to the end users, which allows for the inference of a relation between gains in forecast skill and gains in end user profit. We also explore the sensitivity of this benefit to both forecast system setup and end user behavioral factors. These analyses are supported by an evaluation framework demonstrated on the Lake Como system (Italy), a regulated lake operated for flood protection and irrigation supply. Our framework relies on an integrated modeling chain composed of three building blocks: bias-adjusted seasonal meteorological forecasts are used as input to the continentally calibrated E-HYPE hydrological model; predicted lake inflows are used for conditioning the daily lake operations; and the resulting lake releases feed an agricultural model to estimate the net profit of the farmers in a downstream irrigation district. Results suggest that despite the gain in average conditions being negligible, informing the operations of Lake Como based on seasonal hydrological forecasts during intense drought episodes allows about 15 % of the farmers' profit to be gained with respect to a baseline solution not informed by any forecast. Moreover, our analysis suggests that behavioral factors capturing different perceptions of risk and uncertainty significantly impact the quantification of the benefit to the end users, whereby the estimated forecast value is potentially undermined by different levels of end user risk aversion. Lastly, our results show an intricate skill-to-value relation modulated by the underlying hydrologic conditions, which is well aligned over an exponential function in dry years, while the gains in profit are almost insensitive to the improvements in forecast skill in wet years.

Consumo inicial de drogas de un adolescente: su análisis funcional

The objective of this investigation was to develop the functional analysis of the initial drug use of an adolescent, with the purpose of proposing a future intervention program. With a non-experimental and prospective design, a 15-year-old middle school student participated, who agreed to participate and his mother signed an informed consent. In to a Care Center to addictions, an assessment was made to the user, through a behavioral interview, the Magic Circle and the generation of an integrative sequential table of variables, in order to prepare the corresponding functional analysis. It was found as an origin/maintenance hypothesis that the behavior of drug use (tobacco and marijuana), was highly probable due to the stimulus "curiosity" towards drug use, the lack of cognitive and motor self-control, as well as social instigation (among peers). Thus, the change hypothesis focuses on psychoeducation and assertiveness training. It is concluded that cognitive behavioral therapy has scientifically proven tools for the timely evaluation of variables that threaten the physical and psychological health of adolescents

Individuals' experiences of the integration of substance use/addiction and HIV/AIDS services in community settings: a qualitative systematic review protocol.

The objectives of this systematic review are: i) to identify, appraise, and synthesize the best available evidence on individuals' experiences of the integration of substance use/addiction and HIV/AIDS services in community settings, and ii) to identify barriers to and facilitators of the integration of the services. The integration of drug use treatment and HIV services has shown to improve HIV prevention, decrease HIV infection and progression, while improving access to social and support services among substance users. Combined pharmacological and behavioral drug use treatments have been proven to diminish behaviors that increase HIV risk, decrease incidence of the disease, and improve adherence to antiretroviral therapy among individuals who use drugs and are HIV-positive. The populations of interest in this review include patients who have experienced integrated substance use/addiction and HIV services, as well as health care professionals and policy makers who have been involved in developing or implementing integrated substance use/addiction and HIV/AIDS services. Eligible studies will focus on the views, attitudes, understandings, and perceptions of patients, health care professionals, and policy makers resulting from experience in developing or implementing strategies that have or could inform the integration of substance use/addiction and HIV/AIDS services in community settings. Searches will be conducted in MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, and CINHAL. The search for unpublished studies will include OpenGrey, Grey Matters, New York Academy of Medicine's Grey Literature Report, ClinicalTrials.gov, and the WHO International Clinical Trials Registry Platform. Selected studies will be critically appraised by two independent reviewers for methodological quality. Data will be extracted and then synthesized following the JBI meta-aggregative approach. PROSPERO CRD42020185858.

The skipping behavior of users of music streaming services and its relation to musical structure.

The behavior of users of music streaming services is investigated from the point of view of the temporal dimension of individual songs. Specifically, the main object of the analysis is the point in time within a song at which users stop listening and start streaming another song (“skip”). The main contribution of this study is the ascertainment of a correlation between the distribution in time of skipping events and the musical structure of songs. It is also shown that such distribution is not only specific to the individual songs, but also independent of the cohort of users and date of observation. Finally, user behavioral data is used to train a predictor of the musical structure of a song solely from its acoustic content; it is shown that the use of such data, available in large quantities to music streaming services, yields significant improvements in accuracy over the customary fashion of training this class of algorithms, in which only smaller amounts of hand-labeled data are available.

What Factors Predict the Self-Identification of Drug Dependency Among Australian Police Detainees? Prevalence, Correlates, and Implications for the Criminal Justice System

The drug-crime nexus has received interest from both drug-crime scholars and public policy experts internationally. While there is little disagreement that drug use is linked to higher rates of crime, causation remains hotly contested. One area of emerging interest is the confounding influence of “identity” in shaping long-term behavioral drug use and criminal trajectories. In this study, we explore the prevalence with which recent drug-using police detainees self-identify as drug-dependent and, using logistic regression, model self-identification as a function of one’s demographic, and drug-use profile. We find that being female and younger is associated with an increased odds of self-identifying oneself as dependent, controlling for drug use variables. Of the five drug types, primary heroin users are the most likely to self-identify, whereas cocaine, cannabis, and amphetamine users are less likely. To end, the potential implications of these results are discussed, and future research avenues are explored.

How to be self-reliant in a stigmatising context? Challenges facing people who inject drugs in Vietnam

BackgroundStigma works to reinforce dominant social values. The meaning of stigma is therefore not static but dependant on the regime in power. Taking into account the significant socioeconomic changes that took place in Vietnam over the last thirty years, this study explores the meaning of stigma directed at Vietnamese people who inject drugs in different social spheres. MethodsThis qualitative study was conducted as part of an evaluation of a peer outreach program that distributes harm-reduction supplies and information, and provides treatment referral assistance to people who inject drugs in Haiphong, Vietnam. We conducted ethnographic field observations with peer outreach workers, home visits, and 54 in-depth interviews with participants in 2017 and 2018. Grounded theory led our theoretical sampling and analysis. ResultsStigma towards people who inject drugs seems to centre on the ability to be self-reliant rather than on drug-using behaviours. Participants described how their families and neighbours expressed expectations that they should manage their substance use issues by themselves, without considering the barriers they face in the job market. Participants interpret stigma directed at them in terms of poverty rather than drug use. As a result, they sometimes engage in illegal income-generating activities to pursue financial autonomy and to regain their social status. ConclusionPeople who inject drugs were struggling to conform to social expectations of self-reliance with limited support to realise it. Effective interventions must consider the many facets and challenges individuals encounter in their daily lives.

Use of a male antioxidant nutraceutical is associated with superior live birth rates during IVF treatment.

Oxidative stress is prevalent among infertile men and is a significant cause of sperm DNA damage. Since sperm DNA damage may reduce embryo quality and increase miscarriage rates, it is possible that untreated sperm oxidative stress may impair in vitro fertilization (IVF) live birth rates. Given that the antioxidant Menevit is reported to reduce sperm DNA damage, it was hypothesized that men's consumption of this supplement may alter IVF outcomes. Therefore, a retrospective cohort study was conducted analyzing outcomes for couples undergoing their first fresh embryo transfer. Men were classified as controls if they were taking no supplements, health conscious controls if taking “general health” supplements, or Menevit users. Men with karyotype abnormalities, or cycles using donated, frozen and surgically extracted sperm were excluded. Among the final study cohort of 657 men, live birth rates were significantly higher in Menevit users than controls (multivariate adjusted odds ratio [OR]: 1.57, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.01–2.45, P = 0.046), but not between controls taking no supplements and those using general health supplements, thereby suggesting that potential health conscious behavior in supplement users is unlikely responsible for the superior outcomes in Menevit users. Interestingly, in a post hoc sensitivity analysis, live birth rates among Menevit users were statistically superior to controls for lean men (OR: 2.73, 95% CI: 1.18–6.28; P = 0.019), not their overweight/obese counterparts (OR: 1.29, 95% CI: 0.75–2.22, P = 0.37). The results of this large cohort study therefore support a positive association between men's use of the Menevit antioxidant during IVF treatment and live birth rates, especially in lean individuals.

Evaluasi Perilaku Penggunaan Obat Sebelum Pasien Terdiagnosa Penyakit Ginjal Kronis Di Rsud Soesilo Kabupaten Tegal Dan Rsud Kardinah Kota Tegal Periode Januari – Agustus 2016

The number of people with Chronic Kidney Disease (CKD) continues to increase and is considered as one of the health problems that can develop into an epidemic. Increasing the use of over the counter (OTC) products, the use of traditional medicines mixed with medicinal chemicals, the use of hard drugs freely brings concerns and concerns about the quality, effectiveness, safety of the products used. This study aims to look at patient distribution, drug use behavior before being diagnosed with CKD in Soeselo Regional Hospital and Kardinah Regional Hospital. The method used in this study is cross sectional by giving prospective questionnaires to patients who fall into the inclusion criteria. The sample used was chronic kidney patients undergoing treatment at Soeselo Regional Hospital as many as 56 respondents and 138 respondents at the Kardinah Regional Hospital in the period January 2016 - August 2016. Data were analyzed statistically using the chi square test to see the proportion of CKD distribution and behavior of drug use of patients in the Regional Hospital Soeselo with Kardinah Regional Hospital. Based on the results of the study, the demographic characteristics obtained male sex, age&gt; 50 years, the type of occupation with moderate physical activity is a high proportion in Kardinah Regional Hospital while the distribution of education level is the highest proportion in Soeselo Regional Hospital. the most widely used is pain reliever (42.6%), where there are significant behavioral differences in Soeselo Regional Hospital with Kardinah Regional Hospital on the behavior of using herbal medicine in racik at home and in the holding of herbal medicine where the proportion of usage in Kardinah Regional Hospital is much higher than in Soesilo Regional Hospital p-value (p &lt;0.05) while the most widely used drugs or health supplements are herbal medicine packaging at home (22.6%) and no significant differences were found (p&gt; 0.05) for supplement use behavior health to maintain stamina and health in both hospitals.

Feedback improves compliance of pressure relief activities in wheelchair users with spinal cord injury

Study designProspective cross-sectional pre-post pilot study.ObjectivesThis pilot study aimed to evaluate the potential for improving pressure relief behaviour in wheelchair users with spinal cord injury (SCI) using a novel feedback system based on textile pressure sensor technology.SettingIn- and out-patient clinic of the Spinal Cord Injury Center, Balgrist University Hospital, Zurich, Switzerland.MethodsNine wheelchair users with SCI (3 females, 50 ± 12 years of age, 2 tetra- and 7 paraplegics) were equipped with a feedback system (sensomativewheelchair) for three continuous weeks. The system consists of a textile pressure mat and a mobile smartphone application that reminds participants to perform missing pressure reliefs during regular and unobserved wheelchair usage in a customized manner. Pressure reliefs were detected using a subject-specific random forest classifier. Improvements of relief quality, duration and frequency were analysed by comparing week 1 (baseline) with no feedback, i.e., only pressure data recorded, against week 2 (with feedback). Carry-over effects of improved relief behaviour were studied in week 3 (no feedback, pressure data only recorded).ResultsAll participants increased their relief frequency and performed in median 82% (IQRs: 55%–99%) of the required reliefs while using the feedback system, whereas the median relief frequency was only 11% (IQRs: 10%–31%) during the baseline condition. Every participant who did not perform reliefs of sufficient duration (based on the recommendations of the therapist) during week 1 showed a significant improvement while using the feedback system.ConclusionSubject-specific feedback using the novel feedback system may have the potential for improving the regularity of an individual’s relief activities, and may ultimately be an instrument for reducing the risk of developing pressure ulcers.

A description of drug use among adolescents in Slovakia in different age and gender groups

The paper describes the drug-using behaviour among young people (12-19 y.) within two age groups in Slovakia. The study aims to describe the prevalence of two different forms of drug-use (experimentation and use within the last 30 days) of legal and illegal substances: alcohol, nicotine (cigarettes), marijuana, and other illegal drugs. A descriptive analysis was applied to two age and gender groups. The research sample was made up of 2489 pupils in primary and secondary schools (various types) from different regions within Slovakia. One set was made up of 39.1% (N = 974) boys and 61.3% (N = 1515) girls aged 12-19 years which was divided into two age groups: group “14” (14 to 15 years, N = 923) and group “16” (16 and older, N = 1566). The SAHA method was used for data collection (Social and Health Assessment, Weissberg et al., 1991; a Slovak version by Rojková, 2017). Gender differences were tested statistically, and some differences were identified. The results are discussed in the context of European and national surveys that are available and a decrease in experimentation with marijuana and smoking was found.&#x0D;

The switch from one substance-of-abuse to another: illicit drug substitution behaviors in a sample of high-risk drug users.

BackgroundSubstitution can be defined as the consciously motivated choice to use one drug, either licit or illicit, instead of another, due to perceptions of cost, availability, safety, legality, substance characteristics, and substance attributions. Substitution represents a potential risk to drug users, mainly when substitutes are of higher potency and toxicity. This study offers a basic conceptualization of illicit substitution behavior and describes substitution patterns among users of two highly prevalent drugs of abuse—heroin and cannabis.MethodsHere, 592 high-risk drug users undergoing pharmacological and psycho-social treatment were interviewed. Patients were asked questions about current drug use, lifetime substitution, and substitution patterns. Descriptive statistics, chi-square tests of independence, and multinomial logistic regressions were used to identify and test correlates of substitution patterns for heroin and cannabis.ResultsOf the 592 drug users interviewed, 448 subjects (75.7%) reported having substituted their preferred drug for another illicit substance. Interviews yielded a total of 275 substitution events reported by users of cannabis, and 351 substitution events reported by users of heroin. The most frequently reported substitution substances for responders who preferred heroin were illicit non-prescribed “street” methadone (35.9%), followed by oral and transdermal prescription opioids (17.7%). For responders who preferred cannabis, substitution for synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists (33.5%) followed by alcohol (16.0%) were the most commonly reported. Age at onset–of–use (p < 0.005), population group (p = 0.008), and attending treatment for the first time (p = 0.026) were significantly associated with reported lifetime substitution. Past-year use of stimulants, heroin, hallucinogens, methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA), and novel psychoactive substances were—at the 95% confidence level—also significantly associated with reported lifetime substitution. In multivariate analysis, the odds for methadone substitution among heroin users were significantly affected by age at onset-of-use, type of treatment center, and education. Odds for substitution for synthetic cannabinoid receptor agonists among cannabis users were significantly affected by age, population group, type of treatment center, and education.ConclusionSelf-substitution behavior should be considered by clinicians and policymakers as a common practice among most drugusers. Substitution for street methadone provides evidence for the ongoing diversion of this substance from Opioid Maintenance Treatment Centers, while the prominence of substitution of synthetic cannabinoids among dual-diagnosis patients should be regarded as an ongoing risk to patients that needs to be addressed by clinicians. Analysis of additional substitution patterns should provide further valuable insights into the behavior of drugusers.

Enhancement of Drug Seeking Following Drug Taking in a Sexual Context Requires Anterior Cingulate Cortex Activity in Male Rats.

Individual variance in vulnerability to develop addictions is influenced by social factors. Specifically, drug-taking in a sexual context appears to enhance further drug-seeking behavior in human users, as these users identify the effects of drugs to enhance sexual pleasure as a primary reason for continued drug use. Methamphetamine (Meth) is commonly used in this context. Similarly, male rats that self-administered Meth immediately followed by sexual behavior display enhanced drug-seeking behavior, including attenuation of extinction and increased reinstatement to seeking of Meth-associated cues. Hence, drug-taking in a sexual context enhances vulnerability for addiction. However, the neural mechanisms by which this occurs are unknown. Here the hypothesis was tested that medial prefrontal cortex is essential for this effect of Meth and sex when experienced concurrently. First it was shown that CaMKII neurons in the anterior cingulate area (ACA) were co-activated by both Meth and sex. Next, chemogenetic inactivation of ACA CaMKII cells using AAV5-CaMKIIa-hM4Di-mCherry was shown not to affect Meth-induced locomotor activity or sexual behavior. Subsequently, chemogenetic inactivation of ACA CaMKII neurons during Meth self-administration followed by sexual behavior was shown to prevent the effects of Meth and sex on enhanced reinstatement of Meth-seeking but did not affect enhanced drug-seeking during extinction tests. These results indicate that ACA CaMKII cell activation during exposure to Meth in a sexual context plays an essential role in the subsequent enhancement of drug-seeking during reinstatement tests.

From demonstrations to task-space specifications. Using causal analysis to extract rule parameterization from demonstrations

Learning models of user behaviour is an important problem that is broadly applicable across many application domains requiring human–robot interaction. In this work, we show that it is possible to learn generative models for distinct user behavioural types, extracted from human demonstrations, by enforcing clustering of preferred task solutions within the latent space. We use these models to differentiate between user types and to find cases with overlapping solutions. Moreover, we can alter an initially guessed solution to satisfy the preferences that constitute a particular user type by backpropagating through the learned differentiable models. An advantage of structuring generative models in this way is that we can extract causal relationships between symbols that might form part of the user’s specification of the task, as manifested in the demonstrations. We further parameterize these specifications through constraint optimization in order to find a safety envelope under which motion planning can be performed. We show that the proposed method is capable of correctly distinguishing between three user types, who differ in degrees of cautiousness in their motion, while performing the task of moving objects with a kinesthetically driven robot in a tabletop environment. Our method successfully identifies the correct type, within the specified time, in 99% [97.8–99.8] of the cases, which outperforms an IRL baseline. We also show that our proposed method correctly changes a default trajectory to one satisfying a particular user specification even with unseen objects. The resulting trajectory is shown to be directly implementable on a PR2 humanoid robot completing the same task.

Explicit and implied significance of contemporary public spaces. Part 1. Spaces of attractions

This text presents considerations encouraged by thoughts and conclusions gained from research on several beach bars and their comparison with other urban public spaces, run in Wrocław from 2018 to 2019. The similarities and differences between the two types of spaces provoke a question about the meaning of what we call „public spaces” today. The question is also asked, somewhat perversely, about the validity of following best practices based on proxemic principles and focused on attracting and retaining people in urban spaces. The paper examines not so much the rules but the purpose, in other words the type of space we receive/can achieve as a result of applying these principles, since people in the urban space (private or public) are only guests, while their choice is reduced to the top-down offer. The above doubt also results from the conclusion regarding the most important feature determining attractiveness of a beach bar space, which in my opinion, is the freedom of behaviour for users. In it we can see deficiencies of the prevailing narrative about our participation in space and, above all, the possibility of choice, or what should be called the limitations of choice – the lack of possession/self-agency. Such a situation, largely conditioned by politics (and economics), reduces public space to the role of a “space of attractions” (curiosities), whose action and participation is based on experiencing – on a direct experience. The clash of these two forces – standardization and individualization, erodes the current model of common spaces based on the historical (nineteenth century) one, whose images are transferred only in the form of empty clichés. Thus, the limitation of choices, the need to fall into line and appearances of a community lead to an escape upwards – enclaves for the chosen ones (omnitopia) and downwards – niches for the rebellious ones (heterotopia), while beach bars represent both ways of escape. Against this background, the purposefulness of expert/ top-down creation of public spaces, carried out in isolation from other essential values and laws, appears problematic.

HIV- and Drug Use-Related Stigma and Service Provision Among Community Health Workers in Vietnam.

This study compared community health workers' (CHW) stigma towards people living with HIV (PLH) and people who use drugs (PWUD) and explored the relationship between stigma and CHWs' confidence level in providing HIV/drug-related services. Using two sets of identically worded questions, levels of stigma towards PWUD and PLH were measured among 120 CHW from 60 communes in Vietnam. The associations between CHWs' confidence in service provision and stigma towards PWUD and PLH were examined using a linear mixed-effects regression model. The majority of the CHW reported higher levels of stigma towards PWUD than towards PLH. Compared to the CHW reporting higher stigma towards PWUD, those with higher stigma towards PLH were significantly less confident in service provision. Social opprobrium attached to drug-using behaviors can be a major driver behind the overall HIV stigma. CHWs' fear of HIV infection should be tackled to boost their confidence in HIV/drug-related care provision.

Spam Detector: A Solution for Finding Bogus Opinions and Spammer Classification in E-Commerce

In this paper we propose a system called Spam Detector to find out spam reviews of particular product. This framework uses spam features which helps to review datasets. In proposed system four different categories of features are included such as review behavioral (based on behaviour of review) , user behavioral (based on behaviour of user), review linguistic (based on linguistic pattern of review) and user linguistic (based on linguistic pattern of user). In today’s world, most of people take decision based on information available through social media reviews on a topic or product. Due to this it is possible that anyone can post a review for a particular product which give a chance for spammers to post junk reviews related to particular product and facilities. To find out such spammers and the spam review is becoming important. Some methods exist to cope up with this problem, but these methods hardly detect spam reviews, and are not based on the extracted feature type. Weight of spam features are used to gain better results in the form of different aspects tested on real world review datasets. Here the used dataset is from Amazon websites. The experimental results show that Spam Detector beats the present method.