Website Source Research Articles

Is online information on ecstasy tablet content safe?

In recent years, the prevalence of ecstasy use has increased in most European countries. Users can acquire information on ecstasy tablet composition through the internet. This study compares online information from two websites, Pillreports and Partyflock, to the validated Dutch Drugs Information and Monitoring System (DIMS) database, and aims to measure its accuracy and potential danger or value. The drug-related information posted on Pillreports.net and Partyflock.nl between 1 January 2014 and 31 December 2015 was investigated for accuracy and several information characteristics such as picture inclusion and dose range inclusion. In total, 471 informatory statements on ecstasy tablet content were analysed relative to the Dutch ecstasy market. Informatory statements on the content of specific ecstasy tablets were scored as 'too high' or 'too low' if their concentrations deviated >10mg from the entries in the DIMS database within a 12-week time-frame, and scored as 'dangerous' if their concentration was >40mg too low. Unreported substances were scored as 'dangerous' if listed as an illegal or dangerous substance in the DIMS database and if present in relevant quantities. Also scored were the report characteristics 'picture inclusion', 'spread inclusion' and 'website source', which were tested for their association with report safety/danger. On average, reports on ecstasy tablets from Pillreports and Partyflock show concentrations which are 10.6mg too high [95% confidence interval (CI)=6.7-14.4]. Qualitatively, 39.7% of the reports scored as 'too high' (95% CI=35.2-44.4), 17.6% scored as 'too low' (95% CI=14.0-21.2) and 15.5% had 'unreported substances' (95% CI=12.3-18.9), resulting overall in 15.3% of the reports being scored as 'dangerous' (95% CI=11.9-18.5). The report characteristic 'spread inclusion' associated inversely with report danger [Exp(b)=0.511, 95% CI=0.307-0.850, P=0.01]. Information from the popular Pillreports and Partyflock websites tends to overestimate 3,4-methylenedioxymethamphetamine (MDMA) concentrations in ecstasy tablets. In addition, 15.3% of the reports omit the relevant concentration spread, fail to report additional illegal or dangerous substances contained in the tablets or underestimate MDMA concentration by >40mg.

Beyond instrumentalism

The Chinese domesticating translation norms and Sino-centric values have been historically dominating print media translation in China, hindering the introduction of foreignness in the form of written text. Recent Sino-centric values in the Chinese translation field further hamper the introduction of foreign translation study methods. In this context, this paper looks at the non-localization strategy of Apple’s official websites; this strategy produces original English texts, such asiPhone, on the target website. It verifies the point that this strategy could effectively give foreignizing and challenging exceptions to how texts have been traditionally domesticated in China with strategies that sit in line with Chinese translation norms. That is to say, characterized by industrial natures of localization, internationalization and digital media, the implementation of non-localization strategy and the display of highly foreign non-localized texts on the Chinese site are almost under the control of source website owner, i.e. Apple Company. This non-localization strategy, therefore, has a foreignizing impact on the Chinese translation norm, due to its source-driven and digital-media based industrial nature. The cultural study of localization is necessary, as it greatly transcends instrumentalism, which could have implications on mainstream translation studies.

Transfer Learning for Collaborative Filtering Using a Psychometrics Model

In a real e-commerce website, usually only a small number of users will give ratings to the items they purchased, and this can lead to the very sparse user-item rating data. The data sparsity issue will greatly limit the recommendation performance of most recommendation algorithms. However, a user may register accounts in many e-commerce websites. If such users’ historical purchasing data on these websites can be integrated, the recommendation performance could be improved. But it is difficult to align the users and items between these websites, and thus how to effectively borrow the users’ rating data of one website (source domain) to help improve the recommendation performance of another website (target domain) is very challenging. To this end, this paper extended the traditional one-dimensional psychometrics model to multidimension. The extended model can effectively capture users’ multiple interests. Based on this multidimensional psychometrics model, we further propose a novel transfer learning algorithm. It can effectively transfer users’ rating preferences from the source domain to the target domain. Experimental results show that the proposed method can significantly improve the recommendation performance.

User-generated product reviews on the internet: the drivers and outcomes of the perceived usefulness of product reviews

This study examines how people cope with the user-generated product reviews (UGPRs) found on various websites where anonymous web users post and share their personal product usage experiences. Based on information processing model of communication, we postulate that there are source, message, media, and receiver factors to influence individuals' psychological processing of the UGPR messages, and its subsequent behavioral outcomes. A survey was administered by a professional market research firm to 262 randomly selected US residents from 18 to 55 years old. Consistent with the predictions, the results of the structural equation modeling analysis showed that the perceived source expertise, message objectivity, website credibility, and receiver–source similarity had positive and direct impacts on the perceptions of UGPR usefulness, which, in turn, positively influenced individuals' willingness to share product reviews with others. A series of causal model invariance tests also confirmed that the findings were statistically invariant across different subgroups divided by such factors as product categories, websites, subjective product class knowledge, past UGPR experience, and the susceptibility to informational influence.

Comparative Analysis of Online Patient Education Material for Celiac Disease Presidential Poster

Introduction: Celiac disease affects ˜1% of the general population with a prevalence of around 1 in 141 people. It is also notorious for being grossly under-diagnosed with only 10-15% of the cohort being diagnosed. Although classically a disease of infants, celiac disease now often presents later, between the ages of 10 & 40 years. The National Institute of Health recommends that the readability level of patient education materials be written at or below the 6th grade level to be effectively understood by the American public. Hence, it becomes imperative to assess the readability of online patient-centered information. Here, we report a comparative analysis from 7 prominent websites. Methods: The term “Celiac Disease” was Google searched and the first 20 results were evaluated. Patient education related articles were saved from American College of Gastroenterology (ACG), American Society for Gastrointestinal Endoscopy (ASGE), Mayo Clinic, Merck Manual, National Institute of Diabetes and Digestive and Kidney Diseases (NIDDK), UpToDate (UTD), and WebMD. They were then divided into the sub-sections: Introduction, Symptoms, Diagnosis, Complications and Treatment. The following validated readability tests were chosen: Coleman-Liau, New Dale-Chall, Flesch-Kincaid, Gunning Fog, SMOG & Flesch Reading Ease (FRE). The bias from medical terminology, proper nouns, copyright text etc was reduced with their removal from final analysis. Results: The modified text was 1 grade level below the original documents. ASGE had the highest mean grade level of readability (15.16±0.73) while WebMD had the lowest (9.08±0.6). The complications subsection had the highest mean grade level (13.93±1.03). ANOVA analysis showed that there were significant differences in the grade level depending on the source website (p < 0.05), along with significant differences in subsections when compared with Coleman-Liau, New Dale-Chall & FRE. Post hoc Tukey HSD Analysis showed that WebMD was written at a significantly lower grade level than other websites. The complications section was usually the most difficult section written when compared with other subsections (p < 0.05). Conclusion: Patient material is above the recommended 6th grade level across all websites. Complications section is often the most difficult section to comprehend. Greater emphasis on clear and simple language is warranted to increase quality and comprehension of online patient education resources.Figure 1Figure 2Figure 3

Conformity Level of AAOIFI Accounting Standards by Six Islamic Banks of Bangladesh

In response to this global rise in Islamic financial organism and banking, the need for setting up a common standard for the accounting function in Islamic Banks, became an unuttered need. Addressing this need, in the year 1991, the global institute for setting accounting standards for Islamic financial institutes, Accounting and Auditing Organization for Islamic Financial Institutions (AAOIFI) has been established in Bahrain. This study tries to find out the conformity level of the Islamic Banks in Bangladesh with these standards. This study analyses the annual reports of six Islamic banks from Bangladesh of the year 2012. The Reports are collected from the Banks’ website sources. It is found that these six banks conform with the AAOIFI standards by 53.79% on average in financial statements. A 2.79 standard deviation in case of total conformity refers to the low level of difference among these banks in case of disclosure. This study suggests that it is highly of importance for the banks to increase the level of conformity of the AAOIFI standards to ensure the stakeholders about their sincerity and determination to comply with Islamic Shari’ah. Analysis of AAOFI standard compliance is relatively new in Bangladesh. This research study may provide some new insights into the existing Islamic literature. Keywords: Islamic Banking, Islamic Finance, AAOIFI Standards.

Readability Levels of Traumatic Brain Injury Websites in Australia, New Zealand, the United Kingdom, and the United States

Abstract Date Presented 4/17/2015 This study investigated the readability of international traumatic brain injury (TBI) websites. Results show that they are written at grade levels that exceed the literacy of many of those with TBI and a large portion of the general population. Suggestions to enhance readability of website and nonwebsite sources are described.

A European Flood Database: facilitating comprehensive flood research beyond administrative boundaries

Abstract. The current work addresses one of the key building blocks towards an improved understanding of flood processes and associated changes in flood characteristics and regimes in Europe: the development of a comprehensive, extensive European flood database. The presented work results from ongoing cross-border research collaborations initiated with data collection and joint interpretation in mind. A detailed account of the current state, characteristics and spatial and temporal coverage of the European Flood Database, is presented. At this stage, the hydrological data collection is still growing and consists at this time of annual maximum and daily mean discharge series, from over 7000 hydrometric stations of various data series lengths. Moreover, the database currently comprises data from over 50 different data sources. The time series have been obtained from different national and regional data sources in a collaborative effort of a joint European flood research agreement based on the exchange of data, models and expertise, and from existing international data collections and open source websites. These ongoing efforts are contributing to advancing the understanding of regional flood processes beyond individual country boundaries and to a more coherent flood research in Europe.

Software Refactoring Technique for Code Clone Detection of Static and Dynamic Website

Now-a-days cloning of codes or programs of the developer or authorized person leads a positive approach. But the code cloning is done by unauthorized person leads a negative approach. In the recent years, many clone detection tools have been proposed. It produces an over whelming volume of simple clones of data or structure [3]. Code clone detection the content similarity between the programs or webpages. An attempt is made to desgn a method called “SD Code Clone Detection” for both static and dynamic webpages. It is based on levenshtein’s approach. This method comprises some steps like, parsing & analysis, tree construction, code similarity measure and clone detection. Experiments are carried out with open source websites and webpages created by some volunteers. Experimental results are recorded and are showing the better detection rate.

A Methodology for Determining the Transferability Rate of Courses

For transfer students, the transfer of credit between institutions creates a barrier to graduation as students’ time and money is ultimately wasted when courses do not successfully transfer as credit applicable toward degree requirements at the receiving institution. Understanding the extent to which courses at your institution transfer to other institutions is the first step to increase the transferability of courses and, ultimately, ease this barrier. We created a process for utilizing the enrollment data from the National Student Clearinghouse to identify a subset of institutions to which large numbers of our former students transferred in the past three years. Then, for these institutions, we recorded course transfer equivalency information from the Michigan Transfer Network website and several other sources. To determine the transferability rate of courses, a coding system was created to increase consistency in the identification of a course as transferable. The detailed methodology for this transferability analysis will be discussed. Finally, we will discuss the ways in which we use the transferability rate to better understand course characteristics in relation to transferability.

Multiple Opinion Climates in Online Forums

Through the Spiral of Silence framework, this study examines the online opinion climate effect on individual willingness to post messages in forums, using a 2 × 2 experiment manipulating website source (mainstream news/ideologically homogeneous activist group) and opinion congruency (minority/majority opinion). Individuals’ willingness to post was affected only by their opinion congruency with those expressed in forums. Analysis revealed instances of individuals “speaking up” as compared to “speaking out.” Other deterrents to willingness to post were also uncovered.

Analysis of environmental correlates of sexual segregation in northern elephant seals using species distribution models

Elephant seals are among the most sexually dimorphic and polygynous species of all mammals. Their foraging grounds occupy a wide area of the world oceans, where they show spatial segregation between males and females. The objective of this paper was to correlate female and male foraging distributions of Mirounga angustirostris with main climatic variables at a biogeographical scale. We used website and bibliographical sources to obtain information on adult elephant seal distribution and environmental predictors (surface and bottom sea temperatures, productivity and bathymetry) and three species distribution models [maximum entropy model, environmental niche factor analysis and based on climatic envelopes (BIOCLIM)] to predict the habitat suitability of ocean regions. BIOCLIM provided the best fit. Sea surface and bottom temperatures were the variables with the highest explanatory power for females, while bathymetry was for males. Predictive maps suggest that low temperatures constrain female, but not male, distribution at high latitudes. We suggest that large size increases foraging efficiency of males because, among other benefits, it augments thermal insulation, improving the use of cold, rich sectors of the ocean. Different thermoregulatory abilities between sexes due to size dimorphism should be a complementary explanation of sexual segregation in elephant seals.

Seeing Is Believing? A Mixed-Methods Study Exploring the Quality and Perceived Trustworthiness of Online Information About Chronic Conditions Aimed at Children and Young People

The numbers of children and young people with chronic conditions are increasing. While their information needs may vary, providing health care information can have considerable benefits, including better emotional health, less distress during treatments, and greater satisfaction with medical care. The Internet is increasingly being used to communicate health-related information to children about a range of chronic conditions. However, the quality of such websites is underexplored. Thus, the objectives of this study were to evaluate the reliability and quality of online information for children about chronic conditions using a standardized evaluation tool, and to explore children’s and young people’s perceptions of quality and trustworthiness regarding online health information. The study consisted of two phases. In Phase 1, websites about common pediatric chronic conditions aimed at children and containing treatment or management options were identified and the quality assessment tool DISCERN was completed. Test–retest and interrater reliability were calculated. In Phase 2, two focus groups with laptop computers were conducted with children and young people with a chronic condition to explore their perceptions of trustworthiness of online health information. In Phase 1, 165 websites were identified and 100 met the criteria and were assessed. The mean DISCERN score of all sites was 48.16 out of 75 (SD = 7.97, range 28–71, min 15 to max 75). Quality scores varied widely across the sample. The internal consistency and interrater reliability scores were both lower than previously reported in studies using the DISCERN to assess information for adults. In Phase 2, two focus groups with a total of six participants aged 11–23 years revealed a relative lack of concern about the quality and trustworthiness of online health information. Older participants reported judging the source and authorship of websites, but other participants did not question the source of the information they found online. Although personal websites were perceived to be less reliable than those from well-known medical institutions, they were still valued by many of the participants. Overall, there were relatively few websites about pediatric chronic conditions aimed at children, with variable quality and reliability. However, DISCERN’s use with pediatric websites across a broad spectrum of developmental stages is limited. Children and young people demonstrated a need for more guidance around assessing trustworthiness of online information. A more appropriate quality assessment tool is warranted, which could usefully be employed by health care professionals, children, and parents.

Review: Papers 2 (Mac OS and Windows), $79Papers for iPad and iPhone, $14.99 Mekentosj B.V. http://www.mekentosj.com/papers

Papers 2 (Mac OS and Windows), $79 Papers for iPad and iPhone, $14.99 Mekentosj B.V. http://www.mekentosj.com/papers To access books, periodicals, articles, or archives once meant seeking out physical objects stored in buildings. Today scholars increasingly utilize digital documents, not only journal articles but also books, dissertations, and even archival materials, downloading them to computers and mobile devices for consultation anytime, anywhere. But if some argue that the strict ontology of the card catalog and the physical library is no longer appropriate for either our interdisciplinary age or our media, a competing organizational system for managing personal digital libraries has yet to emerge.1 Netherlands-based developer Mekentosj’s Papers suite of research products, released for the Mac OS, Windows, and iOS, sets out to address this problem. Taking their cues not from physical or online card catalogs, but rather from Apple’s iTunes media library management software, the desktop and mobile versions of Papers set out to simplify the process of finding, organizing, and reading documents. As with iTunes, one transfers material into Papers by dragging and dropping files or through a built-in search engine that traverses online repositories of articles such as JSTOR or Google Scholar. Executing an online search delivers results as a set of links in the viewer window. Clicking on any of these makes the article’s source website appear in the window: here a user would download an article as if working in a browser; however, upon downloading, the article is immediately archived instead of being sent to a cluttered desktop or download folder. Customized searching of online repositories in Papers is useful, yet most of the databases Mekentosj offers as part of this experience are science- and social science-oriented, betraying Papers’ origins as a tool designed by Alexander Griekspoor and Tom Groothuis when they were doctoral students at the Netherlands Cancer Institute. That Springer Science+Business Media, a company not exactly known for indexing humanities …

The impact of hyperlink affordance, psychological reactance, and perceived business tie on trust transfer

This study investigates the impact of hyperlink affordance, psychological reactance, perceived loss of freedom, perceived business tie between sites, and trust in source site, on trust in target site. Hyperlink affordance represents the extent that the Web encourages users’ behavior. Perceived loss of freedom is based on psychological reactance, which refers to the extent that users react to hyperlink affordance. In order to examine the research model, this study used 305 responses from Korean users to conduct three experiments: (1) evaluate trust transfer from the online source Web site to another online target site (Experiment 1), (2) evaluate trust transfer from an online site to an offline target site (Experiment 2), and (3) evaluate trust transfer from an offline site to an online target site (Experiment 3). Trust is transferred from source to target site in the test results of all three models. The hyperlink affordance affects trust transfer in the test results of Experiment 1. Perceived loss of freedom based on psychological reactance negatively affects trust transfer in the test results of Experiments 2 and 3, which decreases the effect of hyperlink affordances on trust transfer. The perceived business tie between sites affects trust transfer in the test results of Experiment 3. The study provides insights into the application of trust transfer in various settings of source and target site in online and offline business.

Sexually Explicit Media on the Internet: A Content Analysis of Sexual Behaviors, Risk, and Media Characteristics in Gay Male Adult Videos

Recent research suggests that viewing sexually explicit media (SEM), i.e., adult videos, may influence sexual risk taking among men who have sex with men. Despite this evidence, very little is known about the content of gay male SEM on the Internet, including the prevalence of sexual risk behaviors and their relation to video- and performer-characteristics, viewing frequency, and favorability. The current study content analyzed 302 sexually explicit videos featuring male same-sex performers that were posted to five highly trafficked adult-oriented websites. Findings revealed that gay male SEM on the Internet features a variety of conventional and nonconventional sexual behaviors. There was a substantial prevalence of unprotected anal intercourse (UAI) (34 %) and was virtually the same as the prevalence of anal sex with a condom (36 %). The presence of UAI was not associated with video length, amateur production, number of video views, favorability, or website source. However, the presence of other potentially high-risk behaviors (e.g., ejaculation in the mouth, and ejaculation on/in/rubbed into the anus) was associated with longer videos, more views, and group sex videos (three or more performers). The findings of high levels of sexual risk behavior and the fact that there was virtually no difference in the prevalence of anal sex with and without a condom in gay male SEM have important implications for HIV prevention efforts, future research on the role of SEM on sexual risk taking, and public health policy.

Reference List Errors in Manuscripts Submitted to a Journal for Review for Publication

Style errors outlined in the Publication Manual of the American Psychological Association (APA) were examined among 131 manuscripts submitted to Research in the Schools , a nationally refereed journal, over a 6-year period. Specifically, a mixed research design was utilized to determine the frequency and characteristics of APA errors committed in the reference lists of these manuscripts. Findings revealed that authors committed more than 12 reference list errors per manuscript, on average ( M = 12.83, SD = 7.25). Further, a total of 466 unique reference list errors were identified, which yielded the following 14 reference list error themes: general errors, reference heading, names of authors, publication year/date, title of work, publisher information, source of journal/periodical, source of authored book, source of edited book, source of website, source of paper presentation, source of dissertation/thesis, source of newspaper article, and source of government document. Implications of these and other findings are discussed.

Do Marketers Use Visual Representations of Destinations That Tourists Value? Comparing Visitors’ Image of a Destination with Marketer-Controlled Images Online

The study explores visitors’ image of a destination using online visitor-generated photography and compares the findings with images of the same destination that marketers create and control on the Internet. The two studies are conducted with Taiwan as the context-destination. Online visitor-generated photography yielded more than 100 photographs from visitors to Taiwan, and indicates that visitors’ holistic image encompasses notions of Taiwanese uniqueness, ancientness, and authenticity through their perceptions of the natural landscapes, traditional local cuisine, and culture. The second study yielded 1,526 visual image representations of Taiwan collected from a variety of website sources, and findings highlight the disparities between the holistic image construed by visitors to Taiwan and the image created by marketers on the Internet. The findings yield important implications for the effective positioning and promotion of tourism destinations as managers should consider visitors’ holistic images in their attempt to create destination images through online visual representations.

Abstract P5-11-02: Breast Cancer Radiation Therapy and the Risk of Developing Bronchiolitis Obliterans Organizing Pneumonia (BOOP): Communication of BOOP Risk by Breast Cancer Information Websites and General Medical Information Websites

Abstract Background: BOOP is an inflammatory pulmonary disorder consisting of organized polypoid granulation tissue in the distal airways extending into the alveolar ducts and alveoli. Clinical manifestations of BOOP include fever, cough, dyspnea on exertion, and fatigue. Patients with severe BOOP require hospitalization. The mainstay of BOOP treatment is high dose corticosteroids. Many patients relapse and require long term corticosteroids, often in combination with another immunosuppressant. Significant morbidity and disability may be associated with both the diagnosis of BOOP and the toxicities of treatment. The mortality rate of BOOP has been estimated to be about 5%. Radiation Therapy (RT) is an important component in the treatment of breast cancer (Breast Ca). Beginning in 1995, reports of BOOP occurring in Breast Ca RT patients began to appear in the medical literature. From 1995 to the present, 43 case study reports described 121 Breast Ca RT patients who developed BOOP within one year of their RT. From 1999 to 2011, seven epidemiological studies were published that suggested that the incidence of BOOP in Breast Ca RT patients was in the range of 2% to 3%. Objectives: The primary objective of this study was to determine if internet sources of Breast Ca information targeted to Breast Ca patients include BOOP information in their description of RT risks. The secondary objective was to determine if general medical websites conveyed BOOP/Breast Ca RT risk information. Methods: Eight websites specifically targeted to Breast Ca patients were reviewed. Sponsors of these websites included the US government, Breast Ca advocacy groups, and medical organizations. Seven general medical websites that contained BOOP/Breast Ca RT information were also reviewed. Results: There was no mention of BOOP in any of the websites targeted to Breast Ca patients. The websites included those from the National Cancer Institute, American Cancer Society, American Society of Therapeutic Radiology and Oncology, Susan G. Komen, and BreastCancer.org. The internet search identified seven general medical websites that did include information about the risk of BOOP from Breast Ca RT. Discussion: It is perplexing that none of the eight website sources for Breast Ca patients included any mention of the risk of BOOP associated with Breast Ca RT, whereas seven general medical internet sources did disclose this information. This disparity raises important issues and questions. The majority of BOOP/Breast Ca RT reports were published in pulmonology journals. Is this information being disseminated to providers of Breast Ca treatment? Many of the Breast Ca information websites stated that their information was up to date and was reviewed by leading Breast Ca physicians, so it remains an enigma that the BOOP/RT association was not disclosed. The lack of any information about BOOP and Breast Ca RT may indicate Breast Ca physician unawareness. An alternative explanation for this finding may be that these physicans are aware of the BOOP/RT association, but they believe that the rarity of BOOP diagnoses justifies omitting this information in internet-based information sources. Citation Information: Cancer Res 2012;72(24 Suppl):Abstract nr P5-11-02.

D2P2: database of disordered protein predictions

We present the Database of Disordered Protein Prediction (D2P2), available at http://d2p2.pro (including website source code). A battery of disorder predictors and their variants, VL-XT, VSL2b, PrDOS, PV2, Espritz and IUPred, were run on all protein sequences from 1765 complete proteomes (to be updated as more genomes are completed). Integrated with these results are all of the predicted (mostly structured) SCOP domains using the SUPERFAMILY predictor. These disorder/structure annotations together enable comparison of the disorder predictors with each other and examination of the overlap between disordered predictions and SCOP domains on a large scale. D2P2 will increase our understanding of the interplay between disorder and structure, the genomic distribution of disorder, and its evolutionary history. The parsed data are made available in a unified format for download as flat files or SQL tables either by genome, by predictor, or for the complete set. An interactive website provides a graphical view of each protein annotated with the SCOP domains and disordered regions from all predictors overlaid (or shown as a consensus). There are statistics and tools for browsing and comparing genomes and their disorder within the context of their position on the tree of life.