Nail analysis for the assessment of caffeine abuse in Northwest China: A population-based study

Caffeine is the most widely consumed psychoactive agent worldwide and has the potential for abuse, but studies monitoring caffeine abuse in China are scarce. This study aims to estimate the prevalence of caffeine abuse in northwest China and investigate the correlation between caffeine and other drugs in hair and nails using an ultra-performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UPLC-MS/MS). Fingernail clippings were collected from 376 participants in northwest China to detect caffeine and 13 other illicit psychoactive drugs and their metabolites. Paired hair and nail samples were collected from 39 participants to investigate the correlation between caffeine and other drugs in hair and nails. The samples were decontaminated, pulverized, and extracted by a high-throughput nail sample preparation method and analyzed by UPLC-MS/MS. The results showed a risk of caffeine abuse in northwest China, with concentrations ranging from 0.43 to 10.6 ng/mg for healthy volunteers, 0.49–246 ng/mg for caffeine abusers, and 0.25–363 ng/mg for drug addicts in community rehabilitation centers. Caffeine was detected together with other illicit psychoactive drugs and their metabolites. Furthermore, positive detection correlations were found between hair and nail samples. This study provides a current perspective on caffeine abuse in northwest China and demonstrates the practical use of UPLC-MS/MS for the simultaneous detection of caffeine and 13 illicit psychoactive drugs and their metabolites in hair and nails. The results highlight the potential of nails as a supplementary matrix when hair samples are unavailable and emphasize the need for handling caffeine carefully given its potential for abuse.     

Work Conflict as Predictor of Job Stress＂ The Case of an Italian Public Administration

Job stress is a pervasive problem for workers and employers in today＇s economy and it is a timely and important topic for organizational setting. Negative job stress may adversely affect an employee＇s mental and physical health. The aim of the present research is to explain why job stress in the public administrations is a theme of increasing interest and why many studies have analyzed its functioning and diffusion. The variables influencing job stress are numerous and often analyzed from different perspectives. Despite the influence of a number of different factors, job stress can be studied by looking at several aspects as physical environment or/and psychosocial environment. This preliminary study investigated the role of one psychosocial source, level of perceived work conflict, on job stress. A case study was presented. A survey instrument was used to collect information from a Regional Public Administration of South Italy. Data from 1,127 respondents, representing a 91.63% of response rate, were analyzed. Statistical correlations and hierarchical regression showed that work conflict was a predictive aspect of job stress and has the highest contribution to explain the phenomena. The present research has a multidisciplinary value, by linking business science, psychology, and social science.     

内蒙古青年对国家认同状况的分析

国家认同程度影响着公民在个人、群体与国家关系上的态度和行为。对内蒙古青年国家认同状况的统计调查数据显示,内蒙古青年在国家历史文化的自豪感与民族认同感、国家发展前景的预期和国家与社会责任的价值判断三个维度的测量值较高,这是保持和强化国家认同的重要基础;而在生活状况和社会保障水平的评价、国家民主法制状况的评价和国家社会管理状况的评价三个维度的测量值相对偏低,这将会对国家认同产生一定的削弱作用。     

单管一步甲基化可变位点分析技术

目的建立单管一步甲基化可变位点（methylationvariableposition,MVP）分析技术一单管消化后PCR链融解曲线分析（post—digestionPCR—meltingcurveanalysis,PDP—MCA）。方法以文献报道的差异甲基化区（differentiallymethylatedregion,DMR）为模型,在MVP两侧设计一组解链温度各不相同的引物。应用FastDigest甲基化敏感性限制酶（methylation—sensitiverestrictionenzyme,MSRE）,在同一反应管内顺次进行DNA的酶切、复合扩增和MCA检测．生成MCA图谱。同时用该方法和传统的MSRE—PCRMCA技术检测相同样品（外周静脉血、精液、阴道液各5份）,比较两种方法检测结果,验证其可行性,并分析比较不同样品的MCA／HRM图谱。结果解链温度相差2℃以上的片段,MCA峰分离良好,复合扩增后可以用MCA技术检测。应用单管PDP—MCA技术,可以集酶切、扩增和检测三步于一管,在2h内得到与传统方法一致的特异性图谱和数据,并实现样品的快速分类鉴别。结论单管PDP-MCA技术可以实现多个MVP的单管、闭管检测,具有简便、快速、易于自动化等优点,可用于样品DNA甲基化差异的检测。     

“90后”大学生思想特点分析及教育对策

自2011年开始,长沙学院对一年级学生实施了大类培养改革方案,这类学生的年龄集中在1990年以后出生,即"90"后大学生,主要阐述及分析了"90"后大学生的思想特点,针对"90"后大学生新的思想特点以及国家培养具有较高综合素质与能力等创新型人才的目标,提出了政治辅导员应该采取的新的思想教育对策。     

Economic Explanations for Opposition to Immigration: Distinguishing between Prevalence and Conditional Impact

What explains variation in individuals’ opposition to immigration? While scholars have consistently shown cultural concerns to be strong predictors of opposition, findings regarding the labor‐market competition hypothesis are highly contested. To help understand these divergent results, we distinguish between the prevalence and conditional impact of determinants of immigration attitudes. Leveraging a targeted sampling strategy of high‐technology counties, we conduct a study of Americans’ attitudes toward H‐1B visas. The plurality of these visas are occupied by Indian immigrants, who are skilled but ethnically distinct, enabling us to measure a specific skill set (high technology) that is threatened by a particular type of immigrant (H‐1B visa holders). Unlike recent aggregate studies, our targeted approach reveals that the conditional impact of the relationship in the high‐technology sector between economic threat and immigration attitudes is sizable. However, labor‐market competition is not a prevalent source of threat and therefore is generally not detected in aggregate analyses.     

Emerging cohort trends in housing debt and home equity

Abstract

Financial and market conditions in the 1990s caused a sharp increase in the housing debt (in constant dollars) of households now approaching or just past normal retirement age. Households now in middle age have also set new records for housing debt and will likely continue to carry high housing debt when they reach old age in 10 or 20 years.

In the future, this housing debt burden is likely to lead to financial and housing adjustments that suggest a qualitative change in behavior when these households reach the later stages of their working life. Many will need to work longer to service housing debt. When facing a life‐cycle downturn in annual income, households will be increasingly motivated to tap into their home equity, both by borrowing, for those who stay in their homes, or by downsizing and liquidating some equity, for those who choose to move.     

Conditional Cash Transfers,Adult Work Incentives,and Poverty

Conditional cash transfer (CCT) programmes aim to alleviate poverty through monetary and in-kind benefits, as well as reduce future incidence of poverty by encouraging investments in education, health and nutrition. The success of CCT programmes at reducing poverty depends on whether, and the extent to which, cash transfers affect adult work incentives. In this paper we examine whether the PROGRESA programme of Mexico affects adult participation in the labour market and overall adult leisure time, and we link these effects to the impact of the programme on poverty. Utilising the experimental design of PROGRESA's evaluation sample, we find that the programme does not have any significant effect on adult labour force participation and leisure time. Our findings on adult work incentives are reinforced further by the result that PROGRESA leads to a substantial reduction in poverty. The poverty reduction effects are stronger for the poverty gap and severity of poverty measures.     

Oil abundance and violent political conflict: A critical assessment

This paper addresses one of the empirical claims of the ‘resource curse’ argument, namely that oil abundance raises the probability of political violence. I argue that the two main theoretical premises of the oil-civil-war link, rent-seeking and the rentier state model, fail to provide a convincing argument as to why oil economies are more vulnerable to the onset of civil war. I find that three often-mentioned mechanisms as to why oil economies succumb to political violence not convincing; that oil economies are poor economic performers; that oil economies generate high corruption; and that oil economies tend to produce authoritarian regimes. I also examine the empirical evidence on the oil-civil-war link and conclude that the results are not robust. I conclude with some policy implications.