University of Haifa

About: University of Haifa is a education organization based out in Haifa, Israel. It is known for research contribution in the topics: Population & Poison control. The organization has 7558 authors who have published 27141 publications receiving 711629 citations. The organization is also known as: Haifa University & Universiṭat Ḥefah.

Virtual Reality Cognitive Behavior Therapy for Public Speaking Anxiety: A Randomized Clinical Trial.

Abstract: Public speaking anxiety (PSA) is a common phobia. Although cognitive behavior therapy (CBT) is preferred, difficulties arise with the exposure component (lack of therapist control, patient's inability to imagine, self-flooding, loss of confidentiality resulting from public exposure). Virtual reality CBT (VRCBT) enables a high degree of therapist control, thus overcoming these difficulties. This study examined whether VRCBT is an alternative to CBT. Participants with PSA were randomly assigned to VRCBT (28 participants), CBT (30 participants), and wait list control (WLC; 30 participants). VRCBT and CBT were significantly more effective than WLC in anxiety reduction on four of five anxiety measures, and on subject's self-rating of anxiety during a behavioral task. No significant differences were found on observer ratings of the behavioral task. However, twice as many participants dropped out from CBT than from VRCBT. Our results demonstrated that VRCBT is an effective and brief treatment regimen, equal to CBT.

Global mortality from firearms, 1990-2016

Abstract: Importance Understanding global variation in firearm mortality rates could guide prevention policies and interventions. Objective To estimate mortality due to firearm injury deaths from 1990 to 2016 in 195 countries and territories. Design, Setting, and Participants This study used deidentified aggregated data including 13 812 location-years of vital registration data to generate estimates of levels and rates of death by age-sex-year-location. The proportion of suicides in which a firearm was the lethal means was combined with an estimate of per capita gun ownership in a revised proxy measure used to evaluate the relationship between availability or access to firearms and firearm injury deaths. Exposures Firearm ownership and access. Main Outcomes and Measures Cause-specific deaths by age, sex, location, and year. Results Worldwide, it was estimated that 251 000 (95% uncertainty interval [UI], 195 000-276 000) people died from firearm injuries in 2016, with 6 countries (Brazil, United States, Mexico, Colombia, Venezuela, and Guatemala) accounting for 50.5% (95% UI, 42.2%-54.8%) of those deaths. In 1990, there were an estimated 209 000 (95% UI, 172 000 to 235 000) deaths from firearm injuries. Globally, the majority of firearm injury deaths in 2016 were homicides (64.0% [95% UI, 54.2%-68.0%]; absolute value, 161 000 deaths [95% UI, 107 000-182 000]); additionally, 27% were firearm suicide deaths (67 500 [95% UI, 55 400-84 100]) and 9% were unintentional firearm deaths (23 000 [95% UI, 18 200-24 800]). From 1990 to 2016, there was no significant decrease in the estimated global age-standardized firearm homicide rate (−0.2% [95% UI, −0.8% to 0.2%]). Firearm suicide rates decreased globally at an annualized rate of 1.6% (95% UI, 1.1-2.0), but in 124 of 195 countries and territories included in this study, these levels were either constant or significant increases were estimated. There was an annualized decrease of 0.9% (95% UI, 0.5%-1.3%) in the global rate of age-standardized firearm deaths from 1990 to 2016. Aggregate firearm injury deaths in 2016 were highest among persons aged 20 to 24 years (for men, an estimated 34 700 deaths [95% UI, 24 900-39 700] and for women, an estimated 3580 deaths [95% UI, 2810-4210]). Estimates of the number of firearms by country were associated with higher rates of firearm suicide ( P R2 = 0.21) and homicide ( P R2 = 0.35). Conclusions and Relevance This study estimated between 195 000 and 276 000 firearm injury deaths globally in 2016, the majority of which were firearm homicides. Despite an overall decrease in rates of firearm injury death since 1990, there was variation among countries and across demographic subgroups.

Compulsory Citizenship Behavior: Theorizing Some Dark Sides of the Good Soldier Syndrome in Organizations.

Abstract: The most prominent characteristic of good citizenship behavior is the willingness of individuals to invest effort and energy in their social environment beyond any formal requirement and with no expectation of formal rewards. When studied in the workplace, this behavior has been called Organizational Citizenship Behavior (OCB) and has become the subject of many works that have focused on the positive connotations of the "good soldier syndrome." A majority of the 270 studies published in recent decades about OCB have pointed to the benefits and advantages of voluntary helping behaviors, pro-social behavior, altruism and extra-role behavior. In contrast with this view, the present paper suggests that OCB also has darker aspects, one of which is the exploitative and abusive tendency of supervisors and managements to impose so-called "voluntary" or "extra-role" activities via compulsory or coercive mechanisms in the workplace. The paper focuses on such exploitation and abusiveness and their potential impact on employees' performance. It is argued that frequently individuals engage in so-called OCBs not as a matter of free choice or good will, but as a result of considerable social pressure by powerful others, be they managers or other co-workers. It is suggested that such behaviors can be placed on a continuum of extra-role behaviors, but that they should also be recognized as a substantial deviation from the original meaning of OCB and thus should be examined and analyzed separately.

The Formation of Very Narrow Waist Bipolar Planetary Nebulae

Abstract: We discuss the interaction of the slow wind blown by an asymptotic giant branch (AGB) star with a collimated fast wind (CFW) blown by its main-sequence or white dwarf companion, at orbital separations in the range of several AU a 200 AU. The CFW results from accretion of the AGB wind into an accretion disk around the companion. The fast wind is collimated by the accretion disk. We argue that such systems are the progenitors of bipolar planetary nebulae and bipolar symbiotic nebulae with a very narrow equatorial waist between the two polar lobes. The CFW wind will form two lobes along the symmetry axis and will further compress the slow wind near the equatorial plane, leading to the formation of a dense slowly expanding ring. Therefore, contrary to the common claim that a dense equatorial ring collimates the bipolar flow, we argue that in the progenitors of very narrow waist bipolar planetary nebulae, the CFW, through its interaction with the slow wind, forms the dense equatorial ring. Only later in the evolution, and after the CFW and slow wind cease, does the mass-losing star leave the AGB and blow a second, more spherical, fast wind. At this stage the flow structure becomes the one that is commonly assumed for bipolar planetary nebulae, i.e., collimation of the fast wind by the dense equatorial material. However, this results in the broadening of the waist in the equatorial plane and cannot by itself account for the presence of very narrow waists or jets. We conduct a population synthesis study of the formation of planetary nebulae in wide binary systems which quantitatively supports the proposed model. The population synthesis code follows the evolution of both stars and their arbitrarily eccentric orbit, including mass loss via stellar winds, for 5 ? 104 primordial binaries. We show the number of expected systems that blow a CFW is in accord with the number found from observations, to within the many uncertainties involved. Overall, we find that ~5% of all planetary nebulae are bipolars with very narrow waists. Our population synthesis not only supports the CFW model but more generally supports the binary model for the formation of bipolar planetary nebulae.