Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining the effects of animal assisted interventions on therapeutic alliance and anxiety

Beginning in the early 1900s, dogs were incorporated in psychiatric settings, and expanded throughout all healthcare settings by the turn of the 21st century (Chandler, 2012; Miller, 2004). As animal therapy and animal assisted interventions gained attention throughout media, it also gained attention throughout practice and research. The research covers many domains and applications. Previous research has found that the presence of animals has been associated with increases of social behavior and communication among various populations and environments, decreases in self-report anxiety and physiological measures of anxiety such as heart rate, blood pressure, and cortisol levels, and increases regarding patient-client attitudes toward therapists (Leung & Fung, 2014; Schneider & Harley, 2006; Schuck, Emmerson, Fine, & Lakes, 2015; Soban, 2008). As intriguing as the research may be, and while the overwhelming majority of the research produces positive results, the research is not without limitations and criticisms. There are many research deficiencies among animal assisted therapy and animal assisted interventions research including insufficient and homogeneous sample sizes, a lack of standardized procedures allowing for replication, a lack of a non-treatment control group, and an overwhelming reliance on self-report measures while lacking objective measures (Herzog, 2014). This study investigated the effects of the presence of a therapy dog on anxiety and therapeutic alliance and this study addressed the limitations expressed in previous research by utilizing a large, generalizable sample, a controlled study with standardized measures for replicability, and the findings are based on objective measures in addition to self-report measures. Inter-rater reliability was addressed by training all researchers for consistency and personality was evaluated as a possible covariate influencing the results. Due to this study maintaining a large focus on anxiety, mindfulness was incorporated as an intervention to address anxiety. Because there is a lack of research regarding incorporating therapy dogs with mindfulness, the presence of a therapy dog’s influence on the effects of mindfulness on anxiety was examined.
Application-Oriented Chemical Optimization of a Metakaolin Based Geopolymer

In this study the development of a metakaolin based geopolymeric mortar to be used as bonding matrix for external strengthening of reinforced concrete beams is reported. Four geopolymer formulations have been obtained by varying the composition of the activating solution in terms of SiO2/Na2O ratio. The obtained samples have been characterized from a structural, microstructural and mechanical point of view. The differences in structure and microstructure have been correlated to the mechanical properties. A major issue of drying shrinkage has been encountered in the high Si/Al ratio samples. In the light of the characterization results, the optimal geopolymer composition was then applied to fasten steel fibers to reinforced concrete beams. The mechanical behavior of the strengthened reinforced beams was evaluated by four-points bending tests, which were performed also on reinforced concrete beams as they are for comparison. The preliminary results of the bending tests point out an excellent behavior of the geopolymeric mixture tested, with the failure load of the reinforced beams roughly twice that of the control beam.
Proprioceptive and Sensorimotor Performance in Parkinson's Disease

We explored the effects of random whole-body vibration on leg proprioception in Parkinson's disease (PD). In earlier studies it was found that this treatment leads to improved postural control in these patients. Thus, one could speculate that these effects result from modified proprioceptive capabilities. Twenty-eight PD patients were subdivided in one experimental and one control group. Proprioceptive performance was analyzed using a tracking task basing on knee extension and flexion movements. Treatment consisted of 5 series of random whole-body vibration taking 60 seconds each. Control subjects had a rest period instead. Prominent over- and undershooting errors were found in both groups representing proprioceptive impairments. No significant differences became evident, however, either between pre- and post-tests or between experimental and control group. One might therefore conclude that spontaneous improvements in postural control are not directly connected with proprioceptive changes. Nevertheless, one also should keep in mind the general aspects and difficulties of analyzing proprioception.
Pancreatic necrosis: Complications and changing trend of treatment

Incidence of acute pancreatitis seems to be increasing in the Western countries and has been associated with significantly increased morbidity. Nearly 80% of the patients with acute pancreatitis undergo resolution; some develop complications including pancreatic necrosis. Infection of pancreatic necrosis is the leading cause of death in these patients. A significant portion of these patients needs surgical interventions. Traditionally, the “gold standard” procedure has been the open surgical necrosectomy, which is now being completed by the relatively lesser invasive interventions. Minimally invasive surgical (MIS) procedures include endoscopic drainage, percutaneous image-guided catheter drainage, and retroperitoneal drainage. This review article discusses the open and MIS interventions for pancreatic necrosis with each having its own respective benefits and disadvantages are covered.
Selection and Trans-Species Polymorphism of Major Histocompatibility Complex Class II Genes in the Order Crocodylia

Major Histocompatibility Complex (MHC) class II genes encode for molecules that aid in the presentation of antigens to helper T cells. MHC characterisation within and between major vertebrate taxa has shed light on the evolutionary mechanisms shaping the diversity within this genomic region, though little characterisation has been performed within the Order Crocodylia. Here we investigate the extent and effect of selective pressures and trans-species polymorphism on MHC class II α and β evolution among 20 extant species of Crocodylia. Selection detection analyses showed that diversifying selection influenced MHC class II β diversity, whilst diversity within MHC class II α is the result of strong purifying selection. Comparison of translated sequences between species revealed the presence of twelve trans-species polymorphisms, some of which appear to be specific to the genera Crocodylus and Caiman. Phylogenetic reconstruction clustered MHC class II α sequences into two major clades representing the families Crocodilidae and Alligatoridae. However, no further subdivision within these clades was evident and, based on the observation that most MHC class II α sequences shared the same trans-species polymorphisms, it is possible that they correspond to the same gene lineage across species. In contrast, phylogenetic analyses of MHC class II β sequences showed a mixture of subclades containing sequences from Crocodilidae and/or Alligatoridae, illustrating orthologous relationships among those genes. Interestingly, two of the subclades containing sequences from both Crocodilidae and Alligatoridae shared specific trans-species polymorphisms, suggesting that they may belong to ancient lineages pre-dating the divergence of these two families from the common ancestor 85–90 million years ago. The results presented herein provide an immunogenetic resource that may be used to further assess MHC diversity and functionality in Crocodylia.
Cerebral Differences in Explicit and Implicit Emotional Processing – An fMRI Study

The processing of emotional facial expression is a major part of social communication and understanding. In addition to explicit processing, facial expressions are also processed rapidly and automatically in the absence of explicit awareness. We investigated 12 healthy subjects by presenting them with an implicit and explicit emotional paradigm. The subjects reacted significantly faster in implicit than in explicit trials but did not differ in their error ratio. For the implicit condition increased signals were observed in particular in the thalami, the hippocampi, the frontal inferior gyri and the right middle temporal region. The analysis of the explicit condition showed increased blood-oxygen-level-dependent signals especially in the caudate nucleus, the cingulum and the right prefrontal cortex. The direct comparison of these 2 different processes revealed increased activity for explicit trials in the inferior, superior and middle frontal gyri, the middle cingulum and left parietal regions. Additional signal increases were detected in occipital regions, the cerebellum, and the right angular and lingual gyrus. Our data partially confirm the hypothesis of different neural substrates for the processing of implicit and explicit emotional stimuli.
Human Neuroscience

brain. Second, we will present the evidence obtained in TMS-based studies showing that PMd, PMv, SMA, and pre-SMA each have different roles to play in motor behavior. We will also discuss ways in which TMS can be used to chart " true " cerebral reorganization in clinical populations and how TMS might be used as a therapeutic tool to help motor recovery after stroke. We will end our review by discussing some of the future avenues for using this tool in basic and clinical neuroscience. What is tMs? Transcranial magnetic stimulation is a " perturbation " technique. It perturbs neural activity in space and time by inducing brief electrical currents in a restricted region of the cerebral cortex. A brief current passes through a stimulating coil, which is placed over the person's scalp, that then induces a rapid rise of magnetic field, and this transient field in turn induces electrical current in the underlying brain tissue. Barker et al. (1985) performed the first TMS experiment and the technique has since acquired importance as a non-invasive method for examining motor, perceptual, and cognitive processes in the human brain. Transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) is another perturbation technique that is used to study brain processes. Unlike TMS, tDCS is used to modulate the activity of neurons by applying weak electrical currents through an electrode placed on the scalp (for review, see Been et al., 2007). The underlying principle of both techniques is simple. Using a " perturb-and-measure " approach, one can perturb one brain region and measure the consequences that this manipulation has on either behavior or brain activity (Paus, 2005). As perturbation techniques, TMS and tDCS are designed to study consequences of modulating brain activity and, as such, to inject a certain level
Evaluation of the Mean Cost and Activity Based Cost in the Diagnosis of Pulmonary Tuberculosis in the Laboratory Routine of a High-Complexity Hospital in Brazil

At a global level, with the increase in healthcare costs, there is a need to assess the economic impact of the incorporation of new technologies in different health disorders in different countries. There is scarce information regarding costs incurred with the use of current or new diagnostic tests for tuberculosis or from the vantage point of their incorporation within the healthcare systems of high-burden countries. The present study aimed to assess the mean cost and the activity based cost of the laboratory diagnosis for tuberculosis by means of conventional techniques and from the Detect TB®LabTest molecular test kit in a general high-complexity hospital of the public health system in Brazil. Cost analysis was performed by means of primary data, collected in the Mycobacteria and Molecular Biology Laboratory in 2013. The mean cost and activity based cost were, respectively, U$10.06/U$5.61 for centrifuged bacilloscopy by Ziehl Neelsen (ZN) and Auramine (AU); U$7.42/U$4.15 for direct bacilloscopy by ZN; U$27.38/U$16.50 for culture in a Loweinstein-Jensen solid medium; and U$115.74/U$73.46 for the Detect TB®LabTest Kit. The calculation of the ABC should be used in making decisions by administrators to be the best method of assessing the costs of conventional techniques and molecular method for providing the real value of the tests. So it is need to calculate the ABC, and not of the mean cost, in various scenarios before incorporating new technologies in health institutions.
Latent Contextual Bandits and their Application to Personalized Recommendations for New Users

Personalized recommendations for new users, also known as the cold-start problem, can be formulated as a contextual bandit problem. Existing contextual bandit algorithms generally rely on features alone to capture user variability. Such methods are inefficient in learning new users' interests. In this paper we propose Latent Contextual Bandits. We consider both the benefit of leveraging a set of learned latent user classes for new users, and how we can learn such latent classes from prior users. We show that our approach achieves a better regret bound than existing algorithms. We also demonstrate the benefit of our approach using a large real world dataset and a preliminary user study.
Parenting Styles as a Predictor of the Preschool Children’s Social Behaviours

Accepted: 21.09. 2018 The aim of this study is to investigate relationship between children’s social behaviors and parenting styles. Specifically, the study examines children’s aggressive, prosocial and socially inhibited behaviors in association with parenting dimensions namely warmth, inductivereasoning, obedience-demanding and punitive. In addition to this, children’s social behaviors and parenting styles are examined in relation to children’s gender. The research was conducted on 60-72 month-old 276 children attending preschools in Konya, Turkey. In order to assess parenting styles, the Child Rearing Questionnaire developed by Sanson et al. and adapted by Altan was used. This questionnaire has four subscales, namely inductive reasoning, punishment, obedience demanding behavior and warmth. The questionnaire was completed by mothers. In order to assess child social behaviors, the Teacher Assessment of Social Behavior Scale developed by Cassidy and Asher and adapted by Seven was applied. This scale was completed by the teachers. According to the study results, children’s social behavior (aggressive, prosocial and shy/withdrawn) can be predicted significantly by parents inductive reasoning, warmth and punitive styles toward children. In addition to this, boys’ aggression scores are found to be significantly higher than girls and girls shyness scores are found to be significantly higher than boys.
Spirituality and Sense of Coherence in Muslim Students : A Mixed Methods Study

The purpose of this mixed methods research was to measure sense of coherence of convenient sample of college Muslim students in Tennessee and to investigate from their perspective, meaning attached to faith as a source of strength, motivation and courage. This research was framed in salutogenic model (sense of coherence). Two questions guided the research,1) to what degree do Muslim students indicate, through their education, age groups, place of birth, gender and marital status a sense of coherence? 2) Why and how is their faith important to them-when dealing with stressorsas sources of strength, meaning and courage to cope with challenges? In multiple regression analysis, sense of coherence (SOC) related to the 5 predictors together (R2 = .279, F (5, 47) =3.64, p < . 05). Except for gender, all other predictors were not related to SOC individually. When the variables measured are consider together as predictors, the results indicated salutogenic model responded positively to this diverse group of students with similar faith but different backgrounds. Qualitative content data analysis revealed five themes that related how religious practices were important to the participants in managing and comprehending events in their lives. The results suggest, educators should not dismiss religious worldview of students, for their faith works as a regulator when these students experience stress.
Influence of SKF 91488, histamine N-methyltransferase inhibitor, on the central cardiovascular regulation during controlled, stepwise hemorrhagic hypotension in rats.

The histaminergic system influences various activities of the central nervous system, including cardiovascular regulation. Histamine administered intracerebroventricularly (i.c.v.) in anesthetized rats produces the increase in mean arterial pressure (MAP) and heart rate (HR), however, in contrast to normotensive animals, histamine-induced rises in MAP and HR in critically hypotensive animals are significantly higher. Similarly to exogenous histamine, inhibition of the central histamine N-methyltransferase (HNMT) activity (the enzyme catabolizing histamine in the central nervous system) resulting in the increase in endogenous histamine concentration, also leads to the pressor effect in normotensive rats. The present study was designed to determine the role of endogenous central histamine in cardiovascular regulation in a rat model of blood volume-blood pressure controlled hemorrhagic hypotension. In normotensive animals, HNMT inhibitor SKF 91488 produced dose-dependent (20-100 microg i.c.v.) pressor effect accompanied by tachycardia, similarly as exogenous histamine (0.5-5 microg i.c.v.) did. The subpressor dose of SKF 91488 (10 microg) evoked the increase in blood volumes necessary to induce hypotension of 40 and 20 mmHg and the action was accompanied by the rise in histamine concentrations in the hypothalamus (5.18 +/- 0.45 vs 4.23 +/- 0.41 nmol/g; p < 0.05) and medulla oblongata (0.41 +/- 0.05 vs 0.30 +/- 0.06 nmol/g; p < 0.05), with no changes in the cortical histamine concentrations (0.84 +/- 0.18 vs 0.75 +/- 0.17 nmol/g), compared to the control i.c. v. saline-treated group. The effect of SKF 91488 was inhibited by H1 histamine receptor antagonist chlorpheniramine, whereas neither H2 receptor blocker ranitidine, nor H3 receptor antagonist thioperamide affected the action. In conclusion, the study demonstrates that the histaminergic system influences the central cardiovascular regulation during pronounced hemorrhagic hypotension, probably as a result of the activation of compensatory mechanisms.
An Experimental Study on the Dynamics of a 3-RRR Flexible Parallel Robot

This paper presents an experimental study on the dynamics of flexible parallel robots. First, a theoretical study on the dynamic modeling and numerical solution of parallel robots with flexible links is introduced briefly. Second, the experiment setup that includes the test-bed mechanism of a 3-RRR flexible parallel robot and the hardware and software structures of a control system are then developed. Finally, the experimental study is presented to show the good agreement between the theoretical analysis and experimental results.
Efficient capacitance extraction method for interconnects with dummy fills

The accuracy of parasitic extraction has become increasingly important for system-on-chip (SoC) designs. In this paper, we present a practical method of dealing with the influences of floating dummy metal fills, which are inserted to assist planarization by the chemical-mechanical polishing (CMP) process, in extracting interconnect capacitances. The method is based on reducing the thicknesses of dummy metal layers according to electrical field theory. We also clarify the influences of dummy metal fills on the parasitic capacitance, signal delay, and crosstalk noise. Moreover, we address that the existence of the interlayer dummy metal fills has more significant influences than the intralayer dummies in terms of the impact on coupling capacitances. When dummy metal fills are ignored, the error of capacitance extraction can be more than 30%, whereas the error of the proposed method is less than about 10% for many practical geometries. We also demonstrate, by comparison with capacitance results measured for a 90-nm test chip, that the error of the proposed method is less than 8%.
Contribution of S6K1/MAPK Signaling Pathways in the Response to Oxidative Stress: Activation of RSK and MSK by Hydrogen Peroxide

Cells respond to different kind of stress through the coordinated activation of signaling pathways such as MAPK or p53. To find which molecular mechanisms are involved, we need to understand their cell adaptation. The ribosomal protein, S6 kinase 1 (S6K1), is a common downstream target of signaling by hormonal or nutritional stress. Here, we investigated the initial contribution of S6K1/MAPK signaling pathways in the cell response to oxidative stress produced by hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). To analyze S6K1 activation, we used the commercial anti-phospho-Thr389-S6K1 antibody most frequently mentioned in the bibliography. We found that this antibody detected an 80-90 kDa protein that was rapidly phosphorylated in response to H2O2 in several human cells. Unexpectedly, this phosphorylation was insensitive to both mTOR and PI3K inhibitors, and knock-down experiments showed that this protein was not S6K1. RSK and MSK proteins were candidate targets of this phosphorylation. We demonstrated that H2O2 stimulated phosphorylation of RSK and MSK kinases at residues that are homologous to Thr389 in S6K1. This phosphorylation required the activity of either p38 or ERK MAP kinases. Kinase assays showed activation of RSK and MSK by H2O2. Experiments with mouse embryonic fibroblasts from p38 animals’ knockout confirmed these observations. Altogether, these findings show that the S6K1 signaling pathway is not activated under these conditions, clarify previous observations probably misinterpreted by non-specific detection of proteins RSK and MSK by the anti-phospho-Thr389-S6K1 antibody, and demonstrate the specific activation of MAPK signaling pathways through ERK/p38/RSK/MSK by H2O2.
How intrinsic and extrinsic motivations function among college student samples in both Taiwan and the U.S.

Abstract To determine intrinsic and extrinsic motivations for work among college students, an online survey was conducted to collect participants' self-reported motivation and personality traits, as well as academic performance in samples of 310 American and 686 Taiwanese college student respondents. Data suggest that intrinsic and extrinsic motivations function differently in varying cultures such as Taiwan and the U.S., where Taiwanese college students’ extrinsic motivation was stronger than American college students,’ while intrinsic motivation may function differently regarding predicting academic performance between Taiwanese and American samples. In addition, the study demonstrated that diverse moderators of the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations exist in different cultures. Specifically, the relationship between intrinsic and extrinsic motivations was associated with the American students’ sense of self, but was moderated by the Taiwanese students’ recognition of student responsibilities. Viewing the results collectively, the study provides a nuanced understanding of different paths that students from different cultural backgrounds can follow to achieve academic success.