Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Implementing a Public Health Objective for Alcohol Premises Licensing in Scotland: A Qualitative Study of Strategies, Values, and Perceptions of Evidence

The public health objective for alcohol premises licensing, established in Scotland in 2005, is unique globally. We explored how public health practitioners engaged with the licensing system following this change, and what helped or hindered their efforts. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 13 public health actors, audio-recorded, and analysed using an inductive framework approach. Many interviewees viewed the new objective as synonymous with reducing population-level alcohol consumption; however, this view was not always shared by licensing actors, some of whom did not accept public health as a legitimate goal of licensing, or prioritised economic development instead. Some interviewees were surprised that the public health evidence they presented to licensing boards did not result in their hoped-for outcomes; they reported that licensing officials did not always understand or value health data or statistical evidence. While some tried to give “impartial” advice to licensing boards, this was not always easy; others were clear that their role was one of “winning hearts and minds” through relationship-building with licensing actors over time. Notwithstanding the introduction of the public health objective, there remain significant, and political, challenges in orienting local premises licensing boards towards decisions to reduce the availability of alcohol in Scotland.
Optimisation and applications of Raman plasma amplifiers

Laser pulses have the shortest duration, smallest spatial extent, highest power, longest range and highest electric field of any known physical probe. In just 5 decades, the laser has led to the detection of gravitational waves, quantum optics and computers, worldwide fibre-optic communications, innumerable manufacturing applications and a prime contender for replicating the sun’s nuclear fusion on earth. Modern high power lasers achieve intensities exceeding 10 Wcm−2. Laser powers have increased without bound due to the method of chirped pulse amplification. However, continuing this trend may require new amplifier materials with higher damage thresholds. This work assesses the feasibility of laser amplification in a plasma. Energy is transferred from a long, low power pulse to a short, high power pulse. This is due to the coupling of the light with plasma electron waves, the so called Raman instability. The resulting pulses could ignite a nuclear fusion capsule under the fast ignition scheme, or generate electron positron plasmas. The energy efficiency and coherence of the amplifier are greatly influenced by the plasma conditions, investigated here using large scale computer simulations. The existing analytical solution is then generalised to three dimensions. The simulations show effective amplification, even in non-uniform plasmas. A method for seeding the amplifier was investigated experimentally at the Central Laser Facility. A second experiment at the Laboratory for Laser Energetics in New York, U.S.A. , found features of the Raman light that show promise for testing the full scheme in 2019.
Energy Harvesting and Wireless Transfer in Sensor Network Applications

Advances in micro-electronics and miniaturized mechanical systems are redefining the scope and extent of the energy constraints found in battery-operated wireless sensor networks (WSNs). On one hand, ambient energy harvesting may prolong the systems’ lifetime or possibly enable perpetual operation. On the other hand, wireless energy transfer allows systems to decouple the energy sources from the sensing locations, enabling deployments previously unfeasible. As a result of applying these technologies to WSNs, the assumption of a finite energy budget is replaced with that of potentially infinite, yet intermittent, energy supply, profoundly impacting the design, implementation, and operation of WSNs. This article discusses these aspects by surveying paradigmatic examples of existing solutions in both fields and by reporting on real-world experiences found in the literature. The discussion is instrumental in providing a foundation for selecting the most appropriate energy harvesting or wireless transfer technology based on the application at hand. We conclude by outlining research directions originating from the fundamental change of perspective that energy harvesting and wireless transfer bring about.
Downlink capacity gain analysis of mobile relay in LTE-Advanced network

In this paper, we analyze whether mobile relay could bring capacity gain to a LTE-Advanced network. The analysis is based on the Shannon formula modified for LTE. The Spatial Poisson Process is used to model the distribution of terminals and mobile relays in the cell. We consider two relay modes in the study: pure-relay mode and femto-like mode. Through the analysis we get the conclusion that penetration loss is a key factor to decide whether mobile relay can bring considerable capacity gain into the system. When penetration loss is 25 dB, pure-relay mode can bring about +30% capacity gain compared with traditional mode, femto-like mode can bring almost +100% capacity gain compared with traditional mode.
Adsorption of crystal violet from quaternary dye mixture onto sawdust: statistical analysis and optimization studies

A The selective adsorption of crystal violet from dye mixture of methylene blue, malachite green, and Rhodamine B using sulphuric acid-treated sawdust of Parkia biglobosa was investigated through crossed composite Design of Experiments. The competitive effects of mixture components and process parameters on the adsorption process were studied and optimized using response surface methodology. The optimum contact time, pH, adsorbent dose and temperature were found to be 275.10 min, 9.94, 0.99g and 60 oC respectively for the maximum decolorization of 68.39 mg/L CV (97.2%). A linear model was obtained for the dye decolourization through this design. The experimental values were in good agreement with predicted values and the model developed was highly significant with the correlation coefficient of 0.985. Experimental results were analyzed by Analysis of variance (ANOVA) statistical concept.
Strong and weak form solutions of curved beams via Carrera’s unified formulation

Abstract In this article, the mechanical behavior of three-dimensional curved beams is investigated through closed-form solution as well as one-dimensional finite elements based on Carrera’s Unified Formulation (CUF). CUF is a hierarchical formulation in which the approximation order of the displacement field is a free parameter of the analysis. Therefore, refined models accounting for higher-order effects such as shear deformation and local warping can be obtained with no need for ad hoc formulations. The principle of virtual displacements (PVD) is used in order to derive both strong and weak formulations. For the latter, locking phenomena typical of curved finite elements are tackled by means of a Mixed Interpolation of Tensorial Components (MITC). Numerical results for different boundary conditions and loading configurations are investigated and validated towards elasticity solutions and commercial software finite elements showing that the proposed formulation can lead to an accurate evaluation of the displacement and stress fields with reduced computational costs.
Thermal Compensation and Fuzzy Control for Developing a High-Precision Optical Lens Mold

Precision plastic lenses often exhibit dimensional deviations due to the thermal expansion of the mold during injection molding. Although this deviation is smaller in micron-sized (1–5 μm) lenses, it exceeds the tolerance requirement of such lenses. It is difficult to resolve this dimensional issue by using injection molding parameters (e.g., melt temperature, injection speed, and hold pressure). In this study, the thermal analysis of a mold was conducted, and it was confirmed that the deviation of lens dimension was caused by the thermal instability and thermal expansion of the mold. Due to the inconsistent heat distribution of the fixed and the movable side of the mold, the position of the location system was displaced approximately 1 to 5 μm. In this study, thermal compensation technology for this the mold was investigated. The temperature on both sides of the mold was measured, and mold temperature could be adjusted automatically using a control strategy based on fuzzy theory. During the mold preheating or mass production stage, the temperature on both sides of the mold could be easily adjusted to quickly obtain the required temperature range. The dilatation on both sides of the mold was revised to improve the alignment accuracy of the cavity, and the decenter error of these injection lenses was reduced to 1 μm. This technology can markedly improve the production yield and efficiency of plastic products requiring an extremely high dimensional accuracy.
“I'd Rather Not Take it, But . . .”: Young Women's Perceptions of Medicines

Little is known about healthy young women's everyday experiences with medicine use and their general perceptions of medicines. In this article, we describe a user-perspective study involving in-depth qualitative interviews with 20 young women between the ages of 16 and 20 in Copenhagen, Denmark. Inspired by Schutz's phenomenology, informants' medicine-taking experiences were considered within the context of their life-worlds. Analysis revealed that the young women possessed predominantly negative perceptions of medicines, which were linked to a preference for complete avoidance of medicines and a desire to maintain a natural body ideal. The essence of participants' experiences was characterized by conflict, as most used medicines at least occasionally, despite the negative perceptions they held. Participants strove to make sense of their medicine-taking practices and provided rationales for their use of medicine, often based on perceptions of need and reduced personal risk.
IDENTIFICATION OF THE NATURAL BACTERIAL MICROFLORA ON THE SKIN OF EASTERN NEWTS, BULLFROG TADPOLES AND REDBACK SALAMANDERS

Amphibian populations in several regions of the world appear to be declining due to infectious diseases. While many studies have attempted to identify the pathogens associated with specific declines, very few studies have attempted to identify the natural microflora that is present on amphibian skin. Knowledge of the natural flora that healthy individuals carry may, in some cases, provide valuable information for understanding disease outcomes. In this study, we isolated the natural bacterial flora found on the skin of apparently healthy adult eastern newts (Notophthalamus viridescens), larval bullfrogs (Rana catesbieana) and redback salamanders (Plethodon cinereus) living in natural field sites in Virginia. We positively identified five bacterial species from newts, three bacterial species from bullfrogs and four bacterial species and one yeast from redback salamanders. In a parallel study, we examined the physiological profiles of bacterial communities at six sites with newt and bullfrog tadpole populations. A cluster analysis resulted in two main groupings: one for all the water samples and one for all the skin swab samples from the amphibians. This result suggests that only a sub-set of bacteria in the environment are able to successfully colonize amphibian skin.
Posaconazole Enhances the Activity of Amphotericin B against Aspergillus Hyphae In Vitro

ABSTRACT The MICs and fractional inhibitory concentrations of posaconazole (POS) and voriconazole (VRZ), alone and in combination with amphotericin B (AMB), for the conidia and hyphae of 100 Aspergillus isolates were evaluated. POS-AMB had more synergistic activity against hyphae (75% of isolates) than VRZ-AMB (37%) and significantly more synergistic activity against hyphae than against conidia (12%).
Associations between infections and clinical outcome parameters in status epilepticus: A retrospective 5‐year cohort study

Purpose: Status epilepticus (SE) represents a life‐threatening condition, requiring pharmacologic therapy and neurointensive care. Infectious complications in SE are suspected to be frequent and worsen outcome. However, little is known about their incidence during SE and their impact on course and outcome. The aim of this study was to determine the incidence and time of onset of infections during SE, as well as their association with particular SE courses, length of hospitalization, intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and outcome.
Cross-Document Coreference on a Large Scale Corpus

Abstract : In this paper, we will compare and evaluate the effectiveness of different statistical methods in the task of cross-document coreference resolution. We created entity models for different test sets and compare the following disambiguation and clustering techniques to cluster the entity models in order to create coreference chains: Incremental Vector Space, KL-Divergence, Agglomerative Vector Space. Coreference analysis refers to the process of determining whether or not two mentions of entities refer to the same person (Kibble and Deemter, 2000).
An Improved Input Delay Approach to Stabilization of Fuzzy Systems Under Variable Sampling

In this paper, we investigate the problem of stabilization for sampled-data fuzzy systems under variable sampling. A novel Lyapunov-Krasovskii functional (LKF) is defined to capture the characteristic of sampled-data systems, and an improved input delay approach is proposed. By the use of an appropriate enlargement scheme, new stability and stabilization criteria are obtained in terms of linear matrix inequalities (LMIs). Compared with the existing results, the newly obtained ones contain less conservatism. Some illustrative examples are given to show the effectiveness of the proposed method and the significant improvement on the existing results.
Prevalence of and Sex Disparities in Posttraumatic Stress Disorder in an Internally Displaced Sri Lankan Population 6 Months After the 2004 Tsunami

ABSTRACT Background: When the 2004 Indian Ocean tsunami suddenly hit unsuspecting coastal populations in Sri Lanka, it inflicted unprecedented devastation including 35,000 deaths and 500,000 people displaced. Evaluating the psychological impact of this natural disaster provides valuable insights into planning interventions and disaster preparedness. Methods: A cross-sectional survey was conducted among 264 adult males and females ≥16 years old living in temporary shelters housing tsunami survivors at 6 months. Interviewer-administered structured interviews were conducted to measure posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and its risk factors. Results: The participation rate was 97%. Of the subjects, 56% met criteria for symptoms of PTSD, with females at 64% and males at 42%. Females had at least twice the risk of experiencing PTSD (odds ratio [OR] 2.27, 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.37–3.76). This sex difference persisted after adjusting for age, marital status, being a parent, loss of family members, amount of social support, education level, and level of depression (OR 2.14, 95% CI 1.21–3.80). Depression was significantly associated with PTSD (OR 7.19, 95% CI 3.83–13.52). Conclusions: In this directly affected population, a majority met criteria for PTSD, indicating a significant long-term public health burden. The findings also confirm that females are at much higher risk for PTSD than males, suggesting that special mental health efforts should be targeted at women exposed to trauma. (Disaster Med Public Health Preparedness. 2007;1:34–43)
Yield Response of Turmeric (Curcuma longa L.) under Drip Fertigation and Plastic Mulch Conditions

Field experiments were conducted on the lateritic sandy loam soils of Kharagpur, West Bengal, India during 2015-2017 to determine the fertilizer requirement of Turmeric as an intercrop of Sapota and to evaluate the economic feasibility of drip fertigation with and without plastic mulch. The research trials for the consecutive two years showed that 80% of fertigation met with drip and plastic mulch (T4) resulted maximum plant height, stem girth, functional leaves, corm weight, corm length and yield. The highest yield was observed under the treatment 0.8 VDM (16.64 t ha -1 ) with 85% increase in yield as compared to furrow fertigation (8.99 t ha -1 ).
Wearable Haptic Systems for the Fingertip and the Hand: Taxonomy, Review, and Perspectives

In the last decade, we have witnessed a drastic change in the form factor of audio and vision technologies, from heavy and grounded machines to lightweight devices that naturally fit our bodies. However, only recently, haptic systems have started to be designed with wearability in mind. The wearability of haptic systems enables novel forms of communication, cooperation, and integration between humans and machines. Wearable haptic interfaces are capable of communicating with the human wearers during their interaction with the environment they share, in a natural and yet private way. This paper presents a taxonomy and review of wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand, focusing on those systems directly addressing wearability challenges. The paper also discusses the main technological and design challenges for the development of wearable haptic interfaces, and it reports on the future perspectives of the field. Finally, the paper includes two tables summarizing the characteristics and features of the most representative wearable haptic systems for the fingertip and the hand.
The importance of prenatal care.

In some cases, you may need to change or stop certain medicines — especially during the first trimester (12 weeks) — to reduce risk to the fetus. Or, you may need to be even more careful about managing your condition. For example, women with diabetes must take extra care to keep their blood glucose levels under control — both before they begin trying to conceive and during pregnancy. Abnormal levels increase the risk of birth defects and other complications.
Periodontitis and Gingivitis in Inflammatory Bowel Disease: A Case–Control Study

Background:The oral cavity is frequently affected in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD), especially in patients with Crohn's disease (CD). Periodontitis is thought to influence systemic autoimmune or inflammatory diseases. We aimed to analyze the relationship of periodontitis and gingivitis markers with specific disease characteristics in patients with IBD and to compare these data with healthy controls. Methods:In a prospective 8-month study, systematic oral examinations were performed in 113 patients with IBD, including 69 patients with CD and 44 patients with ulcerative colitis. For all patients, a structured personal history was taken. One hundred thirteen healthy volunteers served as a control group. Oral examination focussed on established oral health markers for periodontitis (bleeding on probing, loss of attachment, and periodontal pocket depth) and gingivitis (papilla bleeding index). Additionally, visible oral lesions were documented. Results:Both gingivitis and periodontitis markers were higher in patients with IBD than in healthy control. In univariate analysis and logistic regression analysis, perianal disease was a risk factor for periodontitis. Nonsmoking decreased the risk of having periodontitis. No clear association was found between clinical activity and periodontitis in IBD. In only the CD subgroup, high clinical activity (Harvey–Bradshaw index > 10) was associated with 1 periodontitis marker, the loss of attachment at sites of maximal periodontal pocket depth. Oral lesions besides periodontitis and gingivitis were not common, but nevertheless observed in about 10% of patients with IBD. Conclusions:IBD, and especially perianal disease in CD, is associated with periodontitis. Optimal therapeutic strategies should probably focus on treating both local oral and systemic inflammation.
Science and Facebook: The same popularity law!

The distribution of scientific citations for publications selected with different rules (author, topic, institution, country, journal, etc…) collapse on a single curve if one plots the citations relative to their mean value. We find that the distribution of “shares” for the Facebook posts rescale in the same manner to the very same curve with scientific citations. This finding suggests that citations are subjected to the same growth mechanism with Facebook popularity measures, being influenced by a statistically similar social environment and selection mechanism. In a simple master-equation approach the exponential growth of the number of publications and a preferential selection mechanism leads to a Tsallis-Pareto distribution offering an excellent description for the observed statistics. Based on our model and on the data derived from PubMed we predict that according to the present trend the average citations per scientific publications exponentially relaxes to about 4.
Dynamic relocation of epigenetic chromatin markers reveals an active role of constitutive heterochromatin in the transition from proliferation to quiescence

Quiescent lymphocytes have small nuclei, filled with masses of facultative heterochromatin. Upon receiving mitogenic signals, these cells undergo nuclear enlargement, chromatin decondensation, the reactivation of cell proliferation, and changes in the intranuclear positioning of key genes. We examined the levels and intranuclear localization of major histone modifications and non-histone heterochromatin proteins in quiescent and reactivated mouse spleen lymphocytes. Dramatic and selective changes in localization of two heterochromatin-associated proteins, the histone variant macroH2A and HP1α occurred during lymphocyte reactivation. Reciprocal changes in the locations of these two proteins were observed in activated lymphocytes and cultured mouse fibroblasts induced into quiescence. We also describe a new apocentric nuclear compartment with a unique set of histone modifications that occurs as a zone of chromatin surrounding centromeric heterochromatin in differentiated lymphocytes. It is within this zone that the most significant changes occur in the transition from proliferation to quiescence. Our results suggest that constitutive centromeric heterochromatin plays an active role in cell differentiation and reactivation.