Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
European Banking Distress and Emu: Institutional and Macroeconomic Risks

Financial stability in Europe has received renewed attention with the advent of EMU. This paper examines whether EU country banking systems are particularly vulnerable to systemic risk. Our approach is to explore episodes of banking sector distress for a large sample of countries, highlighting the experience of the EU. We estimate multivariate probit models linking the likelihood of banking problems to a set of macroeconomic variables and institutional characteristics such as aspects of bank supervision and regulation, restrictions on bank portfolios, and development of the banking system. Given these characteristics, the model predicts a low probability of banking sector distress in EMU countries.
Major Delays in the Diagnosis and Management of Tuberculosis Patients in Nepal.

BACKGROUND Early diagnosis is a determining factor for spread of tuberculosis. Delay in diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis geometrically increases spread and infectivity of the disease and is associated with higher risk of mortality. AIM The present study aimed to investigate the length of delays in diagnosis and treatment among new pulmonary tuberculosis patients in central development region of Nepal. MATERIALS AND METHODS A cross-sectional study was conducted by administration of structured questionnaire interview and reviewing the medical records of the new sputum smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases during January-May 2015. Simple random sampling was applied to select samples from 5 districts of 19 districts comprising at least one each from 3 ecological regions of Nepal. RESULTS A total of 374 new sputum smear positive pulmonary tuberculosis cases were included in the study. The median patient delay, health system delay, and total delay were 32 days, 3 days and 39.5 days respectively. The unacceptable patients delay was 53.21% (95% CI: 48.12-58.29) of all new patients, whereas it was 26.74% (95% CI: 22.23-31.24) for the unacceptable health system delay and the unacceptable total delay was 62.83% (95% CI: 57.91-67.75). CONCLUSION TB diagnosis and treatment is still a significant problem of Nepal. Majority of unacceptable delays were from patients. Identifying factors influencing delays and developing evidence-based approaches to address those delays will help in advancing tuberculosis prevention and management in low-income settings.
An exploratory qualitative study seeking participant views evaluating group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy preparation for alcohol detoxification

Abstract Aims: There is a strong consensus that detoxification from alcohol should be planned. Six sessions of Group Cognitive Behavioral Therapy as structured preparation for detoxification for alcohol dependence have been developed and evaluated. To our knowledge this is the only structured preparation intervention reported in the literature. The aim of this study was to provide a client centered evaluation of this intervention to build upon initial quantitative evidence. Methods: Eleven telephone and two face to face qualitative interviews were conducted in four community alcohol teams in South England. Detailed inductive coding, and coding around CBT concepts, of all transcripts was undertaken. Participants were purposively sampled after completion of the six week group intervention. Results: Key benefits of group attendance from the participant perspective included not feeling “alone”, being supported by, and supporting peers. Participants demonstrated self-efficacy and coping strategies for reducing drinking and managing high-risk situations. Some reported pre-group anxiety, or difficult group experiences due to disruptive clients. Conclusions: Although the study has limitations, the intervention appears to be well accepted, and appears to prepare participants for detoxification. These exploratory findings suggest that both generic groups as well as theory specific factors are important. Effectiveness and cost-effectiveness of the intervention need to be further assessed.
A Supervisory Control Theory Approach to Control Gene Regulatory Networks

The ability to control the behavior of intracellular networks has relevant applications, ranging from an optimized synthesis of metabolites in bacteria to the cure of human diseases. To implement a controller in vivo, one may insert synthetic biomolecules into the cell being controlled. This paper develops a formal approach, based on Supervisory Control Theory (SCT), to guide the design of synthetic genes that control the dynamics of gene regulatory networks, major players in cell dynamics, so that a set of specifications is achieved. Such a systematic procedure is important to make the control of large networks by synthetic molecules feasible. In our approach, we assume that the behavior of gene networks can be abstracted by finite state machines, where each state corresponds to a set of gene expression levels and the events are associated with the activation/repression of genes. We then extend the SCT framework to address the so-called state attraction problem, for the case where the controller is allowed to: a) enable/disable events, b) force events, and c) preempt the occurrence of some (possibly all) plant events.
Features: Shaping Pathways to Higher Education

The 1999 AERA report The Dynamics of Race in Higher Education: An Examination of the Evidence (www. aera.net/reports/dynamics. htm) concluded that: "(1) there is clear evidence of continuing inequities in educational opportunity along racial categories; (2) test-based definitions of merit are incomplete; (3) race is a major social psychological factor in the American consciousness and behaviors; and (4) racially diversified environments, when properly
Pilot Testing a New Short Screen for the Assessment of Older Women's PTSD Symptomatology

It is difficult for busy health care providers to perform routine screening for older women's posttraumatic stress symptomatology. This difficulty is due, at least partially, to a paucity of instruments specifically tested on such a population. To address this issue, in this preliminary study we tested an abbreviated screen from the set of 20 items comprising the Distressing Event Questionnaire (DEQ; Kubany, Leisen, Kaplan, & Kelly, 2000a) on a convenience sample of 94 ethnically diverse older women (age 52–105). This new five-item derivation, named Brief Posttraumatic Stress Screening Scale (BPSSS), assesses posttraumatic stress based on the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM–IV; American Psychiatric Association, 1994). Its conciseness reduces the likelihood that older women would become fatigued during assessment, making it ideal for use in busy health care settings. In view of the hypothesized cohesiveness of the tool's five items, we expected the screen to be reliable. Because the BPSSS has only five items, a single factor was hypothesized to account for a large proportion of the variance in its items. We also expected that scores on the screen would correlate (to a certain extent) with those on measures of depression and perceived stress of a nontraumatic and nonmedical nature. A standardized alpha of . 86 demonstrated high internal consistency of the BPSSS, and the exploratory factor analysis showed that one factor accounted for 58% of the five items' variance. Moreover, the correlations of BPSSS scores with scores on nontraumatic stress and depression were moderate yet significant (r = .37, p < .01 and r = .50, p < .01, respectively).
Mathematical Models of Avascular Tumor Growth

This review will outline a number of illustrative mathematical models describing the growth of avascular tumors. The aim of the review is to provide a relatively comprehensive list of existing models in this area and discuss several representative models in greater detail. In the latter part of the review, some possible future avenues of mathematical modeling of avascular tumor development are outlined together with a list of key questions.
Altered Fibrin Architecture Is Associated With Hypofibrinolysis and Premature Coronary Atherothrombosis

Objective—Hypofibrinolysis promotes atherosclerosis progression and recurrent ischemic events in premature coronary artery disease. We investigated the role of fibrin physical properties in this particular setting. Methods and Results—Biomarkers of recurrent thrombosis and premature coronary artery disease (CAD) were measured in 33 young post–myocardial infarction patients with angiographic-proven CAD and in 33 healthy volunteers matched for age and sex. Ex vivo plasma fibrin physical properties were assessed by measuring fibrin rigidity and fibrin morphological properties using a torsion pendulum and optical confocal microscopy. The fibrinolysis rate was derived from continuous monitoring of the viscoelastic properties after addition of lytic enzymes. Young CAD patients had a significant increase in plasma concentration of fibrinogen, von Willebrand factor, plasminogen activator inhibitor type 1, and lipoprotein(a) as compared with controls (P<0.05). Fibrin of young CAD patients was stiffer (P=0.002), made of numerous (P=0.002) and shorter fibers (P=0.04), and lysed at a slower rate than that of controls (P=0.03). Fibrin stiffness was an independent predictor for both premature CAD and hypofibrinolysis. Conclusions—This first detailed study of clot properties in such a group of patients demonstrated that abnormal plasma fibrin architecture is an important feature of both premature CAD and fibrinolysis rate. The determinants of this particular phenotype warrant further investigation.
Intervention and evaluation

David Littman, PhD Research Scientist Center on Human Development University of Oregon Eugene, Oregon EVALUATION is essential for effective intervention. The assessment of individual change and programmatic impact requires that intervention methods and systems be undergirded with procedures that are appropriate for evaluating their efficacy. Evaluation should determine the format and success of intervention for individual children and assess the impact of programs on groups of children. Evaluation serves three distinct but complementary functions: 1. It guides development of individual programming. 2. It provides feedback about success of individual programming. 3. It provides a system for determining the value of an intervention system designed to benefit groups of children.
The New Law of the Curriculum.

Thirty years ago, a treatise on the law of the school curriculum would have begun by stressing that pursuant to the Tenth Amendment the authority to determine the content of the program of the public schools resides in the states. From that premise, the treatise would have turned to a recitation of the relevant state constitutional provisions as they affected the establishment and operation of the public educational systems of the states. Attention then might have been paid to how the state legislatures carried out their constitutional duties and powers in specifying the content of the school program and in allocating administrative authority over the schools. The treatise would have reviewed the few basic curricular requirements of the legislatures, and we would have been informed that the states had required that schools offer and students take courses in American history, the U.S. constitution and state constitutions, the principles of good citizenship, English, arithmetic, the effects of alcoholic drinks, and the rules of road safety. Religious exercises, the treatise would have informed us, could be and were required in the public schools, although by 1943 the Supreme Court had prohibited the requiring of students, on pain of expulsion, to salute the flag. The treatise would also have informed us about the textbook selection laws adopted in some 20 states, as well as other state statutes affecting the length of time for which textbooks must be adopted by local districts. If there were any controversial issues covered by the treatise, they would have involved such questions as whether, under the state constitution, a local district could offer separate schools for the black and white races, whether a local district had the delegated authority to offer a particular program or course, and whether a parent had the right to exempt his or her child from a particular course.
Emotion socialization, child emotion understanding and regulation, and adjustment in urban African American families: Differential associations across child gender

Abstract The prospective relation of maternal emotion philosophy to children's emotion understanding and regulation and positive and negative adjustment was investigated. Sixty-nine African American youth (50% male; M age = 11.29 years) and their maternal caregivers living in high violence areas of a midsized city participated in this interview study. Caregivers' meta-emotion philosophy predicted child emotion understanding and emotion regulation, which also were associated with Time 2 grades, internalizing behaviors, externalizing behaviors, and social skills after controlling for Time 1 adjustment. Emotional understanding mediated the relationship between caregivers' emotional socialization and boys' internalizing behaviors and between caregivers' emotional socialization and girls' social skills. In addition, emotion regulation mediated the relationships between emotional socialization and all four outcomes for boys. Implications for future work on emotion socialization and clinical intervention, particularly related to emotion regulation, are discussed.
Adapting and Using the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-2 with Criminal Justice Offenders

This article presents the preliminary results of adapting and using the Substance Abuse Subtle Screening Inventory-2 (SASSI) with criminal justice populations. Through pilot testing with 200 probationary and 100 pretrial adult criminal offenders referred to Illinois Treatment Alternatives for Safe Communities, separate norms based on the SASSI-2 were developed for making treatment referral decisions. Analysis of SASSI-2 data collected from larger samples of criminal offenders showed that it appears to accurately screen for chemical dependency and that the treatment referrals based on the norms developed in the initial pilot study were reasonable. The SASSI-2 Corrections subscale also distinguished well between offenders with more extensive criminal histories and those with fewer prior arrests. Although more rigorous validation studies are needed, it is recommended that the SASSI-2 be considered for use with criminal justice populations when a brief, objective, and accurate screening tool for chemical dependency is needed.
Effects of Match Location, Match Status and Quality of Opposition on Regaining Possession in UEFA Champions League

Abstract The present study aimed to examine the independent and interactive effects of match location, match status, and quality of opposition on regaining possession, analysed by the type and zone of ball recovery, in matches played in the 2011-2012 UEFA Champions League. Twenty-eight matches of the knockout phase were evaluated post-event using a computerized notational analysis system. Multinomial logistic regression analysis was applied to identify the effects of the previously mentioned situational variables on ball recovery type and zone. Match status and quality of opposition main effects were observed for both dependent variables, while main effects of match location were only evident for ball recovery zone. Additionally, the interactions Match location * Quality of opposition and Match status * Quality of opposition were significant for both type and zone of ball recovery. Better teams employed more proactive defensive strategies, since, even when winning, they tried to sustain their defensive success on actions that aimed to gain the ball from the opponents. Results emphasized the tendency for home and losing teams to defend in more advanced pitch zones. Better-ranked teams were also more effective than worse-ranked teams in applying defensive pressure in more advanced pitch positions. The findings of the study suggest that the defensive strategies used by better teams imply more intense and organized collective processes in order to recover the ball directly from the opposing team. Furthermore, defending away from own goal and near the opponent's one seems to be associated with success in elite soccer.
Adsorption of Diclofenac and Triclosanin Aqueous Solution by Purified Multi-WalledCarbon Nanotubes

The ability of purified multi-walled carbon nanotubes (MWCNTs) to adsorb diclofenac and triclosan in aqueous solutions was examined by equilibrium, kinetic, and thermodynamic parameters. The results of SEM image, BET specific surface area, XRD, TGA, and FTIR spectra indicated that the characteristics of MWCNTs were improved after purification with nitric acid. Batch experiments illustrated that the removal efficiency of diclofenac and triclosan depended mostly on the MWCNTs dosage, temperature, ion concentration, pH, and initial concentration. The maximum adsorption capacity for diclofenac and triclosan under optimum conditions was 19.9 mg g-1 and 19.7 mg g-1, respectively. The equilibrium data showed that adsorption behavior of diclofenac and triclosan could be described more reasonably by the pseudosecond-order model. Thermodynamic simulation showed that the adsorption was fitted with Langmuir and Freundlich adsorption isotherm, and the thermodynamic parameters revealed the process to be exothermic and spontaneous. In addition, the adsorption behavior of MWCNTs in the binary solution was successfully predicted using the ideal adsorbed solution theory. Finally, the adsorption mechanism was discussed.
Analysis of EEG background activity in Autism disease patients with Bispectrum and STFT measure

(EEG) is an essential tool for the evaluation and treatment of neurophysiologic disorders. Careful analysis of the EEG records can provide insight and improved understanding of the mechanism causing disorders. In this study we have investigated the EEG background activity in patients with Autism disease using frequency analysis methods. We calculated Bispectrum tansform, short time Fourier transform (STFT) and also STFT at bandwidth of total spectrum (we named it STFT-BW) for 21 channel of EEG. Coefficients of the EEG in 10 Autism patients and 7 age control subjects with the same age were measured. These coefficient assessments with variance analysis. We did not find any significant differences between Autism patients and control subjects EEGs with Bispectrum and STFT. On the other hand, Autism patients had significantly difference STFT at bandwidth (STFT-BW). At electrodes FP1, F3 and T5 with (p<0.01) and F7, T3 and O1 with (p<0.05) had significantly differences. In addition our findings suggested that STFT-BW can discriminate 82.4% between normal and Autism subject with mahalanobis distance.
Genetic improvement for root growth angle to enhance crop production

The root system is an essential organ for taking up water and nutrients and anchoring shoots to the ground. On the other hand, the root system has rarely been regarded as breeding target, possibly because it is more laborious and time-consuming to evaluate roots (which require excavation) in a large number of plants than aboveground tissues. The root growth angle (RGA), which determines the direction of root elongation in the soil, affects the area in which roots capture water and nutrients. In this review, we describe the significance of RGA as a potential trait to improve crop production, and the physiological and molecular mechanisms that regulate RGA. We discuss the prospects for breeding to improve RGA based on current knowledge of quantitative trait loci for RGA in rice.
Self-Concealment: Conceptualization, Measurement, and Health Implications

This article introduces the construct of self-concealment, the active concealment from others of personal information that one perceives as negative or distressing. A Self-Concealment Scale (SCS) was developed and was included in a questionnaire battery completed by 306 subjects. The SCS had excellent psychometric properties. Self-concealment was conceptually and empirically distinguished from self-disclosure. Self-concealment significantly correlated with self-report measures of anxiety, depression, and bodily symptoms and accounted for a significant incremental percentage of the variance in physical and psychological symptoms even after controlling for occurrence of trauma, trauma distress, disclosure of the trauma, social support, social network, and self-disclosure. The implications of these findings are discussed and directions for further research are briefly outlined.
Cross-cultural variation of speech-accompanying gesture: A review

This article reviews the literature on cross-cultural variation of gestures. Four factors governing the variation were identified. The first factor is the culture-specific convention for form-meaning associations. This factor is involved in well-known cross-cultural differences in emblem gestures (e.g., the OK-sign), as well as pointing gestures. The second factor is culture-specific spatial cognition. Representational gestures (i.e., iconic and deictic gestures) that express spatial contents or metaphorically express temporal concepts differ across cultures, reflecting the cognitive differences in how direction, relative location and different axes in space are conceptualised and processed. The third factor is linguistic differences. Languages have different lexical and syntactic resources to express spatial information. This linguistic difference is reflected in how gestures express spatial information. The fourth factor is culture-specific gestural pragmatics, namely the principles under which gesture is used in communication. The culture-specificity in politeness of gesture use, the role of nodding in conversation, and the use of gesture space are discussed.