Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychosocial Acute Treatment in Early-Episode Schizophrenia Disorders

Objective: This article reviews evidence on the treatment of early episode schizophrenia spectrum disorders that contradicts, in some cases, the American Psychiatric Association’s generic recommendation of antipsychotic medication treatment for at least a year. Method: Evidence on lack of diagnostic validity, absence of demonstrated long-term benefit from initial antipsychotic treatment, and existence of a large subgroup of early episode clients that may be successfully treated without antipsychotic medications is reviewed. Results: A time-limited initial trial of psychosocial intervention without antipsychotics may benefit many clients, especially by reducing long-term medication dependence and side effect exposure. Evidence suggests this can be done without substantial risk to those later found to need medications. A risk-benefit comparison of current practice to two alternate treatment protocols is presented. Conclusions: Developing and evaluating a psychosocial intervention for early episode psychosis presents a unique opportunity for social work to take leadership in acute mental health treatment.
Glassy state transition and rice drying: development of a brown rice state diagram.

ABSTRACT The effect of moisture content (MC) on the glass transition temperature (Tg) of individual brown rice kernels of Bengal, a medium-grain cultivar, and Cypress, a long-grain cultivar, was studied. Three methods were investigated for measuring Tg: differential scanning calorimetry (DSC), thermomechanical analysis (TMA), and dynamic mechanical analysis (DMA). Among these methods, TMA was chosen, because it can also measure changes in the thermal volumetric coefficient (β) of the kernel during glass transition. TMA-measured Tg at similar MC levels for both cultivars were not significantly different and were combined to generate a brown rice state diagram. Individual kernel Tg for both cultivars increased from 22 to 58°C as MC decreased from 27 to 3% wb. Linear and sigmoid models were derived to relate Tg to MC. The linear model was sufficient to describe the property changes in the MC range encountered during rice drying. Mean β values across both cultivars in the rubbery state was 4.62 × 10-4/°C and .
Malignant External Otitis

Objective. To study the effect of specific clinical, laboratory, and imaging parameters on the course of severe (type 1) malignant external otitis (MEO). Study Design. Case series with chart review. Setting. Tertiary, university-affiliated medical center. Subjects and Methods. Fifty-seven patients hospitalized with severe MEO were followed for disease course and survival in a tertiary center between 1990 and 2008. Results. In 20% of patients, disease was persistent and/or aggressive despite prolonged and extensive treatment. Of this subgroup, 45% died of the disease. Prognostic factors of persistent/aggressive disease were facial nerve paralysis, bilateral disease, and significant major computed tomography findings (temporomandibular joint destruction, infratemporal fossa or nasopharyngeal soft tissue involvement). Cultures grew fungi in 5 patients, and follow-up imaging revealed disease progression. The overall 5-year survival was 55% for patients with short-term disease and 40% for patients with persistent/ aggressive disease (P = .086). By age, 5-year survival was 75% in patients younger than 70 years old and 44% in older patients (P = .029). Conclusions. A significant subset of patients with MEO has a prolonged, aggressive, and highly fatal disease that needs to be identified early. These patients more frequently have bilateral disease, cranial nerve paralysis, and positive computed tomography findings. Their follow-up should routinely include imaging studies to evaluate disease progression, and every effort should be made to identify and treat underlying fungal infection.
Personal commitment, support and progress in doctoral studies

Earlier research on doctoral education has associated study progress with the student’s own capabilities and faculty support. The purpose of this study is to investigate how students’ personal commitment and various forms of support, as well as their complementary effects, explain progress in doctoral studies. Data were collected by a questionnaire survey among doctoral students of industrial engineering and management in Finland. The study investigates the effect of: (1) support from supervisor, peers and employer, and (2) students’ commitment in terms of setting goals, time and plans. The results show that plan commitment and peer support, as well as goal commitment and supervisor support, together have a positive effect on study progress. In turn, time commitment and peer support, and time commitment and supervisor support, jointly lead to better research progress.
Role Conflict in Community Corrections

A study was conducted to determine whether prior research had accurately conceptualised community correctional officers' experience of role conflict on the basis of officers' role preferences. It was hypothesised that officers who were welfare workers or punitive officers would experience inter-role conflict while those who attempted to combine the welfare and punitive roles (protective agents) would experience intra-role conflict and role ambiguity. Furthermore, an exploration of how inter-role conflict, intra-role conflict, role ambiguity, and officers' role preferences were related to occupational burnout was conducted. It was found in this study that officers' preferences for the role of welfare worker, protective agent, or punitive officer were not related to the level of inter-role conflict, intra-role conflict, or role ambiguity experienced by officers. Officers' role preferences were not related to burnout. Inter-role conflict and intra-role conflict were associated with emotional exhaustion. These findings call into question the whole tradition in the community corrections literature of inferring role conflict from officers' role preferences and necessitate that the whole issue of whether officers experience role conflict be revisited by employing direct measures of role conflict.
The Effects of Behavioral, Situational, and Person Information on Different Attribution Judgments

Abstract Two experiments that test several issues in the attribution literature were performed. In Experiment 1, subjects were told that a target person had performed a particular behavior and were also given information about the personality of the person and whether situational forces encouraged the behavior. Behaviors were related either to partially restrictive schemata or hierarchically restrictive schemata (See Reeder & Brewer, 1979). Trait attributions generally showed that behavior, person, and situation information all had effects but that the effects of behavior were greater, and the effects of situation and person information less, for the hierarchically restrictive traits. Subjects were also asked for traditional internal and external causality judgments. In general, judgments of internal causality were more responsive to person information and judgments of external causality more responsive to situational information suggesting that previous demonstrations of perceivers′ tendencies to underutilize situational information may be due, in part, to the ways attributions have been measured. In Experiment 2, subjects made trait attributions, but also explained the reasons behind them. These open-ended responses suggest that there are different reasoning processes underlying the use of the two types of schemata.
Comparison of Stress, Social Support, and Marital Satisfaction between Married Immigrant Women in Urban and Rural Areas.

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to compare the levels of stress, social support, and marital satisfaction between married immigrant women living in urban areas and women living in rural areas to identify ways to improve their mental health. METHODS Two hundred married immigrant women were recruited from multicultural family-support centers located in Daejeon City and Chungcheong Province. From July, 2009 to January, 2010, data were collected using self-administered questionnaire. Study instruments were scales for acculturative stress, housewives life stress, support from spouse, and marital satisfaction. RESULTS Urban married immigrant women had lower levels of acculturative stress and higher levels of support from spouse and more positive marital satisfaction compared to rural women. Both groups reported similar levels of stress in life as a housewife. Factors influencing marital satisfaction in both group were lower levels of acculturative and housewives life stress, higher levels of support from spouse, and living with parents-in-law. CONCLUSION Rural married immigrant women may have more problems in adjusting to Korean culture and marriage compared to urban women. Therefore, to improve the physical and psychological wellbeing and marital adjustment of married immigrant women, development of nursing strategies according to area of residence is needed.
Management of type 2 diabetes with multiple oral hypoglycaemic agents or insulin in primary care: retrospective cohort study.

BACKGROUND Intensive glycaemic control can reduce the risk of microvascular complications in people with type 2 diabetes. AIM To examine the extent of monitoring and glycaemic control of patients with type 2 diabetes prescribed oral agents and/or insulin, and to investigate transition to insulin. DESIGN OF STUDY Retrospective cohort study. SETTING A total of 154 general practices in the UK contributing to the DIN-LINK database between 1995 and 2005. METHOD People with type 2 diabetes were identified using Read codes and prescribing data. Outcome measures were: glycaemic monitoring and control on multiple oral agents and/or insulin, and transition to insulin. RESULTS A total of 14 824 people with type 2 diabetes were prescribed multiple oral agents concurrently, of whom 5064 (34.16%) had haemoglobin A(1c) (HbA(1c)) assessments 6 months before and following initiation of their last oral therapy. Mean HbA(1c) before therapy was 9.07%, which dropped to 8.16% following therapy (mean difference 0.91%, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 0.86 to 0.95, P <0.0001). Of the patients with HbA(1c) assessments, 3153 (62.26%) had evidence of poor glycaemic control following therapy. Median time to insulin for patients prescribed multiple oral agents was 7.7 years (95% CI = 7.4 to 8.5 years); 1513 people began insulin during the study and had HbA(1c) assessments 6 months before and following insulin. Mean HbA(1c) before insulin was 9.85% (standard deviation [SD] 1.96%) which decreased by 1.34%, (95% CI = 1.24% to 1.44%) following therapy, but 1110 people (73.36%) still had HbA(1c) > or =7.5%. CONCLUSION Many people with type 2 diabetes received inadequate monitoring and had poor glycaemic control. Intensive management is required to reduce the risk of microvascular complications.
Glaucoma Structure – Function Relationship Between Bruch ’ s Membrane Opening – Based Optic Nerve Head Parameters and Visual Field Defects in Glaucoma

Citation: Muth DR, Hirneiß CW. Structure–function relationship between Bruch’s membrane opening– based optic nerve head parameters and visual field defects in glaucoma. Invest Ophthalmol Vis Sci. 2015;56:3320–3328. DOI:10.1167/ iovs.14-15845 PURPOSE. This study was performed to evaluate the structure–function relationship between Bruch’s membrane opening (BMO) parameters of the optic nerve head (ONH) and visual field (VF) sensitivity.
Bacterial Cellulose-Hydroxyapatite Nanocomposites for Bone Regeneration

The aim of this study was to develop and to evaluate the biological properties of bacterial cellulose-hydroxyapatite (BC-HA) nanocomposite membranes for bone regeneration. Nanocomposites were prepared from bacterial cellulose membranes sequentially incubated in solutions of CaCl2 followed by Na2HPO4. BC-HA membranes were evaluated in noncritical bone defects in rat tibiae at 1, 4, and 16 weeks. Thermogravimetric analyses showed that the amount of the mineral phase was 40%–50% of the total weight. Spectroscopy, electronic microscopy/energy dispersive X-ray analyses, and X-ray diffraction showed formation of HA crystals on BC nanofibres. Low crystallinity HA crystals presented Ca/P a molar ratio of 1.5 (calcium-deficient HA), similar to physiological bone. Fourier transformed infrared spectroscopy analysis showed bands assigned to phosphate and carbonate ions. In vivo tests showed no inflammatory reaction after 1 week. After 4 weeks, defects were observed to be completely filled in by new bone tissue. The BC-HA membranes were effective for bone regeneration.
Gender Differences in Diagnoses of Mentally Disordered Offenders

We investigated differences in psychiatric diagnoses and medicolegal insanity decisions between female and male forensic psychiatric patients. Data on all offenders (N = 4396) subjected to a court-ordered forensic psychiatric inpatient evaluation were obtained for the years 1992–2000. A significantly higher proportion of female mentally disordered offenders were given a diagnosis of personality disorder while mentally disordered male offenders more often had a diagnosis of alcohol and/or drug dependence or sexual disorders. There was an increased likelihood that violent women would be declared legally insane even after controlling for a number of potential confounders. This may reflect an underlying difference in the severity of psychiatric morbidity not accounted for diagnostically or that a gender bias exists in the forensic psychiatric evaluation process.
Translanguaging and transnational literacies in multilingual classrooms: a biliteracy lens

Abstract As US classrooms approach a decade of response to No Child Left Behind, many questions and concerns remain around the education of those labeled as ‘English language learners,’ in both English as a Second Language and bilingual education classrooms. A national policy context where standardized tests dominate curriculum and instruction and first language literacy is discouraged and undervalued poses unusual challenges for learners whose communicative repertoires encompass translanguaging practices. Drawing on the critical sociolinguistics of globalization and on ethnographic data from US and international educational contexts, we argue via a continua of biliteracy lens that the welcoming of translanguaging and transnational literacies in classrooms is not only necessary but desirable educational practice. We suggest that Obama's current policies on the one hand and our schools' glaring needs on the other offer new spaces to be exploited for innovative programs, curricula, and practices that recognize, value, and build on the multiple, mobile communicative repertoires and translanguaging/transnational literacy practices of students and their families.
Binarization and Recognition of Degraded Characters Using a Maximum Separability Axis in Color Space and GAT Correlation

This paper proposes a new technique of binarization and recognition of characters in color with a wide variety of image degradations and complex backgrounds. The key ideas are twofold. One is to automatically select one axis in the RGB color space that maximizes the between-class separability by a suitably chosen threshold for segmentation of character and background or binarization. The other is affine-invariant or distortion-tolerant grayscale character recognition using global affine transformation (GAT) correlation that yields the maximum correlation value between input and template images. In experiments, we use a total of 698 test images extracted from the public ICDAR 2003 robust OCR dataset containing a variety of single-character images in natural scenes. In advance, we classify those images into seven groups according to the degree of image degradations and/or background complexity. On the other hand, we only prepare a single-font set of 62 alphanumerics for templates. Experimental results show an average recognition rate of 81.4%, ranging from 94.5% for clear images to 39.3% for seriously distorted images
Fast app launching for mobile devices using predictive user context

As mobile apps become more closely integrated into our everyday lives, mobile app interactions ought to be rapid and responsive. Unfortunately, even the basic primitive of launching a mobile app is sorrowfully sluggish: 20 seconds of delay is not uncommon even for very popular apps. We have designed and built FALCON to remedy slow app launch. FALCON uses contexts such as user location and temporal access patterns to predict app launches before they occur. FALCON then provides systems support for effective app-specific prelaunching, which can dramatically reduce perceived delay. FALCON uses novel features derived through extensive data analysis, and a novel cost-benefit learning algorithm that has strong predictive performance and low runtime overhead. Trace-based analysis shows that an average user saves around 6 seconds per app startup time with daily energy cost of no more than 2% battery life, and on average gets content that is only 3 minutes old at launch without needing to wait for content to update. FALCON is implemented as an OS modification to the Windows Phone OS.
Effects of putative catalytic base mutation E211Q on ABCG2-mediated methotrexate transport.

ABCG2 is a half-ATP binding cassette (ABC) drug transporter that consists of a nucleotide binding domain (NBD) followed by a transmembrane domain. This half-ABC transporter is thought to form a homodimer in the plasma membrane where it transports anticancer drugs across the biological membranes in an ATP-dependent manner. Substitution of the putative catalytic residue E211 with a nonacidic amino acid glutamine (E211Q) completely abolished its ATPase activity and ATP-dependent methotrexate transport, suggesting that ATP hydrolysis is required for the ATP-dependent solute transport. However, whether one ATP hydrolysis or two ATP hydrolyses in the homodimer of ABCG2 with the NBD.ATP. ATP.NBD sandwich structure is/are required for the ATP-dependent solute transport is not known yet. To address this question, we have made an YFP/ABCG2 fusion protein and expressed this 99 kDa fusion protein alone or along with the 70 kDa E211Q-mutated ABCG2 in BHK cells. Although membrane vesicles prepared from BHK cells expressing YFP/ABCG2 exert higher ATPase activity than that of wt ABCG2, the dATP-dependent methotrexate transport activities of these two proteins are the same. Interestingly, membrane vesicles prepared from BHK cells expressing both YFP/ABCG2 and E211Q-mutated ABCG2 (with a ratio of 1:1) form homodimers and heterodimer and exert 55% of wt ABCG2 ATPase activity that can be further enhanced by anticancer drugs, suggesting that the wt NBD in the heterodimer of YFP/ABCG2 and E211Q may be able to hydrolyze ATP. Furthermore, the membrane vesicles containing both YFP/ABCG2 and E211Q exert approximately 79% of wt ABCG2-mediated methotrexate transport activity, implying that the heterodimer harboring YFP/ABCG2 and E211Q may be able to transport the anticancer drug methotrexate across the biological membranes.
The False Consensus Effect and Overconfidence: Flaws in Judgment or Flaws in How We Study Judgment?

Abstract The false consensus effect and the overconfidence in judgment effect are often referred to as established “facts” of psychology. At present, the empirical support for these effects is inadequate and logically flawed. We argue that, absent other information, using one's own response to a situation as an observation of size 1 could be an effective use of data and could lead to an increase in the accuracy of predicting others’ behavior. In an empirical examination of such use, we find a robust positive correlation between the degree to which people believe that a majority of others are like them and their accuracy in predicting those others’ responses, whether this correlation is evaluated within items across people, across items within people, or across items across people. In addition, we show that the finding of overconfidence in judgment follows analytically from the functional relationship used to demonstrate it, a “finding” that is easily reversed by considering the inverse relationship. Specifically, we argue that regression effects account for the evidence cited in support of overconfidence. While not definitive, our empirical findings call into the question the acceptance of these two effects—as commonly defined—as facts.
Exploring inclusion preservice training needs: a study of variables associated with attitudes and self‐efficacy beliefs

The study examined attitudes towards inclusion and sense of efficacy of 1155 Israeli preservice teachers and variables related to these beliefs. Participants responded to an Options related to inclusion scale, and a Teacher efficacy scale. Findings revealed strong support for the principle of inclusion, yet also support for segregated special education placements. Several concerns regarding inclusion were expressed, which were related to the area of classroom management and teacher instructional skills. Sense of efficacy scores on personal efficacy, social efficacy and efficacy regarding low‐achieving students were higher than those for teaching efficacy. Less support for inclusion was found for students in Arab (Muslim) colleges compared to students in Jewish colleges. These two groups were also different on self‐efficacy scores. The major area of study and experience was associated with the level of support for inclusion and to self‐efficacy scores. The progression in the training programme was associated with increased concerns and less support for inclusion. Female students were more supportive of inclusion than males, and had higher self‐efficacy scores. Implications for preservice education for general and special education students are discussed.
Postoperative adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in older patients with head and neck cancer.

BACKGROUND In head and neck cancer, the locoregional failure of patients with positive margins, vascular or perineural invasion, and extracapsular spread is high and results in poor survival. OBJECTIVE To assess the effect of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy in improving treatment outcomes among older patients with head and neck cancer. METHODS Forty patients undergoing radical surgery (median age, 73.5 years [range, 70-78 years]) were enrolled (35 men and 5 women; Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status, grade 0-2). Disease sites included the oral cavity (10 patients), oropharynx (12 patients), hypopharynx (8 patients), and larynx (10 patients); pathological TNM classifications included T1 N2 (8 patients), T2 N1-2 (12 patients), T3 N0-2 (8 patients), and T4 N0-2 (12 patients), with the following poor prognostic factors: positive margins (6 patients), vascular invasion (14 patients), neural invasion (16 patients), and extracapsular spread (26 patients). All patients were treated with carboplatin (30 mg/m2 on days 1-5 of weeks 1, 3, and 5) concomitant with radiotherapy (54.0 Gy to all risk volumes plus 10.0 Gy to high-risk volumes; 5 daily fractions of 1.8 Gy each per week). RESULTS No grade 4 toxicity was observed. Grade 3 toxicity included mucositis (10 patients), neutropenia (6 patients), dermatitis (2 patients), and thrombocytopenia (1 patient). The radiotherapy dose administered was 52.0 Gy to all risk volumes plus 10.0 Gy to high-risk volumes. Thirty-two patients (80%) received 3 cycles, 6 (15%) received 2 cycles, and 2 (5%) received 1 cycle. Three-year survival was as follows: disease-free survival, 58%; overall survival, 64%; and local control, 79%. CONCLUSIONS Adjuvant chemoradiotherapy may be successful in fit older patients. The results of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy were better than those observed in a comparable group treated with radiotherapy alone and were similar to those observed in a younger group with the same poor prognostic factors treated with adjuvant carboplatin plus radiotherapy.