Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Seniors' Self-Administration of the Elder Abuse Suspicion Index (EASI): A Feasibility Study

This study explored the feasibility of seniors aged 65 and over with MMSE ≥24 completing the EASI-sa, a self-administrable version of the Elder Abuse Suspicion Index (EASI). A convenience sample of 210 was stratified by age, sex, and language (English and French). All completed the EASI-sa within an estimated 5 minutes, 82.9% within 2 minutes. Completion time decreased with higher education, but was not affected by age, sex, language, or measured physical or mental health. No questions went unanswered; no words were poorly understood or discomforting. The EASI-sa completion was associated with a significantly increased understanding about elder abuse (p < 0.0001).
PROMOTING NON-VIOLENT PARENTING AMONG REFUGEE MOTHERS IN DURBAN

This research began by examining the attitudes and behaviour of mothers from the Durban refugee community regarding the use of corporal punishment in bringing up children. Its use was found to be widespread and frequent among a sample of 50 mothers. A training course in non-violent parenting was designed and administered to 16 mothers. A very preliminary evaluation suggests that there were significant shifts of attitude among the participants in favour of non-violent parenting.
Study of impact of antitubercular therapy on quality of life.

INTRODUCTION Many aspects of tuberculosis (TB) and its treatment can compromise patients' quality of life (QOL). Treatment of active TB requires prolonged therapy with multiple drugs that can lead to adverse reactions. There is considerable social stigma associated with TB, leaving the individual feeling shunned and isolated. Hence, it is necessary that for a thorough assessment of patients' health status, overall impact of TB on patient's QOL should be considered. MATERIALS AND METHODS Thirty newly diagnosed smear positive cases of pulmonary TB, of either gender were interviewed using - WHO QOL BREF, which is a 26-item scale designed by WHO. It has four domains viz.: Physical health, psychological health, social relationships, and environment. Interviews were conducted thrice: Before starting treatment, after 2 months, and after 4 months of treatment. Controls ( n = 30) were selected from the general population and interviewed using same questionnaire. RESULTS Before treatment, scores in all domains were significantly lower in patients than controls. Worst affected were physical domain followed by psychological. Gradual increase in scores was observed over the course of treatment, indicating positive effect of medical intervention on QOL. Despite improvements, the scores in physical and psychological domain after 4 months of treatment were still significantly lower in patients than in controls. CONCLUSION Measurement of QOL in TB is essential to have an in-depth understanding of effect of disease on various dimensions of health. This would enable health care professionals to devise relevant interventions such as patient counselling which would be useful in further improving quality of TB control programs.
The Impact of Domestic Violence on Urban Preschool Children: Battered Mothers' Perspectives

Applying focus group methodology, this article explores urban battered mothers' perceptions oftheir preschool children's exposure to domestic violence. It also examines mothers' reportsabout their young children's functioning and traumatic stress symptoms and the connectionswomen make between their own experiences of victimization by partners and their children's difficulties.Finally, this research describes the challenges abused mothers relate in their efforts toparent in the context of domestic violence. The sample consists of 43 women from diversesociodemographic backgrounds who participated in five focus groups in New York City. Findingssuggest that battered mothers have a wide range of awareness of their children's exposure todomestic violence and its possible effects on their preschoolers, including traumatic impact.Women identified parenting burdens related to domestic violence including efforts to preventaggression and victimization in their children. The implications for intervention with batteredwomen and their preschool children are presented.
The effect of preference expression modality on self-control

The marketplace affords consumers various modalities to express their preferences (e.g., by pressing a button on a vending machine or making an oral request at a restaurant). In this paper, we compare speaking to manual preference expression modalities (button pressing, writing, and taking) and study their effect on self-control dilemmas. Based on studies of the Stroop task and on neuroscientific evidence, we predict that speaking is less likely than motor movement to evoke self-control. Our prediction relies on the observation that different expression modalities activate different regions of the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and, hence, may influence the extent to which emotions rather than cognitions determine an individual’s decision. In six studies conducted both in the lab and the field, we show that speaking prompts more indulgent choice than manual modalities (studies 1a,b-4), but not when individuals speak in a foreign language (study 5).
Sjögren's syndrome: a community-based study of prevalence and impact.

OBJECTIVE Using the European Community (EC) criteria for classification Vitali et al. Arthritis Rheum 1993;36:340 7, we report the prevalence estimates of Sjogren's syndrome (SS) from a general population and present the first population data to assess the impact of the syndrome. METHODS A cross-sectional population-based survey performed on 1000 adults, aged 18-75 yr, randomly selected from a population register. Responders to the initial postal phase were invited for an interview. The five criteria measured at interview were: (1) the reporting of subjective oral symptoms lasting for > 3 months; (2) the reporting of subjective ocular symptoms lasting for >3 months; (3) Schirmer-I test; (4) unstimulated salivary flow; (5) autoantibodies [Ro (SS-A), La (SS-B), rheumatoid factor (RF), antinuclear antibodies (ANA)]. SS was diagnosed if at least four of these five criteria were positive. The MOS Short-form 36 (SF-36), General Health Questionnaire (GHQ) and the Health and Fatigue Questionnaire (HFQ) were completed by subjects after the interview, and scores were compared between those with and without a diagnosis of SS. RESULTS A total of 341 subjects completed both the postal questionnaire and home visit. A diagnosis of SS could be given to 13 subjects. After adjusting for the presence of possible bias due to non-response, our best estimate of the prevalence of SS in the study population was 33 per 1000 subjects (95% CI 22 44). The prevalence of the disorder was higher in females (38; 95% CI 27-52) and for those subjects aged > or = 55 yr (46; 95% CI 34-61). Those subjects diagnosed positively were more impaired for each of the eight dimensions of the SF-36 than those without a diagnosis, and also suffered from higher levels of depression and fatigue. CONCLUSIONS SS affects approximately 3-4% of adults and in the general population appears to be associated with a clinically significant impairment of a subject's health and well-being.
E-Learning Quality Assurance: A Process-Oriented Lifecycle Model.

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to propose a process‐oriented lifecycle model for ensuring quality in e‐learning development and delivery. As a dynamic and iterative process, quality assurance (QA) is intertwined with the e‐learning development process.Design/methodology/approach – After reviewing the existing literature, particularly focusing on QA frameworks, procedures, and methodology, a process‐oriented model structured around three sequential non‐linear phases is presented: before: planning and analysis; during: design, prototype and production; and after: post‐production and delivery. This model is supported by an advanced information system used to organize, track, collect, and generate reports regarding QA changes and needed updates.Findings – Following a process‐oriented lifecycle approach, the paper emphasises that QA requires a supportive environment that explicitly recognizes quality as a work value and as an enabler for reaching organizational goals.Practical implications – The paper .
DETECTING AND CORRECTING MOTION BLUR FROM IMAGES SHOT WITH CHANNEL-DEPENDENT EXPOSURE TIME

Abstract. This article describes a pipeline developed to automatically detect and correct motion blur due to the airplane motion in aerial images provided by a digital camera system with channel-dependent exposure times. Blurred images show anisotropy in their Fourier Transform coefficients that can be detected and estimated to recover the characteristics of the motion blur. To disambiguate the anisotropy produced by a motion blur from the possible spectral anisotropy produced by some periodic patterns present in a sharp image, we consider the phase difference of the Fourier Transform of two channel shot with different exposure times (i.e. with different blur extensions). This is possible because of the deep correlation between the three visible channels ensures phase coherence of the Fourier Transform coefficients in sharp images. In this context, considering the phase difference constitutes both a good detector and estimator of the motion blur parameters. In order to improve on this estimation, the phase difference is performed on local windows in the image where the channels are more correlated. The main lobe of the phase difference, where the phase difference between two channels is close to zero actually imitates an ellipse which axis ratio discriminates blur and which orientation and minor axis give respectively the orientation and the blur kernel extension of the long exposure-time channels. However, this approach is not robust to the presence in the phase difference of minor lobes due to phase sign inversions in the Fourier transform of the motion blur. They are removed by considering the polar representation of the phase difference. Based on the blur detection step, blur correction is eventually performed using two different approaches depending on the blur extension size: using either a simple frequency-based fusion for small blur or a semi blind iterative method for larger blur. The higher computing costs of the latter method make it only suitable for large motion blur, when the former method is not applicable.
Semantic Blindness: Repeated Concepts are Difficult to Encode and Recall under Time Pressure

This study demonstrates a recently predicted cognitive phenomenon known as semantic blindness, an inhibitory effect attributable to concept repetition in the serial recall of rapidly presented sentences Proficient bilinguals read mixed, Spanish-English sentences, each including a target and a pretarget word Targets and pretargets were related in three ways They were identical (e g, like-like), semantically identical across languages (e g, gusta-like), and nonidentical within or across languages (e g, read-like) Equivalent repetition blindness was found for targets with identical and semantically identical pretargets, indicating that repetition deficits were occurring solely at the semantic level, rather than at orthographic or phonological levels
Infants’ search for hidden persons

The present article is a review of infants’ search for hidden persons. Studies investigating the presence of the so-called positive decalage—the claim, originating from Piaget, that person permanence precedes object permanence—are presented and discussed. Attempts are made to pinpoint, clarify, and summarise the potential confounding variables that have troubled this field of research (e.g., different object sizes; different search demands; confusing familiarity and motivational aspects). It is argued that Piaget’s term positive decalage is inadequate considering the existing data, and an alternative approach to infants’ search for hidden persons, a time table approach, is presented. Finally, directions for future research and specific studies are proposed.
Strategies to Prevent Underage Drinking

Alcohol use by underage drinkers is a persistent public health problem in the United States, and alcohol is the most commonly used drug among adolescents. Accordingly, numerous approaches have been developed and studied that aim to prevent underage drinking. Some approaches are school based, involving curricula targeted at preventing alcohol, tobacco, or marijuana use. Other approaches are extracurricular, offering activities outside of school in the form of social or life skills training or alternative activities. Other strategies strive to involve the adolescents’ families in the prevention programs. Policy strategies also have been implemented that have increased the minimum legal drinking age, reduced the commercial and social access of adolescents to alcohol, and reduced the economic availability of alcohol. Approaches involving the entire community also have been employed. Several programs (e.g., the Midwestern Prevention Project and Project Northland) have combined many of these strategies.
The Principle of Strong Diminishing Transfer

We reconsider the principles of diminishing transfer (introduced by Kolm [1976]) and dual diminishing transfer (introduced by Mehran [1976]). It appears that if a Rank Dependent Expected Utility (RDEU) maximizer respects the principle of diminishing (resp. dual diminishing) transfer, then he behaves in accordance with the Expected Utility model (resp. Yaari's dual model). This leads us to define the principle of strong diminishing transfer, which is a combination of the principles of diminishing and dual diminishing transfer. We give necessary conditions for a RDEU maximizer to respect this principle.These results are applied to the problem of inequality measurement.
Religiousness and Subjective Well-Being Among Jewish Female Residents of Old Age Homes in Israel

ABSTRACT The present study explored the prevalence of religiousness among Jewish elderly women residing in old age homes in Israel and its impact on their subjective well-being. The sample included 464 respondents residing in 48 old age homes. Religiousness was measured through self-rated religiousness and religious faith scales (Ben Meir & Kedem, 1979). Subjective well-being was measured by the PGC (Philadelphia Geriatric Center) Morale Scale (Lawton, 1975). The findings revealed that the majority of the elderly define themselves as traditional, orthodox or ultra orthodox. Multiple regression analysis revealed that religiousness did not affect the residents' subjective well-being.
The Integrative Model of Behavior Prediction to Explain Technology Use in Post-Graduate Teacher Education Programs in the Netherlands.

This study examined technology in post-graduate teacher training programs in the Netherlands. A questionnaire was completed by 111 teacher educators from 12 Dutch universities with a post-graduate teacher training program. The general view of the use of technology in Dutch post-graduate teacher education was quite conventional. Basic technology such as computers, WiFi, electronic whiteboards, virtual learning environments and presentation software was commonly used, but more advanced or innovative technology was less common. In addition, the psychological Integrative Model of Behavior Prediction of Fishbein and Azjen was applied to explain differences between teacher educators in the use of both hardware and software in teacher education. Teacher educators’ positive attitudes toward technology in education were significantly related to the extent to which hardware facilities were used to support teacher training pedagogy. Perceived norm largely explained differences in the extent to which software applications were used. However, both aspects were moderated by teacher educators’ gender and teaching experience showing that female teacher educators and experienced teacher eduactors reported to use technology in teacher education more than other teacher educators. Soft- and hardware conditions and self-efficacy in technology did not add much explanatory power. Implications for technology use in post-graduate teacher training are formulated.
Philosophy, Ethics, and Capitalism: An Interview with BB&T Chairman John Allison

For 20 years John Allison served as CEO of Branch Banking & Trust Corporation (BB&T), the tenth largest bank in the United States. He retired as CEO at the end of 2008, but has remained with the firm as chairman of the board of directors. Allison attributes BB&T's success to operating by a set of principles that are embodied in the firm's statement of 10 key values. The BB&T Value Statement is a genuine source of guidance for decisions throughout the firm. For example, when the U.S. Supreme Court upheld a municipality's right to seize property by eminent domain for the purpose of economic development, BB&T issued a statement that it would not provide loans for any projects in which the land for the project had been taken in this manner. When making negative amortization loans became popular, BB&T also refused to participate. In this interview Allison addresses philosophy, ethics, values, and how BB&T harnesses them to guide its business decisions. Characterized as a defender of capitalism and a “philosoph.
Successful ageing and development: the contribution of generativity in older age

This paper examines the contributions that generativity in older age may make to the concept of successful ageing. To this end, two perspectives on successful ageing are described: successful ageing as a set of clinical criteria, and successful ageing as the application of adaptive processes aimed at achieving efficient functioning. After showing the limitations of the first perspective, particularly from a developmental point of view, the paper argues that the adaptive version of successful ageing helps to putageingintoadevelopmentalframe,butneedstobecomplementedbyidentifying specific content and goals that guide these adaptive processes and establish new feasible gains for older people. Generativity in older age could play that role and providesaconceptual frameworkthatenrichestheconceptofsuccessfulageing,both by emphasising the social contextin which people age and by highlighting a personal growth component.
Expression of vascular remodelling markers in relation to bradykinin receptors in asthma and COPD

Background Vascular remodelling plays a central role in asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). Bradykinin (BK) is a vasoactive proinflammatory peptide mediating acute responses in asthma. We investigated the role of angiogenic factors in relation to BK receptors in asthma and COPD. Methods Bronchial biopsies from 33 patients with COPD, 24 old (≥50 years) patients with (≥50 years) asthma, 18 old control smokers, 11 old control non-smokers, 15 young (≤40yrs) patients with (≤40 years) asthma and 10 young control non-smokers were immunostained for CD31, vascular endothelial growth factor-A (VEGF-A), angiogenin and BK receptors (B2R and B1R). Fibroblast and endothelial co-localisation of relevant molecules were performed by immunofluorescence. BK-induced VEGF-A and angiogenin release was studied (ELISA) in bronchial fibroblasts from subjects with asthma and COPD. Results In bronchial lamina propria of old patients with asthma, CD31 and VEGF-A+ cell numbers were higher than old control non-smokers (p<0.05). Angiogenin+, B2R+ and B1R+ cell numbers in old patients with asthma were higher than in old control non-smokers, control smokers and patients with COPD (p<0.01). Angiogenin+ cell numbers were higher in patients with COPD than both old control groups (p<0.05). In all patients with asthma the number of B2R+ cells was positively related to the numbers of B1R+ (rs=0.43), angiogenin+ (rs=0.42) and CD31 cells (rs=0.46) (p<0.01). Angiogenin+ cell numbers were negatively related to forced expiratory volume in 1 s (rs=−0.415, p=0.008). Double immunofluorescence revealed that CD31 cells of capillary vessels coexpressed B2R and that fibroblasts coexpressed B2R, VEGF-A and angiogenin. BK (10−6M) induced significant angiogenin release in fibroblasts from asthma and to a lesser extent in COPD. Conclusions Unlike COPD, this study suggests the involvement of BK receptors in bronchial vascular remodelling in asthma.
Prognostic Value of Axillary Nodal Ratio after Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy of Doxorubicin/Cyclophosphamide Followed by Docetaxel in Breast Cancer: A Multicenter Retrospective Cohort Study

Purpose The purpose of this study is to investigate the prognostic value of lymph node (LN) ratio (LNR) in patients with breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Materials and Methods This retrospective analysis is based on the data of 814 patientswith stage II/III breast cancer treated with four cycles of doxorubicin/cyclophosphamide followed by four cycles of docetaxel before surgery. We evaluated the clinical significance of LNR (3 categories: low 0-0.20 vs. intermediate 0.21-0.65 vs. high 0.66-1.00) using a Cox proportional regression model. Results A total of 799 patients underwent breast surgery. Pathologic complete response (pCR, ypT0/isN0) was achieved in 129 patients (16.1%) (hormone receptor [HR] +/human epidermal growth factor receptor 2 [HER2] –, 34/373 [9.1%]; HER2+, 45/210 [21.4%]; triple negative breast cancer, 50/216 [23.1%]). The mean numbers of involved LN and retrieved LN were 2.70 (range, 0 to 42) and 13.98 (range, 1 to 64), respectively. The mean LNR was 0.17 (low, 574 [71.8%]; intermediate, 170 [21.3%]; high, 55 [6.9%]). In univariate analysis, LNR showed significant association with a worse relapse-free survival (3-year relapse-free survival rate 84.8% in low vs. 66.2% in intermediate vs. 54.3% in high; p < 0.001, log-rank test). In multivariate analysis, LNR did not show significant association with recurrence after adjusting for other clinical factors (age, histologic grade, subtype, ypT stage, ypN stage, lymphatic or vascular invasion, and pCR). In subgroup analysis, the LNR system had good prognostic value in HR+/HER2–subtype. Conclusion LNR is not superior to ypN stage in predicting clinical outcome of breast cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy. However, the prognostic value of the LNR system in HR+/HER2–patients is notable and worthy of further investigation.
Effects of Travel Motivation, Past Experience, Perceived Constraint, and Attitude on Revisit Intention

This study developed and tested a structural model in examining the effects of mainland Chinese visitors' travel motivation, past experience, perceived constraint, and attitude on their intention of revisiting Hong Kong. Data were collected through telephone interviews (n = 501) in Beijing and analyzed using structural equation modeling. Findings indicate that one of travel motivation's underlying dimensions, shopping, positively affected Beijing tourists' revisit intention to Hong Kong; past experience, as measured by the number of prior visits and satisfaction, also positively influenced revisit intention. Disinterest was the only constraint factor significantly negating revisit intention. In addition, attitude was found to play a significant mediating role in the total effect of satisfaction on revisit intention. Results suggest that in addition to further strengthening Hong Kong's “shopping paradise” image, destination marketers and managers should promote more novel features of local attractions and appeal to the relaxation need of repeat visitors.