Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of Helplessness, Fear of Pain, and Passive Pain-Coping in Chronic Pain Patients

ObjectivesThe goal of this study was to examine the relative contribution of helplessness, fear of pain, and passive pain-coping to pain level, disability, and depression in chronic pain patients attending an interdisciplinary pain center. MethodsOne hundred sixty-nine chronic pain patients who had entered treatment at an interdisciplinary pain center completed various questionnaires and a pain diary. ResultsHelplessness, fear of pain, and passive pain-coping strategies were all related to the pain level, disability, and depression. When comparing the contribution of the predictors in multiple regression analyses, helplessness was the only significant predictor for pain level. Helplessness and the passive behavioral pain-coping strategies of resting significantly predicted disability. The passive cognitive pain-coping strategy of worrying significantly predicted depression. ConclusionsThese findings indicate a role for helplessness and passive pain-coping in chronic pain patients and suggest that both may be relevant in the treatment of pain level, disability, and/or depression.
Molecular Analysis of Medically and Veterinary Important Muscid Flies (Diptera: Muscidae) in Thailand

We demonstrated the using of the internal transcribed spacer (ITS2) of ribosomal DNA as a tool for identification of medically and veterinary important Muscidae flies in Thailand. A total of 27 fly samples were collected from various regions of Thailand. Six fly species in three subfamilies including Azeliinae (Hydrotaea spinigera), Muscinae (Musca domestica, M. sorbens) and Stomoxyinae (Stomoxys calcitrans, S. indicus and S. sitiens) were identified base on morphological taxonomy. PCR amplicons of the ITS2 gene of these flies varied between 312-377 bp with A+T content of 76.6%. ITS2 sequences of the flies in this study were 93-100% identity to sequences in database and 21 samples were compatible with morphological identification, while sequences of 6 samples did not match any sequences in the database. The intra- and inter-specific divergence analysis results showed that the maximum of intra-specific (within species) variation (6.9%) was found in M. domestica while the minimum inter-specific (between species) variation (11.9%) was found in the sister grouped couple of S. sitiens and S. indicus. No overlapping between intra- and inter-specific divergences was found in all species of this study. The bootstrapped NJ tree constructed showed ability to classify each subfamily in to monophyletic clades. PCR-RFLP using XapI restriction enzyme digestion was able to differentiate between the three Stomoxys species. Data obtained from this study would be valuable for both medical and veterinary entomologists for more accurate identification of important fly species. Therefore, it could be used for population dynamics studies and enrolled in integrated pest management control program.
Dynamic texture editing

A fast simple method for dynamic textures enlargement and editing is presented. The resulting edited dynamic texture is a mixture of several color dynamic textures that realistically matches the given color textures appearance and respects their original optical flows. The method simultaneously allows to spatially and temporarily enlarge the original dynamic textures to fill any required four dimensional dynamic texture space. The method is based on a generalization of the prominent static double toroid-shaped texture modeling roller method to the dynamic texture domain. The presented method keeps the original static texture roller principle of separated analysis and synthesis parts of the algorithm. In its analytical step, the input textures patches are found by an optimal overlap tiling and the subsequent minimum boundary cut. The optimal toroid-shaped dynamic texture patches are created in each spatial and time dimension, respectively. The spatial dimension tile border is derived by textural features, color-tone, and the minimal overlapping error. The time dimension tile border is detected by minimizing the overlapping error and using the input textures optical flow. The realistic appearance of the dynamic textures mix requires to edit the patch color space and to find border patches which consists from more than one type of the texture. These border patches are found similarly to the multi-texture analysis patch step. Since all time-consuming processing, such as the finding of optimal spatio-temporal triple toroidal patches, are done in the analytical step which is completely separated from synthesis part, the synthesis of the edited and enlarged resulting texture can by done very efficiently by applying simple set of repeating rules for these triple toroidal patches. Thus the presented method is extremely fast and capable to synthesize a learned natural dynamic texture spatially and its time span in real-time.
Periodontal Therapy with 0.25%Lemongrass Oil Mouthwash in Reducing Risk of Cardiovascular Diseases: A 3-Arm Prospective Parallel Experimental Study

Background Periodontal disease is associated with cardiovascular diseases because of its role in host immune-inflammatory response. Serum lipids are the commonest risk factors between periodontal disease and cardiovascular diseases. Materials and Method A double blinded randomised clinical trial was carried out among 45 subjects with generalised severe periodontitis. They were divided into 3-groups of 15 subjects each. Group A: 0.25% lemongrass oil mouthwash, Group B: 0.12% chlorhexidine mouthwash and Group C: Oral prophylaxis only Group. Oral examinations like assessment of Probing Pocket Depth and Clinical Attachment Loss and Bio-chemical tests like assessment of C-Reactive Protein, Total Cholesterol, High Density Lipid, Low Density Lipid and triglycerides were conducted at baseline followed by oral prophylaxis at the same visit. Reassessment of the above mentioned parameters were done after 3 months of intervention. Data so collected were subjected for statistical analysis using SPSS ver. 20.0. Results A statistically significant reduction in C-Reactive Protein, Probing Pocket Depth, Clinical Attachment Loss, Total Cholesterol and Low Density Lipid level in 0.25% lemongrass oil mouthwash group was found. On comparing a statistically significant difference was observed for the post intervention scores of Probing Pocket Depth and Clinical Attachment Loss only; for Group A v/s C and Group B v/s C. Conclusion 0.25% Lemongrass oil mouthwash was found to be a good herbal alternative; both in the treatment of chronic periodontitis and reduction in the level of serum markers of Cardio Vascular Diseasess.
Large Sleepy Reading Corpus (LSRC): Applying Read Speech for Detecting Sleepiness

This paper describes a Large Sleepy Reading Corpus (LSRC) based on sleep deprivation data (N=402; total duration 22 h). During the sleep deprivation, a standardized self-report scale was used just before the recordings to determine the sleepiness state. The speech material consisted of different reading passages. In order to investigate sleepiness induced speech changes, a standard set of spectral and prosodic features was extracted from recordings. After applying a standard openSMILE feature set, and a SVM regression we achieved correlation coefficients of . 44 for male and . 53 for female speaker.
Selling City Futures: The Financialization of Urban Redevelopment Policy

abstract This article examines the specific mechanisms that have allowed global financial markets to penetrate deeply into the activities of U.S. cities. A flood of yield-seeking capital poured into municipal debt instruments in the late 1990s, but not all cities or instruments were equally successful in attracting it. Capital gravitated toward those local governments that could readily convert the income streams of public assets into new financial instruments and that could minimize the risk of nonpayment due to the actions of nonfinancial claimants. This article follows the case of Chicago from 1996 through 2007 as the city government subsidized development projects with borrowed money using a once-obscure instrument called Tax Increment Financing (TIF). TIF allows municipalities to bundle and sell off the rights to future property tax revenues from designated parts of the city. The City of Chicago improved the appearance of these speculative instruments by segmenting and sequencing TIF debt instruments in ways that made them look less idiosyncratic and by exerting strong political control over the processes of development and property tax assessment. In doing so, Chicago not only attracted billions of dollars in global capital but also contributed to a dangerous oversupply of commercial real estate.
Static Model of Labour Force Participation: Survey of Married Women in Zimbabwe

The study sought to ascertain and measure the determinants of labour force participation of married women in Zimbabwe. The focus was on the activeness of married women in paid, permanent work. The study utilized and collected data from a sample of 514 married women from varying socio-economic backgrounds. A binomial logit model was implemented as the regression model to test the probability of labour market participation by the target group. The results showed that age, education attainment, work experience, geographical location, religious denomination and the amount of non-labour income earned were significant determinants of the decision to work by married women. It was noted conclusively that none of the factors above influenced LFP strongly enough to warrant the low levels of formally and permanently employed married women. It was suggested that economy-wide policies to improve general employment levels be implemented. DOI: 10.5901/mjss.2014. v5n23p406
Eye Movements in a Familial Vestibulocerebellar Disorder

Eye movement abnormalities consisting of poor or absent smooth pursuit and vestibulo-ocular reflex suppression, gaze-paretic and rebound nystagmus, slow build-up of optokinetic nystagmus, mildly hyperactive vestibulo-ocular reflex, and a high incidence of strabismus were inherited in an autosomal dominant fashion in 10 members of a non-consanguineous English caucasian family. The onset was in early childhood, but was not congenital. In 7 cases there was no tremor, dizziness, consistent ataxia, or other cerebellar signs that are often associated with these ocular motor deficits, and apart from strabismus, patients were asymptomatic. Magnetic resonance imaging of the propositus was normal. After childhood there appears to be no progression, with the oldest affected member being 40 years. Two members had been prone to falling in childhood, and one admitted to dizziness when tired. This condition, which is probably benign, has not been previously described and may represent a very mild variant of episodic ataxia or a new vestibulocerebellar syndrome.
Broadband Compact Horn Antennas by Using EPS-ENZ Metamaterial Lens

We present the design of a flat lens, made by a conventional material and an epsilon near-zero metamaterial, to plug up the aperture of a short horn antenna, in order to achieve radiation performances similar to the ones of the corresponding optimum horn over a broad frequency range. Lens operation is based on the phase-compensation concept: phase-fronts of the field propagating along the short flare of the horn propagate with different phase velocities in the two lens materials, resulting in an uniform phase distribution on the aperture. Starting from the theoretical study of the transmission properties of a bulk epsilon near-zero slab, we derive the analytical formulas for the design of the flat lens and validate them through full-wave numerical simulations. Then, a realistic version of the lens, realized with a wire-medium and exhibiting a near-zero real part of the effective permittivity in the frequency range of interest, is presented. Considering two examples working in the C-band, we show that the lens can be designed for both conical and pyramidal horn antennas. In both cases, the length of the horns is half the one of the corresponding optimum versions, while the obtained radiation performances are similar to those of the optimum horns over a broad frequency band. This result may open the door to several interesting applications in satellite and radar systems.
Muscle phosphocreatine post-exercise recovery rate is related to functional evaluation in hospitalized and community-living older people.

OBJECTIVE to explore muscle mitochondria function with respect to age, functional status and nutrition in community-living and recovering hospitalized older subjects. MEASUREMENTS subjects were assessed for nutrition, hand-grip strength, 10-meter gait time, a modified timed get-up-and-go test and activities of daily living score (ADL). 31P magnetic resonance spectroscopy (31P MRS) was used to assess the initial rate of post-exercise phosphocreatine recovery (ViPCr) for mitochondrial function evaluation in 25 hospitalized older subjects (86.1 + 5.3 y) and in 25 community-living younger ones (74.5 + 6.2 y). RESULTS in multiple linear regression, longer time on the get-up-and-go test was independently associated with lower values of ViPCr (p = 0.008). For all subjects and in the 8 patients unable to perform this test, ViPCr was negatively correlated with the ADL score (respectively p < 0.001 and p = 0.025). CONCLUSION particularly in hospitalized and frail older subjects, muscle mitochondrial function was related to the global physical functional assessment.
Criticism and Depression among the Caregivers of At-Risk Mental State and First-Episode Psychosis Patients

Expressed emotion (EE), especially criticism, is an important predictor of outcomes for the patient for a wide range of mental health problems. To understand complex links between EE and various relevant variables in early phase psychosis, this study examined criticism, distress of caregivers, other patients’, and caregivers’ variables, and links between criticism and these variables in those with at-risk mental state (ARMS) for psychosis and first-episode psychosis (FEP). The participants were 56 patients (mean age 18.8 ± 4.2 years) with ARMS and their caregivers (49.4 ± 5.8 years) and 43 patients (21.7 ± 5.2 years) with FEP and their caregivers (49.3 ± 7.4 years). We investigated criticisms made by caregivers using the Japanese version of the Family Attitude Scale and caregiver depressive symptoms via the self-report Beck Depression Inventory. We also assessed psychiatric symptoms and functioning of the patients. Approximately one-third of caregivers of patients with ARMS or FEP had depressive symptoms, predominately with mild-to-moderate symptom levels, whereas only a small portion exhibited high criticism. The level of criticism and depression were comparable between ARMS and FEP caregivers. The link between criticism, caregivers’ depression, and patients’ symptoms were observed in FEP but not in ARMS caregivers. These findings imply that the interaction between criticism and caregivers’ and patients’ mental states may develop during or after the onset of established psychosis and interventions for the caregivers should be tailored to the patient’s specific stage of illness. Interventions for FEP caregivers should target their emotional distress and include education about patient’s general symptoms.
IoT based localization and tracking

Internet of Things (IoT) has several applications which directly affect our lives. IoT has been proposed to be part of the connected living paradigm. In this pool of applications, we also have localization based services. In the first one, localization of objects, animals and other living beings are determined using IoT. In the second one, the movement of the animals, kids, elderly and other moveable objects are tracked. Both localization and tracking are part of security and surveillance services in the connected living environments. In this paper, we provide the current state of the art for IoT based localization and tracking. We show the key technical aspects, compare the IoT based initiatives for localization with the non-IoT based services and finally show their utilities in different application domains. IoT based localization and tracking are found to be more pervasive and accurate than the previously used techniques.
Explaining the Increase in On-the-job Search

Evidence from the Labour Force Survey (LFS) reveals that the percentage of employed workers searching for other jobs more than doubled in Canada between 1976 and 1995. Comparable evidence from the Current Population Survey (CPS), Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID), and National Longitudinal Survey (NLS) suggests that the U.S. experienced a remarkably similar upward trend in on-the-job search (OJS) over this period. Using U.S. data to supplement the Canadian data wherever possible, this paper attempts to explain this long-term, secular trend in Canadian OJS rates by performing decomposition and industry-level analyses, and by considering concomitant changes in employer-to-employer transition rates and the wage returns to job changing. The results from both countries suggest that an important part of the upward trend in OJS rates is not explained by compositional effects, including cohort effects. The OJS increase seems also to have occurred independently of rising job insecurity due to sector-specific demand shocks and trends in the dispersion of log wage residuals. The data are most consistent with a long-term decrease in search costs.
Hybrid Visible Light and Radio Frequency Communication Systems

In this paper we propose a hybrid visible light communications (VLC) and radio frequency (RF) femtocell system and investigate user association issues to achieve effective load balancing. We propose a scheme for cell association based on the minimum distance to the closest access point (AP) which involves a simple and fully uncoordinated decision. The performance of the three tier (macro-, femto- and optical attocells) heterogeneous network is analysed in terms of area spectral efficiency (ASE). We compare the performance of the minimum distance user association, the maximum signal to interference and noise ratio (SINR) based association and a decentralized iterative algorithm. The latter scheme results in a near optimal solution by considering the load of the AP in the cell association process. Simulation results show that the simple min-distance based user association nearly achieves the optimal load-aware performance. Moreover the average ASE of the hybrid VLC/RF system may be increased by at least two orders of magnitude over the stand-alone RF network.
Effects of Third-Generation Oral Contraceptives on High-Sensitivity C-reactive Protein and Homocysteine in Young Women

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the effect of third-generation oral contraceptives on high-sensitivity C-reactive protein (CRP), homocysteine, and lipids levels in a population of young, fertile, nonobese women. METHODS: Blood markers were evaluated in 277 healthy white women (mean age 23 years and mean body-mass index 21 kg/m2). Seventy-seven oral contraceptive users were compared with 200 non–oral contraceptive users. Progressive cutoffs of high-sensitivity CRP and homocysteine levels were examined. RESULTS: Levels of high-sensitivity CRP posing a high risk of cardiovascular disease (3.0 to less than 10.0 mg/L) were found in 27.3% of oral contraceptive users and in 8.5% of non–oral contraceptive users (odds ratio 4.04; 95% confidence interval [CI] 1.99–8.18). Levels of high-sensitivity CRP at intermediate risk (1.0 to less than 3.0 mg/L) were found in 32.5% of oral contraceptive users and in 11.0% of non–oral contraceptive users (odds ratio 3.89; 95% CI 2.03–7.46). Notably, non–oral contraceptive users were 8.65 (95% CI 4.39–17.1) times as likely to demonstrate a protective level of high-sensitivity CRP (less than 0.5 mg/L) compared with oral contraceptive users. Oral contraceptive use increased serum triglycerides (P<.001) and total cholesterol P=. 001); however, high-density lipoprotein, not low-density lipoprotein, contributed to this increase. A decreased ratio of low-density lipoprotein to high-density lipoprotein cholesterol was observed in oral contraceptive users compared with nonusers (P=.016). Oral contraceptive use did not affect homocysteine levels. CONCLUSION: Third-generation oral contraceptive use increases low-grade inflammatory status measured by high-sensitivity CRP concentrations. Alteration of inflammatory status in oral contraceptive users could affect the risk of venous thromboembolism, cardiovascular disease, and other oral contraceptive-associated adverse conditions in young women. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE: II
Environmental Education in Côte d'Ivoire/West Africa: Extra-Curricular Primary School Teaching Shows Positive Impact on Environmental Knowledge and Attitudes

This paper surveys the consequences of pupils' participation in the extra-curricular environmental education (EE) programme Club P.A. N. (Peoples, Animals and Nature) by monitoring changes in their respective knowledge as well as in their environmental attitudes. The programme was conducted in Côte d'Ivoire in West Africa with the help of the local teacher's organization Cellule des Projets Environnementaux (CPE). We used multivariate analysis of data collected during two years of the programme (n = 1,244 participants), in nine villages around the Taï National Park, to test if this EE programme could lead to (1) knowledge gain and (2) attitude change, and the influences of (3) grade, sex and prior knowledge. Participation significantly increased environmental knowledge and positively influenced attitudes towards nature. Boys gained more knowledge and changed attitudes more than girls and pupils of the sixth grade profited more from the programme on both measures than the younger pupils of the fifth grade. We discuss how these results influence the programme and how further research should be emphasized.
Reflecting on Contemporary Accounting: Teaching and Learning Social and Critical Perspectives

This paper provides a case description and analysis of an effort to enact accounting education change. The study reports on an attempt to renew the social and ethical worth of accounting education and practice in the post-Enron context of increased interest in how accounting may contribute to social responsibility and sustainability. The paper considers the organisation, aims, and content of a newly-developed unit on social and critical perspectives on accounting, and key elements of the pedagogy utilised. These include team teaching, the employment of research literature rather than a prescribed textbook, an expanded conception of accounting and accounting “knowledge”, the adoption of educational goals that encompass preparing students for economic and social life and for democratic participation, and a view that sees ethics, the environment, and society as central to accounting. It is concluded that accounting educational change must encompass the content and practice of classroom activity, but it also requires change to the self-consciousness of all actors involved. Explicit inclusion of the social, critical, environmental and ethical dimensions of accounting in our teaching and learning programs provides an avenue for academics to individually and collectively make a meaningful contribution.