Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Increasing children's participation in therapy: combining understanding of children's experiences of therapy with evidence-based practice

This thesis examined children's experiences of therapy and used grounded theory (Strauss & Corbin, 1998) to develop a theory that may explain this. Eighteen children aged 7-14 years who had attended therapy at a child and adolescent mental health service or school-based therapy service participated in an individual interview. The study found that therapy is a process for children and identified sub-processes and activities that work to affect children's experiences of therapy. The professional practice component is a case study describing the use of cognitive behaviour therapy with a thirteen-year-old girl presenting with symptoms of anxiety. The literature review component is a critical review of the empirical literature on the use of motivational interviewing with children.
Non-thermal radio emission from O-type stars II. HD 167971

HD 167971 is a triple system consisting of a 3.3-day eclipsing binary (O5‐8 V + O5‐8 V) and an O8 supergiant. It is also a well known non-thermal radio emitter. We observed the radio emission of HD 167971 with the Very Large Array (VLA) and the Australia Telescope Compact Array (ATCA). By combining these data with VLA archive observations we constructed a radio lightcurve covering a 20-yr time-range. We searched for, but failed to find, th e 3.3-day spectroscopic period of the binary in the radio data. This could be due to the absence of intrinsic synchrotron radiation at t he colliding-wind region between the two components of the eclipsing binary, or due to the large amount of free-free absorption that blocks the synchrotron radiation. We are able to explain many of the observed characteristics of the radio data if the non-therm al emission is produced in a colliding-wind region between the supergiant and the combined winds of the binary. Furthermore, if the system is gravitationally bound, the orbital motion occurs over a period of ∼ 20 years, or longer, as suggested by the long-term variabili ty in the radio data. We argue that the variability is due to th e free-free absorption that changes with orbital phase or may also in part be due to changes in separation, should the orbit be eccentric.
Are Average and Symmetric Faces Attractive to Infants? Discrimination and Looking Preferences

Young infants prefer to look at faces that adults find attractive, suggesting a biological basis for some face preferences. However, the basis for infant preferences is not known. Adults find average and symmetric faces attractive. We examined whether 5–8-month-old infants discriminate between different levels of averageness and symmetry in faces, and whether they prefer to look at faces with higher levels of these traits. Each infant saw 24 pairs of female faces. Each pair consisted of two versions of the same face differing either in averageness (12 pairs) or symmetry (12 pairs). Data from the mothers confirmed that adults preferred the more average and more symmetric versions in each pair. The infants were sensitive to differences in both averageness and symmetry, but showed no looking preference for the more average or more symmetric versions. On the contrary, longest looks were significantly longer for the less average versions, and both longest looks and first looks were marginally longer for the less symmetric versions. Mean looking times were also longer for the less average and less symmetric versions, but those differences were not significant. We suggest that the infant looking behaviour may reflect a novelty preference rather than an aesthetic preference.
Potential Role for IL-2 ELISpot in Differentiating Recent and Remote Infection in Tuberculosis Contact Tracing

Interferon (IFN)-γ release assays (IGRA) have improved tuberculosis contact tracing, but discrimination of recent from remote Mycobacterium tuberculosis contacts is not possible by IGRA alone. We present results of a tuberculosis contact investigation with a new early-secretory-antigenic-target (ESAT)-6 and culture-filtrate-protein (CFP)-10 specific interleukin (IL)-2 ELISpot in addition to ESAT-6 and CFP-10 specific IFN-γ ELISpot and tuberculin skin testing (TST). Results of the TST, IFN-γ ELISpot and IL-2 ELISpot were positive in 6/172 (3.4%), 7/167 (4.2%) and 6/196 (3.1%) of contacts, respectively. Close contact (≥100 hours) to the index case increased the risk of positive results in the IFN-γ ELISpot, TST, and IL-2 ELISpot by 40.8, 19.3, and 2.5 times, respectively. Individuals with a positive IFN-γ ELISpot/negative IL-2 ELISpot result had a median (IQR) duration of index case exposure of 568 hours (133_1000) compared to individuals with a positive IFN-γ ELISpot/positive IL-2 ELISpot result (median = 24 hours; 20_130; p-value = 0.047). Combination of a M. tuberculosis specific IFN-γ ELISpot with a M. tuberculosis specific IL-2 ELISpot significantly improved the identification of individuals with the highest risk of recent M. tuberculosis infection and is a promising method that should be explored to target tuberculosis preventive chemotherapy.
An ethnographic study of private music teaching and learning among Taiwanese Canadians in Vancouver, British Columbia

This ethnographic study describes the teaching and learning experiences of private music teachers, students, and students’ parents amo ng the Taiwanese Canadian community in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. The following elements are examined in this study: the context of private music lessons of Taiwanese Canadians; the private music teaching and learning experience of Taiwanese Canad i s; the cultural beliefs underpinning Taiwanese Canadian private music lesso ns; and the valuing of private music lessons by Taiwanese Canadians. Five Taiwanese Cana dian private music teachers and five of their students and the students’ parents li ving in Greater Vancouver, British Columbia participated in this research. Data were c olle ted through formal and informal interviews and observations of video-recorded lesso n.
Cutaneous Manifestations of Spotted Fever Rickettsial Infections in the Central Province of Sri Lanka: A Descriptive Study

Background Characteristic skin lesions play a key role in clinical diagnosis of spotted fever group rickettsioses and this study describes these cutaneous manifestations along with basic histological features. Methods and Findings Study was conducted at Medical Unit, Teaching Hospital, Peradeniya, from November 2009 to October 2011, where a prospective data base of all rickettsial infections is maintained. Confirmation of diagnosis was made when IgM and IgG immunofluorescent antibody titre of 1/32 and >1/256 respectively. Of the 210 clinical cases, 134 had cutoff antibody titers for Rickettsia conorii antigen for confirmation. All these 134 patients had fever and skin rash, and of them 132(98%) had discrete maculopapular rash while eight (6%) had fern leaf type skin necrosis. Eight patients (6%) had healed tick bite marks. Average size of a skin lesion was 5 mm and rash involved 52% of body surface, distributed mainly in limbs and back of the chest. Generally the facial and leg skin was slightly oedematous particularly in old aged patients. Sixteen patients (12%) had pain and swelling of ankle joints where swelling extended to feet and leg. Biopsies from skin rash of six patients showed evidence of cutaneous vasculitis and of them, 247 bp region of the 17-kDa spotted fever group specific protein antigen was amplified using PCR. Conclusions A discrete maculopapular rash and occasional variations such as fern leaf shape necrosis and arthritis are found in spotted fever group. Histology found vasculitis as the pathology of these lesions.
A Thermostable Salmonella Phage Endolysin, Lys68, with Broad Bactericidal Properties against Gram-Negative Pathogens in Presence of Weak Acids

Resistance rates are increasing among several problematic Gram-negative pathogens, a fact that has encouraged the development of new antimicrobial agents. This paper characterizes a Salmonella phage endolysin (Lys68) and demonstrates its potential antimicrobial effectiveness when combined with organic acids towards Gram-negative pathogens. Biochemical characterization reveals that Lys68 is more active at pH 7.0, maintaining 76.7% of its activity when stored at 4°C for two months. Thermostability tests showed that Lys68 is only completely inactivated upon exposure to 100°C for 30 min, and circular dichroism analysis demonstrated the ability to refold into its original conformation upon thermal denaturation. It was shown that Lys68 is able to lyse a wide panel of Gram-negative bacteria (13 different species) in combination with the outer membrane permeabilizers EDTA, citric and malic acid. While the EDTA/Lys68 combination only inactivated Pseudomonas strains, the use of citric or malic acid broadened Lys68 antibacterial effect to other Gram-negative pathogens (lytic activity against 9 and 11 species, respectively). Particularly against Salmonella Typhimurium LT2, the combinatory effect of malic or citric acid with Lys68 led to approximately 3 to 5 log reductions in bacterial load/CFUs after 2 hours, respectively, and was also able to reduce stationary-phase cells and bacterial biofilms by approximately 1 log. The broad killing capacity of malic/citric acid-Lys68 is explained by the destabilization and major disruptions of the cell outer membrane integrity due to the acidity caused by the organic acids and a relatively high muralytic activity of Lys68 at low pH. Lys68 demonstrates good (thermo)stability properties that combined with different outer membrane permeabilizers, could become useful to combat Gram-negative pathogens in agricultural, food and medical industry.
Persistent misalignments of the European exchange rates: some evidence from non-linear cointegration

The asymmetric and persistent adjustment of the European real exchange rates is investigated using the framework of non-linear cointegration. The episodes of slow mean-reversion dynamics over the period from 1979 to 1999 are explained. A test of unit root against STAR cointegration is proposed and some complete estimations and stochastic simulations of ESTAR models are presented. The presence of effective non-linear adjustment during the moving of the currencies to their long-run fundamental equilibrium exchange rate value is discussed.
Broadening epistemologies and methodologies in climate change education research

Abstract In this commentary, we reflect on the articles in this special collection from our lens as scholars who have chosen to conduct research with a focus on climate change education. We start with statements of positionality, as certainly our own experiences and philosophical stances shape our work and reflections included here. Afterwards, we present a typology of climate change education research, utilizing a framework developed from research paradigms with an emphasis on epistemology and methodology. Lastly, we make recommendations for future research efforts based on suggestions within the research articles in the collection as well as from the typology presented.
Reconstructing Potentials of Mean Force through Time Series Analysis of Steered Molecular Dynamics Simulations

Atomic force microscopy (AFM) experiments and steered molecular dynamics (SMD) simulations have revealed much about the dynamics of protein-ligand binding and unbinding, as well as the stretching and unfolding of proteins. Both techniques induce ligand unbinding or protein unfolding by applying external mechanical forces to the ligand or stretched protein. However, comparing results from these two techniques, such as the magnitude of forces required to unbind ligands, has remained a challenge since SMD simulations proceed six to nine orders of magnitude faster due to limitations in computational resources. Results of simulations and experiments can be compared through a potential of mean force (PMF). We describe and implement three time series analysis techniques for reconstructing the PMF from position and applied force data gathered from SMD trajectories. One technique, based on the WHAM theory, views the unbinding or stretching as a quasi-equilibrium process; the other two techniques, one based on van Kampen's ? -expansion, the second on a least squares minimization of the Onsager? Machlup action with respect to the choice of PMF, assume a Langevin description of the dynamics in order to account for the nonequilibrium character of SMD data. The latter two methods are applied to SMD data taken from a simulation of the extraction of a lipid from a phospholipid membrane monolayer.
Platelet Isoprostane Overproduction in Diabetic Patients Treated With Aspirin

Aspirin modestly influences cardiovascular events in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), but the reason is unclear. The aim of the study was to determine whether in T2DM patients aspirin enhances platelet isoprostanes, which are eicosanoids with proaggregating properties derived from arachidonic acid oxidation by platelet NOX2, the catalytic subunit of reduced NAD phosphate oxidase. A cross-sectional study was performed comparing T2DM patients, treated (n = 50) or not treated (n = 50) with 100 mg/day aspirin, with 100 nondiabetic patients, matched for age, sex, atherosclerosis risk factors, and aspirin treatment. A short-term (7 days) treatment with 100 mg/day aspirin also was performed in 36 aspirin-free diabetic and nondiabetic patients. Higher platelet recruitment, platelet isoprostane, and NOX2 activation was found in diabetic versus nondiabetic patients and in aspirin-treated diabetic patients versus nontreated patients (P < 0.001). Platelet thromboxane (Tx) A2 (P < 0.001) was inhibited in all aspirin-treated patients. In the interventional study, aspirin similarly inhibited platelet TxA2 in diabetic and nondiabetic patients (P < 0.001). Platelet recruitment, isoprostane levels, and NOX2 activation showed a parallel increase in diabetic patients (P < 0.001) and no changes in nondiabetic patients. These findings suggest that in aspirin-treated diabetic patients, oxidative stress–mediated platelet isoprostane overproduction is associated with enhanced platelet recruitment, an effect that mitigates aspirin-mediated TxA2 inhibition.
IPFS - Content Addressed, Versioned, P2P File System

The InterPlanetary File System (IPFS) is a peer-to-peer distributed file system that seeks to connect all computing devices with the same system of files. In some ways, IPFS is similar to the Web, but IPFS could be seen as a single BitTorrent swarm, exchanging objects within one Git repository. In other words, IPFS provides a high throughput content-addressed block storage model, with content-addressed hyper links. This forms a generalized Merkle DAG, a data structure upon which one can build versioned file systems, blockchains, and even a Permanent Web. IPFS combines a distributed hashtable, an incentivized block exchange, and a self-certifying namespace. IPFS has no single point of failure, and nodes do not need to trust each other.
Assisted Control Mode for a Smart Wheelchair

Our aim is to implement a force feedback joystick on a powered wheelchair provided with a set of range sensors. This system is intended to people with disability for whom a traditional joystick control (or any other adapted sensor control) is difficult or impossible because of too severe motor disabilities. The force feedback is calculated according to the proximity of the obstacles and helps the user, without forcing him, to move towards the free direction. Adopted methodology aims at circumventing certain obstacles which slow down the diffusion and thus the current use of smart wheelchairs: problems of safety, of reliability and of acceptability in particular. The results presented aim at identifying the driving situations for which an assisted control can really improve the piloting performances compared to a traditional manual control.
A Novel Approach for Image Retrieval using Combination of Features

Content based image retrieval (CBIR) is an optimistic way to address image retrieval based on visual features of an image. The low level features like color, texture and shape are used in most of the CBIR techniques. In recent years, Interest points are used to retrieve similar images which are of different transformations and viewpoints. This paper proposes the combination of local and global features. Interest points are detected by Harris corner detector. BEMD and Harris corner detector are used to extract local features of images. HSV color feature is used for global feature extraction. Different distance metric is used for different feature vector and then weighted sum of compared distances are used in retrieval process. KNN is applied for Harris corner feature to improve the retrieval accuracy. The proposed CBIR technique is tested with COIL_100 database. Considerable improvement is shown in results when compared to existing system in terms of average precision and recall.
Path Complexity Does Not Impair Visual Path Integration

Here an experiment studying the influence of path complexity on visual path integration is presented. Using a back-projection VR setup, subjects were passively transported along paths and were then asked to point to the origin of the path as fast and as accurate as possible. The complexity of the outbound paths was systematically varied by changing the number of path segments, while keeping constant overall length, overall turning angle, and turning direction. Surprisingly, results showed a decrease in response time as well as a slight increase in pointing accuracy with increasing path complexity, contradicting the predictions from common path integration models. The overall result from the present study is that path complexity does not negatively influence path integration abilities. If anything, subjects were faster and more accurate on more complex paths.
Artificial Immune Systems: A Predictive Model for credit scoring

— With the advent of the global financial crisis which hit the global economy, credit scoring has become of the essence. The global financial crisis also known as the “credit crunch” was largely attributed to the issuance of credit to individuals with no capacity to return the money. Credit scoring has become a very important task in the credit industry. Various credit scoring methods such in areas as artificial neural networks (ANNs), statistical based methods and decision trees have been proposed to increase the accuracy of credit scoring models. The proposed Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) are an artificial intelligence technique modelled on natural immune system processes have been used to solve various kinds of real life processes with success. In this paper we compare the performance of current classifiers used in credit rating against Artificial Immune Systems. Artificial Immune Systems have various algorithms used to implement them. The algorithm under consideration is the negative selection algorithm. Artificial Immune Systems (AIS) are found to be produce competitive results very close to traditional artificial intelligent systems such as Neural Networks.
Vascular endothelial growth factor A polymorphisms and age-related macular degeneration: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Purpose In the present work, the aim was to systematically review all studies about the association of vascular endothelial growth factor A (VEGF-A) polymorphisms with age-related macular degeneration (AMD) and to perform a meta-analysis. Methods Relevant studies were searched using PubMed, Embase, Wanfang (Chinese), VIP (Chinese), and the Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure databases up to October, 2011. A meta-analysis was conducted using Stata software, version 11.0. Results A total of nine studies with 2,281 AMD cases and 2,820 controls met our eligibility criteria, and meta-analyses of four polymorphisms of the VEGF-A gene (rs1413711, rs833061, rs2010963, and rs3025039) were performed. This meta-analysis revealed moderate evidence supporting an association between the VEGF-A polymorphisms and AMD. For rs1413711, the TT genotype was associated with an increased risk of overall AMD (TT versus CT model, odds ratio (OR) 1.74, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.22–2.48) and of wet AMD (TT versus CT model, OR 1.82, 95% CI 1.22–2.71; TT versus (CC+CT) model, OR 1.63, 95% CI 1.13–2.35). For rs833061, the C allele (C allele versus T allele, OR 1.72, 95% CI 1.00–2.96) and CC genotype (CC versus TT model, OR 1.77, 95% CI 1.00–3.11) were the risk factors for overall AMD, while the C allele was also associated with an increased risk of wet AMD (C allele versus T allele, OR 1.54, 95% CI 1.03–2.31). No association was observed between AMD risk and the variant genotypes of VEGF-A rs2010963 and rs3025039 polymorphisms in different genetic models. Conclusions The results suggest the VEGF-A rs1413711 and rs833061 polymorphisms may contribute to AMD susceptibility.
Detection of G-Quadruplex DNA Using Primer Extension as a Tool

DNA sequence and structure play a key role in imparting fragility to different regions of the genome. Recent studies have shown that non-B DNA structures play a key role in causing genomic instability, apart from their physiological roles at telomeres and promoters. Structures such as G-quadruplexes, cruciforms, and triplexes have been implicated in making DNA susceptible to breakage, resulting in genomic rearrangements. Hence, techniques that aid in the easy identification of such non-B DNA motifs will prove to be very useful in determining factors responsible for genomic instability. In this study, we provide evidence for the use of primer extension as a sensitive and specific tool to detect such altered DNA structures. We have used the G-quadruplex motif, recently characterized at the BCL2 major breakpoint region as a proof of principle to demonstrate the advantages of the technique. Our results show that pause sites corresponding to the non-B DNA are specific, since they are absent when the G-quadruplex motif is mutated and their positions change in tandem with that of the primers. The efficiency of primer extension pause sites varied according to the concentration of monovalant cations tested, which support G-quadruplex formation. Overall, our results demonstrate that primer extension is a strong in vitro tool to detect non-B DNA structures such as G-quadruplex on a plasmid DNA, which can be further adapted to identify non-B DNA structures, even at the genomic level.
Estimation and reduction of the uncertainties in chemical models: application to hot core chemistry

It is not common to consider the role of uncertainties in the rate coefficients used in interstellar gas-phase chemical models. In this paper, we report a new method to determine both the uncertainties in calculated molecular abundances and their sensitivities to underlying uncertainties in the kinetic data utilized. The method is used in hot core models to determine if previous analyses of the age and the applicable cosmic-ray ionization rate are valid. We conclude that for young hot cores ($\le 10^4$~yr), the modeling uncertainties related to rate coefficients are reasonable so that comparisons with observations make sense. On the contrary, the modeling of older hot cores is characterized by strong uncertainties for some of the important species. In both cases, it is crucial to take into account these uncertainties to draw conclusions from the comparison of observations with chemical models.