Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Stigma and disclosure: Implications for coming out of the closet

Background: There are costs and benefits for people with psychiatric disorders to decide to disclose publicly these disorders. Aims: The gay and lesbian community has struggled with the same tension and their discoveries about coming out may prove useful for the disclosure concerns of persons with mental illness. Methods: Lessons learned about coming out by the gay and lesbian community include a variety of models that map the stages for successfully coming out; e.g., identity confusion, comparison, identify acceptance, immersion, and identity synthesis. Navigating these stages requires consideration of the costs and benefits of disclosure; we review some of these including social avoidance and disapproval as key costs and improved psychological well-being and interpersonal relations as benefits. Conclusions: The paper ends with a review of levels of disclosure for people who opt to come out. Declaration of interest: This paper was made possible in part by MH62198-01 from the National Institute of Mental Health.
English Medium Instruction: a way towards linguistically better prepared professionals in the Basque Autonomous Community?

ABSTRACT In the Basque Autonomous Community, besides the official languages Spanish and Basque, English is considered an important third language for internationally operating companies. However, employees are not believed to be linguistically well enough prepared, due to shortcomings in English language learning in the Basque educational system. The introduction of English Medium Instruction (EMI) might improve the situation. Therefore, this study aims to analyse the relation between the experience of future professionals with EMI at one point in their educational career and their experience as language learners, their self-reported proficiency and competencies in English, the exposure to English in their daily lives, and their expectations about English in their future workplace. A quantitative approach was adopted, by means of questionnaires among 194 students of Business Administration at the University of the Basque Country (UPV/EHU). The data reveal that students who have taken EMI classes report higher skills in English (especially in oral skills and at higher level tasks), have generally more exposure to English and would feel more comfortable using English in their future job. The results suggest that EMI might help to prepare the future professionals linguistically better in this third language.
The Benefits of College Marching Bands for Students and Universities: A Review of the Literature

College marching bands are a large and visible part of American music education. Institutions of higher learning have benefited from the existence of marching bands, as they serve as a powerful recruitment tool and an essential public relations vehicle for music departments and universities. The benefit students may receive from marching band participation is influenced by a variety of social and educational factors. This article is a review of literature on the benefits of marching bands and band participation for universities and college students. The review is organized as follows: (a) brief introduction and methodology, (b) benefits for colleges and universities, (c) benefits for college students, (d) challenges for college students, and (e) summary and recommendations. This article presents scholarship on the possible benefits of marching bands for students and universities in an effort to aid recruitment and inform administrators of the value a marching band brings to their school.
Specification-Based Testing of Intrusion Detection Engines Using Logical Expression Testing Criteria

An Intrusion Detection System (IDS) protects computer networks against attacks and intrusions. One class of IDS is called signature-based network IDSs as they monitor network traffic, looking for evidence of malicious behaviour as specified in attack descriptions (referred to as signatures). Many studies report that IDSs have problems accurately identifying attacks. Therefore, it is important to precisely understand under which conditions IDSs accurately identify attacks or fail to do so. However, no systematic approach has so far been defined and used to study this problem. Recognizing that signatures in essence provide the specification of an IDS engine, studying the accuracy of an IDS engine becomes a black-box testing problem. We therefore precisely and systematically evaluate which mature testing techniques can be used (and adapted) to derive tests from IDS signatures. We experiment with those criteria on one widely used and maintained IDS and show that our approach is effective at systematically revealing problems in this IDS engine (e.g., problems that prevent the detection of attacks).
Adaptive Distributed and Fault-Tolerant Systems

An adaptive computing system is one that modifies its behavior based on changes in the environment. Since sites connected by a local-area network inherently have to deal with network congestion and the failure of other sites, distributed systems can be viewed as an important subclass of adaptive systems. As such, use of adaptive methods in this context has the same potential advantages of improved efficiency and structural simplicity as for adaptive systems in general. This paper describes a model for adaptive systems that can be applied in many scenarios arising in distributedand fault-tolerant systems. This model divides the adaptation process into three different phases—change detection, agreement, and action—that can be used to describe existing algorithms that deal with change, as well as to develop new adaptive algorithms. In addition to clarifying the logical structure of such algorithms, this model can also serve as a unifying implementation framework. Several adaptive algorithms are given as examples, including an adaptive network transmission protocol and a group membership protocol. A technique for implementing the model in a distributed system using small segments of code called micro-protocols and an event-driven execution paradigm is also presented.
Knowledge, Beliefs and Attitudes of Health Care Providers towards the Mentally Ill in Delta State, Nigeria

Abstract This study aimed at chronicling the socio-cultural impediments to the favourable dispositional postures of health care providers despite their huge knowledge of the illness towards the mentally sick. 483 respondents with varied demographic characteristics participated. The multi-stage cluster technique was used to select these respondents amongst the health workers in Delta State government owned health institutions. With the aid of a structured questionnaire data was generated that was analyzed using percentages and Chisquare statistic. The findings show that despite the impressive medical knowledge of the illness by health workers, they still harbour deeply rooted cultural beliefs and traditional social acts to dislike the mentally sick. Consequently, robust enlightenment campaigns and workshops are recommended.
Does Gun Control Reduce Violent Crime?

Do gun control laws reduce violence? To answer this question, a city-level cross-sectional analysis was performed on data pertaining to every U.S. city with a population of at least 25,000 in 1990 (n = 1,078), assessing the impact of 19 major types of gun control laws, and controlling for gun ownership levels and numerous other possible confounders. Models were estimated using instrumental variables (IVs) regression to address endogeneity of gun levels due to reverse causality. Results indicate that gun control laws generally show no evidence of effects on crime rates, possibly because gun levels do not have a net positive effect on violence rates. Although a minority of laws seem to show effects, they are as likely to imply violence-increasing effects as violence-decreasing effects. There were, however, a few noteworthy exceptions: requiring a license to possess a gun and bans on purchases of guns by alcoholics appear to reduce rates of both homicide and robbery. Weaker evidence suggests that bans on gun purchases by criminals and on possession by mentally ill persons may reduce assault rates, and that bans on gun purchase by criminals may also reduce robbery rates.
Tuning Chaos Synchronization and Anti-Synchronization for Applications in Temporal Pattern Recognition

Various forms of chaotic synchronization have been proposed as ways of implementing associative memories and/or pattern recognizers. Within this context, a single chaotic dynamical system can be adopted as an implicit model of a whole class of approximately periodic signals [De Feo, 2003]. Then, by exploiting the selective properties of the recently illustrated phenomenon of Qualitative Resonance [De Feo, 2004a, 2004b], this model can be employed within a feedback-synchronization-based pattern recognition scheme. To this end, to exploit the qualitative resonance phenomenon in concrete applications, the synchronization feedback loop must be opportunely tuned. Namely, an approximately periodic pattern must regularize or reinforce the chaotic behavior of the whole system depending on whether it belongs to the class modeled by the chaotic model or not. Despite being apparently complicated, as shown here, the tuning of the synchronization feedback loop can be operated relying on standard methods from linear periodic control theory.
Fractal Characteristics of Response Time Variability

The relations between English spellings and pronunciations have been described as a fractal pattern. Manipulations of word properties are constructed to coincide with the fractal pattern of ambiguity in these relations (sampled as random variables). New word naming and lexical decision experiments replicate previously established effects of relations between word spellings and pronunciations. The structure of these relations establishes a measurement scale, which is nested in a manner that is loosely analogous to the way that centimeters are nested within meters, and so on. The experiments revealed that broader, increasingly stretched-more variable-distributions of pronunciation and response time accompany the introduction of higher resolution measurement scales to the naming and lexical decision measurement process. Moreover, the distribution of lexical decision response times is shown to obey an inverse power-law scaling relation, which implies lexical decision does not conform to a characteristic measurement scale.
The Strategic Response by Pharmaceutical Firms to the Medicaid Most-Favored-Customer Rules

In 1991 a most-favored-customer (MFC) rule was adopted to govern pharmaceutical prices paid by Medicaid. Theoretical models show that an MFC rule commits a firm to compete less aggressively in prices. I find that the price of branded products facing generic competition rose (4% on average). Brands protected by patents did not significantly increase in price. Generics in concentrated markets should display a strategic response to the brand's adoption of the MFC; I find that generic firms raise price more as their markets become concentrated. Hospital prices show little change. The results suggest that the MFC rule caused higher prices for some pharmaceutical customers.
Research Article Factors Associated with Anemia among Children Aged 6–23 Months Attending Growth Monitoring at Tsitsika Health Center, Wag-himra Zone, Northeast Ethiopia 3. Results

Background. Globally, about 47.4% of children under five are suffering from anemia. In Ethiopia, 60.9% of children under two years are suffering from anemia. Anemia during infancy and young childhood period is associated with poor health and impaired cognitive development, leading to reduced academic achievement and earnings potential in their adulthood life. However, there is scarcity of information showing the magnitude of iron deficiency anemia among young children in Ethiopia. Therefore, this study aimed at assessing prevalence and associated factors of iron deficiency anemia among children under two (6–23 months). Methods. Institution based cross-sectional study was carried out from March to May, 2014, at Tsitsika Health Center in Wag-Himra Zone, Northeast Ethiopia. Systematic random sampling technique was employed. Automated hemoglobin machine was used to determine the hemoglobin level. Socioeconomic and demographic data were collected by using a pretested and structured questionnaire. Binary logistic regression analysis was used to identify associated factors and odds ratio with 95% CI was computed to assess the strength of association. Results. Total of 347 children participated in this study. The overall prevalence of anemia was 66.6%. In multivariate logistic regression analysis, male sex were significantly associated with anemia. Conclusion. The overall prevalence of anemia among children who aged 6–23 months has sever public health importance in the study area. Integrated efforts need to be prioritized to improve health as well as appropriate infant and young child feeding practice among children under. 1. Background Currently, micronutrient deficiencies are coming to be the most prevalent nutritional deficiencies causing serious developmental problems in the world [1]. Anemia is one of micronutrient deficiencies which have serious public health significance in the world. It is second leading nutritional cause of disability [2–4]. Anemia is an important outcome indicator of poor nutrition and health with its major consequences on socioeconomic development of a population [5]. Anemia can occur at any time and at all stages of the life cycle [3] but young children and pregnant women are the most at risk segment of the community [1]. Globally, about 47.4% of children under five are suffering from anemia [6]. In developing countries, it affects 46–66% of children aged under five years [7]. Africa and Asia are found with sever public health importance of anemia [8]. About 67.6% of children under five in Africa are suffering from anemia while they are 65.5% in Southeast Asia [6]. The highest overall prevalence of anemia in …
Impact of Commitment on Performance Evaluation in the Rostral Cingulate Motor Area

Performance evaluation is a prerequisite for behavioral adaptation. Although the anterior cingulate cortex (ACC) is thought to play a central role in error detection, little is known about the electrophysiological activity of this structure during the performance-monitoring process. We directly addressed this issue by training monkeys to perform a Stroop-like task and then recorded neuronal activity in the rostral cingulate motor area (CMAr), a relatively unexplored region of the ACC known to be involved in motor processing. We found that most CMAr neurons responded during the evaluation period to both positive and negative feedback, but neuronal changes were more important after an error than after a successful trial. Interestingly, this performance-monitoring activity was not directly modulated by the degree of difficulty of the cognitive situation because changes in discharge frequency were similar whatever the level of attentional control imposed on the monkey. Firing activity during the evaluation period increased more, however, in erroneously completed than in incompleted trials and when the reward was delivered in an active rather than passive context, indicating that performance evaluation was conditioned by the degree of commitment of the animal to the task. It would thus seem that CMAr neurons could constitute a system for the evaluation of behavioral performance contingent on the subject's commitment to the task.
A trend filtering algorithm for wide-field variability surveys

We show that various systematics related to certain instrumental effects and data reduction anomalies in wide-field variability surveys can be efficiently corrected by a trend filtering algorithm (TFA) applied to the photometric time-series produced by standard data pipelines. Statistical tests, performed on the data base of the HAT Network project, show that by the application of this filtering method the cumulative detection probability of periodic transits increases by up to 0.4 for variables brighter than 11 mag, with a trend of increasing efficiency toward brighter magnitudes. We also show that the TFA can be used for the reconstruction of periodic signals by iteratively filtering out systematic distortions.
First Year PhD Report Extracting Motion Primitives from Natural Handwriting Data

Movement selection and control is a very difficult inverse dynamics problem for robotic control that humans and animals accomplish easily. For the past 10 years there has been a popular theory that biological movement is made up of sub-routine type blocks, or ‘motor primitives’, with a central controller timing the activation of these blocks, creating synergies of muscle activation. Using machine learning techniques, this project addresses the possibility of extracting useful, and repeatable motor primitives from handwriting data.
Food consumption and nutrient intakes with a special focus on milk product consumption in early pubertal girls in Central Finland

Abstract Objective To evaluate the current status of dietary intakes in early pubertal girls with a special focus on milk products. Design Cross-sectional data using 3-day food records. Subjects Eight hundred and sixty girls, aged 10–12 years, at Tanner maturation stage I-III. Results The mean consumption of milk products (620 g day−1) was similar to that of a Finnish study in the 1980s, while the consumption of non-milk drinks (403 gday−1) had increased. Twelve per cent of the girls had a dairy-restricted diet and consumed significantly less milk products than girls with a non-restricted diet (465 vs. 644 g day−1, P<0.001). Girls with low milk product consumption had the highest non-milk drinks consumption (P<0.001). The mean energy intake was 7.1 MJ day−1. No major changes were found in the sources of nutrients. The shares of energy for nutrients were close to recommendations except for saturated fat (13.9 vs. 10% of energy) and carbohydrates (51.5 vs. 55–60% of energy). The mean calcium intake (1117 mg day−1) was above the recommendation, while the vitamin D intake (3.1 μg day−1) of 88% of the girls was below the recommendation. Conclusions The diet quality of early pubertal girls is close to the recommendations and has improved with respect to fat compared with the 1980s. Consumption of milk products is high although the consumption of non-milk drinks has increased. We found a subgroup of girls who compensate their low milk product consumption with a higher consumption of non-milk drinks. Following a dairy-restricted diet is the main reason for low consumption of milk products.
Efficient and Reliable Production of Vectors for the Study of the Repair, Mutagenesis, and Phenotypic Consequences of Defined DNA Damage Lesions in Mammalian Cells

Mammalian cells are constantly and unavoidably exposed to DNA damage from endogenous and exogenous sources, frequently to the detriment of genomic integrity and biological function. Cells acquire a large number of chemically diverse lesions per day, and each can have a different genetic fate and biological consequences. However, our knowledge of how and when specific lesions are repaired or how they may compromise the fidelity of DNA replication or transcription and lead to deleterious biological endpoints in mammalian cells is limited. Studying individual lesions requires technically challenging approaches for the targeted introduction of defined lesions into relevant DNA sequences of interest. Here, we present a systematic analysis of factors influencing yield and an improved, efficient and reliable protocol for the production of mammalian expression phagemid vectors containing defined DNA base modifications in any sequence position of either complementary DNA strand. We applied our improved protocol to study the transcriptional mutagenesis-mediated phenotypic consequences of the common oxidative lesion 5-hydroxyuracil, placed in the G12 mutational hotspot of the KRAS oncogene. 5-OHU induced sustained oncogenic signaling in Neil1-/-Neil2-/- mouse cells. The resulting advance in technology will have broad applicability for investigation of single lesion DNA repair, mutagenesis, and DNA damage responses in mammalian cells.
Apolipoprotein E4 Influences Amyloid Deposition But Not Cell Loss after Traumatic Brain Injury in a Mouse Model of Alzheimer's Disease

The ε4 allele of apolipoprotein E (APOE) and traumatic brain injury (TBI) are both risk factors for the development of Alzheimer's disease (AD). These factors may act synergistically, in that APOE4+ individuals are more likely to develop dementia after TBI. Because the mechanism underlying these effects is unclear, we questioned whetherAPOE4 and TBI interact either through effects on amyloid-β (Aβ) or by enhancing cell death/tissue injury. We assessed the effects of TBI in PDAPP mice (transgenic mice that develop AD-like pathology) expressing human APOE3(PDAPP:E3), human APOE4 (PDAPP:E4), or noAPOE (PDAPP:E−/−). Mice were subjected to a unilateral cortical impact injury at 9–10 months of age and allowed to survive for 3 months. Aβ load, hippocampal/cortical volumes, and hippocampal CA3 cell loss were quantified using stereological methods. All of the groups contained mice with Aβ-immunoreactive deposits (56% PDAPP:E4, 20% PDAPP:E3, 75% PDAPP:E−/−), but thioflavine-S-positive Aβ (amyloid) was present only in the molecular layer of the dentate gyrus in the PDAPP:E4 mice (44%). In contrast, our previous studies showed that in the absence of TBI, PDAPP:E3 and PDAPP:E4 mice have little to no Aβ deposition at this age. After TBI, all of the Aβ deposits present in PDAPP:E3 and PDAPP:E−/− mice were diffuse plaques. In contrast to the effect of APOE4 on amyloid, PDAPP:E3, PDAPP:E4, and PDAPP:E−/− mice did not differ in the amount of brain tissue or cell loss. These data support the hypothesis thatAPOE4 influences the neurodegenerative cascade after TBI via an effect on Aβ.
Radiofrequency Denervation of Lumbar Facet Joints in the Treatment of Chronic Low Back Pain: A Randomized, Double-Blind, Sham Lesion-Controlled Trial

Objectives:Radiofrequency facet joint denervation procedures have been common practice for 2 decades in treatment of chronic low back pain. We designed this multicenter, randomized, double-blind, sham treatment controlled trial to determine the efficacy of radiofrequency facet joint denervation, as it is routinely performed. Methods:Inclusion criteria were low back pain, duration more than 6 months, and ≥50% Visual Analog Scale (VAS) reduction on diagnostic block. Exclusion criteria were prior radiofrequency treatment, radicular syndrome, coagulopathies, specific allergies, cancer, and pregnancy. A total of 81 out of 462 patients were randomized to undergo radiofrequency facet joint denervation or sham treatment. The first evaluation was carried out 3 months after treatment. Primary outcome was determined with a combined outcome measure comprising VAS, physical activities, and analgesic intake, from a twice-weekly recorded diary. Secondary outcome measures were the separate diary parameters, global perceived effect (complete relief, >50% relief, no effect, pain increase), and SF-36 Quality of Life Questionnaire. Results:There were no dropouts before the first evaluation. The combined outcome measure showed no differences between radio- frequency facet joint denervation (n = 40; success 27.5%) and sham (n = 41; success 29.3%) (P = 0.86). The VAS in both groups improved (P < 0.001). Global perceived effect improved after radiofrequency facet joint denervation (P < 0.05). The other secondary outcome parameters showed no significant differences. Relevant costs were evaluated. Discussion:The combined outcome measure and VAS showed no difference between radiofrequency and sham, though in both groups, significant VAS improvement occurred. The global perceived effect was in favor of radiofrequency. In selected patients, radiofrequency facet joint denervation appears to be more effective than sham treatment.