Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Audio Computerized Self-report Interview Use in Prenatal Clinics: Audio Computer-assisted Self Interview With Touch Screen to Detect Alcohol Consumption in Pregnant Women: Application of a New Technology to an Old Problem

Computer interviewing to obtain sensitive information is not a new concept. However, concerns about the acceptance of computers in disadvantaged populations with potentially low literacy led us to combine audio- and touch-screen technologies with an audio computerized self-report interview to obtain information about alcohol use. This study evaluated acceptance and ease of use by a disadvantaged population of pregnant women in the District of Columbia. Patients attending an initial visit at prenatal clinics answered questions anonymously about their consumption of alcoholic beverages and other personal information. The questionnaire was programmed on a laptop computer. The computer administered the recorded questions via earphones, as well as displayed them on the screen, and patients answered by touching the computer screen. Results were immediately available. A total of 507 women were interviewed, who were primarily African American, non-Hispanic, and never married. Nearly 24% did not complete a high school education, 43% were unemployed, and 30% received public assistance. Most of the women (59%) used computers occasionally (a few days a month) or never. Nearly all patients (96%) reported that the computer was not difficult to use, and approximately 90% liked answering the questions by computer. The study demonstrates that using computers to screen for alcohol use in disadvantaged pregnant populations is feasible and acceptable to the patients.
Combining Prediction Markets and Forecasting Contests

Two popular methods for aggregating individual forecasts are prediction markets, where participants bet on the outcome of future events, and forecasting contests, where participants are ranked according to the accuracy of their forecasts. Can these methods be used in concert to produce more accurate forecasts? We analyse 1.79 million forecasts on oddsportal.com, a social network for sports tipsters. Tipsters are ranked according to the betting return on their tips. We find that an aggregation of these tips predicts sporting outcomes, after controlling for betting/prediction market prices. Rank-order forecasting contests, even without tangible prizes, are useful tools for eliciting crowd forecasts.
Characteristics of Youth Who Sexually Offend

SUMMARY Sexual abuse by juveniles is widely recognized as a significant problem. As communities have become more aware of juvenile sex offending they have responded with increasingly severe responses. This is despite recidivism data suggesting that a relatively small group of juveniles commit repeat sexual offenses after there has been an official response to their sexual offending. Research has shown that juveniles who commit sexual offenses are a heterogeneous mix, varying according to a wide range of variables. This article provides an overview of the characteristics of youths who have committed sex offenses. Factors that will be discussed include types of offending behaviors, family environment, histories of child maltreatment, social skills and interpersonal relationships, sexual knowledge and experiences, academic and cognitive functioning, and mental health.
Mechanisms of Change in Diet and Activity in the Make Better Choices 1 Trial.

OBJECTIVE The Make Better Choices 1 trial demonstrated that participants with unhealthy diet and activity behaviors who were randomized to increase fruits/vegetables and decrease sedentary leisure achieved greater diet and activity improvement than those randomized to change other pairs of eating and activity behaviors. Participants randomized to decrease saturated fat and increase physical activity achieved the least diet-activity improvement. This study examined which psychological mechanisms mediated the effects of the study treatments on healthy behavior change. METHODS Participants (n = 204) were randomized to 1 of 4 treatments: increase fruits/vegetables and physical activity; decrease saturated fat and sedentary leisure; decrease saturated fat and increase physical activity; increase fruits/vegetables and decrease sedentary leisure. Treatments provided 3 weeks of remote coaching supported by mobile decision support technology and financial incentives. Mediational analyses were performed to examine whether changes in positive and negative affect, and self-efficacy, stages of readiness to change, liking, craving and attentional bias for fruit/vegetable intake, saturated fat intake, physical activity, and sedentary leisure explained the impact of the treatments on diet-activity improvement. RESULTS Greater diet-activity improvement in those randomized to increase fruits/vegetables and decrease sedentary leisure was mediated by increased self-efficacy (indirect effect estimate = 0.04; 95% bias corrected CI, 0.003-0.11). All treatments improved craving, stage of change and positive affect. CONCLUSION Accomplishing healthy lifestyle changes for 3 weeks improves positive affect, increases cravings for healthy foods and activities, and enhances readiness to make healthy behavior changes. Maximal diet and activity improvement occurs when interventions enhance self-efficacy to make multiple healthy behavior changes. (PsycINFO Database Record
Enabling or disabling? Students' attitudes toward persons with disabilities.

Persons with disabilities are devalued by society. Occupational therapists may be contributing to this devaluation through their attitudes. This study focused on the attitudes of undergraduate students. From a sample of 223 occupational therapy students and 326 business students at an Australian university, it was found, with the use of the Attitudes Toward Disabled Persons Scale-Form A (Yuker, Block, & Young, 1966), that the attitudes of freshman occupational therapy students did not differ significantly from those of their business-major peers. Furthermore, the occupational therapy students' attitudes did not vary with the years of undergraduate education completed. However, those students who had had contact with persons with disabilities beyond the context of a caregiver-care receiver relationship (i.e., those students who had assumed roles that emphasized valued attributes of the person with a disability) had significantly more positive attitudes than did those students without such contact. Educational curricula must address the issue of students' attitudes and, in particular, the facilitation of valued social role contact with persons with disabilities.
Confirming Signals are Hard to Resist: Blessing and Curse of Information Under Confirmation Bias

Ample empirical evidence documents that individuals pay more attention to confirming than to contradicting evidence. In the context of the so-called confirmation bias, we first study the effects of additional information on perception correctness - contrasting the competing effects of total signal precision and the possibility to search for the most suitable signal. We provide the testable hypothesis that managers inform about bad news in a more diffuse signal compared to good news. This in turn provides an explanation of the dispersion anomaly: disperse signals are followed by underperformance. Second, we study the effects of confirmation bias in an overlapping generations model with a continuous signal distribution. Several results of more simplified models do not hold true any longer - e.g. confirmation bias leads to initial underreaction instead of overreaction. In a framework with endogenous market entry and exit, this initial underreaction triggers subsequent overreaction. This momentum effect is accompanied by time varying market participation, announcement day and market depth effects.
No Witnesses: Protest Policing and the Media at the 2008 Republican National Convention

NO WITNESSES: PROTEST POLICING AND THE MEDIA AT THE 2008 REPUBLICAN NATIONAL CONVENTION Robert David Frenzel Old Dominion University, 2016 Director: Dr. Burton St. John The importance of First Amendment protections for assembly, speech, and the press is manifest during protest events in a way that is not seen in many other situations. Entrenched political and commercial powers, which benefit from the status quo and resist the change supported by the protesters, use many tactics to suppress the message and repress the messenger. One of the tools of repression is the policing of protests. Protest policing, where the government uses law enforcement personnel as a tool to impose its will on the protesters, has evolved over the years. Another of the power center’s tactics is control of press coverage. Honest and informative news reports are vital for movements as a way to spread their message. However, the mainstream press has traditionally downplayed the message and instead focused on troublemakers who provide the action that raise the ratings. The rise of Internet publishing and inexpensive video cameras, as well as small, local newspapers has mitigated this and supported the ascension of the independent media, or the Indy Press. The Indy Press offers a favorable depiction of protests and the message of protesters. This development has led some mainstream reporters to follow the lead of the Indy Press, thus presenting a threat to the power center’s control of the message. During the 2008 Republican National Convention, the police and other security forces providing security for the event arrested at least 43 journalists who were recording the protests and actions on the streets. These arrests were made in spite of the fact that many journalists were wearing valid press passes and identified themselves as reporters. Beyond that, the police maliciously assaulted many of the journalists during their arrest. This work examines the link between the policing of protests, the arrest of protesters, and the repression of reporters. These actions by the power centers serve as a form of intimidation known as propaganda of the deed. Utilizing the accounts of those reporters and witnesses, this work details the potential threat to democratic freedoms posed by the repression of the press, especially the Indy press, by the government.
Portfolio rebalancing in South Africa

The theory of so-called ‘optimal’ portfolio rebalancing has emerged over the last decade in journals and working papers, but this theory has several drawbacks, being based on advanced mathematics and relying on sets of restrictive assumptions. This paper investigates rebalancing strategies by using resampling procedures from actual South African data in a way that captures the intrinsic high volatility nature of South African asset price movements. It considers the main consequences of calendar and range rebalancing strategies on tracking error, transaction costs and portfolio performance and demonstrates that range rebalancing has advantages over calendar rebalancing in the South African financial context using the comparative portfolio allocations of Firer, Peagram and Brunyee (2003). As such it provides a practical framework for South African portfolio managers to make informed choices on the appropriate approach for best-practice portfolio rebalancing.
[The influence of hepatitis B e antigen on the expression of toll-like receptor 2 on peripheral monocytes].

OBJECTIVES In order to investigate the relationship among the toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), hepatitis B e antigen and HBV DNA, the expression levels of TLR2 on peripheral blood monocytes of chronic hepatitis B (CHB) patients as well as on their monocytes stimulated by ligand of TLR2 (Pam3CSK4) and HBeAg were analyzed. METHODS Sixty-eight adults with CHB were enrolled, including 37 HBeAg-positive patients, 17 HBeAg-negative and HBV DNA negative patients, and 14 HBeAg-negative and HBV DNA positive patients. Sixteen healthy volunteers were also studied as controls. TLR2 expression levels on their peripheral blood monocytes stimulated with Pam3CSK4 or not stimulated were analyzed by FACS Caliber. The relationship of the expression levels of TLR2, HBeAg and HBV DNA were also analyzed. The level of TLR2 on peripheral blood monocytes of healthy volunteers and HBeAg-negative CHB patients stimulated by HBeAg was examined for six hours. RESULTS The TLR2 expression levels on CD14+ cells were significantly reduced in HBeAg-positive patients (47.57%+/-21.40 %) compared to both healthy volunteers (76.51%+/-7.46%) and HBeAg-negative patients (HBV DNA positive group 73.2%+/-14.2%, HBV DNA negative group 75.2%+/-11.3%); but there was no difference between those of the HBeAg-negative patients and the healthy volunteers. Expression levels of TLR2 on monocytes stimulated by TLR2 ligand in HBeAg-positive patients were obviously increased, and reached the basic levels of the healthy volunteers and the HBeAg-negative patients. The expression levels of TLR2 on monocytes stimulated by HBeAg of the healthy volunteers and the HBeAg-negative patients were markedly reduced. CONCLUSIONS In the presence of HBeAg, HBV down-regulates the expressions of TLR2 on CD14+ cells from peripheral blood, and there is no correlation between HBV-DNA and TLR2. Pam3CSK4 can boost the TLR2 expression in HBeAg-positive patients. The proposed interaction between HBV and TLR2 may provide an important clue to explain the reasons of the establishment of persistent HBV infection.
Antidepressant efficacy and quality of life in depression: a double‐blind study with moclobemide and fluoxetine

The efficacy of moclobemide (300–450 mg7sol;day) was compared with fluoxetine (20–40 mg/day) in a double‐blind, multicentre study in 209 patients with new episodes of depression selected from 612 consecutive depressed patients representative of those consulting psychiatric services in Finland. Antidepressant efficacy was assessed with the Hamilton Depression Rating Scale (HDRS), Montgomery‐Åsberg Depression Rating Scale and Clinical Global Impression (CGI). The Medical Outcome Study Short‐form General Health Survey (SF‐20) and 15D Measure of Quality of Life were used to measure effectiveness in terms of health‐related quality of life. Efficacy was evident with both drug treatments, with 67% in the moclobemide group and 57% in the fluoxetine group having a reduction in HDRS of more than 50%. Similarly, 77% of the patients in the moclobemide group and 67% in the fluoxetine group were assessed on the CGI as much better or very much better after 6 weeks of treatment. The most commonly reported adverse events were nausea, other gastrointestinal symptoms, nervousness, dizziness and sleep disorders. Nausea was significantly more common in the fluoxetine group and was found especially in women. Premature terminations of treatment were 18% in the moclobemide and 21% in the fluoxetine group. A significant change for the better in quality of life was found in both treatment groups, even at week 2 but especially after 6 weeks of treatment. Improvement was not only seen in dimensions measuring depression or mental health but also in other dimensions.
Air cored current sensor for digital metering & micro-processor based protection unit

Most of the current sensors use a special core material for sensing the electromagnetic field generated by the current carrying primary conductor. This core especially for current transformer is made out of permeable magnetic materials, which are subjected to iron losses and hence high temperature rise contributed due to both iron & copper loss. At high current the materials gets saturated and hence loose its linearity. This results into increased size, volume, weight and cost of the sensor. The paper discuss about development of 160 Ampere air cored current sensor for metering and micro-processor based release & protection unit, which eliminates the various problem associated with conventional current transformer. It consists of four coil connected in series, wound over an insulated former surrounding the primary conductor. The magnetic field generated by the primary conductor passes through the series coil and there by induces an electromotive force which is proportional to the rate of change of primary current. The voltage output in the secondary coil is further integrated using an integrator circuit to find out the primary current. The integrator circuit is added with adequate filter to take care of the problem associated with the current and phase offset so as to minimize the error between the theoretical & practical results obtained.
Belgian regional parliaments and the European Union: an analysis of parliamentary scrutiny in agricultural and environmental policies

ABSTRACT Drawing on qualitative case studies of two specific European decision-making processes in the agricultural and environmental sectors, this paper discusses how and why Belgian regional parliaments activated (or not) their control mechanisms to scrutinise their respective regional ministers. The findings show that parliamentary scrutiny of the agricultural and environmental policy fields has undergone a process of institutional and behavioural Europeanisation. Belgian regional parliaments rely mostly on classical parliamentary tools aimed at gathering information and, to a lesser extent, on constraining instruments aimed at influencing their government. Rather than trying to influence the EU negotiations, the MPs try to assess the potential impact of the reforms on their regional policy sectors. The findings also demonstrate that domestic media coverage and political salience of the EU negotiation associated with important implementing powers of regional parliaments have a positive effect on the level of scrutiny conducted by Belgian regional assemblies.
Tobacco Counteradvertisements Aimed at Bicultural Mexican American Youth: The Impact of Language and Theme

The growing population of Mexican American youth and the increasing smoking rates in this population present a considerable public health challenge. Tobacco counteradvertisements have demonstrated their ability to shape attitudes, behavior, and public policy, but little is known about the most effective ways to adapt messages aimed at this audience. To explore key variables that can affect success, a study was conducted with 249 Mexican American middle-school youth from a U.S./Mexico border community to examine the effectiveness of language (English, Spanish, or a combination of English and Spanish) and theme (secondhand smoke, antitobacco social norms, and tobacco industry manipulation) in print tobacco counteradvertisements. Measures included ad preferences, acculturation, and tobacco-related attitudes and behavior. Results showed that although a large percentage identified with the Mexican American rather than the Anglo American culture and spoke Spanish in selected contexts, readability was greater for ads in English, and participants rated the English ads as most effective. The social norms counteradvertisement was preferred overall. Potential implications for health communication and policy are discussed.
Characteristics and use of home health care by men and women aged 65 and over.

OBJECTIVE This report presents national estimates on differences in the use of home health care between men and women aged 65 years and over. METHODS Estimates are based on data from the 2007 National Home and Hospice Care Survey, conducted by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's National Center for Health Statistics. RESULTS In the United States, men aged 65 years and over used home health care at a lower rate than women. Among home health care patients 65 years and over, women were more likely to be 85 years and over while men were more likely to be married and receive home health care as post-acute care. Women 65 years and over who received home health care were less likely than males to receive wound care and physical therapy, and more likely to receive homemaker services. Among home health care patients who were 65 years and over, cancer was more prevalent among men, and essential hypertension was more common among women.
The transition to coparenthood: Parents' prebirth expectations and early coparental adjustment at 3 months postpartum

In the decade since the first observationally based empirical studies of coparenting process in nuclear families made their mark, most investigations of early coparenting dynamics have examined whether and how such dynamics drive child development trajectories, rather than identifying factors that may contribute to the differential development of such dynamics in the first place. In this prospective study, we examined both individual-representational and dyadic-interpersonal predictors of early coparental process. Fifty married couples expecting their first child portrayed their expectations and concerns about family life after the baby's arrival, and took part in a set of problem-solving tasks used to help evaluate marital quality. Both mothers' and fathers' prebaby expectations about the future family, and prenatal marital quality, predicted observed coparenting cohesion at 3 months postpartum. Maternal– and marriage–coparenting trajectories differed as a function of infant characteristics, with pathways most pronounced when infants were rated high in negative reactivity. Results reveal how the prenatal environment can come to shape early coparenting process, and indicate that family models must take into account the role that child characteristics can play in altering prebirth–postpartum pathways.This study was supported by National Institute of Child Health and Development Grant RO1 HD42179. We thank the families who contributed their time and effort to the investigation and our colleagues Regina Kuersten–Hogan, Wendy DeCourcey, Julia Berkman, Valerie Haskell, Meaghan DiLallo, Nina Olsen, Amy Alberts, Oliver Hartman, Stefanie Giampa, Eleanor Chaffe, and Kate Fish for their assistance with various aspects of this project.
Early antithrombotic therapy is safe and effective in patients with blunt cerebrovascular injury and solid organ injury or traumatic brain injury

BACKGROUND Early antithrombotic therapy (AT) is the mainstay of treatment in the management of blunt cerebrovascular injury (BCVI). Despite this, optimal timing of initiation of AT in patients with BCVI in the presence of concomitant traumatic brain injury (TBI) or solid organ injury (SOI) remains controversial. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the impact of early initiation of AT on outcomes in patients with BCVI and TBI and/or SOI. METHODS Patients with BCVI and concomitant TBI and/or SOI over 6 years were identified. Aspirin and/or clopidogrel or low-intensity heparin infusion (AT) was instituted in all patients immediately upon diagnosis of BCVI. Cessation of AT, worsening TBI, the need for delayed operative intervention, ischemic stroke, and mortality were reviewed and compared. Worsening of TBI or delayed operative intervention for SOI were compared with those of patients without BCVI treated at the same institution during the study period. RESULTS A total of 119 patients (74 with TBI, 26 with SOI, and 19 with both) were identified. Seventy-one percent were treated with heparin infusion (goal activated partial thromboplastin time, 45–60 seconds), and 29% received antiplatelet therapy alone. When compared with patients without BCVI, there was no difference in worsening of TBI (9% vs. 10% with no BCVI, p = 0.75) or need for delayed operative intervention for SOI (7% vs. 5% with no BCVI, p = 0.61). No patients required cessation of AT. A total of 11 patients (9%) experienced a BCVI-related stroke. CONCLUSION Initiation of early AT for patients with BCVI and concomitant TBI or SOI does not increase risk of worsening TBI or SOI above baseline. Close monitoring is required, but our results suggest that appropriate antiplatelet or heparin therapy should not be withheld in patients with BCVI and concomitant TBI or SOI. In fact, prompt treatment with either antiplatelet or heparin therapy remains the mainstay for prevention of stroke-related morbidity and mortality in these patients. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Therapeutic/care management study, level IV.