Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Framework for Incorporating Minority Stress Theory into Treatment with Sexual Minority Clients

Empirical research has consistently demonstrated the negative mental health consequences of minority stress among lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) populations; however, there is little understanding of how minority stress should be addressed in the actual clinical situation. This article discusses how to incorporate minority stress theory into clinical practice with LGB clients. A proposed framework begins with a two-part clinical assessment. The first part, based on Meyer's (2003) minority stress model, examines the effects of prejudice events, stigma, internalized homophobia, and sexual orientation concealment. The second part, grounded in Hatzenbuelher's (2009) work, examines the client's coping/emotional regulation, social/interpersonal, and cognitive processes, which can be elevated by minority stress. Following the assessment process, the framework suggests using a LGB-affirmative treatment approach. To demonstrate the clinical utility of the framework it will be applied to the treatment of a client identifying as lesbian.
WP / 18 / 029 The Mobile Phone as an Argument for Good Governance in Sub-Saharan Africa

PurposeThis study presents theoretical and empirical arguments for the role of mobile telephony in promoting good governance in 47 sub-Saharan African countries for the period 2000-2012. Design/methodology/approachThe empirical inquiry uses an endogeneity-robust GMM approach with forward orthogonal deviations to analyse the linkage between mobile phone usage and the variation in three broad governance categories — political, economic and institutional. FindingsThree key findings are established: First, in terms of individual governance indicators, mobile phones consistently stimulated good governance by the same magnitude, with the exception of the effect on the regulation component of economic governance. Second, when indicators are combined, the effect of mobile phones on general governance is three times higher than that on the institutional governance category. Third, countries with lower levels of governance indicators are catching-up with their counterparts with more advanced dynamics. Originality/valueThe study makes both theoretical and empirical contributions by highlighting the importance of various combinations of governance indicators and their responsiveness to mobile phone usage. JEL Classification: G20; O38; O40; O55; P37
How the Atmosphere over Eastern Himalaya, India is Polluted with Carbonyl Compounds? Temporal Variability and Identification of Sources

ABSTRACTA study was conducted on atmospheric carbonyl compounds for the first time over a Himalayan atmosphere in India. Samples were collected from a high altitude hill station, Darjeeling (27.01°N, 88.15°E, 2200 masl) during June 2012 to May 2013. Temporal variation, meteorological influence, source apportionment and ozone formation potential etc were studied for acetaldehyde, formaldehyde, acetone, butanaldehyde, propanaldehyde, benzaldehyde, crotonaldehyde, valeraldehyde, isovaleraldehyde, hexanaldehyde, p-tolualdehyde and o-tolualdehyde. High concentration of Acetone (81.6 ± 63.5 µg m–3) was observed which could be due to the higher photochemical production from its precursor volatile organic compounds emitted from tea plants and tea processing units. The concentration of acetaldehyde (20.7 ± 47.6 µg m–3) and formaldehyde (11.6 ± 16.3 µg m–3) were found to be comparable with metro cities of India and world. The average annual concentration of total carbonyl compounds was 174.2 ± 184.6 µg m–3 with maximum during postmonsoon (456.9 ± 199.5 µg m–3) and minimum during winter season (72.2 ± 42.9 µg m–3). Meteorological parameters like temperature and surface reaching solar radiative flux played the major roles for the seasonal variation of the carbonyl concentration over the hill station. The average ratio of formaldehyde to acetaldehyde over Darjeeling was found to be 1.64 ± 1.43 well representing a typical urban atmosphere at this part of Himalaya. Positive matrix factorization model showed that the biogenic emissions from tea plants and vehicular emissions were the major sources of carbonyl compounds over the hill station.
The effects of aircraft noise exposure on psychological distress: the results of the DEBATS study in France

18% of the French population suffer from mental disorders. Some studies suggested that aircraft noise exposure may increase psychological distress, but the number of these studies is limited and no one exists in France. We investigated associations between aircraft noise exposure and psychological distress for people living near airports in France. The DEBATS longitudinal study included 1,244 residents around three French airports: Paris-Charles-de-Gaulle, Toulouse-Blagnac, and Lyon-Saint-Exupery. Information about psychological distress was assessed by a face-to-face questionnaire, including the 12-version of the General Health Questionnaire. Aircraft noise exposure was evaluated for each participant's home address using the integrated noise model. Associations with psychological distress were investigated using logistic and linear regressions including relevant confounders. 13% of the participants reported symptom of depression and 22% were considered to have psychological distress according the GHQ-score. No association was found between exposure to aircraft noise and symptom of depression or psychological distress. This result partly confirms the findings of the few studies investigating this association.
Disrupted Th 1 / Th 2 balance in patients with rheumatoid arthritis ( RA )

The imbalance of Th1/Th2 polarization in patients with Rheumatoid Arthritis (RA) and the effect of Mps derived from plasma of RA patients were reported in this study. It was found that the percentage of IFN-γ+CD4+ T cell in peripheral blood and Th1/Th2 ratio were significantly increased in RA patients. Sera from patients with RA promoted Th1/Th2 balance biased towards Th1 by enhancing Th1-type cytokine (IFN-γ and TNF-α) expression and reducing Th2-type (IL-6 and IL10) cytokine expression, respectively, in a dose-dependent manner. Conversely, Mps derived from RA patients disrupted the balance of Th1/Th2 by decreasing TNF-α expression and increasing IL-6 and IL-10 expression. The results illustrated RA patients were characterized by a disruption of Th1/Th2 balance towards Th1. Sera from RA patients promoted a Th1/Th2 balance bias towards Th1, which could be counteracted by Mps derived from RA patients disrupting the balance of Th1/Th2 in an opposing manner.
Distribution and immunohistochemical properties of autonomic neurons supplying the ovine hip joint capsule

Combined retrograde tracing and double labelling immunohistochemistry were applied to study the distribution and chemical coding of autonomic neurons projecting to the ovine hip joint capsule. As revealed by retrograde tracing, fast blue-positive autonomic neurons supplying the lateral side of the hip joint capsule and the medial side of the hip joint capsule were located within the lumbar and sacral of the ipsilateral sympathetic chain ganglia and within the caudal mesenteric ganglion. Immunohistochemistry revealed that nearly all (sympathetic chain ganglia: 96% and caudal mesenteric ganglion: 98.8%) the neurons were adrenergic in nature (positive for dopamine β-hydroxylase). Many retrogradely labelled neurons also displayed immunoreactivity to neuropeptide Y (approximately 34% of fast blue-positive neurons within caudal mesenteric ganglion and sympathetic chain ganglia). Populations of Met-Enk+ (20%) and Leu-Enk+ (6%) neurons were present only in the sympathetic chain ganglia while within caudal mesenteric ganglion no enkephalinergic-labelled neurons were noted. Only a small population (2.2%) of hip joint capsule-projecting neurons were Gal-IR and they were observed only within the caudal mesenteric ganglion. No cholinergic neurons involved in the innervation of the hip joint capsule were found. However, fast blue-positive nerve cell bodies were surrounded by numerous cholinergic nerve fibres often forming basket-like formations. Single Gal+ nerve fibres were found in the intraganglionic connective tissue. Substance P-positive or calcitonin gene-related peptide-positive intraganglionic nerve terminals were very numerous and formed “baskets” surrounding fast blue-positive perikarya within sympathetic chain ganglias and caudal mesenteric ganglion.
A spreadsheet for deriving a confidence interval, mechanistic inference and clinical inference from a P value

The null-hypothesis significance test based only on a p value can be a misleading approach to making an inference about the true (population or largesample) value of an effect statistic. Inferences based directly on the uncertainty in the true magnitude of the statistic are more comprehensible and practical but are not provided by statistical packages. I present here a spreadsheet that uses the p value, the observed value of the effect and smallest substantial values for the effect to make two kinds of magnitude-based inference: mechanistic and clinical. For a mechanistic inference the spreadsheet shows the effect as unclear if the confidence interval, which represents uncertainty about the true value, overlaps values that are substantial in a positive and negative sense; the effect is otherwise characterized with a statement about the chance that it is trivial, positive or negative. For a clinical inference the effect is shown as unclear if its chance of benefit is at least promising but its risk of harm is unacceptable; the effect is otherwise characterized with a statement about the chance that it is trivial, beneficial or harmful. The spreadsheet allows the researcher to choose the level of confidence (default, 90%) for mechanistic inferences and the threshold chances of benefit (default, 25%) and harm (default, 0.5%) for clinical inferences. The spreadsheet can be used for the most common effect statistics: raw, percent and factor differences in means; ratios of rates, risks, odds, and standard deviations; and correlations. The calculations are based on the same assumption of a normal or t sampling distribution that underlies the calculation of the p value for these statistics.
Spatial and Temporal Variability of the PM2.5/PM10 Ratio in Wuhan, Central China

ABSTRACTFine particles (PM2.5) and coarse particles (PM2.5–10) are generally produced by different sources, so the PM2.5/PM10 ratio reveals characteristics of particle pollution. The ratio can be used to characterize the underlying atmospheric processes and evaluate historical PM2.5 pollution in absence of direct measurements. However, application of the ratio needs its varying pattern because PM concentrations change significantly at time and space. Hourly PM2.5 and PM10 observations at nine monitoring sites in urban area (Urban-sites) and one remote Background-site in Wuhan in 2013–2015 were collected to investigate both long-term, short-term temporal variation and spatial distribution, spatial disparity of the ratio at a city scale. The results show that annual average PM2.5/PM10 ratio is 0.62 at Urban-sites and 0.68 at Background-site with apparent seasonal, monthly and daily variations. The ratio reaches the maximum in winter because of stable atmospheric conditions. There are apparent night-day differences of daily variation of the ratio, which increases at night in all seasons in consequence of temperature inversion and declines in the daytime with a moderate rise in the afternoon. We find obvious spatial gradients of the ratio that gradually increases from urban core to urban fringe and to suburban. This study provides further insights to the spatio-temporal variability of PM2.5/PM10 ratio. The evidence indicates that the variability of PM2.5/PM10 should be noticed in its applications.
Antibiotic Resistance Pattern of Bacteria Isolated from patients with upper respiratory tract infections; a four year study in Tripoli city

1) Background: Respiratory tract infections (RTI) has been known to be a significant health concern for mortality and morbidity since many years. This study was aimed at determining the prevalence of bacterial pathogen causing upper respiratory tract (URTIs) and the susceptibility patterns to frequently used antibiotics among patients attending Abusetta hospital in Tripoli district; 2) Methods: A total of 1,110 throat swabs were collected between Jan, 2011 to December, 2014 and inoculated onto Blood agar, MacCkonkey agar and Chocolate agar then incubated at 37 oC for 24 hours. Bacterial pathogens were determined by bacteriological culture methods and antibiotic susceptibility of the isolates was identified following Clinical Laboratory Standard Institute guidelines (CLSI); 3) Results: Of the 1,110 respiratory samples tested, 71.1% (n = 789) of specimens were positive cultures with the dominant bacterial pathogens being streptococcus pneumonia 43.3% (n = 342), followed by pseudomonas aeruginosa 22.8% (n = 180), staphylococcus aurous 13.8% (n = 109), Escherichia Coli 6.9% (n = 55), Enterobacter spp 6.2% (n = 49), Citrobacter 4.5% (n = 36), and Klebsiella 2.2% (n = 18). Most isolates exhibited resistance against the commonly used antibiotics and to at least one antibiotic; and 4) Conclusions: The level of antibiotic resistance in this study is alarming and brings to light the timely and suitable diagnosis of the common bacteria causes of URTIs and proper antibiotic administration based on susceptibility test.
Influence of Modified Fucoidan and Related Sulfated Oligosaccharides on Hematopoiesis in Cyclophosphamide-Induced Mice

Immunosuppression derived after cytostatics application in cancer chemotherapy is considered as an adverse side effect that leads to deterioration of quality of life and risk of infectious diseases. A linear sulfated (1→3)-α-l-fucan M-Fuc prepared by chemical modification of a fucoidan isolated from the brown seaweed Chordaria flagelliformis, along with two structurally related synthetic sulfated oligosaccharides, were studied as stimulators of hematopoiesis on a model of cyclophosphamide immunosuppression in mice. Recombinant granulocyte colony-stimulating factor (r G-CSF), which is currently applied in medicine to treat low blood neutrophils, was used as a reference. Polysaccharide M-Fuc and sulfated difucoside DS did not demonstrate significant effect, while sulfated octasaccharide OS showed higher activity than r G-CSF, causing pronounced neutropoiesis stimulation. In addition, production of erythrocytes and platelets was enhanced after the octasaccharide administration. The assessment of populations of cells in blood and bone marrow of mice revealed the difference in mechanisms of action of OS and r G-CSF.
Mid-ventricle Takotsubo in a Patient with Goodpasture Syndrome

Takotsubo syndrome (TTS) is characterized by transient, regional systolic dysfunction of the left ventricle, often mimicking acute coronary syndrome. Atypical variants of this syndrome with mid-ventricular, basal, and focal wall motion patterns are increasingly diagnosed and show different clinical features compared to typical TTS. Even though TTS was generally considered a benign condition, continuous and strict monitoring is necessary to diagnose potentially life-threating complications. This is the first case report, to our knowledge, of atypical TTS in a patient with Goodpasture syndrome triggered by acute kidney injury (AKI).
A log‐normal spectral analysis of inorganic grain‐size distributions from a Canadian boreal lake core: Towards refining depositional process proxy data from high latitude lakes

Better methods for interpreting grain‐size spectra will enhance current understanding of past transport–depositional processes. A high‐resolution inorganic grain‐size dataset has been measured from a freeze core extracted from ‘Alberta Lake E’ a boreal fresh water lake 40 km east of the Athabasca Oil Sands in north‐eastern Alberta, Canada. The grain‐size spectra are remarkably consistent throughout the core, exhibiting a structure comprising six persistent grain‐size distributions below ca 250 μm, plus a rare medium‐sand distribution. Automated deconvolution of the grain‐size spectra produced poor results. Constraining the modes of two of the distributions produced deconvolution solutions that were statistically excellent and consistent with the structure of each spectrum. Statistical analysis of the ‘constrained’ solutions indicates that deconvolution successfully extracted independent grain‐size populations. Conversely, the multimodal spectra generate traditional measures (for example, mean grain size) that are inconsistent combinations of different individual populations and thus are poor proxies of transport–depositional processes. Alberta Lake E is situated in a boreal wetland landscape where sediment delivery is dominated by overland flow transport during spring melt. This context means that the Alberta Lake E grain‐size spectra can be interpreted to reflect: (i) a bedload component transported during short‐duration high discharge events that reflect the intensity of the melt; and (ii) a finer suspended load component representing material whose magnitude is controlled by the volume of the spring melt. Stratigraphically, bedload and suspended load populations demonstrate different short‐wavelength and long‐wavelength cyclicity, suggesting that spring melt is likely to be driven by cyclic external forcing factors. The links between the grain‐size spectra and spring melt have potential for generating proxy records that better capture the external controls over spring melt in boreal systems and the risks associated with these energetic hydrodynamics. This is exemplified by the coarsest Alberta Lake E distributions, which indicate that more intense spring‐melt dynamics occurred in pre‐historical times.
Clear-Sky Surface Solar Radiation During the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment

Downward total solar fluxes measured at Dungsha coral island (20°42'N, 116°43'E) during the South China Sea Monsoon Experiment (May-June 1998) have been calibrated and compared with radiative transfer calculations for three clear-sky days. Model calculations use water vapor and temperature profiles from radiosonde measurements, and the aerosol optical thickness is derived from sunphotometric radiance measurements. Results show that the difference between observed and model-calculated downward surface fluxes is ＜ 3 % of the daily mean. Averaged over the three clear days, the difference reduces to 1 %. The averaged downward surface fluxes from observations and calculations for the three selected dates are 314 and 317 W/m2, respectively. This result is consistent with a previous study using TOGA CO ARE measurements, which found good agreement between observations and model calculations. This study provides an extra piece of useful information for the modeling of radiative transfer, which helps to fill in the puzzle of the absorption of solar radiation in the atmosphere.
Robustification and performance evaluation of empirical risk measures and other vector-valued estimators

Actuarial axioms lead to risk measures that for loss distributions assign weighted integrals of the corresponding value-at-risk functions. Hence, constructing robust and efficient estimators for the integrals using observed losses becomes a task of practical interest. Furthermore, a number of risk measures are functionals of several such weighted integrals. Hence, in order to cover many cases of practical interest, in the present paper we consider robust estimators of vector-valued risk measures as well as other population parameters, and we also study their large-sample efficiency properties. In addition, we discuss robust estimators for location, scale, and location-scale parameters for several parametric families of interest in actuarial science, econometrics, and beyond.
The Macro Effects of Unemployment Benefit Extensions: a Measurement Error Approach*

By how much does an extension of unemployment benefits affect macroeconomic outcomes such as unemployment? Answering this question is challenging because U.S. law extends benefits for states experiencing high unemployment. We use data revisions to decompose the variation in the duration of benefits into the part coming from actual differences in economic conditions and the part coming from measurement error in the real-time data used to determine benefit extensions. Using only the variation coming from measurement error, we find that benefit extensions have a limited influence on state-level macroeconomic outcomes. We apply our estimates to the increase in the duration of benefits during the Great Recession and find that they increased the unemployment rate by at most 0.3 percentage point.
Pediatric Abusive Head Trauma: A Review for Trauma Providers

Pediatric abusive head trauma (AHT), formally coined shaken baby syndrome, is the inflicted injury to a young child or infant through sudden forceful impact, violent shaking or a combination of these two, resulting in injury to the skull and intracranial contents. AHT involves a varying spectrum of cranial, cerebral and spinal damage. The majority of child abuse associated fatalities are consequent of AHT. Despite a high clinical suspicion, diagnosis can be challenging and often relies on a combination of both clinical and radiographic features specific to child abuse. Clinical findings of subdural and retinal hemorrhages are most common and hold a high positive predictive value for AHT. AHT is associated with high rate of morbidity and mortality when compared to other accidental pediatric traumas. Survivors of AHT are often left with longterm neurologic and developmental disabilities. This article aims to characterize the current prevalence of AHT, define associated risk factors, highlight mechanisms of injury and identify predictive clinical features that can aide in a timely accurate diagnosis. Furthermore, this review of AHT emphasizes the importance of early recognition and the initiation of evidenced based management of pediatric TBI in AHT in an effort to reduce poor long-term neurologic outcomes among these children.
Methylphenidate-Elicited Distinct Neuropharmacological Activation Patterns Between Medication-Naive Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Children With and Without Comorbid Autism Spectrum Disorder: A Functional Near- Infrared Spectroscopy Study

ABSTRACT Objective: We aimed to clarify the validity of fNIRS measurement for assessing the methylphenidate (MPH) induced neuropharmacological effect in medication-naive children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) with or without comorbid autism spectrum disorder (ASD), thereby providing the first evidence for differing neurofunctional pathology between the two groups. Methods: We monitored the effects of a single acute clinical dose of MPH on the cortical hemodynamics of 32 medication-naive ADHD children (ADHD with ASD n=11 and ADHD without ASD n=21) performing a go/no-go task before and 1.5 h after MPH or placebo administration, using a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled, crossover design. In addition, all subjects’ symptoms were monitored using the Japanese version of the ADHD Rating Scale-IV (ADHDRS- IV-J) before and one month after MPH administration. Results: Medication-naive ADHD children without ASD exhibited reduced right prefrontal activation. MPH medication elicited significant right prefrontal activation except in comparative conditions associated with the placebo effect. Medication-naive ADHD children with ASD exhibited marginal activation before the first day of medication and reduced activation after MPH medication in the right prefrontal area. While the neuropharmacological effects of MPH were different, ADHD-RS-IV-J scores were significantly improved one month after MPH administration in ADHD groups both with and without ASD. Conclusion: Taken together, these results suggest that ADHD with ASD is characterized by a different underlying neurofunctional pathology for inhibition control than that without ASD. To our knowledge, this is the first comparative neuroimaging study between ADHD patients with and without comorbid ASD.