Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role of Intensive Training in Strengthening the Skills of HIV Counselors for Imparting Quality ICTC Services

Counseling is a confidential dialogue between a client and counselor aimed at enabling the client to cope with stress and make personal decisions related to HIV/AIDS. When Voluntary Counseling and testing centers (VCTC) centers were started initially, their focus was on prevention of HIV infection, HIV testing, and dealing with social and emotional impact of a HIV positive test. The scope of services being provided has over the years expanded rapidly, with addition of prevention of parent-to-child transmission (PPTCT), access to anti retroviral therapy (ART), and better linkages with directly observed treatment short course (DOTS) centers. (1–4) In the third phase of National AIDS Control Program (NACP-111), these VCTC services are being further expanded to Community Health Center (CHC) and Primary Health Center (PHC) levels and clients will be provided comprehensive, quality services under one roof of integrated counseling and testing centers (ICTC). This planned expansion puts pressure on NACP-111 to recruit and train a large number of qualified and skilled counselors who will be the most important functionaries of these VCTC's, PPTCT's, and ICTC's throughout the country. (5) The HIV counselor needs to equip the client to prevent HIV infection, to make an informed choice about HIV testing, to cope with an HIV test result and to understand the implications of lifelong treatment. (6) National AIDS Control Organization (NACO) has developed an intensive 12 days training schedule for developing and fine tuning the counseling skills of these counselors so as to produce counselors who are sensitive to their clients problems, are well informed and can provide high quality VCT, PPTCT, and ART counseling. For this purpose, NACO has identified 18 institutes across the country who will impart trainings to HIV counselors. Our institute was selected to train counselors from Himachal and Haryana state. We tried to study the impact of 12-day intensive training program in enhancing the skills of these counselors.
CELL ADHESION MOLECULE L 1 CONTRIBUTES TO NEURONAL EXCITABILITY REGULATING THE FUNCTION OF VOLTAGE-GATED SODIUM CHANNELS

* present address: Department of Clinical and Experimental Epilepsy, Institute of Neurology, University College London, London WC1N 3BG, UK § present address: Laboratory of Molecular and Cellular Neuroscience, Rockefeller University, New York, NY, USA ^ present address: Department of Pharmacy, University of Napoli Federico II, Napoli, Italy ° present address: Cognitive Neuroscience, Sensorimotor Laboratory, German Primate Center, Leibniz Institute for Primate Research, Gottingen, Germany
Checkerboard fields in multiple sclerosis

Wallerian degeneration (WD) after ischaemic stroke is a well known phenomenon following a stereotypical time course. Whereas conventional magnetic resonance imaging fails to detect signal intensity changes until four weeks after stroke, diffusion tensor imaging (DTI) reveals changes related to WD only after days. DTI was used to monitor the time course of Wallerian degeneration of the pyramidal tract from the early subacute to the late chronic stage of ischaemic stroke in two patients. A progressive decrease of fractional anisotropy was found along the pyramidal tract in the cerebral peduncle below the primary lesion resulting from progressive changes in the principal diffusivities, as well as a slight increase in the orientationally averaged diffusivity in the chronic phase. These signal changes reflect the progressive disintegration of fibre structures resulting from WD.
Endotoxin activates human vascular smooth muscle cells despite lack of expression of CD14 mRNA or endogenous membrane CD14

During infection or inflammation, cells of the blood vessel wall, such as endothelial cells (EC) and smooth muscle cells (SMC), contribute to the regulation of the immune response by production of cytokines or expression of adhesion molecules. Little is known about the mechanism(s) involved in the stimulation of vascular cells by endotoxin (lipopolysaccharide [LPS]). As reported previously, LPS antagonists reduce LPS-induced cytokine production or adhesion in vitro specifically, suggesting a specific LPS recognition mechanism. We thus investigated the role of CD14 for stimulation of vascular SMC by LPS. Complement-fixing antibodies directed against CD14 (LeuM3, RoMo I, or Mo2) lysed monocytes but failed to mediate lysis of EC or SMC, indicating the lack of endogenous membrane CD14 in vascular cells. In addition, we did not detect expression of CD14 protein on EC and SMC in cell sorting analysis or cell immunoassay experiments. These observations are in line with our finding that a CD14 probe did not hybridize with mRNA or EC or SMC in Northern (RNA) blot experiments, although it hybridized well with monocyte-derived mRNA. We obtained the same results with the much more sensitive reverse transcription-PCR. Since the vascular SMC did not express endogenous CD14, we investigated the role of human serum-derived soluble CD14 (sCD14) for activation of SMC by LPS. In medium containing human serum, anti-CD14 antibodies inhibited activation of SMC by LPS. In contrast, the same antibodies did not inhibit activation of cells cultured in medium containing fetal calf serum. SMC cultured in sCD14-depleted medium responded 1,000-fold less to LPS than cells cultured in presence of sCD14. Reconstitution of sCD14-depleted serum or supplementation of serum-free medium with recombinant CD14 restored the capacity of the cells to respond to LPS. These results show that specific activation of vascular SMC by LPS does not involve binding to endogenous membrane CD14, but that the activation of vascular SMC by LPS is mediated to a great extent by serum-derived sCD14.
Effects of steep Trendelenburg position for robotic-assisted prostatectomies on intra- and extrathoracic airways in patients with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease.

BACKGROUND The use of the steep Trendelenburg position and abdominal CO2-insufflation during surgery can lead to significant reduction in pulmonary compliance and upper airway oedema. The postoperative time course of these effects and their influence on postoperative lung function is unknown. Therefore, we assessed intra- and extrathoracic airway resistance and nasal air flow in patients with or without chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) during robotic-assisted prostatectomy. METHODS In 55 patients without and 20 patients with COPD spirometric measurements and nasal resistance were obtained before operation, 40 and 120 min, and 1 and 5 days after operation. We measured vital capacity (VC), forced expiratory volume in 1 s (FEV1), maximal mid-expiratory and inspiratory flow (MEF50, MIF50), arterial oxygen saturation, and nasal flow. The occurrence of postoperative conjunctival oedema (chemosis) was also assessed. RESULTS In patients without COPD, MEF50/MIF50 increased and nasal flow decreased significantly after surgery (P<0.0001) and normalized within 24 h. VC and FEV1 decreased after operation with a nadir at 24 h and recovered to normal until the fifth day (P<0.0001). In patients with COPD, changes in MEF50/MIF50 and nasal flow were similar, while changes in VC and FEV1 lasted beyond the fifth day (P<0.0001). CONCLUSIONS Robotic-assisted prostatectomy in the steep Trendelenburg position led to an increase in upper airway resistance directly after surgery that normalized within 24 h. The development of chemosis can be indicative of increased upper airway resistance. In patients without COPD, VC and FEV1 were reduced after surgery and recovered within 5 days, while in patients with COPD, the alteration lasted beyond 5 days.
Estimating the Impact of Environmental SPS and TBT on International Trade

According to WTO rules, governments are allowed to take measures in order to protect human health, as well as animal and plant health, provided that the enforced measures are not disguised protectionism. The SPS and TBT agreements try to ensure that the regulations enforced at the country level do not translate into unnecessary barriers to trade. Whether they succeed is a key empirical issue in the literature. Contrasting with previous studies focusing on single cases (e.g. aflatoxins), we adopt a new approach tackling the impact of such measures at the border across countries and industries. Our results generalise the finding of recent studies with a predominance of negative impacts of such measures on trade of fresh and processed food, while in the case of manufacturing products an insignificant or even positive impact is observed.
Pengaruh Budaya Organisasi dan Gaya Kepemimpinan serta Pengembangan Karyawan terhadap Kepuasan Kerja dan Kinerja Karyawan pada Perusahaan Ritel di Sulawesi Selatan

The research objective are to explain the connection between employee performance and organization culture, leadership style, employee development and job satisfaction with organization culture in order to increase employee performance. The research perform with explanatory research, which done in modern retail company (hypermart) in South Sulawesi. The research sample about 250 respondents of total 2.312 member of employee population, taken by random sampling from each company type and job type of retail company proportionally. Data was analyzed by Structural Equation Model (SEM). The result indicated that organization culture can support a right leadership style election in order to increase job satisfaction and employee performance. A right leadership style in one hand can develop employee, increase job satisfaction and increase employee performance in the other hand. A good growing of employee finally can perform a better employee performance. On the contrary, organization culture which can not develop employee and leadership style which can not perform employee improvement also can not build a job satisfaction. Keywords: employee performance, job satisfaction, employee development, leadership style and organization culture.
Customer Care Excellence: How to Create an Effective Customer Focus

Part 1 An Introduction to Customer Care: Service in a competitive environment The changing nature of customer service Changing customer behaviour and expectation Customer retention What is excellent service? Personal versus material service Embracing change Contact centres The Internet Customer Relationship Management (CRM) The service/profit chain Summary Action checklist. Part 2 How Managers Need to Drive and Support a Service Strategy: Start from the top Mission and vision Values Objectives Strategy Summary Action checklist. Part 3 Listening to Customers: Barriers to listening The monitoring of complaints and compliments The value of listening to customers Monitoring customer satisfaction Where and when to measure Continuous improvement Involving employees when you measure Recognising achievement Involving head office departments in the measurement process Canvass the view of other stakeholders Best practice benchmarking Summary Action checklist. Part 4 Implementing a customer care strategy: Continuous improvement Marketing a service strategy Managers lead the way High or low key? Summary Action checklist. Part 5 Empowerment and Ownership: Valued people value customers Myths about empowerment What should organisations do to encourage empowerment? Service recovery and empowerment Summary Action checklist. Part 6 The Internal Customer: Everyone has a customer Developing understanding of internal customer needs Process improvement Don't forget suppliers, alliances and partners Standards and charters Service-level agreement Suggestion schemes Employee care Summary Action checklist. Part 7 Training and Development for Customer Service: The growth importance of training and development in customer service Identifying training and development objectives Training and development for managers Managers as trainers Customer service training for front-line and support staff The learning organisation Build customer service into all training and development activities Review and refresh training and development Summary Action checklist. Part 8 Communications: Disseminating the message Developing a communications strategy Sell don't tell Reinforcing the message Tips on effective internal communication A communications case study Summary Action checklist. Part 9 Recognition and Reward: Motivation Performance management Developing a reward and recognition scheme Review and renew Summary Action checklist. Part 10 Sustaining a Customer Focus: Problems in sustaining the focus Developing a maintenance strategy Reviewing progress Reinforcement Summary.
Bioassay of relaxin using a reference standard: a simple and reliable method utilizing direct measurement of interpubic ligament formation in mice.

The estrogen-primed mouse responds to single injections of relaxin with dose-proportional increases in the length of the interpubic ligament. This effect is specific for relaxin and has served as the basis for published bioassay procedures. A simple and accurate method for direct measurement of interpubic ligament length was previously developed, employing transillumination and magnification of the exposed pubic symphysis (13). A quantitative bioassay procedure was devised in which relaxin-containing preparations were evaluated in terms of a reference standard (13). The present report is an extension of this earlier work. Detailed evidence is presented to justify each step of the assay procedure. The data demonstrate that precision and reproducibility of the assay depends primarily on control of the following variables: selection of mice, adequacy of estrogen priming, selection of injection vehicle, rate of ligament formation, and seasonal shifts in responsiveness of mice. Thus, mice which fail to gain we.
Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development

The press reported that on September 30, 1961, the new Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD) formally came into being with seventeen out of a possible twenty member nations having. deposited their instruments of ratification of the OECD convention. At the time of the entry into force of the convention, the following nations had deposited their ratifications: Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, France, Greece, Iceland, Ireland, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, the United Kingdom, the United States, and West Germany. Italy, the Netherlands, and Luxembourg shortly afterwards joined the organization. The OECD convention required members to contribute to the expansion of world trade on a multilateral, nondiscriminatory basis in accord with international obligations. At the first meeting of the organization in Paris on September 30, 1961, Mr. Donald Fleming, Canadian Finance Minister, was elected chairman of the Ministerial Council, and Mr. Gunnar Lange, Swedish Commerce Minister, and Mr. Charles Arliotis, Greek Minister of Coordination, vice-chairmen. Mr. Thorkil Kristensen, the former Secretary-General of OEEC, was named Secretary-General of the new organization, and Mr. Charles Adair (United States) and Mr. Jean Cottier (France) were designated deputy Secretaries-General.
Micropropagation and effects of mycorrhiza and soil bacteria on acclimatization and development of lucumo (Pouteria lucuma R. and Pav.) var. La Molina

SummaryA micropropagation protocol for Pouteria lucuma R. and Pav. var. La Molina, was developed. Shoots from zygotic embryos with a portion of endosperm were established in vitro on Murashige and Skoog (MS) medium with 0.47 μM kinetin (Kin) and 0.54 μM naphthaleneacetic acid (NAA). Multiplication of shoots was accomplished using subapical, shoots. The best axillary-shoot production was observed on MS basal, medium with 2. 2μM, benzyladenine (BA), 0.5 μM NAA, 1.4. μM gibberellic acid (GA3), and 40 mgl−1 adenine sulfate, with the development of up to three axillary shoots per subapical shoot. One hundred percent rooting was obtained from shoots grown, for 4wk on MS medium with 246 μM indole-3-butyric acid under light conditions. Eighty percent of the microplantlets survived after acclimatization when transplanted to a substrate previously enriched with beneficial soil bacteria. This study describes, for the first time, arbuscular mycorrhizal (AM) colonization of this species. Inoculation with AM fungi improved growth and development of lucumo plants and induced changes to the root morphology.
Optimal Three-Part Tariff Plans

Service providers, such as cell phone carriers, often offer three-part tariff plans that consist of three levers: A fixed fee, an allowance of free units, and a price per unit above the allowance. In previous studies the optimal three-part tariff contract was characterized using the standard first-order conditions approach. Because this optimization problem is nonsmooth, however, it could only be solved in a few simple cases. In this study we employ a different methodology that is based on obtaining a global bound for the firm profit, and then showing that this bound is attained by the optimal plan. This approach allows us to explicitly calculate the optimal three-part tariff plan under quite general conditions, where consumers are rational, they have a general utility function, they experience psychological costs when they exceed the number of free units, they have deterministic or stochastic consumption rates, they are homogeneous or heterogeneous, and the firm costs are fixed or depend on the usage lev.
Audit of childhood lymphoedema in the United Kingdom undertaken by members of the Children's Lymphoedema Special Interest Group

Childhood lymphoedema is a rare and poorly recognised condition with only a few specialist lymphoedema centres that have the experience of diagnosing and treating this group. The Children’s Lymphoedema Special Interest Group (CLSIG) was formed in a bid to improve service provision and enhance practitioner knowledge and support. This innovative audit was undertaken to help establish clinical information about children with lymphoedema in the UK . This will help inform national service development and educational initiatives to improve recognition and management of childhood lymphoedema in the future.
Contrast M‐Mode Power Doppler Ultrasound in the Detection of Right‐to‐Left Shunts: Utility of Submandibular Internal Carotid Artery Recording

Cardiac right‐to‐left shunts (RLSs) can be detected by echo‐cardiography and transcranial Doppler ultrasound (TCD). In patients without adequate transtemporal bone windows, results may be obtained by insonating extracranial arteries; however, the sensitivity and practicality of this approach is unknown. In 34 patients evaluated with echocardiography for RLSs, 73 studies were performed with unilateral, simultaneous contrast TCD (cTCD) of the middle cerebral artery (MCA) and anterior cerebral artery (ACA) and submandibular power M‐mode Doppler (PMD)ultrasound of the extracranial internal carotid artery (ecICA). The number of microbubble (MB) signals and their times of first appearance were determined. RLS volume was graded on 6 levels (I = trace, II = small, III = medium, IVa = large, IVb = shower, IVc = curtain) and compared between MCA and ecICA recordings. In 2 of 24 cTCD studies in 15 patients without evidence of RLSs on single‐gated MCA monitoring, low‐volume RLSs (grades I and II) were detected via ecICA insonation; in both, MB signatures were tracked in the ecICA, passing into the ipsilateral ACA. In 40 of 49 studies (26 patients) in which RLSs were demonstrated with single‐gated MCA monitoring, more MBs were detected in the ecICA than the MCA, with either single‐gated or M‐mode images, with increases of 76.9% and 66.1%, respectively (P= .027). Compared to single‐gated studies, M‐mode technology detected nonsignificant increases in MB number in both the MCA and the ecICA (by 20.2% and 14.0%, respectively). Contrast PMD with cervical ICA recording is at least as sensitive and specific as the traditional MCA method in detecting RLSs; furthermore, this method seems to be more sensitive for low‐volume RLSs (grades I‐III) because of air MB decay (9.2%) and entry into the ipsilateral ACA (34.2%). This is in concordance with the increase of detected RLS grades observed in 32.7% of patients with echocardiography‐documented RLSs. The authors therefore suggest the incorporation of ecICA PMD not only in patients with poor ultrasonic bone windows but also in every patient being evaluated for suspected RLSs.
A Framework for Exchange Rate Policy in Korea

The monetary policy and exchange rate regime that served Korea well for many years ended in crisis in 1997. The regime that collapsed was characterized by a tightly managed nominal exchange rate and domestic financial markets that were controlled by the government and largely closed to international transactions. The practical question for authorities over the next few years is what monetary and exchange rate regime will best promote the objectives of maintaining economic and financial stability as financial markets are liberalized. Our basic proposal is that the powerful policy tool, interest rate policy, be used to attain a "flexible" inflation target. Flexibility in this context means that the authorities also care about short-run fluctuations in domestic output and employment. The less powerful policy tool, sterilized intervention in the foreign exchange market, would be used to limit day to day changes in exchange rates. We argue that the government should continue to be an important participant in the foreign exchange market but not attempt to establish a level for the exchange rate. Our proposal will involve intervention that is triggered by exchange rate volatility but constrained by an announced target for the government's overall net foreign asset position. The objective of this regime is to allow the government to participate in the foreign exchange market in a way that contributes to economic stability and promotes the development of the private sector's participation in foreign exchange and financial markets.
Antidumping Protection and Markups of Domestic Firms: Evidence from Firm Level Data

This paper tests whether anti-dumping (AD) protection affects the market power of importcompeting domestic firms. To this end, we use a rich panel data set of about 4,000 EU producers that were involved in AD-cases, to estimate markups before and after the filing of a case. Using the Roeger (1995) method, our findings indicate that AD-protection has positive and significant effects on domestic markups, except in cases where import diversion after protection is strong, like in ‘seamless steel tubes’. AD-filings without ensuing protection did not result in increased markups, suggesting that it is the ‘protection’ decision rather than the ‘filing’ decision that is required for rising markups. Our results control for potential endogeneity of AD-filings. A randomly drawn control group of firms not subject to AD-policy, did not have rising markups over the same period. JEL-codes: F13, L13, L41