Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Substance abuse treatment as a preventative tool for opioid use: A cautionary tale

ABSTRACT Objective. Using a large panel sample of men who have been released from prison, the current study seeks to explore whether substance use treatment before and after release from prison helps reduce opioid use. Methods. To explore how pre-release and post-release substance abuse treatment might restrain opioid use, we estimate a two-level mixed-effects model which regresses opioid use at several waves of data onto both treatment measures and control variables. Results. Pre-release substance use treatment is not related to opioid use after release from prison. Although post-release substance use treatment is statistically significant, the direction of the post-release substance abuse treatment effect demonstrates that increased odds of opioid use are found among those who participated in treatment programs. Conclusions. Substance use treatment does not appear to have the desired effect on opioid use for those coming home from prison. Instead, it appears to gradually increase opioid use over time. Due to the possibility that returning persons may establish deviant peer ties in substance use treatment programs, there is a strong substantive need to better understand the implications of substance abuse treatment programs on opioid misuse and abuse.
Educating intensive care unit nurses to use central venous catheter infection prevention guidelines: effectiveness of an educational course

Background Nurses' knowledge of central venous catheter-related infection (CVC-RI) prevention guidelines is poor, indicating that nurses do not receive proper education about these guidelines. Aim The aim of this study was to evaluate the effectiveness of an educational course that aimed to improve nurses' knowledge about CVC-RI prevention guidelines. Method A sample of 131 nurses were randomly assigned to the experimental group (received an educational course) or control group (received no education). Pre-Post data were collected using a structured questionnaire that included a 23-item knowledge assessment. Results In the pre-test, all participants demonstrated poor knowledge, with mean scores of 8.2 (standard deviation = 3.6). After completion of the course, knowledge was significantly improved in the experimental group, whereas the control group showed no change (t(106,3) = 25.1, p = 0.00). Conclusions An educational course on CVC-RI prevention guidelines had an encouraging effect. Decision makers are recommended to implement such courses in their settings to improve nurses' competency.
Model-predictive control for testing energy flexible heat pump operation within a Hardware-in-the-Loop setting

Model-predictive control is a smart control technique that can unlock the potential of the building’s thermal production leading to improvements in energy efficiency or energy flexibility, which is obtained by a demand responsive operation based on external grid signals. This work explains the set-up of a Hardware-in-the-Loop experiment to test an energy flexible heat pump controller under realistic conditions. The developed simple, low-cost model-predictive control algorithm can easily be integrated with a traditional heat pump controller.
The place of scoring systems for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis a retrospective cohort study

Aim: Acute appendicitis is among the most frequently observed reasons of abdominal pain. The high rate of dubiousness in diagnosis, high rate of negative appendectomy led to the introduction of scoring systems. Despite today’s advanced imaging methods and various scoring methods like Alvarado, making the diagnosis may not always be easy. On the other hand, negative appendectomy rate is reported to be 15-30%. Therefore accurate and rapid diagnosis is fundamental in acute appendicitis. In our study we aimed to determine the place of scoring systems defined by Alvarado, Ohmann and Eskelinen for the diagnosis of acute appendicitis and their efficacy in lowering negative appendectomy rates. Material and Methods: In our study, 120 patients who were operated as a result of diagnosis of acute appendicitis between May-2011 and July-2011 were retrospectively evaluated. Patients’ Alvarado, Ohmann and Eskelinen scores were calculated for evaluation. Result: It was seen that there was a statistically significant between high Alvarado and Ohmann scores and pathological acute appendicitis. Considering Eskelinen score, significant difference could not be determined. Discussion: In conclusion, Alvarado, Ohmann and Eskelinen scoring systems were evaluated with regard to acute appendicitis and found a meaningful relationship between Alvarado and Ohmann scoring systems and the acute appendicitisit is thought that the use of the scoring system especially for children and the elder would decrease negative appendectomy and perforations. In addition, its coefficients which create a calculation difficulty in practical use limit the use of this scoring system in emergencies which work intensively.
Is Managerial Entrenchment Always Bad and Corporate Social Responsibility Always Good? A Cross-National Examination of Their Combined Influence on Shareholder Value

Research summary Building on the comparative capitalism's notion of institutional complementarities, we examine whether firms’ simultaneous adoption of managerial entrenchment provisions (MEPs) and corporate social responsibility (CSR) reinforces or undercuts one another in influencing firm financial performance. We propose that the financial impact of such configurations is contingent on the country's institutional setting. In Liberal Market Economies (LMEs), where firms face strong pressures to achieve short‐term goals, the combination of MEPs and CSR creates shareholder value, particularly when firms engage in internally oriented CSR projects. Conversely, in Coordinated Market Economies (CMEs), where institutions already curb short‐term demands, the combined adoption of MEPs and CSR initiatives destroys shareholder value, particularly when this CSR is external. Overall, our study enhances understanding of the institutional complementarity between corporate governance and CSR. Managerial summary This study examines how two organizational practices, managerial entrenchment provisions (MEPs), and corporate social responsibility (CSR), combine between them to improve or reduce firms’ financial success. Our analysis demonstrates that institutional framework has a strong influence on their combined effect. When the institutional context supports solutions to coordination problems among economic agents through market‐based arrangements, MEPs allow the implementation of strategies directed to promote long‐term investments and relationships. In this case, MEPs when paired with CSR allow generating intangibles that contribute to create shareholder value. Contrarily, in frameworks with coordination mechanisms based on nonmarket arrangements, the joint adoption of MEPs and CSR destroys value by increasing the power of managers and blockholders to extract rents at the expense of firms’ minority shareholders.
Paralyzed by Panic: Measuring the Effect of School Closures During the 1916 Polio Pandemic on Educational Attainment

We leverage the 1916 polio pandemic in the United States as a natural experiment to test whether short-term school closures result in reduced educational attainment as an adult. With over 23,000 cases of polio diagnosed in 1916, officials implemented quarantines and closed schools. Since the pandemic occurred during the start of the 1916 school year, children of working age may have elected not to return to school. Using state-level polio morbidity as a proxy for schooling disruptions, we find that children ages 14-17 during the pandemic had less educational attainment in 1940 compared to their slightly older peers.
Spectrum of histopathological lesions of prostate in a tertiary care center

Background: Prostatic diseases like inflammation, benign prostatic hyperplasia and tumors are important causes of mortality and morbidity in males. The incidence of prostatic diseases increases with advancing age. The present study is to evaluate histomorphological spectrum of lesions in prostate and to classify prostatic carcinoma by using modified Gleason score and Prognostic grade group. Result: During the study period, 90 specimens of prostate were received in pathology department, HIMS, Hassan. Age of patients ranged from 40 years to 90 years with a mean age of 67.5 years. Prostatic cancer was most commonly seen in 7th decade. Out of 90 cases, non neoplastic 58 cases (64.4%), premalignant 7 cases (7.8%) and neoplastic 25 cases (27.8%). Benign hyperplasia of prostate (BPH) was the most common histological diagnosis (44cases) followed by prostatic adenocarcinoma (25 cases). Conclusions: The present study showed that non-neoplastic lesions of prostate were more common than neoplastic ones. Prognostic grade group should be applied for prostatic carcinoma which is simple and more accurate grade stratification than modified Gleason score.
The Influence of Beauty Vlogger's Content on the Purchase Intentions of Local Brands in Indonesia

Objective – This study aims to propose a conceptual model of how the influence of beauty vlogger content affects purchase intentions on local brand beauty products in Indonesia with brand image as a mediating variable. Methodology/Technique – Purposive sampling is used with 100 respondents distributed online via Google forms. A path analysis technique is used. Findings – The study findings show that beauty vlogger content influence brand image but does not influence the purchase intentions on local brand beauty products in Indonesia. Brand image is a mediating variable between beauty vlogger content and purchase intentions on local brand beauty products in Indonesia. Novelty – The development of beauty vloggers in Indonesia is growing rapidly, but the study of beauty vlogger content is still scarce and only examines the effect of vloggers on purchase intentions, not on the brand image. Type of Paper: Empirical
Unified methods for variable selection and outlier detection in a linear regression

The problem of selecting variables in the presence of outliers is considered. Variable selection and outlier detection are not separable problems because each observation a ﬀ ects the ﬁtted regression equation di ﬀ erently and has a di ﬀ erent inﬂuence on each variable. We suggest a simultaneous method for variable selection and outlier detection in a linear regression model. The suggested procedure uses a sequential method to detect outliers and uses all possible subset regressions for model selections. A simpliﬁed version of the procedure is also proposed to reduce the computational burden. The procedures are compared to other variable selection methods using real data sets known to contain outliers. Examples show that the proposed procedures are e ﬀ ective and superior to robust algorithms in selecting the best model.
Catalyst-free vitrimer elastomers based on a dimer acid: robust mechanical performance, adaptability and hydrothermal recyclability

Vegetable oil (VO) derivatives as feedstocks for elastomeric materials have been extensively studied. However, most of the resulting materials generally exhibit poor mechanical performance and lack reparability and recyclability due to the irreversible nature of the crosslink network. To address these issues, in this work, a VO-based vitrimer elastomer is prepared by curing of a VO-derived dimer acid (DA) and a tetrafunctional glycidylamine epoxy (TGDDM). DA accounts for 65–77 wt% of the elastomer materials. When the molar ratio of epoxy to –COOH is 1/1, the prepared elastomer exhibits a tensile strength of 12.1 MPa and an elongation at break of 179.0% which are comparable to those of commercial elastomers and superior to those of VO-based elastomers reported in the literature. The elastomers prepared display self-repairing and shape changing properties at elevated temperatures (>170 °C) due to the thermally induced dynamic transesterification reaction (DTER) in the network structure. Unlike most other vitrimer networks based on ester linkages that require a significant amount of catalyst, this network contains abundant tertiary amines originated from TGDDM and is self-catalytic. In addition, the elastomer is degradable in water at above 170 °C without using any catalyst. This is because the tertiary amines originally from TGDDM catalyze the hydrolysis of the ester bonds of the elastomer. The degraded product is repolymerizable to give new crosslinked elastomers. This work presents a simple and feasible method for the preparation of a VO-based vitrimer elastomer that is readily pluggable into current elastomer manufacturing and may cause a significant impact on the rubber industry.
Histopathological and Biochemical Biomarker Response of Mussel, Unio Pictorum, to Carbamate Pesticide Carbaryl: A Laboratory Study

An experiment was conducted to assess the effect of different concentrations of the insecticide carbaryl on histological and biochemical parameters including (SOD, GSH, rGSH, CAT and MDA) on gills tissue of freshwater mussel Unio pictorum for 96 hours. Significant increase in SOD and rGSH activities was observed in a concentration- dependent manner. However, statistically significant decrease in GSH levels was observed only at highest concentration. MDA levels reached higher rate at high concentration of carbaryl treated group. Mussels show behavioral responses during exposure by exhibiting increase in duration for shell closure and increase in mucus secretion. The histopathology of gills indicated that higher doses of carbaryl resulted in massive destruction in normal architecture of gill tissue. Molluscs accumulate contaminants in their body tissues and thus are used as bio-indicator for evaluating water quality and habitat degradation.
Early pulmonary rehabilitation after acute exacerbation of COPD: a randomised controlled trial

Objectives The aim of this study was to establish whether early pulmonary rehabilitation after severe exacerbation of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) reduces mortality and hospital admissions, and increases physical performance and quality of life compared to rehabilitation initiated later in the stable phase of COPD. Methods In a randomised controlled trial of 150 patients hospitalised with an exacerbation of COPD, participants were allocated to pulmonary rehabilitation either within 2 weeks after discharge or the same rehabilitation programme but initiated 2 months after discharge. Results Early pulmonary rehabilitation did not prolong time to first hospital admission or time to death (hazard ratio 0.79, 95% CI 0.47–1.23, p=0.33) compared to rehabilitation in stable phase. However, 2 months after inclusion, pulmonary rehabilitation resulted in a significantly better improvement in the incremental shuttle walk test (33.9 m, 95% CI 4.18–63.7, p=0.02) compared to that in the stable phase. The difference in the endurance shuttle walk test was of borderline significance (140 s, 95% CI −2.03–282.76, p=0.05), but there was no significant difference concerning the COPD assessment test (−1.43 points, 95% CI −3.44–0.59, p=0.17). Conclusion Early pulmonary rehabilitation after acute exacerbation of COPD led to a faster improvement in physical performance compared to rehabilitation initiated later in the stable phase, but did not improve survival or prolong time to hospital readmission. Early pulmonary rehabilitation shortly after #AECOPD leads to a faster recovery in physical performance than initiated in the stable phase. Adherence to rehabilitation is significantly higher when initiated shortly after an exacerbation. http://bit.ly/2S7XsT9
Lack of awareness and knowledge among people with scabies in a questionnaire based cross sectional and observational study

Scabies is a common dermatologic problem caused by Sarcoptes scabiei var hominis. Although the infectious agent is seen worldwide, it is endemic in underprivileged, resource poor areas. Prevalence of scabies is variable around the world. It has been calculated to be in the range of 0.27% to 46%. Every year around 300 million people suffer from scabies. Incidence in India, ranges from 13% in rural areas and 59% in urban. It infects people of all age groups and can impair the quality of life considerably. Scabies is highly contagious and affects all races and social classes across the world.
Position-sensing established during compaction dictates cell fate in the mammalian embryo

Precise patterning within the 3-dimensional context of tissues, organs and embryos implies that cells can sense their relative position. We still understand relatively little about how cells sense their relative position within small groups of cells. During preimplantation development, outside and inside cells rely on apicobasal polarity and the Hippo pathway to choose their fate. Despite recent findings suggesting that mechanosensing may be central to this process, the relationship between blastomere geometry (i.e. shape and position) and the Hippo pathway effector YAP remains unknown. To address this, we used a highly quantitative approach to collect and analyse information on the geometry and YAP localisation of individual blastomeres of mouse and human embryos. We find that the fraction of YAP in the nucleus responds to the proportion of exposed cell surface area rather than blastomere shape. To directly test the influence of blastomere position on YAP localisation we developed an approach using hydrogel based cylindrical cavities to alter blastomere arrangement in cultured embryos. Unbiased clustering analyses of blastomeres from such embryos reveal that the ability to respond to position emerges as early as the 8-cell stage during compaction and that altering the relative position of a blastomere within an embryo can alter its fate. Finally, we demonstrate that this response is lost upon inhibiting PKC signalling, linking it to the cell polarity. Our results pinpoint when during early embryogenesis cell specification decisions are initiated and show how blastomeres can sense their position in a polarity dependent manner to alter YAP localisation.
Effect of Chromolaena Odorata on Hepatotoxicology and Histopathology in the Liver Induced by Salmonella Typhi in Wistar Rats

Typhoid fever, also known as enteric fever, is caused by the human restricted bacterial pathogen known as Salmonella enterica serovars typhi, which is always associated with liver pathology. This study attempts to investigate the Hepatotoxicological and Histopathological changes of the liver associated with Salmonella typhi infection in Wistar rats and to examine the potential of methanol leaf extract of Chromolaena odorata (MLECO) to reverse these adverse changes in comparison to ciprofloxacin treatment. The animals were divided into six groups: group 1 was normal control, group 2 was infected with Salmonella typhi without treatment (negative control), group 3, 4 and 5 were Salmonella typhi infected and treated with 100mg/kg, 200mg/kg and 400mg/kg of the extract respectively, and group 6 was infected and treated with 500mg/70kg of ciprofloxacin. The animals were inoculated with a single contagious dose of Salmonella typhi bacteria and were subsequently treated with the graded doses of the extract and 500mg/70kg dose of ciprofloxacin for a period of fifteen days, after the animals were confirmed infected. The rats were humanely sacrificed using diethyl ether anesthesia and blood samples taken for liver function investigation and liver harvested and processed for histological examination. MLECO reversed the adverse hepatotoxicological and pathological changes in the liver induced by S. tyhi infection in a dose-dependent manner. This was done with the 200mg and 400mg doses being more effective at reversing liver changes than ciprofloxacin.
The role of vaginal graft procedures in pelvic organ prolapse reconstructive surgery

1. Faculty of Medicine, “Ovidius” University of Constanta, Romania 2. Department of Obstetrics-Gynecology and Neonatology, “Victor Babes” University of Medicine and Pharmacy Timisoara, City Emergency Clinical Hospital Timisoara, Romania 3. Department of Neonatology, Elias University Hospital, “Carol Davila“ University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Bucharest, Romania 4. Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, “Carol Davila” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, ”Sf. Pantelimon” Clinical Emergency Hospital Bucharest, Romania
Performance of a Two-Stage EHD Gas Pump in a Circular Pipe Operating at Uneven Applied Voltages

The performance of a two-stage electrohydrodynamic (EHD) gas pump in a circular tube has been investigated for operating conditions in which each stage is charged at a different voltage. The main objective of the study is to examine the characteristics of resulting flow as well as the efficient use of energy in sustaining and improving the volume flow rate produced by a single-stage pump over a greater distance. To this end, two different sizes of the tube are employed (61.8 and 127.8 mm in diameter). Each stage uses eight emitting electrodes flush mounted on the tube wall. In addition, two electrode configurations, aligned and offset, with fixed electrode spacing have been considered. The electrodes at both stages are charged at voltages in positive polarity from 18 to 22 kV. The velocity profile and volume flow rate delivered are compared with those produced by the same pump operating at even voltages to provide additional insight into the problem. The results, thus, obtained have important implications for practical use of the EHD gas pump.
Staying Engaged in Terrorism: Narrative Accounts of Sustaining Participation in Violent Extremism

Research exploring radicalization pathways and how and why people become involved in terrorism has expanded since the 9/11 attacks. Likewise, over the last decade research exploring de-radicalization and desistence from terrorism has grown and expanded in an attempt to promote exit from extremist or terror groups. However, research studies on how individuals sustain engagement in terrorism and their involvement with extremist organizations, often in the face of great adversity, are absent from the body of research. To address this scarcity of research this study analyzed accounts of engagement in violent extremism produced by Northern Irish loyalist and republican paramilitaries in order to explore how their paramilitary lifestyle, perpetration of acts of political violence and the pressure from countering threats posed by rival groups, and the State security forces impacted on them. The analysis utilized a hybrid of thematic analysis and interpretative phenomenological analysis (IPA). The themes raised through the analysis reflected the psychological, social and economic hardship associated with this lifestyle. The narrative accounts also illustrated psychological changes associated to engagement in violence and from insulation within tightly knit extremist groups. As most of the participants faced incarceration during their paramilitary careers, themes also reflected on the impact imprisonment had on them. The themes explored factors that sustained their involvement, including the role of identity development and identity fusion in sustaining their extremism, the impact of insulated group membership, feelings of efficacy, dehumanization processes, community support, and beliefs in the utility of violence.