Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self–Esteem among Chinese Cohorts: Its Temporal Trend and Its Relationships with Socioecological Factors, 1993–2016

Self–esteem affects individuals in a variety of psychological processes substantially and extensively. While an increase in self–esteem over time was observed in the USA, different patterns of temporal change in self–esteem were observed in other societies. We analysed the responses (n = 305 229) collected between 1993 and 2016 from 609 articles to examine the patterns of temporal change in self–esteem in China and its relations with socioecological conditions. Additionally, we explored the patterns in different groups, including secondary school students (158 samples; n = 97 751), college students (427 samples; n = 153 474), and community participants (232 samples; n = 54 004). Some major findings were noted: (i) overall, the level of self–esteem increased over time. However, we also found a significant curvilinear trend in self–esteem with a decline followed by a recent increase; (ii) some evidence for the relationship between socioecological factors and self–esteem was obtained; and (iii) the patterns varied in different cohort groups. Specifically, secondary school students showed a different pattern, in which their self–esteem level did not show a significant linear trend and was not correlated with the examined socioecological factors. The implications on the theories for the relationship between personality characteristics and socioecological conditions were discussed.
Evidence-based practice in Chile

Over the past few decades, the emergence of evidence-based practice medicine (EBP) has allowed a change in the integration of knowledge with policy making and health service development, and Chile has been influenced by EBP with no exemption. In this paper, we will describe the impact of the EBP model at different levels of the Chilean health system, including the development of national clinical guidelines, medical training and in-patient involvement in health awareness.
A study of pedicle screw fixation combined with an intermediate screw at the fracture level for treatment of thoracolumbar burst fractures without Neurological injury

The main aim of the management of thoracolumbar fractures is the stabilization of fractured vertebrae which in turn promotes healing of the fractured vertebrae. The pedicle screw placed at the level of fracture is called an intermediate screw; it has been shown to improve the clinical results in managing thoracolumbar fractures. Methods: This prospective cross-sectional study was done in the Department of Orthopedics, Prathima Institute of Medical Sciences, Naganoor, Karimnagar. The inclusion criteria were all thoracolumbar fractures without neurological deficits, involving a fracture of the thoracolumbar spine. Exclusion criteria were Patients not under the ambit of inclusion criteria, those with medical conditions who could not undergo surgery, those not willing to participate in the study. The patients were subjected to radiological examination by X-rays, AP and lateral view. MRI/CT scan was done to determine the instability of the spine. The patients were then subjected to pre-surgical laboratory investigations which included complete hemogram, BT & CT, FBS, LFT, and KFT. Pedicle screw placement was done as per the standard operating procedure. Postoperative antibiotics were given Thoracolumbar orthosis was used from the 4 th postoperative day. Postoperative follow up was done up to 1 year. Results: Out of the total n=25 patients n=17(68%) were male and n=8(32%) were females. The most common age group was 31 35 having n=8(32%) of patients. The most commonly involved level of fracture was T12 in 40% of cases followed by L1 in 36% of cases. As per AO classification, the A1 was 36% followed by A2 32 % and A3 24%. The mean preoperative VAS score was 8.5 and at the last follow up the mean VAS scores were 1.5. The most commonly encountered complication was wound infection in n=2(8%) of the patients followed by screw misplacement in n=1(4%). Conclusion: The results of the present study shows that the intermediate pedicle screw placement has several advantages like better correction of kyphotic angle, ability to maintain the height of injured vertebrae and reduce the correction loss at follow up. The overall stress distribution pattern is favorable in the intermediate screw placement technique. Hence this technique may be considered for the treatment of unstable thoracolumbar burst fractures.
Teaching Nature of Science through children’s literature: an early childhood preservice teacher study

ABSTRACT This study incorporated Nature of Science (NOS) within children’s literature in a science methods course to aid preservice early childhood teachers in improving their NOS understandings and abilities to transfer NOS into formats accessible to early childhood students. Through a qualitative research design, researchers collected data including pre and post VNOS-B responses, lesson plans, lesson reflections, and copies of NOS children’s books developed by preservice early childhood teachers. The instructor modelled use of children’s literature, debriefing of inquiry lessons, and reflection to teach young children about NOS. Results showed that preservice teachers not only refined their conceptions of NOS, but were able to conceptualise ways to teach NOS to young children. They were able to plan, deliver, and reflect upon their teaching, and design a children’s picture book to teach about NOS. The researchers found nearly all of the preservice teachers portrayed NOS aspects accurately through their stories, and the stories could introduce these NOS ideas to early childhood students. The preservice early childhood teachers refined their own understandings of NOS through the assignment. Incorporating children’s literature and reflective writing seems a powerful tool for teaching about NOS to early childhood teachers, and to portray NOS to early childhood students.
The Threat of Hepatitis C as an Influence on Injecting Amphetamine Users' Change Towards Non-Injecting

ABSTRACT Young injecting drug users are a particularly vulnerable group for Hepatitis C (HCV) infection. One method for minimising the risk of contraction of Hepatitis C for amphetamine users (not widely explored in the research to date) is through encouraging non-injecting routes of administration (NIROA). Self-report data from 150 young injecting amphetamine users was analysed to investigate the influence of Hepatitis C threat on the decision to cease injecting and the worth of promoting the use of NIROA. Application of the Transtheoretical Model of Behaviour Change and the Expanded Health Belief Model showed that threat of Hepatitis C was not perceived as reason to cease injecting at any stage in the injecting career. Cessation was a result of personal choice, rather than response to any type of threat. This supports the promotion of harm reduction rather than abstinence campaigns. Furthermore, the deficits in knowledge of Hepatitis C threat are worthy of campaign attention.
Assessment of Mothers Education and their Knowledge about Home-Accident among Early Childhood Age Group

Objectives: The study was carried assessment of mothers education and their knowledge about home accidents prevention among early childhood age group. Methodology: A descriptive study design was achieved in 10-30 October 2015. A non-probability accidental sample of 113 Mothers who agreed to participate in the study & have a child or more live together at the same house and the sample was selected of health centers when visiting for certain follow-up to their children in the Babylon city, middle of Iraq, Through using questionnaire that constructed by researchers to collect data available for the purpose of the study through using descriptive and inferential statistics according to the aims of the study. Results: After completion of 113 questionnaire, the results were revealed that majority of mother's age were 44 (38.9%) aged between 22-28 years old while their education were 58 (51.3) in primary level, for this reason the majority of the sample 96 (85%) were unemployed. The study reveals more than quarter of the sample 39.8% as 45 within group of 61-70 score of moderate knowledge with optimum level contrasted. Conclusions: The present study reveals quarter of the sample had moderate knowledge with optimum level contrasted and few of them have poor knowledge regarding to accidents avoidance of kids under five as well as no correlation between mother's knowledge with their age and education. Recommendations: Health education program about explanations for home accidents, medical aid managements and technique for avoidance into the educational modules at various levels were recommended.
Results Taken from a Smoking Cessation Clinic at a Second-Level State Hospital

Objective: Tobacco is the most common cause of diseases and death worldwide. Pointing out the economic, social, and other damages of tobacco and tobacco products, which also cause addiction, is important when evaluated in a modern concept, where health is defined as the general well-being of a person in physical, mental, and social terms. This study evaluated the results of patients treated in a smoking cessation clinic at a second-level state hospital.
Role of Microcredit towards Socioeconomic Empowerment of Pakistani Urban Women

Abstract The microcredits offered to the un-bankable poor women are perceived to be instrumental inimproving the livelihood patterns and empowering the womenfolk around the globe. The present qualitative studyexplores the efficacy of microcredit towards the socioeconomic development of urban women hailing from threelocales of Rawalpindi district. It examines the impacts of opportunities offered by the micro-finance institution,Akhuwat, to the women to help them ameliorate their living conditions through efficient utilization of credit. Thepaper has endeavored to investigate the claim that the use of interest-free microcredit by households has a directcorrelation with socioeconomic empowerment of marginalized urban women. A total of 90 women were interviewedusing a questionnaire and in-depth interviews. Results indicate that female borrowers have greater access to incomegenerating opportunities, become more confident, participate actively in decision-making processes, developstronger networks, experience reduced domestic violence and enjoy enhanced freedom of mobility.
Associated Factors with Neonatal Weight Loss After Birth

Background: Neonatal weight loss in the first few days of life is a common phenomenon yet limited information about weight loss after birth is available. Objectives: The present study aimed at determining associated factors with neonatal weight loss after birth in newborns. Methods: In this cross-sectional study, the sample included 982 healthy, term and singleton newborns that had referred to health centers of Ilam. The mother and neonate’s demographic characteristics, and the mother’s pregnancy, childbirth and postpartum data were collected by a questionnaire. The data was analyzed using univariate and multivariate statistical analysis using the SPSS software. Results: The mean NWL 3 to 5 days after birth was 129 ± 92 grams. Infants had lost 4.04 ± 3.19% of their birthweight. The results of multivariate analysis (logistic regression) showed that breastfeeding (OR = 7.228, CI: 4.707 - 11.099), cesarean section (OR = 4.429, CI: 3.166 - 6.196), female gender (OR = 3.080, CI: 2.201 - 4.309), mother’s no experience of breast feeding (OR = 2.831, CI: 1.817 - 4.409), weighting more than 4000 grams (OR = 2.464, CI: 1.034 - 5.870) and jaundice (OR = 1.486, CI: 1.035 - 2.133) were amongst risk factors for neonatal weight loss (NWL) of more than 5%, while risk factors for NWL of more than 7% included only breastfeeding (OR = 2.904, CI: 1.759 - 4.796), cesarean section (OR = 2.073, CI: 1.423 - 3.019), and female gender (OR = 1.850, CI: 1.254 - 2.730). Conclusions: The study findings revealed that breastfeeding and cesarean section are the strongest predictors of NWL. Therefore, it is necessary for infant-friendly hospitals to come up with strategies to reduce the rate of cesarean section and establish successful breastfeeding before mothers are discharged.
College Students’ Sense of Belonging: A National Perspective

In a nationally representative sample, first-year U.S. college students “somewhat agree,” on average, that they feel like they belong at their school. However, belonging varies by key institutional and student characteristics; of note, racial-ethnic minority and first-generation students report lower belonging than peers at 4-year schools, while the opposite is true at 2-year schools. Further, at 4-year schools, belonging predicts better persistence, engagement, and mental health even after extensive covariate adjustment. Although descriptive, these patterns highlight the need to better measure and understand belonging and related psychological factors that may promote college students’ success and well-being.
Is circulating survivin altered in acromegaly

Acromegaly is a chronic disorder which is characterized by growth hormone (GH) excess. In most of cases, GH hypersecretion is derived from somatotroph cell tumors. Survivin is a member of apoptosis protein family, which was recently showed to be expressed in tissue samples of different benign and malignant human tumors. This study is intended to determine circulating levels of survivin in newly diagnosed acromegaly patients with somatotroph adenomas. 19 newly diagnosed acromegaly patients with somatotroph adenomas were inclu-ded in the study. Concurrently, 19 healthy individuals were included as control group. Serum survivin levels, GH, insulin like growth factor-1 (IGF-1) and, some other biochemical parame-ters as fasting glucose, creatinine, alanine aminotransferase, cholesterol, triglyceride, high den-sity lipoprotein cholesterol, low density lipoprotein cholesterol were measured in each subject. Correlation analysis was performed between survivin and GH, IGF-1. Serum survivin levels tended to be higher in acromegaly group, but this was not reach statistical significance (p>0.05). Serum survivin levels were comparable among acromegaly patients and controls. Neither GH nor IGF-1 correlated with serum survivin. Larger scale studies are needed concerning the circulating levels of survivin in patients with acromegaly.
Gold and capital market in Indonesia: A preview on strategy of hedging and diversification

This study examines the establishment of a portfolio among sharia stocks represented by the Jakarta Islamic Index (JII) with gold (gold futures contracts). Gold price used in this research was the gold price in the international market which was in USD denomination and also converted into Rupiah (IDR), by considering commodity futures instruments in Indonesia using fixed rate or floating rate option. The data analysis technique used in this research was the dynamic portfolio formulation by using Dynamic Conditional Correlation – Generalized Autoregressive Conditional Heteroscedasticity (DCC-GARCH), so that the portfolio produced was an active portfolio and it could change its composition over time. The results of this study indicate that gold is able to provide hedging effectiveness as well as to reduce the volatility of sharia stocks included in the JII in the Indonesia Stock Exchange. This research is also able to prove that including gold instruments into a sharia-based stock portfolio can improve portfolio performance. Unfortunately, such strategies could not be counted as a sharia-based investment strategy, although stocks used in this portfolios were sharia compliant since futures contract was not considered as a sharia compliant instrument as it can be considered as haram (prohibited) in Islam. was able to give higher Sharpe Index and Adjusted Sharpe Index (ASI) than the unhedged portfolio. Generally, this shows that involving gold to portfolios of sharia stock included in the JII was able to improve the performance of those stock portfolios. These findings
Dimension reduction techniques for high dimensional and ultra-high dimensional data

DIMENSION REDUCTION TECHNIQUES FOR HIGH DIMENSIONAL AND ULTRA-HIGH DIMENSIONAL DATA by Subha Datta This dissertation introduces two statistical techniques to tackle high-dimensional data, which is very commonplace nowadays. It consists of two topics which are inter-related by a common link, dimension reduction. The first topic is a recently introduced classification technique, the weighted principal support vector machine (WPSVM), which is incorporated into a spatial point process framework. The WPSVM possesses an additional parameter, a weight parameter, besides the regularization parameter. Most statistical techniques, including WPSVM, have an inherent assumption of independence, which means the data points are not connected with each other in any manner. But spatial data violates this assumption. Correlation between two spatial data points increases as the distance between them decreases. However, under some conditions on the spatial point process, the WPSVM is still valid. Furthermore, through extensive simulations it has been shown that WPSVM performs better than other dimension reduction techniques. The main advantage of WPSVM comes from the fact that it can handle non-linear relationships. WPSVM is also applied to a rainforest dataset. The second topic talks about another recently introduced technique, jointscreening. Unlike the previous method, this works for ultra-high dimensional data (p n). Most existing variable screening methods fail to identify those marginally unimportant but jointly important genetic variables. The joint screening (JS) procedure screens all the covariates at the same time based on a criterion. In this way a subset of variables that are suspected to be highly associated with the outcome can be identified. One massive advantage of the JS procedure comes from the fact that it is computationally simple and easy to understand. The performance of the proposed JS procedure is evaluated via simulation studies and an application to the Genetics Analysis Workshop 20 data. DIMENSION REDUCTION TECHNIQUES FOR HIGH DIMENSIONAL AND ULTRA-HIGH DIMENSIONAL DATA
Precision health in COPD: Now is the time

First of all, I’d like to thank the organizers and the Canadian Thoracic Society (CTS) for the great honor of being this year’s CTS Honorary Lecturer, following in the footsteps of giants in Canadian respiratory history including Drs. Peter Par e (2006), John Remmers (2008), Art Slutsky (2009) and Paul O’Byrne (2015) to name a few. My name is Don Sin and I am a respirologist at St. Paul’s Hospital in Vancouver and my area of research interest is chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD). COPD is a major cause of morbidity and mortality in Canada and throughout the world. In Canada there are 2.6 million Canadians (17% of the adult population) with COPD, which accounts for »11,000 deaths/year and »80,000 hospital admissions/year, making it the number ONE cause of hospitalization in Canada. Over the next 15 years, the number of Canadians with COPD will more than double and the number of hospital beds (and the associated costs of care) required to manage COPD patients will triple. The primary drivers of these projections are: 1) the aging Canadian population, particularly those 65 years of age and older; 2) heterogeneity of disease in terms of pathophysiology and clinical manifestations; 3) relatively poor phenotyping of patients; and 4) a scarcity of disease-modifying drugs for COPD. Furthermore, although rates of cigarette smoking (the single most important environmental risk factor for COPD) have declined by over 50% since the 1970s, there are still 2.4 million adult male (17% of total) and 1.9 million female (13%) Canadians who smoke daily. Alarmingly, there are additional 3.6 million Canadians who are regular or occasional users of marijuana cigarettes and another 3.9 million who are e-cigarette users, which may significantly contribute to the future epidemic of COPD. Regrettably, the current therapeutic choices are woefully inadequate for patients because all of the existing therapies were designed to treat the “average” patient (and not the “individual”) and none of the therapies is disease-modifying. What then is the solution to this dilemma? Here, I will present an argument that “precision health” is at least in part the answer to this issue.
A tale of two financial cycles: domestic and global

I am delighted to be here to give these remarks. In understanding the world around us or even ourselves, the notion of cycles is very appealing. We see cycles in history, in politics, in social behaviour, in the cosmos; we see cycles in phases of our life. It is as if the notion were hardwired into our minds, part of our DNA. Until the late 1990s, the only “cycle” people would talk about in macroeconomics was the business cycle. The notion refers to those ups and downs in production that drive employment and incomes. Nowadays, the concept of the “financial cycle” has been catching up. The rise in its popularity has been meteoric, with the Great Financial Crisis (GFC) as the watershed. The number of references to the term “financial cycle” in the press speaks for itself (Graph 1). The notion has become a staple ingredient in the way economists and policymakers understand how the economy works. It is hard these days to discuss, say, monetary or prudential policy without reference to the concept. It has become, as it were, part of the intellectual furniture.
Psychological Experiences of Women with Breast Cancer after Passing through the Critical Stage; a Qualitative Study

Introduction: Breast cancer is the most common cancer among women around the world, and the survival rate for patients greatly depends on their quality of life, which is in turn determined by their psychological experiences. The present study thus focuses on investigating psychological experiences among women with breast cancer. Methods: This research is a content analysis qualitative study, based on semi-open and semistructured interviews. The participants comprised of 15 patients with breast cancer, undergoing chemotherapy or follow-up treatments after their mastectomy, who had visited the Breast Cancer Research Center of the Academic Center for Education, Culture and Research (BCRC, ACECR) at the time of the research. None of the patients had distant metastasis and the disease was controlled. We have selected this group of patients because they are passing through the critical stage of facing with the bad news, spending many levels of their disease treatment, and achieving stability in the disease situation. After permission, the participants were interviewed with the open and unbiased questions in a relaxed atmosphere away from confounding factors and in an empty room of the clinic. The interview with each participant lasted 30 minutes and the participants orally allowed us to record the interview. The results were analyzed after several reviewing the transcript of the interview. Results: The participants were 36 to 72 years old, and their education backgrounds ranged from illiteracy to bachelor's degree. All patients were married and had 1 to 3 children. After being diagnosed with breast cancer, some patients felt anger or sadness, and they generally emphasized on the necessity of emotional supports from their families to face the diagnosis results. Some participants did not view cancer as a disaster, and a majority of them did not wish they had not been affected with by cancer, while most of them contemplated about their death every night. Conclusion: The results of the study depicted that while most patients experienced anger or sadness when they were informed about their cancer diagnosis, they had accepted the disease and its side effects through time, in a manner that most patients had coped with dramatic changes in their body image as a result of mastectomy, and did not recall it as a negative experience. It seemed that time could gradually change psychological experiences among cancerous patients.