Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Development and characterization of a tissue mimicking psyllium husk gelatin phantom for ultrasound and magnetic resonance imaging

Abstract Purpose To develop and characterize a tissue-mimicking phantom that enables the direct comparison of magnetic resonance (MR) and ultrasound (US) imaging techniques useful for monitoring high-intensity focused ultrasound (HIFU) treatments. With no additions, gelatin phantoms produce little if any scattering required for US imaging. This study characterizes the MR and US image characteristics as a function of psyllium husk concentration, which was added to increase US scattering. Methods Gelatin phantoms were constructed with varying concentrations of psyllium husk. The effects of psyllium husk concentration on US B-mode and MR imaging were evaluated at nine different concentrations. T1, T2, and T2* MR maps were acquired. Acoustic properties (attenuation and speed of sound) were measured at frequencies of 0.6, 1.0, 1.8, and 3.0 MHz using a through-transmission technique. Phantom elastic properties were evaluated for both time and temperature dependence. Results Ultrasound image echogenicity increased with increasing psyllium husk concentration while quality of gradient-recalled echo MR images decreased with increasing concentration. For all phantoms, the measured speed of sound ranged between 1567–1569 m/s and the attenuation ranged between 0.42–0.44 dB/(cm·MHz). Measured T1 ranged from 974–1051 ms. The T2 and T2* values ranged from 97–108 ms and 48–88 ms, respectively, with both showing a decreasing trend with increased psyllium husk concentration. Phantom stiffness, measured using US shear-wave speed measurements, increased with age and decreased with increasing temperature. Conclusions The presented dual-use tissue-mimicking phantom is easy to manufacture and can be used to compare and evaluate US-guided and MR-guided HIFU imaging protocols.
Service use and recovery among currently and formerly homeless adults with mental illness

Background: A range of health and social services exist to address the many life adversities experienced by people with mental illness. However, the effects of services on their recovery in the context of ongoing homelessness and poverty have been minimally examined. Aims: This qualitative study sought to better understand the role of health and social services in the recovery processes of people with mental illness and histories of homelessness. Similarities and differences in the perceived impacts of services on recovery between currently and formerly homeless participants were also explored. Method: In-depth interviews were conducted with 52 currently and formerly homeless people with mental illness. Informed by a recovery framework, qualitative data were analyzed using two cycles of coding. Results: Services were perceived to affect recovery by (1) finding ways to cope and get by, (2) feeling less alone, (3) giving back, (4) being dehumanized or seen as someone and (5) encountering restrictions when getting help. Experiences of discrimination, fewer opportunities to give back and limited service options were heightened among participants experiencing homelessness compared to the housed group. Conclusion: Health and social services can promote and hinder recovery among currently and formerly homeless people with mental illness. Despite several differences between the two groups, the relationship between recovery and service use was similar for currently and formerly homeless participants, suggesting that both groups access services to address needs related to social connection, health and functioning and meaningful activities.
Salivary Secretory Carcinoma Harboring a Novel ALK Fusion

Secretory carcinoma (SC) of the salivary glands is a low-grade carcinoma characterized by a well-defined morphology and immunohistochemical features. ETV6-NTRK3 fusions are detected in the great majority of SCs. Recently, other partners fused to ETV6 have been documented in a small portion of SCs, suggesting the presence of alternative genetic fusion. In this study, we examined the genetic fusion of 9 SCs using fluorescence in situ hybridization, reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction, and next-generation sequencing (ArcherDx). Classic ETV6 exon 5-NTRK3 exon 15 fusion was detected in 8 of 9 SCs. The remaining tumor was negative for the ETV6-NTRK3 fusion but harbored a novel fusion, CTNNA1 exon 11-ALK in exon 20. Immunohistochemically, pan-TRK was positive in 8 tumors with ETV6-NTRK3 fusion but negative in an ALK-rearranged SC, while ALK was positive only in the ALK-rearranged tumor. Histologically, the ALK-rearranged tumor showed dominant macrocystic architecture. In conclusion, we found a case of SC with CTNNA1-ALK fusion. Because ALK fusion after exon 20 on the ALK side (upstream of the tyrosine kinase domain) has been reported to activate a carcinogenic kinase in various ALK-rearranged tumors, ALK inhibitors may be a possible therapeutic option for ALK-rearranged SC. In addition, ALK immunohistochemistry can be a screening tool for ALK-rearranged SC. This study also expands the molecular spectrum of this tumor beyond the ETV6 gene.
Using the Importance for Survival Scale to Identify Preferred Nature Scenes With Restorative Potential: A Qualitative Study

Background: Evidence supports the use of images of nature scenes in healthcare settings to reduce stress and improve emotional well-being. However, the literature is diverse and provides no integrated system to identify nature scenes that provide most therapeutic benefit. Objective: The current study aimed to validate and extend results of a correlational study that found the Importance for Survival Scale (IFSS) useful for selecting generally preferred nature scenes with therapeutic potential. Methods: The correlational study that tested the usefulness of the IFSS and the current qualitative study were components of a larger mixed-methods study. For the current study, general community participants (N = 20 males, 20 females; mean age = 48 years) provided verbal responses to questions about thoughts and feelings associated with a selection of photographs of nature scenes. Data were analyzed using a content analysis approach. Results: Themes and detailed descriptors associated with preference for, and emotional response to, most- and least-liked nature scenes were produced. A proportion of those themes is directly related to the construct of Importance for Survival (IFS), whereas other themes are better explained by alternative theoretical perspectives. Conclusions: Results uphold the IFSS as an effective tool for identifying generally preferred nature scenes with restorative potential, and provide information about the relative importance of IFSS subscales that may be used to further develop and refine the IFSS, as well as guide selection of restorative nature scenes. Results also provide fine-scaled descriptive information about preference for and emotional response to nature scenes.
Impacts of Community Resilience on the Implementation of a Mental Health Promotion Program in Rural Australia

Mental health promotion programs are important in rural communities but the factors which influence program effectiveness remain unclear. The aim of this mixed-methods study was to assess how community resilience affected the implementation of a mental health promotion program in rural Tasmania, Australia. Four study communities were selected based on population size, rurality, access to local support services, history of suicide within the community, and maturity of the mental health promotion program. Data from self-report questionnaires (n = 245), including items of Communities Advancing Resilience Toolkit (CART) assessment, and qualitative (focus group and interview) data from key local stakeholders (n = 24), were pooled to explore the factors perceived to be influencing program implementation. Survey results indicate the primary community resilience strengths across the four sites were related to the ‘Connection and Caring’ domain. The primary community resilience challenges related to resources. Qualitative findings suggested lack of communication and leadership are key barriers to effective program delivery and identified a need to provide ongoing support for program staff. Assessment of perceived community resilience may be helpful in informing the implementation of mental health promotion programs in rural areas and, in turn, improve the likelihood of their success and sustainability.
Sex Differences in Cardiovascular Disease Risk by Socioeconomic Status (SES) of Workers Using National Health Information Database

The socioeconomic status (SES) and health behaviors of workers are associated with the risks of developing obesity, diabetes, hypertension, hyperlipidemia, and other cardiovascular diseases. Herein, we investigated the factors influencing cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk based on the SES of male and female workers. This cross-sectional analysis used the National Health Information Database to assess the associations between gender, SES (income level, residential area), health behaviors, and CVD-related health status of workers, through multinomial logistic regression. Upon analysis of a large volume of data on workers during 2016, the smoking and drinking trends of male and female workers were found to differ, causing different odds ratio (OR) tendencies of the CVD risk. Also, while for male workers, higher ORs of obesity or abdominal obesity were associated with higher incomes or residence in metropolitan cities, for female workers, they were associated with lower incomes or residence in rural areas. Additionally, among the factors influencing CVD risk, lower income and residence in rural areas were associated with higher CVD risk for male and female workers. The study findings imply the importance of developing gender-customized intervention programs to prevent CVD, due to gender-specific associations between CVD-related health status and health behaviors according to SES.
The Activ8 activity monitor: Validation of posture and movement classification

Introduction To set up and guide interventions with the aim to increase physical activity and lower sedentary behavior valid monitoring of physical behavior is essential. The aim of this study was to evaluate the validity of the single-unit Activ8 activity monitor to classify several body postures and movements. Methods Twelve healthy adults performed a series of activities, representative for everyday life, according to a standard protocol. Activ8 was both worn in the trouser pocket (prescribed location) and fixated to the front of the thigh. Activities were video recorded and analyzed thereafter. Postures and movements that were analyzed were lying/sitting, standing, walking, cycling, and running. Results The agreement between Activ8 output and video analysis was 89.7% (inter-subject range: 66.0 to 96.6%) for the pocket location and 91.9% (range 85.5 to 95.1%) for the thigh location. Sensitivity and positive predictive value scores for both locations were all above 80%, except for standing (69% or higher). Differences in classified duration of separate postures and movements were within 20% for walking, sitting and running. Conclusion The Activ8 is a valid instrument to quantify a defined set of body postures and movements. Because of the smaller time difference, the thigh location is preferred for research purposes.
Prevalence of Intestinal Parasites in a Low-Income Texas Community.

Strongyloidiasis affects an estimated hundreds of millions of people worldwide, with infection possibly persisting for life without appropriate therapy because of the helminth's unique autoinfection cycle. Like other soil-transmitted helminths, because of the environmental conditions required for the life cycle of Strongyloides stercoralis, this parasite is endemic to tropical, subtropical, and temperate countries and areas with inadequate sanitation infrastructure. Given continued poverty and that nearly one in five American homes are lacking proper sanitation systems, many U.S. regions are at risk for intestinal parasites. A central Texas community was chosen as the study site, given previous reports of widespread sanitation failure, degree of poverty, and community willingness to participate. A total of 92 households were surveyed and residents tested for nine intestinal parasites using a multi-parallel quantitative real-time PCR and ELISA serology. From 43 stool samples, 27 (62.8%) tested positive for Blastocystis spp. and one (2.3%) for Giardia lamblia. From 97 serum samples, Strongyloides serology detected 16 (16.5%) positive individuals. These high rates of heterokont and helminthic laboratory findings in a peri-urban central Texas community suggest several key policy implications, including that strongyloidiasis should be added to the Texas notifiable conditions list, that clinical suspicion for this infection should be heightened in the region, and that residents without access to functioning and sustainable sanitation infrastructure should be provided that access as a basic human right and to promote public health.
Insight Into the Crystallinity of Chinese Ancient Silk by Synchrotron Radiation-Based and Conventional X-ray Diffraction Methods

This is an Open-Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/ licenses/by-nc/3.0) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. ABSTRACT This study investigates the crystallinity distribution of ancient silk. Owing to the inherent multi-hierarchical structure of silk protein and the complicated structural changes that occur due to various burial environments, it is challenging but worthwhile to study ancient silk ageing behavior, which is based on the fact that ageing begins with a single fiber and then spreads to a whole fabric. Crystallinity was one of the most effective indicators found to reveal the ageing status of silk. Therefore, a synchrotron radiation-based X-ray diffraction(SR-XRD) method was employed to study the crystallinity distribution of single fibers of ancient silk unearthed from seven archaeological sites in China from historical periods including the warring states, Han dynasty, Song dynasty, and Ming dynasty. In comparison, the conventional X-ray diffraction method, which uses large amounts of samples, was also performed to determine the integral crystallinity of ancient silk. Thermal stability experiments by thermogravimetry(TG) as well as morphology observations by scanning electron microscopy(SEM) and optical microscopy(OM) all confirmed the deterioration of ancient silk. Moreover, the ageing mechanism of ancient silk was proposed with the assistance of an artificial ageing study. The results confirmed the effectiveness of SR-XRD as an ageing indicator, revealing the crystallinity distribution. This research could provide motivation to determine the deterioration status of ancient silk, and would also aid in explaining the fragility of ancient silk due to ageing.
Digging for Fool’s Gold An Empirical Study on Factors Affecting Initial Stock Performance of Venture Capital-Backed IPOs

We analyze the performance of venture-backed IPOs on the New York Stock Exchange and Nasdaq between 2011 and 2019. Throughout this period, a large number of venture-backed tech companies with billion-dollar valuations have gone public, and many have experienced significant valuation cuts during their first months of trading. By using multiple regression analysis and the Mann-Whitney U test, we find evidence of a positive relationship between offer size and first-day returns. We also find that tech companies and unprofitable companies achieve higher first-day returns than other companies. When looking at the three months after the first day of trading, the analyses indicate opposite effects, and we find that unprofitable tech companies going public achieve significantly lower returns than other companies. However, results for the three-month time period are in general less conclusive than those for the first-day of trading. Contrary to our hypothesis, the amount of pre-IPO funding does not seem to affect aftermarket performance.
A New Power Flow Model Incorporating Effects of Automatic Controllers

This paper presents a modified fast decoupled load flow method which incorporates voltage and frequency dependent characteristics of loads, generator’s regulation characteristics and sensitivity based automatic transformer tap adjustment scheme. The proposed method is suitable for analysis of large power systems in the normal as well as abnormal conditions such as major contingencies involving line outage, generator and/or load loss, system islanding etc. The proposed method is tested on IEEE test systems and an Indian system. Simulation results are presented to show the characteristics of the proposed method. Key-Words: Load flow, load characteristics, regulation characteristics, tap adjustment
Selective VMAT Inhibitors for Tourette Syndrome

The search for improved treatment options for patients with Tourette Syndrome (TS) has led to exploration of additional pharmacologic means of modulating dopaminergic pathways in the brain. Specifically, the goal has been to find agents which may avoid unwanted side effects (e.g., sedation, metabolic syndrome) associated with dopamine receptor blocking medications. One such target may be the Vesicular Monoamine Transporter 2 (VMAT2), a presynaptic neuron protein important for dopamine signaling. In this review, emerging data are presented from clinical trials using investigational medications active at VMAT2 and the implications for TS are discussed.
Antecedents and Outcomes of Work-Nonwork Conflict in Hospitality: A Meta-Analysis

Purpose – This paper provides and meta-analytically investigates a theoretical framework of work-nonwork conflict and its antecedents and outcomes in hospitality management. Design/methodology/approach – This paper adopts the psychometric meta-analytical methods and meta-structural equation modelling (meta-SEM) methods to synthesize the relationships between work-to-nonwork conflict (WNC) and nonwork-to-work conflict (NWC) and its antecedents and outcomes. Findings – WNC and NWC are found to be correlated with antecedents including social support, positive affectivity and negative affectivity, and work characteristics, and correlated with outcomes including job-related well-being, life-related well-being, burnout, performance and turnover intentions. Originality/value This paper is the very first meta-analysis in International Journal of Contemporary Hospitality Management. It is also the first meta-analysis on the relationship between overall work-nonwork conflict and its antecedents and outcomes in hospitality and tourism.
Determinants of Budget Forecast Errors and Their Impacts on Budget effectiveness: evidence from Indonesia

This research attempts to identify the determinants of budget forecast errors and explore the impact of the errors on the budget effectiveness. This study differs from the earlier studies such as including covering 90% of districts and cities, other studies on budget forecast error have not addressed how financial and governmental characteristics effect budget forecast error, and using a structural model to test the factors effecting budget forecast error and their impacts on budget effectiveness. The data are derived from Central Bureau of Statistics and local government website. It used the data of 444 local government for the period of 2006 to 2013, and analyzed them using a partial least square for testing the hypotheses. The results show that the significant factors affecting budget forecast errors are revenue growth, expenditure growth, and government complexity. The higher the revenue growth the greater the likelihood of budget forecast errors. Likewise, the greater the spending growth, the greater the budget forecast errors. The empirical evidence also suggests that budget forecast errors are bad for the economy. The implications of this findings are that local government must be more careful in projecting a growing income and expenditure budget, coordinate well so that work units can develop accurate budgets, and carry out a better monitoring function for all the main stages of budgeting.
University of Dundee Small-Scale Modelling of Thermomechanical Behavior of Reinforced Concrete Energy Piles in Soil

Small-scale physical model tests have been increasingly used to study the thermomechanical soil-pile interaction, but existing model piles are highly simplified and do not have representative thermal properties or the quasi-brittle mechanical behavior of reinforced concrete (RC). This study aims to overcome these shortcomings by presenting a new type of model RC. This consists of a mortar (plaster, sand and water) with copper powder added to tune the mixture’s thermal properties, along with a steel reinforcing cage. Fine sand was used to represent geometrical scaling of the prototype aggregates to correctly capture quasi-brittle structural response. Adding copper powder content of 6% (by volume) matched the coefficient of thermal expansion and thermal conductivity of prototype concrete, without changing the axial and flexural properties of model piles. In 1-g soil-structure interaction tests, the model pile was able to serve as an effective heat exchanger for transferring heat from a water-carrying pipe embedded within the mortar to the surrounding soil. The model RC exhibited cyclic pile head settlement due to repeated pile heating/cooling.
Detection Of Disease In Sugarcane Leaf Using IoT

: Agriculture is one of the most important aspects of human civilization. The conventions of Internet of things (IOT) have meaningfully contributed in the space in last two eras. IOT is a technology, where actual lifetime physical objects (e.g. sensor nodes) can work collaboratively to create an information based and technology driven system to maximize the benefits (e.g. improved agricultural production) with minimized risks (e.g. environmental impact). Execution of IOT based arrangements, at each period of the region, could be a distinct advantage for entire rural scene, for example from planting to exporting and past. In this paper Fungi-caused diseases in sugarcane are the most dominating conditions which show up as spots on the leaves. In the event that it isn't treated on schedule, causes the extreme misfortune. Over the top utilization of pesticide for plant illnesses treatment builds the expense and ecological contamination so their utilization must be limited. This can be accomplished by focusing on the illnesses places, with the fitting amount and convergence of pesticide by assessing disease seriousness utilizing image handling procedure. Straightforward edge and Triangle thresholding strategies are utilized to portion the leaf zone and sore district region individually. Now a days there was more advance technology is used in agriculture field. In this paper automation robot is used to find disease in sugarcane leaf. At long last weaknesses are categories by computing the remainder of injury region and leaf territory. The precision of the analysis is seen as 98.60 %. Research demonstrates this technique to figure leaf sickness seriousness is quick and accurate.