Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A qualitative study into the psychosocial well-being of Durban's homeless youth.

This study explored the experiences of a sample of six male and four female homeless youth living on the streets of Durban, South Africa. It focused on their concepts of 'home' and their ideas around homelessness, as well as on the psychosocial and contextual factors that support their resilience and coping. In this qualitative study, participants were interviewed utilising a semi-structured interview schedule. Data were analysed using Interpretative Phenomenological Analysis (IPA). Two main themes emerged around the idea of 'home', namely family and belonging, and safety and protection. Homelessness was rejected as an undesirable way of life by all participants. Drug use and, particularly, violence were found to be endemic, with several allegations of violence and harassment made against the Durban Metro Police. Intrapersonal (physical and emotional strength, and religiosity/spirituality), Interpersonal (help from peers) and Community Resource factors (help from the public, sport and help from organisations for street children) emerged as factors contributing towards resilience in the sample.
Parametric imaging of specular reflections and diffuse scattering of tissue from multi-directional ultrasound echo signal data

In this paper, an approach for the extraction of quantitative parameters from multi-directional ultrasound echo signal data for the differentiation and characterization of specular reflections and diffuse backscattering is presented and evaluated. Spatially resolved, tissue-characterizing parametric images are calculated by analyzing the envelope of echo signals from different insonation angles. Frames of echo signals, which are acquired with a limited-angle spatial compound imaging system, are scan-converted, and the envelope of echo signals at each pixel in the axial / lateral imaging plane is analyzed as a function of the insonation angle. Statistical first-order parameters are directly calculated from this data, and further parameters are derived from fitted model functions. The proposed concept has been evaluated by means of phantom measurements and in vivo measurements on skin with a 20 MHz high-frequency ultrasound (HFUS) system for limited-angle (up to +/-40deg) pulse-echo measurements. Results of measurements on a plastic tube, which is surrounded by a speckle phantom, show that specular reflections can be distinguished from diffuse backscattering. Furthermore, the surface orientation of specular reflectors is depicted in parametric images. In vivo images of skin show that specular reflections, for example at scar tissue and at the border between the dermis and the subcutaneous fat, can be detected and differentiated from their surrounding based on the proposed parameters.
Evaluation of body fluid status after cardiac surgery using bioelectrical impedance analysis.

BACKGROUND In the assessment of fluid status after cardiac surgery, we applied bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) to measure the total body water (TBW), extracellular fluid (ECF), and intracellular fluid (ICF), and evaluated its validity. METHODS Thirty patients who underwent cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB group) and 19 surgical patients not receiving CPB (non-CPB group). RESULTS The change of BIA values (deltaTBW, deltaECF, deltaICF), body weight and cumulative fluid balance were determined for 120 postoperative hours, and the relationship between BIA values and body weight and fluid balance were evaluated. Postoperative changes in BIA values in the CPB group were compared with those in the non-CPB group. Finally the ECF/ICF ratio and hemodynamic parameters were compared. deltaTBW and deltaECF correlated with changes in body weight and fluid balance, respectively. Especially there was a high correlation in each case although large deviations in the slope of the regression lines were observed. TBW and ECF increased from immediately after operation up to 96 hours (the maximum value was at day 2). On the other hand, ICF decreased from 48 to 72 hours after operation. There were significant high ECF/ICF in the CPB group compared with the non-CPB group from 12 to 72 postoperative hours. We found that ECF/ICF correlated inversely with mean blood pressure, mixed venous oxygen saturation and colloid osmotic pressure, and positively with central venous pressure and pulmonary artery wedge pressure. CONCLUSIONS It was considered that BIA was useful for evaluating the relative changes in TBW and fluid distribution, and ECF/ICF might be a new parameter for abnormal water metabolism after cardiac surgery.
Exploring the Impact of the MassTransfer Program: A Look at Latina/ Latino Student Transfer Success at a Two Year Hispanic-Serving Institution into a Four Year Non-Hispanic University in Massachusetts

The majority of Latina/Latino students enrolling into higher education are doing so through community colleges. Latina/Latino students are not transferring at comparable rates to their peers. This study explored the impact of the MassTransfer program on the transfer success of Latina/Latino students at a Hispanic-Serving Institution (HSI) community college into a 4year Non-HSI state university in Massachusetts. Twelve students were individually interviewed for this study. Six of the students attend an HSI community college. The remaining six students were enrolled in a Massachusetts state university and had successfully transferred from the HSI in this study. Their stories will help bridge the transfer process and share what did or did not help these students succeed at the state university. The MassTransfer program encourages degree specific articulation agreements between public community colleges and state universities. It was implemented in fall 2009 and replaced all other transfer programs. Understanding the impact of MassTransfer on Latina/Latino students can help to increase their transfer rates into baccalaureate programs. This study was conducted using qualitative research situated in an interpretive paradigm. Laura I. Rendon’s Validation Theory and Latina/Latino Critical Race Theory were utilized to explore Latina/Latino student transfer success. Some Latina/Latino students face obstacles that their White and sometimes African-American counterparts do not encounter. Although Predominantly White Institutions (PWIs) aspire to be welcoming to all; they often overlook the unique cultural needs of marginalized students. Increasing the diversity of the student body without institutional changes designed to better meet their needs often leads to lower retention rates. Understanding the validating factors that support Latina/Latino transfer and the unique
Development of a Potential Protein Display Platform in Corynebacterium glutamicum Using Mycolic Acid Layer Protein, NCgl1337, as an Anchoring Motif.

In the cell surface display, the choice of host cell and anchoring motif are the most crucial for the efficient display of passenger proteins. Corynebacterium glutamicum has mycolic acid layer in outer membrane and the use of protein in the mycolic acid layer as an anchoring motif can provide a potential platform for surface display in C. glutamicum. All 19 mycolic acid layer proteins of C. glutamicum are analyzed, and two proteins, NCgl0535 and NCgl1337, which have a signal peptide and predicted O-mycoloylation site, are selected as anchoring motifs candidates. Among them, NCgl1337, which shows better expression with higher display efficiency, is chosen as a potential anchoring motif. Two forms of the NCgl1337 anchoring motif, a full-length (1-324 amino acids) and a short-length (1-50 amino acids) containing only signal peptide and O-mycoloylation site, are constructed and their abilities for surface display are examined using two protein models, endoxylanase from Streptomyces coelicolor and α-amylase from Streptococcus bovis. For both model proteins, the short-length NCgl1337 anchoring motif exhibits higher yield of protein display on the surface of C. glutamicum than the full-length NCgl1337. Finally, with C. glutamicum displaying α-amylase, a batch fermentation is performed for the production of l-lysine from starch degradation, and a production of l-lysine as high as 10.8 ± 0.92 g L-1 was achieved after 18 h of culture.
Clinical significance of intrahepatic hepatitis C virus levels in patients with chronic HCV infection

Background—The clinical significance of a single assessment of circulating hepatitis C virus (HCV) RNA and its relation to the level of intrahepatic HCV RNA remains unclear. Aims—To investigate the relation between intrahepatic HCV levels and clinicopathological characteristics of chronic HCV infection. Patients—Ninety eight consecutive patients with chronic HCV infection were studied; none had received α interferon therapy. Of these, 12 patients were repeatedly negative for HCV RNA in serum by reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR). Methods—After diagnostic laparoscopy and liver biopsy, semiquantitative analysis of intrahepatic HCV RNA levels was carried out by limiting dilution of HCV cDNA. HCV genotypes were assessed in 96 patients by restriction fragment length polymorphism analysis of HCV cDNA. Results—Ten out of 12 patients who were RT-PCR negative for HCV RNA in serum were RT-PCR positive in liver; however, this group had a significantly lower intrahepatic HCV level and serum aminotransferase level than the remaining 86 patients. Histological severity (cirrhosis: n=10); histological activity index; HCV genotype (genotype 1: n=41; genotype 2: n=12; genotype 3: n=36; genotype 4: n=7); mode of infection (intravenous drug abuse: n=58; post-transfusion: n=10; haemophiliac: n=4; sporadic: n=26) and alcohol abuse did not affect the intrahepatic virus level. There was no correlation between patient age, duration of infection, and intrahepatic HCV level. Conclusions—Intrahepatic virus levels were not determined by host factors (age of patient, mode or duration of infection) or by virus factors (HCV genotype). Repeatedly negative RT-PCR for HCV RNA in serum does not indicate absence of HCV from the liver.
Phrase-Based Statistical Machine Translator for English to Bangla Machine Translation

The work presented in this report is the implementation of a phrase-based statistical machine translator for translating English to Bangla. In this work word reordering technique, semi supervised learning and transliteration methods have been applied to improve the performance of the translator. This work also focuses on the parallel data scarcity for solving the current problem. Morphological analysis has been done and system is evaluated comparing with some similar systems.
Glandular-Haired Alfalfa Resistance to Potato Leafhopper (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) and Hopperburn: Development of Resistance Indices

Abstract Eight proprietary genotypes of glandular-haired alfalfa, Medicago sativa L. , supplied by two different companies, were compared for the degree and types of resistance to the potato leafhopper, Empoasca fabae (Harris), and hopperburn. A tube cage no-choice bioassay was developed to test leafhopper mortality, feeding, settling preferences, severity of hopperburn symptoms (in this case, defined as both yellowing and stem growth reduction), and trichome density and type on feeding sites. Leafhopper mortality was both strongly and significantly associated with feeding and leaf trichome density; decreased hopperburn symptom severity was weakly, although significantly, associated with increased mortality. To quantify hopperburn in terms of both yellowing and stem growth reduction, we developed a ranking system that reduces overall hopperburn expression to a single number that considers the varying responses to both types of symptoms. Great variability in leafhopper settling, leafhopper mortality, and stem glandular trichome density was detected among alfalfa genotypes, suggesting that genotypic differences may be based on the concentration and/or chemical constituency of the trichome exudates. We postulate that, among variably resistant genotypes of glandular-haired alfalfa, differences among leafhopper responses and hopperburn severity are linked to forced movement from the stems to the leaves as refuge feeding sites. Principal component analysis was performed to reduce the 10 variables down to five biologically significant factors. Scores for these factors were then used to develop resistance indices for potato leafhopper resistance, hopperburn resistance, and an overall glandular-haired alfalfa resistance index.
BCS-based formulations for antenna arrays synthesis

A review of recently introduced Bayesian approaches for the synthesis of maximally-sparse antenna arrays is presented. More specifically, the use of numerically-efficient techniques based on the Bayesian Compressive Sampling (BCS) is introduced to solve the linear array design problem. Towards this end, a probabilistic framework is exploited to formulate the synthesis problem, and a fast relevance vector machine (RVM) is employed for the computation of the optimal excitations and geometries. An illustrative numerical validation is presented to show the features of the proposed approach.
Microtubule and chromatin behavior follow MAP kinase activity but not MPF activity during meiosis in mouse oocytes.

Oocyte meiotic maturation is triggered by different stimuli (hormones, unknown signals through cell interactions) in different species. These stimuli indirectly lead to the activation of a major cell cycle regulating activity, the maturation promoting factor (MPF). Other factors, such as the product of the proto-oncogene c-mos or enzymes of the MAP kinase family, are also involved in the process of maturation. MAP kinase activation occurs during meiotic maturation in oocytes from different species with different kinetics. The relationships between MPF activation and MAP kinase activation have been well studied in species such as clam and Xenopus. In this paper, we study the precise timing of MAP kinase activation (as measured by phosphorylation of exogenous myelin basic protein and shifts in mobility of ERK 1 and ERK 2) versus MPF activation (as measured by phosphorylation of exogenous histone H1) during mouse oocyte maturation and, in parallel, morphological events such as changes in microtubule organization and chromatin condensation. We observed that MAP kinase activation was delayed after MPF activation and that this activity persisted throughout maturation whereas MPF activity dropped between the two meiotic metaphases. After parthenogenetic activation of ovulated eggs, MAP kinase inactivation was very slow compared to MPF inactivation. During the first mitotic cell cycle, a rise in myelin basic protein kinase activity at M-phase was observed but it was not related to MAP kinase activation. Furthermore, microtubules and chromatin remained in a metaphase-like state during the complete period of maturation (including the period between the two meiotic metaphases) and a few hours after activation. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Gastrointestinal Symptoms in Patients With End-Stage Renal Disease Undergoing Treatment by Hemodialysis or Peritoneal Dialysis

OBJECTIVES: The aim of this study was to determine the prevalence of gastrointestinal symptoms in patients with end-stage renal disease undergoing hemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) treatment.METHODS: Patients undergoing HD or chronic ambulatory PD in the Department of Renal Medicine of our hospital were asked to complete a locally validated Rome II questionnaire. The same questionnaire was also administered to age- and gender-matched medical outpatients without renal failure, and community subjects. Patients on HD and their outpatient controls also completed the Hospital Anxiety and Depression Scale.RESULTS: A total of 148 patients with end-stage renal disease (HD 100, PD 48) completed the study. Their results were compared with those of 148 age- and gender-matched medical outpatients without renal failure and 148 randomly selected community controls. Patients on dialysis treatment were more likely to have abdominal pain, use laxatives, and report symptoms consistent with functional vomiting and irritable bowel syndrome (IBS) (70%, 55%, 16%, and 25%) than age- and gender-matched medical outpatients without renal failure (21%, 11%, 1%, and 6%) and community controls (16%, 4%, 0%, and 8%). Among HD patients and their outpatient controls, the differences appeared to be unrelated to anxiety or depression.CONCLUSIONS: Abdominal pain, laxative use, functional vomiting, and IBS were more common in uremic individuals than in controls without renal failure. Our data have not shown whether these differences are due to the uremic state itself, or, alternatively, its treatment.
Analytical performance and diagnostic accuracy of a fully-automated electrochemiluminescent assay for the N-terminal fragment of the pro-peptide of brain natriuretic peptide in patients with cardiomyopathy: comparison with immunoradiometric assay methods for brain natriuretic peptide and atrial natr

Abstract We evaluated the analytical performance of a fully-automated electrochemiluminescence “sandwich” immunoassay method for the N-terminal fragment of the pro-peptide of brain natriuretic peptide (BNP). We then compared the diagnostic accuracy of this method in discriminating between normal subjects and patients with cardiomyopathy with that found with two previously described immunoradiometric assay methods for the assay of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP) and BNP. We studied 193 consecutive patients (mean age 64.4±12.3 years, range 20–89 years, including 56 women and 137 men) with chronic cardiomyopathy and a group of 85 healthy subjects (mean age 52.3±12.0 years, 42 women and 43 men, range 20–79 years). N-terminal fragment of proBNP1–76 (NT-proBNP) was measured with a fully-automated “sandwich” electrochemiluminescence method using an Elecsys® 2010 analyzer, while ANP and BNP were measured with immunoradiometric assay methods. The low detection limit of the NTproBNP assay was 4.2 pg/ml (0.50 pmol/l), while the functional sensitivity was 22 pg/ml (2.60 pmol/l) with a working range (imprecision profile ≤ 10% coefficient of variation) extended up to about 30 000 pg/ml (3540 pmol/l). Healthy women (64.3±41.6 pg/ml, 7.59±4.91 pmol/l) showed significantly higher values than men (46.9±30.9 pg/ml, 5.53±3.64 pmol/l, p=0.0118). Moreover, age and sex were significantly and independently related to the NT-proBNP values in healthy subjects, as assessed by a multiple linear regression analysis (R=0.389, F-value=7.316, P-value=0.0012). As expected, the NT-proBNP values of patients with cardiomyopathy were significantly higher than those of normal subjects and progressively increased with the severity of heart failure. The respective diagnostic accuracy of the ANP, BNP and NT-proBNP assays in discriminating between the group of normal subjects and that of patients with cardiomyopathy was tested by the response operating characteristic curve analysis. Our data indicated that the NT-proBNP assay is significantly better than either of the ANP or BNP immunoradiometric assays in discriminating affected patients from healthy subjects, especially when only patients with mild disease severity (New York Heart Association class I and II) are considered.
Silver/palladium pastes for aluminium nitride applications

Silver/palladium resistor pastes on aluminium nitride (AlN) are presented. These resistor pastes are very interesting for power electronic and heater applications. Currently realised paste systems are a resistor paste based on AgPd as conductive phase, which has sheet resistivities up to 1 ohm/sq and a RuO2 resistor paste system with a sheet resistance higher than 6 ohm/sq. However both pastes are not mixable. These results make it necessary to develop AgPd pastes in this resistance gap. Pastes with sheet resistivities between 100 mohm/sq and 10 ohm/sq and low TCR values (thermal coefficient of the resistance) are under development. By addition of glass and an inert additive it was possible to achieve with a AgPd ratio of 1/1 different surface resistances. All formulated pastes show low TCR values between 0 and 100*10−6 K−1. Resistance measurements were done, to characterise the different formulated pastes. To perform comparing measurements of the particular resistances under electrical load different layouts are designed, which allows for each substrate the same surface heating. Electrical load measurements at 200 °C and 300 °C and cycled tests for 3000 pulses were done. The influences of long-term electrical load and ageing at higher temperature were investigated. Film structures were analysed by optical microscopic measurements and FESEM.
Constitutively active mutants of the alpha 1B‐adrenergic receptor: role of highly conserved polar amino acids in receptor activation.

Site‐directed mutagenesis and molecular dynamics simulations of the alpha 1B‐adrenergic receptor (AR) were combined to explore the potential molecular changes correlated with the transition from R (inactive state) to R (active state). Using molecular dynamics analysis we compared the structural/dynamic features of constitutively active mutants with those of the wild type and of an inactive alpha 1B‐AR to build a theoretical model which defines the essential features of R and R. The results of site‐directed mutagenesis were in striking agreement with the predictions of the model supporting the following hypothesis. (i) The equilibrium between R and R depends on the equilibrium between the deprotonated and protonated forms, respectively, of D142 of the DRY motif. In fact, replacement of D142 with alanine confers high constitutive activity to the alpha 1B‐AR. (ii) The shift of R143 of the DRY sequence out of a conserved ‘polar pocket’ formed by N63, D91, N344 and Y348 is a feature common to all the active structures, suggesting that the role of R143 is fundamental for mediating receptor activation. Disruption of these intramolecular interactions by replacing N63 with alanine constitutively activates the alpha 1B‐AR. Our findings might provide interesting generalities about the activation process of G protein‐coupled receptors.
Can Public Policies Bring about the Democratization of the Outsourcing of Household Tasks?

For twenty years or so, the outsourcing of household tasks has been considered to be increasing in many countries. In some countries (particularly in France), extensive public policies have been put in place to develop demand and create employment by explicitly seeking to democratize consumption, which still predominantly concerns more affluent households. By using both quantitative and qualitative data, this paper aims to gain a better understanding of the factors of demand for these services and to examine the possibility of bringing the process of democratization to a successful conclusion. Due to the originality of the data used, my approach differs from previous research in two main areas: first, it highlights the lack of democratization of the consumption of these services (among working-age households), and second, it identifies the two forms of inequality underlying their development.