Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Targeting Comorbid Anxiety and Depression Using the Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents

This article presents the use of an emotion-focused, transdiagnostic therapy approach designed for adolescents with a range of anxiety, obsessive-compulsive, depressive, and related disorders, referred to here as emotional disorders. Preliminary work suggests that emotional disorders share underlying temperament factors, such as high neuroticism and low extroversion in adults and adolescents, possibly influencing the development and maintenance of emotional disorders across the life span. The Unified Protocol for Transdiagnostic Treatment of Emotional Disorders in Adolescents (UP-A) and similar core dysfunction-focused, transdiagnostic therapy approaches may lead to successful treatment by targeting higher order factors that cut across an array of emotional disorders The utility of UP-A for adolescents experiencing a variety of emotional disorder symptoms is demonstrated here through the case illustration of Tony, a 15-year-old adolescent male with severe social and generalized anxiety and mild levels of depression. After 16 individual treatment sessions, Tony demonstrated significant reductions in anxiety and depressive symptoms, as well as an ability to respond more adaptively to a range of emotional experiences. This case study illustrates how short-term, transdiagnostic treatment using the UP-A can effectively ameliorate a wide range of emotional disorder symptoms in adolescents and may also lead to changes in core features of neuroticism, potentially preventing development of further emotional difficulties over time.
Impact of Booster Breaks and Computer Prompts on Physical Activity and Sedentary Behavior Among Desk-Based Workers: A Cluster-Randomized Controlled Trial

Introduction The 15-minute work break provides an opportunity to promote health, yet few studies have examined this part of the workday. We studied physical activity and sedentary behavior among office workers and compared the results of the Booster Break program with those of a second intervention and a control group to determine whether the Booster Break program improved physical and behavioral health outcomes. Methods We conducted a 3-arm, cluster-randomized controlled trial at 4 worksites in Texas from 2010 through 2013 to compare a group-based, structured Booster Break program to an individual-based computer-prompt intervention and a usual-break control group; we analyzed physiologic, behavioral, and employee measures such as work social support, quality of life, and perceived stress. We also identified consistent and inconsistent attendees of the Booster Break sessions. Results We obtained data from 175 participants (mean age, 43 y; 67% racial/ethnic minority). Compared with the other groups, the consistent Booster Break attendees had greater weekly pedometer counts (P < .001), significant decreases in sedentary behavior and self-reported leisure-time physical activity (P < .001), and a significant increase in triglyceride concentrations (P = .02) (levels remained within the normal range). Usual-break participants significantly increased their body mass index, whereas Booster Break participants maintained body mass index status during the 6 months. Overall, Booster Break participants were 6.8 and 4.3 times more likely to have decreases in BMI and weekend sedentary time, respectively, than usual-break participants. Conclusion Findings varied among the 3 study groups; however, results indicate the potential for consistent attendees of the Booster Break intervention to achieve significant, positive changes related to physical activity, sedentary behavior, and body mass index.
Organic aerosol evolution and transport observed at Mt. Cimone (2165 m a.s.l.), Italy, during the PEGASOS campaign

Abstract. High-resolution aerosol mass spectrometer measurements were performed, for the first time, at the Mt. Cimone Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) station between June and July 2012, within the EU project PEGASOS and the ARPA–Emilia-Romagna project SUPERSITO. Submicron aerosol was dominated by organics (63 %), with sulfate, ammonium and nitrate contributing the remaining 20, 9 and 7 %, respectively. Organic aerosol (OA) was in general highly oxygenated, consistent with the remote character of the site; our observations suggest that oxidation and secondary organic aerosol (SOA) formation processes occurred during aerosol transport to high altitudes. All of the aerosol component concentrations as well as the OA elemental ratios showed a clear daily trend, driven by the evolution of the planetary boundary layer (PBL) and by the mountain wind regime. Higher loadings and lower OA oxidation levels were observed during the day, when the site was within the PBL, and therefore affected by relatively fresh aerosol transported from lower altitudes. Conversely, lower loadings and higher OA oxidation levels were observed at night, when the top of Mt. Cimone resided in the free troposphere although affected by the transport of residual layers on several days of the campaign. Analysis of the elemental ratios in a Van Krevelen space shows that OA oxidation follows a slope comprised between −0.5 and −1, consistent with addition of carboxylic groups, with or without fragmentation of the parent molecules. The increase of carboxylic groups during OA ageing is confirmed by the increased contribution of organic fragments containing more than one oxygen atom in the free troposphere night-time mass spectra. Finally, positive matrix factorization was able to deconvolve the contributions of relatively fresh OA (OOAa) originating from the PBL, more aged OA (OOAb) present at high altitudes during periods of atmospheric stagnation, and very aged aerosols (OOAc) transported over long distances in the free troposphere.
A low-latency 3D teleconferencing system with image based approach

In this paper, we present a fully dynamic 3D one-to-one teleconferencing system that allows remote collaborators to see each other from different viewpoints. The local 3D scene including the participants is reconstructed with multiple calibrated color plus depth sensors and rendered under the tracked remote users viewpoint in real time. The rendering color and depth buffers are encoded as H.264 stream and transferred to the remote site. An image-based approach is applied to synthesize the desired viewing results in the remote site and reduce the interaction delay. Our system is featured with low latency, high frame rate and constant network flow.
A Low-Cost, Normally Closed, Solenoid Valve for Non-Contact Dispensing in the Sub-µL Range

We present a disposable, normally closed, non-contact dispensing valve for the sub-µL range. The miniaturized solenoid valve (diameter: 8 mm, height: 27.25 mm) is compatible to standard Luer-Lock interfaces. A highly dynamic actuation principle enables opening times down to 1 ms. The dispensing performance was evaluated for water (η = 1.03 mPas) and a 66% (w/w) glycerol/water solution (η = 16.98 mPas), at pressures varying from 200 to 800 mbar. The experimentally determined minimal dispensing volume was 163 nL (CV 1.6%) for water and 123 nL (CV 4.5%) for 66% (w/w) glycerol/water. The low-cost polymer valve enables high precision dispensing of liquid volumes down to the lower end of the sub-µL range comparable to high-end non-disposable micro-dispensing valves.
‘The right and the smart thing to do?’ The Clinton administration and the social construction of emergency in the Kosovo crisis

ABSTRACT The lack of an international authority capable of interpreting and enforcing international norms in a centralised way often leaves states, especially the most powerful, free to decide whether to recognise or reject the legitimacy of such norms. Therefore, in a decentralised system, the legitimacy and viability of norms crucially depend on whether states perceive them as consistent with their values and interests. Variations in state responses to international norms are often the results of debates that take place at the domestic level. By relying on a ‘unit-level’ constructivist approach, this article offers a qualitative analysis that traces back the genesis of a normative interpretation devised by the Clinton administration, which led the United States to invoke the legitimacy of the controversial and emergent norm of humanitarian intervention and to conduct an air strike campaign against the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia. This interpretation concerned the viability and legitimacy of the norm and found its origin in an exceptionalist view of the role of the United States in the post-Cold War international system.
Deriving star formation histories: inverting Hertzsprung‐‐Russell diagrams through a variational calculus maximum likelihood method

We introduce a new method for solving maximum likelihood problems through variational calculus, and apply it to the case of recovering an unknown star formation history, SFR(t), from the resulting Hertzsprung--Russell (HR) diagram. This approach allows a totally non-parametric solution, which has the advantage of requiring no initial assumptions about SFR(t). As a full maximum likelihood statistical model is used, and we take advantage of all the information available in the HR diagram, rather than concentrating on particular features such as turn-off points or luminosity functions. We test the method using a series of synthetic HR diagrams produced from known SFR(t), and find it to be quite successful under noise conditions comparable to those present in current observations. At this point we restrict the analysis to situations in which the metallicity of the system is known, as is the case with the resolved population of dwarf spheroidal companions to the Milky Way or the solar neighbourhood Hipparcos data. We also include tests to quantify the way uncertainties in the assumed metallicity, binary fraction and initial mass function (IMF) affect our inferences.
Nephron Patterning: Lessons from Xenopus, Zebrafish, and Mouse Studies

The nephron is the basic structural and functional unit of the vertebrate kidney. To ensure kidney functions, the nephrons possess a highly segmental organization where each segment is specialized for the secretion and reabsorption of particular solutes. During embryogenesis, nephron progenitors undergo a mesenchymal-to-epithelial transition (MET) and acquire different segment-specific cell fates along the proximo-distal axis of the nephron. Even if the morphological changes occurring during nephrogenesis are characterized, the regulatory networks driving nephron segmentation are still poorly understood. Interestingly, several studies have shown that the pronephric nephrons in Xenopus and zebrafish are segmented in a similar fashion as the mouse metanephric nephrons. Here we review functional and molecular aspects of nephron segmentation with a particular interest on the signaling molecules and transcription factors recently implicated in kidney development in these three different vertebrate model organisms. A complete understanding of the mechanisms underlying nephrogenesis in different model organisms will provide novel insights on the etiology of several human renal diseases.
Speckle-noise reduction via "rotated elliptical-thresholding" in an homomorphic complex-wavelet domain

Speckle noise has been found to rotate an image's homomorphic elliptically distributed complex-wavelet coefficients. This work proposes a counter-rotation of these complex-wavelet coefficients as a means of mitigating speckle noise using principle component analysis. Simulations suggest that the proposed denoising technique offers superior visual quality, though its signal-to-mean-square-error ratio (S/MSE) is numerically comparable to the improvement obtained in customary median filtering and adaptive Wiener filtering.
Private Web Search with an Expected Constant Round

Web searching is becoming an essential activity because it is often the most effective and convenient way of finding information. However, a Web search can be a threat to the privacy of the searcher because the queries may reveal sensitive information about the searcher. Private Web search (PWS) solutions allow users to find information on the Internet while preserving their privacy. Here, privacy means maintaining the confidentiality of the identity of the communicating users. According to their underlying technology, existing PWS solutions can be divided into three types: proxy-based solutions, obfuscation-based solutions, and cryptography-based solutions. Of these, cryptography-based PWS (CB-PWS) systems are particularly interesting because they provide strong privacy guarantees in the cryptographic sense. In this paper, we present a round-efficient CB-PWS protocol that preserves computational efficiency compared to other known CB-PWS systems. Assuming a broadcast channel, our protocol is a \emph{four-round} cryptographic scheme that requires $O(n)$ communication complexity. However, if only point-to-point interaction is available, with the users emulating the broadcast channel, our protocol requires an expected $O(1)$-round complexity and the same computation and communication overhead. Further analyzing the efficiency of our protocol shows that our proposal requires only $3n$ modular exponentiations for $n$ users. To evaluate the security of our protocol, we demonstrate that our construction is secure in terms of a semi-honest model. We then discuss how to enhance its security to render it secure in the presence of malicious adversaries. We provide a specific protocol for managing users' groups, which is also an advantage over existing systems.
Development and validation of online surrogate parameters for water quality monitoring at a conventional water treatment plant using a UV absorbance spectrolyser

Absorbance data collected from an online UV absorbance spectrophotometer installed for water quality monitoring at a conventional drinking water treatment plant was used to develop surrogate parameters for treatment process monitoring and optimisation. Surrogate parameters were developed via data analysis of collected online data as well as by targeted selection from previous research knowledge. These parameters were validated in the field using the same online spectrophotometer to gauge their response to events caused by operational changes, such as high chlorine demand and changes in natural organic matter (NOM). Almost all parameters generated responses comparable to the commonly used process assessment UV online parameter, absorbance at 254nm. Some parameters, such as the derivative of absorbance at 290nm and the second derivative of absorbance at 310nm, generated responses far exceeding the standard monitoring parameter, making them potentially useful tools for control of operational treatment processes. It is hoped that in future, these and other novel UV absorbance parameters can be monitored simultaneously to reflect water quality change to further the application of this technology in optimisation of water treatment.
Digital Droplet Multiple Displacement Amplification (ddMDA) for Whole Genome Sequencing of Limited DNA Samples

Multiple displacement amplification (MDA) is a widely used technique for amplification of DNA from samples containing limited amounts of DNA (e.g., uncultivable microbes or clinical samples) before whole genome sequencing. Despite its advantages of high yield and fidelity, it suffers from high amplification bias and non-specific amplification when amplifying sub-nanogram of template DNA. Here, we present a microfluidic digital droplet MDA (ddMDA) technique where partitioning of the template DNA into thousands of sub-nanoliter droplets, each containing a small number of DNA fragments, greatly reduces the competition among DNA fragments for primers and polymerase thereby greatly reducing amplification bias. Consequently, the ddMDA approach enabled a more uniform coverage of amplification over the entire length of the genome, with significantly lower bias and non-specific amplification than conventional MDA. For a sample containing 0.1 pg/μL of E. coli DNA (equivalent of ~3/1000 of an E. coli genome per droplet), ddMDA achieves a 65-fold increase in coverage in de novo assembly, and more than 20-fold increase in specificity (percentage of reads mapping to E. coli) compared to the conventional tube MDA. ddMDA offers a powerful method useful for many applications including medical diagnostics, forensics, and environmental microbiology.
LANGUAGE USE BETWEEN MALE AND FEMALE HOST IN HITAM PUTIH TALK SHOW

This study discusses about language use occurred by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The research is conducted by applying qualitative descriptive design. The subjects of this study are male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. The data are the utterances produced by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show. This research focuses on the show broadcasted on October 2016 by taking 4 videos randomly. The objectives of this study are (1) to describe kinds of the language use uttered by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show, (2) to elucidate language use represented by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show and (3) to describe reasons of different language use by male and female host in Hitam Putih talk show in the ways they are. Additionally, the data are analyzed by applying theory of Interactive Model. The findings showed that the kinds of language use consist of 6 parts such as specialized vocabulary, expletives, empty adjectives, tag questions, polite form and telling joke or humor. The dominant language use uttered by male host is expletive, because male’s utterances are frequently stated in a negative connotation. There are common expressions generally referring to English expletives such as: bad language, profanity, swearwords, cursing, foul language, etc. On the other hand, female host utterances are found in specialized vocabulary as the most dominant because female host has more interest in talking family affairs, such as the education of children, clothes, cooking, and fashion, etc. Women also tended to talk about one thing related to the home and domestic activities. However, the representation of language use uttered by male and female are deficit, dominance and different. And the reason of this matter because of some factors such as psychology and different social status.
Secure RSS-based localization in sensor networks

We propose a secure localization scheme for sensor networks based on the received signal strength (RSS) ranging techniques. Our scheme enables the network authority to obtain locations of sensor nodes in the presence of an attacker. The proposed scheme uses a small number of anchor nodes with known locations that provide points of reference from which the sensors’ locations are computed. This scheme makes use of robust localization and time synchronization primitives which, appropriately combined, enable the detection of attacks on localization, within a realistic attacker model. We perform an in-depth security analysis of our scheme and we demonstrate its feasibility on Mica2 sensor platform.
Efficacy and safety of up to 192 weeks of etanercept therapy in patients with ankylosing spondylitis

Objective: Evaluate long-term safety and efficacy of etanercept treatment in patients with ankylosing spondylitis (AS). Methods: Patients with AS who previously participated in a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of etanercept were eligible to enrol in a 168-week open-label extension (OLE). Safety end points included rates of adverse events (AE), serious adverse events (SAE), infections, serious infections and death. Efficacy end points included Assessment in Ankylosing Spondylitis (ASAS20) response, ASAS 5/6 response and partial remission rates. Results: A total of 257 of 277 patients (92%) enrolled in the OLE. After up to 192 weeks of treatment with etanercept, the most common AEs were injection site reactions, headaches and diarrhoea. The exposure-adjusted rate of SAEs was 0.08 per patient-year. The rate of infections was 1.1 per patient-year, and the rate for serious infections was 0.02 per patient-year. No deaths were reported. Of patients who received etanercept in both the RCT and OLE and were still in the trial, 71% were ASAS20 responders at week 96, and 81% were responders at week 192. ASAS 5/6 response rates were 61% at week 96 and 60% at week 144, and partial remission response rates were 41% at week 96 and 44% at week 192. Placebo patients who switched to etanercept in the OLE showed similar patterns of efficacy maintenance. Conclusions: Etanercept was well tolerated for up to 192 weeks in patients with AS, with no unexpected AEs or SAEs observed. No deaths were reported. Improvements in the signs and symptoms of AS were maintained for up to 192 weeks.
The 'biography' and Evolution of Standardised Software Packages

Project Outline After more than 30 years of software development for an ever-growing variety of institutional and organisational settings, few large-scale information systems are developed completely from scratch. Rather, most software applications are constructed by adapting existing 'packages' to new organisational contexts and settings. Generic software packages, such as Enterprise Resource Planning (ERP) systems, cover the fullest range of organisational activities and processes and are adopted with the aim of achieving substantial cost savings as well as improved access to 'tried and tested' solutions, new releases, and an opportunity to update procedures and align them with perceived 'best practice'. However, while organisations choose packages because of their economic benefits they are potentially a costly and high-risk strategy. Systems seldom translate easily across boundaries, whether this is between organisations within the same sector, between industrial sectors or between public and private sector organisational forms (cf. Walsham, 2001, Ciborra et al, 2000). There is often a gulf between the system and the specific contexts, practices and requirements of particular user organisations. Amongst the many issues generic packages raise, of particular concern to practitioners is the choice between conducting expensive 'customisation' work on standard solutions or undergoing unwanted organisational change in adapting their practices to models of work and organisational process embedded in the software. The development of COTS software differs from conventional bespoke information systems in that packages are designed for a market and not for a specific customer. Suppliers have incentives to build systems that can be applied in the widest range of settings and design software with general or 'ideal types' of businesses in mind (even though no such form of organisation actually exists). As concerns rise concerning the incommensurability of systems and contexts there are demands for solutions which are already partially adapted to particular business settings (i.e., 'semi-generic' packages, Webster & Williams 1993) and for user-involvement in the shaping of packages. Alongside the adoption of these systems, then, there is an equally important story of innovation within supplier organisations and collaboration with package adopters. Why Software Packages? Large COTS software packages (such as ERP, customer relationship management (CRM) and other types of integrated financial and administrative information systems) represent a substantial part of organisational IT expenditure. Over 60% of organisations rely upon COTS software packages (Parr & Shank, 2000). Yet despite their wide diffusion these packages are still only partially understood-much of the research has taken the perspective …