Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Late Effects of Trauma: PTSD in Holocaust Survivors

Participants in this study were Jewish Holocaust survivors (N = 89) divided into groups depending on the type of trauma they had experienced. As compared to the control group, posttraumatic stress disorder (PTSD) symptoms were clearly more persistent in the trauma group. The most salient PTSD symptoms (primarily avoidance and increased arousal) were noted in those who survived hiding on the “Aryan side. ” Men were more at risk for reexperiencing trauma than women, who were more prone to avoidance or numbing of general responsiveness. The study confirms hypotheses regarding negative effects of early trauma exposure. The results show that particular PTSD dimensions are interrelated; namely, there is a highly significant correlation between avoidance and reexperiencing trauma on one hand and increased arousal on the other. No relationship was found between PTSD severity and either prewar personality traits or prewar social experiences.
Modeling biological systems with delays in Bio-PEPA

Delays in biological systems may be used to model events for which the underlying dynamics cannot be precisely observed, or to provide abstraction of some behavior of the system resulting more compact models. In this paper we enrich the stochastic process algebra Bio-PEPA, with the possibility of assigning delays to actions, yielding a new non-Markovian process algebra: Bio-PEPAd. This is a conservative extension meaning that the original syntax of Bio-PEPA is retained and the delay specification which can now be associated with actions may be added to existing Bio-PEPA models. The semantics of the firing of the actions with delays is the de lay-as-duration approach, earlier presented in papers on the stochastic simulation of biological systems with delays. These semantics of the algebra are given in the Starting-Terminating style, meaning that the state and the completion of an action are observed as two separate events, as required by delays. Furthermore we outline how to perform stochastic simulation of Bio-PEPAd systems and how to automatically translate a BioPEPAd system into a set of Delay Differential Equations, the deterministic framework for modeling of biological systems with delays. We end the paper with two example models of biological systems with delays to illustrate the approach.
Factor structure and construct validity of the block child rearing practices report (CRPR)

In this study, we examined the generalizability of some of the American findings regarding the factor structure, reliability, and construct validity of the Child Rearing Practices Report (CRPR). The results provide evidence that items of the CRPR can be used to form reliable scales for assessing child rearing dimensions (Nurturance and Restrictiveness) or patterns of child rearing (Authoritarian and Authoritative pattern) in the Dutch sample. Especially important are the findings concerning the construct validity of these scales
Molecular Epidemiology and Clinical Significance of Hepatitis B Virus Genotypes, Core Promoter and Precore Mutations in Eastern India

Objectives: This unmatched case-control study aimed at determining the molecular epidemiology and clinical significance of HBV genotypes, core promoter (CP) and precore (PC) mutations in Eastern India. Methods: Serological, biochemical and molecular assays were used to examine antigens, ALT, genotypes, mutations and viremia among 106 inactive carriers and 183 chronic liver disease (CLD) patients. Results: Male gender (p < 0.001), HBeAg positivity (p = 0.050), high ALT (p < 0.001), high viremia (p < 0.001), CP mutations (p < 0.001), and genotypes A (p < 0.001) and C (p = 0.027) were significantly associated with CLD. Subjects infected with genotypes A and C had significantly higher prevalence of BCP mutations (p < 0.001), and low incidence of PC mutation (p < 0.001 and p = 0.047, respectively). Prevalence of genotype D was significantly higher among subjects with history of familial/childhood jaundice, while genotypes A and C were frequent among subjects with possible percutaneous exposure. Conclusions: Significant differences in risk factors and disease manifestation do exist among patients infected with different HBV genotypes. Genotypes A and C are frequently found among chronic liver disease patients, while genotype D is associated with inactive HBeAg-negative infections. This evaluation of clinical relevance of HBV genotypes, mutations and risk factors may be useful in disease prognosis, management and prevention strategies.
What Toleration Is*

Toleration has been called “the substantive heart of liberalism. ” Yet exactly what toleration is, is unclear. It has often been used by political philosophers and others as if this were not the case, but recent theorists have used and explicated the term in very different ways. In what follows, I offer a conceptual analysis of toleration in order to give a clear definition of this central liberal tenet. In the first part, I isolate toleration from other notions; this provides us some guidance by introducing the eight definitional conditions of toleration that I then explicate and defend in the second section. Putting the conditions together, I shall
Effect of risk aversion on prioritizing conservation projects

Conservation outcomes are uncertain. Agencies making decisions about what threat mitigation actions to take to save which species frequently face the dilemma of whether to invest in actions with high probability of success and guaranteed benefits or to choose projects with a greater risk of failure that might provide higher benefits if they succeed. The answer to this dilemma lies in the decision maker's aversion to risk—their unwillingness to accept uncertain outcomes. Little guidance exists on how risk preferences affect conservation investment priorities. Using a prioritization approach based on cost effectiveness, we compared 2 approaches: a conservative probability threshold approach that excludes investment in projects with a risk of management failure greater than a fixed level, and a variance‐discounting heuristic used in economics that explicitly accounts for risk tolerance and the probabilities of management success and failure. We applied both approaches to prioritizing projects for 700 of New Zealand's threatened species across 8303 management actions. Both decision makers’ risk tolerance and our choice of approach to dealing with risk preferences drove the prioritization solution (i.e., the species selected for management). Use of a probability threshold minimized uncertainty, but more expensive projects were selected than with variance discounting, which maximized expected benefits by selecting the management of species with higher extinction risk and higher conservation value. Explicitly incorporating risk preferences within the decision making process reduced the number of species expected to be safe from extinction because lower risk tolerance resulted in more species being excluded from management, but the approach allowed decision makers to choose a level of acceptable risk that fit with their ability to accommodate failure. We argue for transparency in risk tolerance and recommend that decision makers accept risk in an adaptive management framework to maximize benefits and avoid potential extinctions due to inefficient allocation of limited resources.
Image Enhancement and De-noising by Diffusion based Singular Value Decomposition

paper proposes an approach for enhancement and de-noising of the images having fine edges and homogeneous smooth regions by using singular value decomposition filtering technique on the diffused image subspaces. The existing singular value decomposition based image de-noising technique faces the problem of selecting the optimum threshold parameter for separation of noise subspace and noise-free image subspace. The proposed approach is a two stage process in which the diffused versions of the image are generated in the first stage using partial differential equation based linear isotropic diffusion to smooth the homogeneous regions and the inverse heat diffusion method for enhancement of the edge features. In the next stage, singular value decomposition is applied on the two oppositely featured diffused versions of the image with fixed threshold individually to remove noise. Experimental results were compared with respect to recently developed singular value decomposition method with minimum energy model and traditional block based singular value decomposition filtering method in terms of signal to noise ratio which shows that the proposed method is efficient for image enhancement as well as de-noising.
A research of the interlacing-control Boost Converter for fuel cell vehicle

To meeting the complex requirement of power control unit (PCU) in fuel cell car, a 36kW interlacing-control Boost Converter is proposed in this paper. The double-closed-loop and interlacing control mode system based on DSP is particularly designed. To improving the efficiency of converter and reducing the ripple current, the technology of multiple current-balancing is introduced. According to the experimental results presented in this paper, the interlacing-control Boost converter could meet the needs of complex control strategies of fuel cell vehicle and actual road test.
A comparative study of the precision of Carstens and NDI electromagnetic articulographs

Purpose: The study compares the precision of the electromagnetic articulographs used in speech research: NDI's WAVE and Carstens’ AG200, AG500 and AG501 systems. Method: The fluctuation of distances between three pairs of sensors attached to a manually rotated device that can position them inside the measurement volumes were determined. For each device, two precision estimates based on the 95% quantile range of these distances (QR95) were defined: the local QR95 was computed for bins around specific rotation angles, while the global QR95 was computed for all angles pooled. Results: For all devices, while the local precision lies around 0.1 cm, the global precision is much more worrisome, ranging from 0.03 cm to 2.18 cm and displays large variations as a function of the position of the sensors in the measurement volume. No influence of the rotational speed was found. The AG501 produced – by far – the lowest errors, in particular concerning the global precision. Conclusions: The local precision can be considered suitable for speech articulatory measurements, but the variations of the global precision need to be taken into account by the knowledge of the spatial distribution of errors. A guideline for good practice in EMA recording is proposed for each system.
Multi-layer interaction for digital tables

Interaction on digital tables has been restricted to a single layer on the table's active work-surface. We extend the design space of digital tables to include multiple layers of interaction. We leverage 3D position information of a pointing device to support interaction in the space above the active work-surface by creating multiple layers with drift-correction in which the user can interact with an application. We also illustrate through a point-design that designers can use multiple-layers to create a rich and clutter free application. A subjective evaluation showed that users liked the interaction techniques and found that, because of the drift correction we use, they could control the pointer when working in any layer.
Self-Construals, Communication Processes, and Group Outcomes in Homogeneous and Heterogeneous Groups

The objective of this study was to test a theoretical model posited by the author in 1995 that explains the relationships among self-construals (independent and interdependent self-image), communication processes (participation, cooperation, and respect), and outcomes (satisfaction, performance, and withholding effort) in homogeneous and heterogeneous groups. Students (N = 189) completed three tasks in a group that varied in composition from homogeneous to heterogeneous in regards to age, gender, and ethnicity. Results from structural equation modeling revealed that (a) self-construals of group members better explained the communication processes used by a small group than did composition, (b) situational interdependent self-construals were associated positively with participation and cooperation, (c) equal participation and respect were related negatively to the degree to which members withhold effort in a group, (d) equal participation and respect were related positively with the level of satisfaction in a group, and (e) cooperation, equal participation, and respect were not related to performance.
Temporal Quality Evaluation for Enhancing Compressed Video

This paper proposes a metric to quantify the effect of the video frame loss according to their impact toward perceived temporal quality. This metric utilizes information obtained from pixel domain and particularly aims at measuring the temporal video quality degradation caused by both regular and irregular frame loss. As one application, the proposed temporal quality metric is used to evaluate the benefit of adaptive thresholding in frame skipping algorithms at the encoder. Temporal quality metric shows high prediction accuracy compared to subjective quality evaluation. Furthermore, it is shown by the experimental results that proposed temporal quality metric precisely differentiates between different frame skipping approaches and can be effectively used to evaluate them. With the help of the proposed quality metric, encoders can be designed to drop frames effectively with minimal perceptual video quality degradation.
Psychometric Properties of a Primary Care Mental Health Screening Tool for Young Children

The purpose of this article is to examine the psychometric properties of the Primary Care Mental Health Screener (PCMHS; Hartung & Lefler, 2010) for children. Fifty-eight parent–child dyads with children ages 3 to 8 were recruited. Child participants were administered IQ and achievement measures, and parents completed the screening tool and multiple measures of emotional, behavior, and social functioning. Receiver Operating Characteristic analyses suggest that the PCMHS has promising psychometric properties for several common clinical disorders (i.e., attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, oppositional defiant disorder, and anxiety). The PCMHS is a promising new screening tool. Implications, limitations, and future directions for research on children's mental health screening are discussed.
Towards Fog-Free In-Vehicle Vision Systems through Contrast Restoration

In foggy weather, the contrast of images grabbed by in-vehicle cameras in the visible light range is drastically degraded, which makes the current applications very sensitive to weather conditions. An onboard vision system should take fog effects into account. The effects of fog varies across the scene and are exponential with respect to the depth of scene points. Because it is not possible in this context to compute the road scene structure beforehand contrary to fixed camera surveillance, a new scheme is proposed. Weather conditions are first estimated and then used to restore the contrast according to a scene structure which is inferred a priori and refined during the restoration process. Based on the aimed application, different algorithms with increasing complexities are proposed. Results are presented using sample road scenes under foggy weather and assessed by computing the contrast before and after restoration.
Clinical effectiveness, toxicity, and failure patterns of helical tomotherapy for postoperative oral cavity cancer patients

Background The outcome of postoperative high- and intermediate-risk oral cavity cancer (OCC) patients receiving helical tomotherapy (HT) remains limited. Materials and methods Between November 2006 and November 2012, 53 postoperative high- and intermediate-risk OCC patients treated with HT were enrolled. Results The 4-year locoregional, local, and regional control rates were 66%, 76.4%, and 94.3%, respectively. The 4-year locoregional control rates of oral tongue and buccal mucosa cancer were 88.3% and 37.1%, respectively (P=0.012). Eleven (20.8%) patients experienced locoregional failure. In-field failure occurred in six of 53 (11.3%) in the primary area and three of 53 (5.7%) in the regional lymph-node area. No marginal failure was noted. Two of 53 (3.8%) experienced out-of-field failure. The rates of grade 3 dermatitis, mucositis, and dysphagia were 11%, 34%, and 13%, respectively. No grade 3 xerostomia was noted. Grade 2 xerostomia was 33% at month 6 and declined to 0 at month 48. A rate of 56% of grade 2 trismus at month 6 was noted, and declined to around 30% after 2 years. No grade 3 trismus was noted after 2 years. Conclusion HT as a postoperative modality provided satisfying results, especially for xerostomia and trismus, and was impressive in high- and intermediate-risk OCC patients receiving postoperative HT.
Leading from Intermediary Positions: First-line Administrators' Experiences of their Occupational Role and Situation

The aim of this study was to illuminate how first-line administrators in healthcare organizations perceive their occupational role and situation. Interviews were conducted with eight first-line administrators in healthcare environments (five women and three men). Five were registered nurses, one was an occupational therapist, one a physiotherapist and one had a degree in logopaedics. A semi-structured formula with broad open-ended questions was used for the personal interviews. A qualitative interpretive method was used in the analysis. The analysis resulted in three categories describing the perceived role and situation of being a first-line administrator, namely, "developing strategies to manage the leadership role", "being part of an organizational culture characterized by traditional values", and "treading a fine line and striving to manage the balancing act". The results from this study indicate that there is a need to support this group of leaders with training adjusted to the role and situation of leading from intermediary positions in organizations.
Insight into the mechanism of polyphenols on the activity of HMGR by molecular docking

Statins are hypolipidemic drugs that are effective in the treatment of hypercholesterolemia by attenuating cholesterol synthesis in the liver via competitive inhibition of 3-hydroxy-3-methylglutaryl-coenzyme A (HMG-CoA) reductase. Recently, dietary changes associated with drug therapy have garnered attention as novel drugs to mitigate or ameliorate hypercholesterolemia. The present study was undertaken to observe different dietary polyphenols that can bind to the active site of HMGR and inhibit it. Results from the 12 dietary polyphenols tested reveal that polyphenols can bind to HMGR and block the binding of nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADP+). We observed that the rigidity of phenolic rings prevents the polyphenols from docking to the enzyme activity site. The presence of an ester linkage between the phenolic rings in (–)-epigallocatechin-3-gallate (EGCG) and the alkyl chain in curcumin allows them to orient in the active site of the HMGR and bind to the catalytic residues. EGCG and curcumin showed binding to the active site residues with a low GRID score, which may be a potential inhibitor of HMGR. Kaempferol showed binding to HMG-CoA, but with low binding affinity. These observations provide a rationale for the consistent hypolipidemic effect of EGCG and curcumin, which has been previously reported in several epidemiological and animal studies. Therefore, this study substantiates the mechanism of polyphenols on the activity of HMGR by molecular docking and provides the impetus for drug design involving further structure–function relationship studies.
Effects of steroids and verapamil on P-glycoprotein ATPase activity: progesterone, desoxycorticosterone, corticosterone and verapamil are mutually non-exclusive modulators.

P-glycoprotein (P-gp) is a membranous ATPase responsible for the multidrug resistance (MDR) phenotype. Using membrane vesicles prepared from the highly resistant cell line DC-3F/ADX we studied the influence of P-gp ATPase activity of four progesterone derivatives which specifically bind to P-gp and reverse MDR. Progesterone and desoxycorticosterone stimulate P-gp ATPase activity with, respectively, apparent concentrations giving half-maximal activation of 20-25 microM and 40-50 microM, and activation factors of 2.3 (at 100 microM progesterone) and 1.8 (at 170 microM desoxycorticosterone). Hydrocortisone above 100 microM stimulates P-gp ATPase activity while corticosterone has no apparent stimulating effect. Our data are consistent with the location of the binding sites for the progesterone derivatives on the P-gp membranous domain. The effects of these steroids on verapamil-stimulated P-gp ATPase activity support a non-competitive mechanism, i.e. the binding sites for verapamil and steroids are mutually non-exclusive for P-gp ATPase modulation. A similar non-competitive inhibition of progesterone-stimulated P-gp ATPase activity by desoxycorticosterone or by corticosterone leads to the conclusion that these steroids, although sharing related structures, have distinct modulating sites on P-gp. As expected from their mutually non-exclusive interactions on P-gp, progesterone and verapamil when mixed induce a synergistic modulation of P-gp ATPase activity. Since drug transport by P-gp is believed to be coupled to its ATPase activity, a corresponding synergistic effect of these two modulators for the inhibition of P-gp-mediated drug resistance can be expected.
Developing Strong Helping Alliances in Family Reunification

The development of positive working relationships with clients has been a hallmark of the social work profession since its inception. More recently there has been a resurgence of interest in both measuring the dimensions of the working relationships and the processes through which these relationships are formed. This article reports findings on working relationships from a comprehensive evaluation of a family reunification program that used multiple approaches to study these relationships. These overlapping findings are discussed in the context of program elements that fostered engagement and the maintenance of positive working relationships between clients and staff.
Curious vision system for autonomous object learning

We present a “curious” active vision system for a humanoid robot that autonomously explores its environment and learns object representations without any human assistance. Similar to an infant, who is intrinsically motivated to seek out new information, our system is endowed with an attention and learning mechanism designed to search for new information that has not been learned yet. Our method can deal with dynamic changes of object appearance which are incorporated into the object models. Our experiments demonstrate improved learning speed and accuracy through curiosity-driven learning.
The Orange Order: Parades, other Rituals, and Their Outcomes

Abstract This study investigates the ritualized practices engaged in by members of the Orange Order in Northern Ireland and how participating in such activities affects group members and that society; for example, how rituals such as parading contribute to the beliefs and ultimately the power of the Orange Order. This study contributes to a growing body of work dealing with the relationship between ritual, symbolism, and power in modern society, in this case Northern Ireland. We employ structural ritualization theory to analyze the overall rank or strength of ritualized activities engaged in by members of the Orange Order. Based upon observational data, interviews, and the analysis of documents, we conclude that the rituals engaged in by members of the Orange Order are highly ranked, ritualized, symbolic practices. We further suggest that these practices express several themes; preliminary evidence suggests that these themes lead to outcomes that affect the Orange Order and Northern Irish society generally.