Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Screening for PTSD and depression in Bosnia and Herzegovina: validating the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist

This study aimed to test the validity of the Harvard Trauma Questionnaire (HTQ) and the Hopkins Symptom Checklist-25 (HSCL-25) in screening for post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD) and major depressive disorder (MDD), respectively, in primary healthcare centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina. Validating interviews were conducted with 180 randomly selected primary care patients in Middle Bosnia. Statistical analysis performed to assess diagnostic accuracy, sensitivity and specificity of the diagnostic materials revealed an optimal cut-off points of 2.06 on the HTQ for the diagnosis of PTSD and 1.8 on the HSCL-25 for the diagnosis of MDD. The HTQ and HSCL-25 are accurate and useful for identifying PTSD and MDD in primary care centers in Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Pelizaeus‐Merzbacher disease: Three novel mutations and implication for locus heterogeneity

We report a mutational and polymorphic analysis of the proteolipid protein gene in members of 27 Japanese families with Pelizaeus‐Merzbacher disease. We found causative mutations in 6 members of 27 families (22.2%); 5 of the 6 mutations, including two novel mutations, Leu45Arg and 231 + 2T → G, resulted in the typically severe clinical symptoms. Paradoxically, the Cys219Tyr mutation, presumed to disrupt the tertiary structure of proteolipid protein by removing the disulfide bond between Cys200 and Cys219, was associated with a mild clinical presentation wherein the patient could walk with assistance and speak. It was inferred that the structural change prevented the toxicity associated with a gain of function mutation. Moreover, in one family 3 patients exhibited a intragenic polymorphism that did not segregate with the disease, suggesting a locus heterogeneity for Pelizaeus‐Merzbacher disease. Ann Neurol 1999;45:59–64
Energy-Efficient Multi-Stream Carrier Aggregation for Heterogeneous Networks in 5G Wireless Systems

Multi-stream carrier aggregation (MSCA) has been recently proposed as a mechanism to increase the amount of bandwidth available to users for heterogeneous networks (HetNets) in 5G wireless systems. Previous studies have focused only on maximizing the network capacity and fairness, without considering the energy efficiency of the MSCA. In this paper, the use of MSCA to minimize the energy consumption in a multi-layer HetNet is studied. The convexity of the energy minimization problem is examined, leading to the need of a quasi-convex relaxation. With this approximation, an algorithm bisection method for energy minimization is designed to solve the energy minimization problem and obtains an optimum cell-association policy. Since the operators are generally interested in a balance between the energy minimization and capacity maximization, such multi-objective optimization is needed, and we studied it in this paper. The two aforementioned conflicting objectives can be jointly analyzed and solved through scalarization, even though the energy minimization has a quasi-convex objective function, and not a convex one. Performance evaluation is provided to identify the achievable energy savings of our proposed algorithm and to characterize the tradeoffs between the energy minimization and capacity maximization in a multi-layer HetNet in 5G systems that support MSCA.
Offline optimized pulse pattern with a view to reducing DC-link capacitor application to a starter generator

In an embedded application, electrical equipments are connected to the onboard network. In order to avoid any dysfunction, the DC-link voltage has to be as constant as possible. To achieve this purpose, a high capacitance is inserted in parallel to the network. This paper shows relationship between DC-link voltage ripple and DC-link current ripple by using a simplified equivalent scheme of the onboard network. Control of the DC-link current permits a reduction in the capacitor's size without increasing significantly the DC-link voltage ripple. An optimal pulse width modulation (PWM) strategy is proposed to control DC-link current harmonics. The general equation system and the numerical computation of simple examples are developed in this paper. A starter generator application embedded in an automotive vehicle is used to illustrate our work.
Toward orthogonal non-individualised head-related transfer functions for forward and backward directional sound: cluster analysis and an experimental study

Individualised head-related transfer functions (HRTFs) have been shown to accurately simulate forward and backward directional sounds. This study explores directional simulation for non-individualised HRTFs by determining orthogonal HRTFs for listeners to choose between. Using spectral features previously shown to aid forward–backward differentiation, 196 non-individualised HRTFs were clustered into six orthogonal groups and the centre HRTF of each group was selected as representative. An experiment with 15 listeners was conducted to evaluate the benefits of choosing between six centre-front and six centre-back directional sounds rather than the single front/back sounds produced by MIT-KEMAR HRTFs. Sound localisation error was significantly reduced by 22% and 65% of listeners reduced their front–back confusion rates. The significant reduction was maintained when the number of HRTFs was reduced from six to five. This represents a preliminary success in bridging the gap between individual and non-individual HRTFs for applications such as spatial surround sound systems. Statement of Relevance:Due to different pinna shapes, directional sound stimuli generated by non-individualised HRTFs suffer from serious front–back confusion. The reported work demonstrates a way to reduce front–back confusion for centre-back sounds generated from non-individualised HRTFs.
Combining Level-3 Features with Perspiration Pattern: Extended Database Results

Level-3 fingerprint features from fingerprint images like pores are difficult to capture and detect, and involve high resolution scanners with higher dpi count. However, these features provide finer information about a fingerprint characteristics. Furthermore, fingerprint pores may be useful in determining liveness of fingerprint in order to prevent spoofing of fingerprint devices. In this study fingerprint pores along the ridges are used for fingerprint matching. Wavelet based fingerprint enhancement techniques are implemented to ease detection of the level-3 features. Delaunay triangulation based alignment and matching of the fingerprints is performed. The pores are checked for the liveness by perspiration activity in the time series captures. The developed matching scheme is tested for the high resolution data (Crossmatch 1000 dpi and Identix 686 dpi) for 114 live and spoof fingerprint classes. ROC is plotted and equal error rates of 1.27% and 3.32% were obtained for Crossmatch and Identix scanners respectively.
Prostate cancer in blacks: An update from the American college of surgeons' patterns of care studies

Data from the American College of Surgeons' prostate cancer surveys covering nearly a decade of experience demonstrate that the problem of prostate cancer is unique among black men in the United States. These data show that the distribution of stage at diagnosis changed across the 10‐year interval. The data indicate that there have been improvements in the 5‐year survival rates of both black and white patients, but the prostate cancer‐specific survival of black patients remains significantly poorer than that of whites.
Statistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis

Praise for the Third Edition. an easy-to read introduction to survival analysis which covers the major concepts and techniques of the subject. Statistics in Medical ResearchUpdated and expanded to reflect the latest developments, Statistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis, Fourth Edition continues to deliver a comprehensive introduction to the most commonly-used methods for analyzing survival data. Authored by a uniquely well-qualified author team, the Fourth Edition is a critically acclaimed guide to statistical methods with applications in clinical trials, epidemiology, areas of business, and the social sciences. The book features many real-world examples to illustrate applications within these various fields, although special consideration is given to the study of survival data in biomedical sciences.Emphasizing the latest research and providing the most up-to-date information regarding software applications in the field, Statistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis, Fourth Edition also includes:Marginal and random effect models for analyzing correlated censored or uncensored dataMultiple types of two-sample and K-sample comparison analysisUpdated treatment of parametric methods for regression model fitting with a new focus on accelerated failure time modelsExpanded coverage of the Cox proportional hazards modelExercises at the end of each chapter to deepen knowledge of the presented materialStatistical Methods for Survival Data Analysis is an ideal text for upper-undergraduate and graduate-level courses on survival data analysis. The book is also an excellent resource for biomedical investigators, statisticians, and epidemiologists, as well as researchers in every field in which the analysis of survival data plays a role.
Limits to robustness and reproducibility in the demarcation of operational taxonomic units.

The demarcation of operational taxonomic units (OTUs) from complex sequence data sets is a key step in contemporary studies of microbial ecology. However, as biologically motivated 'optimal' OTU-binning algorithms remain elusive, many conceptually distinct approaches continue to be used. Using a global data set of 887 870 bacterial 16S rRNA gene sequences, we objectively quantified biases introduced by several widely employed sequence clustering algorithms. We found that OTU-binning methods often provided surprisingly non-equivalent partitions of identical data sets, notably when clustering to the same nominal similarity thresholds; and we quantified the resulting impact on ecological data description for a well-defined human skin microbiome data set. We observed that some methods were very robust to varying clustering thresholds, while others were found to be highly susceptible even to slight threshold variations. Moreover, we comprehensively quantified the impact of the choice of 16S rRNA gene subregion, as well as of data set scope and context on algorithm performance. Our findings may contribute to an enhanced comparability of results across sequence-processing pipelines, and we arrive at recommendations towards higher levels of standardization in established workflows.
EFFECTS OF NITRIC OXIDE ON HUMAN SPERMATOZOA ACTIVITY, FERTILIZATION AND MOUSE EMBRYONIC DEVELOPMENT

This study was conducted to investigate the effects of nitric oxide (NO) on human sperm activity, human sperm-oocyte fusion and mouse embryonic development. Results showed that various concentrations of NO synthase blocker, Nω-nitro-L-arginine methyl ester, did not affect sperm cell motility at 0, 1, 2 or 4 hr, respectively. In contrast, sodium nitroprusside (SNP) significantly inhibited sperm cell motility and caused apoptosis. The adversely dose-dependent effect was only observed if SNP was freshly prepared. Adenosine triphosphate reversed the hazardous effect of SNP on sperm activity/viability. Hemoglobin neutralized the adverse effect of SNP. In hemi-zona sperm fusion test, the number of sperm bound to the zona in the presence of 10−4 M SNP was significantly less than the control group. SNP at 10−4 M caused all mouse embryonic development arrest. 46% and 56% of zygote reached the blastocyst stage with the treatment of 10−6 M and 10−8 M SNP, respectively, while the control reached 70%. NO adversely affected human sperm activity, human sperm-zona binding and embryonic development. It would appear that high concentration of NO may potentially decrease fertility.
Stability of attachment styles across students’ romantic relationships, friendships and family relations

115 The term attachment is usually used to refer to the relationship between a mother and a child. That is, indeed, the basic example of attachment if the mother is the one who takes care of the child. But, a child can also be attached to the father, grandmother, grandfather, and later to friends, a partner and other people with whom the child may be in a long emotional relationship, regardless of its quality. Bowlby (1969) defines attachment as an affective relationship characterized by a tendency to demand and retain closeness with certain persons, especially when an individual is under stress. Attachment is formed in infancy between a child and a person or persons taking care of the child, which, in most cases, is the mother. Depending on the mother’s behavior towards the newborn, the quality of their relationship, the mother’s noticing of the child’s signals and their correct interpretation, adequate responding, care and gentleness, three types of the child’s attachment to the mother are formed: secure attachment, avoidant attachment, or anxious-ambivalent attachment (Ainsworth, Blehar, Waters, & Wall, 1978). If the mother notices the child’s signals, interprets them correctly and responds adequately, with care and gentleness, her child will develop the secure attachment style. On the other hand, if the mother is cold and does not respond to the child’s needs, the child will develop the avoidant attachment style. Finally, the mother who sometimes responds to her child’s needs with warmth and care, and sometimes coldly ignores them, will probably have a child with the anxiousambivalent attachment style. Although the attachment theory emerged as an explanation of the emotional relationship between a child and a caregiver, Bowlby (1969) thinks that the same attachment style system exists and functions throughout the individual’s lifetime. Attached behavior becomes organized within one’s self as an internal working model that defines emotional relationships during one’s life. Namely, a child develops an internal working model based on the mother’s adeŽeljka Kamenov, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Humanities and Social Sciences, University of Zagreb, Ivana Lučića 3, 10000 Zagreb, Croatia. E-mail: zkamenov@ffzg.hr (the address for correspondence);
Programmed Cell Death Occurs Asymmetrically during Abscission in Tomato[C][W][OA]

This work examines abscission in tomato and finds that it is associated with programmed cell death and expression of the RNase LX, both of which occur on the distal side of the abscission zone, indicating asymmetric processes occurring during abscission. Abscission occurs specifically in the abscission zone (AZ) tissue as a natural stage of plant development. Previously, we observed delay of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) leaf abscission when the LX ribonuclease (LX) was inhibited. The known association between LX expression and programmed cell death (PCD) suggested involvement of PCD in abscission. In this study, hallmarks of PCD were identified in the tomato leaf and flower AZs during the late stage of abscission. These included loss of cell viability, altered nuclear morphology, DNA fragmentation, elevated levels of reactive oxygen species and enzymatic activities, and expression of PCD-associated genes. Overexpression of antiapoptotic proteins resulted in retarded abscission, indicating PCD requirement. PCD, LX, and nuclease gene expression were visualized primarily in the AZ distal tissue, demonstrating an asymmetry between the two AZ sides. Asymmetric expression was observed for genes associated with cell wall hydrolysis, leading to AZ, or associated with ethylene biosynthesis, which induces abscission. These results suggest that different abscission-related processes occur asymmetrically between the AZ proximal and distal sides. Taken together, our findings identify PCD as a key mechanism that occurs asymmetrically during normal progression of abscission and suggest an important role for LX in this PCD process.
Equatorial Pacific productivity changes near the Eocene‐Oligocene boundary

There is general agreement that productivity in high latitudes increased in the late Eocene and remained high in the early Oligocene. Evidence for both increased and decreased productivity across the Eocene-Oligocene transition (EOT) in the tropics has been presented, usually based on only one paleoproductivity proxy and often in sites with incomplete recovery of the EOT itself. A complete record of the Eocene-Oligocene transition was obtained at three drill sites in the eastern equatorial Pacific Ocean (ODP Site 1218 and IODP Sites U1333 and U1334). Four paleoproductivity proxies that have been examined at these sites, together with carbon and oxygen isotope measurements on early Oligocene planktonic foraminifera, give evidence of ecologic and oceanographic change across this climatically important boundary. Export productivity dropped sharply in the basal Oligocene (~33.7 Ma) and only recovered several hundred thousand years later; however, overall paleoproductivity in the early Oligocene never reached the average levels found in the late Eocene and in more modern times. Changes in the isotopic gradients between deep- and shallow-living planktonic foraminifera suggest a gradual shoaling of the thermocline through the early Oligocene that, on average, affected accumulation rates of barite, benthic foraminifera, and opal, as well as diatom abundance near 33.5 Ma. An interval with abundant large diatoms beginning at 33.3 Ma suggests an intermediate thermocline depth, which was followed by further shoaling, a dominance of smaller diatoms, and an increase in average primary productivity as estimated from accumulation rates of benthic foraminifera.
Relaxation and Purification for Nonconvex Variational Problems in Dual Banach Spaces: The Minimization Principle in Saturated Measure Spaces

We formulate bang-bang, purification, and minimization principles in dual Banach spaces with Gelfand integrals and provide a complete characterization of the saturation property of finite measure spaces. We also present a new application of the relaxation technique to large economies with infinite-dimensional commodity spaces, where the space of agents is modeled as a finite measure space. We propose a "relaxation" of large economies, which is regarded as a reasonable convexification of original economies. Under the saturation hypothesis, the relaxation and purification techniques enable us to prove the existence of Pareto optimal allocations without convexity assumptions.
REDISCOVERING THE ACT OF INTERVIEWING BY PHARMACISTS

Pharmacists and educators agreed (at the American Society of Hospital Pharmacists’ 1985 Hilton Head consensus development conference on directions for clinical practice in pharmacy) that it is more important to look at patient-care outcomes (i.e. the effect of the intervention of the pharmacist on the health of the patient) rather than just the functions pharmacists perform (1). In the process of providing patient-oriented care and assessing the outcome of that care, pharmacists must communicate with patients. Educators and practice colleagues encourage pharmacists and pharmacy students to embrace the concept of ‘patient-pharmacist communication’ in their practice, and that term usually implies that counselling patients about their medication takes place. I argue that the meaning of patient-pharmacist communication must go beyond the information-giving act of counselling; it should also include the information-gathering act of interviewing. Pharmacists and pharmacy students will collect both more and higher quality information if they realize the importance of interviewing in their practice and learning environments. One advantage of interviewing is that the information collected can help the pharmacist simplify the decision-making process when reviewing a patient’s medication regimen; the information is also useful when tailoring a subsequent counselling session for that patient. In addition, the act of gathering information accentuates the challenges pharmacists face in obtaining accurate information and reinforces the relevance of that information. I believe, therefore, that emphasis on pharmacists’ information-gathering skills, rather than on counselling, leads to a higher level of understanding about the difficulties in communicating with patients. Counselling is inherently easier than interviewing because pharmacists are expected to know the information that should be conveyed to patients or know where they can readily obtain that information. By focusing their energies on counselling techniques, pharmacists, students, and educators unconsciously reinforce the position of pharmacists as information-rich sources and pay little attention to patients as rich sources of information. Patient-pharmacist communication in both educational and practice environments should include equal emphasis on counselling and interviewing techniques.
Dynamic electromyography and muscle biopsy changes in a 4‐year follow‐up: Study of patients with a history of polio

Eighteen patients who had had polio 29–56 years prior to the first investigation were studied on two occasions, 4 years apart. Isokinetic and isometric strength measurements and Macro EMG were performed in 28 legs. Muscle biopsy specimens were obtained on both occasions from 11 legs. On average the muscle strength was 56% of control values at the first examination, and decreased by another 8% during the observation period. The muscle fiber area was increased compared to that of controls and did not change significantly. Macro EMG, comprising muscle fiber area and number of muscle fibers, and/or single fiber EMG showed clear signs of reinnervation in all legs. The motor units at the first examination were increased 11‐fold, on average, compared with age‐matched control values. During the observation period, reinnervation continued and the size of motor units increased by another 56% as a result of ongoing denervation, that is, loss of neurons. This compensation was particularly pronounced in patients with stable conditions. The parameters studied did not reveal any definite pattern predicting future development of new muscle weakness in individual subjects. © 1995 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.