Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
New Developments in Virtual Reality-Assisted Treatment of Aggression in Forensic Settings: The Case of VRAPT

Aggression is a known problem in individuals being cared for in forensic settings, yet the evidence base for its treatment is scarce. Virtual Reality (VR) has been proposed as a promising addition to interventions in forensic settings, as it may increase the motivation among participants, bridge the gap between real life, therapeutic and laboratory experiences, and increase the ecological validity of psychological research. Recently, a new treatment for aggression using VR as the treatment environment, Virtual Reality Aggression Prevention Training (VRAPT), was developed to provide realistic and safe environments for participants to practice aggression management. In its current revised version, VRAPT is conceptualized as a form of cognitive behavioral therapy with its theoretical background in the General Aggression Model. Its purpose is to increase awareness of, and improve control over, one’s own aggression and that of others through social interactions in individually tailored virtual environments. This manuscript describes how the lessons learned from the first randomized controlled trial of VRAPT have been applied to further develop the method and discusses challenges and future directions for VR-assisted treatment of aggression in forensic settings. VRAPT is a new psychological treatment for aggression and the coming years will provide expanded scientific evidence for further developments and adaptations.
The Effectiveness of Traditional Chinese Yijinjing Qigong Exercise for the Patients With Knee Osteoarthritis on the Pain, Dysfunction, and Mood Disorder: A Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial

Background: Although traditional Chinese Yijinjing Qigong Exercise (YJJQE) is popularly used in China, to alleviate symptoms of people with knee osteoarthritis (KOA), no randomized controlled trials (RCTs) are available to evaluate the effects of YJJQE in patients with KOA. The purpose of this trial is to assess the clinical efficacy of YJJQE for patients with KOA. Methods: A total of 50 participants clinically diagnosed with KOA are randomly (1:1) assigned to the YJJQE group (n = 25) and to the stretching training exercise (STE) group (n = 25), for a 40-min exercise session twice a week for 12 weeks. All outcome measures are collected at baseline and at 12-week ending intervention, which includes the primary outcomes of Western Ontario and McMaster Universities Osteoarthritis Index Scale (WOMAC), the secondary outcomes of visual analog scale (VAS), mental component summary (MCS), physical component summary (PCS), Beck depression inventory (BDI), perceived stress scale (PSS), Berg balance scale (BBS), and the Gait functional mobility data. Results: The YJJQE group did not have any significant changes compared to the control group on the WOMAC score after the 12-week intervention (P > 0.05), though the YJJQE group demonstrated better performance in MCS, BDI, and PSS (P = 0.002, P = 0.001, and P = 0.026, respectively) than the control group. No serious adverse events occurred in either group, and only mild muscle soreness was reported during both exercise treatments. Conclusion: Because no difference between both groups was shown, with regards to the primary outcome measurement (WOMAC), it can hardly explain that the YJJQE had an advantageous effect on patients experiencing the pain and dysfunction of knee osteoarthritis. However, compared to the control group, YJJQE appeared to be associated with improvements in psychological well-being including reduced stress, anxiety, depression, and mood disturbance to manage KOA. Further trials with larger sample sizes and follow-up studies will be required. Clinical Trial Registration: https://www.chictr. org.cn/edit.aspx? pid=60357&htm=4, ChiCTR2000037256.
URMC Universal Depression Screening Initiative: Patient Reported Outcome Assessments to Promote a Person-Centered Biopsychosocial Population Health Management Strategy

Background: Patient-reported outcomes (PROs) can promote person-centered biopsychosocial health care by measuring outcomes that matter to patients, including functioning and well-being. Data support feasibility and acceptability of PRO administration as part of routine clinical care, but less is known about its effects on population health, including detection of unmet healthcare needs. Our objectives were to examine differences in rates of clinically significant depression across sociodemographic groups and clinical settings from universal depression screens in a large health system, estimate the number of patients with untreated depression detected by screenings, and examine associations between biopsychosocial PROs—physical, psychological, and social health. Methods: We analyzed data from over 200,000 adult patients who completed depression screens—either PROMIS (Patient Reported Outcomes Measurement Information System) or PHQ-2/9—as part of routine outpatient care. Results: Depression screens were positive in 14.2% of the sample, with more positive screens among younger vs. older adults, women vs. men, non-White vs. White, and Hispanics vs. non-Hispanics. These same sociodemographic indicators, as well as completing screening in primary care (vs. specialty care) were also associated with greater likelihood of detected depression in the medical record. Discussion: Universal screening for depression symptoms throughout a large health system appears acceptable and has the potential to detect depression in diverse patient populations outside of behavioral health. Expanded delivery of PROs to include physical and social health as well as depression should be explored to develop a clinically-relevant model for addressing patients' biopsychosocial needs in an integrated fashion across the health system.
Turning the Knobs: The Impact of Post-translational Modifications on Carbon Metabolism

Plants rely on the carbon fixed by photosynthesis into sugars to grow and reproduce. However, plants often face non-ideal conditions caused by biotic and abiotic stresses. These constraints impose challenges to managing sugars, the most valuable plant asset. Hence, the precise management of sugars is crucial to avoid starvation under adverse conditions and sustain growth. This review explores the role of post-translational modifications (PTMs) in the modulation of carbon metabolism. PTMs consist of chemical modifications of proteins that change protein properties, including protein-protein interaction preferences, enzymatic activity, stability, and subcellular localization. We provide a holistic view of how PTMs tune resource distribution among different physiological processes to optimize plant fitness.
Paramylon from Euglena gracilis Prevents Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Acute Liver Injury

Acute liver injury (ALI) is a life-threatening syndrome with high mortality and lacks effective therapies. Rodents under LPS (lipopolysaccharide)/D-Gal (D-galactosamine) stress mimic ALI by presenting dramatically increased inflammation and cell death in the liver. Euglena gracilis, functioning like dietary fiber, is commonly used as a paramylon (Pa)-rich nutritional supplement that has various biological effects such as regulating immune system, anti-obesity, and anti-tumor. Here, we found that Pa or sonicated and alkalized paramylon (SA-Pa) alleviated the LPS/D-Gal-induced hepatic histopathological abnormalities in mice. Compared with Pa, SA-Pa had lower molecular weights/sizes and showed better efficacy in alleviating injury-induced hepatic functions, as well as the transcriptional levels of inflammatory cytokines. Moreover, SA-Pa treatment promoted M2 macrophage activation that enhanced the anti-inflammatory function in the liver, and downregulated STAT3 target genes, such as Fos, Jun, and Socs3 upon the injury. Meanwhile, SA-Pa treatment also alleviated apoptosis and necroptosis caused by the injury. Our results demonstrated that SA-Pa efficiently protected the liver from LPS/D-Gal-induced ALI by alleviating inflammation and cell death.
Generators of mammalian vestibular surface responses to head motion

The linear vestibular sensory evoked potential (VsEP) is thought to be the compound electrical response of peripheral macular neurons and central neural relays and as such used to directly assess macular function. The VsEP is used in animal research to study among other things the genetic basis of deafness and balance disorders. Although the neural generators of the linear VsEP have been described in the bird the precise central neural generators have not been documented for the mouse model. Because the mouse is such a valuable model in vestibular research it is important to clearly identify the peripheral and central generators of VsEPs in mice. In order to complete such studies various preface studies were completed to insure the accuracy of measurement with the generator studies. These studies included evaluation of VsEP response morphology with change in brain temperature; evaluation of drug on the VsEP response (i.e. Ketorolac); and the evaluation of stimulus duration on the VsEP response. During generator studies VsEPs before and after strategic surgical manipulations of vestibular pathways were recorded. This included isolation of the eighth nerve from central relays and destruction of central candidate neural generators. The extent of lesions was characterized histologically and changes in response components were documented. Response components critically dependent on particular peripheral and central structures were identified. These studies have increased the understanding of the neural generators of the VsEP and in turn enhanced the ability to assess peripheral and central vestibular function and detect vestibular disease.
Innovative artificial fog production device - A technical facility for research activities.

A new innovative fog production device has been developed in close cooperation with partners of a European project called “FOG” funded by the EU. It is set up in the fog chamber of the road and bridges laboratory at Clermont-Ferrand. Most of the activities of this laboratory are dedicated to road safety but the facility is open to any other activity, such as environmental research. The recent developments consist in setting up a controllable device able to produce stable visibility levels and homogeneous fog, representative of various types of natural water droplet distribution. The fog characteristics were determined and compared to natural fog. Results are presented for a selection of conditions including stabilized visibility levels for dense fog, less than 50 metres meteorological visibility and two kinds of droplet distribution.
International Journal of Sport Management, Recreation & Tourism The Commuting Profiles of the Principals: Their Views on the Surrounding Built Environment and Infrastructure of their Schools and the Factors that Affect the Active Commuting of Students to and From School

This study assesses the commuting profiles of the principals of the schools, their views on the built environment and infrastructure around schools and active commuting (non motorized transport) of students to and from school. 369 principals voluntarily participated in this survey. All principals held a position from either elementary, junior high schools or senior high schools, in the most populous prefectures of Greece (Attica and Thessaloniki) during the school year 2012-2013. The results confirm that there is inadequate safety of infrastructure such as dangerous intersections-roads, lack of pedestrian roads with limited car access in front of the school entrance etc. for the active commuting of students around schools. The majority of principals consider that it is important for students to walk or cycle for commuting to and from school but on the other hand, they do not apply it to themselves. Although half of them reside in a walkable or cycle-able distance within 2000m from their work, they commute to school by motorized means and do not set a good example for the students. Principals believe that is necessary to conduct courses or programs on road safety education in schools and suggest methods to enhance the active means of commuting. In this context they reacted positively in organizing an annual event day of active commuting to and from school. Future research will be able to use geographical information systems to assist in the implementation of targeted and safety networks around the school.
Gemotion Screen: A Generative, Emotional, Interactive 3D Display

One of the major goals of information display devices is to re-create, in addition to video and audio, three-dimensional (3D) worlds containing 3D shapes. In this study, we propose a 3D display system, which we call "Gemotion Screen" for presenting 3D worlds not simply as visual illusions, but as material that can be touched. A Gemotion Screen can be realized by the projection of high-definition images on a screen of varying shape. The features of such a device are the ability to dynamically depict 3D worlds, suitability for application to large screens, and the potential for physical interactions. The display can be used for cinema screens and even architectural applications. In this report we verify the potential of such screens as a new device capable of expressing the "presence" of objects and the natural "animacy" of living things.
Developing a method for estimating AADT on all Louisiana roads.

Traffic flow volumes present key information needed for making transportation engineering and planning decisions. Accurate traffic volume count has many applications including: roadway planning, design, air quality compliance, travel model validation, and administrative purposes. Traffic counts also serve as an important input in highway safety performance evaluation. However, collecting traffic volume on all rural non-state roads has been very limited for various reasons, although these roads constitute a great portion (60 to 70%) of road mileage in the roadway network of any state in the U.S. For example, out of 61,335 miles of roadway in Louisiana, 73% of the roadways are non-state roads. Due to limited resources, traffic volume information on non-state roadways has not been systematically collected in Louisiana. Generally, traffic volumes on these roads are fairly low, and vehicle-miles-traveled (VMT) on these roads is much less compared with that on interstate or arterial roads. Thus, regularly conducting traffic count is not economically feasible for non-state roadways. This study develops an annual average daily traffic (AADT) estimation methodology by using modern statistical and pattern recognition methods. By using available traffic counts on non-state roadway and four variables (namely: population, job, and distance to intersection and to major state highways at block level), a training set to estimate roadway AADT for eight parishes were obtained by a modified support vector regression (SVR) method. This pattern recognition method yields better AADT estimates than the conventional parametric statistical methods. Sensitivity analyses were also conducted in this study, which indicates a parish-specific model works better than an aggregated single model. With the estimated AADT, the Louisiana Department of Transportation and Development (DOTD) and local government agencies can make better decisions on funding allocations for safety improvement projects and pavement maintenance actions. The estimated parish-specific AADT on non-state roads can also improve statewide travel demand forecasting models and air quality assessment.
Computer and Internet Use among a Group of Sydney Seniors: A Pilot Study

ABSTRACTDespite popular conceptions of older people's technophobia, statistics show them to be one of the fastest-growing sectors of the Australian population to take up the Internet. Most Australian research on older people's use of computers and the Internet has focused on the barriers to their embracing technology, and ways to overcome obstacles. This paper reports on a pilot study, which instead centred on the motivations of older people who have adopted computers and the Internet, and reveals their trepidation but also their thirst for social interaction, their quest for pertinent information and their desire to keep up with the times.
High-Performance Voltage Controller Design Based on Capacitor Current Control Model for Stand-alone Inverters

This study proposes high-performance voltage controller design that employs a capacitor current control model for single-phase stand-alone inverters. The single-phase stand-alone inverter is analyzed via modeling, which is then used to design the controller. A design methodology is proposed to maximize the bandwidth of the feedback controller. Subsequently, to compensate for the problems caused by the bandwidth limitations of the controller, an error transfer function that includes the feedback controller is derived, and the stability of the repetitive control scheme is evaluated using the error transfer function. The digital repetitive controller is then implemented. The simulation and experimental results show that the performance of the proposed controller is high in a 1.5 kW singlephase stand-alone inverter prototype.
Proposal to NSF - Granted on August 31st 2006 Steps Toward The Reinvention of Programming A Compact And Practical Model of Personal Computing As A Self-Exploratorium

Intellectual Merits: A large number of the most important ideas and intellectual contributions of this system are new (or are non-mainstream ideas from the past that will appear new) disposed in powerful and often novel ways. Those we find particularly interesting are: how the bootstrapping is done, a “universal object” approach to end-user facilities, alternatives to “OS”, “apps”, “web”, etc., use of roles instead of inheritance, symmetric messaging and events, invertible processes, labeled histories, distributed objects, protection, separation of meanings from optimizations, coherence and persistence of meanings, instrumentation for many kinds of self-disclosure and explanation, new ways to program for end-users and adepts, etc. Broader Impacts: Most early learning of programming is done in a non-scalable way, somewhat equivalent to banging together a doghouse with nails and planks. What is learned doesn’t scale well by a factor of 5, let alone factors of 100+. Even more critical is that the deeper mathematics-like nature of the most powerful ideas in computing are poorly described and learned via papers: even if they are read, this is a difficult form for learning and understanding. We think that making a well designed system that is also instrumented to be learned, understood and changed could have a large positive impact on many areas of computing. It would constitute an example, and a kind of “the system is the curriculum” for learning many important powerful ideas, especially for teenagers, university students, and in the 3 rd world, where there is a pool of literally billions of potential computer users and authors, who could make great use of a simpler stronger approach to personal computing and explanation. Outline of the Proposal: 1. We start by giving an abstract of what we mean by “a whole personal computing system”. 2. Then we show suggestive examples of some of the design approaches we expect to take. 3. Some of the technical details and powerful principles will be discussed 4. Then we outline how we plan to go about making the system over a period of several years 5. We end with discussions of collegial relationships, education, dissemination, etc.
Scaffold-Based Tissue Engineering Strategies for Osteochondral Repair

Over centuries, several advances have been made in osteochondral (OC) tissue engineering to regenerate more biomimetic tissue. As an essential component of tissue engineering, scaffolds provide structural and functional support for cell growth and differentiation. Numerous scaffold types, such as porous, hydrogel, fibrous, microsphere, metal, composite and decellularized matrix, have been reported and evaluated for OC tissue regeneration in vitro and in vivo, with respective advantages and disadvantages. Unfortunately, due to the inherent complexity of organizational structure and the objective limitations of manufacturing technologies and biomaterials, we have not yet achieved stable and satisfactory effects of OC defects repair. In this review, we summarize the complicated gradients of natural OC tissue and then discuss various osteochondral tissue engineering strategies, focusing on scaffold design with abundant cell resources, material types, fabrication techniques and functional properties.
The impact of trust on social and financial capital acquisition: A resource integration perspective in minority-owned entrepreneurial organisations

Although effective resource integration is a critical requisite for entrepreneurial success, the literature suggests there are crucial gaps for minority entrepreneurs. We examine how interracial distrust (ID), an indicator of the extent to which minority entrepreneurs distrust other races, is related to internal and social capital. We examine the relationships of such capitals on the willingness to borrow from banks and friends, and explore the link with firm performance. Using a sample of 276 primarily African American entrepreneurs, we find support for most of our hypotheses. We find that ID is negatively associated with external social capital and a willingness to borrow from banks. Surprisingly, we found that ID had a negative effect on internal social capital and a willingness to borrow from friends. We also found that internal and external social capital was positively related to firm performance. We discuss the implications of some of these surprising research findings as well as the policy implications.
Synthesis of Hydrophilic Derivative Surfactants From Algae-Derived Unsaponifiable Lipids

In the context of decarbonizing the economy, the utilization of biologically sourced feedstocks to produce replacements for petroleum-derived materials is becoming more urgent. Improving renewable biomass production and utilization is imperative for commercializing future biorefineries. Algae-derived biomass is a particularly promising feedstock thanks to its attractive oil content and composition; specifically, the high-value products in the unsaponifiable lipids have not been included in a conversion process. Here we demonstrate surfactant synthesis from a complex oil fraction as the hydrophobic donor moieties, yielding products that are similar to commercially available surfactants such as the linear alkyl benzene sulfonates. Unsaponifiable lipids extracted from algae were derivatized to non-ionic surfactants using a green chemical synthesis route based on a double esterification with succinic acid and polyethylene glycol. The in-depth molecular and structural surfactant characterization is included and indicates that the resulting properties fall between those of pure cholesterol and phytol used as surrogates for the reaction synthesis demonstration. This is the first demonstration of an effective and potentially high-value synthesis of functional surfactants with properties that can be tailored based on the relative composition of the resulting hydrocarbon alcohol components in the mixture. This novel green chemistry synthesis approach provides a route to high-value product synthesis from algae.