Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Development of a Measure of Confidence in Delivering Therapy to People with Intellectual Disabilities.

UNLABELLED Current policy in UK health services emphasizes that, where possible, people with intellectual disabilities should access the same services as people without intellectual disabilities. One of the barriers to this is the confidence of clinicians and therapists. In this paper, we report on the development of a scale to describe the confidence of therapists in working with people with intellectual disabilities (the Therapy Confidence Scale-Intellectual Disabilities [TCS-ID]). One-hundred and eighty-one therapists who provided talking therapies but who did not work primarily with people with intellectual disabilities completed the scale; 43 people completed the scale twice for test-retest reliability purposes. One-hundred and seven people also completed a scale of general therapy self-efficacy. The TCS-ID has a single factor structure accounting for 62% of the variance, Cronbach's alpha for the scale is 0.93 and test-retest reliability is 0.83. There are significant differences in confidence based upon participants experience in working with people with intellectual disabilities and their therapeutic orientation, and there is a significant association between the TCS-ID and the General Therapy Self-efficacy Scale. Sixty clinicians working in mainstream mental health services received training on adapting their therapeutic approaches to meet the needs of people with intellectual disabilities. The TCS-ID was used pre-training and post-training and demonstrated a significant increase in confidence for all group. We suggest that the scale has good psychometric properties and can be used to develop an understanding of the impact of training for mainstream therapist in working with people with intellectual disabilities. KEY PRACTITIONER MESSAGE There is increasing emphasis on people with intellectual disabilities receiving services from mainstream mental health services. There is no research describing the experiences and outcomes of people with intellectual disabilities receiving mainstream talking therapy services. The confidence that clinicians have in working with people with intellectual disabilities may be a barrier to them receiving mainstream services. The Therapy Confidence Scale-Intellectual Disabilities is a psychometrically sound scale for measuring the confidence of therapists in working with people with intellectual disabilities and is a useful outcome measure for training clinicians to work with people with intellectual disabilities.
Electrotherapy in mice: dopaminergic and noradrenergic effects in the Tail Suspension Test

Summary— The Tail Suspension Test (TST) is a psychotropic screening test which is used principally to detect antidepressant activity. Electrotherapy (ECT) is used to treat depressions which are resistant to the usual antidepressant drugs and has proved to have a profile in the TST approaching that of antidepressants after treating mice at the rate of 2 shocks per day for 5 days. The results of a single treatment were not statistically different from those of the control group, whereas single daily treatment for 5 days showed a reduction in immobility which did not differ significantly from the control group. The reduction in immobility, induced by 5 days of ECT treatment twice daily, was antagonized by sulpiride and prazosine but not by yohimbine, methysergide, metergoline and DL propranolol. The results suggest that electrotherapy leads to an increase in noradrenergenic and dopaminergic activities expressed by a reduction in immobility in the TST.
Ecology and conservation of the Marbled Murrelet

This report on the Marbled Murrelet (Brachyramphus marmoratus) was compiled and editied by the interagency Marbled Murrelet Conservation Assessment Core Team. The 37 Chapters cover both original studies and literature reviews of many aspects of the species’ biology, ecology, and conservation needs. It includes new information on the forest habitat used for nesting, marine distribution, and demographic analyses; and describes past and potential effects of humans on the species’ habitats. Future research needs and possible management strategies for both marine and forest habitats are suggested.
Using Space-filling Curves for Computation Reordering

Space-filling curves have been widely used in mathematics and to transform multi-dimensional problems into one-dimensional forms. For scientific applications, ordering data or computation along spacefilling curves can be useful for exploiting locality when partitioning onto parallel systems or when restructuring to exploit memory hierarchy. In this paper, we present an efficient approach for enumerating points or mapping to points along space-filling curves. We introduce a new table specification, position specification, for mapping to points along space-filling curves. We discuss how this framework can be used for reordering computation. Experiments on three modern microprocessor based platforms show that our algorithm is up to a factor of 72 faster for enumerating points along a curve and up to a factor of 11 faster for mapping to points on the curve than a previous byte-oriented, non-recursive implementation.
Potential Involvement of Type I Interferon Signaling in Immunotherapy in Seasonal Allergic Rhinitis

Specific immunotherapy (SIT) reverses the symptoms of seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR) in most patients. Recent studies report type I interferons shifting the balance between type I T helper cell (Th1) and type II T helper cells (Th2) towards Th2 dominance by inhibiting the differentiation of naive T cells into Th1 cells. As SIT is thought to cause a shift towards Th1 dominance, we hypothesized that SIT would alter interferon type I signaling. To test this, allergen and diluent challenged CD4+ T cells from healthy controls and patients from different time points were analyzed. The initial experiments focused on signature genes of the pathway and found complex changes following immunotherapy, which were consistent with our hypothesis. As interferon signaling involves multiple genes, expression profiling studies were performed, showing altered expression of the pathway. These findings require validation in a larger group of patients in further studies.
Preconception Care: A New Standard of Care within Maternal Health Services

Emerging research suggests that much pediatric affliction has origins in the vulnerable phase of fetal development. Prenatal factors including deficiency of various nutrients and exposure to assorted toxicants are major etiological determinants of myriad obstetrical complications, pediatric chronic diseases, and perhaps some genetic mutations. With recent recognition that modifiable environmental determinants, rather than genetic predestination, are the etiological source of most chronic illness, modification of environmental factors prior to conception offers the possibility of precluding various mental and physical health conditions. Environmental and lifestyle modification through informed patient choice is possible but evidence confirms that, with little to no training in clinical nutrition, toxicology, or environmental exposures, most clinicians are ill-equipped to counsel patients about this important area. With the totality of available scientific evidence that now exists on the potential to modify disease-causing gestational determinants, failure to take necessary precautionary action may render members of the medical community collectively and individually culpable for preventable illness in children. We advocate for environmental health education of maternity health professionals and the widespread adoption and implementation of preconception care. This will necessitate the translation of emerging knowledge from recent research literature, to health professionals, to reproductive-aged women, and to society at large.
The Effect of Methadone Maintenance on Illicit Opioid Use, Human Immunodeficiency Virus and Hepatitis C Virus Infection, Health Status, Employment, and Criminal Activity Among Heroin Abusers During 6 Months of Treatment in China

Purpose:This study was designed to evaluate the effects of methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) on severity of dependence, depression, human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) and hepatitis C virus (HCV) infection, health status, employment, and criminal activity among heroin abusers after 3 and 6 months of treatment, compared with baseline, in China. Methods:A total of 102 methadone maintenance treatment (MMT) patients (87 men and 15 women; mean age, 36.1 years; standard deviation = 6.9) without major medical or psychiatric comorbidity participated in the experimental procedure. They were given oral methadone (maximum daily dose 80 mg, minimum daily dose 30 mg). Opioid use was assessed by twice-weekly urinalysis; HIV and HCV status were assessed by standard blood tests. Questionnaires were administered to assess blood-borne-virus risk behavior, severity of dependence, depression, health status, employment, and criminal activity. Changes over time were evaluated by 1-way analysis of variance (ANOVA) followed by post hoc t tests. Results:Opioid use was reduced from 26.7 days per month at baseline to 0.7 and 0.0 days at 3 and 6 months, respectively. No participant seroconverted to HIV and HCV positivity during the 6 months of MMT. Health status significantly improved, as did severity of dependence, depression, and criminal activity, after 3 and 6 months MMT. Conclusions:The results support the broad beneficial effects of MMT in China.
Towards Verifying Android Apps for the Absence of No-Sleep Energy Bugs

The Android OS conserves battery life by aggressively turning off components, such as screen and GPS, while allowing application developers to explicitly prevent part of this behavior using the WakeLock API. Unfortunately, the inherent complexity of the Android programming model and developer errors often lead to improper use of Wake-Locks that manifests as no-sleep bugs. To mitigate this problem, we have implemented a tool that verifies the absence of this kind of energy bugs w.r. t. a set of Wake-Lock specific policies using a precise, inter-procedural data flow analysis framework to enforce them. We run our analysis on 328 Android apps that utilize WakeLocks, verify 145 of them and shed light on the locking patterns employed and when these can be harmful. Further, we identify challenges that remain in order to make verification of Android apps even more precise.
Ranking objects based on relationships and fixed associations

Text corpora are often enhanced by additional metadata which relate real-world entities, with each document in which such entities are discussed. Such relationships are typically obtained through widely available Information Extraction tools. At the same time, interesting known associations typically hold among these entities. For instance, a corpus might contain discussions on hotels, cities and airlines; fixed associations among these entities may include: airline A operates a flight to city C, hotel H is located in city C. A plethora of applications necessitate the identification of associated entities, each best matching a given set of keywords. Consider the sample query: Find a holiday package in a "pet-friendly" hotel, located in a "historical" yet "lively" city, with travel operated by an "economical" and "safe" airline. These keywords are unlikely to occur in the textual description of entities themselves, (e.g., the actual hotel name or the city name or the airline name). Consequently to answer such queries, one needs to exploit both relationships between entities and documents (e.g., keyword "pet-friendly" occurs in a document that contains an entity specifying a hotel name H), and the known associations between entities (e.g., hotel H is located in city C). In this work, we focus on the class of "entity package finder" queries outlined above. We demonstrate that existing techniques cannot be efficiently adapted to solve this problem, as the resulting algorithm relies on estimations with excessive runtime and/or storage overheads. We propose an efficient algorithm to process such queries, over large corpora. We devise early pruning and termination strategies, in the presence of joins and aggregations (executed on entities extracted from text), that do not depend on any estimates. Our analysis and experimental evaluation on real and synthetic data demonstrates the efficiency and scalability of our approach.
Visual Processing of the Motion of an Object in Three Dimensions for a Stationary or a Moving Observer

A rate of change of relative disparity is a sufficient binocular stimulus for the perception of motion in depth. For motion within the meridian that contains the eyes, disparity change associated with approaching motion is processed through four channels, each tuned to a different direction of motion in depth. Directional discrimination is most acute but detection sensitivity falls to a minimum for a trajectory passing approximately midway between the eyes. This can be explained if discrimination depends on the relative activity of the four channels. Two binocular retinal-image correlates of the direction of the motion of an object in depth are the ratio between the velocities of the retinal images of the object in the left and right eyes [(dφ/dt)R/(dφ/dt)L], and the ratio between the translational velocity of the binocularly fused image and the rates of change of disparity [(dφ/dt)/(dγ/dt)]. Directional discrimination is possible by using the second cue alone. An isotropic rate of expansion of the retinal image is a sufficient monocular stimulus for the perception of motion in depth. There is no evidence that expansion is processed through channels tuned to the direction of motion in depth. Two monocular correlates of the direction of the motion of an object in depth are the ratio between the translational velocity and the rate of expansion of the retinal image of the object [(dφ/dt)/(dθ/dt)], and the ratio between the velocities of opposite edges of the retinal image [(dα1/dt)/(dα2/dt)]. Subjects are able monocularly to discriminate the direction of motion in depth with high acuity (better than 0.1 deg threshold) in the vertical, horizontal, or oblique meridians, even when the direction and the speed of translational motion are removed as cues. Visual discrimination of time to contact with an approaching object can be disconfounded from discrimination of its rate of expansion and vice versa with a threshold separation ratio of as much as 100:1.
Brain–Gut–Microbe Communication in Health and Disease

Bidirectional signalling between the gastrointestinal tract and the brain is regulated at neural, hormonal, and immunological levels. This construct is known as the brain–gut axis and is vital for maintaining homeostasis. Bacterial colonization of the intestine plays a major role in the post-natal development and maturation of the immune and endocrine systems. These processes are key factors underpinning central nervous system (CNS) signaling. Recent research advances have seen a tremendous improvement in our understanding of the scale, diversity, and importance of the gut microbiome. This has been reflected in the form of a revised nomenclature to the more inclusive brain–gut–enteric microbiota axis and a sustained research effort to establish how communication along this axis contributes to both normal and pathological conditions. In this review, we will briefly discuss the critical components of this axis and the methodological challenges that have been presented in attempts to define what constitutes a normal microbiota and chart its temporal development. Emphasis is placed on the new research narrative that confirms the critical influence of the microbiota on mood and behavior. Mechanistic insights are provided with examples of both neural and humoral routes through which these effects can be mediated. The evidence supporting a role for the enteric flora in brain–gut axis disorders is explored with the spotlight on the clinical relevance for irritable bowel syndrome, a stress-related functional gastrointestinal disorder. We also critically evaluate the therapeutic opportunities arising from this research and consider in particular whether targeting the microbiome might represent a valid strategy for the management of CNS disorders and ponder the pitfalls inherent in such an approach. Despite the considerable challenges that lie ahead, this is an exciting area of research and one that is destined to remain the center of focus for some time to come.
Fate of Trace Organic Compounds in Granular Activated Carbon (GAC) Adsorbers for Drinking Water Treatment

Granular activated carbon (GAC) adsorbers for drinking water treatment were operated for approx. 14 months and the breakthrough of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) and trace organic chemicals (TOrCs) was monitored. Effluent concentration profiles of gabapentin and valsartan acid increase already at throughputs of <10,000 BV. The corresponding breakthrough curves flatten out without reaching the influent concentration level. This strongly indicates biological degradation of these substances in the GAC adsorbers under aerobic conditions, contributing to a more efficient use of GAC. The observed biodegradation in pilot GAC adsorbers also confirms recent reports of biodegradation of gabapentin and valsartan acid during managed aquifer recharge. Oxypurinol is comparatively well adsorbed and no breakthrough was observed during the experimental period. Adsorption capacity and breakthrough characteristics of oxypurinol appear very similar to carbamazepine. Breakthrough of GAC adsorbers operated with drinking water was compared to those of groundwater-fed adsorbers. The results show, that it is generally advisable to use previously aerated influents for GAC fixed-bed adsorbers because this can substantially improve biological removal of otherwise poorly adsorbable compounds and ensure full GAC accessibility for adsorbates by avoiding the undesirable formation of inorganic precipitates on adsorption sites.
Performance Improvement of Sensorless IPMSM Drives in a Low-Speed Region Using Online Parameter Identification

This paper describes an approach in improving the performance of the position sensorless control of an interior permanent-magnet synchronous motor using parameter identification. The model-based sensorless method requires accurate motor parameters. At low speed, the resistance variation degrades the accuracy of position estimation. The identified parameter is used in the sensorless drive system to improve the accuracy of position estimation. In this paper, the resistance is identified online, but the offline identified value of the q-axis inductance is used. The experimental results reveal the effectiveness of applying parameter identification to the sensorless drive system.
Assessing the Active Living Impacts of Urban Design Improvements: Brenham TX Main Street Program

Literature search indicates that Main Street Program (MSP) is considered to be successful in achieving the goals of ‘preferred place to live’ and ‘increased active living’. The four point approach of MSP, (organization, promotion, design and economic restructuring) reportedly improves businesses by improving the urban character while allegedly improving active living. This paper focuses on the urban improved areas under the MSP. This research links observable design changes incorporated in the MSP of Brenham TX with identified characteristics of active living. Time constraints prevented collecting sufficient data for a statistically significant study. However a framework is hereby established for future work that more rigorously links MSP and active living for statistical analysis. Preliminary conclusions are drawn based on analysis of the limited available data.
Effect of minCD on FtsZ Ring Position and Polar Septation in Bacillus subtilis

ABSTRACT We examined the pattern of FtsZ localization in a Bacillus subtilis minCD mutant. When grown in minimal medium, the majority (∼89%) of the minCD mutant cells with an FtsZ ring had a single, medially positioned FtsZ ring. These results indicate that genes in addition to minCD function to restrict the number and position of FtsZ rings. When grown in rich medium, greater than 50% of the minCD mutant cells had multiple FtsZ rings, indicating significant differences in regulation of FtsZ ring formation based on growth medium.
XePtance: Supporting Distributed Acceptance Tests in Extreme Programming Projects

Acceptance tests are of major importance for the successful roll-out of new software products. Any brilliantly engineered software unable to suit the user’s expectations will fail in practice. Tight time-to-market and limited resources makes acceptance testing difficult. This is especially true if multiple locations for development and testing are concerned. We argue that a solution must allow an off-site customer to test the software in question whenever he finds the time to do so. This requires tool support as well as simplicity in design. Within these constraints, we propose on a framework and elaborate on a prototypical software solution that facilitates distributed acceptance testing in Extreme Programming projects. We utilize technologies to allow the deployment over the internet even in strictly organized company networks. We provide further evidence of the feasibility by deploying the software prototype to evaluate the design.
User Language Behavior , Domain Knowledge , and Conversation Context in Automatic Word Acquisition for Situated Dialogue in a Virtual World

To tackle the vocabulary problem in conversational systems, previous work has applied unsupervised learning approaches on co-occurring speech and eye gaze during interaction to automatically acquire new words. Although these approaches have shown promise, several issues related to human language behavior and human-machine conversation have not been addressed. First, psycholinguistic studies have shown certain temporal regularities between human eye movement and language production. While these regularities can potentially guide the acquisition process, they have not been incorporated in the previous unsupervised approaches. Second, conversational systems generally have an existing knowledge base about the domain and vocabulary. While the existing knowledge can potentially help bootstrap and constrain the acquired new words, it has not been incorporated in the previous models. Third, eye gaze could serve different functions in human-machine conversation. Some gaze streams may not be closely coupled with speech stream, and thus are potentially detrimental to word acquisition. Automated recognition of closely-coupled speech-gaze streams based on conversation context is important. To address these issues, we developed new approaches that incorporate user language behavior, domain knowledge, and conversation context in word acquisition. We evaluated these approaches in the context of situated dialogue in a virtual world. Our experimental results have shown that incorporating the above three types of contextual information significantly improves word acquisition performance.
A novel three-dimensional wideband active frequency selective surface unit-cell

In this paper, a new three-dimensional active frequency selective surface unit-cell is presented. The unit-cell is distinguished by its wide bandwidth for both the reflective and transparent states. The active frequency selective surface is switched by a PIN diode located at the center of the unit-cell. The frequency of operation is in the range of 4.053 - 6.926 GHz. The unit-cell achieves a bandwidth of 2.873 GHz with more than 90% power reflected in the reflective state and more than 83% power transmitted in the transparent state.