Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The quality of mental health literacy measurement tools evaluating the stigma of mental illness: a systematic review

Aims. Stigma of mental illness is a significant barrier to receiving mental health care. However, measurement tools evaluating stigma of mental illness have not been systematically assessed for their quality. We conducted a systematic review to critically appraise the methodological quality of studies assessing psychometrics of stigma measurement tools and determined the level of evidence of overall quality of psychometric properties of included tools. Methods. We searched PubMed, PsycINFO, EMBASE, CINAHL, the Cochrane Library and ERIC databases for eligible studies. We conducted risk-of-bias analysis with the Consensus-based Standards for the Selection of Health Measurement Instruments checklist, rating studies as excellent, good, fair or poor. We further rated the level of evidence of the overall quality of psychometric properties, combining the study quality and quality of each psychometric property, as: strong, moderate, limited, conflicting or unknown. Results. We identified 117 studies evaluating psychometric properties of 101 tools. The quality of specific studies varied, with ratings of: excellent (n = 5); good (mostly on internal consistency (n = 67)); fair (mostly on structural validity, n = 89 and construct validity, n = 85); and poor (mostly on internal consistency, n = 36). The overall quality of psychometric properties also varied from: strong (mostly content validity, n = 3), moderate (mostly internal consistency, n = 55), limited (mostly structural validity, n = 55 and construct validity, n = 46), conflicting (mostly test–retest reliability, n = 9) and unknown (mostly internal consistency, n = 36). Conclusions. We identified 12 tools demonstrating limited evidence or above for (+, ++, +++) all their properties, 69 tools reaching these levels of evidence for some of their properties, and 20 tools that did not meet the minimum level of evidence for all of their properties. We note that further research on stigma tool development is needed to ensure appropriate application.
Performance of a New, Rapid Assay for Detection of Trichomonas vaginalis

ABSTRACT Trichomonas vaginalis infection is highly prevalent, may have serious health consequence, and is readily treatable. However, screening has been limited by currently available tests, which tend to be insensitive, expensive, or require a delay before results are reported. The XenoStrip-Tv (Xenotope Diagnostics, Inc., San Antonio, Tex.) was evaluated on vaginal swab specimens from 936 women attending sexually transmitted disease clinics in Seattle, Wash. (n = 497), and Birmingham, Ala. (n = 439). T. vaginalis prevalence by culture (InPouch; Biomed) was 8.7% in Seattle and 21.0% in Birmingham. Compared to culture, the XenoStrip assay in Seattle was 76.7% (95% confidence interval [95% CI] = 61.4 to 88.2) sensitive and 99.8% (95% CI = 98.8 to 99.9) specific, and in Birmingham it was 79.4% (95% CI = 69.6 to 87.1) sensitive and 97.1% (95% CI = 94.8 to 98.6) specific. The positive predictive values were 97.1% in Seattle and 87.9% in Birmingham; the negative predictive values were 97.8 and 94.7%, respectively. Rapid test performance did not vary by vaginal symptoms or by the presence of other vaginal or cervical syndromes or infections. The sensitivity did vary by day of culture-positive result, with a 71% decline in XenoStrip sensitivity for every additional day delay until T. vaginalis was first detected in cultures (odds ratio = 0.29, 95% CI = 0.18 to 0.49). The rapid assay was more sensitive than wet preparation microscopy (78.5% versus 72.4% [P = 0.04]) but was less specific (98.6% versus 100% [P = 0.001]). The XenoStrip rapid assay is well suited for use in settings with a moderately high prevalence of T. vaginalis infection, particularly when microscopy is not practical.
Econometric Analysis of Timber Harvest Behavior and Potential Availability in North Carolina.

SINGH, NAVINDERPAL. Econometric Analysis of Timber Harvest Behavior and Potential Availability in North Carolina. (Under the direction of Robert C. Abt.) There has long been an interest in factors which affect the availability of timber inventory for harvest. The main objective of the thesis was to investigate the important factors that impact the timber supply and their effect on the availability. The study involved econometric analysis of timber supply in North Carolina. Binary logistic regression model was used as a statistical tool in this analysis. Timber harvest was formulated as a categorical variable. The model examined the harvest probabilities of forest inventory analysis plots across the study region. The investigation was based upon various biophysical, economic and location predictors. A theoretical model was formulated based upon the production theory and existing literature. The analysis confirmed the results from past studies that biophysical factors like softwood volume, species etc. have major impact on the harvest behavior. Additional variables used in this study as a proxy for age distribution (large tree proportion) and opportunity cost (housing price etc.) also exhibited significant relationship and hence improved the predictive power of the model. Based upon the estimates from econometric analysis the timber availability thresholds were investigated. © Copyright 2012 by Navinderpal Singh All Rights Reserved Econometric Analysis of Timber Harvest Behavior and Potential Availability in North Carolina by Navinderpal Singh A thesis submitted to the Graduate Faculty of North Carolina State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Science
ARTERIAL BARORECEPTOR RESETTING: CONTRIBUTIONS OF CHRONIC AND ACUTE PROCESSES

1 Pressure threshold (Pth) and suprathreshold pressure sensitivity (Sth) are important measures of the pressure‐discharge characteristics of arterial baroreceptors. An in vitro preparation of the rat aortic arch‐aortic nerve has been used to assess the influence of extracellular ion concentration, distensibility, smooth muscle activation and rapid resetting on single fibre baroreceptor discharge. 2 Changes in extracellular cations alter Pth and Sth in a reciprocal manner, suggesting that these two properties share common excitatory mechanisms probably at the level of membrane ion conductance channels. 3 During normal development and ageing in normotensive rats, Pth and blood pressure are fairly constant even during periods of greatly changing aortic distensibility. Sth increases progressively to maturity and then decreases somewhat with advanced age. 4 During hypertension, changes in distensibility in spontaneously hypertensive rats do not account for changes in Pth and Sth. 5 The capacity of arterial baroreceptors to rapidly reset during acute changes in the conditioning mean arterial pressure is not altered by chronic resetting, decreases in distensibility or by differences in the initial Pth or Sth of individual baroreceptors. 6 Within the maximal physiological or pathophysiological range, the prevailing or conditioning mean arterial pressure appears to be the most potent modulator of arterial baroreceptor discharge.
Sustainable Development Goal 4 and the Quality of Education in Zambia

The purpose of this paper was to know the sustainable development goal 4 and find out the quality of education in Zambia. The quality of education was measured by the number of primary and secondary schools, enrolment of students, dropout rate, the equity indicators â€“ gender parity index and student-teacher ratio and quality indicators like exam pass rate and infrastructure. The study concluded that the growth rate of schools under private/church/community was higher than the Government run schools during the study period. There prevails inequality between different provinces with regard to the availability of schools. The average annual growth rate in enrolment for grade 1-12 for female students was higher than the male students, whereas, in public universities the percentage of enrolment for male students was higher than female. The dropout rate was higher for female than male students, due to early pregnancy. The gender parity index increased due to the policy of the Government towards girls. To achieve the sustainable development goal for education, the study suggested that the teachers in rural areas should be provided better service conditions, education should be enhanced according to the needs of the economy and student loan scheme should be initiated by the banks and financial institutions.
Surfing the wave, cycle, life history, and genes/proteins expressed by testicular germ cells. Part 3: Developmental changes in spermatid flagellum and cytoplasmic droplet and interaction of sperm with the zona pellucida and egg plasma membrane

Spermiogenesis constitutes the steps involved in the metamorphosis of spermatids into spermatozoa. It involves modification of several organelles in addition to the formation of several structures including the flagellum and cytoplasmic droplet. The flagellum is composed of a neck region and middle, principal, and end pieces. The axoneme composed of nine outer microtubular doublets circularly arranged to form a cylinder around a central pair of microtubules is present throughout the flagellum. The middle and principal pieces each contain specific components such as the mitochondrial sheath and fibrous sheath, respectively, while outer dense fibers are common to both. A plethora of proteins are constituents of each of these structures, with each playing key roles in functions related to the fertility of spermatozoa. At the end of spermiogenesis, a portion of spermatid cytoplasm remains associated with the released spermatozoa, referred to as the cytoplasmic droplet. The latter has as its main feature Golgi saccules, which appear to modify the plasma membrane of spermatozoa as they move down the epididymal duct and hence may be partly involved in male gamete maturation. The end product of spermatogenesis is highly streamlined and motile spermatozoa having a condensed nucleus equipped with an acrosome. Spermatozoa move through the female reproductive tract and eventually penetrate the zona pellucida and bind to the egg plasma membrane. Many proteins have been implicated in the process of fertilization as well as a plethora of proteins involved in the development of spermatids and sperm, and these are high lighted in this review. Microsc. Res. Tech., 2010. © 2009 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Hot carrier solar cells: Controlling thermalization in ultra thin devices

From present day 40% conversion efficiencies to the thermodynamic limit (> 85%), there is still a lot of room for improvement. Hot carrier solar cells provide an attractive solution to fill this gap, by converting more efficiently the part of the incident power that is usually lost as heat. In those devices, the photogenerated carriers are not thermally equilibrated with the lattice. This occurs if the carrier thermalization pathways are saturated, either by reducing the electron-lattice interaction, or by increasing the carrier density. Antimony-based quantum well structures with 50 nm thick active material were synthesized for investigating their thermalization properties. The carrier temperature is determined as a function of the incident power density. Results indicate potential efficiency above 50% provided the incident power can be absorbed in a 50 nm thick absorber. Without specific care, reducing the absorber thickness would result in a reduced absorption and limited efficiency. Here, we propose a nanoscale structuration of the cell surface that enables strong absorption enhancement. 70 to 80 % of the incident power can be absorbed in a 50 nm thick GaSb layer. Going for high carrier density enables to lower the requirement on the cooling rate reduction. We show that using the structure described here and the thermalization rate measured on test samples, the potential efficiency is above 50%.
A delta-scatter Monte Carlo model of a rotating parallel-hole collimator for /sup 131/I brain tumor imaging

We investigate the collimator response and sensitivity of a lead rotating parallel-hole collimator (RPHC), 6.4 cm thick, with 1.45 mm hexagonal holes and 2.0 mm septa, designed to image 131I emissions (364.5 keV, 82%). The collimator is rotated to each of three positions during imaging to give data for three independent, offset hole arrays, filling the septal shadows in each array with data from the other two arrays. Collimator response can be incorporated into the reconstruction algorithm to improve image quality. Simple geometric calculations of collimator response do not account for Compton scatter. For 131I, the effects of downscatter into the photopeak from high-energy emissions (637 keV, 6.5%, and 723 keV, 1.7%) are not obvious. A Monte Carlo model incorporating delta scattering is used to investigate downscatter and primary transmission. For initial studies, a perfectly absorbing detector is used. The RPHC is modelled as plate a 6.4 cm thick, with photon path lengths chosen randomly using the attenuation coefficient of lead. For interaction points determined to be in holes, photons are allowed to continue unimpeded (delta scatter). This increases the number of path lengths generated, but greatly decreases the number of boundary intersection calculations. Point sources are modelled from 2.5 cm to 25 cm from the collimator both on and off of hole axes. At short distances, photons are seen through one hole or a small number of holes. As distance increases, changes in the response and sensitivity are clearly seen. Downscatter presents little problem, constituting less than 10% of the detected counts except when the point source is close to the collimator, and between holes, i.e., in the septal shadows. Data for these areas will be filled in as the collimator is moved to other rotational positions
Comparative investigation on power grid perturbations caused by DC-link converters and matrix converters

In recent years, the matrix converter has been discussed as a competitive alternative to the state-of-the-art DC-link converter. The matrix converter is considered to be superior due to the absent DC-link capacitor and therefore being fully integrable in silicon. Several publications deal with comparative views on power losses, efforts for realization or control strategies for both converter types. But the comparative study of the power grid's perturbation is a further viewpoint which has to be considered since both converters have to comply to electromagnetic compatibility standards. Therefore both converters are modeled with generic assumptions made on the switching functions and the modulation strategy to ensure a fair-handed basis of comparison. For both converters the spectrum influencing factors are identified and discussed.
Efficacy of neoadjuvant therapy and surgical rescue for locally advanced hepatoblastomas: 10 year single-center experience and literature review.

AIM To report our experience with long-term outcomes after multimodal management therapy. METHODS An observational retrospective study was performed containing seven patients with hepatoblastoma (Hbl) treated in our institution, a tertiary referral center, from 2003 to 2011. Demographic, preoperative, surgical, and outcome variables were collected. A survival analysis and a review of the current literature related to combination neoadjuvant chemotherapy and surgical resection on Hbl were performed. RESULTS The median age at surgery was 14.4 mo, with a male to female ratio of 4:3. Pretext staging at diagnosis was as follows: stage I, 4 cases; stage II, 2 patients; and stage III, 1 case. Mean pretreatment tumor volume was 735 cm(3). Five out of seven patients received neoadjuvant chemotherapy according to SIOPEL-3 or SIOPEL-6 protocols. Tumor volume and alpha-fetoprotein levels significantly dropped after neoadjuvant therapy. Surgical procedures performed included hemihepatectomies, segmentectomies and atypical resection. All patients received chemotherapy after surgery. Median postoperative hospital stay was 8 d. All patients were alive and disease-free after a median follow-up period of 23 mo. With regards to the literature review, seventeen articles were found that were related to our search. CONCLUSION Our series shows how multimodal management of Hbl, exhaustive control and a meticulous surgical approach leads to almost 100% complete resection with optimal postoperative results.
Can tangible assets be determinant in capital structure including profitability? Comparative analysis on the Hungarian and the French wine industries

ABSTRACT The main purpose of the study (This study is based on the previous work of the authors: Profitability and capital structure: An empirical study of French and Hungarian wine producers in 2004-2013. Business System Research, 7(1), 89–103, 2016) is to analyze the capital structure of the Hungarian and the French wine industries and to examine the funding models including that of the pledgeable assets rate for collateral. First, the database and the applied methods with the appropriate conditions will be described followed by an in-depth descriptive statistical analysis of a specific industry, namely, the wine industry in Hungary and in France. The analysis identifies the capital structure policy applied in the industry, evaluates its performance in terms of profitability and efficiency, and lastly defines the accessibility for external financing sources. The analysis examines the differences between the funding policies applied in the two countries, especially those variables that are the basis for the separation of the two branches. This was carried out by means of discriminant analysis, which indicates the financing characteristics. To draw a conclusion, the study revealed that the capital structure is significantly different in the examined countries, taking into consideration the profitability and the rate of assets that can also serve as collateral.
The Membrane-Proximal KXGFFKR Motif of α-Integrin Mediates Chemoresistance

ABSTRACT Cell adhesion-mediated drug resistance contributes to minimal residual disease and relapse in hematological malignancies. Here, we show that adhesion of Jurkat T-acute lymphoblastic leukemia cells to substrates engaging α4β1-integrin or α5β1-integrin promotes chemoresistance to doxorubicin-induced apoptosis. Reconstituted expression of α4δ, a truncated α4-integrin with KXGFFKR as the cytoplasmic motif, in α4-deficient cells promoted chemoresistance to doxorubicin in a manner independent of α4-mediated adhesion. The adhesion-independent chemoresistance did not require β1-integrin as the heterodimeric pair, since expression of Tacδ, a monomeric nonintegrin transmembrane protein fused to the juxtamembrane KXGFFKR, was sufficient to reproduce the phenomenon. The requirement for integrin-mediated adhesion in stimulation of Akt phosphorylation and activation was bypassed for cells expressing α4δ and Tacδ. Cells expressing α4δ and Tacδ exhibited a high influx of extracellular Ca2+, and inhibition of Ca2+ channels with verapamil attenuated the adhesion-independent chemoresistance. Tacδ cells also exhibited greater rates of drug efflux. α4δ and Tacδ interacted with the Ca2+-binding protein calreticulin, in a manner dependent on the KXGFFKR motif. Adhesion-mediated engagement of α4-integrins promoted an increased calreticulin-α4 association and greater influx of extracellular Ca2+ than in nonadherent cells. The α-integrin KXGFFKR motif is involved in adhesion-mediated control of chemoresistance in T cells.
Fabrication and characterization of GNR transmisson lines for MMIC applications

In this paper graphene nanoribbons (GNRs) are proposed as a new conductive material for monolithic microwave integrated circuit (MMIC) transmission lines to replace existing materials, because they have the potential to offer better performance. Multi-layered graphene films were grown on SiO2/Si wafers coated with Ni using chemical vapour deposition. Co-planar GSG electrodes of various widths and lengths were patterned on the graphene film using electron beam lithography (EBL) and wet chemical etching to form the transmission lines compatible with microwave wafer probes used in the measurements. The lines and the underlying SiO2/Si layers were then modeled as thin film co-planar waveguide (TFCPW) before characterization and their microwave behavior was simulated using CST Microwave Studio electromagnetic simulator. By curve-fitting the experimental results with simulation, graphene parameters were subsequently extracted. From I-V measurements the conductivity was found to be 2.89 × 107 S/m and scattering parameter measurements of the samples obtained at frequencies up to 20 GHz show that GNR has high potential for transmitting signals at GHz frequencies.
Design of a fully-differential double folded cascode class AB opamp with continuous time common mode feedback network for 12-bit pipeline ADC applications

This paper deals with a fully differential (FD) operational amplifier (opamp) consists of double folded cascode and class AB output with continuous time common mode feedback (CMFB) network. The opamp is designed in 0.18 μm CMOS technology in Cadence Spectre Circuit Simulator with 1.8 V supply. In this single supply, opamp has 117 dB gain, 65-degree phase margin, 72 dB common-mode rejection ratio (CMRR) for 2pF load with a power consumption of only 1.2 mW. This topology is more suitable for high-speed pipeline Analog-to-Digital converters (ADCs) with foreground calibration, when compared to conventional designs, enabling operation at higher clock frequencies as the class AB stage causes the slew limiting in the first stage and power dissipation is decreasing.
Sequence Analysis of the Escherichia coli dnaE Gene

Volume 171, no. 10, p. 5582, Fig. 1: The alignment between the dnaE genes of Escherichia coli and Salmonella typhimurium was compromised by an error in the E. coli sequence. When the corrected sequence (see erratum above) is used, the sequences align without the single-codon insertions following codons 159 and 180. In the revised alignment, there is one additional amino acid difference between the two proteins: residue 160 appears as glutamate in E. coli and as alanine in S. typhimurium.
Sustaining Rare Marine Microorganisms: Macroorganisms As Repositories and Dispersal Agents of Microbial Diversity

Recent analyses revealed that most of the biodiversity observed in marine microbial communities is represented by organisms with low abundance but, nonetheless essential for ecosystem dynamics and processes across both temporal and spatial scales. Surprisingly, few studies have considered the effect of macroorganism–microbe interactions on the ecology and distribution dynamics of rare microbial taxa. In this review, we synthesize several lines of evidence that these relationships cannot be neglected any longer. First, we provide empirical support that the microbiota of macroorganisms represents a significant part of marine bacterial biodiversity and that host-microbe interactions benefit to certain microbial populations which are part of the rare biosphere (i.e., opportunistic copiotrophic organisms). Second, we reveal the major role that macroorganisms may have on the dispersal and the geographic distribution of microbes. Third, we introduce an innovative and integrated view of the interactions between microbes and macroorganisms, namely sustaining the rares, which suggests that macroorganisms favor the maintenance of marine microbial diversity and are involved in the regulation of its richness and dynamics. Finally, we show how this hypothesis complements existing theories in microbial ecology and offers new perspectives about the importance of macroorganisms for the microbial biosphere, particularly the rare members.