Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Lessons learnt from ongoing counseling during follow-up visits by men and women attending a VCTC

Abstract. Documenting behavior change through ongoing counseling is critical when HIV counseling strategies are being formulated. This study aims to demonstrate risk reduction behavior in a year in the context of HIV related problems in men and women attending ongoing counseling at a Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre during their regular follow-ups. This is a descriptive study based on one year observation of 253 HIV infected men (112) and women (141) attending a Voluntary Counseling and Testing Centre for ongoing counseling of a research institute in Pune during six-monthly follow-up visits. A face to face interview using a 22 item semi-structured questionnaire administered after an informed consent to collect data on sexual history since last visit, condom use, HIV related problems etc. SPSS and Pearson’s chi-square test Association was used. The HIV infected ever married men (91%) and women (98% married including widows) have significant differences with respect to age, marital status, occupation (p < 0.01), and similarity in education. There is an increase in condom usage with spouse with advancing follow-up i.e. increasing dose effect through ongoing counseling is observed, it being statistically significant for men (P value < 0.004). Consistent condom use with other partners is reported by men and widows. The participants reported problems ranging from health, economic, social, support issues like stigma and concerns of future. Economic problems are reported in those having frequent follow-ups, being more in men than women (34%, 29% resp.). An ongoing counseling of follow-up participants is a useful opportunity to reinforce behavior change, demonstrated by safer behaviors, especially reduction in partners, consistent condom use with spouse and other partners. The problems faced by HIV infected require support of Non- governmental organizations to address their problems like alternative source of incomes, health care, children’s education, and women’s right to property etc. Networking of Non- governmental organizations for support, capacity strengthening including gender sensitivity should go hand in hand with ongoing counseling to bring sustained behavior change when other interventions are planned for HIV infected persons. Key words: Behavior change, consistent condom use, dosage effect of counseling, HIV infected widows, human rights, Stigma
Stress Corrosion Cracking in Metal Alloys Exposed to Acid-SO42- Chloride Type Geothermal Fluids

Stress corrosion cracking (SCC) is a materials failure caused by the simultaneous existence of stress, susceptible material and corrosive environment. Conventional geothermal wellbores producing high temperature (T > 180 oC) acid-SO42chloride fluids (pHave = 3.5) may be at risk of this damage especially when subjected to stressed condition such as intermittent shut-down and discharge activities. This study evaluated the SCC resistance in acid-SO42chloride geothermal fluids of six (6) types of metal alloys (i.e. J55, L80 Type-1, N06059, R53400, S32750, N08904) for potential use as casing material in geothermal wellbores. The field exposure test was conducted for 35 days using plastically deformed U-bend coupons. SCC susceptibility was measured through the appearance of a recognizable crack. Other SCC influencing factors like integrity of passive scales, surface discontinuity manifestations, test fluids chemistry and alloy composition were also considered. The SCC damage was diagnosed through gravimetric analysis, light microscopy, coupled environmental scanning electron microscopy – energy dispersive spectroscopy (ESEM-EDS), powder X-ray diffraction (XRD) and metallographic analysis. Field test results showed all alloys covered with passive scales of sphalerite (ZnS) possibly co-existing with galena (PbS), bornite (Cu5FeS4), magnetite (Fe2+Fe23+O4) and pyrite (FeS2). These were adherent, porous and likely precipitated from the geothermal fluids due to absence of Zn in the original alloy composition. J55 and L80 Type 1 carbon steels had no cracks but underwent piting and appeared the most corroded. Only S32750 and N08094 corrosion resistant alloys did not develop cracks or any surface discontinuities. Nickel base alloy N06059 acquired a crack from secondary carbide precipitation and crack growth from surrounding pits. The titanium base R53400 sustained a crack that grew either from surrounding pits or through cyclic process of film rupture, dissolution and film repair based on growth of sphalerite scales into the crack. The carbon steels and R53400 were also considered at risk of hydrogen induced cracking due to H2S presence and production of hydrogen and chloride ions during sphalerite scale formation.
RHIZOSPHERIC MICROORGANISMS FROM Hevea brasiliensis AND THEIR ANTAGONISM ON Rigidoporus microporus

The rhizosphere is one of the most complex environments that are influenced by plant roots and active microhabitat where plant roots and microbes interact. Composition of the rhizosphere microbiota can negatively or positively influence plant characteristics such as stress tolerance, health, development, and productivity. The present study aimed to select rhizospheric microorganisms which are antagonistic to Rigidoporus microporus, the causal agent of white root disease of Hevea brasiliensis. 53 rhizospheric microorganisms comprises of 38 bacteria and 15 fungi were successfully isolated from five different rubber growing areas in Malaysia and were tested in vitro against R. microporus using dual culture inhibition assay technique. 28 microorganisms comprises of 16 bacteria and 12 fungi showed an antagonistic activity against R. microporus with a range of inhibition between 20.57% and 87.52%. Dual culture inhibition assay is a simple and efficient technique for quick screening of antagonistic microorganisms. However, the limitation of using dual culture inhibition assay was the production of antimicrobial substances was only restricted around microbial colonies on the plate and no direct contact between antimicrobial substances with the pathogen. Dipped stick method provide direct interaction between antagonist and fungal pathogens. 19 antagonistic microorganisms were selected and undergo secondary screening process using dipped stick method. 17 antagonistic microorganisms showed an inhibition of R. microporus growth with a range 14.17 and 96.33%. The results from this study provide an encouraging basis for the utilization of biological control agent for an effective control of white root disease of Hevea brasiliensis.
Bacterial Communities in Women with Bacterial Vaginosis: High Resolution Phylogenetic Analyses Reveal Relationships of Microbiota to Clinical Criteria Seminar Report

This work represents a report on the study Bacterial Communities in Women with Bacterial Vaginosis: High Resolution Phylogenetic Analyses Reveal Relationships of Microbiota to Clinical Criteria by Srinivasan et al. In it we examine the wet lab and bioinformatics methods used to generate and analyze the metagenomic data. We give a special focus to taxonomic classification, a core concept in metagenomic studies as a whole. We also provide a short summary of the authors’ results and observations. We conclude the report by pointing out similar studies and their core differences.
Phenotypic and molecular study of carbapenem-resistant Enterobacteriaceae in a referral hospital in the East coast Malaysia

INTRODUCTION: Infections due to carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae have been increasingly reported worldwide and are causing significant health concerns. In this study, we investigated the occurrence of New Delhi metallo-beta-lactamase (NDM) carbapenemase-producing Enterobacteriaceae (CPE) in Enterobacteriaceae isolates from Hospital Tengku Ampuan Afzan (HTAA) and verified the presence of associated carbapenemases genes. MATERIALS AND METHODS: Standard antimicrobial susceptibility testing was performed to analyze the isolates' susceptibility pattern. Modified Hodge test was used to detect carbapenemase production. Genes associated with CPE were detected by standard polymerase chain reaction amplification with a series of established primers, followed by DNA sequencing. RESULTS: Out of 259 Enterobacteriaceae isolates, four Klebsiella pneumoniae isolates (1.5%) were found to be phenotypically carbapenem-resistant. NDM-1 carbapenemase was detected in three of the four isolates. Two of them were recovered from blood and the third strain was isolated from a urine sample. The three isolates were found to be resistant to all β-lactams antibiotics and the majority of other nonβ-lactam antibiotics. Meanwhile, all the isolates were susceptible to polymyxin B. They also carried other β-lactamase genes along with the blaNDMgene. Nucleotide sequence of the blaNDM-1gene showed no base variation with other NDM-1 sequences from the NCBI nucleotide database. CONCLUSION: The presence of NDM-producing K. pneumoniae in the HTAA is alarming and of serious concern due to the high-level resistance of this gene and the risk of an outbreak occurrence. Further studies to detect the genetic relatedness and clonality of these resistance organisms are highly recommended.
Tokyo behind Screens: Participant Observation in a City of Mobile Digital Communication

This paper critically discusses the method of participant observation (as ethnographic method and everyday practice), which consists of participation, observation and mediation, and suggests adjustments, through the lens of perception, which seem necessary in smartphone-saturated cities. The author argues that digital and material forms of mediation lead to different possibilities and limitations of sensory perception. These therefore need to be consciously acknowledged in the social production and construction of space and place. Through a focus on human perception, the challenges that individualised on-site media consumption provides to the concepts of participation, perception and mediation are discussed. In this regard, the interface, most prominently the screen, functions as a nexus that retranslates information through mediation back into the field of human perception. Mobile digital communication can therefore enrich the sphere of perception (at site), but what is digitally mediated is at the same time constrained by the technical and translational possibilities of the medium and the interface. The case study of the Shimokitazawa Curry Festival in Tokyo is used to show how participation, multisensory perception and mediation are practiced in an urban setting. The same case also provides empirical data concerning multisensory participation as a method that is facing new challenges through increasing mobile digital communication.
Unsupervised learning of depth estimation, camera motion prediction and dynamic object localization from video

Estimating scene depth, predicting camera motion and localizing dynamic objects from monocular videos are fundamental but challenging research topics in computer vision. Deep learning has demonstrated an amazing performance for these tasks recently. This article presents a novel unsupervised deep learning framework for scene depth estimation, camera motion prediction and dynamic object localization from videos. Consecutive stereo image pairs are used to train the system while only monocular images are needed for inference. The supervisory signals for the training stage come from various forms of image synthesis. Due to the use of consecutive stereo video, both spatial and temporal photometric errors are used to synthesize the images. Furthermore, to relieve the impacts of occlusions, adaptive left-right consistency and forward-backward consistency losses are added to the objective function. Experimental results on the KITTI and Cityscapes datasets demonstrate that our method is more effective in depth estimation, camera motion prediction and dynamic object localization compared to previous models.
Determinants of Income Diversification and Its Share to Total Household Income in South, Nations, Nationalities and People Region, Ethiopia

This paper examines determinants of income diversification and its share to total household income among rural farm households using cross sectional data collected from South, Nations, Nationalities and People Region, Ethiopia. The data were collected through using well-structured questioners. The study employed a combination of multistage and purposive sampling techniques in the selection of 420 rural farm households. Both descriptive statistics and rigorous econometric models were used to analyze the data. In regards to this, censored Tobit model was used to analyze the determinants of level of income diversification while Multinomial logit model was used to pinpoint factors influencing households’ decision to participate in various off-farm income diversification sources. The descriptive statistic result revealed that farm income sources are the most important income source for rural farm households in the study area, contributing 66% of total household income with the remaining 34% originating from off-farm income sources. The level of income diversification and household head participation in off-farm income diversification sources are found to be influenced by human capital related variables (sex and age of rural farm household head, education level of household head, family size, number of economically active family members and wealth status farm household head), livelihood assets (livestock holding size, size of total and cultivated land, farm and total household income, asset ownership and type of agro ecologic zone), institution related variables (household head access to credit, membership in farmers’ cooperative and experience on agricultural extension service) and infrastructure related variables (distance from market center and main road). Based on the findings, it is recommended that the policy makers need to consider these factors in the planning of farm and non-farm initiatives in the study area.
Using Mobile Phone Data to Reduce Spread of Disease

While human mobility has important benefits for economic growth, it can generate negative externalities. This paper studies the effect of mobility on the spread of disease in a low-incidence setting when people do not internalize their risks to others. Using malaria as a case study and 15 billion mobile phone records across nine million SIM cards, this paper causally quantifies the relationship between travel and the spread of disease. The estimates indicate that an infected traveler contributes to 1.7 additional cases reported in the health facility at the traveler's destination. This paper develops a simulation-based policy tool that uses mobile phone data to inform strategic targeting of travelers based on their origins and destinations. The simulations suggest that targeting informed by mobile phone data could reduce the caseload by 50 percent more than current strategies that rely only on previous incidence.
Enhancement of the Web Search Engine Results using Page Ranking Algorithm

 Abstract — As web is the largest collection of information and plenty of pages or documents are newly added and deleted on frequent basis due to the dynamic nature of the web. The information present on the web is of great need, the world is full of questions and the web is serving as the major source of gaining information about specific query made by the user. Search engines generally return a large number of pages in response to user queries. To assist the users to navigate in the result list, ranking methods are applied on the search results. Most of the ranking algorithms proposed in the literature are either link or content oriented, which do not consider user usage trends. In this paper, a page ranking mechanism called Page Ranking based on Visits of Links is being devised for search engines, which works on the basic ranking algorithm of Google i.e. PageRank and takes number of visits of inbound links of Web pages into account. This concept is very useful to display most valuable pages on the top of the result list on the basis of user browsing behavior, which reduces the search space to a large scale.
24 INFORMATION DIFFUSION AND RUMOR SPREADING

Modern societies understand the world, manifest different viewpoints, and test their objectiveness by exchanging information through direct communication or, in more recent years, through online social networks. On a larger scale, this process may also create consensus and mitigate social friction through public debate, two essential aspects of a healthy democracy. Information diffusion is often represented by pieces of information (e.g., news, scientific, or historical facts) that spread through a network. As for the network, that consists of interacting entities such as individuals, institutions (e.g., governments, authorities, or other organizations), and private entities (e.g., media, marketing agencies). The Internet era has offered new means to produce and share information through large-scale online social networks. The disposition of large amounts of data coming from diffusion traces has helped scientific research improve our understanding of diffusion processes arising in various disciplines, including sociology, epidemiology, marketing, and computer system security. However, the democratization of content creation and sharing has not been adequately coupled with effective (self-, collective, or automatic) moderation, correction, and filtering mechanisms. Consequently, the explosive volume of the available content brings forward huge challenges regarding the human capacity to process that fast-paced and gigantic information stream as well as regarding the technical aspects of data management. Our daily information diet tends to promote the variety in the content we consume to the expense of its precision and detail. During moments of crisis, the scarcity of trustworthy information and lack of time to analyze it lead to the proliferation of false rumors. There are also various psychological factors that impact the way we participate in this exchange. For instance, people get influenced by others, but also tend to search and recall information and facts that align with their already formed belief system (confirmation bias). Furthermore, users interact preferably with people of similar profiles and opinions (homophily), a tendency that greatly reduces the heterogeneity of the user’s perceived public debate. In addition, members of any online group receive social pressure to conform to a group’s beliefs; that tends to
Detecting Stress Based on Social Interactions in Social Networks

: Mental pressure is undermining individuals' wellbeing. It is non-paltry to recognize pressure opportune for proactive care. With the notoriety of online networking, individuals are accustomed to offering their day by day exercises and communicating to companions via web-based networking media stages,making it doable to use online informal community information for stretch discovery. In this paper, we find that clients stretch state is firmly identified with that of his/her companions in online networking, and we utilize an expansive scale dataset from certifiable social stages to efficiently think about the connection of clients' pressure states and social cooperations. We initially characterize an arrangement of stress-related literary, visual, and social qualities from different viewpoints, and after that propose a novel half and half model - a factor chart display joined with Convolutional Neural Network to use tweet substance and social communication data for push location. Test comes about demonstrate that the proposed model can enhance the discovery execution by 6-9% in F1-score. By additionally dissecting the social collaboration information, we likewise find a few charming wonders, i.e. the quantity of social structures of inadequate associations (i.e. with no delta associations) of focused on clients is around 14% higher than that of non-focused on clients, showing that the social
Impact of Motivational Interviewing on Self-Management in Patients With Type 2 Diabetes: Protocol for a Pilot Randomized Controlled Trial (Preprint)

BACKGROUND The nonpharmacological approach to diabetic control in patients with diabetes focuses on a healthy diet, physical activity, and self-management. Therefore, to help patients change their habits, it is essential to identify the most effective approach. Many efforts have been devoted to explain changes in or adherence to specific health behaviors. Such efforts have resulted in the development of theories that have been applied in prevention campaigns and include brief advice and counseling services. Within this context, motivational interviewing (MI) has proven to be effective in changing health behaviors for specific cases. However, stronger evidence is needed on the effectiveness of MI in treating chronic pathologies such as diabetes. OBJECTIVE This study will obtain preliminary data on the impact of a nurse-led MI intervention in improving glycemic control, as well as clinical, psychosocial, and self-care outcomes for individuals with type 2 diabetes mellitus when compared with usual care, with the aim of improving diabetic control in patients with diabetes. METHODS An open, two-arm, parallel, randomized controlled, pilot exploratory trial will be performed. Two government outpatient clinics in the New Territories West Cluster in Hong Kong will be involved. In total, 20 to 25 participants will be invited in each arm. Intervention participants will receive face-to-face MI interventions in addition to their usual care from the clinic. Control participants will only receive usual care. Outcomes are assessed at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months. The primary outcome measure is glycated hemoglobin levels. Secondary outcomes include blood pressure, BMI, hip and waist circumference, fasting blood, and psychosocial and self-care measures. RESULTS This study is currently underway with funding support from the Hong Kong College of Family Physician Research Seed Fund 2017. CONCLUSIONS MI skills constitute the main strategies primary care nurses use on their patients. Having economical, simple, effective, and applicable techniques is essential for primary care professionals to help their patients change their lifestyle and improve their health. This study will provide scientific evidence on the effectiveness of MI. It will be performed with strict control over the data collection, ensuring the maintenance of therapeutic integrity. CLINICALTRIAL Centre for Clinical Research and Biostatistics CUHK_CCRB00614; https://tinyurl.com/v9awzk6 INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT DERR1-10.2196/15709
Multifocal Electroretinogram in Cystoid Macular Odema afterIntravitreal Injection of Triamcinolone Acetonide

Purpose: To review the efficacy of intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetonide in cystoid macular oedema (CMD) by multifocal electroretinogram (MF-ERG) and optical coherence tomography (OCT) and to correlate between MF-ERG and OCT. Subjects and Methods: This study included patients with cystoid macular oedema (which is due to diabetes, pseudophakia and branch retinal vein occlusion). Patients underwent complete ophthalmological examination, OCT, MF-ERG before and after intravitreal injection of 4 mg of triamcinolone acetate. Results: The Study included sixty patients (60 eyes in 60 patients) with CME, 42 eyes due diabetes, 12 eyes due to retinal vein occlusion and 6 eyes due to cataract extraction with intraocular lens. There were reduction of retinal thickness of the macula by OCT and increase of the amplitude and reduction of latencies of MFERG after intravitreal injection of triamcinolone acetate. There were negative correlation between MFERG amplitude and OCT retinal thickness. Conclusion: IVTA improve retinal function and decrease macular thickness with few complications.