Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Effects of Cognitive Behavioural Therapy Group Intervention on Self Esteem among Drug Users Based On Age

The purpose of this study is to investigate the effects between Standard Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy interventions [CBT(S)] and Brief Group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy [CBT (B)] categorized by age on self esteem (EK) mean score among drug users. The quasi experimental design with two treatment groups [CBT(S) & CBT (B)] and one control group (KW) and four measurements (Pre Test, Post 1, Post 2 and Post 3) were employed in this study. The sample of 108 drugs users was chosen using purposive sampling procedure. Sample were then divided into three age categories; (a) 19 to 29 years old (n=34); (b) 30 to 39 years old (n=43); and (c) 40 to 60 years old (n=31). Data were collected using standardized psychometric instruments, including Internal Control Index (Patricia Duttweiler, 1984) and The Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale. Data were analyzed using descriptive analysis (mean, mean percentage and Standard Deviation) to see the differences on EK mean score between the three age categories. Result of the analysis demonstrated the intervention of group Cognitive Behavioural Therapy (CBT) on treatment group CBT(S) and CBT (B) are succeed in increasing EK mean score compared to KW group in different time interval for all categories. Result also showed EK mean score for treatment group CBT(S) increase higher compared to treatment group CBT (B). The effectiveness of CBT intervention to both group CBT(S) and CBT (B) for all categories are also demonstrated by the increased of EK mean score changing pattern at post test 1 compared to pre test, increase at post test 2 compared to post test 1 and increase at post test 3 compared to post test 2. As a conclusion, finding shows the intervention of group CBT(S) and CBT (B) could increase mean score of self esteem among of drug users based on age.
Patterns of Colorectal Cancer Test Use, Including CT Colonography, in the 2010 National Health Interview Survey

Background: Recommended colorectal cancer (CRC) screening tests for adults ages 50 to 75 years include home fecal occult blood tests (FOBT), sigmoidoscopy with FOBT, and colonoscopy. A newer test, computed tomographic (CT) colonography, has been recommended by some, but not all, national organizations. Methods: We analyzed 2010 National Health Interview Survey data, including new CT colonography questions, from respondents ages 50 to 75 years (N = 8,952). We (i) assessed prevalence of CRC test use overall, by test type, and by sociodemographic and health care access factors and (ii) assessed reported reasons for not having a CRC test. Results: The age-standardized percentage of respondents reporting FOBT, sigmoidoscopy, or colonoscopy within recommended time intervals was 58.3% [95% confidence interval (CI), 57.0–59.6]. Colonoscopy was the most commonly reported test [within past 10 years: 54.6% (95% CI, 53.2–55.9)]. Home FOBT and sigmoidoscopy with FOBT were less frequently used [FOBT within past year: 8.8% (95% CI, 8.1–9.6); sigmoidoscopy within past 5 years with FOBT within past 3 years: 1.3% (95% CI, 1.0–1.6)]. CT colonography was rare: 1.3% (95% CI, 1.0–1.7). Increasing age, education, income, having health care insurance, and having a usual source of health care were associated with higher CRC test use. Test use within recommended time intervals was particularly low among individuals ages 50 to 64 years without health care insurance [21.2% (95% CI, 18.3–24.4)]. The most common reason for nonuse was “no reason or never thought about it. ” Conclusions: About 40% of Americans ages 50 to 75 years do not meet the recommendations for having CRC screening tests. Impact: Expanded health care coverage and greater awareness of CRC screening are needed to further decrease CRC mortality. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev; 21(6); 895–904. ©2012 AACR.
The Influence of Job Autonomy on Organizational Cynicism: The Reliability Test

Research on organizational cynicism is gaining increased attention, as it has been identified to be one of the major problems that hinder the organizational goals and success. A lack of job autonomy is believed to be one of the antecedent which cause organizational cynicism. In this paper, a research framework is proposed towards explaining the influence of job autonomy on job organizational cynicism. By selecting 60 immigration officers of Malaysia , who work at the Immigration Depot of Langkap, Perak as a research sample, this study attempts to determine the reliability test of job autonomy and organizational cynicism. The findings indicate that both of the measurement which is applied for job autonomy and organizational cynicism have research an acceptable the minimum 0.70 reliability test. Although the sample size is very limited to be generalized, this research propose that the measurements that have been employed in this study could be applied in a wider context of generalization in the future studies
Finite model order optimal input design for minimum variance control

It is well known that if we intend to use a minimum variance controller to stabilize a minimum phase plant (with exactly one time delay), which is designed based on a model obtained from an identification experiment, the best experiment which can be performed on the system to determine such a model (subject to output power constraints, or for some specific model structures) is to use the true minimum variance controller. This result has been derived under several circumstances, first using asymptotic (in model order) variance expressions but also more recently for ARMAX models of finite order. In this paper we re-approach this problem by using a recently developed geometric approach to variance analysis, which is non asymptotic in model order, with which we generalize some of the previous results established in the literature. We also believe the new derivations to be more transparent than earlier contributions.
A modular software implementation for smart charging stations

Smart charging adds more sophisticated communication to the charging process of electric vehicles, thus enabling new features like time scheduling. Therefore, it can provide a valuable contribution to balancing the power grid, as the charging process can be scheduled in a way, that load peaks in the grid may be reduced. The protocols necessary for smart charging, such as ISO 15118, are currently being standardized. In this paper a modular software implementation for smart charging stations is proposed. As programming platform Node.js is chosen, due to its asynchronous programming, as well as its non blocking functionality. For evaluation purposes this software is implemented on a demonstrator, which is made mostly from off-the-shelf modules.
Electrochemically Enhanced Wet Cleaning of Ru Capping Thin Film for EUV Lithography Reflector

We report the effective wet cleaning of a Ru thin-film surface for an extreme ultraviolet (EUV) lithography reflector by combining the passivation of the Ru layer with a surfactant [tetramethylammonium hydroxide (TMAH)] and by tuning the electrochemical interaction of the Ru surface in a propylene carbonate (PC) solution. Adding 1% TMAH to PC showed effective cleaning performance, which reduced the accumulation of carbon amounts and surface chemisorbed O species, while it does not etch or roughen Ru surfaces. It was observed that the PC + 1 % TMAH solution effectively removes the residual photoresist on Ru thin films. The cleaning mechanism of PC + 1% TMAH is regarded to be a combined effect between the chemical Ru surface passivation of 1 % TMAH and the electrostatic interaction between Ru surfaces and ions in the PC solution. This cleaning scheme may be extended to facilitate the elimination of carbonaceous species on the thin film or nanoparticle surfaces.
An Initiative to Practice Total Quality Management in Aircraft Maintenance

An aircraft has an economic life of about 25 years. To remain in serviceable condition, regular checks and repairs are conducted. The frequency of such repair activities depends on the manufacturer’s specification. As more repair and maintenance work is needed on ageing aircraft to ensure their continued airworthiness, more frequent overhauling of critical components is expected. Under this scenario, aerospace maintenance is set to become a significant business activity. Time to delivery and higher standards of service have become business imperatives in aerospace maintenance. The implications of a delay in maintenance are only too obvious. A lower quality of service is unacceptable as it compromises the safety of air travel. Current deregulation moves in the airline industry have further intensified competition, squeezing less cost-effective operators out of the industry. As maintenance costs form an integral part of the total operating costs, airlines are constantly sourcing for cost-effective and reliable repair houses. The criteria that an airline customer looks for in an efficient maintenance provider are quality of repair, short turn-time and competitive price. An aircraft repair facility that is able to provide high quality engineering service with a short turn-time and at competitive prices is highly sought after. To this end, application of Total Quality Management principles will prove useful.This paper describes the Total Quality Management implementation process in an aerospace maintenance company. Relatively simple total quality concepts and tools are discussed to improve the quality and cost of maintenance operation. Besides achieving the quality, intangible benefits of this attempt are also elucidated in this paper. Problems that may encounter B. Karthikeyan et al 64 in implementing total quality management principle for aero maintenance sector are also overviewed.
Bilateral adrenalectomy does not alter stress-induced increases in noradrenaline turnover in rat brain regions.

Effects of adrenalectomy on increases in noradrenaline (NA) turnover induced by a one-hour immobilization stress were examined by measuring the levels of NA and its major metabolite, 3-methoxy-4-hydroxyphenyl-ethyleneglycol sulfate (MHPG-SO4) in specific brain regions of the rat. Bilateral adrenalectomy alone does not affect basal levels of NA and MHPG-SO4 in the brain regions examined with the exception of an increase in MHPG-SO4 levels in the hypothalamus and a decrease in NA levels in the cerebral cortex. In sham-operated rats, immobilization stress caused significant increases in MHPG-SO4 levels in five brain regions that were examined, i, e. , the hypothalamus, amygdala, hippocampus, cerebral cortex and pons plus medulla oblongata, and significant decreases in NA levels in the hypothalamus and amygdala. These changes in NA and MHPG-SO4 levels induced by stress were not affected by bilateral adrenalectomy. These results suggest that corticosterone is not a causative factor in enhancing brain NA turnover during immobilization stress.
Low complexity, real-time adjusted power management policy using Golden Section Search

Golden Section Search (GSS) is applied to optimize the time threshold in a time-out power management policy. To reduce power consumption, modern system on chips selectively turns off some of its idling parts. If an idling block is kept awake for too long, it is wasting power; if it fails to predict a request, it will reduce the system performance due to wake-up time. The request of each part depends on external random events. This problem is usually addressed with a time-out policy, where the time-out value must be optimized in real time to cope with the system usage characteristics. Without the aid of prior knowledge, the GSS driven power policy consumed 15% more power than the absolute lower bound and 7% more power than the best fixed time threshold with a priori knowledge. The proposed method was evaluated with interrupt data of a 2G modem, captured from a real device in use.
Malignant liver tumors: treatment with percutaneous microwave ablation--complications among cohort of 1136 patients.

PURPOSE To report the complications for percutaneous microwave (MW) ablation for the treatment of malignant liver tumors and the possible risk factors for complications in a large series of patients. MATERIALS AND METHODS The study was approved by the institutional review board; informed consent was waived because of the retrospective design. Over a 13-year period, 1136 patients with 1928 malignant liver tumors underwent ultrasonographically guided percutaneous MW ablation (583 with a noncooled-shaft antenna and 553 with a cooled-shaft antenna). A total of 3697 MW ablation sessions (average, 1.8 sessions per patient) were performed. Mortality and treatment-related major and minor complications were documented. Data were subsequently analyzed to determine whether the major complication rate was related to antenna type, tumor size, tumor location, or number of MW sessions. RESULTS Two deaths not directly attributable to MW ablation were encountered. Major complications occurred in 30 (2.6%) patients and included liver abscess and empyema (n = 5), bile duct injury (n = 2), perforation of the colon (n = 2), tumor seeding (n = 5), pleural effusion requiring thoracentesis (n = 12), hemorrhage requiring arterial embolization (n = 1), and skin burn requiring resection (n = 3). Minor complications included fever; pain; asymptomatic pleural effusion, gallbladder wall thickening, and arterioportal shunt; small stricture of the bile duct; and skin burn requiring no treatment. Use of noncooled-shaft antenna and an increased number of MW ablation sessions were associated with a higher rate of major complications (P < .05). CONCLUSION MW ablation is a well-tolerated technique with an acceptably low rate of major complications for treatment of malignant liver tumors. Use of a cooled-shaft antenna, as well as fewer MW sessions, may help minimize major complications.
An Effective Post-Filtering Framework for 3-D PET Image Denoising Based on Noise and Sensitivity Characteristics

Positron emission tomography (PET) images usually suffer from a noticeable amount of statistical noise. In order to reduce this noise, a post-filtering process is usually adopted. However, the performance of this approach is limited because the denoising process is mostly performed on the basis of the Gaussian random noise. It has been reported that in a PET image reconstructed by the expectation-maximization (EM), the noise variance of each voxel depends on its mean value, unlike in the case of Gaussian noise. In addition, we observe that the variance also varies with the spatial sensitivity distribution in a PET system, which reflects both the solid angle determined by a given scanner geometry and the attenuation information of a scanned object. Thus, if a post-filtering process based on the Gaussian random noise is applied to PET images without consideration of the noise characteristics along with the spatial sensitivity distribution, the spatially variant non-Gaussian noise cannot be reduced effectively. In the proposed framework, to effectively reduce the noise in PET images reconstructed by the 3-D ordinary Poisson ordered subset EM (3-D OP-OSEM), we first denormalize an image according to the sensitivity of each voxel so that the voxel mean value can represent its statistical properties reliably. Based on our observation that each noisy denormalized voxel has a linear relationship between the mean and variance, we try to convert this non-Gaussian noise image to a Gaussian noise image. We then apply a block matching 4-D algorithm that is optimized for noise reduction of the Gaussian noise image, and reconvert and renormalize the result to obtain a final denoised image. Using simulated phantom data and clinical patient data, we demonstrate that the proposed framework can effectively suppress the noise over the whole region of a PET image while minimizing degradation of the image resolution.
Correlation of Organic Cation/Carnitine Transporter 1 and Multidrug Resistance-Associated Protein 1 Transport Activities With Protein Expression Levels in Primary Cultured Human Tracheal, Bronchial, and Alveolar Epithelial Cells.

Understanding how transporters contribute to the distribution of inhaled drugs in the lung is important for the discovery and development of such drugs. Protein expression levels may be useful to predict and understand drug distribution. As previously reported, organic cation/carnitine transporter 1 (OCTN1) and multidrug resistance-associated protein 1 (MRP1) have higher levels of protein expression among transporters in primary cultured human lung cells. Nevertheless, it is unclear to what extent transport activity correlates with transporter protein expression. The purpose is to evaluate whether differences in OCTN1 and MRP1 protein expression govern the respective transport activity in primary cultured human lung cells. The model substrates of 4-[4-(dimethylamino) styryl]-N-methylpyridinium iodide (ASP(+)) and carboxy-dichlorofluorescein (CDF) for OCTN1 and MRP1, respectively, were used in the lung cells from five donors. Significant correlation was found between the kinetic parameter Vmax for ASP(+) and OCTN1 protein expression in plasma membrane of tracheal, bronchial, and alveolar cells (r(2) = 0.965, 0.834, and 0.877, respectively), and between the efflux of CDF and MRP1 protein expression in plasma membrane of tracheal, bronchial, and alveolar cells (r(2) = 0.800, 0.904, and 0.790, respectively). These findings suggest that OCTN1 and MRP1 protein concentrations are determinants for drug distribution in the lung.
Improved forward floating selection algorithm for feature subset selection

We present results on two new databases for a new improved forward floating selection (IFFS) algorithm for selecting a subset of features. The algorithm is an improvement upon the state-of-the-art sequential forward floating selection algorithm that includes a new search strategy to check whether removing any feature in the selected feature set and adding a new one at each sequential step can improve the resultant feature set. We find that this method provides the optimal or quasi-optimal (close to optimal) solutions for many selected subsets and requires significantly less computational load than an exhaustive search optimal feature selection algorithm. Our experimental results for two different databases demonstrate that our algorithm consistently selects better subsets than other quasi-optimal feature selection algorithms do.
Foggy D-shaped zone of inhibition in Staphylococcus aureus owing to a dual character of both inducible and constitutive resistance to macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B.

OBJECTIVES We identified Staphylococcus aureus strains having blunt inhibitory zones around the clindamycin or josamycin discs proximal to the erythromycin disc filled with slight bacterial growth. This ambiguous phenotype was termed as 'macrolide-lincosamide-streptogramin B antimicrobial (MLS(B)) resistance having a foggy D-shaped inhibitory zone' (fMLS(B)), and we tried to analyse its molecular mechanisms. METHODS Forty-one clinically isolated strains of fMLS(B) S. aureus were studied. The regulatory region of the erm(A) gene, which was found to be the only molecular mechanism of fMLS(B), was sequenced. Then, beta-galactosidase assays were performed to observe their expression patterns through the nucleotide sequential alteration. RESULTS According to the sequencing electropherogram, a grouping was made of a homogeneous nucleotide sequence group (73.2%) and a heterogeneous nucleotide sequence group (26.8%). The former group was composed of a 25 bp tandem duplication type and a 25 bp tandem triplication type. Their beta-galactosidase activity was similar to that of constitutive MLS(B) resistance due to its high basal level. Nevertheless, the predicted mRNA secondary structure of the regulatory region maintains the stem-loops of inducible wild-type erm(A), and thereby its inducible character might be expected in vivo. Strains in the latter group were proven to have two different erm(A) genes, and then dual effect of expression was observed. CONCLUSIONS The ambiguous phenotype of fMLS(B) is due to its possessing the dual character of inducible and constitutive expression of erm(A). The dual character is due to having one erm(A) gene of dual character or coexistence of two characterized erm(A) genes simultaneously.
Hepatoprotection by chemical constituents of the marine brown alga Spatoglossum variabile: A relation to free radical scavenging potential

Context: In the course of searching hepatoprotective agents from natural sources, the protective effect of chemical constituents of the marine brown alga Spatoglossum variabile Figaro et DE Notar (Dictyoaceae) against CCl4-induced liver damage in Wistar rats was investigated. The compounds were first investigated for in vitro radical scavenging potential and were also tested for β-glucuronidase inhibition to further explore the relationship between hepatoprotection and antiradical potential. Methods: The compounds cinnamic acid esters 1 and 2 and aurone derivatives 3 and 4 were first investigated for in vitro radical scavenging potential against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals (DPPH), and superoxide anion radicals. In vivo hepatoprotective studies were performed in seven groups (n = 6) of Wistar rats. The test groups were pretreated with compounds (10 mg/kg body weight, po) orally for 30 min before the intraperitoneal administration of a dose of 20% CCl4 diluted with dietary cooking oil. Moreover, compounds were also tested for β-glucuronidase inhibition to explore the relationship between hepatoprotection and radical scavenging potential. Results: The test compounds 1–4 were found to exhibit antiradical activity against 1,1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl radicals with IC50 values ranging between 54 and 138 µM, whereas aurone derivatives 3 and 4 additionally exhibited superoxide anion scavenging effects with IC50 values of 95 and 87 µM, respectively. In addition, these compounds were found to be weak inhibitors of xanthine oxidase (IC50 ≥1000 µM). In animal model, pretreatment with compounds 2–4 significantly blocked the CCl4-induced increase in the levels of the serum biochemical markers. Conclusion: It appears that the hepatoprotection afforded by these compounds was mainly due to their radical scavenging activity that protected the cells from the free radicals generated by CCl4-induced hepatotoxicity.
Vegetable Improvement in India; Recent Past, Present and Future: A Review

Vegetables are considered essential for wellbalanced diets since they supply vitamins, minerals, dietary fiber, and phytochemicals (Dias, 2013). Considering food and nutritional security vegetables play an important role in Indian agriculture. They are commonly called “protected food” because of their protective effects against degenerative diseases. Vegetables are considered as nutraceutical food of the century (Rahal et al., 2014). Almost every vegetable is a source of specific bioactive compounds like vitamins, anthocynins, flavanoids, carotenoids and polyphenols. All these compounds have ability in disease prevention and reduction because of their antioxidant property. According to the latest reports, vegetables are grown over 9.5 million hectare with the production of 168.30 million tonnes (Anonymous, 2016). India is the largest producer of okra among vegetables and ranks 2 nd in the production of potatoes, onion, cauliflower, brinjal, and cabbage. The improvement of vegetable crops has until recently, been largely confined to conventional breeding approaches and such International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN: 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 8 (2017) pp. 3246-3255 Journal homepage: http://www.ijcmas. com