Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using phenomenology to explore student nurses experiences of spiritual care

Background Spiritual care is viewed as integral to holistic nursing practice but studies suggest that most nurses feel unprepared to deal with spiritual needs (Cooper et al 2013). Initial findings of this phenomenological study, where student nurses discuss their experiences of spiritual care, will be outlined in this presentation including exemplars that are relevant to critical care practice. Aim The presentation will discuss phenomenology as a methodological approach and initial findings around student nurses experiences that have transformed their understanding of spiritual care. Methodology Phenomenology (Van Manen 2014) was chosen for this study as it draws of the lived experience of participants to develop an understanding of the phenomena being explored. This approach fits with the research aim to understand aspects that transform students understanding of spiritual care. Students volunteered to participate in the study and were interviewed using a semi structured schedule to allow exploration of their experiences. Ethical approval was gained before starting data collection. Analysis The use of interpretative analysis will be discussed considering the benefits and limitations when used in phenomenological research (Todres & Holloway 2010). Exemplars from the study will be used to identify key issues around learning about spiritual care. Potential implications for critical care practice will be outlined. Results Phenomenological methods produced some rich descriptions exploring spiritual care. Currently, students are talking about practice based experiences as the main medium that changes their understanding of spiritual care. Students are influenced by good staff role models and individualised patient care. The trustworthiness of phenomenology as an approach will be discussed. Summary This presentation should enable delegates to consider the use of phenomenology as a research approach, particularly related to spiritual care practices. References Cooper, K.L. ; Chang, E. ; Sheehan, A. ; Johnson, A. (2013) ‘The impact of spiritual care education upon preparing undergraduate nursing students to provide spiritual care’. Nurse Education Today. 33. 1057-1061 Todres, L. & Holloway, I. (2010) ‘Phenomenological Research’. In: Gerrish, K. & Lacey, A. (Eds) The Research Process in Nursing. 6th edition. Chichester: John Wiley & Sons. pp 177-187 Van Manen, M. (2014) Phenomenology of Practice. USA: Left Coast Press.
Genetic loci associated with prevalent and incident myocardial infarction and coronary heart disease in the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) Consortium

Background Genome-wide association studies have identified multiple genomic loci associated with coronary artery disease, but most are common variants in non-coding regions that provide limited information on causal genes and etiology of the disease. To better understand etiological pathways that might lead to discovery of new treatments or prevention strategies, we focused our investigation on low-frequency and rare sequence variations primarily residing in coding regions of the genome while also exploring associations with common variants. Methods and Results Using samples of individuals of European ancestry from ten cohorts within the Cohorts for Heart and Aging Research in Genomic Epidemiology (CHARGE) consortium, both cross-sectional and prospective analyses were conducted to examine associations between genetic variants and myocardial infarction (MI), coronary heart disease (CHD), and all-cause mortality following these events. Single variant and gene-based analyses were performed separately in each cohort and then meta-analyzed for each outcome. A low-frequency intronic variant (rs988583) in PLCL1 was significantly associated with prevalent MI (OR=1.80, 95% confidence interval: 1.43, 2.27; P=7.12 × 10-7). Three common variants, rs9349379 in PHACTR1, and rs1333048 and rs4977574 in the 9p21 region, were significantly associated with prevalent CHD. Four common variants (rs4977574, rs10757278, rs1333049, and rs1333048) within the 9p21 locus were significantly associated with incident MI. We conducted gene-based burden tests for genes with a cumulative minor allele count (cMAC) ≥ 5 and variants with minor allele frequency (MAF) < 5%. TMPRSS5 and LDLRAD1 were significantly associated with prevalent MI and CHD, respectively, and RC3H2 and ANGPTL4 were significantly associated with incident MI and CHD, respectively. No loci were significantly associated with all-cause mortality following a MI or CHD event. Conclusion This study confirmed previously reported loci influencing heart disease risk, and one single variant and three genes associated with MI and CHD were newly identified and warrant future investigation.
Immigration Lottery Design: Engineered and Coincidental Consequences of H-1b Reforms

The H-1B Visa Reform Act of 2004 dictates an annual allocation of 85,000 visas with 20,000 reserved for advanced-degree applicants. We represent the main requirements of this legislation as formal axioms and characterize visa allocation rules consistent with the axioms. Despite the precise number reserved, we show that the range of implementations satisfying these axioms can change the allocation of advanced-degree visas by as much as 14,000 in an average year. Of all rules satisfying these axioms, the 2019 rule imposed by executive order is most favorable to advanced-degree holders. However, two earlier modifications resulted in larger changes, potentially unintentionally.
Musical Emotion Recognition with Spectral Feature Extraction based on a Sinusoidal Model with Model-based and Deep-learning approaches

This paper presents a method for extracting novel spectral features based on a sinusoidal model. The method is focused on characterizing the spectral shapes of audio signals using spectral peaks in frequency sub-bands. The extracted features are evaluated for predicting the levels of emotional dimensions, namely arousal and valence. Principal component regression, partial least squares regression, and deep convolutional neural network (CNN) models are used as prediction models for the levels of the emotional dimensions. The experimental results indicate that the proposed features include additional spectral information that common baseline features may not include. Since the quality of audio signals, especially timbre, plays a major role in affecting the perception of emotional valence in music, the inclusion of the presented features will contribute to decreasing the prediction error rate.
Benefits and Costs of a Family-Focused Methadone Treatment and Drug Abuse Prevention Program: Preliminary Findings

Benefit-cost analysis is a widely applied, but often controversial and misunderstood, tool of program evaluation. It was initially used to assess the economic soundness of infrastructure projects such as locks, dams, and highways. Analysts now routinely apply it in evaluations of environmental and occupational safety and health regulations (Cropper and Oates 1992; Viscusi 1985); health and mental health interventions (Keeler and Cretin 1987; Weisbrod 1981); and a wide variety of human resources programs, including ones for alcoholism treatment (Rundell et al. 1991; Saxe et al. 1983), education (BerruetaClement et al. 1984), family planning services (Levey et al. 1988), job training (Kemper et al. 1983; Long et al. 1981), vocational rehabilitation (Lewis et al. 1992), and welfare-to-work programs (Gueron and Pauly 1991).
Ecological causes of uneven speciation and species richness in mammals

Biodiversity is distributed unevenly from the poles to the equator, and among branches of the tree of life, yet how those enigmatic patterns are related is unclear. We investigated global speciation-rate variation across crown Mammalia using a novel time-scaled phylogeny (N=5,911 species, ~70% with DNA), finding that trait- and latitude-associated speciation has caused uneven species richness among groups. We identify 24 branch-specific shifts in net diversification rates linked to ecological traits. Using time-slices to define clades, we show that speciation rates are a stronger predictor of clade richness than age. Speciation is slower in tropical than extra-tropical lineages, but only at the level of clades not species tips, consistent with fossil evidence that the latitudinal diversity gradient may be a relatively young phenomenon in mammals. In contrast, species tip rates are fastest in mammals that are low dispersal or diurnal, consistent with models of ephemeral speciation and ecological opportunity, respectively. These findings juxtapose nested levels of diversification, suggesting a central role of species turnover gradients in generating uneven patterns of modern biodiversity.
Special Collection editorial: ‘Enough Nurses?’

In 2011, Professor Sean Clarke (1 (Clarke, 2011)) reflected, in this very same journal, on the state of nursing workforce research and future directions. He argued that multiple global shortages, in the mid 1980s, late 1990s and again in 2010, had spawned a growing field of research that had examined the relationships among nurse staffing, quality of care and patient outcomes. He identified the different approaches that had been used, and pointed out that the research we undertake and how we set about doing it is bound up with the wider context that the research sits within. Nursing shortages – such as that faced presently in the UK and many other parts of the world – had sparked interest in the potential consequences of insufficiency; of not having ‘enough nurses’. Defining ‘nursing shortages’ is no simple task, as Buchan and O’May (2 (Buchan and O’May, 1998)) indicated when they reviewed the literature in 1998. Multiple indicators – vacancies, turnover/wastage rates, bank/agency use, overtime, unemployment – can help to gauge the extent to which the supply of nurses is in balance with demand, or whether a shortage exists. They also pointed to the study of care outcomes (such as mortality, adverse events) as potential indicators of nursing shortage, but highlighted the relative scarcity at that time of research beyond the United States. Likewise Jenkins-Clarke and Carr-Hill (3 (Jenkins-Clarke and Carr-Hill, 2003)) acknowledged that a limitation of their paper on the efficiency and effectiveness of nursing deployment was that it did not consider outcomes, and justified this on the basis of a ‘lack of appropriate identifiable outcomes that would be attributable to the process of nursing’ (p. 247). Whilst the issues of routinely collected, consistently defined, meaningful nursing metrics remains, the past 20 years have nonetheless seen a significant increase in research that has explored patient outcomes in relation to nurse staffing. We have gone some considerable way towards addressing the urgent need identified by Buchan and O’May (2 (Buchan and O’May, 1998)) for more research on nurse staffing and patient outcomes from outside the US in order to inform policy makers. Results of the International Hospital Outcomes Study established that the relationships observed in US studies pertain to the UK; outcomes were
Cybersecurity Games: Mathematical Approaches for Cyber Attack and Defense Modeling

Cyber-attacks targeting individuals and enterprises have become a predominant part of the computer/information age. Such attacks are becoming more sophisticated and prevalent on a day-to-day basis. The exponential growth of cyber plays and cyber players necessitate the inauguration of new methods and research for better understanding the “cyber kill chain,” particularly with the rise of advanced and novel malware and the extraordinary growth in the population of Internet residents, especially connected Internet of Things (IoT) devices. Mathematical modeling could be used to represent real-world cyber-attack situations. Such models play a beneficial role when it comes to the secure design and evaluation of systems/infrastructures by providing a better understanding of the threat itself and the attacker’s conduct during the lifetime of a cyber attack. Therefore, the main goal of this dissertation is to construct a proper theoretical framework to be able to model and thus evaluate the defensive strategies/technologies’ effectiveness from a security standpoint. To this end, we first present a Markov-based general framework to model the Mohammad H. Valizadeh— University of Connecticut, 2019 interactions between the two famous players of (network) security games, i.e., a system defender and an attacker taking actions to reach its attack objective(s) in the game. We mainly focus on the most significant and tangible aspects of sophisticated cyber attacks: (1) the amount of time it takes for the adversary to accomplish its mission and (2) the success probabilities of fulfilling the attack objective(s) by translating attackerdefender interactions into well-defined games and providing rigorous cryptographic security guarantees for a system given both players’ tactics and strategies. We study various attack-defense scenarios, including Moving Target Defense (MTD) strategies, multi-stage attacks, and Advanced Persistent Threats (APT). We provide general theorems about how the probability of a successful adversary defeating a defender’s strategy is related to the amount of time (or any measure of cost) spent by the adversary in such scenarios. We also introduce the notion of learning in cybersecurity games and describe a general “game of consequences” meaning that each player’s chances of making a progressive move in the game depend on its previous actions. Finally, we walk through a malware propagation and botnet construction game in which we investigate the importance of defense systems’ learning rates to fight against the self-propagating class of malware such as worms and bots. We introduce a new propagation modeling and containment strategy called the “learning-based model” and study the containment criterion for the propagation of the malware based on theoretical and simulation analysis. Cybersecurity Games: Mathematical Approaches for Cyber Attack and Defense Modeling Mohammad H. Valizadeh M.S., University of Connecticut A Dissertation Submitted in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Connecticut
Recent Advances in Stem Cell Therapy for Parkinson’s Disease

The pathologic hallmark behind Parkinson’s disease (PD) is the loss of dopaminergic neurons from the substantia nigra pars compacta (SNpc) and accumulation of lewy bodies (mis-folded proteins). Clinically, in PD the patient encounter with both motor and non-motor symptoms, motor symptoms caused by loss of dopaminergic neurons from the substantia nigra, presented with tremor, bradykinesia and muscle rigidity along with impaired gait, and posture. Recent researches have enlightened the role of different type of stem cell and their clinical application. Stem cell therapy has shown promising effects on the lifestyle and behavioral changes in patients with Parkinson’s disease. In this review article we will be discussing about the recent advancements in stem cell therapy for Parkinson’s disease.
Study of the kinetics of spark plasma sintering of ultrafine-grained hard alloys WC-10%Co

The effect of carbon on the kinetics of spark plasma sintering (SPS) of submicron powder compositions WC-10wt. %Co is investigated. Free carbon in the form of graphite was added into submicron powders by mixing. The activation energy of solid-phase sintering under the conditions of isothermal hold and continuous heating rate sintering was determined. It was shown that an increase in the carbon content leads to a decrease in the volume fraction of particles of the η-phase and a shift of the shrinkage curve to the region of lower heating temperatures. It was established that an increase in the graphite content does not significantly affect the activation energy of sintering of submicron powders in the region of “average” heating temperatures, the value of which is close to the activation energy of grain boundary diffusion in cobalt. It has been shown that an increase in graphite content leads to a significant decrease in the activation energy of compaction of WC-Co powders in the region of “high” sintering temperatures due to a decrease in the concentration of tungsten atoms in the γ phase based on cobalt. The kinetics of sintering of fine-grained WC-Co hard alloys is limited by the intensity of the cobalt diffusion creep by Coble.
HIV and respiratory illness in the antiretroviral therapy era

Respiratory illness is a common manifestation of HIV infection. The availability of effective antiretroviral therapy (ART) has changed the pattern of respiratory ill-health experienced by people living with HIV (PLWH). Among populations with good access to ART, opportunistic respiratory infections such as Pneumocystis jirovecii pneumonia (PCP) are becoming less frequent. However, there is evidence to suggest that these populations may be at greater risk of serious non-AIDS illness including chronic respiratory disease. Although there is remaining uncertainty about the extent to which HIV represents an independent risk-factor for respiratory illness in individuals with a suppressed HIV viral load and immune reconstitution, in many settings PLWH have greater exposure to risk factors for respiratory illness (in particular tobacco smoking), which contribute to this burden of disease. As HIV-positive populations age, management of these conditions will therefore become increasingly important. Healthcare services need to manage this growing burden of chronic respiratory illness and provide access to preventative measures including smoking cessation and immunisation against vaccine-preventable respiratory infections in a way that is appropriate to the populations served.
Active Targeting of Contrast Agents to Sites of Protease Activity in Inflammatory Diseases

Author(s): Lippert, Csilla Nani | Abstract: Early and accurate diagnosis of diseases with inflammation components, such as asthma and cancer, is critical to successful treatment. Our lab has designed and validated the use of a technology, activatable cell-penetrating peptides (ACPPs), for imaging, studying, and treating inflammatory diseases based on protease activity. ACPPs consist of a polyarginine CPP attached, via a protease- cleavable linker, to a polyglutamate domain, which inhibits non-specific uptake. In the presence of a protease that is upregulated in disease states, the ACPP is cleaved, releasing the CPP to enter cells. ACPPs can deliver imaging cargoes (Cy5 for fluorescence imaging, gadolinium for magnetic resonance imaging, etc.) and/or therapy cargoes. Furthermore, by altering the linker sequence, ACPPs can target a variety of proteases. In Chapter 1, we report on the development and use of ACPPs in lung disease. Part One is a reprint of ACPP detection of MMP upregulation in an ovalbumin-induced murine model of allergic airway disease. Part Two includes the evaluation of a panel of ACPPs (chymase-cleavable, macrophage elastase- cleavable, etc.) in a variety of lung diseases (chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, lipopolysaccharide-induced lung inflammation, Alternaria- induced airway disease, and idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis). We also summarize preliminary attempts at non- invasive imaging, targeted therapy, and ex vivo analysis of human lung samples. Chapter 2 is a report on the use of ACPPs to better understand the roles of MMP2/9 in cancer progression and wound healing. Chapter 3 is a reprint of the successful use of ACPPs for cancer treatment via surgical resection of orthotopic pancreatic tumors. Chapter 4 is a reprint of progress in developing an alternative tool for detecting and studying disease, a genetically encoded triple reporter, which facilitated quantitative evaluation of tumor response to chemotherapeutics. The findings reported in this dissertation could improve the clinical and scientific approaches for detecting, characterizing, and targeting protease activity as well as, ultimately, inflammatory disease
Parenchymal Down Regulation and Enhanced Stromal Expression of Syndecan-1 in Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma

Background and aim: In normal stratified squamous epithelia, syndecan-1 works as cell adhesion molecule, and exhibits an important role in the regulation of cell growth and differentiation during the development. It is recognized as tumor marker with diagnostic and prognostic role in different cancer types. This study was planned to explore the role of syndecan-1 in oral squamous cell carcinoma.Materials and Methods: Twenty two cases were histologically diagnosed as Oral Squamous Cell Carcinoma (OSCC) that simultaneously contained dysplastic epithelium and carcinoma in situ (CIS) foci. Immunohistochemical staining for syndecan‑1, alpha smooth muscle actin and Ki-67 were done.Results: Decreased expression of syndecan-1 from normal epithelia to CIS. In OSCC parenchyma, transition from cell membrane localization into cytoplasm was detected. In addition, strong expression of syndecan-1 in stromal fibroblasts was observed.Conclusion: Decreased expression of syndecan-1 in parenchymal cells together with its appearance in stromal fibroblasts might be used as a reliable tool in oral squamous cell carcinoma early diagnosis.
Does the blindness affect the behavioural activities of rabbit

Blindness is a condition characterized by the limited or complete loss of a rabbit's eyesight. Rare is known about its effect on behavioural activities of rabbit. The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of genetically blindness on some behavioural activities of V-line rabbits and its reflexion on productive performance. Behavioural comparison between the normal and the blind rabbits was carried out to study this effect. The results demonstrate that it was no significant effect of blindness on feeding, drinking, waking, nervousness, sexual desire and maternal care of rabbits. Accordingly, there are no significant differences on body weight (weaning - marketing), litter size and milk yield between the normal and the blind rabbits. Blindness is a recessive character. Rabbits depend primarily on smell and hearing senses. The blind rabbits can adapt its live well and have a wonderful life.