Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social Processes of Young Adults’ Recovery and Identity Formation during Life-Disruptive Mental Distress—A Meta-Ethnography

Young people’s mental health recovery is well-explored in empirical research, yet there is a lack of meta-studies synthesizing the characteristics of young people’s recovery. This meta-ethnography explores young adults’ recovery during life-disruptive experiences of early psychosis or schizophrenia. Based on a systematic literature review search, 11 empirical qualitative studies were included for synthesis. Inspired by young people’s prominent experience of social isolation in the included studies, we applied an interpretive lens of belonging deriving from the sociology of youth. The synthesis presents five themes: (1) expectations of progression in youth in contrast with stagnation during psychosis, (2) feeling isolated, lost and left behind, (3) young adults’ recovery involves belonging with other young people, (4) forming identity positions of growth and disability during psychosis, and the summarizing line of argument, (5) navigating relational complexities in the process of recovery. While suffering from social isolation, young people’s recovery is conceived as getting on with life, like any other young person involving connecting and synchronizing life rhythms with their age peers. Socializing primarily with caring adults entails being stuck in the position of a child, while connecting with young people enables the identity positions of young people. This synthesis can inspire support for young people’s recovery through social inclusion in youth environments.
Applying a Multi-criteria Decision Analysis (MCDA) Approach to Elicit Stakeholders' Preferences in Italy. The Case of Obinutuzumab for Rituximab-Refractory Indolent Non-Hodgkin Lymphoma (iNHL)

Stakeholders' involvement in Health Technology Assessment (HTA) can take different forms. Multi-criteria decision analysis (MCDA) offers systematic ways to collect evidence on how stakeholders make trade-offs between decision criteria and to consider this evidence in decision making. In this study we applied an MCDA framework (EVIDEM V3.0) to derive views and preferences on decision criteria across three stakeholder groups (patients, clinicians and payers) in Italy and using these to assess the value of obinutuzumab for rituximab-refractory indolent non-Hodgkin lymphoma (iNHL). Please note a [version of this paper]( https://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s41669-017-0048-x) has also been published in PharmacoEconomics (open).
Song Perception by Professional Singers and Actors: An MEG Study

The cortical correlates of speech and music perception are essentially overlapping, and the specific effects of different types of training on these networks remain unknown. We compared two groups of vocally trained professionals for music and speech, singers and actors, using recited and sung rhyme sequences from German art songs with semantic and/ or prosodic/melodic violations (i.e. violations of pitch) of the last word, in order to measure the evoked activation in a magnetoencephalographic (MEG) experiment. MEG data confirmed the existence of intertwined networks for the sung and spoken modality in an early time window after word violation. In essence for this early response, higher activity was measured after melodic/prosodic than semantic violations in predominantly right temporal areas. For singers as well as for actors, modality-specific effects were evident in predominantly left-temporal lateralized activity after semantic expectancy violations in the spoken modality, and right-dominant temporal activity in response to melodic violations in the sung modality. As an indication of a special group-dependent audiation process, higher neuronal activity for singers appeared in a late time window in right temporal and left parietal areas, both after the recited and the sung sequences.
levels of serum sclerostin, FgF-23, and intact parathyroid hormone in postmenopausal women treated with calcitriol

Objective: This study aimed to determine the effect of calcitriol on serum concentrations of fibroblast growth factor-23 (FGF-23), sclerostin, intact parathyroid hormone (PTH), and handgrip strength in postmenopausal women with low bone mass. Methods: A randomized, double-blind controlled trial was carried out among 141 postmenopausal women with low bone mass. Participants were randomized into two groups: 75 participants received calcitriol 0.5 µ g/day and 66 participants received a placebo for 12 weeks. Results: After 12-week calcitriol treatment, significant decreases in serum intact PTH ( P = 0.035) and sclerostin ( P = 0.039), as well as significant increases in serum creatinine ( P = 0.027), uric acid ( P = 0.032), 24-hour urinary calcium ( P = 0.0026), and left handgrip strength ( P = 0.03), were observed, compared to placebo group. Level of serum sclerostin was weakly but significantly positively correlated with serum PTH ( r = 0.277; P = 0.01) and negatively correlated with 24-hour urinary calcium ( r =− 0.221; P = 0.04) and left handgrip strength ( r =− 0.338; P = 0.03) after calcitriol treatment. Multiple regression analysis demonstrated that decrease in serum sclerostin was associated with decrease in PTH serum level after calcitriol treatment (OR, 7.90; 95% CI, 2.28–27.42; P = 0.002). However, no significant change in FGF-23 level was observed after calcitriol treatment. Conclusion: Calcitriol treatment yields a considerable decrease in serum sclerostin and significant increase of handgrip strength, and the change in serum sclerostin is regulated by serum PTH and by muscle strength.
High and dry: post‐fire tree seedling establishment in subalpine forests decreases with post‐fire drought and large stand‐replacing burn patches

Aim Climate warming and increased wildfire activity are hypothesized to catalyse biogeographical shifts, reducing the resilience of fire-prone forests world-wide. Two key mechanisms underpinning hypotheses are: (1) reduced seed availability in large stand-replacing burn patches, and (2) reduced seedling establishment/survival after post-fire drought. We tested for regional evidence consistent with these mechanisms in an extensive fire-prone forest biome by assessing post-fire tree seedling establishment, a key indicator of forest resilience. Location Subalpine forests, US Rocky Mountains. Methods We analysed post-fire tree seedling establishment from 184 field plots where stand-replacing forest fires were followed by varying post-fire climate conditions. Generalized linear mixed models tested how establishment rates varied with post-fire drought severity and distance to seed source (among other relevant factors) for tree species with contrasting post-fire regeneration adaptations. Results Total post-fire tree seedling establishment (all species combined) declined sharply with greater post-fire drought severity and with greater distance to seed sources (i.e. the interior of burn patches). Effects varied among key species groups. For conifers that dominate present-day subalpine forests (Picea engelmannii, Abies lasiocarpa), post-fire seedling establishment declined sharply with both factors. One exception was serotinous Pinus contorta, which did not vary with either factor. For montane species expected to move upslope under future climate change (Larix occidentalis, Pseudotsuga menziesii, Populus tremuloides) and upper treeline species (Pinus albicaulis), establishment was unrelated to either factor. Greater post-fire tree seedling establishment on cooler/wetter aspects suggested local topographic refugia during post-fire droughts. Main conclusions If future drought and wildfire patterns manifest as expected, post-fire tree seedling establishment of species that currently characterize subalpine forests could be substantially reduced. Compensatory increases from lower montane and upper treeline species may partially offset these reductions, but our data suggest important near- to mid-term shifts in the composition and structure of high-elevation forests under continued climate warming and increased wildfire activity.
Towards a Standard Sampling Methodology on Online Social Networks: Collecting Global Trends on Twitter

One of the most significant current challenges in large-scale online social networks, is to establish a concise and coherent method able to collect and summarize data. Sampling the content of an Online Social Network (OSN) plays an important role as a knowledge discovery tool. It is becoming increasingly difficult to ignore the fact that current sampling methods must cope with a lack of a full sampling frame i.e., there is an imposed condition determined by a limited data access. In addition, another key aspect to take into account is the huge amount of data generated by users of social networking services. This type of conditions make especially difficult to develop sampling methods to collect truly reliable data. Therefore, we propose a low computational cost method for sampling emerging global trends on social networking services such as Twitter. The main purpose of this study, is to develop a methodology able to carry out an efficient collecting process via three random generators: Brownian, Illusion and Reservoir. These random generators will be combined with a Metropolis-Hastings Random Walk (MHRW) in order to improve the sampling process. We demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach by correctly providing a descriptive statistics of the collected data. In addition, we also sketch the collecting procedure on real-time carried out on Twitter. Finally, we conclude with a trend concentration graphical description and a formal convergence analysis to evaluate whether the sample of draws has attained an equilibrium state to get a rough estimate of the sample quality.
Spatially regularizing high angular resolution diffusion imaging

Shangbang Rao: Spatially Regularizing High Angular Resolution Diffusion Imaging (Under the direction of Joseph G. Ibrahim and Hongtu Zhu ) Many recent high angular resolution diffusion imaging (HARDI) reconstruction techniques have been introduced to infer ensemble average propagator (EAP),describing the three-dimensional (3D) average diffusion process of water molecules or the angular structure information contained in EAP, orientation distribution function (ODF). Most of these methods perform reconstruction independently at each voxel, which essentially ignoring the functional nature of the HARDI data at different voxels in space. The aim of my thesis is to develop methods which can spatially and adaptively infer the EAP, or ODF of water diffusion in regions with complex fiber configurations. In Chapter 3, we propose a penalized multi-scale adaptive regression model (PMARM) framework to spatially and adaptively infer the ODF of water diffusion in regions with complex fiber configurations. We first represent DW-MRI signals using Spherical Harmonic (SH) basis, then apply PMARM on advanced statistical methods to calculate the coefficients of SH representation, from which ODF representation is calculated using Funk-Radon transformation. PMARM reconstructs the ODF at each voxel by adaptively borrowing the spatial information from the neighboring voxels. We show in the real and simulated data sets that PMARM can substantially reduce the noise level, while improving the ODF reconstruction. In Chapter 4, we propose a robust multi-scale adaptive and sequential smoothing (MASS) method framework to robustly, spatially and adaptively infer the EAP of water diffusion in regions with complex fiber configurations. We first calculate spherical polar Fourier basis representation of the DW-MRI signals, and then apply MASS adaptively and sequentially updating SPF representation by borrowing the spatial information from the neighboring
Cognitive impairment in eating disorder patients of short and long-term duration: a case–control study

Introduction: Several studies have noted the potentially negative effect of eating disorders (ED) on cognitive performance. Objective: To compare the impact of the duration of abnormal eating behaviors on cognitive performance in a sample of people with short- and long-term eating disorders and in two control groups matched for age. Method: The neuropsychological performance of 82 women diagnosed with an eating disorder were compared with two control groups from the community of 66 healthy women. Time of duration of the disorder was less than two years in half of the clinical sample, and more than 10 years in the other half. The following instruments were used to measure neuropsychological performance: the Matrix Test, the Stroop task, the Trail-Making Test, the Tower of London Test, the Posner Spatial Task, the Rey’s Complex Figure, the Wechsler Vocabulary Test, and the Hayling Completion Test. Results: It showed that persons with long-term ED presented more impaired neuropsychological profiles, but not in all areas. In contrast, the short-term ED group presented similar profiles to the control groups. Discussion: This study highlights the positive association between cognitive impairment and time of evolution of ED, above all in perceptual measures and non-verbal memory. Considering the effect of the evolution of ED cognitive performance (especially in long-term patients) may further our understanding of the development of the disorder and the factors that may favor its persistence.
Brominated Flame Retardants (BFR) in the Nordic Environment

The present report describe the results of screening analyses of the occurrence of ”new” brominated flame retardants (BFRs) in environmental samples from the Nordic countries. The aim of the screening was to establish whether, and if then to what extent, the non-polybrominated diphenyl eters BFRs are present at detectable levels in the environment. If the substances subjected for screening are found in amounts which are potentially harmful for the environment this will be followed up on national level. The Nordic screening project is run by a project group with representatives from the National Environmental Research Institute, University of Aarhus Denmark, the Finnish Environment Institute, the Environment and Food Agency of Iceland, the Environment Agency of the Faroe Islands, the Norwegian Climate and Pollution Agency and the Swedish Environmental Protection Agency. The project is supported by the Nordic Chemicals Group and the Aquatic Ecosystems Group as well as the participating institutions. The chemical analyses have been carried out jointly by the Norwegian Institute for Air Research (NILU) and the Swedish Environmental Research Institute (IVL).
BRISBANE, AUSTRALIA - HOV METROPOLIS?

Brisbane is a thriving subtropical metropolis of 1.7 million people on Australia's east coast. It features a diverse yet fragmented transportation system currently undergoing both significant stress and rapid upgrading. High Occupancy Vehicle (HOV) lanes have been implemented over the past two decades on selected arterials but the stage is being set for a major expansion of the region's HOV program. The wide range of HOV projects and the planning context in which they are emerging will be of interest to international HOV practitioners. Specific aspects of the Brisbane experience addressed include: Arterial HOV and bus lanes: operational experience and lessons learned; South East Transit Project: state-of-the-art busway plus freeway HOV lane project; Freeway HOV lanes: 2+ vs 3+ vs 4+ issues; Brisbane HOV Network Study: an arterial network that makes sense; Integrated Regional Transport Plan: the pro-transit big picture; HOV Enforcement - the quest for success; HOV Problems - from the familiar to the unique; and International HOV Experience - what's applicable, what's not. The author is able to provide a comprehensive overview of the Brisbane situation with regard to the interests of international practitioners. He has been active in the North American bus/HOV sector for many years, and is currently working in Brisbane on several of the region's major HOV initiatives.
TPXL-1 activates Aurora A to clear contractile ring components from the polar cortex during cytokinesis

TPXL-1 activates Aurora A to clear contractile ring components from the polar cortex during cytokinesis. that polar clearing is an active process that requires activation of Aurora A kinase by TPXL-1. TPXL-1 concentrates on astral microtubules coincident with polar clearing in anaphase, and its ability to recruit Aurora A and activate its kinase activity are essential for clearing. In summary, our data identify Aurora A kinase as an aster-based inhibitory signal that restricts contractile ring components to the cell equator during cytokinesis.
High-speed Dynamic Imaging with a Real Time Tomography System

The Real Time Tomography (RTT) system is a new type of fast cone beam CT scanner, using fixed rings of multiple sources and detectors in an offset geometry. We demonstrate the potential of this system for use in the imaging of high speed dynamic processes, such as moving fluid flows. Through the use of a simple temporal regularisation term, we show that temporal resolution can be further increased, at the expense of a slight loss in spatial resolution.
Valproic acid enhances the viability of random pattern skin flaps: involvement of enhancing angiogenesis and inhibiting oxidative stress and apoptosis

Background: Random skin flaps are commonly applied during plastic surgery, but distal flap necrosis limits their clinical applications. Valproic acid (VPA), a histone deacetylase inhibitor and a traditional antiepileptic agent, may promote flap survival. Materials and methods: Sprague–Dawley rats were randomly divided into VPA-treated and control groups. All rats received VPA or saline by intraperitoneal injections once daily for 7 days after the modified McFarlane flap model was established. On postoperative day 7, flap survival, laser Doppler blood flow, and water content were examined for flap viability, hematoxylin and eosin staining (H&E), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and Western blot analysis, and the status of angiogenesis, apoptosis, and oxidative stress were detected in the ischemic flaps. Results: VPA increased the survival area, blood flow, and number of microvessels in skin flaps on postoperative day 7 and reduced edema. VPA promoted angiogenesis by enhancing vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) mRNA transcription and upregulating VEGF and cadherin 5 expression, inhibited apoptosis via reduction of caspase 3 cleavage, and relieved oxidative stress by increasing superoxide dismutase (SOD) and glutathione (GSH) levels and reducing the malondialdehyde (MDA) level. Conclusion: VPA promoted random skin flap survival by enhancing angiogenesis and inhibiting oxidative stress and apoptosis.
Optimization of the extraction process of phenolic compounds from the brown algae Sargassum fluitans Børgesen ( Børgesen )

Sargassum fluitans is a brown seaweed species that annually arrive to Cuban shores in extensive biomass amounts. It contains considerable content of total polyphenols as structural constituents of vegetal cell walls, which can be extracted from this species for therapeutic applications as antioxidants, antiviral and anti-inflammatory agents. In previous research, there were implemented the extraction method by maceration with heat under agitation, but yields of total polyphenols were found lower than required for an efficient extraction process. Therefore, this work was aimed to optimize the extraction conditions of total polyphenol-rich compounds. For this, a complete factorial design 32 with replicates in the center of the plane was studied, together with the resulting effect of extraction time and percentage of ethanol in the extraction solution as independent variables. The response variable used was total polyphenols’ content, as determined by the Folin-Ciocalteu method. Optimal conditions were successfully established, improving yields of total polyphenols. Increaing ethanol concentration was detrimental for yields, while enlarging the extraction time was not so relevant for the efficiency of the process. The resulting regression model coefficients provided optimal design conditions, which were experimentally corroborated: 17.75 % ethanol hydroalcoholic solution (10:1 mL/g of dry seaweed) and incubation at 50 oC under stirring at 800 rpm for 123.5 min. These conditions allowed obtaining up to 8.66 mg of total polyphenols per g of dry seaweed. These conditions are relevant to implement efficient processes for polyphenols extraction from these species, as raw material for the biopharmaceutical industry.
On quantitative determination and mapping of seismic activity

Earthquakes beneath our feet as well as stars iu the sky oeeur themore often, the less their magnitude is. The laws of their distributionaccording to the magnitude are similar for both. In this respect a viewof the night sky recalls, even quantitatively, to a seismic activity mapwith magnitude denotations.
Compact, High Directivity, Omnidirectional Circularly Polarized Antenna Array

A compact omnidirectional circularly polarized (OCP) antenna system is reported, which achieves high directivity and operates with the 2.4 GHz WLAN band. It is formed by cascading several stages of electric (metallic strips) and magnetic (loops) radiators into a highly compact array. Two OCP antenna array designs are developed to demonstrate the approach and their resulting high directivities. First, a four-stage OCP antenna array is presented. It consists of three electric radiators (E-radiators) and four magnetic radiators (M-radiators) arranged in collinear formation. A prototype was realized by mechanically fabricating the folded copper loops. Measurements confirm that this compact cost-effective design generates OCP fields that have a 5.1 dBic peak LHCP realized gain in its horizontal plane. The overlapped impedance and AR bandwidth cover 130 MHz from 2.34 to 2.47 GHz. Second, a six-stage OCP antenna array with helical loops is implemented to further increase the directivity. Its prototype was realized with all-metal 3-D printing technology. Six stages of bar and helical loop radiators form five E-radiators and six M-radiators. This highly compact OCP array achieves a measured maximum realized gain of 7.1 dBic with a 110 MHz operational bandwidth that covers 2.37–2.48 GHz.