Search

Pre-exposure prophylaxis (PrEP) is being scaled up to prevent HIV acquisition among adolescent girls and young women (AGYW) in Eastern and Southern Africa. In a prior study more than one-third of AGYW 'mystery shoppers' stated they would not return to care based on interactions with health providers. We examined the experiences of AGYW in this study to identify main barriers to effective PrEP services. Unannounced patient actors (USP/'mystery shoppers') posed as AGYWs seeking PrEP using standardized scenarios 8 months after providers had received training to improve PrEP services. We conducted targeted debriefings using open-ended questions to assess PrEP service provision and counseling quality with USPs immediately following their visit. Debriefings were audio-recorded and transcribed. Transcripts were analyzed using thematic analysis to explore why USPs reported either positive or negative encounters. We conducted 91 USP debriefings at 24 facilities and identified three primary influences on PrEP service experiences: 1) Privacy improved likelihood of continuing care, 2) respectful attitudes created a safe environment for USPs, and 3) patient-centered communication improved the experience and increased confidence for PrEP initiation among USPs. Privacy and provider attitudes were primary drivers that influenced decision-making around PrEP in USP debriefs. Access to privacy and improving provider attitudes is important for scale-up of PrEP to AGYW. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Ubiquitination status of proliferating cell nuclear antigen (PCNA) is crucial for regulating DNA lesion bypass. After the resolution of fork stalling, PCNA is subsequently deubiquitinated, but the underlying mechanism remains undefined. We found that the N-terminal domain of ATAD5 (ATAD5-N), the largest subunit of the PCNA-unloading complex, functions as a scaffold for Ub-PCNA deubiquitination. ATAD5 recognizes DNA-loaded Ub-PCNA through distinct DNA-binding and PCNA-binding motifs. Furthermore, ATAD5 forms a heterotrimeric complex with UAF1-USP1 deubiquitinase, facilitating the deubiquitination of DNA-loaded Ub-PCNA. ATAD5 also enhances the Ub-PCNA deubiquitination by USP7 and USP11 through specific interactions. ATAD5 promotes the distinct deubiquitination process of UAF1-USP1, USP7, and USP11 for poly-Ub-PCNA. Additionally, ATAD5 mutants deficient in UAF1-binding had increased sensitivity to DNA-damaging agents. Our results ultimately reveal that ATAD5 and USPs cooperate to efficiently deubiquitinate Ub-PCNA prior to its release from the DNA in order to safely deactivate the DNA repair process. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article explores the issue of academic inflation in the field of orthopaedic surgery, focusing on the exponential growth of scientific publications and residency applicants. The author proposes two potential solutions: using a log scale to categorize publications and listing only impactful works on resumes. While acknowledging potential criticisms, the author argues that these measures would help maintain the value of academic effort. The article also emphasizes the importance of recognizing the overall growth of scientific knowledge and achievement. Additionally, it addresses the impact of academic inflation on medical students and suggests a return to one-page resumes to highlight key accomplishments and values. The article concludes by emphasizing the need for further discussions on evaluating candidates and considering the potential exclusion of those with fewer resources or nontraditional backgrounds. [Extracted from the article]

The American Family Health Study (AFHS) collected family health and fertility data from a national probability sample of persons aged 18–49 between September 2021 and May 2022, using web and mail exclusively. In July 2022, we surveyed AFHS respondents and gauged their willingness to become part of a national web panel that would create novel longitudinal data on these topics. We focus on predictors of willingness to participate, identifying the potential selection bias that this type of approach may introduce. We found that efforts of this type to create a national web panel may introduce potential selection bias in estimates based on the panel respondents, with individuals having higher socioeconomic status being more cooperative. Thus, alternative recruitment strategies and re-weighting of the subsample may be needed to further reduce selection bias. We present methodological implications of our results, limitations of our approach, and suggestions for further research on this topic. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In our study, we describe how the performance of certain modes of goods and passenger transport, as well as the postal service, has developed over the past hundred years, and how the stock of individual vehicles has changed. Technical development and methodological changes have significantly influenced the measurement and publication of certain areas of transport statistics. Based on the collection and processing of data from the Hungarian Statistical Yearbooks, we can state that natural metrics are capable of capturing long-term trends and well characterize the transport policy decisions of individual eras, as well as economic business cycles. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this contribution, the model which is dedicated to reducing the number of false positive instances is proposed. This is a self-tuning model using aggregation functions and time-series data periods. As a case study, the proposed model is tested in the context of phishing link detection. In the proposed model, well-known aggregation functions are applied to combine the confidence values of multiple Classification models for email phishing. The division of the dataset into multiple segments and subsets facilitates the implementation of incremental learning strategies. This approach enables the iterative enhancement of model performance through the training of new data while leveraging previously acquired knowledge. In our research, two datasets are considered, namely the existing PhiUSIIL phishing URL dataset as well as the dataset provided by the FreshMail company are applied. The proposed algorithm achieves a small number of expected false positives. This reduces the costs associated with manual analysis of such cases by domain experts (in the case of incorrect prediction as phishing mail). [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The context of recognizing handwritten city names, this research addresses the challenges posed by the manual inscription of Bangladeshi city names in the Bangla script. In today's technology-driven era, where precise tools for reading handwritten text are essential, this study focuses on leveraging deep learning to understand the intricacies of Bangla handwriting. The existing dearth of dedicated datasets has impeded the progress of Bangla handwritten city name recognition systems, particularly in critical areas such as postal automation and document processing. Notably, no prior research has specifically targeted the unique needs of Bangla handwritten city name recognition. To bridge this gap, the study collects real-world images from diverse sources to construct a comprehensive dataset for Bangla Hand Written City name recognition. The emphasis on practical data for system training enhances accuracy. The research further conducts a comparative analysis, pitting state-of-the-art (SOTA) deep learning models, including EfficientNetB0, VGG16, ResNet50, DenseNet201, InceptionV3, and Xception, against a custom Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) model named "Our CNN." The results showcase the superior performance of "Our CNN," with a test accuracy of 99.97% and an outstanding F1 score of 99.95%. These metrics underscore its potential for automating city name recognition, particularly in postal services. The study concludes by highlighting the significance of meticulous dataset curation and the promising outlook for custom CNN architectures. It encourages future research avenues, including dataset expansion, algorithm refinement, exploration of recurrent neural networks and attention mechanisms, real-world deployment of models, and extension to other regional languages and scripts. These recommendations offer exciting possibilities for advancing the field of handwritten recognition technology and hold practical implications for enhancing global postal services. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Turkish Journal of Social Research / Turkiye Sosyal Arastirmalar Dergisi is the property of Turkish Journal of Social Research and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

We use newly digitized records from the post office to study the effects of strengthened state capacity between 1875 and 1901. Exploiting the implementation of the Pendleton Act—a landmark statute that shielded bureaucrats from political interference—across US cities over two waves, we find that civil service reform reduced postal delivery errors and increased productivity. These improvements were most pronounced during election years when the reform dampened bureaucratic turnover. We provide suggestive evidence that reformed cities witnessed declining local partisan newspapers. Separating politics from administration, therefore, not only improved state effectiveness but also weakened the role of local politics. (JEL D24, D73, H83, J45, L82, L87, N41) [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Unsolicited proposals (USPs) are permitted in many countries for public–private partnership (PPP) projects. Despite the importance of a competitive and transparent environment throughout the tendering process, USPs are typically known to have low competition and collusive agreements. This study reviews unsolicited road projects implemented through PPPs in South Korea, and empirically examines the relationship between transparency, tendering rules, and competition. First, it discovers that the weights of the price (or quantitative) components of tendering rules differ between the competitive USPs group with more than one bidder and the noncompetitive USPs group with only one bidder. All else being equal, regression analysis reveals that USPs with relatively higher weights for the price (or quantitative) components tend to have more bidders during the tendering process. Second, regression analysis identifies a measure that affects competition for USPs. With transparent and objective tendering rules, the level of competition is determined by the measure that captures how much the bidders' scores would increase if their toll rates were decreased. Finally, a case study demonstrates how strategic behaviors and collusive agreements arise among bidders under USPs where the tendering rules are partially transparent and the initial proponents can reorganize their consortium during the tendering process. This study's findings will contribute to expanding research on transparency and competition in tendering rules, as well as improve USPs in designing tendering rules to enhance competition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Particularly for the summarization task and the summary of relatively brief documents, abstractive document summarization has become a favored research topic in the field of natural language processing as it continues to advance. We recommend employing the enhanced abstractive summarization model, which integrates a pre-trained BART model from the CNN/Daily Mail dataset with chunk method processing. This model is capable of processing both brief and lengthy text input, including news articles and research articles, which are categorized as long documents. Our approach involves chunking the string into a list of sentences and encoding the text of a lengthy document written in English. Subsequently, we employ a BART model decoder to generate a summary by combining the results of each chunk text summarization, which then serves as the result summary. The performance of our chunking method is better when utilizing BART, which has been pre-trained on the CNN/Daily Mail dataset, compared to the one pre-trained on the XSum dataset. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article delves into how Rabindranath Tagore examined the theme of freedom in his works, influenced by his experiences under foreign rule, including issues like racism, language barriers, living conditions, and the freedom to voice opinions. Tagore criticizes narrow nationalism, which he views as fueled by selfish ambition and greed. His plays--Dakghar (The Post Office), Achalayatan (The Immovable), Muktadhara (The Waterfall), and Raktakarabi (Red Oleanders)--each reveal different dimensions of his expansive concept of freedom. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Two chemists employed a three‐device rapid screening "toolkit" consisting of a handheld Raman spectrometer, transportable mass spectrometer, and portable Fourier transform infrared (FT‐IR) spectrometer at an international mail facility (IMF) satellite laboratory to examine unknown (unlabeled/mislabeled) products for the presence of active pharmaceutical ingredients (APIs). Phase I of this project previously demonstrated that this toolkit was the most effective collection of instruments for identifying APIs in product types collected at IMFs during a nationwide mail blitz and Phase II of this project previously demonstrated that results generated using the toolkit during a satellite laboratory pilot program were as reliable as those generated by a full‐service library when two or more of these instruments identify an API. This study (Phase III) described the results of the satellite laboratory toolkit during production mode and encompassed the period ranging from June 2021 through December 2022. During this study, a total of 858 products were examined on‐site at the IMF. The satellite laboratory yielded conclusive results for 726 (84.6%) products, which were used to support regulatory action, and identified 132 (15.4%) products that required additional full‐service laboratory analyses due to inconclusive results. The satellite and full‐service laboratory verified/confirmed at least one API/related substance in 617 (71.9%) products. A total of 709 APIs/related substances were found in the 617 products, and 202 of these 709 compounds were unique/different. Overall, during Phases I through III of this program, 350 different substances have been identified in products collected at IMFs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The European Journal of Jewish Studies explores Jewish and non-Jewish relations in Central Europe during the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries, focusing on urban social interactions. The urban landscapes of Central Europe underwent significant changes due to mass migration and urbanization, leading to the emergence of cultural metropolises. The articles in this special section discuss various case studies, such as relations in the Budapest Bar Association and the public presence of German Jews in the Grand Duchy of Baden, shedding light on the impact of these interactions on the making of modernity. The research aims to provide insights into the diverse Jewish urban spaces and encourage further exploration of relational spaces in understanding Jewish and non-Jewish encounters in urban settings. [Extracted from the article]

This article explores the playful and humorous side of Henry Morris, a renowned printer known for his Bird & Bull Press. While Morris was primarily focused on papermaking history, he also enjoyed incorporating whimsical pranks and jokes into his work. One of his main outlets for this was the creation of San Serriffean works, which began in 1937 and involved parodies and spoofs related to printing and numismatic culture. Morris published various books and ephemeral pieces under the pseudonym Dr. Bachaus, incorporating elements of San Serriffe into his work. These playful publications covered topics such as toilet paper, marbled papers, private presses, and even a fictional republic called San Serriffe. Morris's San Serriffean works were highly regarded for their creativity and humor, adding an element of amusement to his fine press printing. [Extracted from the article]

Copyright of bilig: Journal of Social Sciences of the Turkish World is the property of bilig: Journal of Social Sciences of the Turkish World and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Folklore Studies / Tautosakos Darbai is the property of Institute of Lithuanian Literature & Folklore and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Revista do Curso de Direito do UNIFOR is the property of UNIFOR Law Course Magazine / Revista do Curso de Direito do UNIFOR and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

Copyright of Magazine of Historical Studies & Archaeology is the property of Republic of Iraq Ministry of Higher Education & Scientific Research (MOHESR) and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The ongoing Post Office scandal in the UK and the 2021 Child Daycare Benefit Scandal in the Netherlands make up exemplary cases of how digital automation has changed and in fact severely harmed trust relations ranging from trust in oneself over trust in social roles, trust in institutions, trust in technology and general trust. By looking closer at how digital automation in these cases generated ruptures in the lives of ordinary citizens and also affected the involved institutions and society at large I discuss how we may begin to discuss the impact of digitalization on trust in societies. I start with an introduction to the panoramic view of trust, followed by a short description of the two scandals. Based on the exploration of the two cases I take an ex post facto perspective on the dynamic social events as they unfolded in the scandals in order to analyze how the introduction of digital automation tools affected trust relations. I draw attention to some of the most noticeable changes in the four relations of trust, which is trust in institutions, interpersonal trust, trust in oneself and trust in technology. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Global Investment Report 2023 revealed that after a sharp decline in 2020 and a strong rebound in 2021, global foreign direct investment (FDI) declined by 12 percent to $1.3 trillion in 2022. However, in developing countries, FDI increased by 4% to $916 billion, a record share of more than 70% of global flows. The number of greenfield investment projects in developing countries increased by 37 percent and international project finance transactions by 5 percent. Foreign investment from China, the second largest recipient of foreign investment globally, increased by 5 percent. The service industry has become the mainstream industry in the global FDI structure. The global industry is accelerating its transformation to a "service-based economy," international FDI in productive service industries has become an essential means of industrial transfer in developed countries and a meaningful way to upgrade the industrial structure and high-quality development in emerging economies. As a representative province in central China, Hubei Province has unique advantages in human capital, factor cost, and market potential, which provide preferential conditions to attract foreign investment. This paper first introduced the concept of the productive service industry, based on the relevant statistical data from 2011 to 2022, focused on the current situation of foreign investment utilization in five major sub-sectors of the productive service industry in Hubei Province in the past ten years, and empirically investigated the impact of foreign investment utilization in five major sub-sectors of the productive service industry on the economic growth of Hubei Province, and obtained that the level of foreign investment attraction varied significantly among the regions in Hubei Province. The three productive service industries, namely transportation, storage and postal services, information transmission, software and information technology services, and financial services, played a significant role in the active attraction and optimal utilization of foreign capital and the economic development of Hubei Province. Based on this, it was proposed to build a market-oriented rule of law and internationalized business environment, improve the infrastructure construction in different regions of the province, focus on the training of professional talents for the development of productive service industries, and pay attention to the improvement of independent innovation capacity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Universal stress proteins (USPs) are widely distributed and play crucial roles in cellular responses to biotic and abiotic stresses. These roles include regulating cell growth and development, cell motility, hypoxia responses, and ion sequestration. With the increasing frequency and intensity of extreme weather events due to climate change, pathogens have developed different strategies to withstand environmental stresses, in which USPs play a significant role in their survival and virulence. In this study, we analyzed the importance of USPs in various organisms, such as archaea, plants, and fungi, as a parameter that influences their survival. We discussed the different types Of USPs and their role, aiming to carry out fundamental research in this field to identify significant constraints for better understanding of USP functions at molecular level. Additionally, we discussed concepts and research techniques that could help overcome these hurdles and facilitate new molecular approaches to better understand and target USPs as important stress adaptation and survival regulators. Although the precise characteristics of USPs are still unclear, numerous innovative uses have already been developed, tested, and implemented. Complementary approaches to basic research and applications, as well as new technology and analytical techniques, may offer insights into the cryptic but crucial activities of USPs in various living systems. Shows the different environmental stresses faced by plants and microbes and how they respond by generating stress proteins, which are enhanced when stressors trigger organisms and help the organism in stress tolerance and resistance and the pathogenesis of microbes. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Older adults are thought to be more susceptible to scams, yet understanding the relationship between chronological age and victimization is limited by underreporting. This study avoids underreporting bias by merging four longitudinal databases of Americans (N = 1.33 million) who paid money in response to mail scams over 20 years. We investigate the risk of repeat victimization and victimization by multiple scam types over the life course. Victims in their 70s and 80s are 9% more likely to experience another victimization incident than those in their 50s. Those age 18 to 29 are 24% less likely to experience another victimization incident. Relative to adults in their 50s, the odds of victimization by multiple scams are greater for those in their 60s and 70s, but lower for those 80 +. This study demonstrates the research potential in using scammers' data to understand patterns of victimization. Fraud prevention efforts should target older individuals who are at higher risk of repeat victimization and suffer greater losses as a result. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This essay is about many things including, but not limited to, Cyrille Regis, Delia Derbyshire, an Ewok badge, Mickey Mouse, Napalm Death, the Sylvanian Families, anonymous hate mail, bereavement, the luminous popular cultures of the often-deprecated English Midlands, the absence of so many amazing popular cultures from Social & Cultural Geography, and my own recurrent failure to write about these things. It is part of a Special Issue on (Em)placing the Popular in Cultural Geography. The essay opens out a set of questions and prompts for reflection about the relationship (or, more often, the weird non-relationship) between disciplines of Social and Cultural Geography and contemporary popular cultures. At its heart, you'll find six fragments of autoethnographic writing dealing with: popular cultural absences and silences in the written canon of Human Geography; joy and recognition, but also the burden of doing justice to popular cultures; and manifold antipathies towards academic work on popular culture. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Over the nineteenth century, the global expansion of British trade and settlement were underwritten by a massive expansion of correspondence and communication networks. But while there are detailed studies of how the domestic Post Office developed in this era, how mail was carried between these colonial and international locations has not been fully investigated. This omission is striking because, as this article explains, the development of overseas mail services diverged significantly from the patterns of reform, cost-efficiency, and rationalisation described in histories of the domestic Post Office. Rather, the overseas mail grew through a set of unprecedented partnerships between the state and steamship companies that resulted in a surprisingly uneven postal network, which served an expanding collection of international and colonial ports but under highly variable conditions and costs. This article brings together postal records, Parliamentary debates, and the histories of steamship companies to explain how the overseas mail system developed between 1837 and 1880 as the power of private actors waxed and waned. It not only explains how a central utility of empire functioned but also provides insight on the operation of a key set of public-private partnerships in the nineteenth-century British world. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This article presents the results of an adaptive design experiment in the recruitment of households and individuals for a two-stage national probability web or mail mixed-mode survey, the American Family Health Study (AFHS). In the screening stage, we based the adaptive design's subgroup differentiation on Esri Tapestry segmentation. We used tailored invitation materials for a subsample where a high proportion of the population was Hispanic and added a paper questionnaire to the initial mailing for a subsample with rural and older families. In the main-survey stage, the adaptive design targeted the households where a member other than the screening respondent was selected for the survey. The adaptations included emailing and/or texting, an additional prepaid incentive, and seeking screening respondents' help to remind the selected individuals. The main research questions are (i) whether the adaptive design improved survey production outcomes and (ii) whether combining adaptive design and postsurvey weighting adjustments improved survey estimates compared to performing postsurvey adjustments alone. Unfortunately, the adaptive designs did not improve the survey production outcomes. We found that the weighted AFHS estimates closely resemble those of a benchmark national face-to-face survey, the National Survey of Family Growth, although the adaptive design did not additionally change survey estimates beyond the weighting adjustments. Nonetheless, our experiment yields useful insights about the implementation of adaptive design in a self-administered mail-recruit web or mail survey. We were able to identify subgroups with potentially lower response rates and distinctive characteristics, but it was challenging to develop effective protocol adaptations for these subgroups under the constraints of the two primary survey modes and the operational budget of the AFHS. In addition, for self-administered within-household selection, it was difficult to obtain contact information from, reach, and recruit selected household members that did not respond to the screening interview. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The four-part TV drama "Mr Bates vs The Post Office" has shed light on what many consider to be one of the greatest miscarriages of justice in British history. The series dramatizes the story of the Post Office prosecuting subpostmasters over shortfalls caused by faulty accounting software. It follows the efforts of those wrongly accused to fight back and find justice. The show has sparked important discussions about law and justice, particularly regarding private prosecutions. It raises questions about the slow pace of the justice process, the allocation of blame and responsibility, and the future of private prosecutions. The series has had a significant impact on public consciousness and has prompted calls for greater oversight and accountability in private prosecutions. The show's portrayal of the scandal has shaped emerging answers to these questions and has generated a sense of urgency in achieving justice for those wrongfully accused. The drama has also highlighted the need for a deeper examination of the wider failings that allowed this miscarriage of justice to occur. The ongoing public inquiry will play a crucial role in addressing these issues and determining the appropriate allocation of blame. The series has been a powerful advocacy tool, drawing attention to the fight for justice and sparking important conversations about British justice. It is hoped that these conversations will continue to address the systemic problems and ensure that exonerations and compensations are just the beginning of the process. [Extracted from the article]