Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sparse NOMA: A Closed-Form Characterization

Understanding fundamental limits of the various technologies suggested for future 5G and beyond cellular systems is crucial for developing efficient state-of-the-art designs. A leading technology of major interest is non-orthogonal multiple-access (NOMA). In this paper, we derive an explicit rigorous closed-form analytical expression for the optimum spectral efficiency in the large-system limit of regular sparse NOMA, where only a fixed and finite number of orthogonal resources are allocated to any designated user, and vice versa. The basic Verdú-Shamai formula for (dense) randomly-spread code-division multiple-access (RS-CDMA) turns out to coincide with the limit of the derived expression, when the number of orthogonal resources per user grows large. Furthermore, regular sparse NOMA is rigorously shown to be spectrally more efficient than RS-CDMA across the entire system load range. It may therefore serve as an efficient means for reducing the throughput gap to orthogonal transmission in the underloaded regime, and to the ultimate Cover-Wyner bound in overloaded systems. The results analytically reinforce preliminary conclusions in [1], which mostly relied on heuristics and numerical observations. The spectral efficiency is also derived in closed form for the sub-optimal linear minimum-mean-square-error (LMMSE) receiver, which again extends the corresponding Verdti-Shamai LMMSE formula to regular sparse NOMA.
The Voice of Reason: A Qualitative Examination of Black Student Perceptions of Black Culture Centers

Black Culture Centers (BCCs) represent safe and welcoming spaces for Black students at predominantly White institutions (PWIs). Resulting from the Black Student Movement of the 1960s, BCCs have become institutional mainstays that provide services and programs to the entire campus community. This study examined Black students' perceptions of the Institute of Black Culture at the University of Florida. The discussion and implications provide an in-depth understanding of the historical, current and future role, and mission of BCCs, as well as insights on the importance of BCCs as PWIs strive to better serve the needs of Black students.
Do Ethnic Groups Retain Homogenous Preferences in African Politics? Evidence from Sierra Leone and Liberia

Abstract: It is frequently argued that ethnic groups across Alrica retain homogenous preferences stemming from a sense of collective identity and shared destiny, and that they unvaryingly prefer the same outcomes in zero-sum competitions for scarce resources. This article presents results from comparative field surveys examining these claims in Sierra Leone and Liberia following postconflict elections. In contradiction with conventional expectations, the results show corroboration on several issues across voters from several ethnic groups as well as heterogeneity in preferences among voters from the same ethnic groups in both countries. The implications for democratization and conflict resolution in Africa are discussed. E-mail: fbatty@colgate.edu
Is Prostate Biopsy Essential to Diagnose Prostate Cancer in the Older Patient with Extremely High Prostate-Specific Antigen?

Purpose The results of all prostate biopsies may be positive and suggestive of adenocarcinoma in patients with prostate-specific antigen (PSA) values higher than 100 ng/ml. We considered that the prostate cancer in patients with high PSA might be advanced disease and therefore that the treatment strategy should not be changed according to pathological reports. Thus, we assessed the role of prostate biopsy when diagnosing prostate cancer in patients with extremely high PSA levels. Materials and Methods We reviewed the records of 1,150 cases undergoing prostate biopsies. Patients with urinary tract infection and acute urinary retention were excluded. According to the pre-biopsy PSA level, patients were divided into 6 groups (group A, 4 to 20 ng/ml; B, 20 to 40 ng/ml; C, 40 to 60 ng/ml; D, 60 to 80 ng/ml; E: 80 to 100 ng/ml; and F, above 100 ng/ml). Results The calculated positive predictive value (PPV) for prostate cancer was 22% in group A, 54% in group B, 73% in group C, 75% in group D, 89% in group E, and 100% in group F, respectively. Pathological diagnosis was adenocarcinoma in all patients in group F (n=56). Among them, 38 patients (67.9%) had lymph node metastasis or extra-prostatic disease or both and 43 patients (76.8%) had bony metastasis. In group F, all cases were advanced prostate cancer (stage III or IV). All of them received hormonal therapy following diagnosis. Conclusions We suggest the possibility for biopsy-free diagnosis of prostate cancer in patients with extremely high levels of serum PSA and evidence of advanced disease in imaging studies, especially in older patients with comorbid medical problems.
Effects of short-term exposure to carbon monoxide in subjects with coronary artery disease.

Twenty-four male subjects with stable angina pectoris performed graded exercise tests after being exposed to either carbon monoxide (CO) or clean air in a randomized crossover double-blind experiment in which each subject acted as his own control. Subject's blood carboxyhemoglobin levels were increased from a baseline level of approximately 1.5% to 3% of saturation, post-CO exposure. Cardiographic and respiratory gas exchange data were obtained during the tests in which the subjects exercised to the point of onset of anginal pain. The goal of the study was to determine if low-level CO exposure compromised the ability of these individuals to perform work. Data were evaluated statistically using a two-factor analysis of variance with repeated measures; the factors were exposure ATMOSPHERE (clean air vs. CO) and ORDER of exposure (clean air first, CO second vs. CO first, clean air second). One-tailed tests were used, and differences were considered significant at the p less than . 05 level. The time to onset of angina was reduced 6% (p = .046) after CO exposure relative to clean air. Oxygen uptake (VO2) at angina was reduced by approximately 3% (p = .04). A subgroup of individuals who exhibited depression in the ST segment of their electrocardiograph tracings showed a 12% reduction in time to onset of angina and a 20% reduction in the time to onset of 0.1 mV ST segment depression; both of these findings were also statistically significant.
Comparison of Comprehension Monitoring of Skilled and Less Skilled Readers.

THE PURPOSE of this study was to gain a better understanding of the differences in comprehension and comprehension monitoring in reading between skilled and less skilled readers. Sixteen fifth-grade students of each type, matched on intelligence, were given five stories to read on a microcomputer screen. Three of the stories made little sense because a page of the story was purposefully omitted to make the story inconsistent. The skilled readers correctly reported that a page was missing on the inconsistent stories significantly more often than did the less skilled readers. The same trend obtained for the subset of subjects in each group who appeared to detect the problem at some lower level, as evidenced by longer reading times, lookbacks, or the making of unwarranted inferences at the point of the inconsistency. These group differences in comprehension monitoring performance could not be explained by differences in intelligence, decoding skill, or ability to recall crucial story information. In both groups, inferring that is not marked by the subject as hypothetical seemed to account for more failure to report the missing page than any other variable.
Conjunctival advancement for late-onset filtering bleb leaks: indications and outcomes.

OBJECTIVE To determine the indications and outcome of conjunctival advancement surgery for late-onset filtering bleb leaks. PATIENTS AND METHODS Retrospective medical record review of a consecutive case series of all patients who underwent conjunctival advancement surgery for persistent late-onset glaucoma filtering bleb leaks at a tertiary referral center between December 1, 1985, and April 30, 1997. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Indications for surgery, preoperative and postoperative intraocular pressure (IOP), visual acuity, status of bleb leak, and need for reinstitution of medical therapy or reoperation for glaucoma. RESULTS Twenty-six eyes of 26 patients were analyzed. Complications from bleb leaks that necessitated surgical intervention included chronic ocular hypotony (n = 21), decreased visual acuity (n = 9), bleb-related infection (n = 11), hypotony maculopathy (n = 4), corneal edema with folds (n = 7), choroidal effusion (n = 3), and persistent shallow anterior chamber (n = 3). The mean +/- SD preoperative IOP was 5.7 +/- 4.9 mm Hg (range, 0-16 mm Hg). After a follow-up of 19.6 +/- 22.6 months, the IOP was 14.2 +/- 4.1 mm Hg for patients taking 1.1 +/- 1.3 glaucoma medications (all data given as mean +/- SD). Twelve patients (46%) had early-onset bleb leaks after revision, of which 7 (27%) closed spontaneously and 5 (19%) required resuturing. Two patients (8%) had a persistent bleb leak throughout the follow-up period. Thirteen patients (50%) required reinstitution of medical therapy during the follow-up period, and 2 (8%) required a reoperation for glaucoma for uncontrolled IOP. CONCLUSIONS Conjunctival advancement is a successful procedure for closing late-onset filtering bleb leaks. Some patients require suturing in the early postoperative period, but most patients eventually obtain permanent closure of the leak. Patients should be counseled of the possibility of requiring medical or surgical intervention for IOP control after revision.
Is there an unrecognized epidemic of primary aldosteronism? Con.

My answer is “no.” Although primary aldosteronism (PA) is likely more common than most experts believed in the 1960–1990 interval, it is not nearly as common as Dr Calhoun and other investigators report from 1990 until now. As many younger clinicians may not remember, this same issue arose soon after Dr Jerome Conn characterized this disease in 1955.1 Reporting on the prevalence of PA in his highly referred population of likely suspects, Dr Conn and coworkers’ estimates were as high as 20%. 2 Subsequently, studies on unreferred patients supported a prevalence of <1%. 3 The lower estimate was commonly accepted until Gordan and colleagues started screening for PA with the plasma aldosterone:renin ratio (ARR) first described in 19764 and expanded by Hiramatsu et al in 1981.5 In 1993, Gordon et al6 reported an elevated ARR in 20% of 199 patients, with 8.5% having an abnormal saline suppression test and 2.5% proven to have an aldosterone-producing adenoma. Since then, numerous series have been reported (Table). As seen in Table 1, the prevalence of an elevated ARR has varied from 5.5% to 39.0%. Part of the wide variation rises from the use of varying thresholds; more of the variation rises from inclusion of various types of patients. The latter point must be recognized, because most patients in these series were referred to specialized centers, just as Dr Conn’s high numbers were largely derived from a referred population. View this table: Prevalence of Autonomous Hyperaldosteronism and APAs in Patients Tested by ARR Two recently published series epitomize the vagaries of most series listed in the Table. The first is a study of 1125 recently diagnosed subjects with hypertension referred to 14 specialized hypertension clinics throughout Italy.27 Plasma renin activity and plasma aldosterone were measured at baseline and again 60 …
A cross‐cultural comparison of road traffic risk perceptions, attitudes towards traffic safety and driver behaviour

The present study investigated cross‐cultural differences in road traffic risk perception, risk sensitivity and risk willingness in Norway, Russia, India, Ghana, Tanzania and Uganda. Differences in driver attitudes and driver behaviour were also examined. An additional aim was to test whether the risk constructs and driver attitudes explained the variation in risky driver behaviour in these countries. To obtain these aims, a questionnaire survey was conducted among a randomly obtained representative sample of the Norwegian public (n = 247). Stratified samples were established in Russia (n = 245), India (n = 196), Ghana (n = 299), Tanzania (n = 559) and Uganda (n = 415). The respondents completed a questionnaire which consisted of validated self‐reported measures of the risk constructs, and driver attitudes and behaviour. Norwegians reported safer attitudes regarding drinking and driving, and speeding in road traffic. These respondents also reported more seat belt use and lower frequencies of drinking and driving than the remaining subsamples. Respondents from Sub‐Saharan Africa reported higher road traffic risk perceptions and risk sensitivity than respondents from Norway, Russia and India. Respondents from Tanzania reported the highest willingness to take risks both in traffic and in general. Participants from Sub‐Saharan Africa and India reported safer attitudes in regard to speaking out to an unsafe driver, rule violations and sanctions, attitudes towards pedestrians, and traffic rules and knowledge. Respondents from Sub‐Saharan Africa also reported more precautious behaviour and less speeding. The predictive model of driver behaviour explained a satisfactory amount of variance in Norway, Russia and India, but was poorly fitted in the African countries. The results are discussed in line with the general risk environments and the road traffic systems in high‐ and low‐income countries. Challenges related to measuring road traffic attitudes and behaviour in low‐income countries are also discussed.
Self-interaction of the cucumber mosaic virus 2b protein plays a vital role in the suppression of RNA silencing and the induction of viral symptoms.

The cucumber mosaic virus (CMV) 2b protein is an RNA silencing suppressor protein that can also play direct and indirect roles in symptom induction. Previous work has shown that a hybrid virus, FRad35(2b) -CMV (renamed here as CMV-FRad2b-Pro), generated by replacement of the 2b gene of strain Fny-CMV with that from Rad35-CMV, displays markedly lower pathogenicity than Fny-CMV on Nicotiana species. However, the replacement of proline with leucine at position 55 of the 2b protein of CMV-FRad2b-Pro (protein Rad2b-Pro) created a virus (CMV-FRad2b-Leu) that induced severe symptoms. Infection of Arabidopsis thaliana mutants defective in the expression of DICER-like (DCL) endoribonucleases 2 and 4, which mediate antiviral RNA silencing, as well as of dcl3 and dcl2/3/4 triple-mutant plants, indicated that Rad2b-Pro was a weaker RNA silencing suppressor than the protein Rad2b-Leu. This was confirmed in Nicotiana benthamiana using agroinfiltration assays, showing that, compared with either Rad2b-Leu or the Fny2b protein, Rad2b-Pro was ineffective at inhibiting local or systemic silencing of expression of a green fluorescent protein reporter gene. Transgenic expression of Rad2b-Leu, but not of Rad2b-Pro, in Arabidopsis induced symptom-like phenotypes and rescued the accumulation of the 2b-deletion mutant Fny-CMVΔ2b. Bimolecular fluorescent complementation indicated that, in planta, Rad2b-Leu, but not Rad2b-Pro, self-interacts. Thus, self-interaction is crucial to the ability of the 2b protein to suppress silencing and induce a symptom-like phenotype, and is dependent on the properties of the residue at position 55.
Thermal Study on Phase Transitions of Block Copolymers by Mesoscopic Simulation

The block copolymers are an exceptional kind of macromolecules constituted by two or more blocks of different homopolymer chains linked by covalent bonds. These polymeric materials have received much attention over past few years due in large part to their ability to selfassemble in the melted state or in a selective solvent inside a variety of ordered phases or welldefined structures of high regularity in size and shape with characteristic dimensions between 100 and 500 nanometres. These ordered phases and their structural modification are the key to many valuable physical properties which make block copolymers of great industrial and technological interest. The molecular self-assemble and formation of periodic phases in the block copolymers depend of the strength of interblock repulsion and composition, for example, mesoscopic studies of the poly(styrene)-poly(isoprene) (PS-PI) diblock copolymer, have demonstrated that this synthetic material, may generate a series of long-range ordered microdomains when exist a weak repulsion between the unlike monomers isoprene and styrene, as result, the PS-PI diblock copolymer chains tend to segregate below some critical temperature, but, as they are linked by covalent bonds, the phase separation on a macroscopic level is prevented, only a local microphase segregation occurs (Soto-Figueroa et al., 2005, SotoFigueroa et al., 2007). The phase transition from homogeneous state of polymeric chains to an ordered state with periodic phases is called microphase separation transition (MST) or orderdisorder phase transition (ODT) (Leibler, 1980). The phase segregation and generation of ordered structures in the microscopic level of a diblock copolymer via an order-disorder phase transition is illustrated in Fig. 1.
A comparison of the SF‐36 and Nottingham Health Profile in patients with chronic neuropathic pain

The aim of this study was to evaluate and compare the psychometric properties of two generic health‐related quality of life (HRQoL) instruments, the Short Form Health Survey (SF‐36) and the Nottingham Health Profile (NHP) in a group of patients with chronic peripheral neuropathic pain (PNP). The sample consisted of 126 adults (56 men and 70 women) with PNP following a lesion of a peripheral nerve, spinal nerve or nerve root or patients with post‐herpetic neuralgia. The battery of tests included visual analogue scales (VASs) for pain assessment and global rating of health and verbal rating scales of pain and other symptoms, as well as patient descriptors.
Alcohol, gender and partner aggression: a general population study of British adults

This study explored gender differences in the extent that alcohol affects the perceived severity of partner aggression, and assessed the relationship between partner aggression and drinking pattern. Respondents were asked questions related to their own drinking pattern and the most severe incident of physical aggression experienced by and to a spouse/romantic partner during the previous two years as part of a general population survey of 2027 adults in the UK conducted by interviewers using both oral and computer-assisted question format. Approximately, 20% of respondents reported partner aggression, with drinking by one or both partners occurring in 35–40% of incidents. Alcohol use at the time of aggression was associated with increased severity of aggression, anger and fear, especially for aggression by a male toward a female respondent. Drinking patterns of the respondent and the partner predicted alcohol involvement in aggression, but not aggression that did not involve alcohol.
Regeneration potency of mouse limbs

Mammalians have a low potency for limb regeneration compared to that of amphibians. One explanation for the low potency is the deficiency of cells for regenerating amputated limbs in mammals. Amphibians can form a blastema with dedifferentiated cells, but mammals have few such cells. In this paper, we report limb formation, especially bone/cartilage formation in amputated limbs, because bone/cartilage formation is a basic step in limb pattern regeneration. After the amputation of limbs of a neonatal mouse, hypertrophy of the stump bone was observed at the amputation site, which was preceded by cell proliferation and cartilage formation. However, no new elements of bone/cartilage were formed. Thus, we grafted limb buds of mouse embryo into amputated limbs of neonatal mice. When the intact limb bud of a transgenic green fluorescent protein (GFP) mouse was grafted to the limb stump after amputation at the digit joint level, the grafted limb bud grew and differentiated into bone, cartilage and soft tissues, and it formed a segmented pattern that was constituted by bone and cartilage. The skeletal pattern was more complicated when limb buds at advanced stages were used. To examine if the grafted limb bud autonomously develops a limb or interacts with stump tissue to form a limb, the limb bud was dissociated into single cells and reaggregated before grafting. The reaggregated limb bud cells formed similar digit‐like bone/cartilage structures. The reaggregated grafts also formed segmented cartilage. When the reaggregates of bone marrow mesenchymal cells were grafted into the stump, these cells formed cartilage, as do limb bud cells. Finally, to examine the potency of new bone formation in the stump tissue without exogenously supplied cells, we grafted gelatin gel containing BMP‐7. BMP induced formation of several new bone elements, which was preceded by cartilage formation. The results suggest that the environmental tissues of the stump allow the formation of cartilage and bone at least partially, and that limb formation will be possible by supplying competent cells endogenously or exogenously in the future.
Which Classroom Behaviours do Primary School Teachers say they find most Troublesome

A questionnaire enquiring into classroom behaviour problems was distributed to a 25% random sample of all infant, junior and junior infant schools in a West Midlands LEA. Replies were received from all 32 schools, resulting in a very high return of 93%. Of the 198 teachers who responded 51% believed that they were spending more time than they ought on problems of order and control. On average 4‐3 children per class were identified as troublesome, of whom 3 were boys. Boys were identified as the most troublesome and as the next most troublesome child in the class by three quarters of the teachers. Asked to identify the most troublesome classroom behaviours 47% selected ‘talking out of turn’ followed by ‘hindering other children’ (25%). Very similar findings were obtained for the most frequent troublesome behaviour and for the most troublesome behaviours of the particularly troublesome individual children.