Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The effect of drug information leaflets on patient behavior.

BACKGROUND The patient package insert, an information leaflet included by law in the packaging of prescription drugs, contains information for the user on the specific medication. OBJECTIVES To explore how patient information leaflets influence patient anxiety and adherence. METHODS A prospective cohort study was conducted in the practices of 15 family physicians. All patients receiving a new prescription for antibiotics, analgesics or antihypertensives were included. Physicians completed a questionnaire containing demographic data, assessment of the patient's anxiety, a prediction regarding adherence to the treatment, and response to the information leaflet. Patients were contacted by telephone for a follow-up structured interview. Patients' reactions to the information leaflet, adherence to treatment, and use of other sources of information on medication were assessed. RESULTS The study group comprised 200 patients. The patient information leaflet was read by 103 of them (51.5%). A higher educational level and a chronic medication were associated with reading the leaflet (P= 0.02 and 0.01 respectively). In 36 (34.9%), an increase in anxiety was reported after reading the leaflet. Among those who read the leaflet, 9.7% had decreased adherence. Patients who stated that reading the leaflet caused anxiety were more likely to reduce their use of the medication--7/36 (19.5%) vs. 3/67 (4.5%), P= 0.01. CONCLUSIONS The proportion of patients reading the drug information leaflet is about 50%, lower than that found in previous studies. Reading the leaflet did not greatly affect adherence but aroused anxiety and decreased adherence in some patients.
Chinese Youth Career Adaptability: Contextual Influences and Pathways to Positive Youth Development

The present study investigated the mediating role of career adaptability in the relationship between youth-perceived contextual support and positive youth development on the basis of a survey of 1,047 students in 10th to 12th grades. Measurement model analysis revealed that career search self-efficacy (CSSE), goal capacity, academic self-efficacy, and intrinsic motivation all fit within a latent construct representing career adaptability. Subsequently, structural model analysis revealed that career adaptability fully mediates the relationship between contextual factors and positive youth development. In addition, these analyses identified eight specific indirect pathways: CSSE and goal capacity fully mediated the relationship between quality learning experience/social connection and decision-making readiness; CSSE and academic self-efficacy partially mediated the relationship between social connection and stress management, and they also acted as suppressor in the relationship between quality learning experiences and stress management. These findings establish notable implications for career counseling and intervention practices that are discussed in closing.
Reversible Memory Loss in a Mouse Transgenic Model of Alzheimer's Disease

Alzheimer's disease (AD) is a neurodegenerative condition, believed to be irreversible, characterized by inexorable deterioration of memory and intellect, with neuronal loss accompanying amyloid plaques and neurofibrillary tangles. In an amyloid precursor protein transgenic mouse model, Tg2576, little or no neuronal loss accompanies age-related memory impairment or the accumulation of Aβ, a 40–42 aa polypeptide found in plaques. Recently, we have shown inverse correlations between brain Aβ and memory in Tg2576 mice stratified by age (Westerman et al., 2002). Broadening the age range examined obscured this relationship, leading us to propose that small, soluble assemblies of Aβ disrupt cognitive function in these mice. Here we show that memory loss can be fully reversed in Tg2576 mice using intraperitoneally administered BAM-10, a monoclonal antibody recognizing the N terminus of Aβ. The beneficial effect of BAM-10 was not associated with a significant Aβ reduction, but instead eliminated the inverse relationship between brain Aβ and memory. We postulate that BAM-10 acts by neutralizing Aβ assemblies in the brain that impair cognitive function. Our results indicate that a substantial portion of memory loss in Tg2576 mice is not permanent. If these Aβ assemblies contribute significantly to memory loss in AD, then successfully targeting them might improve memory in some AD patients.
Randomized Algorithms for Optimal Solutions of Double-Sided QCQP With Applications in Signal Processing

Quadratically constrained quadratic programming (QCQP) with double-sided constraints has plenty of applications in signal processing as have been addressed in recent years. QCQP problems are hard to solve, in general, and they are typically approached by solving a semidefinite programming (SDP) relaxation followed by a postprocessing procedure. Existing postprocessing schemes include Gaussian randomization to generate an approximate solution, rank reduction procedure (the so-called purification), and some specific rank-one matrix decomposition techniques to yield a globally optimal solution. In this paper, we propose several randomized postprocessing methods to output not an approximate solution but a globally optimal solution for some solvable instances of the double-sided QCQP (i.e., instances with a small number of constraints). We illustrate their applicability in robust receive beamforming, radar optimal code design, and broadcast beamforming for multiuser communications. As a byproduct, we derive an alternative (shorter) proof for the Sturm-Zhang rank-one matrix decomposition theorem.
Spectral Eeciency of Cdma Systems with Linear Interference Suppression

| Spectral e ciency of CDMA systems with linear interference suppression and channel coding is calculated. For interference suppression by decorrelation (zero{ forcing, ZF) an analytical solution is given. For interference suppression according to the minimum mean squared error (MMSE) criterion a numerical approximation is applied. Hereby, it turns out, that the optimum modulation scheme and the optimum code rate are depending on both signal{to{noise ratio and power e ciency of the applied channel code.
An empirical study on the combination of surf features with VLAD vectors for image search

The study of efficient image representations has attracted significant interest due to the computational needs of large-scale applications. In this paper we study the performance of the recently proposed VLAD method for aggregating local image descriptors when combined with SURF features, in the domain of image search. The experiments show that when SURF features are used as local image descriptors, VLAD attains better performance compared to using SIFT features. We also study how the average number of local image descriptors extracted per image affects the performance and show that by controlling this number we are able to adjust the trade off between feature extraction time and search accuracy. Finally, we examine the retrieval performance of the proposed scheme with varying levels of distractor images.
A STUDY OF THE PERFORMANCE PROPERTIES OF SMALL ANTENNAS

Electrically small antennas are of interest in a variety of applications, particularly where the antennas must be unobtrusive. The performance properties considered in the design of small antennas typically include impedance, radiation efficiency, pattern shape, polarization and particularly operating bandwidth and quality factor (Q). In this paper, we compare the performance properties of several fundamental small antenna designs as a function of overall height and size (ka). Antennas studied here include the multi-arm folded helix, the matched disk loaded dipole, the matched spherical-cap dipole and the multi-arm spherical resonator. The antennas are compared to determine which configuration offers the best performance in terms of pattern shape, radiation efficiency, and 1⁄2-power and 2:1 VSWR bandwidths.
Convolutional nets and watershed cuts for real-time semantic Labeling of RGBD videos

This work addresses multi-class segmentation of indoor scenes with RGB-D inputs. While this area of research has gained much attention recently, most works still rely on handcrafted features. In contrast, we apply a multiscale convolutional network to learn features directly from the images and the depth information. Using a frame by frame labeling, we obtain nearly state-of-the-art performance on the NYU-v2 depth data set with an accuracy of 64.5%. We then show that the labeling can be further improved by exploiting the temporal consistency in the video sequence of the scene. To that goal, we present a method producing temporally consistent superpixels from a streaming video. Among the different methods producing superpixel segmentations of an image, the graph-based approach of Felzenszwalb and Huttenlocher is broadly employed. One of its interesting properties is that the regions are computed in a greedy manner in quasi-linear time by using a minimum spanning tree. In a framework exploiting minimum spanning trees all along, we propose an efficient video segmentation approach that computes temporally consistent pixels in a causal manner, filling the need for causal and real-time applications. We illustrate the labeling of indoor scenes in video sequences that could be processed in real-time using appropriate hardware such as an FPGA.
Presidential greatness: the historical consensus and its psychological significance

Two interconnected questions are addressed. One, does a historical consensus exist concerning the differential "(greatness" of the American presidents? Two, what do these ratings imply about presidential leadership? A factor analysis of 16 assessments indicated the presence of a primary "Igreatness" dimension and a bipolar "dogmatism" dimension. The three most recent measures were then singled out for an analysis aimed at identifying the antecedents of presidential greatness. Hundreds of potential predictors were operationalized, including family background, personality traits, occupational and political experiences, and administration events. Five predictors replicated across the greatness measures and survived tests for transhistorical invariance. In descending order of predictive generality, these are the number of years in office, the number of years as a wartime commander-in-chief, administration scandal, assassination, and having entered office as a national war hero. The theoretical meaning of these predictors is explored in further empirical analysis and discussion.
Protective Effect of Soy Isoflavones (from Glycine max) on Adipose TissueOxidative Stress and Inflammatory Response in an Experimental Model ofPost-menopausal Obesity: The Molecular Mechanisms

Obesity, adiposity mediated oxidative stress and inflammatory response has been identified to have an etiological origin for most of the complications associated with ageing populace. However, there are limited studies addressing the metabolic role of adipose tissue in the pathobiology of postmenopausal complications with respect to oxidative stress and inflammation. Numerous studies have reported the beneficial effects of soy isoflavones on postmenopausal complications; however, its efficacy these complications in postmenopausal model of obesity remain unclear. In the present study we found that the both ovariectomy and high fat diet (30 per cent fat) in isolation and in combination developed adipose tissue oxidative stress as evidenced by the reduced level of total antioxidant status (TAS) in association with elevated levels of adipose tissue malondialdehyde (MDA) and MDA/TAS ratio. These rats also displayed with inflammation as showed by increased levels of plasma tumor necrosis factor alpha (TNFα) and high sensitive C – reactive protein (hsCRP). The expression of adipose tissue inflammatory proteins; cyclo-oxygenase 2 (COX2), monocyte chemo attractant protein (MCP1) and protein kinase C alpha (PKCα) were heightened in response to both ovariectomy and high fat diet. All these metabolic changes were further augmented when ovariectomy was followed by high fat diet. This suggests that there was a synergism between the postmenopausal state and intake of fat rich diet in the development of adipose tissue oxidative stress and inflammatory response. Treatment with soy isoflavones significantly inhibited these metabolic changes improved adipose tissue oxidative stress and inflammatory response suggesting the use of this natural phytoestrogen as an anti-oxidant and anti-inflammatory agent for relieving metabolic consequences associated with postmenopausal women.
Xenomicrobiology: a roadmap for genetic code engineering

Biology is an analytical and informational science that is becoming increasingly dependent on chemical synthesis. One example is the high‐throughput and low‐cost synthesis of DNA, which is a foundation for the research field of synthetic biology (SB). The aim of SB is to provide biotechnological solutions to health, energy and environmental issues as well as unsustainable manufacturing processes in the frame of naturally existing chemical building blocks. Xenobiology (XB) goes a step further by implementing non‐natural building blocks in living cells. In this context, genetic code engineering respectively enables the re‐design of genes/genomes and proteins/proteomes with non‐canonical nucleic (XNAs) and amino (ncAAs) acids. Besides studying information flow and evolutionary innovation in living systems, XB allows the development of new‐to‐nature therapeutic proteins/peptides, new biocatalysts for potential applications in synthetic organic chemistry and biocontainment strategies for enhanced biosafety. In this perspective, we provide a brief history and evolution of the genetic code in the context of XB. We then discuss the latest efforts and challenges ahead for engineering the genetic code with focus on substitutions and additions of ncAAs as well as standard amino acid reductions. Finally, we present a roadmap for the directed evolution of artificial microbes for emancipating rare sense codons that could be used to introduce novel building blocks. The development of such xenomicroorganisms endowed with a ‘genetic firewall’ will also allow to study and understand the relation between code evolution and horizontal gene transfer.
Verification of control flow based security properties

A fundamental problem in software based security is whether local security checks inserted into the code are sufficient to implement a global security property. We introduce a formalism based on a two-level linear time temporal logic for specifying global security properties pertaining to the control flow of the program, and illustrate its expressive power with a number of existing properties. We define a minimalistic, security dedicated program model that only contains procedure call and run time security checks and propose an automatic method for verifying that an implementation using local security checks satisfies a global security property. For a given formula in the temporal logic, we prove that there exists a bound on the size of the states that have to be considered in order to assure the validity of the formula: this reduces the problem to finite state model checking. Finally, we instantiate the framework to the security architecture proposed for Java (JDK 1.2).
The Impacts of Terror Management and Self-Monitoring on Religiosity

SILVIA, CAITLIN The impacts of terror management and self-monitoring on religiosity. ADVISOR: Ken DeBono Previous research has shown that the cultural worldview a person holds has an impact on his or her attitudes and behaviors throughout life. Terror management theory posits that this worldview functions as a cultural anxiety-buffer from the overwhelming anxiety and terror that results from a person becoming aware of his or her own mortality. In particular, terror management theory suggests that there is a master motive behind religion, and that when placed in a mortality salience condition, a person’s beliefs and worldview will strengthen. Another personality variable that requires a strong worldview or framework is self-monitoring, which allows a person to use his or her attitudes as guides for subsequent behavior. High self-monitors base their actions on situational information, while low self-monitors strive to act based on their true attitudes. The current study tried to determine if terror management’s impact on religiosity could be moderated by self-monitoring. Participants were classified as high or low self-monitors, put in the control or mortality salience condition, and then answered questions concerning their levels of religiosity. The results were not significant, but the patterns of means were in the predicted direction.
A simple multimembered evolution strategy to solve constrained optimization problems

This work presents a simple multimembered evolution strategy to solve global nonlinear optimization problems. The approach does not require the use of a penalty function. Instead, it uses a simple diversity mechanism based on allowing infeasible solutions to remain in the population. This technique helps the algorithm to find the global optimum despite reaching reasonably fast the feasible region of the search space. A simple feasibility-based comparison mechanism is used to guide the process toward the feasible region of the search space. Also, the initial stepsize of the evolution strategy is reduced in order to perform a finer search and a combined (discrete/intermediate) panmictic recombination technique improves its exploitation capabilities. The approach was tested with a well-known benchmark. The results obtained are very competitive when comparing the proposed approach against other state-of-the art techniques and its computational cost (measured by the number of fitness function evaluations) is lower than the cost required by the other techniques compared.
Histone deacetylation of NIS promoter underlies BRAF V600E-promoted NIS silencing in thyroid cancer

The BRAF V600E mutation causes impaired expression of sodium iodide symporter (NIS) and radioiodine refractoriness of thyroid cancer, but the underlying mechanism remains undefined. In this study, we hypothesized that histone deacetylation at the NIS (SLC5A5) promoter was the mechanism. Using the chromatin immunoprecipitation approach, we examined histone acetylation status on the lysine residues H3K9/14, H3K18, total H4, and H4K16 at the NIS promoter under the influence of BRAF V600E. We found that expression of stably or transiently transfected BRAF V600E inhibited NIS expression while the deacetylase inhibitor SAHA stimulated NIS expression in PCCL3 rat thyroid cells. Although BRAF V600E enhanced global histone acetylation, it caused histone deacetylation at the NIS promoter while SAHA caused acetylation in the cells. In human thyroid cancer BCPAP cells harboring homozygous BRAF V600E mutation, BRAF V600E inhibitor, PLX4032, and MEK inhibitor, AZD6244, increased histone acetylation of the NIS promoter, suggesting that BRAF V600E normally maintained histone in a deacetylated state at the NIS promoter. The regions most commonly affected with deacetylation by BRAF V600E were the transcriptionally active areas upstream of the translation start that contained important transcription factor binding sites, including nucleotides −297/−107 in the rat NIS promoter and −692/−370 in the human NIS promoter. Our findings not only reveal an epigenetic mechanism for BRAF V600E-promoted NIS silencing involving histone deacetylation at critical regulatory regions of the NIS promoter but also provide further support for our previously proposed combination therapy targeting major signaling pathways and histone deacetylase to restore thyroid gene expression for radioiodine treatment of thyroid cancer.
Altered two-dimensional strain measures of the right ventricle in patients with Brugada syndrome and arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy.

AIMS Brugada syndrome (BrS) is an inherited channelopathy that can be characterized by mild right ventricular (RV) abnormalities that are not detectable with conventional echocardiography. The aim of this study was to evaluate the presence of RV abnormalities in BrS patients when compared with controls and a group of patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia/cardiomyopathy (ARVD/C) using two-dimensional (2D) strain analysis. METHODS AND RESULTS We enrolled 25 BrS, 15 ARVD/C patients, and 25 controls. Right and left ventricular dimension and systo-diastolic function were evaluated by conventional echocardiography. Longitudinal systolic strain (sS) peak, systolic and early diastolic strain rate of lateral RV segments were evaluated by 2D speckle tracking analysis. Left ventricle global and segmental strain measures were also evaluated. A reduced basal or mid-RV lateral sS were the parameters mostly associated with both BrS and ARVD/C. In BrS patients the minimum sS observed in these segments was significantly lower than that of controls (-28.9±3.2% vs. -32.3±3.2%, P: 0.002) but significantly greater than that evaluated in ARVD/C patients (-24.6±6.7%, P<0.001 both vs. BrS and controls). No differences were found between the BrS and the control group when left ventricular strain measures were analysed. CONCLUSION By 2D strain technique it is possible to observe mild abnormalities in RV systolic and diastolic function of BrS patients that are less pronounced than those observed in ARVD/C patients. These results help to better define the phenotypic characteristics of BrS patients and represent the basis for future studies aimed at testing their clinical usefulness in BrS patients.
Spray Nozzles, Pressures, Additives and Stirring Time on Viability and Pathogenicity of Entomopathogenic Nematodes (Nematoda: Rhabditida) for Greenhouses

The objective of this study was to evaluate different strategies for the application of entomopathogenic nematodes (EPN). Three different models of spray nozzles with air induction (AI 11003, TTI 11003 and AD-IA 11004), three spray pressures (207, 413 and 720 kPa), four different additives for tank mixtures (cane molasses, mineral oil, vegetable oil and glycerin) and the influence of tank mixture stirring time were all evaluated for their effect on EPN (Steinernema feltiae) viability and pathogenicity. The different nozzles, at pressures of up to 620 kPa, were found to be compatible with S. feltiae. Vegetable oil, mineral oil and molasses were found to be compatible adjuvants for S. feltiae, and stirring in a motorized backpack sprayer for 30 minutes did not impact the viability or pathogenicity of this nematode. Appropriate techniques for the application of nematodes with backpack sprayers are discussed.
Joint time-domain reshaping and frequency-domain equalization of room impulse responses

In listening room compensation, the aim is to compensate for the degradations that are rendered to an audio signal by transmission in a closed room. Due to multiple reflections of the soundwaves, the listener receives a superposition of delayed and attenuated versions of the source signal. A filter is designed so that the convolution of the room impulse response and the equalizer contains better acoustic properties than the original acoustic channel. Common approaches for derever-beration optimize only the time-domain representation of the overall impulse response and may introduce distortions in the frequency domain. Equalization of the frequency response, on the other hand, often does not consider the time-domain behavior in an ideal way. In this paper, we propose a novel method to jointly consider both the time- and frequency-domain behavior. It outperforms the methods known from literature in terms of dereverberation and equalization performance. Results are presented for a room impulse response measured in a real living room.