Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Who is making informal payments for public healthcare in East-Central Europe? An evaluation of socio-economic and spatial variations

Informal patient payments are a widespread phenomenon in post-communist countries. In order to identify who is more likely to make informal payments in East-Central Europe, a 2013 survey is used. Reporting data from Special Eurobarometer No. 397 (‘Corruption’), the finding is that patients in Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Slovakia, Bulgaria and Romania are significantly more likely to make extra informal payments or to give valuable gifts to medical practitioners or to make a hospital donation additional to the official fees. Women are more likely to make informal payments for healthcare services whilst unemployed patients or those never or almost never having difficulties in paying bills are less likely to make informal payments. The implications of the findings are then explored, displaying the population groups and spaces that need targeting when seeking to tackle informal patient payments.
Envy-Free Classification

In classic fair division problems such as cake cutting and rent division, envy-freeness requires that each individual (weakly) prefer his allocation to anyone else's. On a conceptual level, we argue that envy-freeness also provides a compelling notion of fairness for classification tasks. Our technical focus is the generalizability of envy-free classification, i.e., understanding whether a classifier that is envy free on a sample would be almost envy free with respect to the underlying distribution with high probability. Our main result establishes that a small sample is sufficient to achieve such guarantees, when the classifier in question is a mixture of deterministic classifiers that belong to a family of low Natarajan dimension.
Comparison of masticatory performance and tongue pressure between children and young adults

The aims of the present study were to evaluate whether there are significant differences in masticatory performance by gender and dental stage. We also determined the factors directly associated with the masticatory performance in children, and those directly associated with masticatory performance in young adults. The study included 180 subjects, ranging in age from 6 to 12 years or 20 to 33 years. The subjects were divided into three groups according to the Hellman developmental stage (III A, III B, or VA); the groups were the subdivided according to gender. The body mass index (BMI), maximum tongue pressure, and sum of decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) were determined in all subjects. To investigate masticatory performance, the total number and maximum projected area of chewed particles of the jelly materials were measured. Masticatory performance had the highest values at Stage VA in both males and females. Regarding the maximum tongue pressure in females, Stage III B had the highest value of all stages. Multiple regression analysis showed that masticatory performance was associated with DMFT index, maximum tongue pressure, and BMI in children. Among young adults, masticatory performance was associated with DMFT index and maximum tongue pressure. Better masticatory performance is directly associated with better dental status, a higher BMI, and tongue pressure in schoolchildren. Additionally, masticatory performance was well‐correlated with tongue pressure in young adults, although maximum tongue pressure reached its peak before Stage VA in females. We suggest that females need training with respect to tongue pressure, by the mixed dentition stage.
Photomineralization of terrigenous dissolved organic matter in Arctic coastal waters from 1979 to 2003: Interannual variability and implications of climate change

Photomineralization of terrigenous dissolved organic matter (tDOM) in the Arctic Ocean is limited by persistent sea ice cover that reduces the amount of ultraviolet (UV) radiation reaching the underlying water column. UV‐dependent processes are likely to accelerate as a result of shrinking sea ice extent and decreasing ice thickness caused by climatic warming over this region. In this study, we made the first quantitative estimates of photomineralization of tDOM in a coastal Arctic ecosystem under current and future sea ice regimes. We used an optical‐photochemical coupled model incorporating water column optics and experimental measurements of photoproduction of dissolved inorganic carbon (DIC), the main carbon product of DOM photochemistry. Apparent quantum yields of DIC photoproduction were determined on water samples from the Mackenzie River estuary, the Mackenzie Shelf, and Amundsen Gulf. UV irradiances just below the sea surface were estimated by combining satellite backscattered and passive microwave radiance measurements with a radiative transfer model. The mean annual DIC photoproduction between 1979 and 2003 was estimated as 66.5 ± 18.5 Gg carbon in the surface waters of the southeastern Beaufort Sea, where UV absorption is dominated by chromophoric dissolved organic matter discharged by the Mackenzie River. This value is equivalent to 10% of bacterial respiration rates, 8% of new primary production rates and 2.8 ± 0.6% of the 1.3 Tg of dissolved organic carbon (DOC) discharged annually by the Mackenzie River into the area. During periods of reduced ice cover such as 1998, the latter value could rise to 5.1% of the annual riverine DOC discharge. Under an ice‐free scenario, the model predicted that 150.5 Gg of DIC would be photochemically produced, mineralizing 6.2% of the DOC input from the Mackenzie River. These results show that the predicted trend of ongoing contraction of sea ice cover will greatly accelerate the photomineralization of tDOM in Arctic surface waters.
Isovolumic loading of the failing heart by intraventricular placement of a spring expander attenuates cardiac atrophy after heterotopic heart transplantation

Cardiac atrophy is the most common complication of prolonged application of the left ventricle (LV) assist device (LVAD) in patients with advanced heart failure (HF). Our aim was to evaluate the course of unloading-induced cardiac atrophy in rats with failing hearts, and to examine if increased isovolumic loading obtained by intraventricular implantation of an especially designed spring expander would attenuate this process. Heterotopic abdominal heart transplantation (HTx) was used as a rat model of heart unloading. HF was induced by volume overload achieved by creation of the aorto-caval fistula (ACF). The degree of cardiac atrophy was assessed as the weight ratio of the heterotopically transplanted heart (HW) to the control heart. Isovolumic loading was increased by intraventricular implantation of a stainless steel three-branch spring expander. The course of cardiac atrophy was evaluated on days 7, 14, 21, and 28 after HTx. Seven days unloading by HTx in failing hearts sufficed to substantially decrease the HW (−59 ± 3%), the decrease progressed when measured on days 14, 21, and 28 after HTx. Implantation of the spring expander significantly reduced the decreases in whole HW at all the time points (−39 ± 3 compared with −59 ± 3, −52 ± 2 compared with −69 ± 3, −51 ± 2 compared with –71 ± 2, and −44 ± 2 compared with −71 ± 3%, respectively; P<0.05 in each case). We conclude that the enhanced isovolumic heart loading obtained by implantation of the spring expander attenuates the development of unloading-induced cardiac atrophy in the failing rat heart.
Is the peacock’s train an honest signal of genetic quality at the major histocompatibility complex?

Peacocks are a classic example of sexual selection, where females preferentially mate with males who have longer, more elaborate trains. One of the central hypotheses of sexual selection theory is that large or elaborate male ‘ornaments’ may signal high genetic quality (good genes). Good genes are thought to be those associated with disease resistance and as diversity at the major histocompatibility complex (MHC) has been shown to equate to superior immune responses, we test whether the peacock’s train reveals genetic diversity at the MHC. We demonstrate via a captive breeding experiment that train length of adult males reflects genetic diversity at the MHC while controlling for genome‐wide diversity and that peahens lay more, and larger, eggs for males with a more diverse MHC, but not for males with longer trains. Our results suggest that females are assessing and responding to male quality in terms of MHC diversity, but this assessment does not appear to be via train length, despite the fact that train length reflects MHC diversity.
The use of metaphor and evaluation as discourse strategies in pre-electoral debates: Just about winning votes

The present chapter analyzes metaphor use in a Spanish pre-electoral debate and its interplay with evaluation. The metaphorical expressions found are cross-­culturally contrasted with those from a previous study for English (Neagu 2013) to verify to what extent they are equivalent in English and Spanish and whether similarities are influenced by ideological factors. Furthermore, the evaluative overload of metaphors in the Spanish debate is explored by confronting them with the evaluative devices encountered in the same text after the application of Hunston’s (2000) evaluation model and Martin and White’s (2005) Appraisal Theory. Results show that, although cross-cultural expression of metaphors differs at times, all politicians use them to win election, rather than due to ideological reasons. Moreover, metaphor and evaluation are often realized by the same linguistic expressions.
Comparison of paired and single clinical placement models: a time-use analysis.

BACKGROUND To meet rising clinical placement demand caused by increasing health student numbers, the use of paired (two students) rather than single (one student) placement models has been proposed. There is, however, limited research available to inform placement providers about the relative effects of both models on healthcare services, including patient- and non-patient-related activities and patient occasions of service. AIMS To investigate a key clinical question: Does clinical educator (supervisor) and student time use differ during paired placements compared with single placements? Also to examine the satisfaction levels of clinical educators (CEs) and students with paired and single clinical placement models. METHODS & PROCEDURES Queensland Health speech and language therapists (N = 44) and speech and language therapy students (N = 32) involved in paired or single clinical placements were recruited for this study. CEs and students completed time-use surveys for 3 days after the midpoint of placements; CEs also completed surveys for 3 matched days during a non-placement period 3 weeks or more following placements for comparative purposes. CEs and students additionally completed a satisfaction survey at the end of placements. Paired and single CE and student groups were compared for differences in their time-use and satisfaction levels using non-parametric statistics. OUTCOMES & RESULTS The placement model did not impact on occasions of service provided by CEs (p = 0.931) or students (p = 0.776). It also had no effect on the percentage of time CEs or students engaged in patient-related activities (p = 0.577; 0.291) and non-patient-related activities (p = 0.559; 0.177). On clinical placement days, CEs spent a median 10 minutes longer at work regardless of whether or not it was a paired or single placement, compared with non-placement days (p = 0.107). CEs and students who had been involved in a paired placement reported the same high levels of placement satisfaction (various measures) as those who had been involved in a single placement. CONCLUSIONS & IMPLICATIONS The paired-placement model has the potential to increase student placement offers without negatively impacting on clinical service provision including occasions of service, patient or non-patient-related activities, or overall CE time spent at work.
Wing stridulation in a Jurassic katydid (Insecta, Orthoptera) produced low-pitched musical calls to attract females

Behaviors are challenging to reconstruct for extinct species, particularly the nature and origins of acoustic communication. Here we unravel the song of Archaboilus musicus Gu, Engel and Ren sp. nov., a 165 million year old stridulating katydid. From the exceptionally preserved morphology of its stridulatory apparatus in the forewings and phylogenetic comparison with extant species, we reveal that A. musicus radiated pure-tone (musical) songs using a resonant mechanism tuned at a frequency of 6.4 kHz. Contrary to previous scenarios, musical songs were an early innovation, preceding the broad-bandwidth songs of extant katydids. Providing an accurate insight into paleoacoustic ecology, the low-frequency musical song of A. musicus was well-adapted to communication in the lightly cluttered environment of the mid-Jurassic forest produced by coniferous trees and giant ferns, suggesting that reptilian, amphibian, and mammalian insectivores could have also heard A. musicus' song.
Colloidal Monolayer β-In2Se3 Nanosheets with High Photoresponsivity

We report a low-temperature colloidal synthesis of single-layer, five-atom-thick, β-In2Se3 nanosheets with lateral sizes tunable from ∼300 to ∼900 nm, using short aminonitriles (dicyandiamide or cyanamide) as shape controlling agents. The phase and the monolayer nature of the nanosheets were ascertained by analyzing the intensity ratio between two diffraction peaks from two-dimensional slabs of the various phases, determined by diffraction simulations. These findings were further backed-up by comparing and fitting the experimental X-ray diffraction pattern with Debye formula simulated patterns and with side-view high-resolution transmission electron microscopy imaging and simulation. The β-In2Se3 nanosheets were found to be indirect band gap semiconductors (Eg = 1.55 eV), and single nanosheet photodetectors demonstrated high photoresponsivity and fast response times.
Is boldness relevant to psychopathic personality? Meta-analytic relations with non-Psychopathy Checklist-based measures of psychopathy.

Two recent meta-analyses have suggested that boldness, as assessed by the Psychopathic Personality Inventory (PPI) Fearless Dominance dimension, is largely unrelated to total or factor scores on the Psychopathy Checklist-Revised (PCL-R), raising questions concerning the relevance of largely adaptive features to psychopathy. Nevertheless, given that the PCL was developed and validated among prisoners, it may place less emphasis than do other psychopathy measures on adaptive traits, such as fearlessness, social poise, and emotional resilience. We conducted a meta-analysis (N = 10,693) of the relations between (a) boldness, as assessed by the PPI and its derivatives or measures of the triarchic model of psychopathy, and (b) non-PCL-based psychopathy measures across 32 samples. The average weighted correlation between boldness and psychopathy was medium to large (r = .39) and considerably higher than reported in prior meta-analyses; when analyses were restricted to well-validated psychopathy measures, the correlation rose to r = . 44. We did not find support for the position that boldness is significantly less related to psychopathy than are the other 2 dimensions of the triarchic model. Our findings strongly suggest that boldness is relevant to at least some well-validated measures of psychopathy, and raise further questions regarding the boundaries of this condition. (PsycINFO Database Record
Effect of human vicinity on antimicrobial resistance and integrons in animal faecal Escherichia coli.

OBJECTIVES To determine the level of antimicrobial resistance and the occurrence of class 1, 2 and 3 integrons in faecal Escherichia coli from several animal populations variously exposed to human contact. METHODS A collection of 341 faecal E. coli isolates was constituted from several animal populations subject to various degrees of exposure to humans: 18 animals never exposed to humans (living in the Antarctic or Gabon), 71 wild animals living in a low human density area (mountainous region of the Pyrenees, France), 61 wild animals living in a higher human density area (Fontainebleau forest near Paris, France), and 128 extensively reared farm animals and 42 pet dogs, both living in the Pyrenees. Resistance to antimicrobial agents was determined by the method of disc diffusion and quantified using the resistance score of BE Murray, JJ Mathewson, HL DuPont, CD Ericsson and RR Reves (Antimicrobial Agents and Chemotherapy 1990; 34: 515-18). Integrons were characterized by triplex real-time PCR and sequencing. The absence of epidemiologic clones was confirmed by PCR-based methods. RESULTS A gradient of resistance ranging from absence to high prevalence (resistance score of 18.7%) and a gradual increase in the prevalence of class 1 integrons (from 0% to 16%), both correlated with the increase in exposure to humans, were observed. In wild animals with little contact with humans, resistance, when present, was not mediated by integrons. CONCLUSIONS Our findings firmly establish that the current prevalence of antimicrobial resistance found in animal faecal bacteria, as well as the prevalence of integrons, is clearly anthropogenic. The presence of integrons may constitute an adaptive process to environments whose antimicrobial pressure exceeds a certain threshold.
Ultrasound-guided percutaneous laser ablation is safe and effective in the treatment of small renal tumors in patients at increased bleeding risk

Abstract Purpose: The aim of this retrospective study was to assess the safety and effectiveness of laser ablation (LA) in patients with small renal cell carcinomas (RCC) and increased risk of bleeding. Material and methods: From 2013 to 2017, nine patients (six males, three females, aged 68.5 ± 12.2 years) at high risk of bleeding underwent ultrasonography-guided LA for an RCC. Patients were considered at increased risk of bleeding because of impairment of coagulation parameters, concomitant antiplatelet therapy, or at-risk location of the tumor (one, five, and three patients, respectively). RCC diameter ranged from 11 to 23 mm. According to tumor size, two or three laser fibers were introduced through 21-gauge needles and 1800 J per fiber were delivered in 6 min with a fixed power of 5 W. Major and minor complications, technical success, and primary and secondary technical effectiveness and tumor recurrence were recorded. Results: Just one Grade 1 complication was observed: a small asymptomatic hematoma that spontaneously resolved. Technical success was 100%, 1 month technical efficacy was 88.9% (8/9 patients). One patient with residual tumor was successfully retreated 1 month later, and secondary efficacy rate was 100%. No local tumor recurrence occurred during a median follow-up of 26 months (range 11–49 months). Conclusions: LA is safe and effective in the treatment of small RCC and might represent a valid option in patients with increased risk of bleeding.
Nonlinear decoding of a complex movie from the mammalian retina

Retina is a paradigmatic system for studying sensory encoding: the transformation of light into spiking activity of ganglion cells. The inverse problem, where stimulus is reconstructed from spikes, has received less attention, especially for complex stimuli that should be reconstructed “pixel-by-pixel”. We recorded around a hundred neurons from a dense patch in a rat retina and decoded movies of multiple small randomly-moving discs. We constructed nonlinear (kernelized and neural network) decoders that improved significantly over linear results. An important contribution to this was the ability of nonlinear decoders to reliably separate between neural responses driven by locally fluctuating light signals, and responses at locally constant light driven by spontaneous-like activity. This improvement crucially depended on the precise, non-Poisson temporal structure of individual spike trains, which originated in the spike-history dependence of neural responses. We propose a general principle by which downstream circuitry could discriminate between spontaneous and stimulus-driven activity based solely on higher-order statistical structure in the incoming spike trains.
Efficacy of tiotropium/olodaterol on lung volume, exercise capacity, and physical activity

Purpose This study evaluated the efficacy of tiotropium/olodaterol vs tiotropium on lung function, exercise capacity, and physical activity in patients with COPD. Patients and methods A total of 184 patients aged ≥40 years with COPD (Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stage II–IV) received tiotropium/olodaterol for 6 weeks, then tiotropium for 6 weeks, or vice versa. The primary endpoint was inspiratory capacity (IC) at peak post-dose. Results Adjusted mean IC after 6-week treatment was 1.990 L with tiotropium/olodaterol vs 1.875 L with tiotropium (difference: 115 mL; 95% CI: 77, 153; p<0.0001). Forced expiratory volume in 1 s (difference: 105 mL; 95% CI: 88, 123), forced vital capacity (difference: 163 mL; 95% CI: 130, 197), and slow vital capacity (difference: 134 mL; 95% CI: 91, 176) improved with tiotropium/olodaterol (all p<0.0001). Adjusted mean 6-min walk distance was similar between treatments in the overall population but was significantly increased with tiotropium/olodaterol in the subgroup with Global Initiative for Chronic Obstructive Lung Disease stage III/IV at baseline (difference: 18.1 m; 95% CI: 2.3, 33.9; p=0.0254). In a post hoc analysis, tiotropium/olodaterol improved the values for ≥2.0 metabolic equivalents (difference: 5.0 min; 95% CI: 0.4, 9.7; p=0.0337). Conclusion Tiotropium/olodaterol significantly improved IC compared with tiotropium and potentially enhanced the exercise capacity in COPD patients. A slight improvement in physical activity of relatively more than moderate intensity was also seen with tiotropium/olodaterol.
Global variations of large megathrust earthquake rupture characteristics

Regional patterns of large earthquake rupture complexity are revealed by a new measure, REEF (radiated energy enhancement factor). Despite the surge of great earthquakes along subduction zones over the last decade and advances in observations and analysis techniques, it remains unclear whether earthquake complexity is primarily controlled by persistent fault properties or by dynamics of the failure process. We introduce the radiated energy enhancement factor (REEF), given by the ratio of an event’s directly measured radiated energy to the calculated minimum radiated energy for a source with the same seismic moment and duration, to quantify the rupture complexity. The REEF measurements for 119 large [moment magnitude (Mw) 7.0 to 9.2] megathrust earthquakes distributed globally show marked systematic regional patterns, suggesting that the rupture complexity is strongly influenced by persistent geological factors. We characterize this as the existence of smooth and rough rupture patches with varying interpatch separation, along with failure dynamics producing triggering interactions that augment the regional influences on large events. We present an improved asperity scenario incorporating both effects and categorize global subduction zones and great earthquakes based on their REEF values and slip patterns. Giant earthquakes rupturing over several hundred kilometers can occur in regions with low-REEF patches and small interpatch spacing, such as for the 1960 Chile, 1964 Alaska, and 2011 Tohoku earthquakes, or in regions with high-REEF patches and large interpatch spacing as in the case for the 2004 Sumatra and 1906 Ecuador-Colombia earthquakes. Thus, combining seismic magnitude Mw and REEF, we provide a quantitative framework to better represent the span of rupture characteristics of great earthquakes and to understand global seismicity.