Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A population-based 2-year longitudinal study of insomnia disorder in a Chinese population in Hong Kong

Abstract There is a paucity of literature examining the longitudinal course of insomnia using standardized diagnostic criteria. This study aims to evaluate the persistence, remission, relapse, and incidence rates of insomnia symptoms and insomnia disorders according to the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders, 4th and 5th edition (DSM-IV and DSM-5). A total of 398 community dwellers were interviewed annually over two years using the Brief Insomnia Questionnaire, a validated questionnaire for deriving insomnia diagnoses. Normal sleepers were defined according to the DSM-5 quantitative criteria as having insomnia symptoms at most twice per week. Estimates were weighted against population age and sex distribution. Persistence for two consecutive years was 26.3, 26.4, and 23.0% for insomnia symptoms, DSM-IV, and DSM-5 insomnia disorders; remission rate was 55.8, 22.9, and 26.1%, relapse rate was 21.8, 1.3, and 0%, while incidence rate was 62.4, 19.6, and 4.5%. The common trajectories for DSM-IV insomnia disorder were to remain the same (26.4%), followed by a change to insomnia symptoms at the second year (25.7%), and at the third year (17.3%). For DSM-5 insomnia disorder, a change to insomnia symptoms at the second year was the commonest (28.3%), followed by continuing the same (23.0%), and a change to insomnia symptoms at the third year (14.0%). Over a two-year naturalistic follow-up, persistence of insomnia disorder was roughly 25%. Changes from insomnia disorder to insomnia symptoms were common; however, remission only occurred in about 25%, highlighting the chronic course of insomnia, perhaps due to a lack of treatment, under-treatment, or resistance to treatment. Incidence of insomnia symptoms was 62.4%, suggesting a high risk of developing insomnia in the general population.
Cadherin complexes recruit mRNAs and RISC to regulate epithelial cell signaling

Cumulative evidence demonstrates that most RNAs exhibit specific subcellular distribution. However, the mechanisms regulating this phenomenon and its functional consequences are still under investigation. Here, we reveal that cadherin complexes at the apical zonula adherens (ZA) of epithelial adherens junctions recruit the core components of the RNA-induced silencing complex (RISC) Ago2, GW182, and PABPC1, as well as a set of 522 messenger RNAs (mRNAs) and 28 mature microRNAs (miRNAs or miRs), via PLEKHA7. Top canonical pathways represented by these mRNAs include Wnt/&bgr;-catenin, TGF-&bgr;, and stem cell signaling. We specifically demonstrate the presence and silencing of MYC, JUN, and SOX2 mRNAs by miR-24 and miR-200c at the ZA. PLEKHA7 knockdown dissociates RISC from the ZA, decreases loading of the ZA-associated mRNAs and miRNAs to Ago2, and results in a corresponding increase of MYC, JUN, and SOX2 protein expression. The present work reveals a mechanism that directly links junction integrity to the silencing of a set of mRNAs that critically affect epithelial homeostasis.
Healthcare professionals’ accounts of challenges in managing motor neurone disease in primary healthcare: a qualitative study

Motor neurone disease (MND) is a progressive neurological disease causing muscle wasting, gradual paralysis and respiratory failure, with a life expectancy of 2-4 years. In order to better understand how MND is managed in the community, we conducted a qualitative study to explore the challenges healthcare professionals encounter when managing MND in primary healthcare. Based on data from 15 semi-structured interviews with primary healthcare professionals in Norway, we found that MND is viewed as a condition that requires exceptional effort and detailed planning. Healthcare professionals reported five main challenges in managing MND in primary healthcare: (i) building relationships with those giving and receiving care in the home; (ii) preventing caregiver burnout and breakdown; (iii) providing tailored care; (iv) ensuring good working conditions in patients' homes; and (v) recruiting and retaining qualified nursing assistants. Healthcare professionals reported needing working conditions that allow them to tailor their approach to the personal, emotional and existential nature of care preferences of those living with MND. However, people with MND and their families were sometimes perceived by healthcare professionals to prefer a strictly task-focused relationship with care providers. Such relationships limited the healthcare professionals' control over the MND trajectory and their capacity to prevent family caregiver burnout and breakdown. Adequate resources, along with training and support of nursing assistants, may increase the continuity of nursing assistants. Responsiveness to patient and family needs may enhance collaboration and promote tailored primary care and support for patients with MND and their families.
Nanoporous gold: 3D structural analyses of representative volumes and their implications on scaling relations of mechanical behaviour

Abstract We present a quantitative study of the salient structural parameters identified from so-called ‘representative volumes’ of the bicontinuous nanoporous gold (NPG) network, and examine the validity of self-similarity in describing its evolution. The approach is based on 3D-focused ion beam tomography applied to as-dealloyed and isothermally annealed NPG samples. After identifying sufficiently large representative volumes, we show that the ligament width distributions coarsen in a sufficiently self-similar, time-invariant manner, while the scaled connectivity density shows a self-similar ligament network topology. Using these critical parameters, namely mean ligament diameter and connectivity density, the Gibson–Ashby scaling laws for the mechanical response of cellular materials are revisited. The inappropriateness of directly applying the Gibson–Ashby model to NPG is demonstrated by comparing finite element method compression simulations of both the NPG reconstruction and that of the Gibson–Ashby solid model; rather than the solid volume fraction, we show that an effective load-bearing ring structure governs mechanical behaviour.
The TCP Outcast Problem: Exposing Unfairness in Data Center Networks

In this paper, we observe that bandwidth sharing via TCP in commodity data center networks organized in multi-rooted tree topologies can lead to severe unfairness, which we term as the TCP Outcast problem, under many common traffic patterns. When many flows and a few flows arrive at two ports of a switch destined to one common output port, the small set of flows lose out on their throughput share significantly (almost by an order of magnitude sometimes). The Outcast problem occurs mainly in taildrop queues that commodity switches use. Using careful analysis, we discover that taildrop queues exhibit a phenomenon known as port blackout, where a series of packets from one port are dropped. Port blackout affects the fewer flows more significantly, as they lose more consecutive packets leading to TCP timeouts. In this paper, we show the existence of this TCP Outcast problem using a data center network testbed using real hardware under different scenarios. We then evaluate different solutions such as RED, SFQ, TCP pacing, and a new solution called equal-length routing to mitigate the Outcast problem.
Maternal Binding and Neutralizing IgG Responses Targeting the C-Terminal Region of the V3 Loop Are Predictive of Reduced Peripartum HIV-1 Transmission Risk

ABSTRACT The development of an effective maternal HIV-1 vaccine that could synergize with antiretroviral therapy (ART) to eliminate pediatric HIV-1 infection will require the characterization of maternal immune responses capable of blocking transmission of autologous HIV to the infant. We previously determined that maternal plasma antibody binding to linear epitopes within the variable loop 3 (V3) region of HIV envelope (Env) and neutralizing responses against easy-to-neutralize tier 1 viruses were associated with reduced risk of peripartum HIV infection in the historic U.S. Woman and Infant Transmission Study (WITS) cohort. Here, we defined the fine specificity and function of the potentially protective maternal V3-specific IgG antibodies associated with reduced peripartum HIV transmission risk in this cohort. The V3-specific IgG binding that predicted low risk of mother-to-child-transmission (MTCT) was dependent on the C-terminal flank of the V3 crown and particularly on amino acid position 317, a residue that has also been associated with breakthrough transmission in the RV144 vaccine trial. Remarkably, the fine specificity of potentially protective maternal plasma V3-specific tier 1 virus-neutralizing responses was dependent on the same region in the V3 loop. Our findings suggest that MTCT risk is associated with neutralizing maternal IgG that targets amino acid residues in the C-terminal region of the V3 loop crown, suggesting the importance of the region in immunogen design for maternal vaccines to prevent MTCT. IMPORTANCE Efforts to curb HIV-1 transmission in pediatric populations by antiretroviral therapy (ART) have been highly successful in both developed and developing countries. However, more than 150,000 infants continue to be infected each year, likely due to a combination of late maternal HIV diagnosis, lack of ART access or adherence, and drug-resistant viral strains. Defining the fine specificity of maternal humoral responses that partially protect against MTCT of HIV is required to inform the development of a maternal HIV vaccine that will enhance these responses during pregnancy. In this study, we identified amino acid residues targeted by potentially protective maternal V3-specific IgG binding and neutralizing responses, localizing the potentially protective response in the C-terminal region of the V3 loop crown. Our findings have important implications for the design of maternal vaccination strategies that could synergize with ART during pregnancy to achieve the elimination of pediatric HIV infections.
Performance of Apanteles hemara (Hymenoptera: Braconidae) on two Amaranth Leaf-webbers: Spoladea recurvalis and Udea ferrugalis (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

Abstract Amaranth is an African indigenous vegetable that is gaining popularity due to its nutritional, medicinal, and economic values. In East Africa, frequent outbreaks of Lepidopteran leaf-webbers, Spoladea recurvalis F. (Lepidoptera: Crambidae) and Udea ferrugalis Hübner (1976) are reported on this crop, causing up to 100% foliage loss. The larval endoparasitoid Apanteles hemara Nixon is also frequently found associated with these pests during the outbreaks, however, its performance on both pests has never been documented. Laboratory studies were therefore carried out to assess the acceptability and suitability of S. recurvalis and U. ferrugalis to A. hemara. Both leaf-webber species were accepted by and suitable for the parasitoid. The mean host searching time and oviposition attempts were neither affected by rearing host nor test host. The total developmental time of A. hemara ranged between 10.6 ± 0.16 and 12.8 ± 0.30 days on both hosts. The sex ratio of the parasitoid was female biased when reared on S. recurvalis but male biased on U. ferrugalis. When offered 50 larvae of leaf-webbers for 24 h, a single female A. hemara achieved parasitism rates from 42.63 ± 5.80 to 44.55 ± 5.95, while a cohort of five females resulted in parasitism rates between 87.25 ± 2.70 and 94.67 ± 1.98 %. There was no significant difference between hosts in regard to progeny fitness at each parasitoid density. The parasitoid also caused significant nonreproductive larval mortalities in the hosts. The implications of these findings for mass rearing of the parasitoid as well as for conservation and augmentative biological control of amaranth lepidopteran leaf-webbers in East Africa are discussed.
Do financial returns have finite or infinite variance? A paradox and an explanation

One of the major points of contention in studying and modelling financial returns is whether or not the variance of the returns is finite or infinite (sometimes referred to as the Bachelier–Samuelson Gaussian world versus the Mandelbrot stable world). A different formulation of the question asks how heavy the tails of the financial returns are. The available empirical evidence can be, and has been, interpreted in more than one way. The apparent paradox, which has puzzled many a researcher, is that the tails appear to become less heavy for less frequent (e.g. monthly) returns than for more frequent (e.g. daily) returns, a phenomenon not easily explainable by the standard models. Inspired by the prelimit theorems of Klebanov, Rachev and Szekely (1999) and Klebanov, Rachev and Safarian (2000), we provide an explanation of this paradox. We show that, for financial returns, a natural family of models are those with tempered heavy tails. These models can generate observations that appear heavy tailed for a wide range of aggregation levels before becoming clearly light tailed at even larger aggregation scales. Important examples demonstrate the existence of a natural scale associated with the model at which such an apparent shift in the tails occurs.
Volumetric modulated arc therapy for total body irradiation: A feasibility study using Pinnacle3 treatment planning system and Elekta Agility™ linac

Abstract A study was undertaken to explore the use of volumetric modulated arc therapy (VMAT) for total body irradiation (TBI). Five patient plans were created in Pinnacle3 using nine 6 MV photon dynamic arcs. A dose of 12 Gy in six fractions was prescribed. The planning target volume (PTV) was split into four subsections for the head, chest, abdomen, and pelvis. The head and chest beams were optimized together, followed by the abdomen and pelvis beams. The last stage of the planning process involved turning all beams on and performing a final optimization to achieve a clinically acceptable plan. Beam isocenters were shifted by 3 or 5 mm in the left–right, anterior–posterior, and superior–inferior directions to simulate the effect of setup errors on the dose distribution. Treatment plan verification consisted of ArcCheck measurements compared to calculated doses using a global 3%/3 mm gamma analysis. All five patient plans achieved the planning aim of delivering 12 Gy to at least 90% of the target. The mean dose in the PTV was 12.7 Gy. Mean lung dose was restricted to 8 Gy, and a dose reduction of up to 40% for organs such as the liver and kidneys proved feasible. The VMAT technique was found to be sensitive to patient setup errors particularly in the superior–inferior direction. The dose predicted by the planning system agreed with measured doses and had an average pass rate of 99.2% for all arcs. VMAT was found to be a viable treatment technique for total body irradiation.
The Effects of Mindfulness on Affect and Substance Use

Previous studies have explored the impact of mindfulness on Big 5 personality traits, personality disorders, suicidal ideation, and alcohol use; additionally, mindfulness-based interventions (MBIs) have been used to treat individuals suffering from depression and anxiety. However, the practical application of mindfulness has been complicated by contradictory findings in the literature and inconsistent conceptualizations of the construct. The current study sought to investigate potential relationships between types of mindfulness, facets of mindfulness, substance use, and affect. Participants completed a battery of questionnaires related to mindfulness, correlates of neuroticism (i.e., depression, anxiety, and subjective happiness), and drinking-related consequences. Correlational analyses revealed significant relationships between mindfulness and neurotic subtraits (i.e., depression and anxiety), mindfulness and subjective happiness, and mindfulness and experiences of drinking-related problems. A regression revealed that the Acting with Awareness and Nonjudging facets of mindfulness significantly predicted recent experiences of drinking-related problems; as acting with awareness decreased and nonjudging increased, recent experiences of drinking-related problems increased. Results suggest that specific types and facets of mindfulness are differentially related to aspects of substance use behavior. Results also suggest a link between overall mindfulness and emotionality. The implications of this study for practical applications of mindfulness, as well as limitations and future directions, are discussed.
Ongoing assembly of massive galaxies by major merging in large groups and clusters from the SDSS

We investigate the incidence of major mergers creating massive (Mstar > 10 11 M� ) galaxies in present-day (z ≤ 0.12) groups and clusters. Using a volume-limited sample of 845 groups with dark matter halo masses above 2.5 × 10 13 M � , we isolate 221 galaxy pairs with ≤1.5 r-band magnitude differences, ≤30 kpc projected separations and combined masses above 10 11 M� . We fit the r-band images of each pair as the line-of-sight projection of symmetric models and identify 38 mergers by the presence of residual asymmetric structure associated with both progenitors, such as non-concentric isophotes, broad and diffuse tidal tails and dynamical friction wakes. In other words, at the resolution and sensitivity of the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS), 16 per cent of massive major pairs in dense environments have mutual tidal interaction signatures; relying on automated searches of major pairs from the SDSS spectroscopic galaxy sample will result in missing 70 per cent of these mergers owing to spectroscopic incompleteness in high-density regions. We find that 90 per cent of these mergers are between two nearly equal-mass progenitors with red-sequence colours and centrally concentrated morphologies, in agreement with numerical simulations that predict that an important mechanism for the formation of massive elliptical galaxies is the dissipationless (gas-poor or so-called dry) major merging of spheroid-dominated galaxies. We identify seven additional massive mergers with disturbed morphologies and semiresolved double nuclei; thus, 1.5 ± 0.2 per cent of Mstar ≥ (5)
QMIX: Monotonic Value Function Factorisation for Deep Multi-Agent Reinforcement Learning

In many real-world settings, a team of agents must coordinate their behaviour while acting in a decentralised way. At the same time, it is often possible to train the agents in a centralised fashion in a simulated or laboratory setting, where global state information is available and communication constraints are lifted. Learning joint action-values conditioned on extra state information is an attractive way to exploit centralised learning, but the best strategy for then extracting decentralised policies is unclear. Our solution is QMIX, a novel value-based method that can train decentralised policies in a centralised end-to-end fashion. QMIX employs a network that estimates joint action-values as a complex non-linear combination of per-agent values that condition only on local observations. We structurally enforce that the joint-action value is monotonic in the per-agent values, which allows tractable maximisation of the joint action-value in off-policy learning, and guarantees consistency between the centralised and decentralised policies. We evaluate QMIX on a challenging set of StarCraft II micromanagement tasks, and show that QMIX significantly outperforms existing value-based multi-agent reinforcement learning methods.
Climatology and variability of trace gases in extratropical double‐tropopause regions from MLS, HIRDLS, and ACE‐FTS measurements

Upper tropospheric and lower stratospheric measurements from the Aura Microwave Limb Sounder (MLS), the Aura High Resolution Dynamics Limb Sounder (HIRDLS), and the Atmospheric Chemistry Experiment‐Fourier transform spectrometer (ACE‐FTS) are used to present the first global climatological comparison of extratropical, nonpolar trace gas distributions in double‐tropopause (DT) and single‐tropopause (ST) regions. Stratospheric tracers, O3, HNO3, and HCl, have lower mixing ratios ∼2–8 km above the primary (lowermost) tropopause in DT than in ST regions in all seasons, with maximum Northern Hemisphere (NH) differences near 50% in winter and 30% in summer. Southern Hemisphere winter differences are somewhat smaller, but summer differences are similar in the two hemispheres. H2O in DT regions of both hemispheres shows strong negative anomalies in November through February and positive anomalies in July through October, reflecting the strong seasonal cycle in H2O near the tropical tropopause. CO and other tropospheric tracers examined have higher DT than ST values 2–7 km above the primary tropopause, with the largest differences in winter. Large DT‐ST differences extend to high NH latitudes in fall and winter, with longitudinal maxima in regions associated with enhanced wave activity and subtropical jet variations. Results for O3 and HNO3 agree closely between MLS and HIRDLS, and differences from ACE‐FTS are consistent with its sparse and irregular midlatitude sampling. Consistent signatures in climatological trace gas fields provide strong evidence that transport from the tropical upper troposphere into the layer between double tropopauses is an important pathway for stratosphere‐troposphere exchange.
Using Embodied Knowledge to Unlock Innovation, Creativity, and Intelligence in Businesses

Embodied knowledge is a third intelligence (after IQ and EI) that has peaked the interest of progressive, forward-thinking business leaders, conferences and academics and appears in discussions within such fields as psychology, sociology, dance and leadership. This paper will explore some aspects of embodied knowledge for its capacity to unlock innovation, creativity and intelligence for businesses through movement-based exercises (dance) and embodiment practices (Social Presencing Theater). Based in the personal practice of embodiment consultant Daniel Ludevig, this paper will share his theoretical and practical approach to surfacing embodied knowledge in the business world as well as its application to unlocking organizational potential and business success.
Prognosis Prediction Models and their Clinical Utility in Palliative Care

Prognosis prediction is a clinically relevant issue to facilitate optimal decision-making for both physicians and patients with cancer. Many previous studies revealed that prognosis prediction based on the physician’s intuition and/or clinical experience is inaccurate and often optimistic, which means that there is a tendency to overestimate patient survival in daily clinical practice. In recent decades, many efforts have been made to develop prognosis prediction models which aid physicians to make more accurate prognosis prediction. In this chapter, we review the representative prognosis prediction models in palliative care and related studies. In addition, we refer to several prognosis prediction models developed by unique methods (for instance, case-crossover design or machine learning). Finally, we focus on the possible clinical utility of prognosis prediction models. In fact, no previous studies have clearly demonstrated whether the application of such prognosis prediction models truly benefits patient care in daily clinical practice. Therefore, we will discuss how the application of prognosis prediction models could benefit patients under palliative care.