Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Why don't bystanders help? Because of ambiguity?

Two experiments investigated the effects of ambiguity of an emergency situation on helping behavior. In Experiment I, 70 male undergraduates waiting either alone, with a stranger, or with a friend heard a maintenance man fall and cry out in agony. Half of the two-person groups were naive; the other half included a confederate who was instructed to react as passively as possible. In contrast to the finding of Latane and Rodin's "lady in distress" study, all subjects intervened. In Experiment II, subjects either alone, with one other, or with four others were exposed to either a nonambiguous or an ambiguous emergency situation. At least one subject in all of the nonambiguous conditions responded to the needs of the victim, whereas approximately 30% of the subjects in the ambiguous condition included a helper. Subjects in the latter twoand five-person groups were less likely to help and intervened slower than was expected on the basis of the alone subjects' performances. These results were attributed to the degree of ambiguity and seriousness of consequences employed in the emergency situation,
Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension Study (PATHS): effects of an alcohol treatment program on blood pressure.

OBJECTIVE To determine whether blood pressure is reduced for at least 6 months with an intervention to lower alcohol intake in moderate to heavy drinkers with above optimal to slightly elevated diastolic blood pressure, and whether reduction of alcohol intake can be maintained for 2 years. DESIGN A randomized controlled trial. METHODS Six hundred forty-one outpatient veterans with an average intake of 3 or more alcoholic drinks per day in the 6 months before entry into the study and with diastolic blood pressure 80 to 99 mm Hg were randomly assigned to a cognitive-behavioral alcohol reduction intervention program or a control observation group for 15 to 24 months. The goal of the intervention was the lower of 2 or fewer drinks daily or a 50% reduction in intake. A subgroup with hypertension was defined as having a diastolic blood pressure of 90 to 99 mm Hg, or 80 to 99 mm Hg if recently taking medication for hypertension. RESULTS Reduction in average weekly self-reported alcohol intake was significantly greater (P<.001) at every assessment from 3 to 24 months in the intervention group vs the control group: levels declined from 432 g/wk at baseline by 202 g/wk in the intervention group and from 445 g/wk by 78 g/wk in the control group in the first 6 months, with similar reductions after 24 months. The intervention group had a 1.2/0.7-mm Hg greater reduction in blood pressure than the control group (for each, P = .17 and P = .18) for the 6-month primary end point; for the hypertensive stratum the difference was 0.9/0.7 mm Hg (for each, P = .58 and P = .44). CONCLUSIONS The 1.3 drinks per day average difference between changes in self-reported alcohol intake observed in this trial produced only small nonsignificant effects on blood pressure. The results from the Prevention and Treatment of Hypertension Study (PATHS) do not provide strong support for reducing alcohol consumption in nondependent moderate drinkers as a sole method for the prevention or treatment of hypertension.
Identification of polymorphisms in Apolipoprotein M gene and their relationship with risk of recurrent venous thromboembolism

Summary Apolipoprotein M (ApoM) plasma levels have been reported to be associated with risk of venous thromboembolism (VTE) recurrence. However, the role of genetic alterations in the ApoM gene in VTE recurrence remains unknown. The aim of this study was to identify genetic aberrations in ApoM gene in VTE recurrence and their role in prediction of VTE recurrence in a prospective follow-up study of 1465 VTE patients. During follow-up, 156 (10.6 %) patients had VTE recurrence. First screening of whole ApoM gene was performed by Sanger’s sequencing in selected age and sex matched non-recurrent and recurrent patients (n=95). In total six polymorphisms were identified and two polymorphisms (rs805297 and rs9404941) with minor allele frequency (MAF) ≥5 % were further genotyped in the whole cohort by Taqman PCR. ApoM rs805297 polymorphism was significantly associated with higher risk of VTE recurrence in males but not in females on both univariate (p= 0.038, hazard ratio = 1.72, confidence interval = 1.03–2.88) and on multivariate analysis adjusted with mild and severe thrombophilia, family history, location and acquired risk factors for VTE. However, ApoM rs9404941 polymorphism showed no significant association with risk of VTE recurrence in all patients as well as in different gender groups. Moreover, ApoM rs805297 and rs9404941 polymorphisms were not associated with the ApoM plasma levels. In conclusion, for the first time we have sequenced whole ApoM gene in VTE and identified six polymorphisms. ApoM rs805297 was significantly associated with higher risk of VTE recurrence in male but not in female patients. Supplementary Material to this article is available online at www.thrombosis-online.com.
Monetary Policy Effectiveness in China: Evidence from a FAVAR Model

We use a broad set of Chinese economic indicators and a dynamic factor model framework to estimate Chinese economic activity and inflation as latent variables. We incorporate these latent variables into a factor-augmented vector autoregression (FAVAR) to estimate the effects of Chinese monetary policy on the Chinese economy. A FAVAR approach is particularly well-suited to this analysis due to concerns about Chinese data quality, a lack of a long history for many series, and the rapid institutional and structural changes that China has undergone. We find that increases in bank reserve requirements reduce economic activity and inflation, consistent with previous studies. In contrast to much of the literature, however, we find that central-bank-determined changes in Chinese interest rates also have substantial impacts on economic activity and inflation, while other measures of changes in credit conditions, such as shocks to M2 or lending levels, do not once other policy variables are taken into account. Overall, our results indicate that the monetary policy transmission channels in China have moved closer to those of Western market economies.
Longitudinal fMRI in elderly reveals loss of hippocampal activation with clinical decline

Background: Previous cross-sectional fMRI studies in subjects with prodromal Alzheimer disease (AD) have reported variable results, ranging from hypoactivation, similar to patients with AD, to paradoxically increased activation or hyperactivation compared to cognitively normal older individuals. We have hypothesized that subjects in early phases of prodromal AD may experience a period of hippocampal hyperactivation, followed by loss of hippocampal activation as the disease progresses. Methods: We studied 51 older individuals without dementia (Clinical Dementia Rating [CDR] at baseline of 0, n = 21, and 0.5, n = 30) with longitudinal clinical and neuropsychological assessments, as well as fMRI during a face-name associative memory paradigm. Whole brain and region-of-interest analyses were applied to the longitudinal fMRI data. Results: Subjects classified as CDR 0 at baseline showed no difference in fMRI activity over 2 years, whereas those who were CDR 0.5 at baseline demonstrated a decrease in fMRI activity in the right hippocampus (p < 0.001). Dividing the subjects on the basis of their clinical and neuropsychological change over the 2 years, we found that subjects with more rapid decline demonstrated both the highest hippocampal activation at baseline, and the greatest loss of hippocampal activation. These findings remained significant after accounting for age, hippocampal volume, and APOE ε4 carrier status. Conclusions: Clinical decline is associated with loss of hippocampal activation in older subjects. Longitudinal fMRI provides a reliable indicator of brain activation over time, and may prove useful in identifying functional brain changes associated with cognitive decline on the trajectory toward clinical Alzheimer disease.
Primary retinal pathology in multiple sclerosis as detected by optical coherence tomography.

Sir, We read the recent Brain publication by Saidha et al. (2011) with great interest. In their manuscript, the authors suggested that primary retinal pathology detectable by optical coherence tomography (OCT) defines a subset of patients with multiple sclerosis (Saidha et al ., 2011). This subgroup of patients, which they termed ‘macular thinning predominant phenotype’, was reported to exist in ∼10% of the entire multiple sclerosis cohort examined by spectral domain OCT (Cirrus) at the authors’ centres. The macular thinning predominant OCT phenotype was defined by a combination of average macular thickness below the 5th percentile, with ipsilateral normal average retinal nerve fibre layer (RNFL) thicknesses (between the 5th and 95th percentiles of RNFL values from the manufacturer's normative database), in one or both eyes, in the absence of a history of acute optic neuritis in affected eyes (Saidha et al ., 2011). Sixty-two per cent (31/50) of patients fulfilling the macular thinning predominant OCT criteria had a macular thickness below the 1st percentile. In addition, there was a remarkable male preponderance among patients with the macular thinning predominant phenotype (70% male versus 30% female), a difference that was even more pronounced (77.4% male versus 22.6% female) among those patients with very low macular thicknesses (<1st percentile). These in vivo findings are in line with a recent post-mortem analysis reporting retinal pathology in multiple sclerosis beyond damage to the RNFL and the ganglion cell layer (Green et al ., 2010). These data are intriguing in that they point to a novel concept of primary retinal damage in multiple sclerosis. They indicate that retinal pathology might not only develop as a consequence of inflammatory attacks to the anterior optic pathway causing …
Gist reasoning training in cognitively normal seniors

Cognitive impairment is a key factor that threatens functionality and quality of life in seniors. Given the projection that the population of individuals 65 years of age and older will double within the next 25 years, a critical need exists to identify and test effectiveness of protocols that target higher‐order cognitive skills such as gist reasoning to maximize cognitive capacity in later life.
Longitudinal quasi-static stability predicts changes in dog gait on rough terrain

ABSTRACT Legged animals utilize gait selection to move effectively and must recover from environmental perturbations. We show that on rough terrain, domestic dogs, Canis lupus familiaris, spend more time in longitudinal quasi-statically stable patterns of movement. Here, longitudinal refers to the rostro-caudal axis. We used an existing model in the literature to quantify the longitudinal quasi-static stability of gaits neighbouring the walk, and found that trot-like gaits are more stable. We thus hypothesized that when perturbed, the rate of return to a stable gait would depend on the direction of perturbation, such that perturbations towards less quasi-statically stable patterns of movement would be more rapid than those towards more stable patterns of movement. The net result of this would be greater time spent in longitudinally quasi-statically stable patterns of movement. Limb movement patterns in which diagonal limbs were more synchronized (those more like a trot) have higher longitudinal quasi-static stability. We therefore predicted that as dogs explored possible limb configurations on rough terrain at walking speeds, the walk would shift towards trot. We gathered experimental data quantifying dog gait when perturbed by rough terrain and confirmed this prediction using GPS and inertial sensors (n=6, P<0.05). By formulating gaits as trajectories on the n-torus we are able to make tractable the analysis of gait similarity. These methods can be applied in a comparative study of gait control which will inform the ultimate role of the constraints and costs impacting locomotion, and have applications in diagnostic procedures for gait abnormalities, and in the development of agile legged robots. Summary: Dogs co-ordinate their limbs on rough terrain in a manner consistent with optimization for quasi-static longitudinal stability.
No Relationship between Embryo Morphology and Successful Derivation of Human Embryonic Stem Cell Lines

Background The large number (30) of permanent human embryonic stem cell (hESC) lines and additional 29 which did not continue growing, in our laboratory at Karolinska Institutet have given us a possibility to analyse the relationship between embryo morphology and the success of derivation of hESC lines. The derivation method has been improved during the period 2002–2009, towards fewer xeno-components. Embryo quality is important as regards the likelihood of pregnancy, but there is little information regarding likelihood of stem cell derivation. Methods We evaluated the relationship of pronuclear zygote stage, the score based on embryo morphology and developmental rate at cleavage state, and the morphology of the blastocyst at the time of donation to stem cell research, to see how they correlated to successful establishment of new hESC lines. Results Derivation of hESC lines succeeded from poor quality and good quality embryos in the same extent. In several blastocysts, no real inner cell mass (ICM) was seen, but permanent well growing hESC lines could be established. One tripronuclear (3PN) zygote, which developed to blastocyst stage, gave origin to a karyotypically normal hESC line. Conclusion Even very poor quality embryos with few cells in the ICM can give origin to hESC lines.
QFT based robust controller design for a DC-DC switching power converter

In this paper, a quantitative feedback theory (QFT) was applied successfully to design a robust controller for a DC-DC buck converter operating in continuous conduction mode (CCM) and discontinuous conduction mode (DCM). The controller is designed to provide optimum attenuation of the load disturbances in spite of practical limitations on the achievable closed-loop performance and in the presence of other design constraints including closed-loop tracking and robust stability. The derived analytical results are verified by computer simulation of a voltage-mode (VM) controlled buck converter.
Social Science Methodology: A Unified Framework

Preface 1. A unified framework Part I. General: 2. Beginnings 3. Arguments 4. Analyses Part II. Description: 5. Concepts 6. Descriptive arguments 7. Measurements Part III. Causation: 8. Causal arguments 9. Causal analyses 10. Causal strategies: X and Y 11. Causal strategies: beyond X and Y 12. Varying approaches to causal inference Part IV. Conclusions: 13. Unity and plurality 14. Setting standards Postscript: justifications Appendix: a few words on style.
A New Flavonoid C-Glycoside from Solanum elaeagnifolium with Hepatoprotective and Curative Activities against Paracetamol- Induced Liver Injury in Mice

A new flavonoid C-glycoside, kaempferol 8-C-β-galactoside, along with twelve known glycosidic flavonoids was isolated from the aqueous methanolic extract of Solanum elaeagnifolium Cav. (Solanaceae), by conventional chromatographic methods; their structure elucidation was achieved using UV, ESI-MS, and NMR spectral analyses. Groups of six mice were administered S. elaeagnifolium extracts at 25, 50, and 75 mg/kg body weight (BW) prior to or post administration of a single dose of paracetamol (500 mg/kg BW). The extract showed signifi cant hepatoprotective and curative effects against histopathological and histochemical damage induced by paracetamol in liver. The extract also ameliorated the elevation in glutamate oxaloacetate transaminase (GOT), glutamate pyruvate transaminase (GPT), and alkaline phosphatase (ALP) levels. These findings were accompanied by a nearly normal architecture of the liver in the treated groups, compared to the paracetamol control group. As a positive control, silymarin was used, an established hepatoprotective drug against paracetamol-induced liver injury. This study provides the first validation of the hepatoprotective activity of S. elaeagnifolium
Modeling of the Bistatic Electromagnetic Scattering From Sea Surfaces Covered in Oil for Microwave Applications

This paper describes the influence of oil pollution over sea surfaces on the height spectrum and the height autocorrelation function of rough surfaces. An oil slick damps the capillarity waves of the surface height spectrum and reduces the root mean square slope of the surface. These modified functions then have an influence on the radar cross section (RCS) from contaminated sea surfaces. The bistatic RCS of the contaminated sea surface is then presented by comparison with a clean sea: results from a benchmark numerical model are presented and compared with a new semiempirical model using the geometric optics approximation and then the first-order smallslope approximation.
HEAD LICE IN HAIR SAMPLES FROM YOUTHS, ADULTS AND THE ELDERLY IN MANAUS, AMAZONAS STATE, BRAZIL

A study of head lice infestations among young people, adults and elderly individuals was conducted from August 2010 to July 2013 in Manaus, AM, Northern Brazil. Hair samples collected from 1,860 individuals in 18 barber shops and beauty parlors were examined for the ectoparasite. The occurrence of pediculosis and its association with factors, such as sex, age, ethnicity, hair characteristics and the socioeconomic profile of salon customers, salon location and seasonal variation were determined. The overall occurrence rate was 2.84%. Occurrence was higher in hair samples from non-blacks and the elderly. Higher occurrence was also observed during kindergarten, elementary and junior education school holidays. The results indicate that the occurrence of head lice among young people, adults and the elderly in Manaus is relatively low compared to that determined in children and in other regions of the country. After children, the elderly were the most affected. The study also indicated the need to adopt additional procedures to improve surveys among the population with low or no purchasing power, which is usually the most affected by this ectoparasitic disease.
Parental Insights on the Effects of the Secondary Transition Planning Process on the Postsecondary Outcomes of Graduates with Disabilities

Research shows that transition planning for students with disabilities is an ongoing process that requires the collaboration of students, families, and teachers to ensure a successful adult life for students after graduation (Clark, 1996; Clark & Unruh, 2010; Gil, 2007; Kellems & Morningstar, 2010). This study examined the insights of the parents of graduates with disabilities regarding the individualized education program (IEP) secondary transition planning process and the postsecondary outcomes of the graduates. The graduates consisted of students who were enrolled in a special education program at a small rural southern school district who graduated in the year 2011. The results of the study indicate that many of the parents of the graduates perceived their children's IEP secondary transition planning process as inadequate in preparing the graduates for postsecondary success.
Digital games for physical therapy: fulfilling the need for calibration and adaptation

With the advent of computer games involving the movement of the player's whole body or body parts, an opportunity arises to develop games for people with motor disabilities. In this paper we present four minigames developed for people suffering from spasticity and loss of motor control. We thereby focus on the input devices, sensor signal processing and mapping of players' actions on events in the game. In order to adapt the game to the player's motor skills and goals, specific attention should be paid to calibration procedures and adjustable parameters. We illustrate how this can be done and simultaneously, we demonstrate the feasibility for the development of digital games for physical therapy with currently available commercial input devices.
The Finance Uncertainty Multiplier

We show how real and financial frictions amplify the impact of uncertainty shocks. We build a model with real frictions, and find adding financial frictions roughly doubles the impact of uncertainty shocks. Higher uncertainty alongside financial frictions induces the standard real-options effects on investment and hiring, but also leads firms to hoard cash, further reducing investment and hiring. We then test the model using a panel of US firms and a novel instrumentation strategy for uncertainty exploiting differential firm exposure to exchange rate and price volatility. These results highlight why in periods with greater financial frictions uncertainty can be particularly damaging.
Differential Echocardiographic Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy and Clinical Outcomes According to QRS Morphology and QRS Duration

Results A total of 496 patients were included in the study; 216 (43.5%) had LBBB and a QRSd 150 ms, 85 (17.1%) had LBBB and QRSd 150 ms, 92 (18.5%) had non-LBBB and a QRSd 150 ms, and 103 (20.8%) had nonLBBB and QRSd 150 ms. Echocardiographic response (change in ejection fraction) was better in patients with LBBB and QRSd 150 ms (12 12%) than in those with LBBB and QRSd 150 ms (8 10%), non-LBBB and QRSd 150 ms (5 9%), and non-LBBB and QRSd 150 ms (3 11%) (p 0.0001). In a multivariate stepwise model with change in ejection fraction as the dependent variable, the presented classification was the most important independent variable (p 0.0003). Long-term survival was better in LBBB patients with QRSd 150 ms (p 0.02), but this difference was not significant after adjustment for other baseline characteristics (p 0.15).
Spontaneous Breaking of the Quantum Superposition

In this work spontaneous (non-dynamical) breaking (effective hiding) of the unitary quantum mechanical dynamical symmetry (superposition) is considered. It represents an especial but very interesting case of the general formalism of the spontaneous symmetry breaking (effective hiding). Conceptual analogies with spontaneous breaking of the gauge symmetry in Weinberg-Sallam's electro-weak interaction are pointed out. Also, consequences of the spontaneous superposition breaking in the measurement process are discussed. Measurement can be considered as a typical Landau's continuous phase transition with spontaneous superposition breaking (effective hiding) effectively corresponding to collapse. Here critical values of the order parameters are determined by Heisenberg's uncertainty relations.
Minorization Conditions and Convergence Rates for Markov Chain Monte Carlo

Abstract General methods are provided for analyzing the convergence of discrete-time, general state-space Markov chains, such as those used in stochastic simulation algorithms including the Gibbs sampler. The methods provide rigorous, a priori bounds on how long these simulations should be run to give satisfactory results. Results are applied to two models of the Gibbs sampler: a bivariate normal model, and a hierarchical Poisson model (with gamma conditionals). The methods use the notion of minorization conditions for Markov chains.