Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Large Cross-Sectional Survey Investigating the Knowledge of Cervical Cancer Risk Aetiology and the Predictors of the Adherence to Cervical Cancer Screening Related to Mass Media Campaign

Objectives. The aims of this study were to compare the characteristics of women who got a Pap-test during the mass media campaign, carried out in an Italian region by broadcasts advertising, and two years later and to identify the determinants of knowledge of cervical cancer etiology and of the adherence to the mass media campaign. Methods. A cross-sectional survey was carried out through a self-administered questionnaire. Results. A total of 8570 randomly selected women were surveyed, 823 of these had a Pap-test during the mass media campaign period and 7747 two years later. Higher educational level, being not married, and living in urban areas were the main independent characteristics associated with a higher level of knowledge of cervical cancer etiology, although a previous treatment following a Pap smear abnormality was the strongest predictor (OR = 2.88; 95% CI: 2.43–3.41). During the campaign period women had the Pap-test more frequently as a consequence of the mass media campaign (OR = 8.28; 95% CI; 5.51–12.45). Conclusions. Mass media campaign is a useful tool to foster cervical screening compliance; however, its short-term effect suggests repeating it regularly.
MACBETH: The avatar which I see before me and its movement toward my hand

When a virtual environment system prevents a user's avatar hand from penetrating virtual objects, the seen and felt positions of the hand separate. We propose a new method for reducing this position discrepancy as quickly as possible without introducing perceptible discrepancy between the seen and felt motion of the user's hand. We performed a user study to compare this new method to two previous methods of dealing with position discrepancy. Our method showed statistically significant improvements in user-reported naturalness and user preference and showed no loss in user performance
Client as expert: A Delphi poll of clients’ subjective experience of therapeutic alliance formation variables

This study extends prior research that identified client-derived variables believed to contribute to therapeutic alliance development. Forty-two clients participated in a three-round-modified Delphi poll in which the subjective importance of 74 client-derived, common alliance formation variables was rated using a six-point scale. Participants consensually identified 23 variables as highly important, five as moderately important and three as low in importance to the formation of a strong alliance. Variables related to validation and asking about parts of the client’s life other than the presenting concern were considered as most important by at least one-third of the sample. Limitations of the study are presented and implications for theory, measurement, practice and future research are briefly discussed.
Governance, ownership structure, and performance of IPO firms: The impact of different types of private equity investors and institutional environments

This paper examines performance effects of ownership concentration and two types of private equity investors (venture capitalists and business angels) in firms that have recently undergone an initial public offering (IPO) in the United Kingdom and France. We expand and contextualize nascent understanding of multiple agency theory by examining heterogeneity of private equity investors and by suggesting that multiple agency relationships are affected by different institutional contexts. We employ a unique, hand-collected dataset of 224 matched IPOs (112 in each country). Controlling for the endogeneity of private equity investors’ retained share ownership, we find support for the agency theory argument that concentrated ownership improves IPO’s performance. The research also shows that the two types of private equity investors have a differential impact on performance, and the legal institutions in a given country moderate this impact.
The cost of going the extra mile: the relationship between teachers’ organizational citizenship behavior, role stressors, and strain with the buffering effect of job autonomy

Abstract Organizational citizenship behavior (OCB) is defined as performance that supports the social and psychological environment in which a task is conducted. Teachers’ OCB can be directed toward particular individuals (OCBI) and/or toward the organization (OCBO). Despite their beneficial impact on school, these could entail personal costs for the teacher. The present study argues that OCB contributes to teachers’ strain through the mediating impact of role overload, role ambiguity, and role conflict, while job autonomy buffers it. The structural equation modeling results from a sample of 483 Israeli teachers and their principals confirmed the main hypotheses for OCBO. Role overload and role ambiguity fully mediated the relation of OCBO to teachers’ strain; the relation of OCBO to role stressors was significant for teachers with low job autonomy, but was non-significant for teachers with high job autonomy. This study opens an exploration of the positive and the negative consequences of OCB for teacher and school.
The Impact of Non-Academic Involvement on Higher Order Thinking Skills

External and internal stakeholders in higher education are asking for accountability about what takes place in the classroom (Alexander, Clinton, & Kean, 1986; Hart Research Associates, 2010; Spellings, 2006). They want to be assured that the learning institutions claim is occurring on campus is in fact happening (Alexander, 2000). In response, academic leaders have produced information about active learning strategies in classrooms (Seifert, Pascarella, Wolniak, & Cruce, 2006; Tsui, 2002; Umbach & Wawrzynski, 2005), student approaches to learning (Biggs, Kember, & Leung, 2001), and faculty-student interaction that lead to increased use of higher order thinking skills (Kuh, 1995; Pascarella & Terenzini, 1991; Reason, Terenzini & Domingo, 2007). Although there is extensive literature on learning that occurs in academic settings on college campuses, data on whether students are engaging in higher order thinking skills in nonacademic settings are less prevalent. This study sought to understand whether students’ higher order thinking skills (HOTs) are influenced by their involvement in non-academic activities (NAIs). I analyzed data from college seniors who completed the 2010 National Survey of Student Engagement (NSSE) to address two questions. First, I explored what factors emerged from the items about non-academic involvement (NAI) on the NSSE. Second, multiple regression models were employed to determine the extent to which variance in HOTs could be explained by these NAI factors. There were 14 items on the 2010 NSSE that, based on literature, measured frequency with which students engaged in NAIs. Exploratory factor analysis revealed two independent factors consisting of 7 items: Relationships (3 items) and Diverse Perspectives (4 items). These two factors explained 21% of variance in students’ higher order thinking skills. Students who are exposed to diversity and develop close relationships use HOT skills more frequently. This suggests implications for those who work in admissions, student affairs, and human resources, among others. The findings also inform policies related to promotion and tenure as well as student involvement.
Five Distinct Human Cytochromes Mediate Amitriptyline N‐Demethylation In Vitro: Dominance of CYP 2C19 and 3A4

The human cytochromes P450 (CYPs) mediating amitriptyline N‐demethylation have been identified using a combination of enzyme kinetic and chemical inhibition studies. Amitriptyline was N‐demethylated to nortriptyline by microsomes from cDNA transfected human lymphoblastoid cells expressing human CYPs 1A2, 2C9, 2C19, 2D6, and 3A4. CYP 2E1 showed no detectable activity. While CYP 2C19 and CYP 2D6 showed high affinity, CYP 3A4 showed low affinity; CYP 2C9 and 1A2 showed intermediate affinities. Based on these kinetic parameters and estimated relative abundance of the different CYPs in human liver, CYP 2C19 was identified as the major amitriptyline N‐demethylase at low (therapeutically relevant) amitriptyline concentrations, whereas CYP 3A4 may be more important at higher amitriptyline concentrations. Chemical inhibition studies with ketoconazole and omeprazole indicate that CYP 3A4 is the major amitriptyline N‐demethylase at 100 μmol/L amitriptyline, while CYP 2C19 is equally important at a substrate concentration of 5 μmol/L. The CYP 1A2 inhibitor α‐naphthoflavone and the CYP 2C9 inhibitor sulfaphenazole produced much less inhibition of amitriptyline N‐demethylation at both substrate concentrations. Quinidine produced no detectable inhibition. The kinetics of amitriptyline N‐demethylation by human liver microsomes were consistent with a two enzyme model, with the high affinity component exhibiting Michaelis Menten kinetics and the low affinity component exhibiting Hill enzyme kinetics. No difference was apparent in the kinetics of amitriptyline N‐demethylation in two liver samples with low levels of CYP 2C19 activity compared with two other samples with relatively normal 2C19 activity. This may reflect the importance of higher substrate concentration values in estimation of kinetic parameters in vitro.
Comparison of transforaminal and interlaminar epidural steroid injection in managing lumbar radiculopathy

Purpose: Epidural steroid injection is a commonly used low risky symptomatic treatment option of lumbar radiculopathy in patients with poor response to conservative management. The purpose of this prospective study was to compare the efficacy of transforaminal and interlaminar epidural steroid injection. Materials and Methods: In this study computed tomography guided lumbar epidural steroid injections were performed in 87 patients, steroid injections were made by transforaminal and interlaminar technique. The effectiveness of this treatment was evaluated by visual analogue scale at 2 weeks (acute), 3 months (sub-acute) and 6 months (chronic) after the injection. Results: In interlaminar group 78.1% patients had effective pain relief at acute term and 73.4% patients had effective pain relief at sub-acute and chronic term. In transforaminal group 82.6% patients had effective pain relief at acute term and 73.9% patients had effective pain relief at sub-acute and chronic term. Transforaminal group showed slightly better pain relief in all terms but the difference was not statistically significant. Patients with symptom duration more than 6 months had statistically significant higher pain relief than the patients with symptom duration less than 6 months in acute term but there was no statistically significant difference between sub-acute and chronic terms. Conclusion: In the current study transforaminal epidural steroid injections for the treatment of lumbar radiculopathy resulted in better pain relief than interlaminar epidural steroid injections in all terms but the difference was not statistically significant.
Intrinsic protein disorder reduces small-scale gene duplicability

Abstract Whereas the rate of gene duplication is relatively high, only certain duplications survive the filter of natural selection and can contribute to genome evolution. However, the reasons why certain genes can be retained after duplication whereas others cannot remain largely unknown. Many proteins contain intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs), whose structures fluctuate between alternative conformational states. Due to their high flexibility, IDRs often enable protein–protein interactions and are the target of post-translational modifications. Intrinsically disordered proteins (IDPs) have characteristics that might either stimulate or hamper the retention of their encoding genes after duplication. On the one hand, IDRs may enable functional diversification, thus promoting duplicate retention. On the other hand, increased IDP availability is expected to result in deleterious unspecific interactions. Here, we interrogate the proteomes of human, Drosophila melanogaster, Caenorhabditis elegans, Saccharomyces cerevisiae, Arabidopsis thaliana and Escherichia coli, in order to ascertain the impact of protein intrinsic disorder on gene duplicability. We show that, in general, proteins encoded by duplicated genes tend to be less disordered than those encoded by singletons. The only exception is proteins encoded by ohnologs, which tend to be more disordered than those encoded by singletons or genes resulting from small-scale duplications. Our results indicate that duplication of genes encoding IDPs outside the context of whole-genome duplication (WGD) is often deleterious, but that IDRs facilitate retention of duplicates in the context of WGD. We discuss the potential evolutionary implications of our results.
Diversity and Abundance of Aerobic and Anaerobic Methane Oxidizers at the Haakon Mosby Mud Volcano, Barents Sea

ABSTRACT Submarine mud volcanoes are formed by expulsions of mud, fluids, and gases from deeply buried subsurface sources. They are highly reduced benthic habitats and often associated with intensive methane seepage. In this study, the microbial diversity and community structure in methane-rich sediments of the Haakon Mosby Mud Volcano (HMMV) were investigated by comparative sequence analysis of 16S rRNA genes and fluorescence in situ hybridization. In the active volcano center, which has a diameter of about 500 m, the main methane-consuming process was bacterial aerobic oxidation. In this zone, aerobic methanotrophs belonging to three bacterial clades closely affiliated with Methylobacter and Methylophaga species accounted for 56% ± 8% of total cells. In sediments below Beggiatoa mats encircling the center of the HMMV, methanotrophic archaea of the ANME-3 clade dominated the zone of anaerobic methane oxidation. ANME-3 archaea form cell aggregates mostly associated with sulfate-reducing bacteria of the Desulfobulbus (DBB) branch. These ANME-3/DBB aggregates were highly abundant and accounted for up to 94% ± 2% of total microbial biomass at 2 to 3 cm below the surface. ANME-3/DBB aggregates could be further enriched by flow cytometry to identify their phylogenetic relationships. At the outer rim of the mud volcano, the seafloor was colonized by tubeworms (Siboglinidae, formerly known as Pogonophora). Here, both aerobic and anaerobic methane oxidizers were found, however, in lower abundances. The level of microbial diversity at this site was higher than that at the central and Beggiatoa species-covered part of the HMMV. Analysis of methyl-coenzyme M-reductase alpha subunit (mcrA) genes showed a strong dominance of a novel lineage, mcrA group f, which could be assigned to ANME-3 archaea. Our results further support the hypothesis of Niemann et al. (54), that high methane availability and different fluid flow regimens at the HMMV provide distinct niches for aerobic and anaerobic methanotrophs.
Serum CA 125 Measurements in the Diagnosis of Endometriosis Recurrence

Seventy-one women underwent follow-up laparoscopy for persistent infertility six to 24 months after conservative treatment of endometriosis. The disease was staged according to the revised American Fertility Society classification of 1985. The serum CA 125 concentration was also measured in each patient to evaluate its efficacy in the diagnosis of endometriosis recurrence. The patients with stages I and II endometriosis had serum CA 125 levels not significantly higher than in the patients with negative findings, whereas those with stages HI and IV endometriosis presented significantly higher levels (P<.005 and P<.001, respectively) than the disease-free women. The sensitivity of serum CA 125 measurements in the diagnosis of endometriosis recurrence was 14.8%, the specificity was 100%, and the predictive values of normal (less than 35 U/mL) and elevated levels were 27 and 100%, respectively. In some cases, serum CA 125 measurements may be used instead of follow-up laparoscopy, or to indicate when laparoscopy should be performed or postponed.
Acoustic Analysis of Voice-Onset Time in Taiwan Mandarin and Japanese

The purpose of this study is to present a thorough acoustic investigation of VOT for stops in connected speech in Taiwan Mandarin (TM) and Japanese. Aspirated and unaspirated stops in TM and voiced and voiceless stops in Japanese not only in isolated syllables but also in word-initial/-medial (Japanese) or phrase-initial/-medial (TM) positions were involved. The study found that TM aspirated stops definitely belong to the long-lag category, and unaspirated stops belong to the short-lag category. Conversely, VOT for Japanese voiceless stops in the initial position falls somewhere between short-lag and long-lag; while, VOT in the medial position becomes extremely short, almost as short as voiced stops with positive VOT. Moreover, the occurrence of prevoicing for voiced stops is random. These results show that Japanese stops are acoustically quite different from TM stops in terms of VOT, which further implies that Japanese stops might be difficult for TM speakers to distinguish correctly.
Experimental Framework for Magnetic Nanoparticles Enhanced Breast Cancer Microwave Imaging

Magnetic nanoparticles (MNP) enhanced microwave imaging could provide an effective approach for an early stage diagnosis of breast cancer, if encouraging results coming from accurate and realistic numerical studies are confirmed by an experimental proof of concept framework. To this end, an ad hoc laboratory setup has been designed and built up to verify the possibility of detecting the low signal scattered by MNP when embedded into a simplified but realistic breast phantom. This paper describes the developed measurement setup and the results coming from a first run of experiments, which confirm the possibility to detecting realistic amounts of accumulated nanoparticles. Moreover, the experimental results analysis allows addressing the future developments required to determine the ultimate detection limits of the technique, giving relevant information to plan the preclinical assessment.
Layered Noisy Network Coding

Noisy network coding naturally combines two parallel lines of work on network information flow --- network coding over noiseless networks by Ahlswede, Cai, Li, and Yeung, and compress--forward coding for the relay channel by Cover and El Gamal and extends both results to general discrete memoryless and Gaussian networks. In particular, it achieves the best known capacity inner bounds for several multi-source multicast networks including deterministic networks by Avestimehr, Diggavi, and Tse and erasure networks by Dana, Gowaikar, Palanki, Hassibi, and Effros. In this paper we further improve noisy network coding for the two-way relay channel. In the new scheme, instead of the relay node just sending a common compression index to both destinations, the relay compresses its observation into a description of two layers. The common layer is used at both decoders, while the refinement layer is used only at one of the decoders. The advantage of the new scheme is demonstrated through an example of the Gaussian two-way relay channel.
The historical biogeography of Scabiosa (Dipsacaceae): implications for Old World plant disjunctions

Aim To reconstruct the temporal and biogeographical history of Old World disjunctions in Scabiosa (Dipsacaceae) and the timing of diversification in the Mediterranean Basin, in order to evaluate the importance of biogeographical and climatological history (particularly the onset of a mediterranean climate) in shaping Scabiosa distributions.
Tobacco smoking and periodontal bone height in a Saudi Arabian population.

AIM To study the association between tobacco smoking, in particular water pipe smoking, and periodontal bone height. METHODS A study sample of 355 individuals in the age range 17-60 years was recruited from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. The smoking behavior was registered through a questionnaire during interview. Participants were stratified into water pipe smokers (33%), cigarette smokers (20%), mixed smokers (19%) and non-smokers (28%). The periodontal bone height was measured from digital panoramic radiographs mesially and distally to each tooth and expressed as a percentage of the root length. RESULTS The mean periodontal bone height was 76.2% for water pipe smokers, 75.8% for cigarette smokers, 80.2% for mixed smokers and 80.9% for non-smokers. The association between smoking and mean bone height was statistically significant controlling for age (p<0.001). The association between life-time smoking exposure and mean bone height controlling for age was statistically significant in water pipe smokers and cigarette smokers (p<0.01). The prevalence of bone loss in excess of 30% of the bone height was 27% in water pipe smokers, 24% in cigarette smokers, 9% in mixed smokers and 6% in non-smokers. The prevalence was significantly greater in water pipe smokers and cigarette smokers compared with non-smokers (p<0.001). The relative risk of periodontal bone loss associated with water pipe and cigarette smoking after adjustment for age was 3.5-fold and 4.3-fold elevated, respectively, compared with non-smoking (p<0.01). CONCLUSION An association between tobacco smoking and periodontal bone height reduction is observed. The impact of water pipe smoking is of the same magnitude as that of cigarette smoking.
Does Personality Matter to Group Judgment Task Performance and Appropriation of Collaborative Technology Utilization

Both task-technology fit and user appropriation of technology have been noted to have significant effect on task performance. In a team context, it is through social appropriation of technology that the differences between misfit and fit teams quickly dissipate. However, previous research provides little guidance on the antecedences that influence the appropriation process. In this research, we investigate the relationship of the five-factor model (FFM) of personality-through the Fit-Appropriation Model (FAM)-to group task performance within different group support systems (GSS) configurations in the context of judgment tasks.
Thermal reaction norms for caterpillar growth depend on diet

Hypothesis: Interactions between diet and temperature affect reaction norms for growth rate in ectotherms. Organisms: Full-sib families of the small cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, derived from field populations near Seattle, WA, USA. Methods: We used a split sib-family experimental design with two food treatments (collard leaves and artificial diet) and four test temperatures (11, 23, 35 and 40C), and measured short-term growth rate (mass increase) of fourth-instar caterpillars. The data were analysed using mixed-model analysis of variance. Results: Temperature, food type, family, and two- and three-way interactions all had significant effects on growth rate. The thermal sensitivity of growth rate was greater on collards than on the artificial diet; mean growth rate was greater on collards than on the artificial diet for temperatures from 11 to 35C, but this effect was reversed at 40C. Estimated broad-sense genetic variances were greater on collards than on the artificial diet; the genetic covariance of growth rate at 35 and 40C was strongly positive on the artificial diet, but weak or negative on collard leaves. Conclusions: Both the mean and genetic variation in thermal reaction norms for insect growth rate were influenced by food type in this system. Studies of the thermal sensitivity of growth and feeding that utilize artificial diets may not accurately reflect genetic variation or constraints on thermal reaction norms that may occur on natural food resources.