Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Waterpipe tobacco use among Iranian university students: correlates and perceived reasons for use.

SETTING Waterpipe smoking is becoming a global health crisis among youth. OBJECTIVE To identify the prevalence of waterpipe use among Iranian university students and to explore perceived reasons for use. METHODS A random sample of 1024 university students at two major universities in South Iran was enrolled in the study. A three-part questionnaire (baseline data, tobacco smoking status and perceived reasons for waterpipe use) was used. Students filled out the self-administered questionnaire in their classrooms. RESULTS The prevalence of waterpipe smoking in the respondents' lifetime and in the last 30 days was 42.5% and 18.7%, respectively. The mean age at initiation of waterpipe smoking was 16.3 ± 3.2 years. Ever smoking was positively associated with age and male sex, whereas no association was found regarding marital status. The highest odds of lifetime waterpipe smoking were observed in students with close friends who smoked the waterpipe (5.94, 95%CI 4.26-8.30). The most important perceived reason for waterpipe smoking as stated by students was enjoyment (55.8%). CONCLUSION Given the alarming prevalence of waterpipe smoking, preventive measures should be adopted among university students taking into account the influence of peers, siblings and parents in the lessening social tolerance of waterpipe smoking.
A comparative study of pitch extraction algorithms on a large variety of singing sounds

The problem of pitch tracking has been extensively studied in the speech research community. The goal of this paper is to investigate how these techniques should be adapted to singing voice analysis, and to provide a comparative evaluation of the most representative state-of-the-art approaches. This study is carried out on a large database of annotated singing sounds with aligned EGG recordings, comprising a variety of singer categories and singing exercises. The algorithmic performance is assessed according to the ability to detect voicing boundaries and to accurately estimate pitch contour. First, we evaluate the usefulness of adapting existing methods to singing voice analysis. Then we compare the accuracy of several pitch-extraction algorithms, depending on singer category and laryngeal mechanism. Finally, we analyze their robustness to reverberation.
Social Support and Cancer

An hypothesized relationship between level of social support during a life-threatening health crisis and subsequent armelioration of psychological distress - the stress buffering hypothesis - was tested with a longitudinal, quasi-experimental research design. A sample of 181 adult patients who had recently been diagnosed with cancer and were about to undergo curative radition therapy was followed through two months post-treatment. Perceived satisfaction with socioemotional support was assessed at the onset of treatment and at its completion six weeks later. Patients' responses were used to develop an index of sustained social support. Distress associated with depressive symptoms was assessed at the completion of treatment and two months later using SCL-90-R. Depression at the two-month follow-up was not significantly related to level of support after controlling for depression when treatment was completed (p < .05, p v .10). The results echo those of other empirical studies with oncologic samples question.
The moral circle as a common motivational cause of cross-situational pro-environmentalism

Public engagement in pro-environmental behavior and support for pro-environmental policy are essential for achieving sustainable living. We propose that the ‘moral circle’ is a common motivational source for engagement in environmentally beneficial activities across situations, and may be thus drawn upon to efficiently promote these activities. Study 1 established an association between chronic moral circle size and 9 pro-environmental activities from different domains. Via experimental manipulation of the moral circle size, studies 2a-d demonstrated its causal effect on intentions to engage in pro-environmental activities. Together, these studies offer an important initial demonstration of the beneficial consequences of more expansive moral circle in the domain of pro-environmentalism. Routes for expanding the moral circle and thus promoting pro-environmental activities are discussed.
Clinical Symptoms in Lumbar Disc Herniations and Their Correlation to the Histological Composition of the Extruded Disc Material

Study Design. Fifty-five consecutive patients undergoing microdiskectomy due to lumbar disc herniation were included in this clinical study over 12 months. Objectives. To investigate possible correlations between the histologic composition of the herniated disc fragments and pain, disability, clinical signs, and operative findings. Summary of Background Data. Previous studies have investigated the histologic composition of herniated lumbar disc fragments. Few publications, however, examined correlations with clinical data. Methods. Before treatment, patients were examined using a standardized clinical protocol; subjective disability and pain were assessed by the Oswestry Disability Questionnaire and the McGill Pain Questionnaire. The herniated disc fragments were examined semiquantitatively for the relative percentages of nucleus pulposus, anulus fibrosus, and cartilaginous endplate. Results. In patients less than 30 years of age, significantly higher percentages of nucleus pulposus were found than in the older group, whereas anulus fibrosus was found in significantly higher percentages in patients ≥30 years. Both higher percentages of cartilage and nucleus pulposus correlated with increased pain intensity values from the McGill Pain Questionnaire. Impaired reflexes before treatment occurred significantly more often in patients with ≥20% of cartilage in the herniated fragments. If nucleus pulposus was <30%, sensory impairment tended to be more severe before treatment. Conclusion. The histologic composition of the herniated disc fragments seems to affect pain and clinical symptoms.
Lifelong learning, equality and social cohesion

This article compares the evidence from the 2009 PISA survey on the distribution of skills amongst 15-year-olds in different regions and country groups and explores how education systems in these regions contribute to different levels of inequality. In the second part, it presents evidence from surveys on adult skills and attitudes on how skills inequality affects social attitudes and social cohesion.
The scenario-based generalization of radiation therapy margins

We give a scenario-based treatment plan optimization formulation that is equivalent to planning with geometric margins if the scenario doses are calculated using the static dose cloud approximation. If the scenario doses are instead calculated more accurately, then our formulation provides a novel robust planning method that overcomes many of the difficulties associated with previous scenario-based robust planning methods. In particular, our method protects only against uncertainties that can occur in practice, it gives a sharp dose fall-off outside high dose regions, and it avoids underdosage of the target in ‘easy’ scenarios. The method shares the benefits of the previous scenario-based robust planning methods over geometric margins for applications where the static dose cloud approximation is inaccurate, such as irradiation with few fields and irradiation with ion beams. These properties are demonstrated on a suite of phantom cases planned for treatment with scanned proton beams subject to systematic setup uncertainty.
Evaluation of resting-state functional connectivity in MEG signals of Alzheimer’s disease and mild cognitive impairment subjects with minimum spanning trees

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Linking actions to outcomes : the role of the posterior pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus in instrumental learning

Located in the mesopontine tegmentum, the pedunculopontine tegmental nucleus (PPTg) is comprised principally of glutamatergic, cholinergic and GABAergic neurons. In addition to being fully integrated into basal ganglia, PPTg projects to thalamus and motor output sites in the brainstem. Previous studies have shown a range of behavioural changes after PPTg manipulation. Prominent amongst these is an apparent deficit in the ability to learn the consequences of actions. PPTg is divisible into a posterior component (pPPTg) in receipt of rapid polymodal sensory input and projecting into VTA/SNc dopamine neurons and an anterior component (aPPTg) in receipt of basal ganglia outflow and projecting into SNc and lower brainstem structures. The research described here assesses the role of the pPPTg in instrumental learning. Using a contingency degradation paradigm, it was shown that inactivation of the pPPTg (by muscimol microinfusion) specifically blocked the updating of associations between actions and outcomes, without the affecting the ability to re-execute previously learned instrumental actions. Selective bilateral destruction of pPPTg cholinergic neurons (with the fusion toxin diphtheria toxin – urotensin II [Dtx-UII]) resulted in >90% loss of pPPTg cholinergic neurons. These lesions produced no detectable changes on any measured aspect of an instrumental learning task consisting of various fixed and variable ratio schedules of reinforcement and extinction. Subsequent experiments found that the same selective cholinergic pPPTg lesions also produced no changes in the locomotor response to nicotine or rate of nicotine sensitisation. These results are the first to demonstrate a brainstem role in action-outcome learning. Results support the view that PPTg performs a ‘first pass’ analysis on incoming sensory data and interfaces salient aspects of this with appropriate basal ganglia and brainstem circuitry, with glutamatergic pPPTg projections sending an essential signal and cholinergic projections performing as part of a wider modulatory system.
Erythema migrans in pregnancy.

From 1990 through to 1997, 105 pregnant women with typical EM were investigated at the Lyme Borreliosis Outpatients' Clinic of the Department of Infectious Diseases at the University Medical Centre in Ljubljana, Slovenia. Twenty-five (23.8%) patients acquired borrelial infection during the first trimester of pregnancy; eight (7.6%) of them had noticed the skin lesion before they became pregnant. In 43 (40.6%) patients the EM appeared in the second trimester, and in 37 (35%) patients in the third trimester of pregnancy. Two (1.9%) patients received phenoxymethyl penicillin (1 million IU t.i.d.), three (2.9%) benzyl penicillin (10 million IU b.i.d.), and 100 (95.2%) ceftriaxone (2 g daily). All patients were treated for 14 days except three (2.9%) in whom the treatment with ceftriaxone was discontinued because of mild side effects. The outcome of disease was good in all 105 patients. Ninety-three (88.6%) out of 105 patients had normal pregnancies; the infants were delivered at term, were clinically healthy, and subsequently had a normal psychomotor development. In the remaining 12 (11.4%) patients an adverse outcome was observed. Two (1.9%) pregnancies ended with an abortion (one missed abortion at 9 weeks, one spontaneous abortion at 10 weeks), and six (5.7%) with preterm birth. One of the preterm babies had cardiac abnormalities and two died shortly after birth. Four (3.8%) babies born at term were found to have congenital anomalies; one had syndactyly at birth and three had urologic abnormalities which were registered at the age of 5, 7, and 10 months, respectively. A causal association with borrelial infection was not proven in any infant. For at least some unfavourable outcomes a plausible explanation not associated with Lyme borreliosis was found.
Cathepsin B Regulates Collagen Expression by Fibroblasts via Prolonging TLR2/NF-κB Activation

Fibroblasts are essential for tissue repair due to producing collagens, and lysosomal proteinase cathepsin B (CatB) is involved in promoting chronic inflammation. We herein report that CatB regulates the expression of collagens III and IV by fibroblasts in response to a TLR2 agonist, lipopolysaccharide from Porphyromonas gingivalis (P.g. LPS). In cultured human BJ fibroblasts, mRNA expression of CatB was significantly increased, while that of collagens III and IV was significantly decreased at 24 h after challenge with P.g. LPS (1 μg/mL). The P.g. LPS-decreased collagen expression was completely inhibited by CA-074Me, the specific inhibitor of CatB. Surprisingly, expression of collagens III and IV was significantly increased in the primary fibroblasts from CatB-deficient mice after challenge with P.g. LPS. The increase of CatB was accompanied with an increase of 8-hydroxy-2′-deoxyguanosine (8-OHdG) and a decrease of IκBα. Furthermore, the P.g. LPS-increased 8-OHdG and decreased IκBα were restored by CA-074Me. Moreover, 87% of CatB and 86% of 8-OHdG were colocalized with gingival fibroblasts of chronic periodontitis patients. The findings indicate the critical role of CatB in regulating the expression of collagens III and IV by fibroblasts via prolonging TLR2/NF-κB activation and oxidative stress. CatB-specific inhibitors may therefore improve chronic inflammation-delayed tissue repair.
Opinions regarding skin ageing in the elderly inhabitants of Bialystok, Poland

Skin diseases constitute an essential health and aesthetic problem in the elderly. The aim of the study was to evaluate the knowledge of the elderly residents of public nursing homes and participants of the University of the Third Age in Bialystok, Poland surrounding the factors influencing skin ageing, the awareness of skin conditions in agening skin, and the impact of skin ageing on the volunteers. The study was performed from April to June 2015 in Bialystok, in two groups: among 100 public nursing home residents (PNH) and 100 members of University of the Third Age (U3A), (all over 60 years old). The study made use of a diagnostic survey conducted via a questionnaire prepared by the authors. Nearly half of those surveyed (42.5%; n = 85) sunbathed in the past, while 28.0% (n = 56) of those surveyed now take part in this type of leisure activity. More than half of respondents (53.0%; n = 106) protected their skin using special protective preparations. A majority of Bialystok inhabitants surveyed (80.5%; n = 161) noticed the features of skin ageing. They reported birthmarks, fungal infections and bedsores as the main skin problems of the old age. Nearly half (40%) of respondents assessed their knowledge as average and 26.0% as poor. The study showed some statistical differences in the knowledge and awareness between the residents of public nursing homes and the students of the University of the Third Age, e.g., the use of the Internet by the U3A group for finding out information. There is a desire to receive education in the field of the agening skin conditions/diseases among the elderly because their level of knowledge is relatively poor. Education of seniors in this area can increase their awareness of the basic principles of skin care and prevention marking of skin ageing. The benefits of greater knowledge of seniors about the conditions of agening skin can help reduce the medical burden and reduce the incidence on certain skin diseases. Furthermore, there is a need for educating of the younger population on the factors of skin ageing to prevent certain skin conditions as they become older. Seniors should be professionally educated by qualified specialists; for example, dermatologists or cosmeticians, so that the information they receive is in line with evidence-based medicine.
The Password Thicket: Technical and Market Failures in Human Authentication on the Web

We report the results of the first large-scale empirical analysis of password implementations deployed on the Internet. Our study included 150 websites which offer free user accounts for a variety of purposes, including the most popular destinations on the web and a random sample of e-commerce, news, and communication websites. Although all sites evaluated relied on user-chosen textual passwords for authentication, we found many subtle but important technical variations in implementation with important security implications. Many poor practices were commonplace, such as a lack of encryption to protect transmitted passwords, storage of cleartext passwords in server databases, and little protection of passwords from brute force attacks. While a spectrum of implementation quality exists with a general correlation between implementation choices within more-secure and less-secure websites, we find a surprising number of inconsistent choices within individual sites, suggesting that the lack of a standards is harming security. We observe numerous ways in which the technical failures of lower-security sites can compromise higher-security sites due to the well-established tendency of users to re-use passwords. Our data confirms that the worst security practices are indeed found at sites with few security incentives, such as newspaper websites, while sites storing more sensitive information such as payment details or user communication implement more password security. From an economic viewpoint, password insecurity is a negative externality that the market has been unable to correct, undermining the viability of password-based authentication. We also speculate that some sites deploying passwords do so primarily for psychological reasons, both as a justification for collecting marketing data and as a way to build trusted relationships with customers. This theory suggests that efforts to replace passwords with moresecure protocols or federated identity systems may fail because they don’t recreate the entrenched ritual of password authentication. WEIS 2010 The Ninth Workshop on the Economics of Information Security
When satisfied consumers do not return: Variety seekings effect on short- and long-term intentions

Even satisfied consumers frequently do not come back, which challenges loyalty theory and marketing practice. It is reasoned that variety-seeking tendencies will significantly affect short-term revisit intentions, whereas satisfaction and regret will mostly determine long-term revisit intentions. Thus, the influence of satisfaction on loyalty is hypothesized to be critically dependent on the time perspective of the intentions, now or later, and variety seeking. A representative survey (N = 400) in eight Spanish cities supported these predictions. Multivariate moderated-mediation analyses revealed that indeed the influence of satisfaction, regret, and variety seeking critically depends on the time perspective of the behavioral intentions.
Outcomes of Immediate Breast Reconstruction in Patients Undergoing Single-Stage Sentinel Lymph Node Biopsy and Mastectomy

The ability to more definitively plan breast reconstruction after obtaining final histologic analysis of the sentinel lymph node biopsy (SLNB) has led several groups to advocate a staged approach to SLNB and mastectomy. Certain disadvantages are inherent in that approach, including increased patient morbidity, financial expense, and inconvenience. A retrospective review was conducted 195 procedures in which mastectomy and SLNB were performed in a single stage with immediate breast reconstruction (IBR) over a 10-year period. Long-term outcomes were analyzed within the context of patient characteristics and SLNB results. Intraoperative SLNB analysis was found to be a reliable method for planning IBR, as there were no patients noted to have untoward sequelae as a result of a false-negative SLNB, and the probability of postmastectomy radiation therapy was predictable based on the intraoperative SLNB results. We advocate that SLNB be performed in a single stage with mastectomy and IBR.
Distributional Changes in the Gender Wage Gap # 220

This paper analyzes changes in wage diff erentials between white men and white women over the period 1993–2006 across the entire wage distribution using Panel Study of Income Dynamics (PSID) data. We decompose distributional changes in the gender wage gap to assess the contribution of observed characteristics measuring individual productivity. We fi nd that the gender wage gap narrowed by more than 13 percent at the lowest decile and by less than 4 percent at the highest decile. The decomposition results indicate that changes in the gender wage gap are mainly attributable to changes in educational attainment at the top of the wage distribution, while a sizeable part of the changes is due to work history changes at the bottom. Our fi ndings suggest that the educational success of women could reduce the gender wage gap at the bottom of the distribution both before and during the 1990s but did not trigger a strong decline at the top of the distribution until today. JEL Classifi cation: C21, J16, J31
De donde eres? The construction of U.S. and immigrant culture and identity in the ESL adult education setting

In this study, I investigated how lessons and interactions in an ESL classroom setting construct U.S. and immigrant cultural identities through narratives and counternarratives, and how these narratives and counter-narratives reproduced and questioned relations of power along the lines of race, class, and gender difference. The theoretical framework for this intercultural study was informed by Co-cultural theory, CRT, LatCrit, language and power, and Whiteness studies. As the findings of the research show, the narratives constructed through language, interaction, and institutionalized practices in the ESL setting reproduced the ideology of the American Dream. The American Dream emerged as the enduring ideological field within which ESL learners and instructors make sense of U.S. and immigrant culture and identities. I argue that the American Dream ideology is the backbone of the dominant narratives of the dominant, White group of the U.S. American culture. The findings also indicate that while students, instructors, and administrator in the study reproduced dominant narratives, they also created counternarratives or testimonios to question or resist the dominant narratives.
Multiscale Centerline Detection

Finding the centerline and estimating the radius of linear structures is a critical first step in many applications, ranging from road delineation in 2D aerial images to modeling blood vessels, lung bronchi, and dendritic arbors in 3D biomedical image stacks. Existing techniques rely either on filters designed to respond to ideal cylindrical structures or on classification techniques. The former tend to become unreliable when the linear structures are very irregular while the latter often has difficulties distinguishing centerline locations from neighboring ones, thus losing accuracy. We solve this problem by reformulating centerline detection in terms of a regression problem. We first train regressors to return the distances to the closest centerline in scale-space, and we apply them to the input images or volumes. The centerlines and the corresponding scale then correspond to the regressors local maxima, which can be easily identified. We show that our method outperforms state-of-the-art techniques for various 2D and 3D datasets. Moreover, our approach is very generic and also performs well on contour detection. We show an improvement above recent contour detection algorithms on the BSDS500 dataset.