Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Efficiency, safety, and patient preference of switching from dorzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5% to brinzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5% while maintaining the prostaglandin F2α analog

Background We investigated the efficiency, safety and patient preference of switching from dorzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5% to brinzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5% while maintaining the prostaglandin F2α analog. Methods We initially enrolled 44 eyes from 44 primary open angle glaucoma patients, and a total of 42 patients completed the study. All patients were under treatment with various prostaglandin F2α analogs and dorzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5%. While maintaining the prostaglandin F2α analog, dorzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5% was switched to brinzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5%. Conjunctival hyperemia, superficial punctate keratopathy, and intraocular pressure (IOP) were evaluated at baseline and at 4, 12, and 24 weeks. Adverse events and patient preferences, measured using a questionnaire at study initiation and at 24 weeks, were also noted. Results The IOP was 17.7±1.7, 16.8±2.6, 16.7±2.2, and 16.7±2.4 mmHg at baseline and at 4, 12, and 24 weeks, respectively, with no significant differences in IOP values at any time point (P=0.117, one-way analysis of variance). In addition, no significant differences were found in the incidence of conjunctival hyperemia or SPK score at any time point (all P>0.5, by Kruskal–Wallis test). Based on the evaluation of side effects using the questionnaire, stinging/burning was less common (P=0.042), while blurred vision was more common (P=0.003), after switching to brinzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5%. Regarding patient preferences, 13 patients (31%) preferred dorzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5%, 12 patients (29%) preferred brinzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5%, and 17 patients (40%) preferred neither. Conclusion When switching from dorzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5% to brinzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5%, the IOP values and incidence of superficial punctate keratopathy and conjunctival hyperemia were sustained throughout the 24-week observation period, and the patient preferences were similar for the two regimens. However, differences were observed in the ocular sensations of stinging/burning with dorzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5% and blurred vision with brinzolamide 1%/timolol 0.5%.
Original Sin

This article examines the legality of homosexual acts quantitatively in a cross-national perspective with a large sample of countries from 1972 to 2002. Employing path dependence as its theoretical framework, this work explains how political, economic, and legal institutions at the domestic and international levels affect the lives of individual citizens. The rights and privileges of individuals, the findings of this study indicate, are determined by a wide array of variables, including legal origin, economic development, religion, democratization, and the position of the nation in the international community. The authors use recently released cross-national data concerning decriminalization of homosexual intercourse, economic conditions, and political institutions. A generalized estimating equation analyzes decriminalization of homosexual acts. A Cox proportional hazards model examines how long it takes to introduce this legal reform. Last, this study also offers some important lessons about civil rights and liberties more generally.
On utilizing speed in networks of mobile agents

Population protocols are a model presented recently for networks with a very large, possibly unknown number of mobile agents having small memory. This model has certain advantages over alternative models (such as DTN) for such networks. However, it was shown that the computational power of this model is limited to semi-linear predicates only. Hence, various extensions were suggested. We present a model that enhances the original model of population protocols by introducing a (weak) notion of speed of the agents. This enhancement allows us to design fast converging protocols with only weak requirements (for example, suppose that there are different types of agents, say agents attached to sick animals and to healthy animals, two meeting agents just need to be able to estimate which of them is faster, e.g., using their types, but not to actually know the speeds of their types). Then, using the new model, we study the gathering problem, in which there is an unknown number of anonymous agents that have values they should deliver to a base station (without replications). We develop efficient protocols step by step searching for an optimal solution and adapting to the size of the available memory. The protocols are simple, though their analysis is somewhat involved. We also present a more involved result - a lower bound on the length of the worst execution for any protocol. Our proofs introduce several techniques that may prove useful also in future studies of time in population protocols.
Physical activity in the prevention of peripheral artery disease in the elderly

Aging is a well-known cardiovascular risk factor and cardiovascular diseases (CVD) are estimated to be the most common cause of death in the elderly. Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) represents an important clinical manifestation of CVD leading to increase morbidity and mortality, especially in elderly population. The correct management of PAD population includes the prevention of cardiovascular events and relief of symptoms, most commonly intermittent claudication. Progressive physical activity is an effective treatment to improve walking distance and to reduce mortality and cardiovascular events in patients with PAD, however the ability to effectively engage in physical activity often declines with increasing age. The maintenance and increase of reserve functional capacity are important concepts in the elderly population. Ultimately, the goal in participation of physical activity in the healthy elderly population is maintenance and development of physical functional reserve capacity. Therefore, for individuals suffering of PAD, appropriate physical activity in the form of supervised exercise may serve as a primary therapy. Although there are few direct comparisons of therapeutic exercise programs vs. pharmacological or surgical interventions, these increases in walking distance are greater than those reported for the most widely used agents for claudication, pentoxyphylline, and cilostazol. Despite a reduction in mortality and improvement of quality of life caused by physical activity in the PAD population, the molecular, cellular, and functional changes that occur during physical activity are not completely understood. Therefore, this review article aims at presenting an overview of recent established clinical and molecular findings addressing the role of physical activity on PAD in the older population.
On the Design of Network Coding for Multiple Two-Way Relaying Channels

In this paper, we study the design of network coding for the multiple two-way relaying channels where multiple pairs of sources wish to exchange information with their partners. All nodes are equipped with multiple antennas, and we focus on a particular scenario where the sources have less antennas than the relay. For such a case, the application of existing protocols developed for the scenario with a single pair has to rely on the time sharing approach, which will result in some loss of reliability and throughput. In this paper, we develop a new network coding transmission protocol which can be viewed as a combination of traditional beamforming and the recently developed approaches of signal alignment. By using such a protocol, all M pairs of source nodes can accomplish information exchanging within two time slots. We have developed analytical results, such as outage probability and diversity-multiplexing tradeoff, which demonstrate that the proposed transmission protocol can achieve a larger multiplexing gain than the time sharing approach. Furthermore, the proposed network coding scheme is extended to the special case where source nodes only have a single antenna. Simulation results have been provided to demonstrate the performance of the proposed network coding schemes.
Factors related to psychiatric hospital readmission among children and adolescents in state custody.

OBJECTIVE This study examined factors related to psychiatric hospital readmission among children and adolescents who were wards of the Illinois Department of Children and Family Services. METHODS The authors analyzed service reports and clinical ratings on the Childhood Severity of Psychiatric Illness (CSPI) for 500 randomly selected children and adolescents who underwent psychiatric hospitalization. Children who were readmitted to the hospital within three months of discharge from the index hospitalization were compared with those who were not readmitted in terms of preadmission factors, clinical characteristics at the index hospitalization, services in the hospital, and posthospital services. RESULTS The children who were readmitted were rated as more learning disabled or developmentally delayed and had received fewer posthospital service hours than the children who were not readmitted. The highest rates of readmission were found among children who lived in congregate care settings before the index hospitalization and those who lived in a rural region. CONCLUSIONS The findings of this study highlight the significance of enabling factors, notably living arrangement, geographic region, and posthospital services, for children and adolescents in the child welfare system. Prevention of readmission among these children must focus on community-based services.
Access to Information for Learning by Using Assistive Technology for Undergraduate Students with Disabilities in Northern Thailand

The purpose of this study was to survey access to information for learning on the types of assistive technology used by undergraduate students with disabilities in Northern Thailand. The types of assistive technology in this study included assistive devices and educational services. Data were collected from a questionnaire developed as a rating scale checklist that was completed by 140 undergraduate students with disabilities. Results of this study found that all types of educational services provided more to undergraduate students with disabilities than almost all kinds of assistive technology. Additionally, the students utilized assistive devices and accessed educational services for different reasons, and most students with visual disabilities were given either assistive devices or educational services. In terms of use, results found that students with hearing disabilities used assistive technology the most, whereas findings concerning needs showed that all of the students with disabilities demanded almost all types of assistive technology.
Transmission of Hypervirulence Traits via Sexual Reproduction within and between Lineages of the Human Fungal Pathogen Cryptococcus gattii

Since 1999 a lineage of the pathogen Cryptococcus gattii has been infecting humans and other animals in Canada and the Pacific Northwest of the USA. It is now the largest outbreak of a life-threatening fungal infection in a healthy population in recorded history. The high virulence of outbreak strains is closely linked to the ability of the pathogen to undergo rapid mitochondrial tubularisation and proliferation following engulfment by host phagocytes. Most outbreaks spread by geographic expansion across suitable niches, but it is known that genetic re-assortment and hybridisation can also lead to rapid range and host expansion. In the context of C. gattii, however, the likelihood of virulence traits associated with the outbreak lineages spreading to other lineages via genetic exchange is currently unknown. Here we address this question by conducting outgroup crosses between distantly related C. gattii lineages (VGII and VGIII) and ingroup crosses between isolates from the same molecular type (VGII). Systematic phenotypic characterisation shows that virulence traits are transmitted to outgroups infrequently, but readily inherited during ingroup crosses. In addition, we observed higher levels of biparental (as opposed to uniparental) mitochondrial inheritance during VGII ingroup sexual mating in this species and provide evidence for mitochondrial recombination following mating. Taken together, our data suggest that hypervirulence can spread among the C. gattii lineages VGII and VGIII, potentially creating novel hypervirulent genotypes, and that current models of uniparental mitochondrial inheritance in the Cryptococcus genus may not be universal.
Identification and Functions of Chondroitin Sulfate in the Milieu of Neural Stem Cells*

The behavior of cells is generally considered to be regulated by environmental factors, but the molecules in the milieu of neural stem cells have been little studied. We found by immunohistochemistry that chondroitin sulfate (CS) existed in the surroundings of nestin-positive cells or neural stem/progenitor cells in the rat ventricular zone of the telencephalon at embryonic day 14. Brain-specific chondroitin sulfate proteoglycans (CSPGs), including neurocan, phosphacan/receptor-type protein-tyrosine phosphatase β, and neuroglycan C, were detected in the ventricular zone. Neurospheres formed by cells from the fetal telencephalon also expressed these CSPGs and NG2 proteoglycan. To examine the structural features and functions of CS polysaccharides in the milieu of neural stem cells, we isolated and purified CS from embryonic day 14 telencephalons. The CS preparation consisted of two fractions differing in size and extent of sulfation: small CS polysaccharides with low sulfation and large CS polysaccharides with high sulfation. Interestingly, both CS polysaccharides and commercial preparations of dermatan sulfate CS-B and an E-type of highly sulfated CS promoted the fibroblast growth factor-2-mediated proliferation of neural stem/progenitor cells. None of these CS preparations promoted the epidermal growth factor-mediated neural stem cell proliferation. These results suggest that these CSPGs are involved in the proliferation of neural stem cells as a group of cell microenvironmental factors.
Equivariant symplectic Hodge theory and the dGδ-lemma

Consider a Hamiltonian action of a compact Lie group on a symplectic manifold which has the strong Lefschetz property. We establish an equivariant version of the Merkulov-Guillemin $d\delta$-lemma and an improved version of the Kirwan-Ginzburg equivariant formality theorem, which says that every cohomology class has a \emph{canonical} equivariant extension.
Sexual Dimorphism in Physiological Performance of Whiptail Lizards (Genus Cnemidophorus)

Numerous studies have examined sexual dimorphism in the morphology and behavior of vertebrates; very few, however, have explicitly investigated the possibility of gender differences in physiological performance, despite the observations of such differences in humans. In this study, I investigated physiological sexual dimorphism in the lizard genus Cnemidophorus by measuring five whole‐animal traits, all of which are likely to influence fitness in these species: burst speed, endurance, maximal exertion capacity, standard metabolic rate, and evaporative water loss rate. Because at least some of these traits are known to be strongly influenced by body size, I tested for dimorphism using both absolute and size‐corrected trait values. An examination of six Cnemidophorus species and subspecies revealed a strong trend toward higher absolute trait values in males for all variables except endurance. Most of the dimorphism in standard metabolic rate and evaporative water loss rate could be explained by differences in body mass between males and females; for the locomotor traits, however, body size explained only a small fraction of the overall sexual dimorphism. The portion of trait differences not explained by body size was likely due to gender differences in physiology, such as differences in relative muscularity and fat content.
Chandra Observations of Galaxy Cluster A2218

We present results from two observations (combined exposure of ~17 ks) of galaxy cluster A2218 using the Advanced CCD Imaging Spectrometer on board the Chandra X-Ray Observatory that were taken on 1999 October 19. Using a Raymond-Smith single-temperature plasma model corrected for galactic absorption, we find a mean cluster temperature of kT = 6.9 ± 0.5 keV, metallicity of 0.20 ± 0.13 (errors are 90% CL), and a rest-frame luminosity in the 2-10 keV energy band of 6.2 × 1044 ergs s-1 within a 5. ′1 aperture in a Λ cold dark matter cosmology (ΛCDM) with H0 = 65 km s-1 Mpc-1. The brightness distribution within 4. ′2 of the cluster center is well fitted by a simple spherical beta model with core radius of 66. ″4 and β = 0.705. High-resolution Chandra data of the inner 2' of the cluster show the X-ray brightness centroid displaced ~22'' from the dominant cD galaxy and the presence of azimuthally asymmetric temperature variations along the direction of the cluster mass elongation. X-ray and weak lensing mass estimates are in good agreement for the outer parts (r > 200 h-1) of the cluster; however, in the core the observed temperature distribution cannot reconcile the X-ray and strong lensing mass estimates in any model in which the intracluster gas is in thermal hydrostatic equilibrium. Our X-ray data are consistent with a scenario in which A2218 is not in hydrostatic equilibrium because of recent merger activity that has produced significant nonthermal pressure in the core and substructure along the line of sight; each of these phenomena probably contributes to the difference between lensing and X-ray core mass estimates.
CoREBench: studying complexity of regression errors

Intuitively we know, some software errors are more complex than others. If the error can be fixed by changing one faulty statement, it is a simple error. The more substantial the fix must be, the more complex we consider the error. In this work, we formally define and quantify the complexity of an error w.r. t. the complexity of the error's least complex, correct fix. As a concrete measure of complexity for such fixes, we introduce Cyclomatic Change Complexity which is inspired by existing program complexity metrics. Moreover, we introduce CoREBench, a collection of 70 regression errors systematically extracted from several open-source C-projects and compare their complexity with that of the seeded errors in the two most popular error benchmarks, SIR and the Siemens Suite. We find that seeded errors are significantly less complex, i.e., require significantly less substantial fixes, compared to actual regression errors. For example, among the seeded errors more than 42% are simple compared to 8% among the actual ones. This is a concern for the external validity of studies based on seeded errors and we propose CoREBench for the controlled study of regression testing, debugging, and repair techniques.
Stability of Lie Superalgebras and Branes

The algebra of the generators of translations in superspace is unstable, in the sense that infinitesimal perturbations of its structure constants lead to non-isomorphic algebras. We show how superspace extensions remedy this situation (after arguing that remedy is indeed needed) and review the benefits reaped in the description of branes of all kinds in the presence of the extra dimensions.
The impact of candidates’ vocal expression on policy agreement and candidate support: differences between populist radical right and other voters

ABSTRACT This study assesses to what extent the vocal expression used by political candidates relates to voters’ likelihood of agreeing with a policy and of voting for the candidate introducing the policy. Experimental video data with hypothetical candidates presenting migration policies were collected among a representative sample of the Dutch population (N = 4,727). The candidates delivered the policies using either a hard vocal expression (indicating a more aggressive, austere and dominant style) or a soft vocal expression (indicating a friendlier and more amicable style). The analysis reveals that using a hard (versus soft) vocal expression negatively affects the likelihood of supporting a candidate and agreeing with the policy, an effect which is significantly stronger among citizens who do not support the populist radical right Freedom Party (PVV) than among those who do support the PVV. This negative effect of a hard (versus soft) expression among those not supporting the PVV is significantly stronger when the presented policy on the integration of immigrants is moderate rather than restrictive.
Automatically Assessing Review Helpfulness

User-supplied reviews are widely and increasingly used to enhance e-commerce and other websites. Because reviews can be numerous and varying in quality, it is important to assess how helpful each review is. While review helpfulness is currently assessed manually, in this paper we consider the task of automatically assessing it. Experiments using SVM regression on a variety of features over Amazon.com product reviews show promising results, with rank correlations of up to 0.66. We found that the most useful features include the length of the review, its unigrams, and its product rating.
A Survey on Spectra of infinite Graphs

Introduction. Operateurs lineaires associes a un graphe. Resultats fondamentaux. Rayon spectral, fonctions generatrices de marche et mesures spectrales. Croissance et nombre isoperimetrique d'un graphe. Fonctions propres positives. Graphes de groupes, arbres et graphes reguliers en distance. Quelques remarques sur les applications en chimie et en physique
Vitamin D Binding Protein Affects the Correlation of 25(OH)D and Frailty in the Older Men

Vitamin D binding protein (DBP) may alter the biologic activity of 25-hydroxyvitamin D [25(OH)D]. The objective of our present study was to determine the joint effect of serum 25(OH)D and DBP on the risk of frailty. Five hundred sixteen male participants aged 70 years or older were recruited in Changsha city and its surrounding area in Hunan province of China. Frailty was defined as the presence of at least three of the five following criteria: weakness, low physical activity, slow walking speed, exhaustion, and weight loss. Multivariate linear regression analysis was performed to assess the relationship between 25(OH)D and DBP levels. Odds ratios (ORs) for frailty were evaluated across quartiles of 25(OH)D and DBP levels, adjusted age, education, and body mass index. The results showed that participants in the lowest quartile of 25(OH)D and the highest quartile of DBP levels, the lowest quartile of 25(OH)D and the lowest quartile of DBP levels, and those in the the lower quartile of 25(OH)D and lowest quartile of DBP levels had significantly higher OR of being frail compared with those in the highest quartile of 25(OH)D and lowest quartile of DBP, with OR of 3.18 (95% CI: 1.46–4.56, P < 0.05), 2.63 (95% CI: 1.31–3.68, P < 0.01), and 2.52 (95% CI: 1.22–3.52, P < 0.05), respectively. The results indicate that the joint effect of serum 25(OH)D and DBP levels is associated with the risk of frailty, and serum DBP levels affects 25(OH)D-frailty relationship in the older men.
Psychological attachment to nursing in the early career: occupational commitment profiles, motivational patterns, retention, and performance

ABSTRACT This purpose of this study was to use occupational commitment profiles to study the vocational education of student nurses to gain new insights into their motivational patterns, performance, and retention. Three occupational commitment profile groups, based on the relative levels of the affective, continuance, and normative commitment mindsets were observed: affective dominant, moderately committed and continuance-normative dominant. These profile groups varied in terms of their motivational patterns and orientation towards a nursing career and academic performance, but did not differ with respect to persistence in nursing school. The implications of our results for building commitment to nursing during vocational training and in managing the nursing shortage were discussed.