Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessing the Impact of Nationwide Smoking Cessation Interventions among Employed, Middle-Aged Japanese Men, 2005-2010

Background A variety of tobacco control interventions have become available in Japan over the past decade, however, the magnitude to which they have impacted on smoking rates may have varied by socioeconomic status such as job content, particularly for middle-aged men who were formerly long-term smokers. We conducted a longitudinal study to investigate the differences between smoking cessation strategies among a national sample of middle-aged Japanese employed men between 2005 and 2010. Methods Data was extracted from a previous longitudinal survey of middle-aged and elderly people that had been conducted by the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare. In 2005, 16,738 Japanese men aged 50–59 years were recruited and sent a questionnaire in each year of the study. We analyzed data for individuals who reported being current smokers at baseline. Cox’s discrete time proportional hazard regression analysis was used to examine potential associations between smoking cessation and socioeconomic factors. Results Of the 6187 employed, male smokers who participated in 2005, 31% subsequently quit smoking during the 5-year follow-up period. Those working in manufacturing, transportation, or security were less likely to have quit smoking than those working in management. Having no marital partner, never having been married, or those experiencing psychological distress were significantly less likely to have quit smoking during this time. Conclusions Although almost one-third of middle-aged, male smokers quit their habit between 2005 and 2010; the uptake of this national strategy appears to have been far from uniform across Japanese society. Socioeconomic factors such as occupation, marital status and psychological distress were negatively correlated with quitting, suggesting that these groups should be more aggressively targeted in further interventions.
Evaluation of a Quality Improvement Collaborative in Asthma Care: Does it Improve Processes and Outcomes of Care?

PURPOSE We wanted to examine whether a collaborative to improve asthma care influences process and outcomes of care in asthmatic adults. METHOD We undertook a preintervention-postintervention evaluation of 185 patients in 6 intervention clinics and 3 matched control sites that participated in the Institute for Healthcare Improvement Breakthrough Series (BTS) Collaborative for asthma care. The intervention consisted of 3, 2-day educational sessions for teams dispatched by participating sites, which were followed by 3 action periods during the course of a year. RESULTS Overall process of asthma care improved significantly in the intervention compared with the control group (change of 10% vs 1%, P = .003). Patients in the intervention group were more likely to attend educational sessions (20% vs 5%, P = .03). Having a written action plan, setting goals, monitoring peak flow rates, and using long-term asthma medications increased between 2% and 19% (not significant), but asthma-related knowledge was unchanged for the 2 groups. Patients in the BTS Collaborative were significantly more likely to be satisfied with clinician and lay educator communication (62% vs 39%, P = .02). Health-related quality of life, asthma-specific quality of life, number of bed days caused by asthma-related illness, and acute care service use were not significantly different between the 2 groups. CONCLUSIONS The intervention was associated with improved process-of-care measures that have been linked with better outcomes. Patients benefited through increased satisfaction with communication. Follow-up of patients who participated in the intervention may have been too brief to be able to detect significant improvement in health-related outcomes.
Andrew Young School Annual Conference on Public Finance Issues Experimental Public Economics Cultural Diversity , Discrimination and Economic Outcomes : An Experimental Analysis

Economists have paid increasing attention to the role of cultural diversity in explaining the variability of economic outcomes across societies. We develop an experimental framework that complements existing research in this area. We implement the framework with two cultures that coexist in an industrialized society: the Hispanic and Navajo cultures in the southwestern United States. We vary the ethnic mix of our experimental sessions in order to infer the effect of intercultural interactions on economic behavior and outcomes. We control for demographic differences in our subject pools and elicit beliefs directly in order to differentiate between statistical discrimination and preference-based discrimination. We present clear evidence that Hispanic and Navajo subjects behave differently and that their behavior is affected by the ethnic composition of the experimental session. Our experimental framework has the potential to shed much needed light on economic behavior and outcomes in societies of mixed ethnicity, race and religion.
An Energy Efficient Cross-layer Design by Using the Contention Window Optimization Scheme for Ad-hoc Wireless Networks Operating in Error-prone Channel Conditions

A novel dynamic contention window control scheme is presented in this paper to improve the performance and energy efficiency of IEEE 802.11-based CSMA/CA DCF wireless networks operating in ad-hoc mode. The number of competing nodes in physical carrier sense systems is one of the major impact on DCF performance and on the energy consumed. A new approach in presented in this paper is using a cross layer framework to alleviating the problem in both MAC and PHY layers, which attempts to improve the performance and energy efficiency by controlling the contention window size in the MAC layer according to the number of competing nodes, and the length of the MPDU (MAC Protocol Data Unit) payload according to the physical channel condition in the PHY layer.
Newborn Neurons in the Olfactory Bulb Selected for Long-Term Survival through Olfactory Learning Are Prematurely Suppressed When the Olfactory Memory Is Erased

A role for newborn neurons in olfactory memory has been proposed based on learning-dependent modulation of olfactory bulb neurogenesis in adults. We hypothesized that if newborn neurons support memory, then they should be suppressed by memory erasure. Using an ecological approach in mice, we showed that behaviorally breaking a previously learned odor–reward association prematurely suppressed newborn neurons selected to survive during initial learning. Furthermore, intrabulbar infusions of the caspase pan-inhibitor ZVAD (benzyloxycarbonyl-Val-Ala-Asp) during the behavioral odor–reward extinction prevented newborn neurons death and erasure of the odor–reward association. Newborn neurons thus contribute to the bulbar network plasticity underlying long-term memory.
Influence of meditation on anti-correlated networks in the brain

Human experiences can be broadly divided into those that are external and related to interaction with the environment, and experiences that are internal and self-related. The cerebral cortex appears to be divided into two corresponding systems: an “extrinsic” system composed of brain areas that respond more to external stimuli and tasks and an “intrinsic” system composed of brain areas that respond less to external stimuli and tasks. These two broad brain systems seem to compete with each other, such that their activity levels over time is usually anti-correlated, even when subjects are “at rest” and not performing any task. This study used meditation as an experimental manipulation to test whether this competition (anti-correlation) can be modulated by cognitive strategy. Participants either fixated without meditation (fixation), or engaged in non-dual awareness (NDA) or focused attention (FA) meditations. We computed inter-area correlations (“functional connectivity”) between pairs of brain regions within each system, and between the entire extrinsic and intrinsic systems. Anti-correlation between extrinsic vs. intrinsic systems was stronger during FA meditation and weaker during NDA meditation in comparison to fixation (without mediation). However, correlation between areas within each system did not change across conditions. These results suggest that the anti-correlation found between extrinsic and intrinsic systems is not an immutable property of brain organization and that practicing different forms of meditation can modulate this gross functional organization in profoundly different ways.
The determinants of academic performance: evidence from a Cambodian University

ABSTRACT Internationally, there has been considerable literature on the predictors of academic performance in higher education. However, the empirical findings are still limited in Cambodia; therefore, this paper was conducted to examine the determinants of academic performance of 329 undergraduate students selected from a university in Cambodia. Based on the findings from the multivariate regression analysis, a number of variables, namely high school grade, English ability, class attendance, study effort, academic self-efficacy, and family socio-economic status were found to be positively associated with academic performance. Term-time employment and family size had an adverse impact on academic performance. However, there was no sufficient evidence to indicate age, gender, household location, parental education, parental involvement, and teaching evaluation to have predictive power on academic performance. Hence, the study concluded that the personal backgrounds played the potential role in predicting academic performance of undergraduate students.
A Total-Evidence Approach to Dating with Fossils, Applied to the Early Radiation of the Hymenoptera

Abstract Phylogenies are usually dated by calibrating interior nodes against the fossil record. This relies on indirect methods that, in the worst case, misrepresent the fossil information. Here, we contrast such node dating with an approach that includes fossils along with the extant taxa in a Bayesian total-evidence analysis. As a test case, we focus on the early radiation of the Hymenoptera, mostly documented by poorly preserved impression fossils that are difficult to place phylogenetically. Specifically, we compare node dating using nine calibration points derived from the fossil record with total-evidence dating based on 343 morphological characters scored for 45 fossil (4--20 complete) and 68 extant taxa. In both cases we use molecular data from seven markers (∼5 kb) for the extant taxa. Because it is difficult to model speciation, extinction, sampling, and fossil preservation realistically, we develop a simple uniform prior for clock trees with fossils, and we use relaxed clock models to accommodate rate variation across the tree. Despite considerable uncertainty in the placement of most fossils, we find that they contribute significantly to the estimation of divergence times in the total-evidence analysis. In particular, the posterior distributions on divergence times are less sensitive to prior assumptions and tend to be more precise than in node dating. The total-evidence analysis also shows that four of the seven Hymenoptera calibration points used in node dating are likely to be based on erroneous or doubtful assumptions about the fossil placement. With respect to the early radiation of Hymenoptera, our results suggest that the crown group dates back to the Carboniferous, ∼309 Ma (95% interval: 291--347 Ma), and diversified into major extant lineages much earlier than previously thought, well before the Triassic. [Bayesian inference; fossil dating; morphological evolution; relaxed clock; statistical phylogenetics. ]
Developing Critical-Thinking Skills through the Collaboration of Jigsaw Model with Problem-Based Learning Model

This research aimed at examining the effectiveness of collaboration of Jigsaw and problem-based learning (PBL) model in developing students’ critical thinking skills. This research exerted an experimental design using pre-experimental one group pretest-posttest. The implementation of such model collaboration was carried out in SMK Batik 1 Surakarta, Central Java, Indonesia by engaging 37 accounting students of class XI. Before and after the implementation of the twomodel collaboration, the students were given the tests of critical thinking skills which were set in the same composition. The research data were in the form of pretest and posttest scores which were analyzed by examining t-test and gain score whose calculation was assisted by SPSS 23 program. The result indicated that there was a difference between the pretest score and the posttest score with the significance level of 0,000 < 0,05. The average of pretest and posttest scores respectively referred to 48,44 and 68,93. Accordingly, the implementation of collaboration of Jigsaw and problem-based learning (PBL) model was effective in developing students’ critical thinking skills. From this research finding, there was an impediment of time limitation in enacting the collaboration of the two models. This constraint happened while presenting the result of group discussion.
Journal of Immune Based Therapies and Vaccines Cxcl10 Blockade Protects Mice from Cyclophosphamide-induced Cystitis

Background: Alterations in serum CXCR3 ligand levels were examined in interstitial cystitis (IC) patients; similar expression patterns in serum as well as CXCR3, CXCR3 ligands, and cytokines expressed by peripheral and local leukocyte subpopulations were characterized during cyclophosphamide (CYP)-induced acute cystitis in mice.
Human Bone Derived Collagen for the Development of an Artificial Corneal Endothelial Graft. In Vivo Results in a Rabbit Model

Corneal keratoplasty (penetrating or lamellar) using cadaveric human tissue, is nowadays the main treatment for corneal endotelial dysfunctions. However, there is a worldwide shortage of donor corneas available for transplantation and about 53% of the world’s population have no access to corneal transplantation. Generating a complete cornea by tissue engineering is still a tough goal, but an endothelial lamellar graft might be an easier task. In this study, we developed a tissue engineered corneal endothelium by culturing human corneal endothelial cells on a human purified type I collagen membrane. Human corneal endothelial cells were cultured from corneal rims after corneal penetrating keratoplasty and type I collagen was isolated from remnant cancellous bone chips. Isolated type I collagen was analyzed by western blot, liquid chromatography -mass spectrometry and quantified using the exponentially modified protein abundance index. Later on, collagen solution was casted at room temperature obtaining an optically transparent and mechanically manageable membrane that supports the growth of human and rabbit corneal endothelial cells which expressed characteristic markers of corneal endothelium: zonula ocluddens-1 and Na+/K+ ATPase. To evaluate the therapeutic efficiency of our artificial endothelial grafts, human purified type I collagen membranes cultured with rabbit corneal endothelial cells were transplanted in New Zealand white rabbits that were kept under a minimal immunosuppression regimen. Transplanted corneas maintained transparency for as long as 6 weeks without obvious edema or immune rejection and maintaining the same endothelial markers that in a healthy cornea. In conclusion, it is possible to develop an artificial human corneal endothelial graft using remnant tissues that are not employed in transplant procedures. This artificial endothelial graft can restore the integrality of corneal endothelium in an experimental model of endothelial dysfunction. This strategy could supply extra endothelial tissue and compensate the deficit of cadaveric grafts for corneal endothelial transplantation.
``Physical process version'' of the first law and the generalized second law for charged and rotating black holes

We investigate both the ``physical process'' version of the first law and the generalized second law of black hole thermodynamics for charged and rotating black holes. We begin by deriving general formulas for the first order variation in the Arnowitt-Deser-Misner mass and angular momentum for linear perturbations off a stationary, electrovac background in terms of the perturbed nonelectromagnetic stress-energy $\ensuremath{\delta}{T}_{\mathrm{ab}}$ and the perturbed charge current density $\ensuremath{\delta}{j}^{a}. $ Using these formulas, we prove the ``physical process version'' of the first law for charged, stationary black holes. We then investigate the generalized second law of thermodynamics (GSL) for charged, stationary black holes for processes in which a box containing charged matter is lowered toward the black hole and then released (at which point the box and its contents fall into the black hole and/or thermalize with the ``thermal atmosphere'' surrounding the black hole). Assuming that the thermal atmosphere admits a local, thermodynamic description with respect to observers following orbits of the horizon Killing field, and assuming that the combined black/hole\char21{}thermal atmosphere system is in a state of maximum entropy at fixed mass, angular momentum, and charge, we show that the total generalized entropy cannot decrease during the lowering process or in the ``release process. '' Consequently, the GSL always holds in such processes. No entropy bounds on matter are assumed to hold in any of our arguments.
Effects of proton beam irradiation on uveal melanomas: a comparative study of Ki-67 expression in irradiated versus non-irradiated melanomas

AIMS To assess the cellular proliferation using the monoclonal antibody Ki-67, in paraffin embedded uveal melanomas irradiated by proton beam, as well as in non-irradiated uveal melanomas. METHODS 30 enucleated eyes were included for histopathological study and Ki-67 immunostaining. Patients were enucleated between 1991 and 1996 for uveal melanoma, 14 after proton beam irradiation and 16 without treatment (control group). The mean follow up period was 2.5 years after diagnosis and 1 year after enucleation. RESULTS A significant relation was found between Ki-67 score and mitotic index (r = 0.56, p = 0.001), histological largest tumour diameter (r = 0.38, p = 0.03), fibrosis (r = −0.35, p = 0.05), absence of tumoral pigmentation (p = 0.05), and presence of vascular thrombosis (p = 0.03). The Ki-67 score was significantly higher in the non-irradiated group (p = 0.01) and in the group of patients whose cause of enucleation was tumoral evolution (p = 0.005) compared with the group of patients enucleated after neovascular glaucoma. The Ki-67 score was very high in a case of orbital recurrence of uveal melanoma and metastatic death. 70% of metastasised tumours showed a Ki-67 score higher than the median value. CONCLUSION Ki-67 labelling is a reliable method of estimating the proliferative activity in uveal melanomas after proton beam irradiation. The Ki-67 score is significantly correlated with prognostic variables (mitotic index and histological largest tumour diameter), and with radiation effects after proton beam irradiation.
Diurnal Characteristics of Precipitation Features over the Tropical East Pacific: A Comparison of the EPIC and TEPPS Regions

Abstract This study examines the diurnal cycle of precipitation features in two regions of the tropical east Pacific where field campaigns [the East Pacific Investigation of Climate Processes in the Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere System (EPIC) and the Tropical Eastern Pacific Process Study (TEPPS)] were recently conducted. EPIC (10°N, 95°W) was undertaken in September 2001 and TEPPS (8°N, 125°W) was carried out in August 1997. Both studies employed C-band radar observations on board the NOAA ship Ronald H. Brown (RHB) and periodic upper-air sounding launches to observe conditions in the surrounding environment. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR) and Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite (GOES) IR data are used to place the RHB data in a climatological context and Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) buoy data are used to evaluate changes in boundary layer fluxes in context with the observed diurnal cycle of radar observations of precipitation features. Precipitation featu.
Isolation and characterization of nine polymorphic microsatellite loci from the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria

Because of the scarcity of polymorphic genetic markers, only a few genetic studies on the population structure of the desert locust, Schistocerca gregaria, have been carried out. We isolated and characterized nine polymorphic dinucleotide microsatellite loci. These markers were evaluated using individuals from Niger and Senegal. Seven of these microsatellite markers are also applicable to the nongregarious subspecies Schistocerca gregaria flaviventris. Cross-species applicability was limited to one of the loci in the sister species S. americana and in the locust Locusta migratoria.
‘Perspectives on evidence-based knowledge for teachers: acquisition, mobilisation and utilisation’

Your editor was for some years a school-teacher in England and rarely, if ever, had access to educational research which could identify a firm evidence base for practice. There was some mention in the late 1960s in the staffroom of something called the Humanities Curriculum Project, funded by the Schools Council and fronted by a Professor Stenhouse, but unfortunately at the time this was not something your editor was introduced to (see Elliott and Norris 2011). It may be that the way important research passed unnoticed by your then school-teacher editor is not untypical of the way in which educational research and practice seem to be strangers one to the other and has led to many publications on the so-called theory/practice gap in education, not least in JET itself. The present Special Issue of JET provides a set of papers commissioned by Professors Linda la Velle and Maria Assunção Flores that address the links between educational research and classroom practice. The contributors focus on the concept of evidencebased knowledge for teachers, in particular how such knowledge might be acquired and then used in the classroom. This approach is very much in the tradition of JET in identifying and dealing with an important current issue in a clear and helpful way.
Use of the Xpert® MTB/RIF assay for diagnosing pulmonary tuberculosis comorbidity and multidrug-resistant TB in obstetrics and gynaecology inpatient wards at the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia

In high‐tuberculosis (TB)‐endemic countries, comorbidity of pulmonary TB in hospitalised patients with non‐communicable diseases is well documented. In this study, we evaluated the use of the Xpert® MTB/RIF assay for the detection of concomitant pulmonary TB in patients admitted to the University Teaching Hospital, Lusaka, Zambia, with a primary obstetric or gynaecological condition.
The perfect storm : the four factors restricting the construction of new floor space in Mumbai

The financial pages of major international newspapers are full of praise for Mumbai economic and business accomplishments. Mumbai accounts for 40% of India’s income tax collections and 40% of its foreign trade. It is the city where the headquarters of major national financial institutions are located and the largest and more successful Indian based international corporations. However, the contrast between what one reads about Mumbai entrepreneurial success story and its current deteriorating physical appearance is striking. In spite of its economic dynamism and affluence, about 55% of Mumbai’s inhabitants live in slums and this proportion has been increasing over the last 20 years. In 1971 Mumbai slums contained 1.32 million people representing 22% of the population. In 2001 the slum population has grown to 6.6 million representing 55% of the total city’s population! It is difficult to advocate a continuation of the current land use regulatory system limiting development with such a record!