Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Some geometric properties related to the fixed point theory for nonexpansive mappings.

The main result of this paper asserts that if a Banach space admits a sequentially weakly continuous duality function, then a condition introduced by Opial to characterize weak limits by means of the norm is satisfied and the space has normal structure in the sense of Brodskii-Milm an. This result of geometric nature allows some unification in the fixed point theory for both single-valued and multi-valued non-expansive mappings.
Combined Add-on Supplementation of Omega-3 Fatty Acids, Vitamin E, Vitamin A, Copper, and Selenium in Rheumatoid Arthritis

Objectives: The present study evaluated the effects of a combined nutritional supplement, containing omega-3 fatty acids (ω-3 FA) and different antioxidative micronutrients on nutrient status and disease activity in patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). Methods: The study was conducted as a double-blind, randomised placebo-controlled trial. A hundred patients with defined RA were allocated to the verum or placebo group. During a period of twelve weeks they were given three capsules of their specific study supplementation every day. The daily dosage of ω-3 FA was 1.35 g (thereof 900 mg eicosapentaenoic acid, EPA), 90 mg vitamin E, 600 μg vitamin A, 3 mg copper, and 75 μg selenium, or soy oil (placebo), respectively. Outcome variables were the changes in DAS 28, the number of tender and swollen joints, morning stiffness, and supply with different nutrients (e.g. serum concentration of EPA, AA and vitamin E), as well as blood lipid levels. Results: Sixty-four participants were included in this analysis: 30 receiving verum and 34 placebo. After twelve weeks of intervention, little but not significant improvements were observed in the DAS 28 and other clinical factors. Subgroup analysis revealed that the effect was much more pronounced in patients who were at least at a moderate activity of illness. Regarding the nutritional status, the serum concentration of EPA (P < 0.001), vitamin E (P < 0.01), SOD (P < 0.05), and GPx (P < 0.001) increased significantly, while AA (P < 0.001) decreased after supplementation. The concentration of triglycerides decreased significantly in the verum group (P < 0.05) but not in the placebo group. Conclusions: A twelve week add-on supplementation of a combined food supplement (ω-3 FA + antioxidants) effected modest but not significant changes in the clinical parameters in RA. Though vitamin E, SOD and GPx improved significantly, equivalent to an increased antioxidant defence. This supplementation was dedicated to enhance the nutritional status of critical nutrients in RA, especially with regard to an increased risk of cardiovascular disease in these patients.
Romantic attachment and perception of partner support to explain psychological aggression perpetrated in couples seeking couples therapy

This study examined the mediational role of perceived partner support in the association between romantic attachment and the use of psychological aggression in 210 couples seeking couple therapy. Following the first therapy session, partners completed the Conjugal Support Questionnaire, the Experiences in Close Relationships and the Revised Conflict Tactics Scale individually. As expected, path analyses based on the Actor-Partner Interdependence Model (APIM; Kenny, Kashy, & Cook, 2006) revealed that, for both men and women, higher avoidance predicted their perception of lower partner support. Results also indicate that perception of lower partner support was related to more frequent use of psychological aggression in both the self and the partner. No significant association was found between attachment insecurities and the use of psychological aggression and, therefore, perceived partner support did not mediate this association. Methodological and clinical considerations of these results are discussed.
Retrospective comparison of the modified and traditional holmium laser transurethral prostatectomy based on a 1-year follow-up

Holmium laser enucleation of the prostate (HoLEP) is becoming a very promising technique that can challenge the gold standard of TURP. To further promote the HoLEP technology, we modified the technique and applied this technology into practicality. From Mar. 2013 to Jul. 2013, 122 cases have received this surgery, the validity and safety of the modified and traditional methods for HoLEP were retrospectively evaluated. 105 cases received the traditional trivalvular method of surgery from Aug. 2012 to Dec. 2012 were included as the comparison. No differences were found in both groups in basic preoperative characteristics and no serious complications were observed after the surgery. Compared with the preoperative baseline, significant improvements were occurred in international prostatic symptomatic score (IPSS), quality of life (QOL) and maximum flow rate (Qmax) at 1, 6 and 12-month followup. The tunnel group was superior to the traditional one in mean operation time, mean volume of irrigating fluid, hospital stays and hemoglobin decrease during the operation (P<0.05). No significant differences in catheter times and the 1, 6, 12-month follow-up data for I-PSS, QOL and Qmax between the 2 groups were found. In conclusion, the modified HoLEP is more effective and safer with less risk of hemorrhage and urinary incontinence and less operation time as well as bladder irrigation.
Four Essays on Causal Inference in Health Economics

This paper estimates the effect of involuntary job loss on smoking behavior and body weight using German Socio-Economic Panel Study data. Baseline nonsmokers are more likely to start smoking due to job loss, while smokers do not intensify smoking. In particular, single individuals as well as those with lower health or socioeconomic status prior to job loss exhibit high rates of smoking initiation. Job loss increases body weight slightly, but significantly. The applied regression-adjusted semiparametric difference-in-difference matching strategy is robust against selection on observables and time-invariant unobservables. This paper provides an indirect test that the identifying assumption is not violated.
Constructing a Mixed Methods Research Design: Exploration of an Architectural Intervention

The aim of this methodological description is to illustrate the application of mixed methods research in architectural design using a hybrid model consisting of a taxonomy development model and an embedded quasi-experimental model. The research employed qualitative and quantitative methods to explore the design of an architectural intervention and determine its effectiveness in improving environmental knowledge, attitudes, and behavior among primary school students. It also outlined strategies adopted to overcome the challenges related to the use of a hybrid design. Combining sequential and embedded mixed methods designs is a relatively new approach in architectural research, providing new insights that contribute to future mixed methods exploration in the field of design and planning.
Diabetes in South African older adults: prevalence and impact on quality of life and functional disability – as assessed using SAGE Wave 1 data

ABSTRACT Background: Diabetes is a chronic disease with severe late complications. It is known to impact the quality of life and cause disability, which may affect an individual’s capacity to manage and maintain longer-term health and well-being. Objectives: To examine the prevalence of self-report diabetes, and association between diabetes and each of health-related quality of life and disability amongst South Africa’s older adults. To study both the direct relationship between diabetes and these two measures, as well as moderation effects, i.e. whether associations between other factors and these measures of well-being differed between individuals with diabetes and those without. Methods: Secondary analyses of data on participants aged 50 years and older from the Study on global AGEing and adult health (SAGE) in South Africa Wave 1 (2007–2008) were conducted. Prevalence of self-reported diabetes was assessed. Multivariable regressions describe the relationships between each of quality of life (WHOQoL) and disability (WHODAS), and diabetes, while controlling for selected socio-demographic characteristics, health risk behaviours and co-morbid conditions. In the regression models, we also investigated whether diabetes moderates the relationships between these additional factors and WHOQoL/WHODAS. Results: Self-reported diabetes prevalence was 9.2% (95% CI: 7.8,10.9) and increased with age. Having diabetes was associated with poorer WHOQoL scores (additive effect: −4.2; 95% CI: −9.2,0.9; p-value <0.001) and greater disability (multiplicative effect: 2.1; 95% CI: 1.5,2.9; p-value <0.001). Lower quality of life and greater disability were both related to not being in a relationship, lower education, less wealth, lower physical activity and a larger number of chronic conditions. Conclusions: Diabetes is associated with lower quality of life and greater disability amongst older South Africans. Attention needs to be given to enhancing the capacity of health systems to meet the changing needs of ageing populations with diabetes in SA as well as facilitating social support networks in communities.
Structural model creation: the impact of data type and creative space on geological reasoning and interpretation

Abstract Interpretation of sparse or incomplete datasets is a fundamental part of geology, particularly when building models of the subsurface. Available geological data are often remotely sensed (seismic data) or very limited in spatial extent (borehole data). Understanding how different datasets are interpreted and what makes an interpreter effective is critical if accurate geological models are to be created. A comparison of the interpretation outcome and techniques used by two cohorts interpreting different geological datasets of the same model, an inversion structure, was made. The first cohort consists of interpreters of the synthetic seismic image data in Bond et al. (‘What do you think this is? : “Conceptual uncertainty” in geoscience interpretation’, GSA Today, 2007, 17, 4–10, http://dx.doi.org/10.1130/GSAT01711A.1); the second cohort is new and interpreted borehole data. The outcomes of the borehole interpretation dataset support earlier findings that technique use, specifically evidence of geological evolution thought processes, results in more effective interpretation. The results also show that the borehole interpreters were more effective at arriving at the correct interpretation. Analysis of their final interpretations in the context of psychological and medical image analysis research suggests that the clarity of the original dataset, the amount of noise and white space may play a role in interpretation outcome, through enforced geological reasoning during data interpretation.
Vascular Parkinsonism: A Clinical Review

Over the last 75 years there has been continuous debate about the existence of vascular parkinsonism (VP). The condition has been named and renamed several times, with terms such as arteriosclerotic parkinsonism, arteriosclerotic pseudo-parkinsonism and lower-body parkinsonism. Despite the progress in our understanding of other parkinsonian syndromes, such as progressive supranuclear palsy and multiple-system atrophy, and significant developments in neuroimaging techniques, the concept of VP is still unclear and the clinical diagnosis is often difficult. There are no widely agreed diagnostic criteria. This article reviews the current literature relating to VP in particular to identify the different clinical presentations that have been described.
(cid:1) -Carotene–rich orange-fleshed sweet potato improves the vitamin A status of primary school children assessed with the modified-relative-dose-response test 1–3

Background: (cid:1) -Carotene–rich orange-fleshed sweet potato (OFSP) is an excellent source of provitamin A. In many developing countries,sweetpotatoisasecondarystaplefoodandmayplayaroleincontrollingvitaminAdeficiency. Objective: The objective was to determine the efficacy of daily consumption of boiled and mashed OFSP in improving the vitamin A status of primary school children. Design: Children aged 5–10 y were randomly assigned to 2 groups. The treatment group ( n (cid:1) 90) consumed 125 g boiled and mashed OFSP (1031 retinol activity equivalents/d as (cid:1) -carotene), and the control group ( n (cid:1) 90) consumed an equal amount of white-fleshed sweet potato devoid of (cid:1) -carotene for 53 school days. All children were dewormed to exclude helminthic infection. The modified-relative-dose-response test for vitamin A status was conducted before and after intervention. Results: The estimated intervention effect for the ratio of 3,4-didehydroretinol to retinol (DR:R) was (cid:2) 0.008 (95% CI: (cid:2) 0.015, (cid:2) 0.001; P (cid:1) 0.0203), which indicated a greater improvement in vitamin A liver stores in the treatment group than in the control group. The proportions of children with normal vitamin A status (DR:R (cid:3) 0.060) in the treatment group tended to increase from 78% to 87% ( P (cid:1) 0.096) and did not change significantly (from 86% to 82%) in the control group ( P (cid:1) 0.267). These proportions were not used to test the intervention effect or within-group changes because the study was powered to test the intervention effect on DR:R. Conclusions: Consumption of OFSP improves vitamin A status and can play a significant role in developing countries as a viable long-term food-based strategy for controlling vitamin A deficiency in children. Am J Clin Nutr 2005;81:1080–7.
United Kingdom CONSUMER SEARCH COSTS AND PREFERENCES ON THE INTERNET Grégory Jolivet

We analyse consumers’ search and purchase decisions on an Internet platform. Using a rich dataset on all adverts posted and transactions made on a major French Internet platform (PriceMinister), we show evidence of substantial price dispersion among adverts for the same product. We also show that consumers do not necessarily choose the cheapest advert available and sometimes even choose an advert that is dominated in price and non-price characteristics (such as seller’s reputation) by another available advert. To explain the transactions observed on the platform, we derive and estimate a structural model of sequential directed search where consumers observe all advert prices but have to pay a search cost to see the other advert characteristics. We allow for flexible heterogeneity in consumers’ preferences and search costs. After deriving tractable identification conditions for our model, we estimate sets of parameters that can rationalize each transaction. Our model can predict a wide range of consumer search strategies and fits almost all transactions observed in our sample. We find empirical evidence of heterogenous, sometimes positive and substantially large search costs and marginal willingness to pay for advert hedonic characteristics.
Source Control Change Messages : How Are They Used And What Do They Mean ?

Source control systems permit developers to attach a free form message to every committed change. The content of thesechange messages i rarely investigated and little is known about their use by developers while they maintain their code. We present the results of a survey we conducted with professional software developers. The purpose of this survey was to investigate how developers make use of these messages and what type of information exists in them. We also investigated the possibility of using automated techniques which examine change messages and determine their purpose, for example that a change was done to fix a bug or to indent the code. We also asked developers to compare change messages in open source software systems to change messages in commercial systems. The findings of our survey suggest that change messages are a valuable resource used by practitioners to maintain and manage software projects, for example to understand the code when they are fixing a bug. Moreover, change messages in open source projects are similar to messages that professional developers encounter in large industrial projects. An automated approach to determine the purpose of a change using the change message is likely to produce results similar to a manual analysis performed by professional developers. Researchers should investigate techniques and approaches to improve the quality of the change messages and to make them more accessible for developers as they evolve software systems.
Advances on PPARγ Research in the Emerging Era of Precision Medicine.

BACKGROUND Peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor gamma (PPARγ) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily that functions as a ligand-inducible transcription factor. It regulates glucose and lipid metabolism, immunity, and cellular growth and differentiation. Thiazolidinediones (TZDs) are potent insulin sensitizers that function by activating PPARs, with a high specificity for PPARγ. Due to their ability to preserve pancreatic beta cell function and reduce insulin resistance, TZDs have become one of the most prescribed classes of medications for type 2 diabetes (T2D) since their approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) and initial use in 1997. OBJECTIVE However, adverse effects, including weight gain, bone loss, fluid retention, congestive heart failure, and risk to bladder cancer, have weakened the benefits of TZDs in T2D therapies. Therefore, there is an urgent need to have a deeper understanding of regulatory mechanisms of PPARγ expression and activity so that novel classes of PPARγ-modulating therapeutics with fewer or weaker side effects can be developed. CONCLUSION This article systematically reviews PPARγ's mechanisms of action and multilayer regulations. In addition, novel classes of therapeutics modulating PPARγ and new direction of research on genetic variants that affect PPARγ function and antidiabetic drug response are highlighted, which sheds light on PPARγ as a promising target for developing safer and precision medicine based therapeutic strategies.
Picturing probation: Exploring the utility of visual methods in comparative research

A previous review of research on the practice of offender supervision identified the predominant use of interview-based methodologies and limited use of other research approaches (Robinson and Svensson, 2013). It also found that most research has tended to be locally focussed (i.e. limited to one jurisdiction) with very few comparative studies. This article reports on the application of a visual method in a small-scale comparative study. Practitioners in five European countries participated and took photographs of the places and spaces where offender supervision occurs. The aims of the study were two-fold: firstly, to explore the utility of a visual approach in a comparative context; and secondly, to provide an initial visual account of the environment in which offender supervision takes place. In this article, we address the first of these aims. We describe the application of the method in some depth before addressing its strengths and weaknesses. We conclude that visual methods provide a useful tool for capturing data about the environments in which offender supervision takes place and potentially provide a basis for more normative explorations about the practices of offender supervision in comparative contexts.
Should Law Keep Pace with Society? Relative Update Rates Determine the Co-Evolution of Institutional Punishment and Citizen Contributions to Public Goods

Until recently, theorists considering the evolution of human cooperation have paid little attention to institutional punishment, a defining feature of large-scale human societies. Compared to individually-administered punishment, institutional punishment offers a unique potential advantage: the ability to control how quickly legal rules of punishment evolve relative to social behavior that legal punishment regulates. However, at what rate should legal rules evolve relative to society to maximize compliance? We investigate this question by modeling the co-evolution of law and cooperation in a public goods game with centralized punishment. We vary the rate at which States update their legal punishment strategy relative to Citizens’ updating of their contribution strategy and observe the effect on Citizen cooperation. We find that when States have unlimited resources, slower State updating lead to more Citizen cooperation: by updating more slowly, States force Citizens to adapt to the legal punishment rules. When States depend on Citizens to finance their punishment activities, however, we find evidence of a ‘Goldilocks’ effect: optimal compliance is achieved when legal rules evolve at a critical evolutionary rate that is slow enough to force citizens to adapt, but fast enough to enable states to quickly respond to outbreaks of citizen lawlessness.
Reporting beyond the pale: UK news discourse on drones in Pakistan

ABSTRACT This article on drone strikes in Pakistan offers a distinctive empirical case study for critical scholarship of counterterrorism. By asking how cosmopolitanism has developed through UK news discourse, it also provides a constructivist contribution to the literature on drones. I argue that UK news discourse is not cosmopolitan because it focuses on risk and places the Other beyond comprehension. US–UK networked counterterrorism operations have complicated accountability, and while a drive for certainty promoted more scrutiny of policy, news media outlets, academics and activists turned to statistical and visual genres of communication that have inhibited understanding of the Other.
MALAT1 affects ovarian cancer cell behavior and patient survival

Epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC) is one of the most lethal malignancies of the female reproductive organs. Increasing evidence has revealed that long non-coding RNAs (lncRNAs) participate in tumorigenesis. Metastasis associated lung adenocarcinoma transcript 1 (MALAT1) is an lncRNA and plays a role in various types of tumors. However, the function of MALAT1 on cellular behavior in EOC remains unclear. The current study explored the expression of MALAT1 in ovarian cancer tissues and in EOC cell lines. Quantitative RT-PCR analysis revealed that the expression of MALAT1 was higher in human ovarian malignant tumor tissues and EOC cells than in normal ovarian tissues and non-tumorous human ovarian surface epithelial cells, respectively. By analyzing the online database Kaplan-Meier Plotter, MALAT1 was identified to be correlated with the overall survival (OS) and progression-free survival (PFS) of patients with ovarian cancer. Furthermore, knockdown of MALAT1 by small interfering RNA (siRNA) significantly decreased EOC cell viability, migration, and invasion. Finally, dual-luciferase reporter assays demonstrated that MALAT1 interacted with miR-143-3p, a miRNA that plays a role in EOC as demonstrated in our previous study. Inhibition of MALAT1 resulted in an increase of miR-143-3p expression, leading to a decrease of CMPK protein expression. In conclusion, our results indicated that MALAT1 was overexpressed in EOC. Silencing of MALAT1 decreased EOC cell viability and inhibited EOC cell migration and invasion. These data revealed that MALAT1 may serve as a new therapeutic target of human EOC.