Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Allergic Rhinitis Among Adults in Urban and Rural Areas of China: A Population-Based Cross-Sectional Survey

Purpose The aim of the present study was to compare the prevalence of self-reported and confirmable allergic rhinitis (AR) with positive skin prick test (SPT) results among adults living in urban and rural areas of China. Methods Adults from a community in Beijing and a village in Baoding were selected as representative urban and rural dwellers, respectively. All eligible residents were enrolled from the population register and received a face-to-face interview using modified validated questionnaires. Equal sets of randomly selected self-reporting AR-positive and AR-negative participants who responded to the questionnaires were also investigated using skin prick tests. Results A total of 803 participants in the rural area and a total of 1,499 participants in the urban area completed the questionnaires, with response rates being 75.9% and 81.5% respectively. The prevalence of self-reported AR of the rural area (19.1%) was significantly higher than that of the urban area (13.5%). The elementary school of educational level increased the risk of having AR (adjusted OR=2.198, 95% CI=1.072-2.236) . The positive SPT rates among subjects with self-reported AR in the rural and urban areas were 32.5% and 53.3%, respectively; the confirmable AR prevalence of 6.2% and 7.2% among the rural and urban adults, respectively. Conclusions The prevalence of confirmable AR is similar between rural and urban areas in China, although there is a higher prevalence of self-reported AR in the former.
Coping Strategies of Older Rural Bangladeshi Women With Health Problems

In this study we explore the strategies used by older women to cope with their ill health, in order to provide insight into how they might be drawn to use modern health services. We used qualitative methods to collect data from 17 older women living in Bibirchar Union, Sherpur District, Bangladesh. Participants reported that they utilized both emotion-focused and problem-focused strategies, and that many of these were faith-based. Health policymakers need to acknowledge these strategies in the delivery of health care if older women are to take up health promotion activities and engage with the modern health care system.
Plant extracts supplied to pre-weaned dairy calves influence their redox status

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of the separate provision of green and oregano tea extracts on the biomarkers of the redox state and health condition in pre-weaned Jersey calves from birth to 60 days of life. Two experiments following the complete randomized design with measures repeated in time were carried out using 38 Jersey calves (17 and 21 calves in experiments 1 and 2, respectively). Calves were distributed according to date of birth into one of three groups: control (CON) - with no addition of extracts; oregano extract (OE) - addition of 70 mg of oregano extract/kg of body weight (BW) and green tea extract (GT) - addition of 35 mg of green tea extract/kg of BW. Eight biomarkers of the redox state were evaluated on days 1, 30, and 60 after birth, and variables measured on day 1 were used as covariates. Body temperature and occurrence of diarrhea were evaluated every two days. Regarding the main results, the supply of oregano extract reduced the concentration of oxidizing biomarkers, such as DCFP (oxidation of dichlorofluorescein in plasma) and carbonyl, and increased the activity of antioxidant enzymes, such as GPx and catalase. Green tea extract only reduced DCFP and tended to improve catalase activity. Calves remained healthy (no fever and only a few days with diarrhea), and plant extracts did not improve their health condition. The addition of green tea and oregano extracts into the diet has a positive effect on redox status in pre-weaned Jersey calves.
A Model for Predicting Hacker Behavior

Unauthorized access to information systems (hacking) continues to plague businesses. Researchers have sought to characterize the motivation and “profile” of various types of hackers in an attempt to better understand their behavior and improve the defensive posture of businesses. Little research, however, has been conducted toward the development of a predictive model to categorize individuals as hackers or potential hackers. Doing so would help target scarce educational and investigative resources. The present study utilizes existing theory in an attempt to empirically develop a discriminant model to categorize an individual’s likelihood of engaging in illegal hacking behavior. The independent variables considered include age, gender, education level, professional status, and personal moral philosophy (Forsyth 1980). The dependent variable is behavior (measured by willingness to hack), mediated by attitude toward hacking.
How Software Repositories can Help in Resolving a New Change Request

In open source development, software evolution tasks are usually managed with a bug tracker system, such as Bugzilla [1], and a versioning system, such as CVS [2]. This provides for a huge amount of historical data regarding bug resolutions and new enhancement feature implementations. We discuss how software repositories can help developers in managing a new change request, either a bug or an enhancement feature. The hypothesis is that data stored in software repositories are a good descriptor on how past change requests have been resolved. Textual descriptions of fixed change requests stored in software repositories, both Bugzilla and CVS, are used to index developers and source files as documents in an information retrieval system. For a new change request, such indexes can be useful to identify the most appropriate developers to resolve it, or to predict the set of impacted source files.
Hierarchic Power Allocation for Spectrum Sharing in OFDM-Based Cognitive Radio Networks

In this paper, a Stackelberg game is built to model the joint power allocation of the primary user (PU) network and the secondary user (SU) network hierarchically in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM)-based cognitive radio (CR) networks. We formulate the PU and SUs as the leader and the followers, respectively. We consider two constraints: the total power constraint and the interference-to-signal ratio (ISR) constraint, in which the ratio between the accumulated interference and the received signal power at each PU should not exceed a certain threshold. First, we focus on the single-PU-multi-SU scenario. Based on the analysis of the Stackelberg equilibrium (SE) for the proposed Stackelberg game, an analytical hierarchic power-allocation method is proposed when the PU can acquire the additional information to anticipate SUs' reactions. The analytical algorithm has two steps. First, the PU optimizes its power allocation by considering the SUs' reactions to its action. In the power optimization of the PU, there is a subgame for power allocation of SUs given the fixed transmit power of the PU. The existence and uniqueness for the Nash equilibrium (NE) of the subgame are investigated. We also propose an iterative algorithm to obtain the NE and derive the closed-form solutions of the NE for the perfectly symmetric channel. Second, the SUs allocate the power according to the NE of the subgame given the PU's optimal power allocation. Furthermore, we design two distributed iterative algorithms for the general channel even when private information of the SUs is unavailable at the PU. The first iterative algorithm has a guaranteed convergence performance and the second iterative algorithm employs asynchronous power update to improve time efficiency. Finally, we extend to the multi-PU-multi-SU scenario, and a distributed iterative algorithm is presented.
Predictors of Outcome after Direct Aspiration of Basilar Artery Occlusion

Background: Basilar artery occlusion (BAO) is a serious disease with a poor prognosis if left untreated. Endovascular therapy (EVT) is the most effective treatment that is able to reduce mortality and disability. Treatment results are influenced by a wide range of factors that have not been clearly identified. In the present study, direct aspiration was chosen as a first-line treatment. The safety and effectiveness of direct aspiration in BAO were determined, and factors affecting patient outcomes were identified. Methodology: Data for patients with BAO treated between November 2013 and December 2021 were evaluated using a database. The association between clinical and procedural parameters and functional outcome was assessed. Results: A total of 89 patients with BAO were identified. Full recanalization was achieved in 69.7% of cases and partial recanalization in 19.1%. Intracranial hemorrhage was detected in 11 (12.4%) patients, of which, eight (9.0%) patients experienced symptomatic intracranial hemorrhage. Patients with good outcomes presented with milder strokes (mean NIHSS score of 12.58 vs. 24.00, p < 0.001), had higher collateral scores (6.79 vs. 5.88, p = 0.016), more often achieved complete recanalization (87.9% vs. 58.9%, p = 0.009), and more often experienced early neurological improvement (66.7% vs. 26.8%, p < 0.001). On the contrary, patients with worse outcomes had higher serum glucose levels (p = 0.05), occlusion of the middle portion of the basilar artery (MAB) (30.3% vs. 53.6%, p = 0.033), longer thrombus lengths (10.51 vs. 16.48 mm, p = 0.046), and intracranial hemorrhage (p = 0.035). Conclusions: The present study results suggest that direct aspiration is a safe and effective treatment for patients with BAO. We identified several factors affecting the patients’ outcome.
Variable benefit in neuropsychological function in HIV-infected HAART-treated patients

The authors examined cognitive performance change in 101 individuals with advanced HIV infection on highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART), using standard neuropsychological testing in three visits, over a 27-month-period. Cognitive performance stabilized in a majority of HIV+ participants over time. A neuroactive HAART regimen was associated with neuropsychological improvement. Decline occurred in a minority with lower nadir CD4. The current CD4 count and plasma viral load were not associated with cognitive change.
Osteogenic Effect of High-frequency Acceleration on Alveolar Bone

Mechanical stimulation contributes to the health of alveolar bone, but no therapy using the osteogenic effects of these stimuli to increase alveolar bone formation has been developed. We propose that the application of high-frequency acceleration to teeth in the absence of significant loading is osteogenic. Sprague-Dawley rats were divided among control, sham, and experimental groups. The experimental group underwent localized accelerations at different frequencies for 5 min/day on the occlusal surface of the maxillary right first molar at a very low magnitude of loading (4 µε). Sham rats received a similar load in the absence of acceleration or frequency. The alveolar bone of the maxilla was evaluated by microcomputed tomography (µCT), histology, fluorescence microscopy, scanning electron microscopy (SEM), Fourier Transform Infrared Spectroscopy (FTIR imaging), and RT-PCR for osteogenic genes. Results demonstrate that application of high-frequency acceleration significantly increased alveolar bone formation. These effects were not restricted to the area of application, and loading could be replaced by frequency and acceleration. These studies propose a simple mechanical therapy that may play a significant role in alveolar bone formation and maintenance.
Constitutive hippocampal cholesterol loss underlies poor cognition in old rodents

Cognitive decline is one of the many characteristics of aging. Reduced long‐term potentiation (LTP) and long‐term depression (LTD) are thought to be responsible for this decline, although the precise mechanisms underlying LTP and LTD dampening in the old remain unclear. We previously showed that aging is accompanied by the loss of cholesterol from the hippocampus, which leads to PI3K/Akt phosphorylation. Given that Akt de‐phosphorylation is required for glutamate receptor internalization and LTD, we hypothesized that the decrease in cholesterol in neuronal membranes may contribute to the deficits in LTD typical of aging. Here, we show that cholesterol loss triggers p‐Akt accumulation, which in turn perturbs the normal cellular and molecular responses induced by LTD, such as impaired AMPA receptor internalization and its reduced lateral diffusion. Electrophysiology recordings in brain slices of old mice and in anesthetized elderly rats demonstrate that the reduced hippocampal LTD associated with age can be rescued by cholesterol perfusion. Accordingly, cholesterol replenishment in aging animals improves hippocampal‐dependent learning and memory in the water maze test.
Triple-drug transcatheter arterial chemoembolization in unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma: assessment of survival in 124 consecutive patients.

OBJECTIVE The objective of our study was to describe survival outcome in 124 patients with unresectable hepatocellular carcinoma treated with triple-drug transcatheter arterial chemoembolization (TACE) using doxorubicin, cisplatin, and mitomycin C using a standardized regimen. MATERIALS AND METHODS One hundred twenty-four patients underwent TACE using a standardized triple-drug regimen. Embolization was performed using subselective coaxial embolization technique. Fifty-six patients (group 1) received triple-drug TACE in conjunction with a nonpermanent embolic agent, microfibrillar collagen (Avitene), and 68 patients (group 2) had triple-drug TACE with a permanent embolic agent, Embosphere Microspheres. RESULTS Twenty-eight patients underwent liver transplantation after TACE, and survival in these patients was significantly longer than those who did not receive a transplant (p < or = 0.001). The mean survival for the no-transplant group (n = 96) was longer in patients with Child-Pugh class A cirrhosis than in those with Child-Pugh class B cirrhosis (30.3 +/- 2.92 [standard error] vs 11.6 +/- 2.84 months, respectively; p < 0.001), in those with Okuda stage I versus stage II disease (31.4 +/- 3.03 vs 17.4 +/- 3.16 months; p = 0.002), and in those with a pre-TACE bilirubin level of less than 2.5 mg/dL (42.75 micromol/L; 28.3 +/- 2.75 vs 13.2 +/- 3.83 months; p = 0.007). Improved survival was seen in the no-transplant patients receiving TACE with the permanent embolic agent (group 2) than in those receiving TACE with the nonpermanent agent (group 1) out to 30 months (p = 0.002). Complications occurred in 16 patients (12.9%). The 30-day mortality was 2.4%. CONCLUSION Patients with hepatocellular carcinoma who underwent triple-drug TACE followed by liver transplantation showed the longest survival. Patients who did not receive a transplant and were treated with triple-drug TACE with a permanent embolic agent showed longer survival to 30 months after TACE than those receiving a nonpermanent embolic agent.
How effective is suffixing?

s and titles from the Cranfield collection (with 225 queries and 1400 documents), comprised the major test collection for this study. The Medlars collection (30 queries and 1033 documents), and the CACM collection (64 queries and 3204 documents) were used to provide information about the variation of stemming performance across different subject areas and test collections. In addition to the standard recall/precision measures, with SMART system averaging (Salton, 1971), several methods more suited to an interactive retrieval environment were adopted. The interactive environment returns lists of the top ranked documents, and allows the users to scan titles of a group of documents a screenful at a time, so that the ranking of individual documents within the screenful is not as important as the total number of relevant titles within a screen. Furthermore, the number of relevant documents in the first few screens is far more important for the user than the number of relevant in the last screenfuls. Three measures were selected which evaluate performance at given rank cutoff points, such as those corresponding to a screenful of document titles. The first measure, the E measure (Van Rijsbergen, 1979), is a weighted combination of recall and precision that evaluates a set of retrieved documents at a given cutoff, ignoring the ranking within that set. The measure may have weights of 0.5, 1.0, and 2.0 which correspond, respectively, to attaching half the importance to recall as to precision, equal importance to both, and double importance to recall. A lower E value indicates a more effective performance. A second measure, the total number of relevant documents retrieved by a given cutoff, was also calculated. Cutoffs of 10 and 30 documents were used, with ten reflecting a minimum number a user might be expected to TABLE 2. Retrieval performance for Cranfteld 225. scan, and 30 being an assumed upper limit of what a user would scan before query modification. The third measure applicable to the interactive environment is the number of queries that retrieve no relevant documents by the given cutoff. This measure is important because many types of query modification techniques, such as relevance feedback, require relevant documents to be in the retrieved set to work well. These measures were all used in Croft (1983) as complementary measures to the standard recall/precision evaluation.
The Efficacy of Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 in Addition to Standard Helicobacter pylori Eradication Treatment in Children

Purpose This study aims to investigate Saccharomyces boulardii CNCM I-745 during Helicobacter pylori eradication in children. Methods One hundred ninety-four H. pylori positive children were randomized in two groups. Therapy (omeprazole+clarithromycin+amoxicillin or omeprazole+clarithromycin+metronidazole in case of penicillin allergy) was given to both groups during two weeks. In the treatment group (n: 102) S. boulardii was added to the triple therapy, while the control group (n: 92) only received triple therapy. The incidence, onset, duration and severity of diarrhea and compliance to the eradication treatment were compared. A 13C urea breath test was done 4 weeks after the end of eradication therapy in two groups of 21 patients aged 12 years and older to test the H. pylori eradication rate. Results In the treatment group, diarrhea occurred in 12 cases (11.76%), starting after 6.25±1.24 days, lasting 3.17±1.08 days, and compliance to eradication treatment was 100%. In the control group, diarrhea occurred in 26 cases (28.26%), starting after 4.05±1.11 days, lasting 4.02±0.87 days, and in six cases eradication treatment was stopped prematurely (p<0.05). The 13C urea breath test showed successful H. pylori eradication in 71.4% of the patients in the treatment and in 61.9 % in the control group (not significant). Conclusion S. boulardii has a beneficial effect on the prevention and treatment of diarrhea during H. pylori eradication in children. Although S. boulardii did only slightly increase H. pylori eradication rate, compliance to eradication treatment was improved.
Blobs in Wolf-Rayet Winds: Random Photometric and Polarimetric Variability

Some isolated Wolf-Rayet stars present random variability in their optical flux and polarization. We make the assumption that such variability is caused by the presence of regions of enhanced density—i.e., blobs—in their envelopes. In order to find the physical characteristics of such regions, we have modeled the stellar emission using a Monte Carlo code to treat the radiative transfer in an inhomogeneous electron scattering envelope. We are able to treat multiple scattering in the regions of enhanced density as well as in the envelope itself. The finite sizes of the source and structures in the wind are also taken into account. Most of the results presented here are based on a parameter study of models with a single blob. The effects caused by multiple blobs in the envelope are considered to a more limited extent. Our simulations indicate that the density enhancements must have a large geometric cross section in order to produce the observed photopolarimetric variability. The sizes must be of the order of 1 stellar radius, and the blobs must be located near the base of the envelope. These sizes are the same inferred from the widths of the subpeaks in optical emission lines of Wolf-Rayet stars. Other early-type stars show random polarimetric fluctuations with characteristics similar to those observed in Wolf-Rayet stars, which may also be interpreted in terms of a clumpy wind. Although the origin of such structures is still unclear, the same mechanism may be working in different types of hot star envelopes to produce such inhomogeneities.
Early drusen formation in the normal and aging eye and their relation to age related maculopathy: a clinicopathological study

AIM To describe the early formation of drusen and their relation to normal aging changes at the macula and to the development of age related maculopathy (ARM). METHOD Histopathological features of 353 eyes without histological evidence of ARM are described and correlated with the clinical appearance. In addition, 45 of these eyes were examined by transmission electron microscopy. RESULTS Drusen were detected histopathologically in 177 (50%) eyes but were seen clinically in only 34% of these. Drusen were mainly small hard drusen with an occasional soft distinct drusen: no soft indistinct drusen were seen. Only those drusen deposits larger than 25–30 μm in diameter were detectable clinically. Preclinical drusen in eyes with only an occasional drusen were seen on electron microscopy as entrapment sites of coated membrane bound bodies which formed adjacent to the inner collagenous zone of Bruch’s membrane. In contrast, preclinical drusen deposits in eyes with many drusen were seen as accumulations of amorphous material which appeared hyalinised by light microscopy. A distinct feature were rows of dense hyalinised microdrusen (1–2 μm in diameter), over which larger globular hyalinised drusen formed. CONCLUSION Histological and ultrastructural examination can recognise and distinguish the earliest drusen formed as a result of normal aging from those associated with ARM. In eyes without diffuse deposits, histologically all drusen were of the hard hyalinised variety or their derivatives; no soft drusen composed of membranous debris were found. These findings support and explain those of other authors who do not consider the presence of a few small hard drusen to be a risk factor for the development of ARM.