Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Exploration of Players' Aggression: Role of Game and Life Self-Efficacy and Adaptive Game Use Tendency

ABSTRACT This study examined whether game usage would alleviate players’ aggressive tendencies. Other game-related variables, psychological care factors (adaptive game use tendency, game self-efficacy, and life self-efficacy), and psychological problem factors (loneliness and depression) were controlled for determination of the effect. We drew on the catharsis theory from therapeutic psychology literature to explain how game usage contributes to the alleviation of aggressive tendencies. Over two weeks data were collected from 918 participants online. The results indicated that gaming activity had a significant effect on aggression. Higher levels of game and life self-efficacy, as well as adaptive game use tendencies, decreased the degree of aggression. Likewise, higher levels of loneliness and depression reduced the degree of aggression. Results and implications are discussed. Key words : Aggression Catharsis, Game and Life Self-efficacy, Adaptive Game Use Tendency. 1. INTRODUCTION Aggression is one of the innate fundamental instincts [1] therefore, human aggression, as a basic and very complex social behavior, can range from mild verbal anger to vicious behavior including everything in between. Recently, games have become a popular leisure activity globally [2]. Games are used by whole generations inclusive of toddlers and the elderly without limits of time and space. While general surveys exist regarding broad patterns of game usage, less is known about the relationship between game usage and aggression in psychological or mental health care. Regarding the relation between game usage and aggression, previous studies have attempted to clarify various factors that influence the aggression of game players. Researchers have also examined whether violent games are associated with players’ aggression, or whether such games can enhance long-term aggression [3]-[19]. Although an important topic, a number of concerns about these studies have been raised. Some researchers concluded that the gathered evidence proves the existence of a causal link between violent games and aggression [3]-[8]. However, others revealed a number of methodological flaws and suggested that the association
On the Number of Cluster Heads Minimizing the Error Rate for a Wireless Sensor Network using a Hierarchical Topology Over IEEE802.15.4

This paper investigates a three-level tree-based network topology using IEEE 802.15. 4 for wireless sensor networks, where some nodes randomly elect themselves cluster heads (CHs): the CHs (level one) communicate with the other sensor nodes gathered in clusters (level two) on one side and with the sink (level zero), on the other. In particular, the percentage of samples taken from nodes that are correctly received at the sink is maximised, by optimising the number of CHs. Simulation results show that this optimum value exists, as a trade off between the load within clusters, which depends on their size and is controlled by increasing the number of CHs, and the probability of collisions among CH packets, that can be minimised by decreasing the number of CHs. To clarify the role of the different network parameters, such as the network size, the IEEE 802.15. 4 superframe order, etc. in the determination of this optimum value, a simple and approximate statistical analysis of the PER is also included
Three-Fold Embedding: Farm Development in Relation to Its Socio-Material Context

Understanding heterogeneity in farm development strategies is important in order to design effective policies and support programs to increase the sustainability of agriculture in relation to its socio-material context. Using a unique case study of 102 dairy farmers in The Netherlands, all operating in a highly similar socio-material context, this paper studies the differences in the relation of farms with the socio-material context. To this end, the concept of three-fold embedding is developed and tested using the ideal-typical characteristics of three patterns of farm development that were identified in the case study: (1) maximising total milk production; (2) optimising milk production using mainly on-farm resources; and (3) diversified on-farm production. Three-fold embedding was conceptualised in relation to the following dimensions: (1) value chain relations; (2) socio-cultural relations; and (3) natural resource relations, while using a scale ranging from a Close to a Stretched set of relations. The concept of three-fold embedding proves to be useful to identify in a non-normative and non-binary manner meaningful differences between patterns of farm development. These differences relate to differences in opportunity identification and strategic decision-making. The concept supports a relational perspective in studying farm strategy development using a sociology of entrepreneurship approach.
Diabetic Neuropathy Evaluated by a Novel Device: Sural Nerve Conduction Is Associated with Glycemic Control and Ankle–Brachial Pressure Index in Japanese Patients with Diabetes

Background Currently, no international diagnostic criteria for diabetic neuropathy (DN) have been established. Recently, a novel point-of-care sural nerve conduction device has been developed. We aimed to investigate associations between DN and clinical parameters related to the development and progression of DN by using this novel device. Methods We conducted a retrospective observational study in patients with diabetes whose sural nerve functions were measured using DPN Check between January 2015 and October 2016. Multiple and logistic regression analyses were conducted to assess the associations of sural nerve conduction velocity (SNCV) and amplitude (SNAP) with clinical parameters related to DN. Results A total of 740 patients were enrolled in this study. At baseline, 211 patients were diagnosed with DN by using DPN Check. The sensitivity, specificity, and positive likelihood ratio of DPN Check compared with ankle reflex as reference were 81%, 46%, and 1.5, respectively. Of these, 182 patients were followed up for approximately 1 year to measure changes in SNCV and SNAP. Both SNCV and SNAP were inversely associated with duration of diabetes, plasma glucose levels, and hemoglobin A1c levels at baseline, whereas these were positively associated with ankle–brachial index. Logistic regression analysis revealed that poor glycemic control was associated with increased risk of reduction in both SNCV [odds ratio = 1.570; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.298–1.898; p < 0.001] and SNAP (odds ratio = 1.408; 95% CI = 1.143–1.735; p = 0.001), and longer duration of diabetes was also significantly associated with an increased risk of reduction in both SNCV (odds ratio = 1.058; 95% CI = 1.032–1.084; p < 0.001) and SNAP (odds ratio = 1.049; 95% CI = 1.019–1.079; p = 0.001). Conclusion Sural nerve functions were significantly associated with glycemic control and arteriosclerosis in patients with diabetes. DPN Check may be useful as a screening tool to identify DN in clinical practice.
The Utility of Dual Energy Computed Tomography in Musculoskeletal Imaging

The objective of this article is to review the mechanisms, advantages and disadvantages of dual energy computed tomography (DECT) over conventional tomography (CT) in musculoskeletal imaging as DECT provides additional information about tissue composition and artifact reduction. This provides clinical utility in detection of urate crystals, bone marrow edema, reduction of beam hardening metallic artifact, and ligament and tendon analysis.
Overlapping and Selective Roles of Endothelial Intercellular Adhesion Molecule-1 (ICAM-1) and ICAM-2 in Lymphocyte Trafficking 1

The integrin LFA-1 interacts with a variety of ligands termed ICAMs. ICAM-1 and ICAM-2 are both expressed on endothelium and serve as counterreceptors during lymphocyte trafficking. In this study, we analyzed their relative contribution to lymphocyte recirculation through lymph nodes and to recruitment into lung and inflamed skin by blocking mAbs against ICAM-1 and ICAM-2 and mice deficient for ICAM-1. The entry of lymphocytes into peripheral and mesenteric lymph nodes was found to be unaffected by the functional deletion of either ICAM-1 or ICAM-2. However, when both pathways were blocked, recirculation through lymph nodes was strongly reduced. Trapping of lymphocytes in the lung after i.v. injection is partly mediated by LFA-1/ICAM interactions; the data presented in this study show an exclusive role of ICAM-1 in LFA-1-dependent lung trapping. Similarly, ICAM-1, but not ICAM-2, was required for the migration of T effector cells into the inflamed skin. These results indicate that ICAM-1 and ICAM-2 have redundant functions in lymphocyte recirculation through lymph nodes, but ICAM-1 is unique in supporting migration into inflamed sites and trapping within the lung.
THYROIDMANAGER . ORG CHAPTER 17 – MULTINODULAR GOITER

Multinodular goiter (MNG) is the most common of all the disorders of the thyroid gland. MNG is the result of the genetic heterogeneity of follicular cells and apparent acquisition of new cellular qualities that become inheritable. Nodular goiter is most often detected simply as a mass in the neck, but sometimes an enlarging gland produces pressure symptoms. Hyperthyroidism develops in a large proportion of MNGs after a few decades, frequently after iodine excess. Diagnosis is based on the physical examination. Thyroid function test results are normal, or indicate subclinical or overt hyperthyroidism. Imaging procedures are useful to detect details such as distortion of the trachea, and to provide an estimation of the volume before and after therapy. From 4 to 17% of MNGs fulfill the criteria of malignant change, however, the majority of these lesions are not lethal. If a clinical and biochemically euthyroid MNG is small and produces no symptoms, treatment is controversial. T4 given to shrink the gland or to prevent further growth is effective in about one third of patients. If the clinically euthyroid goiter is unsightly, shows subclinical hyperthyroidism or is causing pressure symptoms, treatment with 131I preceded by recombinant human TSH is successful but causes hypothyroidism in varying degrees. This treatment can lead to 45-65% shrinkage of the MNG, even if in an intrathoracic position, with a relatively low cost, thus it is considered a good alternative to surgery. However, surgery is an acceptable option. The efficacy of T4 treatment after surgery, to prevent regrowth, is debatable although frequently usedt. For complete coverage of all related aeas of Endocrinology, please visit our on-line FREE web-text, WWW.ENDOTEXT. ORG.
Feasibility of Articulated Arm Mounted Oculus Rift Virtual Reality Goggles for Adjunctive Pain Control During Occupational Therapy in Pediatric Burn Patients

For daily burn wound care and therapeutic physical therapy skin stretching procedures, powerful pain medications alone are often inadequate. This feasibility study provides the first evidence that entering an immersive virtual environment using very inexpensive (∼$400) wide field of view Oculus Rift Virtual Reality (VR) goggles can elicit a strong illusion of presence and reduce pain during VR. The patient was an 11-year-old male with severe electrical and flash burns on his head, shoulders, arms, and feet (36 percent total body surface area (TBSA), 27 percent TBSA were third-degree burns). He spent one 20-minute occupational therapy session with no VR, one with VR on day 2, and a final session with no VR on day 3. His rating of pain intensity during therapy dropped from severely painful during no VR to moderately painful during VR. Pain unpleasantness dropped from moderately unpleasant during no VR to mildly unpleasant during VR. He reported going "completely inside the computer generated world", and had more fun during VR. Results are consistent with a growing literature showing reductions in pain during VR. Although case studies are scientifically inconclusive by nature, these preliminary results suggest that the Oculus Rift VR goggles merit more attention as a potential treatment for acute procedural pain of burn patients. Availability of inexpensive but highly immersive VR goggles would significantly improve cost effectiveness and increase dissemination of VR pain distraction, making VR available to many more patients, potentially even at home, for pain control as well as a wide range of other VR therapy applications. This is the first clinical data on PubMed to show the use of Oculus Rift for any medical application.
Plague and Family Life

around 1300, it seemed that the population, to some degree everywhere in Europe, had attained its maximum and reached a ceiling. There were still few signs allowing one to foretell the slowing-down of the expansion begun almost three centuries before; these signs were to multiply in the first half of the fourteenth century. It was then, in the very middle of the century, that the terrible knell of the Black Death sounded. Thus a period opened characterised by the deadly and repeated attacks of what contemporaries interpreted as a sign of divine anger provoked by human depravity. The century closed, in fact, with another major epidemic of the terrible illness and the fifteenth, begun in an atmosphere of mourning, was to bear its ineradicable stigmata. The plague henceforth accompanied medieval man as ineluctably as, to use the words of Alain Chartier, ‘the abominable sum of infinitely wicked evils’: hunger, war, death. No historian doubts that the brutal irruption of a scourge which was to become a pandemic and affect the European population for centuries stimulated profound upheavals in modes of production, living and feeling. An evaluation of the precise effects of the epidemic, of its place in the period’s procession of evils, is more difficult. Did the plague, falling upon Europe, operate autonomously to subvert or renew the structures of feudal society? Was the terrifying skeleton which led an entire society in the Dance of Death the model on which historians should base their analyses?
Proof of the 1-factorization and Hamilton Decomposition Conjectures

We prove the following results (via a unified approach) for all sufficiently large n: (i) [1 -factorization conjecture] Suppose that n is even and D ≥ 2⌈n/4⌉ − 1. Then every D-regular graph G on n vertices has a decomposition into perfect matchings. Equivalently, χ′(G) = D. (ii) [Hamilton decomposition conjecture] Suppose that D ≥ ⌊n/2⌋. Then every D-regular graph G on n vertices has a decomposition into Hamilton cycles and at most one perfect matching. (iii) [Optimal packings of Hamilton cycles] Suppose that G is a graph on n vertices with minimum degree δ ≥ n/2. Then G contains at least (n − 2)/8 edge-disjoint Hamilton cycles. According to Dirac, (i) was first raised in the 1950’s. (ii) and (iii) answer questions of Nash-Williams from 1970. All of the above bounds are best possible.
Increased hepatocyte turnover and inhibition of woodchuck hepatitis B virus replication by adefovir In vitro do not lead to reduction of the closed circular DNA

The aim of this study was to evaluate the inhibitory effect of the nucleotide analogue adefovir on woodchuck hepatitis B virus (WHV) replication and, in particular, to determine whether the pool of covalently closed circular DNA (cccDNA) could be reduced by adefovir treatment in primary cultures of woodchuck hepatocytes isolated from a chronic carrier. Strong reduction of WHV‐DNA synthesis (90%) and secretion (up to 98%) was observed with all 3 doses of adefovir used (1, 10, and 100 μmol/L), whereas in the absence of the drug, high amounts of viral particles were continuously secreted in the culture medium until the end of the study (27 days). Secretion of envelope proteins and viral RNA levels remained constant both in the adefovir‐treated and ‐untreated cultures for the entire course of the study. Intracellular core protein levels declined by approximately 50% in all the cultures, independent of adefovir treatment. There was no indication of cccDNA loss in the adefovir‐treated hepatocyte cultures even when cell turnover was induced for 14 days by the addition of epidermal growth factor (EGF) to the culture medium. Our data show that adefovir has a very strong inhibitory effect on WHV‐DNA synthesis in chronically infected primary hepatocyte cultures and indicate that cccDNA is a very stable molecule that appears to be efficiently transmitted to the dividing hepatocytes.
Genetic and environmental influences in sleep-disordered breathing in older male twins.

STUDY OBJECTIVES To estimate the extent to which genetic factors contribute to the variation in several indices of sleep-disordered breathing in elderly male twins. DESIGN AND SETTING A biometric genetic study based on data from unattended Edentrace recordings in a sample of elderly male twins. PARTICIPANTS 122 World War II male veteran twin pairs, including 68 monozygotic pairs aged 78.9 (+/- 2.7) years and 54 dizygotic pairs aged 78.4 (+/- 2.4) years. INTERVENTIONS N/A. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS The average (+/- SD) respiratory disturbance index for this sample was 17.2 +/- 14.5, the average (+/- SD) oxygen desaturation index was 18.8 +/- 16.4, and the average (+/- SD) minimum SaO2 level was 79.6 +/- 8.1%. Intraclass twin-pair correlations for log-transformed respiratory disturbance index were 0.59 in monozygotic pairs and 0.36 in dizygotic pairs. For oxygen desaturation index, intraclass correlations were 0.44 in monozygotic pairs and 0.24 in dizygotic pairs. For minimum SaO2, intraclass correlations were 0.38 and 0.11, respectively. Maximum likelihood estimates of heritability with associated 95% confidence intervals were 37% [22%, 52%] for respiratory disturbance index, 36% [19%, 53%] for oxygen desaturation index, and 10% [0%, 30%] for minimum SaO2. Adjustments of sleep-disordered breathing measures for age, body mass index, and waist and neck circumference had minimal effect on estimates of heritability. CONCLUSIONS The present data indicate that sleep-disordered breathing, even in old age, is determined, in part, by genetic factors.
The Endometrium in Adenomyosis

Eutopic and ectopic endometria of women with adenomyosis show a series of metabolic and molecular abnormalities that increase angiogenesis and proliferation, decrease apoptosis, allow local production of estrogens, create progesterone resistance, and impair cytokine expression. These changes enhance the ability of the endometrium to infiltrate the junctional zone myometrium and the growth of ectopic tissue. In addition, in these subjects several immunological abnormalities have been observed, together with an increased production of ‘free radicals’ leading to excessive growth of endometrial stromal cells that may facilitate the establishment of adenomyosis. A limiting factor is that these studies have been performed on hysterectomy specimens representing final stages of the disease. This increased knowledge has created new therapeutic options, including the block of local aromatase production through the use of selective estrogen receptor modulators, estrogen-progestin combinations and gonadotropin-releasing hormone super agonists. Also promising are investigations into the mechanism of dysmenorrhea and abnormal uterine bleeding.
CELLULAR AND HUMORAL RESPONSE TO TRANSPLANTATION ANTIGENS

After transfer into heavily-irradiated allogeneic mice, spleen cells were found to produce two types of effector cells directed against the recipient alloantigens, namely alloantibody plaque-forming cells (PFC) and cytotoxic lymphocytes (CL). Both types of effector cells were detectable in vitro by virtue of their lytic effect on target cells carrying the recipient alloantigens. Alloantibody PFC activity was dependent on the presence of an exogenous source of complement and could be inhibited by the addition of heterologous antisera to mouse µ-chain or Fab fragment in the assay system. CL activity was independent of added complement, was not affected by anti-immunoglobulin antisera, but was inhibited by the addition of antibody against target cell alloantigens. Treatment of the transferred spleen cells with anti-θ-serum and complement before in vitro assays for PFC and CL completely abolished the CL activity but had no effect on alloantibody-plaque formation. These results indicate that the two types of effector cells can be differentiated in vitro by virtue of their susceptibility to anti-θ-serum and the mechanisms by which they cause cell lysis.
Diabetes and the risk of acute urinary tract infection among postmenopausal women.

OBJECTIVE To examine whether the presence of diabetes alters the risk of acute urinary tract infection (UTI) in postmenopausal women. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS A case-control study of the Group Health Cooperative of Puget Sound (GHC), a staff-model nonprofit health maintenance organization in Washington State, was conducted. Subjects were women aged 55-75 years who had been members of GHC for at least 1 year and who had had an acute symptomatic UTI within the preceding month. Laboratory files were used to identify women with a urine culture that grew > or =10(5) colonies of a urinary pathogen. Medical records were reviewed to confirm the presence of acute, clinically symptomatic UTI. Control subjects were randomly selected from the GHC enrollment file, screened to remove women with recent UTI, and frequency matched to cases by age within 2 years. An interviewer ascertained self-reported clinician-diagnosed diabetes. Diagnosis of diabetes was confirmed by the GHC diabetes registry. A subsample of women underwent measurement of postvoid residual bladder volume (n = 748) and culture of vaginal flora (n = 454). RESULTS Of the 901 case and 913 control subjects, diabetes was reported in 13.1 and 6.8%, respectively. The health plan diabetes registry confirmed the diagnosis in 92% of women who self-reported the condition. The age-adjusted odds ratio (OR) for UTI in relation to self-reported clinician-diagnosed diabetes was 2.2 (95% CI 1.6-3.0). Adjustment for frequency of sexual intercourse and history of UTI had little effect on this estimate. Compared with nondiabetic women, higher UTI odds were seen in subjects who used oral hypoglycemic agents (OR 2.9 [95% CI 1.7-5.1]) and insulin (2.6 [1.5-4.6]) but not in subjects with untreated diabetes or diabetes treated by lifestyle changes (1.3 [0.7-2.3]). No significant difference was seen in the OR for UTI in diabetic women with disease of shorter duration (<10 years, OR 1.9) or longer duration (> or =10 years, OR 2.6) or in relation to HbA(1c) level. Similar microbiologic pathogens were seen in diabetic and nondiabetic women. No significant differences were seen by diabetes status in mean postvoid residual bladder volume or vaginal flora. CONCLUSIONS Diabetes under pharmacologic treatment is associated with increased risk of clinically apparent UTI in postmenopausal women.