Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Cutting the subconjunctival fragment of the XEN gel implant during needling procedure

Purpose: To describe the case and the follow-up of an inadvertently damaged XEN gel implant during needling procedure. Methods: Case report. Results: A 60-year-old African American patient underwent an uncomplicated combined phacoemulsification with the insertion of a XEN gel implant. Two months postoperatively, a needling procedure was required. During the needling procedure, a fragment of the XEN gel implant was inadvertently damaged. One month postoperatively, the intraocular pressure was still controlled and the bleb was functioning well. Conclusion: This case report reveals a previously unreported complication concerning XEN gel implant. It is important for the surgeon to pay attention during needling procedure, especially if there is a subconjunctival hemorrhage impairing the view, to defer the procedure until good visibility exists.
Social motivational processing and interpersonal function in aging cocaine smokers

Illicit drug use among aging cohorts is increasing, yet little is known about functional impairments in older drug users. Given the importance of social integration for aging and documented social decrements in cocaine users, we examined social function and its neurocognitive substrates in aging cocaine users relative to carefully matched non‐cocaine users. Regular (≥twice/week), long‐term (≥15 years) cocaine smokers 50–60 years old (COCs; n = 22; four women) and controls (CTRLs; n = 19; four women) underwent standardized probes of social reward and threat processing during functional magnetic resonance imaging and a behavioral facial affect recognition task. Self‐report and peer‐report of daily interpersonal function were also collected. COCs, and CTRLs reporting current marijuana or alcohol use, were tested after four drug‐free inpatient days. COCs had pronounced problems in daily social function relative to CTRLs indicated by both their own and their peers' reports. Compared with CTRLs, COCs had stronger amygdala responses to social threat versus control stimuli, with no other differences in social processing or cognition. Aging cocaine users appear to have marked, generalized difficulties in ‘real‐world’ interpersonal function but largely intact social processing on laboratory‐based measures when compared with appropriately matched controls and tested under well‐controlled conditions. Daily social difficulties may be related to transient factors such as acute/residual drug effects or cocaine‐related changes in health behaviors (e.g. disrupted sleep and poor diet). These data suggest that interpersonal function may be a valid intervention target for aging cocaine users and warrants further study in older drug users.
A standardized low-cost peer role-playing training intervention improves medical student competency in communicating bad news to patients in Botswana

Abstract Objective The purpose of this study was to demonstrate effectiveness of an educational training workshop using role-playing to teach medical students in Botswana to deliver bad news. Method A 3-hour small group workshop for University of Botswana medical students rotating at the Princess Marina Hospital in Gaborone was developed. The curriculum included an overview of communication basics and introduction of the validated (SPIKES) protocol for breaking bad news. Education strategies included didactic lecture, handouts, role-playing cases, and open forum discussion. Pre- and posttraining surveys assessed prior exposure and approach to breaking bad news using multiple-choice questions and perception of skill about breaking bad news using a 5-point Likert scale. An objective structured clinical examination (OSCE) with a standardized breaking bad news skills assessment was conducted; scores compared two medical student classes before and after the workshop was implemented. Result Forty-two medical students attended the workshop and 83% (35/42) completed the survey. Medical students reported exposure to delivering bad news on average 6.9 (SD = 13.7) times monthly, with 71% (25/35) having delivered bad news themselves without supervision. Self-perceived skill and confidence increased from 23% (8/35) to 86% (30/35) of those who reported feeling “good” or “very good” with their ability to break bad news after the workshop. Feedback after the workshop demonstrated that 100% found the SPIKES approach helpful and planned to use it in clinical practice, found role-playing helpful, and requested more sessions. Competency for delivering bad news increased from a mean score of 14/25 (56%, SD = 3.3) at baseline to 18/25 (72%, SD = 3.6) after the workshop (p = 0.0002). Significance of results This workshop was effective in increasing medical student skill and confidence in delivering bad news. Standardized role-playing communication workshops integrated into medical school curricula could be a low-cost, effective, and easily implementable strategy to improve communication skills of doctors.
Viral rebound in semen after antiretroviral treatment interruption in an HIV therapeutic vaccine double-blind trial

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the timing and level of HIV rebound in blood and seminal plasma and to characterize the HIV rebounding populations after antiretroviral treatment interruption (ATI) in HIV-1-infected participants enrolled in a therapeutic vaccine trial. Design: A 12-week (W) ATI period was proposed at W36 to patients enrolled in the VRI02/ANRS149-LIGHT trial. Paired blood and semen samples were collected before (W32 or W36) and during ATI (W38, W40, W42, W44, and W48). Methods: HIV-RNA and HIV-DNA were quantified sequentially from blood and semen samples. Ultradeep sequencing (UDS; Roche/454) of partial env HIV-DNA/RNA (C2V3) was performed in both compartments. Results: HIV-RNA rebounded in blood plasma and seminal plasma of all ten participants after ATI [median peak of 5.12 log10 cp/ml (range: 4.61–6.35) and 4.26 log10 cp/ml (3.20–4.67), respectively]. HIV-RNA rebound was detected in blood plasma as soon as W38 in 8/10 patients, and in seminal plasma between W38 and W40 in 8/10 patients. Phylogenetic approaches showed intermingled HIV-RNA populations from plasma and semen during ATI, suggesting a lack of viral compartmentalization between blood and semen. Conclusion: Our data demonstrate rapid and high HIV rebound in semen after ATI, raising concerns about high risk of HIV sexual transmission during HIV cure trials.
Prediabetes Is Associated With Structural Brain Abnormalities: The Maastricht Study

OBJECTIVE Structural brain abnormalities are key risk factors for brain diseases, such as dementia, stroke, and depression, in type 2 diabetes. It is unknown whether structural brain abnormalities already occur in prediabetes. Therefore, we investigated whether both prediabetes and type 2 diabetes are associated with lacunar infarcts (LIs), white matter hyperintensities (WMHs), cerebral microbleeds (CMBs), and brain atrophy. RESEARCH DESIGN and METHODS We used data from 2,228 participants (1,373 with normal glucose metabolism [NGM], 347 with prediabetes, and 508 with type 2 diabetes (oversampled); mean age 59.2 ± 8.2 years; 48.3% women) of the Maastricht Study, a population-based cohort study. Diabetes status was determined with an oral glucose tolerance test. Brain imaging was performed with 3 Tesla MRI. Results were analyzed with multivariable logistic and linear regression analyses. RESULTS Prediabetes and type 2 diabetes were associated with the presence of LIs (odds ratio 1.61 [95% CI 0.98–2.63] and 1.67 [1.04–2.68], respectively; Ptrend = 0.027), larger WMH (β 0.07 log10-transformed mL [log-mL] [95% CI 0.00–0.15] and 0.21 log-mL [0.14–0.28], respectively; Ptrend <0.001), and smaller white matter volumes (β −4.0 mL [−7.3 to −0.6] and −7.2 mL [−10.4 to −4.0], respectively; Ptrend <0.001) compared with NGM. Prediabetes was not associated with gray matter volumes or the presence of CMBs. CONCLUSIONS Prediabetes is associated with structural brain abnormalities, with further deterioration in type 2 diabetes. These results indicate that, in middle-aged populations, structural brain abnormalities already occur in prediabetes, which may suggest that the treatment of early dysglycemia may contribute to the prevention of brain diseases.
Effect of coppicing on hybrid poplar fine root dynamics

Hybrid poplar (P. trichocarpa x deltoides, clone Beaupr6) was planted in March 1983 at 2 x 1 m spacing and the 3 following treatments were applied, to 800 m2 plots: 11: intensive cultivation (plastic mulch, weeding between rows, fertilization) 1 yr rotation coppice; 13: intensive cultivation 3 yr rotation coppice; E3: extensive cultivation (no weed control, no fertilization) 3 yr rotation coppice. Root regeneration capacity was studied on 20 stools on each plot, by weighing fine roots newly developed inside 10 cm diameter soil
Instructional leadership and academic performance: Eastern Cape educators’ perceptions and quantitative evidence

This study aims to explore the experiences and perceptions of school educators on how school principals monitor curriculum delivery. It investigates the principal-agent problem and accountability in education in the Eastern Cape. Two types of data are used: qualitative data from interviews with school principals and teachers, and quantitative data from an international educational evaluation. The interview data were collected in 2015 at selected primary schools within three Eastern Cape education districts. Respondents at each school included the school principal and three foundation phase teachers. To triangulate findings from interviews, the association between school leadership and student academic scores in the Trends in International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) 2015 dataset was examined for both Grade 5 and 9. The association between measures of instructional leadership (e.g. teachers’ understanding of curricular goals and teachers’ degree of success in implementing curricular goals) and student scores for mathematics and science was explored using linear probability models. Findings confirm the existence of the principal-agent problem in education, since many school respondents indicated that curriculum delivery monitoring was not conducted as expected. From the multivariate analysis, instructional leadership variables, such as teachers’ understanding of curricular goals and teachers’ degree of success in implementing the curriculum appear as important correlates of student achievement, though significance differs according to level of schooling and whether the questions were answered by principals or teachers. Policy implications point to a need to hire, empower and support principals to create a culture of accountability in schools.
Analysis of the Astronomy Diagnostic Test

Seventy undergraduate class sections were examined from the database of Astronomy Diagnostic Test (ADT) results of Deming and Hufnagel to determine if course format correlated with ADT normalized gain scores. Normalized gains were calculated for four different classroom scenarios: lecture, lecture with discussion, lecture with lab, and lecture with both lab and discussion. Statistical analysis shows that there are no significant differences in normalized gain among the self- reported classroom formats. Prerequisites related to mathematics courses did show differences in normalized gain. Of all reported course activities, only the lecture and the readings for the course correlate significantly with the normalized gain. This analysis suggests that the ADT may not have enough sensitivity to measure differences in the effectiveness of different course formats because of the wide range of topics that the ADT addresses with few questions. Different measures of gain and their biases are discussed. We argue that the use of the normalized gain is not always warranted because of its strong bias toward high pretest scores.
The Effects of Ground Level Ozone on Children with Asthma: An Analysis of Ambient Ozone and its Correlation with Asthma Related Hospitalizations in Children

High concentrations of ground level ozone may trigger asthma attacks and worsen asthma symptoms. On days where there is high ozone concentration, there are increased reports of hospitalization visits of children due to asthma. Decadal and interannual variability in ozone concentrations on a national and regional level can be used to project how ozone will change into the future. Future projections of ozone concentrations allows us to predict the frequency of hospitalizations due to asthma by location.
Genomic analysis of pancreatic cancer: a glimmer of hope for the therapy?

The most recent epidemiological data indicate that pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the Western World (1,2) and it is projected to become the second cause by 2030 (3). This evidence depicts a particular troublesome scenario for National healthcare systems given the high mortality rate, the short life expectancy of affected patients, and the absence of effective therapies for this disease (1,2).
Recombinogenicity and distRibution of PalindRomes in the yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae genome

Palindromic and quasi-palindromic sequences are important DNA motifs found in various cis-acting genetic elements, but are also known to provoke different types of genetic alterations. The instability of such motifs is clearly size-related and depends on their potential to adopt secondary structures known as hairpins and cruciforms. Here we studied the influence of palindrome size on recombination between two directly repeated copies of the yeast CYC1 gene leading to the loss of the intervening sequence (“pop-out” recombination). We show that palindromes inserted either within one copy or between the two copies of the CYC1 gene become recombinogenic only when they attain a certain critical size and we estimate this critical size to be about 70 bp. With the longest palindrome used in this study (150 bp) we observed a more than 20-fold increase in the pop-out recombination. In the sae2/com1 mutant the palindromestimulated recombination was completely abolished. Suppression of palindrome recombinogenicity may be crucial for the maintenance of genetic stability in organisms containing a significant number of large palindromes in their genomes, like humans. © 2008 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
How do infants build a semantic system?

Abstract Do infants learn their early words in semantic isolation? Or do they integrate new words into an inter-connected semantic system? In an infant-friendly adaptation of the adult lexical priming paradigm, infants at 18 and 24 months-of-age heard two words in quick succession. The noun-pairs were either related or unrelated. Following the onset of the target word, two pictures were presented, one of which depicted the target. Eye movements revealed that both age groups comprehended the target word. In addition, 24-month-olds demonstrated primed picture looking in two measures of comprehension: Named target pictures preceded by a related word pair took longer to disengage from and attracted more looking overall. The finding of enhanced target recognition demonstrates the emergence of semantic organisation by the end of the second year.
Sport, fiction and sociology: Novels as data sources

This paper is primarily concerned with the types of data that are of value to sociologists – in this instance, particularly to sociologists of sport. It is argued here that we can and should add works of fiction to the more commonly accepted data sources. Whilst most academic writers may be cautious about the excessive use of invention, even in personal narratives, others are less diffident. The paper examines representations of sport in fiction with specific reference to three novels, their central characters and the insights provided by their fictional beings into the relationship between sport, individuals and society. The novels selected as evidence are Robert Coover’s (1992) The Universal Baseball Association, Inc. J. Henry Waugh, PROP (London: Minerva), Richard Ford’s (1987) The Sportswriter (London: Flamingo) and Chad Harbach’s (2012) The Art of Fielding (London: Fourth Estate). Based on the identification of emerging themes in the novels, and the application of relevant sociological concepts – anomie, alienation and figurations – it is argued that, although the novels’ authors are not sociologists, they could be, and although the stories which they tell are not true, they too could be. It is these ‘facts’ that makes them valuable sources of data.
Light and electron microscopical study of a bacterial parasite from the cyst nematode, Heterodera glycines.

The host range and morphology of a mycelial and endospore-forming bacterium (CNP) that par- asitizes the cyst nematode, Heterodera elachista, differentiates it from 2 related species, Pasteuria penetrans and Pasteuria thornei, parasites of Meloidogyne spp. and Pratylenchus spp. , respectively. In cross-inoculation ex- periments with the 3 bacteria, the CNP parasitized the nematodes Heterodera glycines and Globodera rostochiensis but not species in either Meloidogyne or Pratylenchus. The rhomboidal shape of the sporangia of Pasteuria thornei distinguishes this species from the other 2 bacteria, which have cup-shaped sporangia. The results of the cross- inoculation studies and differences in the fine structure of the cup-shaped sporangia suggest that CNP should be assigned to a new species within the genus Pasteuria.
Pedestrian behavior analysis using 110-car naturalistic driving data in USA

The research objective of this work was to understand pedestrians’ behavior and interaction with vehicles during pre-crash scenarios that provides critical information on how to improve pedestrian safety. In this study, we recruited 110 cars and their drivers in the greater Indianapolis area for a one year naturalistic driving study starting in March 2012. The drivers were selected based on their geographic, demographic, and driving route representativeness. We used off-the-shelf vehicle black boxes for data recording, which are installed at the front windshield behind the rear-view mirrors. It records highresolution forward-view videos (recording driving views outside of front windshield), GPS information, and G-sensor information. We developed category-based multi-stage pedestrian detection and behavior analysis tools to efficiently process this large scale driving dataset. To ensure the accuracy, we incorporated the human-in-loop process to verify the automatic pedestrian detection results. For each pedestrian event, we generate a 5-second video to further study potential conflicts between pedestrians and vehicle. For each detected potential conflict event, we generate a 15second video to analyze pedestrian behavior. We conduct in-depth analysis of pedestrian behavior in regular and near-miss scenarios using the naturalistic data. We observed pedestrian and vehicle interaction videos and studied what scenarios might be more dangerous and could more likely to result in potential conflicts. We observed: 1) Children alone as pedestrians is an elevated risk; 2) three or more adults may be more likely to result in potential conflicts with vehicles than one or two adults; 3) parking lots, communities, school areas, shopping malls, etc. could have more potential conflicts than regular urban/rural driving environments; 4) when pedestrian is crossing road, there is much higher potential conflict than pedestrian walking along/against traffic; 5) There is an elevated risk for pedestrians walking in road (where vehicles can drive by); 6) when pedestrians are jogging, it is much more likely to have potential conflict than walking or standing. ; and 7) it is more likely to have potential conflict at cross walk and junction than other road types. Furthermore, we estimated the pedestrian appearance points of all potential conflict events and time to collision (TTC). Most potential conflict events have a TTC value ranging from 1 second to 6 seconds, with the range of 2 seconds to 4 seconds being associated with highest percentages of all the cases. The mean value of TTC is 3.84 seconds with standard deviation of 1.74 seconds. To date, we have collected about 65TB of driving data with about 1.1 million miles. We have processed about 50% of the data. We are continuously working on the data collection and processing. There could be some changes in our observation results after including all data. But the existing analysis is based on a quite large-scale data and would provide a good estimation.
The Millennium Development Goals

The Millennium Development Goals In September of the year 2000, leaders of 189 countries met at the United Nations in New York and endorsed the Millennium Declaration, a commitment to work together to build a safer, more prosperous and equitable world. The Declaration was translated into a roadmap setting out eight time-bound and measurable goals to be reached by 2015, known as the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs), namely:
NON-LTE EFFECTS ON THE H₃⁺ ROVIBRATIONAL POPULATION IN THE JOVIAN IONOSPHERE

We investigate non-LTE effects on the H₃? level populations to help the analysis of the observed 2 and 3.5 micron H₃? emissions from the Jovian ionosphere. We begin by constructing a simple three-level model, in order to compute the intensity ratio of the R(3,4) line in the hot band to the Q(1,0) line in the fundamental band, which have been observed in the Jovian auroral regions. We find that non-LTE effects produce only small changes in the intensity ratios for ambient H₂ densities less than or equal to 5×10 11 ㎝ ? 3 . We then construct two comprehensive models by including all the collisional and radiative transitions between pairs of more than a thousand known H₃? rovibrational levels with energies less than 10000 ㎝ ? 1 . By employing these models, we find that the intensity ratios of the lines in the hot and fundamental bands are affected greatly by non-LTE effects, but the details depend sensitively on the number of collisional and radiative transitions included in the models. Non-LTE effects on the rovibrational population become evident at about the same ambient H₂ densities in the comprehensive models as in the three-level model. However, the models show that rotational temperatures derived from the intensities of rotational lines in the v₂ and 2v₂ bands may differ significantly from the ambient temperatures in the non-LTE regime. We find that significant non-LTE effects appear near and above the H₃? peak, and that the kinetic temperatures in the Jovian thermospheric temperatures derived from the observed line ratios in the 2 and 3.5 micron H₃? emissions are highly model dependent.