Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mobile Health Apps in Sweden: What do Physicians Recommend?

BACKGROUND Currently over 50,000 mobile health apps are available worldwide. In general, they are considered as innovations potentially delivering benefits to patients. Physicians are considered as potential channels to disseminate these innovations to patients. However, physicians' behavior in this regard has not been studied. OBJECTIVES To capture physicians' attitudes towards recommending health apps to patients and to describe factors influencing physicians' behavior, taking the specifics of an early adopter country, Sweden, into account. METHODS Diffusion of Innovation theory, the Health App Maturity Model and the Six Hurdles Model were used to construct a web-based survey that was answered by 44 Swedish physicians. Survey results were followed up with 2 individual interviews. Descriptive statistics were used for quantitative data analysis and recursive abstraction for qualitative data analysis. RESULTS Only a small group of physicians currently recommend mobile health apps to their patients. However, most physicians have a positive attitude and perceive improvement of patients' self-management ability as main benefit of health apps. Main perceived weaknesses include the lack of evidence-based content and lack of multi-language support. Regulation of health apps under the Medical Device Directive is asked for to assure quality and patient safety. CONCLUSION Innovators and early adopters play an important role in the diffusion of mobile health apps. Interpersonal communication is seen as the most effective way for physicians gaining information and also motivates them to recommend mobile health apps to their patients. Physicians' knowledge about certified websites to ensure quality is however low.
The relative age effect on labour market outcomes – evidence from Italian football

ABSTRACT Research question: This study investigates whether the relative age effect (RAE) persists in the long term and affects Italian-born footballers’ performance and wages. Research methods: A unique dataset on 1700 individual players’ remuneration and performance was collected and analysed through the chi-square goodness-of-fit, the Spearman’s rank correlation and an econometric model. Results and findings: This study contributes to the literature by providing clear results on long-term RAE. We find evidence of the RAE in terms of representativeness, which means that, in an age group, players born relatively early are over-represented, while those born relatively late are under-represented, even accounting for national birth trends. Moreover, although they perform similarly, the gross wages of players born relatively late are statistically significantly lower than those of players born relatively early. Implications: This situation needs to be considered by various football stakeholders and tackled accordingly to minimize the loss of potential youth football talent. Further research is needed to identify the determinants of RAE in the long term.
Communicate Globally, Teach Locally: An Action Research Project Analyzing Self-Efficacy Competence of African American Native English Speakers (NESs) Teaching in a Foreign Placement.

2 DEDICATION . 4 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS . 5 VITA . 7 TABLE OF CONTENTS . 9 LIST OF TABLES . 13 LIST OF FIGURES . 15 CHAPTER 1: INTRODUCTION TO THE STUDY . 16 Definition of Terms . 16 Background . 17 History and Spread of the English Language . 17 Globalization of English . 20 Statement of the Problem . 21 Purpose Statement . 23 Research Question and Hypotheses . 24 Significance of the Study . 25 My Personal Background: An Example of Self-Efficacy Development . 26 Cultural View . 29 Personal Self-Efficacy & Cultural Competence . 30 My Experience to Communicate Globally, Teach Locally . 31 The TESOL Certificate . 33 Overview of Theoretical Frameworks . 35 Overview of Methodology . 35 Study Assumptions . 36 Study Limitations . 36 Study Delimitations . 36
Graphene at the Edge: Stability and Dynamics

Although the physics of materials at surfaces and edges has been extensively studied, the movement of individual atoms at an isolated edge has not been directly observed in real time. With a transmission electron aberration–corrected microscope capable of simultaneous atomic spatial resolution and 1-second temporal resolution, we produced movies of the dynamics of carbon atoms at the edge of a hole in a suspended, single atomic layer of graphene. The rearrangement of bonds and beam-induced ejection of carbon atoms are recorded as the hole grows. We investigated the mechanism of edge reconstruction and demonstrated the stability of the “zigzag” edge configuration. This study of an ideal low-dimensional interface, a hole in graphene, exhibits the complex behavior of atoms at a boundary.
Cytokine Comparisons Between Women With Breast Cancer and Women With a Negative Breast Biopsy

Background: Understanding the biological milieu associated with disease states has important implications for biobehavioral research. Cytokines, signaling molecules that mediate and regulate immunity, inflammation, and hematopoiesis, are an important component of the biological milieu associated with breast cancer. Cytokines have been used as biomarkers in research for prognosis and have been associated with symptoms and adverse outcomes in multiple conditions, including breast cancer. To date, however, the examination of cytokine patterns has been limited by traditional laboratory methods. Advances in proteomic technology now permit the characterization of a broader array of cytokines in a single specimen. Because cytokines operate in integrated networks, a more complete understanding will be gained as multiple cytokines can be examined for patterns of response that may be associated with symptoms and prognosis. Objectives: To use proteomic technology (a) to examine whether there was a difference in cytokine levels and patterns in women with breast cancer compared with controls, (b) to define and compare the receiver operator characteristic curves for standard cytokine classifications, and (c) to identify the best-fitting empirical model of cytokines to distinguish groups of women found to have breast cancer from those with negative biopsies. Methods: The cytokine levels of 35 women who had been diagnosed recently with breast cancer were compared with 24 women with a suspicious breast mass who were found subsequently to have a negative breast biopsy. Multiplex bead array assays permitted the simultaneous measure of multiple markers in a small volume of serum. Nonparametric procedures were used to determine differences in the median values and the distributions for each cytokine. The receiver operator characteristic curves were defined to identify patterns of cytokines. Results: There were significantly higher systemic cytokine values in women with cancer in comparison with those in women without cancer for all cytokines measured, with the exception of granulocyte colony-stimulating factor and interferon-gamma. The only significant associations found between cytokines and age or race were increased levels of interleukin-8 (r = .53) and macrophage inflammatory protein-1&bgr; (r = .45) with increased age in women with a negative biopsy. Three cytokines (granulocyte colony-stimulating factor, interleukin-6, and interleukin-17) distinguished between the breast cancer and no-cancer groups with an exceptionally high areas under the curve (0.981; SE = 0.017). Discussion: Levels of cytokines and their patterns were markedly different in women with breast cancer as compared with those in women who did not have breast cancer. Results from this study highlight the need for further research to examine the levels and patterns of cytokines that may serve as biomarkers in clinical research. Innovations in proteomic technology have implications for expanding biobehavioral research.
The Role of Sleep in Predicting College Academic Performance: Is it a Unique Predictor?

Few studies have looked at the predictability of academic performance (i.e., cumulative grade point average [GPA]) using sleep when common nonsleep predictors of academic performance are included. This project studied psychological, demographic, educational, and sleep risk factors of decreased academic performance in college undergraduates. Participants (N = 867) completed a questionnaire packet and sleep diary. It was hypothesized that low total sleep time (TST), increased sleep onset latency, later bedtimes, later wake times, and TST inconsistency would predict decreased academic performance. The most significant predictors of academic performance were high school GPA, standardized test scores (i.e., SAT/ACT), TST, time awake before arising (TWAK), TST inconsistency, and the quadratic terms of perceived stress (PSS) and TST.
A Comparison of Intellectual Structure in Deaf and Hearing Children

Results on the Snijders-Oomen Nonverbal Intelligence Test for 251 deaf children and 101 hearing children in Israel revealed that (a) the factor structure for the total deaf group differs from that of the hearing group, (b) differences in cognitive structure were evident by age level for the deaf, (c) differences exist between the cognitive structures of hearing and deaf subjects of the same age, and (d) a similar abstract thinking component is found for younger hearing and older deaf subjects. The findings of this study are discussed in terms of both their theoretical and methodological implications for reaching a better understanding of the intellectual development of deaf children.
Reconsidering barriers to wind power projects: community engagement, developer transparency and place

ABSTRACT In 2016, we undertook a nationally representative wind power perceptions survey of individuals living within 8 km of over 600 projects in the United States, generating 1705 telephone, web, and mail responses. We sought information on a variety of topics, including procedural fairness and its relationship to project attitude, the foci of the present analysis. We present a series of descriptive statistics and regression results, emphasizing those residents who were aware of their local project prior to construction. Sample weighting is employed to account for stratification and non-response. We find that a developer being open and transparent, a community being able to influence the outcome, and having a say in the planning process are all statistically significant predictors of a process perceived as being ‘fair,’ with an open and transparent developer having the largest effect. We also find developer transparency and ability to influence outcomes to have statistically significant relationships to a more positive attitude, with those findings holding when aesthetics, landscape, and wind turbine sound considerations are controlled for. The results indicate that jurisdictions might consider developing procedures, which ensure citizens are consulted and heard, and benchmarks or best practices for developer interaction with communities and citizens.
Going beyond hate speech: The pragmatics of ethnic slur terms

Abstract Ethnic slur terms (“nigger”, “kike”, “kraut”) and other group-based slurs (“faggot”, “spaz”) must be differentiated from general pejoratives (“asshole”, “idiot”) and pure expressives (“fuck”). As these terms pejoratively refer to certain groups of people, they are a typical feature of hate speech contexts where they serve xenophobic speakers in expressing their hatred for an entire group of people. However, slur terms are actually far more frequently used in other contexts and are more often exchanged among friends than between enemies. Hate speech can be identified as the most central, albeit not the most frequent, mode of use. I broadly distinguish between hate speech (central use), other pejorative uses (mobbing, insulting), parasitic uses (banter, appropriation, comedy, youth language), neutral mentioning (academics, PC), and unaware uses. In this paper, authentic examples of use and frequency estimates from empirical research will help provide accurate definitions and insight into these different modes that purely theoretical approaches cannot achieve.
Age-Related Influences on Repetition Priming in the Verb Generation Task: Examining the Role of Response Competition

ABSTRACT The identification-production framework suggests that aging is associated with a decline in production forms of repetition priming, particularly under test conditions that maximize response competition. The present study examined this prediction by testing young and healthy older adults in a single-encoding version of the verb generation task in which some items had one dominant verb response (low competition) or had no such dominant response (high competition). Further analyses examined whether priming and error rates were related to performance on neuropsychological tests purported to measure frontal lobe functioning. Priming was invariant across age groups and was not related to frontal lobe status in older adults, but frontal lobe status did predict task performance: low-frontal older adults made more errors than high-frontal older adults, particularly for high-competition items and items with high association strength. These results are not consistent with the identification-production framework, but are consistent with the conclusions that (a) aging is associated with invariance in the processes that support repetition priming in the verb generation task and (b) frontal lobe status in aging is related to verb generation performance.
Histopathological study of thyroid lesions and correlation with ultrasonography and thyroid profile in western zone of Rajasthan, India

Background: To evaluate the different patterns of thyroid lesions in surgically resected specimens and biopsies received at department of pathology and correlate the various histo-morphological features with respect to clinical findings, USG and thyroid profile findings. Methods: Total 100 cases of partial or complete thyroidectomy were studied. A detailed clinical examination with USG examination and assessment of thyroid function test were carried out preoperatively. Results: The highest incidences (51%) of thyroid enlargements were found in age group of 21-40 years with females predominated (77%), ratio being 3.34:1. Out of total 100 cases, 28 were neoplastic and 72 were non-neoplastic. Thyroid function test was carried out of all 100 cases and out of them 81 were euthyroid. Most common clinical symptom in the patients of thyroid lesions was swelling in the neck which was present in all cases. Multinodular goiter was the most common radiological finding seen in 55% cases. Out of 55 cases of MNG one case turned out to be malignant after histopathological examination. USG diagnosed 10 cases were malignant, out of them 1 case turned out to be benign after histopathological examination. Conclusions: Taking into consideration histopathology report as a gold standard, correlation of USG finding with histopathology finding showed 90% sensitivity, 98.8% specificity with 90% positive predictive value.
Comparative reactivity of human IgE to cynomolgus monkey and human effector cells and effects on IgE effector cell potency

Background: Due to genetic similarities with humans, primates of the macaque genus such as the cynomolgus monkey are often chosen as models for toxicology studies of antibody therapies. IgE therapeutics in development depend upon engagement with the FcεRI and FcεRII receptors on immune effector cells for their function. Only limited knowledge of the primate IgE immune system is available to inform the choice of models for mechanistic and safety evaluations. Methods: The recognition of human IgE by peripheral blood lymphocytes from cynomolgus monkey and man was compared. We used effector cells from each species in ex vivo affinity, dose-response, antibody-receptor dissociation and potency assays. Results: We report cross-reactivity of human IgE Fc with cynomolgus monkey cells, and comparable binding kinetics to peripheral blood lymphocytes from both species. In competition and dissociation assays, however, human IgE dissociated faster from cynomolgus monkey compared with human effector cells. Differences in association and dissociation kinetics were reflected in effector cell potency assays of IgE-mediated target cell killing, with higher concentrations of human IgE needed to elicit effector response in the cynomolgus monkey system. Additionally, human IgE binding on immune effector cells yielded significantly different cytokine release profiles in each species. Conclusion: These data suggest that human IgE binds with different characteristics to human and cynomolgus monkey IgE effector cells. This is likely to affect the potency of IgE effector functions in these two species, and so has relevance for the selection of biologically-relevant model systems when designing pre-clinical toxicology and functional studies.
The Populist Chameleon: some general considerations on Lega Nord ideology

The Populist Chameleon: some general considerations on Lega Nord ideology The paper reveals a chameleon-like characteristic, which means that individual political problems and elements of the party’s rhetoric never disappear completely, but rather stay latent, ready to revive at any moment. The only fixed element is populism. After the four main phases of the Lega Nord policy, the party and its secretary Matteo Salvini enter a new era of politics that resembles the anti-particracy of the early years of activity, the only difference being that the party is uniting with its former enemies on the common ground, such as opposition to immigration, the European Union, and the euro currency. The party is paving the way to conquest some non-typical areas, such as the red regions, although there are no barriers to its further development.
The effects of alprazolam and buspirone in light and moderate female social drinkers

Individuals who are moderate/heavy drinkers are at increased risk to abuse benzodiazepines and this risk is increased in women compared to men. However, no studies have determined whether female moderate drinkers (MD) show a differential response to the subjective and performance effects of benzodiazepines compared to female light drinkers (LD). Fourteen female MD who consumed an average of 36 drinks/month were compared to 14 female LD who consumed an average of 4.2 drinks/month. None of the participants had either a first- or second-degree family history of alcoholism. The acute effects of placebo, alprazolam (0.25, 0.50, 0.75 mg) and buspirone (5, 10, 15 mg) were evaluated using a double-blind, placebo-controlled outpatient design. Drug effects were assessed using a full range of performance measures and subjective-effects questionnaires. Alprazolam impaired performance in a dose-related manner on all performance tasks for both groups of females, whereas buspirone had minimal effects on performance. There were few differences between LD and MD with respect to subjective response or performance impairment following either alprazolam or buspirone. Although MD reported greater ratings of Good Drug Effect and Drug Liking than LD, this was neither dose-related, nor specific to alprazolam. The results of the present study suggest that female MD without a family history of alcoholism experience the same level of performance impairment as female LD, although they tend to report greater positive subjective effects from alprazolam.
Fetal supraventricular tachycardia diagnosed and treatedat 13 weeks of gestation: a case report

Supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is the most commonly encountered clinically significant tachycardia in the fetus. When SVT is sustained, congestive heart failure and fetal hydrops may ensue, due to both systolic and diastolic dysfunction. Sonographic diagnosis is usually incidental during the second or third trimester. Treatment goals are cardioversion to sinus rhythm and reversal of cardiac dysfunction. We describe a case of fetal SVT diagnosed at 13 weeks of gestation. Treatment with digoxin and flecainide was successful; the heart rate returned to sinus rhythm within one day, and fetal hydrops resolved within 8 days of treatment. We suspect that as more first‐trimester examinations are performed, more cases with SVT will be diagnosed. We discuss the treatment protocol, and suggest that co‐administration of two drugs that act synergistically may be more efficient than monotherapy, which is currently used as the first line of treatment. In addition, we discuss the potentially deleterious effect of heart failure encountered at an early developmental stage on the central nervous system. More data need to be collected in order to substantiate a clear recommendation regarding optimal management. Copyright © 2003 ISUOG. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Central corneal thickness measurements and ultrasonographic study of the growing equine eye.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the central corneal thickness (CCT) of healthy equine eyes with high-frequency ultrasound (HF) and ultrasound biomicroscopy (UBM) and to measure the axial dimensions with B-mode ultrasound. Additionally, the influence of the age on the measured dimensions of the globe was analyzed. ANIMALS STUDIED Fifty warm blood horses (mean age 23.0 ± 21.12 months) were divided into 3 age groups (group 1: 0-6 months; group 2: ≥7-30 months; and group 3: ≥31-78 months). PROCEDURE Corneal measurements were performed with a 22-MHz and a 50-MHz transducer. Crystalline lens thickness (CLT), vitreous chamber depth (VCD), and axial globe length (AGL) were measured at a frequency of 10 MHz. Anterior chamber depth (ACD) was calculated. The eyes were measured under general anesthesia nonrelated to this study. RESULTS The mean CCT of 50 eyes was 818 ± 41 μm. The mean values ± SD in mm for axial dimensions were AGL 34.7 ± 2.7, ACD 3.4 ± 0.7, CLT 10.0 ± 0.9, and VCD of 20.4 ± 1.5. A positive correlation with increasing age was found for all dimensions. No significant differences were found between the gender and the left or right eye. CONCLUSION HF and UBM are valuable high-resolution imaging tools for CCT measurements in horses. The here-obtained values support previous findings that a positive correlation with increasing age exists for CCT, ACD, CLT, VCD, and AGL in horse.
Plasma clusterin levels and the rs11136000 genotype in individuals with mild cognitive impairment and Alzheimer's disease.

AIM Substantial evidence links atherosclerosis and Alzheimer's disease (AD). Apolipoproteins, such as apolipoprotein E, have a causal relationship with both diseases. The rs11136000 SNP within the CLU gene, which encodes clusterin (apolipoprotein J), is also associated with increased AD risk. The aim of this study was to investigate the relationship between plasma clusterin and the rs11136000 genotype in mild cognitive impairment (MCI) and AD. METHODS Plasma and DNA samples were collected from control, MCI and AD subjects (n=142, 111, 154, respectively). Plasma clusterin was determined by ELISA and DNA samples were genotyped for rs11136000 by TaqMan assay. RESULTS Plasma clusterin levels were higher in MCI and AD subjects vs. controls (222.3 ± 61.3 and 193.6 ± 58.2 vs. 178.6 ± 52.3 μg/ml, respectively; p<0.001 for both comparisons), and in MCI vs. AD (p<0.05). Plasma clusterin was not influenced by genotype in the MCI and AD subjects, although in control subjects plasma clusterin was lower in the TT vs. TC genotypes (157.6 ± 53.4 vs. 188.6 ± 30.5 μg/ml; p<0.05). CONCLUSION This study examined control, MCI and AD subjects, identifying for the first time that plasma clusterin levels were influenced, not only by the presence of AD, but also the transitional stage of MCI, while rs11136000 genotype only influenced plasma clusterin levels in the control group. The increase in plasma clusterin in MCI and AD subjects may occur in response to the disease process and would be predicted to increase binding capacity for amyloid-beta peptides in plasma, enhancing their removal from the brain.