Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optical quality assessment in branch retinal vein occlusion after monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injection: a prospective, case-control study

ABSTRACT Purpose To evaluate optical quality and intraocular scattering using the Optical Quality Analysis System (OQAS) II in branch retinal vein occlusion (BRVO) and to investigate the influences of retinal changes on optical quality. Materials and methods Sixty-two patients with diagnosis of BRVO were enrolled in this prospective, case–control study. The control group consisted of the patients’ fellow eyes. Initial logMAR visual acuity, central macular thickness, and optical quality parameters including modulation transfer function cutoff frequency (MTF cut off), Strehl ratio (SR), objective scatter index (OSI) and OQAS values (OVs) at 100%, 20%, and 9% contrast levels were measured. Every BRVO-affected eye was treated with monthly intravitreal ranibizumab injection. We investigated the differences between clinical parameters of the BRVO-affected eye and those of the control eye and changes in those parameters on the basis of the clinical course of BRVO over 3 months. Results All the OQAS parameters measured except objective refraction error differed statistically significantly between the two groups. As macular thickness decreased and visual acuity improved, all the optical quality parameters except for objective refraction error and OV at 100% contrast gradually recovered with time after treatment but did not return to normal compared with the control eye. Only visual acuity was found to be significantly related to central macular thickness change (p = .027). Conclusions BRVO resulted in declined visual acuity and optical quality. It is suggested that the optical quality parameters are affected by the inner layers of the retina in BRVO.
The association between morphological and ecological characters across a global passerine radiation.

Strong relationships between morphological and ecological characters are commonly predicted to reflect the association between form and function, with this hypothesis being well supported in restricted taxonomic and geographic contexts. Conversely, among broader sets of species, ecological variables have been shown to have limited power to explain morphological variation. To understand these apparent discrepancies, for a large and globally distributed passerine radiation we test (i) whether the character states of four ecological variables (foraging mode, diet, strata and habitat) have different morphological optima, (ii) whether ecological variables explain substantial variance in morphology, and (iii) whether ecological character states can be accurately predicted from morphology. We collected ten linear morphological measurements for 782 species of corvoid passerines, and assessed (i) the fit of models of continuous trait evolution with different morphological optima for each ecological character state, (ii) variation in morphological traits among ecological character states using phylogenetically corrected regressions, and (iii) the accuracy of morphological traits in predicting species-level membership of ecological character states using linear discriminant analysis (LDA). Models of morphological evolution with different ecological optima were well supported across numerous morphological axes, corresponding with significant differences in trait distributions among ecological character states. LDA also showed that membership of the ecological categories can be predicted with relatively high accuracy by morphology. In contrast to these findings, ecological variables explain limited amounts of variation in morphological traits. For a global radiation of passerine birds, we confirm that the generation of morphological variation is generally consistent with ecological selection pressures, but that ecological characters are of limited utility in explaining morphological differences among species. Although selection towards different optima means that membership of ecological character states tend to be well predicted by morphology, the overall morphospace of individual ecological character states tend to be broad, implying that morphology can evolve in multiple ways in response to similar selection pressures. Extensive variation in morphological adaptations among similar ecological strategies is likely to be a widespread phenomenon across the tree of life.
Nocturnal gastric acid reflux and sleep disturbances in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease

Objective To investigate night time reflux symptom and its association with sleep dis turhances in patients with gastroesophageal reflux disease (GERD). Methods Seven thousand five hun- dred and twenty outpatients with GERD were studied by self-report questionnaires in 125 hospitals from 51 cities in China.Seven thousand five hundred and fifteen valid questionnaires were collected,and the male to female ratio was 1.36:1.The items of questionnaires included reflux symptoms,night-time reflux symptoms,sleep disturbance and the association of night-time reflux and sleep disturbance. Results The main reflux symptoms in patients with GERD were heartburn(88.3%). regurgitation (72.2%),chest pain (37.6%). epigastric pain (35.5%),pharyngeal discomfort(30.4%),chronic cough(12.1%). and asthma(3.0%). Of 7515 patients.4216(56.1%) had night-time reflux symptoms. 56.1% of EE patients and 53.1% of NERD patients also had night-time reflux symptoms.There were no significant differences between EE and NERD patients.In patients with night-time reflux symptoms. 80.1% had sleep disturbances,which was significantly higher than those without night-time reflux symptoms(25.8%). Poor sleep quality(78.2%) and daytime sleepiness(70.1%) were the most common sleep disturbances.The patients who had sleep disturbances occurred after night-time reflux symptoms accounted for 58.7%,which was significantly higher than those(21.5%) occurred before night-time reflux symptoms.The incidence of sleep disturbances in patients with EE or NERD was 80.0% or 77.1% respectively,and there was no statistical difference hetween EE or NERD patients(P0.05). In GERD patients with sleep disturbances PPI was the most commonly selected medication(53.8%). fol lowed by hypnotic(24.5%) and the combination of PP1 with hypnotic(9.5%). Conclusions Night-time reflux symptoms are common in patients with GERD which may causes sleep disturbances.PPI may be the effective medication.
Cell Free Tumoral DNA Versus Paraffin Block Epidermal Growth Factor Receptor Mutation Detection in Patients with Non-Small Cell Lung Cancer

Introduction: Increasing knowledge about the molecular profile of tumors has led to personalized treatment for achieving better outcomes in patients with nonsmall cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Currently, finding exact somatic genomic changes of tumor has gained great importance. On the other hand, crescendoing needs to actual tumor tissue at different time points during cancer treatment may produce major discomfort for NSCLC patients. Tumor genomes can be reconstructed by information obtained from circulating cell-free deoxyribonucleic acid (cfDNA) of peripheral blood. cfDNA may be represented as a suitable alternative test for epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) mutation detection in these patients. This study aimed to assess validity of cfDNA in somatic EGFR mutation identification in Iranian NSCLC cases. Methods: Somatic mutation of EGFR gene was studied in both tissue specimens and plasma. Then, mutations were detected by polymerase chain reaction(PCR) and sequencing. Results: We observed a high concordance (90%) between tissue samples and cfDNA for EGFR gene mutation. The sensitivity, accuracy, and positive precision value were 90%, 90% and 100%, respectively. A false negative rate of 10% was also demonstrated in this study. Conclusion: We established sensitive methods for detecting EGFR gene mutation which may be very useful in clinical practice.
The high dose unfractionated heparin is related to less radial artery occlusion rates after diagnostic cardiac catheterisation: a single centre experience

Abstract Background Transradial approach (TRA) has increasingly become the default strategy for cardiac catheterisation. However, TRA can result in several complications; radial artery occlusion (RAO) is the most unwilling complication. Unfractionated heparin (UFH) is an effective therapy in preventing RAO. The goal of this study was to evaluate whether weight-adjusted high dose UFH reduces the rate of RAO after diagnostic cardiac catheterisation compared to weight-adjusted standard dose UFH. Methods A total of 1215 patients screened and after exclusion criteria, 686 consecutive patients were enrolled. 100 IU/kg UFH (high dose UFH group) and 50 IU/kg UFH (standard dose UFH group) were given the patients undergoing diagnostic cardiac catheterisation. RAO was evaluated with vascular Doppler ultrasonography at 10 days after cardiac catheterisation. Results Among 686 patients undergoing diagnostic cardiac catheterisation, RAO was detected in 36 (5.2%) patients. There was no significant difference with respect to baseline characteristics and co-morbid diseases between high dose UFH group and standard dose UFH group. RAO was significantly higher in standard dose UFH group than high dose UFH group (7.9% vs. 3.0%, p = .004). Multivariate logistic regression analysis was demonstrated that age (OR: 0.958, 95% CI: 0.924–0.993, p = .019) and standard dose heparin (OR: 2.811, 95% CI: 1.347–5.866, p = .006) were independent factor for RAO. Conclusions High dose UFH was independently associated with a lower rate of RAO. Given that RAO nearly affects about 10% patient underwent TRA, prefer to high dose UFH may be a reasonable choice for RAO prevention.
Whole pearl millet feeding does not impair performance and nutrient digestibility in 28-day-old broiler chickens.

The effects of varying inclusion levels of whole grain millet in millet-soya bean-based diets on growth performance, gizzard development, digesta characteristics and nutrient digestion in broiler chicken were investigated. Starter (0-14 days) and grower (15-28 days) broiler chicken diets containing pearl millet at 500 and 540 g/kg diet, respectively, were formulated. The diets comprised of 0%, 20%, 40%, 60%, 80% and 100% of millet incorporated as whole grain. One-day-old unsexed Arbor Acres Plus chicks (n = 540) were allotted to the experimental diets in a completely randomized design with the diets and water provided ad libitum for 28 days. Each treatment was replicated seven times, and each replicate had 12 chicks. Results showed that daily live weight gain and feed conversion ratio of chickens on the whole millet grain diets compared favourably with chicken on the control in both starter and grower phases, while feed intake reduced quadratically (p < .05) with increased whole grain millet levels in the starter phase. Morphological and structural characteristics of the gizzard and small intestine and intestinal digesta pH and viscosity were also unaffected (p > .05) by whole grain millet inclusion levels. However, the weight of intact millet grain in gizzard increased linearly (p < .001) with whole grain millet inclusion in the diets. Dietary whole grain millet inclusion also consistently lowered (p < .05) jejunal and ileal maltase and sucrase activities, but did not influence (p > .05) pancreatic amylase activity. Ileal crude protein and starch digestibility increased, while ileal energy digestibility decreased significantly (p < .05) with whole grain millet inclusion. Whole grain millet inclusion in broiler starter and grower diets up to 500-540 g/kg did not negatively impact on broiler chicken performance.
The Influence of Affects on Creativity: What Do We Know by Now?

Research and practice have proved the importance of creativity in innovation management. Thereby, individual creativity can be influenced by many determinants. Affective states seem to be a decisive aspect in this context, influencing individual behaviour and thinking. The aim of the present paper is therefore to investigate the influence of affective states on creativity. For this purpose, a systematic literature review was conducted to explore the current state of research in this field. We identified 16 articles in peer-reviewed academic journals that were published from 2005-2015. Objects of interest of this review are positive and negative affective states that comprise moods as well as emotions. We examine the underlying theories, methodology, study design, and research findings of the relevant articles. Moreover, we identify inconsistent findings and still-existing research gaps. Our review shows that research found an influence of both negative and positive affective states on individual creativity. While the influence of positive affective states on creativity is still the most prominent aspect in this field of research, theories incorporating interaction effects have raised attraction. However, studies regarding the influence of negative affect on creativity are underrepresented and ambiguous. Lastly, this systematic literature review provides a useful synopsis to distribute research efforts appropriately within the next decade.
The value of remote marine aerosol measurements for constraining radiative forcing uncertainty

Abstract. Aerosol measurements over the Southern Ocean are used to constrain aerosol–cloud interaction radiative forcing (RFaci) uncertainty in a global climate model. Forcing uncertainty is quantified using 1 million climate model variants that sample the uncertainty in nearly 30 model parameters. Measurements of cloud condensation nuclei and other aerosol properties from an Antarctic circumnavigation expedition strongly constrain natural aerosol emissions: default sea spray emissions need to be increased by around a factor of 3 to be consistent with measurements. Forcing uncertainty is reduced by around 7 % using this set of several hundred measurements, which is comparable to the 8 % reduction achieved using a diverse and extensive set of over 9000 predominantly Northern Hemisphere measurements. When Southern Ocean and Northern Hemisphere measurements are combined, uncertainty in RFaci is reduced by 21 %, and the strongest 20 % of forcing values are ruled out as implausible. In this combined constraint, observationally plausible RFaci is around 0.17 W m−2 weaker (less negative) with 95 % credible values ranging from −2.51 to −1.17 W m−2 (standard deviation of −2.18 to −1.46 W m−2). The Southern Ocean and Northern Hemisphere measurement datasets are complementary because they constrain different processes. These results highlight the value of remote marine aerosol measurements.
QTL analysis for yield-related traits under different water regimes in maize

Drought is one of the most essential factors influencing maize yield. Improving maize varieties with drought tolerance by using marker-assisted or genomic selection requires more understanding of the genetic basis of yield-related traits under different water regimes. In the present study, 213 F2:3 families of the cross of H082183 (drought-tolerant) × Lv28 (drought susceptible) were phenotyped with five yield-related traits under four well-watered and six drought environments for two years. Quantitative trait loci analysis identified 133 significant QTLs (94 QTLs for ear traits and 39 QTLs for kernel traits) based on single environment analysis. The joint-environment analysis detected 25 QTLs under well-watered environments (eight QTLs for ear length, eight for ear diameter, one for ear weight, two for kernel weight per ear, and six for 100-kernel weight), and nine QTLs under water-stressed environments (two QTLs for ear length, three for ear diameter, one for ear weight, one for kernel weight, and two for 100-kernel weight). Among these joint-environment QTLs, one common QTL (qEL5) was stably identified at both of the water regimes. Meanwhile, two main-effect QTLs were detected in the well-watered environments, i.e. qEL10 for ear length and qHKW2 for 100-kernel weight. Also, qED8, qEW8, and qKW8 were found to be located in the same interval of Chr. 8. Similarly, qEL4s and qKW4s were found to be located in the same interval under water-stressed environments. These genomic regions could be candidate targets for further fine mapping and marker-assisted breeding in maize.
“There's More to Frail than That”: Older New Zealanders and Health Professionals Talk about Frailty

There is general agreement that frailty is common and important in later life, but there is less agreement about what frailty is. Little is known about the extent to which practicing health professionals and older people hold a mutual understanding of frailty. Focus groups were held to engage older people and health professionals in discussion about what made them think that someone was frail. Eighteen older people took part across three focus groups, and se'venteen health professionals took part across another three focus groups. Both the health professionals and the older people talked about the experience of frailty as an interplay of physical, psychological, and social dimensions. Older people with frailty were seen as needing help and being vulnerable to adverse outcomes, but accepting help was positioned by older people as an adaptive choice. The experience of frailty was described as being mediated by the individual's psychological mindset, highlighting the importance of approaches that recognise strengths and resilience. A broader and more balanced understanding of frailty may help create more rounded and appropriate approaches to assessment and management.
Genetic Assessment of Some Egyptian Cultivated Citrus and its Relatives using Retrotransposons and Microsatellite

detailed overview of evaluating 21 LTR-REMAP and 27 SSR markers in the discriminating capacity, efficiency and ability of the genetic variability among 20 genotypes in the genus Citrus . The LTR-REMAP profile displayed 1.28 fold higher value of marker index (MI) compare to the SSR profile, highlights the distinctive nature of LTR-REMAP assay. This marker was more sensitive and provided much more evidence to discriminate at low taxonomic levels, especially for Egyptian acidic, whereas, SSR can differentiate within the group level only. Intriguingly, the heatmap cluster analysis (HCA) and principal component analysis (PCA) data drew an accurate monophyletic annotations cluster in Citreneae species, offer unambiguous identification without overlapping groups between true species and related hybrids of citrus, resulted in their placement in different clades. The use of molecular technologies will help to overcome the obstacles of cultivars identification, genetic variability in the Egyptian citrus breeding.
The Impact of Merit Based Financial Aid and Price Illusion on College Enrollment: A Field Experiment

Merit based financial aid awards have becoming increasingly prevalent in the pricing policies of higher education institutions. This study utilizes an experiment to estimate the efficacy of merit aid awards in achieving the institutional objective of attracting the most academically desirable applicants. Additionally, the experimental setting of this paper allows for a test of whether students respond to the framing of price in making enrollment decisions (i.e. price illusion), holding net price constant. I find that merit aid has a statistically significant but inelastic effect on enrollment of high ability students, and there appears to be weak evidence of price illusion, particularly among female applicants.
Antioxidant Activities, Total Phenolic Compounds and γ-Aminobutyric Acid Contents of Extracts Derived from Thai Pre-Germinated Brown Rice and Pre-Germinated Rough Rice

Thai traditional methods for processing brown rice (BR) into pre-germinated brown rice (GBR) and rough rice into pre-germinated rough rice (GRR) have been used to increase nutritional values, improve textures and increase bioactive compounds of rice. In this study, four Thai rice cultivars, including waxy rice, jasmine rice, purple waxy rice and red hawn rice, were processed into GBR and GRR, extracted using distilled water and determined for levels of antioxidant activities, total phenolic compounds and γ aminobutyric acid (GABA) contents. The results showed that GBR and GRR of all rice cultivars, except red hawn rice, had higher percent yield of extraction than those without pre-germination. Especially, the extract of GRR of purple waxy rice was found to have the highest yield at 9.39%. Moreover, the extracts of waxy rice and jasmine rice in the form of GRR were found to have levels of antioxidant activities significantly higher than their GBR and BR. Indeed, DPPH scavenging assay showed that GRR of jasmine rice had the maximum antioxidant activities at 1.66 ± 0.30 mg BHA equivalents/g dry weight of rice. In addition, GRR of purple waxy rice was found to have the highest total phenolic compounds at 1.42 ± 1.10 mg gallic acid equivalents/g dry weight of rice, although not significantly different from the others perhaps due to high variation of data. Moreover, GRR processing method was also shown to significantly increase the levels of GABA in waxy rice, jasmine rice and purple waxy rice. In particular, GRR of purple waxy rice and jasmine rice were found to have 4-7 fold increase of GABA when compared to their Biocontrol Research Unit, Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Technology, Mahasarakham University Corresponding author, email: paweena.ra@msu.ac. th SWU Sci. J. Vol. 29 No. 1 (2013) 98 BR. Although BR of red hawn rice was found to have the highest level of GABA at 116.07 ± 0.91 μg/g dry weight of rice, its GBR and GRR were found to have much lower GABA contents. Two-way ANOVA analysis suggested that there were significant interactions between rice cultivars and processing methods on antioxidant activities (P = 0.002) and GABA contents (P < 0.001). This may suggest that types of rice cultivars and processing methods may play important roles on certain riceûs bioactive compounds. The data from this study could be beneficial for the future development of pre-germinated brown rice and pre-germinated rough rice products for nutritional, therapeutic and cosmetic purposes.
Physical Properties of Homogeneous Particleboard based on Acacia Tree and Polyurethane Adhesive as a Resins

The formaldehyde-based adhesives have always been chosen for manufacturer in the making of particleboard because of the cost. However, it has low moisture resistance and high water absorption. At the same time, formaldehyde-based adhesive also produced gaseous emission that can cause cancer and bronchial health. Meanwhile, the high water resistance, low moisture content and healthy to the human body nowadays becomes most important issues in the making of furniture for market. This research was discusses on the ability of Acacia tree as raw material and polyurethane (PU) as an adhesive for making the homogeneous particleboard. The aim of this research isto looking the impact of using different particle sizes from Acacia tree to the physical properties of the end product. This study also focuses on the potential of paraffin wax as a water repellent agent. The testing of physical properties was includes the thickness swelling (TS) testing, moisture content (MC), density and water absorption (WA testing). The size of Acacia particle was varied from x<2mm, 4mm>x>2mm and x>4mm. All particleboards produced was achieve the range of medium density according to the Japan Industry Standard (JIS). The results have shown that the value of the density and the particle size was influenced the result especially for the physical properties. From this research it is proved that the PU as a resin and sawdust of acacia tree with some specific size can be a good binder and material for the particle board industries in future. The paraffin wax also showed a great potential as a water repellent agent based on the reduction of water absorption of the particleboard. The particleboard with sizes between 2mm to 4mm proves better results compared to the smaller or bigger sizes of particle.