Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Assessment of the knowledge and perception of generic medications among pharmacy and medical students in the University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates

Background Generic substitution has become a common practice in several countries, primarily because of a major cost-minimizing strategy without compromising healthcare quality. Objective The study was carried out to assess the knowledge and perception of generic medication among final year pharmacy and medical students in the University of Sharjah. Method A cross-sectional survey was designed, pre-validated, and distributed during the period of September to November 2019 in the University of Sharjah, United Arab Emirates. The study research covered various aspects on knowledge and perception of generic medicines. It was distributed to 180 final year pharmacy and medicine students. Data were analyzed using SPSS, and Chi square test was used to determine the level of significance at p < 0.05. Result A total of 171 of 180 questionnaires were returned back including 87 and 84 surveys from pharmacy and medical students respectively producing a response rate of 95%. The majority of respondents in both collages were females, Arabs, and with parents of non-health care professions. Significantly more pharmacy than medical students agreed that cost-effective therapy and generics were covered in their study courses, generics are bioequivalent to brands and must contain the same amount of active ingredients like brands, that they are confident of their knowledge and more easily recall drugs by their generic names. Again more pharmacy students agreed that pharmacists should have the right to perform substitution but disagreed to the statement that generics takes longer time to produce therapeutic effects than brands. Conclusion Overall, Final-year students of pharmacy had better level of knowledge and perception of generic medicines and their right to perform generic substitution. Medical students seem to have limited knowledge of certain important aspects. Therefore, improvement of educational courses of future health-care professionals should be implemented early to enhance students’ awareness toward generic substitution.
Cost-Sensitive Ensemble Feature Ranking and Automatic Threshold Selection for Chronic Kidney Disease Diagnosis

Automated medical diagnosis is one of the important machine learning applications in the domain of healthcare. In this regard, most of the approaches primarily focus on optimizing the accuracy of classification models. In this research, we argue that, unlike general-purpose classification problems, medical applications, such as chronic kidney disease (CKD) diagnosis, require special treatment. In the case of CKD, apart from model performance, other factors such as the cost of data acquisition may also be taken into account to enhance the applicability of the automated diagnosis system. In this research, we proposed two techniques for cost-sensitive feature ranking. An ensemble of decision tree models is employed in both the techniques for computing the worth of a feature in the CKD dataset. An automatic threshold selection heuristic is also introduced which is based on the intersection of features’ worth and their accumulated cost. A set of experiments are conducted to evaluate the efficacy of the proposed techniques on both tree-based and non tree-based classification models. The proposed approaches were also evaluated against several comparative techniques. Furthermore, it is demonstrated that the proposed techniques select around 1/4th of the original CKD features while reducing the cost by a factor of 7.42 of the original feature set. Based on the extensive experimentation, it is concluded that the proposed techniques employing feature-cost interaction heuristic tend to select feature subsets that are both useful and cost-effective.
Neurocognition and functional outcome : Individual factors Novel Antipsychotic Medications Anticholinergic Medications Conventional Antipsychotic Medications Neurocognition Functional Outcome Psychotic Symptoms Negative Symptoms

The search is on for meaningful psychopharmacological and cognitive/behavioral interventions for neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia. Findings in this area are emerging rapidly, and in the absence of integrating frameworks, they are destined to emerge chaotically. Clear guidelines for testing neurocognitive interventions and interpreting results are critical at this early stage. In this article, we present three models of increasing complexity that attempt to elucidate the role of neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia in relation to treatment and outcome. Through discussion of the models, we will consider methodological issues and interpretive challenges facing this line of investigation, including direct versus indirect neurocognitive effects of antipsychotic medications, selection of particular neurocognitive constructs for intervention, the importance of construct validity in interpreting cognitive/behavioral studies, and the expected durability of treatment effects. With a growing confidence that some neurocognitive deficits in schizophrenia can be modified, questions that seemed irrelevant only a few years ago are now fundamental. The field will need to reconsider what constitutes a successful intervention, what the relevant outcomes are, and how to define treatment efficacy.
Ignoring non‐English‐language studies may bias ecological meta‐analyses

Abstract Meta‐analysis plays a crucial role in syntheses of quantitative evidence in ecology and biodiversity conservation. The reliability of estimates in meta‐analyses strongly depends on unbiased sampling of primary studies. Although earlier studies have explored potential biases in ecological meta‐analyses, biases in reported statistical results and associated study characteristics published in different languages have never been tested in environmental sciences. We address this knowledge gap by systematically searching published meta‐analyses and comparing effect‐size estimates between English‐ and Japanese‐language studies included in existing meta‐analyses. Of the 40 published ecological meta‐analysis articles authored by those affiliated to Japanese institutions, we find that three meta‐analysis articles searched for studies in the two languages and involved sufficient numbers of English‐ and Japanese‐language studies, resulting in four eligible meta‐analyses (i.e., four meta‐analyses conducted in the three meta‐analysis articles). In two of the four, effect sizes differ significantly between the English‐ and Japanese‐language studies included in the meta‐analyses, causing considerable changes in overall mean effect sizes and even their direction when Japanese‐language studies are excluded. The observed differences in effect sizes are likely attributable to systematic differences in reported statistical results and associated study characteristics, particularly taxa and ecosystems, between English‐ and Japanese‐language studies. Despite being based on a small sample size, our findings suggest that ignoring non‐English‐language studies may bias outcomes of ecological meta‐analyses, due to systematic differences in study characteristics and effect‐size estimates between English‐ and non‐English languages. We provide a list of actions that meta‐analysts could take in the future to reduce the risk of language bias.
Twenty-four–hour energy balance in Crohn disease patients: metabolic implications of steroid treatment 1,2

Several hypotheses have been proposed to explain the nutritional deficiencies seen in Crohn disease patients, including inadequate food intake, decreased assimilation and increased loss of nutrients, and increased energy expenditure. To assess the effect of steroid therapy on body composition, energy expenditure, and fuel selection in Crohn disease, we compared 12 patients (6 men and 6 women) with biopsy-proven ileal Crohn disease with 11 healthy volunteers (6 men and 5 women). Five patients [Crohn’s disease activity index (CDAI) = 98.4 ± 3.78] took no medication and seven patients (CDAI = 283.9 ± 22.5) were administered 29 ± 18 mg prednisone/d. Body composition was evaluated by isotopic dilution and bioelectrical impedance analysis, and 24-h energy expenditure and basal metabolic rate were measured in a respiratory chamber. Fat-free mass was not significantly different among groups, whereas fat mass was lower in patients than in control subjects. Energy intake was higher in treated patients than in both untreated patients ( P = 0.004) and control subjects ( P = 0.005). Fecal losses were not significantly different between untreated patients and control subjects, but were higher (and proportional to the CDAI) in treated patients than in control subjects ( P = 0.001). Metabolizable energy was not significantly different among groups, whereas energy balance was significantly higher in treated patients than in both control subjects ( P = 0.0057) and untreated patients ( P = 0.018). Nitrogen balance was mildly negative in treated patients compared with both control subjects and untreated patients, but not significantly so. In conclusion, prednisone treatment in Crohn disease patients stimulates food intake, promoting an overall positive energy balance despite large fecal nutrient losses. Am J Clin Nutr 1998;67:118–23.
Comparative studies of vertebrate scavenger receptor class B type 1: a high-density lipoprotein binding protein

: Scavenger receptor class B type 1 protein (SCARB1) plays an essential role in cholesterol homeostasis and functions in binding high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL) in liver and other tissues of the body. SCARB1 also functions in lymphocyte homeostasis and in the uptake of hepatitis C virus (HCV) by the liver. A genetic deficiency of this protein results in autoimmune disorders and significant changes in blood cholesterol phenotype. Comparative SCARB1 amino acid sequences and structures and SCARB1 gene locations were examined using data from several vertebrate genome projects. Vertebrate SCARB1 sequences shared 50%–99% identity as compared with 28%–31% sequence identities with other CD36-like superfamily members, ie, SCARB2 and SCARB3 (also called CD36). At least eight N-glycosylation sites were conserved among most of the vertebrate SCARB1 proteins examined. Sequence alignments, key amino acid residues, and conserved predicted secondary structures were also studied, including: cytoplasmic, transmembrane, and exoplasmic sequences; conserved N-terminal and C-terminal transmembrane glycines which participate in oligomer formation; conserved cystine disulfides and a free SH residue which participates in lipid transport; carboxyl terminal PDZ-binding domain sequences (Ala507-Arg/Lys508-Leu509); and 30 conserved proline and 18 conserved glycine residues, which may contribute to short loop formation within the exoplasmic HDL-binding sequence. Vertebrate SCARB1 genes usually contained 12 coding exons. The human SCARB1 gene contained CpG islands, micro RNA binding sites, and several transcription factor binding sites (including PPARG) which may contribute to the high level (13.7 times the average) of gene expression. Phylogenetic analyses examined the relationships and potential evolutionary origins of the vertebrate SCARB1 gene with vertebrate SCARB2 and vertebrate and invertebrate SCARB3 ( CD36 ) genes. These suggested that SCARB1 originated in a vertebrate ancestral genome from a gene duplication event of an ancestral invertebrate CD36 gene.
X-Ray Spectrum of Sagittarius A East

Sgr A East is a young SNR located in the Galactic Center (GC) region. Since the GC region is occupied by diffuse X-ray emission (GCDX) with a strong 6.7keV line, an estimation of the GCDX is crucial to study the X-ray spectrum of Sgr A East. The flux and spectrum of the GCDX are found to be smoothly distributed around and across Sgr A East, and hence a reliable GCDX subtraction can be made. This paper presents the X-ray spectrum of Sgr A East with the XIS on board Suzaku. In addition to the previously reported Kα lines from S XV ,A rXVII, Ca XIX ,a nd FeXXV (all He-like atoms), we found Kα lines from S XVI ,A rXVIII ,F eXXVI (all hydrogenic atoms), and Ni XXVII (He-like), Kβ lines from S XV ,A rXVII ,a nd FeXXV ,a nd aK γ line from Fe XXV. Plasma diagnostics using these lines revealed the presence of at least a two-temperature plasma. The overall spectrum can be fitted with a two-temperature (∼ 1.2keV and ∼ 6keV) plasma in ionization equilibrium plus a power-law component.
Granular Instrumental Variables

We propose a new way to construct instruments in a broad class of economic environments: “granular instrumental variables” (GIVs). In the economies we study, a few large firms, in- dustries or countries account for an important share of economic activity. As the idiosyncratic shocks from these large players affect aggregate outcomes, they are valid and often powerful instruments. We provide a methodology to extract idiosyncratic shocks from the data in order to create GIVs, which are size-weighted sums of idiosyncratic shocks. These GIVs allow us to then estimate parameters of interest, including causal elasticities and multipliers. We first illustrate the idea in a basic supply and demand framework: we achieve a novel identification of both supply and demand elasticities based on idiosyncratic shocks to either supply or demand. We then show how the procedure can be enriched to work in many sit- uations. We provide illustrations of the procedure with two applications. First, we measure how “sovereign yield shocks” transmit across countries in the Eurozone. Second, we estimate short-term supply and demand multipliers and elasticities in the oil market. Our estimates match existing ones that use more complex and labor-intensive (e.g., narrative) methods. We sketch how GIVs could be useful to estimate a host of other causal parameters in economics.
Entrepreneurial Orientation, Collaborative Engagement, and Performance: Evidence From Rural Economic Development Organizations

This study examines the role of entrepreneurial orientation (EO) and collaborative engagement on the performance of rural economic development organizations. The authors theorize that an organization’s EO and collaborative engagement, determined by levels of active engagement within a regional collaboration network, impact its ability to accomplish its goals, satisfy its stakeholders, and influence regional economic development. The authors’ analysis of data from 98 collaborating economic development organizations operating in the economically distressed region of eastern Kentucky shows that EO and collaborative engagement are positively associated with performance. This study provides actionable insights for leaders of economic development organizations seeking to improve their operations.
The AD-AS Model with the Shadow Economy

This theoretical paper includes the shadow economy in the popular AD-AS model and derives the main economic results for both the short-run and the long-run. This accounts for the presence of the shadow economy in countries around the world, as well its persistence over time. Precisely, if the shadow economy is capable of absorbing unemployment, then in the short-run there will be a supply-side positive shock on output (the “shadow shock”). The “shadow shock” is, however, temporary; in the long-run the effect of the shadow economy on potential output is negative.
Bicultural Iranians Political Tendency: In Between Two Cultures

The present study aimed to examine differences in a range of psychosocial variables and political tendencies across three groups, namely Iranian new-comers (who have lived in the UK for less than two years), bicultural Iranians (born and raised in the UK or raised in the UK since they were under 10 years old), and UK citizens (bicultural participants were excluded). The target variables measured in the present study consisted of empathy, Theory of Mind (ToM), flexibility, suggestibility, openness to experiences, normative identity style, interpersonal trust, pro-social behaviour, egalitarian sex role, authoritarianism and adherence to democracy. A series of MANOVAs revealed significant main group effects for most of variables. The results of post hoc and polynomial tests yield an incremental linear trend on empathy, theory of mind, interpersonal trust, openness, pro-social behaviour and adherence to democratic values for groups ordered as Iranian new comers, bicultural and British; a decreasing trend was also observed on normative identity style, suggestibility, and authoritarianism. Thse between-two cultures’ findings of bicultural group might be explained by learning through political socialization. This provides support for the fact that being raised in a distinct cultural setting can have a vivid impact on people’s psychological characteristics and socio-political tendency.
The lived experience of an integration paradox: why high-skilled migrants from Turkey experience little national belonging in the Netherlands

ABSTRACT How do migrants become part of a national community and feel a sense of belonging to that country? Whilst migrants’ educational level is considered key in doing so, survey studies conclude that higher-educated migrants experience a low sense of belonging to the residence country. This has been dubbed the integration paradox. We draw from in-depth qualitative biographical interviews with highly-skilled Turkish migrants in the Netherlands to contribute to understanding how this so-called paradox can come about. Purposeful sampling from the New Immigrants Survey allows for rich data that reflect those who, according to the survey, experience a paradox (N = 15) and those who do not (N = 17). First, we find that some migrants interpret national belonging in more complex ways than was intended by often-used survey items measuring this concept. Many highly-skilled migrants experience little belonging to a single nation, but instead identify with a supranational entity. Some self-identified world citizens are therefore categorised as ‘paradoxical’ because they experience belonging nowhere in specific. Second, we find multiple conditions that structure (non-)belonging, such as experiencing non-belonging due to exclusion from both Dutch and Dutch-Turkish communities, and might explain the paradox. These insights shed new light on the mechanisms underpinning the integration paradox. English Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo Dutch Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo Turkish Video Abstract Read the transcript Watch the video on Vimeo
Capitalizing on Collapse: An Analysis of Institutional Single-Family Rental Investors

A well-documented consequence of the recent foreclosure crisis was a pronounced dislocation in the single-family home market. Large institutional buyers emerged to capitalize on this dislocation. These firms acquired hundreds of thousands of single-family homes to create a pool of single-family rentals (SFRs) in markets across the United States. Existing analyses of institutional investors focus on their aggregate characteristics and associated community effects, showing faster housing recovery in places hard hit by foreclosure but also increases in evictions and home prices. Relatively little is known about individual firms’ strategies or how they have evolved over time—knowledge that is critical to understanding the diversity of these actors and establishing causal links to community impacts. We help fill this gap by using quantitative and qualitative data from the corporate filings of publicly traded SFR companies to understand the industry’s birth, growth and development, strategies and approaches, and points of differentiation.
The image of Taiwan as a travel destination: Perspectives from Mainland China

This study presents the perceived and projected image of Taiwan as a travel destination from perspectives from Mainland China. The perceived image of Taiwan was examined by interviewing 28 Mainland Chinese; the projected image of Taiwan was investigated by analyzing articles in China’s most popular travel magazines. The different types of image of Taiwan among visitors, non-visitors, and travel magazines were compared. The projected image changed notably after the opening of Taiwan’s tourism to travelers from Mainland China. The results of this study could help destination marketing organizations to assess their marketing strategies for Mainland Chinese travel market.
Is Paying Taxes Habit Forming ? Experimental Evidence from Uruguay

Political participation involves routinized, repeated behaviors—and repetition may itself breed habits of citizenship that exert a causal influence on behavior. This implies the possibility of virtuous or vicious cycles in civic participation. Yet, it is usually extremely difficult to separate habit from confounding explanations for repeated behaviors. We study a policy in Montevideo, Uruguay that randomly assigns tax holidays, or year-long interruptions of payments, to punctual taxpayers; the program is designed both to reward and induce tax compliance, a critical aspect of citizen-state interaction and a key facet of state capacity. We find that far from fostering compliance, the tax holiday inhibits it: winning the lottery results in a 3 percentage-point reduction in compliance after the end of the holiday, an effect that lasts for up to three years. We use field and survey experiments to disentangle informational mechanisms from the effects of habit disruption. Our findings have both social-scientific and policy implications.
Nano‐scale analysis of graphene layers by tip‐enhanced near‐field Raman spectroscopy

We demonstrate nano-scale optical analysis of graphene layers by tip-enhanced near-field Raman spectroscopy (TERS). In this technique, the spatial resolution ∼30 nm is realized by the near-field probe which acts as a nano-light source. From the intensity change of the Raman band of silicon generated from the near-field probe, we can conveniently estimate the edge boundaries and the number of stacking layers. TERS measurement across the layer edges reveals the nano-scale properties of the material as well as the existence of local defects and edge boundaries. The intensity change of the G-band shows the step-like behavior that follows the layer boundary, whereas the two components in 2D peak show more complex behaviors even inside layers. The peak fluctuation in the 2D band also suggests the local stress distribution due to interlayer interactions. An excess charge effect is observed through the correlation between the peak position and the width of the G-band and their nano-scale distribution within a layer is revealed. Besides the vibrational analysis, we successfully performed the estimation of the number of layers in two-dimensional imaging by the same experimental platform, which allows us high-throughput nondestructive identification of graphene layers critical for the evaluation of this material especially in future device applications. Copyright © 2009 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.