Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age of Onset of Susceptibility to Different Tobacco Products Among Non-Susceptible US Young Adults: Findings from the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health Study Waves 2-4 (2014-2017)

Introduction Initiation of tobacco products is increasing in young adulthood. This study prospectively estimated the age of onset of susceptibility to cigarettes, e-cigarettes, hookah, smokeless tobacco, and cigarillos among young adults, which is a cognitive precursor to initiation. Methods Secondary data analyses of the Population Assessment of Tobacco and Health (PATH) study, a nationally representative longitudinal cohort study of US adults. Young adults (18-24 years) who were non-susceptible to each tobacco product (cigarettes, e-cigarettes, hookah, smokeless tobacco, and cigarillos) at waves 2 or 3 were followed-up into waves 3-4 to prospectively estimate the age of onset of susceptibility to each tobacco product. Weighted interval-censored survival methods and interval-censored Cox regression models were implemented to estimate the age of onset of susceptibility, and to estimate differences in the hazard function by sex and by race/ethnicity, while controlling for the total number of other tobacco products ever used at their first wave of participation in PATH. Results By age 21, 16.5%, 16.0%, 12.6%, 12.4%, and 5.9% of young adults reported onset of susceptibility to hookah, e-cigarettes, cigarillos, cigarettes, and smokeless tobacco, respectively. Among young adults who were non-susceptible to each tobacco product at waves 2 or 3, the highest increase in onset of susceptibility occurred between ages 18 and 19 for cigarettes, e-cigarettes, and hookah, while the highest increase in onset of susceptibility occurs between ages 22 and 23 for cigarillos. Young adult males had increased risk of onset of susceptibility to cigarillos and smokeless tobacco at earlier ages than young adult females. Differences in onset of susceptibility to each tobacco product were also observed by race/ethnicity among young adults. Conclusions With the changing landscape of tobacco products, monitoring the age of onset of susceptibility of tobacco product use among non-susceptible young adults longitudinally is critical to prevent initiation. Communication and education campaigns tailored to address differences in susceptibility among young adults by tobacco product and sociodemographic factors will be useful.
Microtubule-Interfering Drugs: Current and Future Roles in Epithelial Ovarian Cancer Treatment

Simple Summary Microtubule-interfering drugs have been used alone or in combination in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer. Over the years and with increasing chemoresistance to taxanes, epothilones (i.e., ixabepilone) have become of interest as alternatives to taxanes. In this review, we discuss the role of microtubule-interfering chemotherapeutic agents in treatment of newly diagnosed and recurrent ovarian cancer, as well as common mechanisms of chemoresistance. We also discuss future directions for the use of microtubule-interfering agents in ovarian cancer. Abstract Taxanes and epothilones are chemotherapeutic agents that ultimately lead to cell death through inhibition of normal microtubular function. This review summarizes the literature demonstrating their current use and potential promise as therapeutic agents in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer (EOC), as well as putative mechanisms of resistance. Historically, taxanes have become the standard of care in the front-line and recurrent treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer. In the past few years, epothilones (i.e., ixabepilone) have become of interest as they may retain activity in taxane-treated patients since they harbor several features that may overcome mechanisms of taxane resistance. Clinical data now support the use of ixabepilone in the treatment of platinum-resistant or refractory ovarian cancer. Clinical data strongly support the use of microtubule-interfering drugs alone or in combination in the treatment of epithelial ovarian cancer. Ongoing clinical trials will shed further light into the potential of making these drugs part of current standard practice.
Simulated driving performance and peripheral detection at mesopic and low photopic light levels

This paper describes research conducted to measure people's ability to perform a simulated driving task and respond to peripheral targets at mesopic and low photopic light levels under different spectral power distributions (SPDS). A computer-controlled driving simulator apparatus was employed. An achromatic projected driving scene could be controlled in terms of luminance and SPD using filters. Subjects drove simulated roadway courses; their average speed, frequency of crashing and subjective ratings of brightness were measured. As expected, driving performance and subjective ratings improved with photopic luminance. SPD had no measurable an driving performance or brightness ratings. Subsequent tests shawed, however, that the detection of targets located in the peripheral visual field (positioned where potential visual hazards to a driver might be located) was highly dependent on both luminance and SID. Rods and cones both appear to contribute to peripheral target detection even at luminances traditionally considered to be strictly photopic. The results and their implications are discussed in the context of previous research.
Combination of Decitabine and a Modified Regimen of Cisplatin, Cytarabine and Dexamethasone: A Potential Salvage Regimen for Relapsed or Refractory Diffuse Large B-Cell Lymphoma After Second-Line Treatment Failure

Objective The prognosis for patients with relapsed or refractory diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (R/R-DLBCL) after second-line treatment failure is extremely poor. This study prospectively observed the efficacy and safety of decitabine with a modified cisplatin, cytarabine, and dexamethasone (DHAP) regimen in R/R-DLBCL patients who failed second-line treatment. Methods Twenty-one R/R-DLBCL patients were enrolled and treated with decitabine and a modified DHAP regimen. The primary endpoints were overall response rate (ORR) and safety. The secondary endpoints were progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS). Results ORR reached 50% (complete response rate, 35%), five patients (25%) had stable disease (SD) with disease control rate (DCR) of 75%. Subgroup analysis revealed patients over fifty years old had a higher complete response rate compared to younger patients (P = 0.005), and relapsed patients had a better complete response rate than refractory patients (P = 0.031). Median PFS was 7 months (95% confidence interval, 5.1-8.9 months). Median OS was not achieved. One-year OS was 59.0% (95% CI, 35.5%-82.5%), and two-year OS was 51.6% (95% confidence interval, 26.9%-76.3%). The main adverse events (AEs) were grade 3/4 hematologic toxicities such as neutropenia (90%), anemia (50%), and thrombocytopenia (70%). Other main non-hematologic AEs were grade 1/2 nausea/vomiting (40%) and infection (50%). No renal toxicity or treatment-related death occurred. Conclusion Decitabine with a modified DHAP regimen can improve the treatment response and prognosis of R/R-DLBCL patients with good tolerance to AEs, suggesting this regimen has potential as a possible new treatment option for R/R-DLBCL patients after second-line treatment failure. Clinical Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov, identifier: NCT03579082.
The analysis of flexible raft-pile systems

An analysis has been developed to predict the behaviour of a raft-pile foundation system. The analysis considers the system as a flexible elastic plate supported on a group of compressible friction piles, and the supporting soil is represented as an elastic homoeneous or non-homogeneous material. The ultimate load capacity of the piles is taken into account by a ‘load cut-off’ procedure. The analysis is used to establish the effectiveness of the pile group in reducing settlement of the raft and the effects of raft flexibility and size, and pile group parameters are considered. Two raft-pile systems, namely, the La Azteca building, Mexico City, and the Hyde Park Cavalry Barracks, London, are reanalysed. There is encouraging agreement between measured and predicted settlements and pile loads. Une methode a ete developpee afin de prevoir le comportement d'un systeme de fondation par radier general surpieux. L'analyse considere le systeme comme une plaque elastique flexible supportee par un groupe de pieux fl.
Engineering Entrepreneurship: An Example of A Paradigm Shift in Engineering Education

This paper describes a course on technology‐based entrepreneurship. Brown University's Division of Engineering has created a two‐semester course sequence designed to introduce students to entrepreneurship through a unique merger of classroom learning and industry participation. The course is open to advanced undergraduates from all engineering disciplines, and emphasis is placed upon recruiting almost half of the student participants from outside of engineering in order to develop “team building” skills. Local “parent companies” provide seed ideas or concepts to student groups who use skills learned in the classroom (both in this course as well as other courses) to develop and refine the parent company's idea and turn it into a viable simulated spin‐off business or new start‐up. Managers from the parent companies serve in an evolving role over the two‐semester sequence beginning as a “board of directors” for the spin‐off and eventually evolving into a potential source of start‐up capital (or possibly a customer for the products of the company). The faculty carefully manage the student‐company interface. Deliverables at the end of the two‐semester sequence include a business plan and a prototype product.
Molecular mechanism of CK19 involved in the regulation of postoperative recurrence of HBV-associated primary hepatocellular carcinoma in Guangxi

Background Cytokeratin 19 (CK19/KRT19) is a marker of biliary epithelial cells and hepatic progenitor cells, which can be expressed in some hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). However, its role in the occurrence, development, and recurrence of hepatitis B virus (HBV)-associated HCC remains to be clarified. This study is to analyze the relationship between the expression of CK19 protein and clinicopathological factors, as well as the effect of positive CK19 expression on the prognosis of HCC patients. Methods Small interfering RNA (siRNA) transfection was used to silence CK19 in MHCC-97H and Hep-3B. Real time polymerase chain reaction (qPCR), immunohistochemistry (IHC), and flow cytometry were used to detect the effects of CK19 silencing on cell function. High-throughput sequencing was used to explore the potential molecular mechanism of CK19 positive expression of HCC. Results In 24 patients with HCC, CK19 was only expressed in cancer tissues, regardless of primary or recurrent tumors, and the positive expression rate of recurrent tumors was higher than that of primary tumors. The HCC participants with positive primary CK19 expression had a shorter tumor-free survival time. Silencing of the CK19 gene in MHCC-97H and Hep-3B attenuated the migration and invasion ability of MHCC-97H, increased the G2 phase cell content of MHCC-97H and Hep-3B, and increased the proportion of apoptosis. High-throughput sequencing results suggested that changes in the function of the cell cycle regulating genes, drug, and carcinogenic metabolism might be the potential pathways of CK19 in regulating the biological behavior of HCC. Conclusions Among HBV-related recurrent HCC, the positive rate of CK19 expression in recurrent HCC tumors was higher, and the tumor-free survival time of HCC patients with positive CK19 expression in primary HCC was shorter. After silencing of the CK19 gene, the migration and invasion ability of HCC cells were weakened, the content of G2-M cell cycle cells was increased, the invasion and migration of HCC cells were inhibited, and apoptosis was promoted. Changes in the function of the cell cycle regulating genes and the regulation of drug and carcinogenic metabolites-related pathways may be the pathways through which CK19 affects the biological behavior of HCC.
The impact of teacher bonuses on student performance in full-time schools: The case of the Espírito Santo

The goal of the study was to analyze the effect of granting financial incentives to teachers in relation to the performance of students from full-time schools of Espírito Santo. A method of matching was used by means PSM (propensity score matching) and then a Tobit regression to analyze the exam scores of the SAEB (National Basic Education Assessment System) in 2017. The results found showed that there is a positive association and related between the BD (Bonificação por Desempenho) program and the Portuguese and mathematics grades of third-year high school students from full-time schools in Espírito Santo. The work concludes by explaining that the success of the program to the reduction in absenteeism and the decrease in teacher turnover.
Do Arms Races Lead to War?

The link that may exist between the arms race phenomenon and the eventual outbreak of open warfare is not a new topic in peace science. Yet, in spite of the undoubted importance and interest of the subject, there have been remarkably few systematic attempts at integrating the analysis of arms races, on the one hand, and the study of the 'causes' of war, on the other. This paper offers a few preliminary and straightforward thoughts on this question, the aim being more to raise or emphasize a number of issues than to supply firm answers.
Congested Freeway Microsimulation Model Using VISSIM

A procedure for constructing and calibrating a detailed model of a freeway by using VISSIM is presented and applied to a 15-mi stretch of I-210 West in Pasadena, California. This test site provides several challenges for microscopic modeling: a high-occupancy vehicle (HOV) lane with an intermittent barrier, a heavy freeway connector, 20 metered on-ramps with and without HOV bypass lanes, and three interacting bottlenecks. Field data used as input to the model were compiled from two separate sources: loop detectors on the on-ramps and main line (PeMS) and a manual survey of on-ramps and off-ramps. Gaps in both sources made it necessary to use a composite data set, constructed from several typical days. FREQ was used as an intermediate tool to generate a set of origin-destination matrices from the assembled boundary flows. The model construction procedure consists of (1) identification of important geometric features, (2) collection and processing of traffic data, (3) analysis of the main-line data to identify recurring bottlenecks, (4) VISSIM coding, and (5) calibration based on observations from Step 3. A qualitative set of goals was established for the calibration. These were met with relatively few modifications to VISSIM's driver behavior parameters.
Simultaneous Measurement of Strain and Temperature with Hollow Core Fiber Based Intermodal Interferometer

A hollow core fiber based all-fiber intermodal interferometer is proposed for measurement of strain and temperature. The sensing structure is simply a short segment of hollow core silica fiber being spliced between two normal single mode fibers. The fabrication process only involves a conventional fusion splicer and a mechanical fiber cleaver. Experimental results show that sensitivities of-1.21 pm/με and 21.30 pm/°C are achieved for strain and temperature measurements, respectively.
UAV-Satellite View Synthesis for Cross-View Geo-Localization

The goal of cross-view image matching based on geo-localization is to determine the location of a given ground-view image (front view) by matching it with a group of satellite-view images (vertical view) with geographic tags. Due to the rapid development of unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) technology in recent years, it has provided a real viewpoint close to 45 degrees (oblique view) to bridge the visual gap between views. However, existing methods ignore the direct geometric space correspondence of UAV-satellite views, and only use brute force for feature matching, leading to inferior performance. In this context, we propose an end-to-end cross-view matching method that integrates cross-view synthesis module and geo-localization module, which fully considers the spatial correspondence of UAV-satellite views and the surrounding area information. To be specific, the cross-view synthesis module includes two parts: the oblique view of UAV is first converted to the vertical view by perspective projection transformation (PPT), which makes the UAV image closer to the satellite image; then we use conditional generative adversarial nets (CGAN) to synthesize the UAV image with vertical view style, which is close to the real satellite image by learning the converted UAV as the input image and the real satellite image as the label. Geo-localization module refers to existing local pattern network (LPN), which explicitly considers the surrounding environment of the target building. These modules are integrated in a single architecture called PCL, which mutually reinforce each other. Our method is superior to the existing UAV-satellite cross-view methods, which improves by about 5%.
Three Filmmaking Practices That Guide Our Attention to Popular Cinema

Popular movies are constructed to control our attention and guide our eye movements across the screen. Estimates of fixation locations were made by manually moving a cursor and clicking over frames at the beginnings and ends of more than 30,000 shots in 24 English-language movies. Results provide evidence for three general filmmaking practices in screen composition. The first and overriding practice is that filmmakers generally put the most import content ‒ usually the center of a character’s face ‒ slightly above the center of the screen. The second concerns two-person conversations, which account for about half of popular movie content. Dialogue shots alternate views of the speakers involved, and filmmakers generally place the conversants slightly to opposite sides of the midline. The third concerns all other shots. For those, filmmakers generally follow important content in one shot by similar content in the next shot on the same side of the vertical midline. The horizontal aspect of the first practice seems to follow from the nature of our field of view and vertical aspect from the relationship of heads to bodies depicted. The second practice derives from social norms and an image composition norm called nose room, and the third from the consideration of continuity and the speed of re-engaging attention.
Fabrication of a deformable mirror for pulse shaping

In this work we report on a fabrication method for producing large-area multilayer polymer membranes and describe its application to the instrumentation of a deformable mirror. This implementation allows for highly flexible mirrors in which mechanical properties vary in a controlled manner in order to better match optical requirements. In addition, the mechanical properties of such membranes allow for a large number of closely spaced actuators. We report on the mechanical properties of metal-polymer membranes and discuss their application to pulse shaping experiments.
Engineering 3D Printed Microfluidic Chips for the Fabrication of Nanomedicines

Currently, there is an unmet need to manufacture nanomedicines in a continuous and controlled manner. Three-dimensional (3D) printed microfluidic chips are an alternative to conventional PDMS chips as they can be easily designed and manufactured to allow for customized designs that are able to reproducibly manufacture nanomedicines at an affordable cost. The manufacturing of microfluidic chips using existing 3D printing technologies remains very challenging because of the intricate geometry of the channels. Here, we demonstrate the manufacture and characterization of nifedipine (NFD) polymeric nanoparticles based on Eudragit L-100 using 3D printed microfluidic chips with 1 mm diameter channels produced with two 3D printing techniques that are widely available, stereolithography (SLA) and fuse deposition modeling (FDM). Fabricated polymeric nanoparticles showed good encapsulation efficiencies and particle sizes in the range of 50–100 nm. SLA chips possessed better channel resolution and smoother channel surfaces, leading to smaller particle sizes similar to those obtained by conventional manufacturing methods based on solvent evaporation, while SLA manufactured nanoparticles showed a minimal burst effect in acid media compared to nanoparticles fabricated with FDM chips. Three-dimensional printed microfluidic chips are a novel and easily amenable cost-effective strategy to allow for customization of the design process for continuous manufacture of nanomedicines under controlled conditions, enabling easy scale-up and reducing nanomedicine development times, while maintaining high-quality standards.
An investigation of high-performance team sport coaches’ planning practices

ABSTRACT The aim of this study was to provide a rich description of team sport coaches’ planning practices and to evaluate these practices in light of the Game-Based Approach literature and Complex Learning Theory. Twelve Gaelic football coaches operating in a high-performance setting were recruited to participate in semi-structured interviews. Coaches prepared two coaching session plans used as prompts within the interview. An iterative thematic analysis developed three major themes: (1) practice activity design, (2) sequencing of practice session content, and (3) contextual factors influencing planning. Despite strong indications of coach engagement with pedagogy in aspects of their session planning, the findings also revealed missed opportunities, with coaches failing to provide explicit learning intentions for session plans, inattention to session sequencing, and limited small-sided game designs. Given these missed opportunities, this paper illustrates how coaches can engage with research and theory to elevate the quality of their planning of coaching sessions.
Roads for Communities, Not Commodities: A Qualitative Study of the Consequences of Road Development in Papua, Indonesia

This paper aims to examine the impact of improved road infrastructure on the livelihoods of indigenous Papuans in Indonesia. Using field-based investigations in two Trans-Papua road corridors in two provinces, and interviews with 110 informants, the findings show that while roads provide greater access for indigenous Papuans to local markets and to basic health and education services, they also increase access to consumable goods, increasing economic inequality and tensions between indigenous and migrant groups. The findings also confirm negative environmental impacts of these Trans-Papua roads, due to a rise in consumption of natural resources. The study suggests that the government needs to reconsider the focus of its infrastructure development strategies in Papua, from accelerating economic growth (“commodities”) to improving the livelihood and access of indigenous Papuans to basic services (“communities”).