Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Measuring Judicial Sentiment: Methods and Application to US Circuit Courts

This paper provides a general method for analysing the sentiments expressed in the language of judicial rulings. We apply natural language processing tools to the text of US appellate court opinions to extrapolate judges’ sentiments (positive/good vs. negative/bad) towards a number of target social groups. We explore descriptively how these sentiments vary over time and across types of judges. In addition, we provide a method for using random assignment of judges in an instrumental variables framework to estimate causal e ﬀ ects of judges’ sentiments. In an empirical application, we show that more positive sentiment inﬂuences future judges by increasing the likelihood of reversal but also increasing the number of forward citations.
An evaluation of quality participation experiences in inclusive recreation programming for adults who have an intellectual disability

ABSTRACT Individuals who have an intellectual and/or developmental disability (IDD) may benefit physically and psychosocially from engaging in recreation. This qualitative description study focused on the Inclusion Resource Team programme, an inclusive municipal recreation programme for adults who have an IDD, and explored elements that may lead to optimal recreation experiences. Interviews were conducted with 4 participants, 6 caregivers, and 11 staff. Guided by the Quality Participation Framework (QPF), a thematic analysis examined factors contributing to quality experiences within the programme. All three environmental conditions (physical, social, programme) and six building blocks (autonomy, belonging, challenge, engagement, mastery, meaning) of the QPF contributed to participants’ experiences. Some participants experienced barriers to ‘belonging’ and ‘engagement’. Findings support using the QPF in inclusive recreation for adults who have an IDD. Attention must be given to fostering belonging and engagement and environmental conditions that may contribute to these building blocks are identified.
Association between Hypomagnesemia, COVID-19, Respiratory Tract and Lung Disease

The complexity of COVID-19 is also related to the multiple molecular pathways triggered by SARS-CoV-2, which is able to cause type I pneumocyte death, trigger intravascular coagulation, interfere with the renin-angiotensin system, dysregulate iron metabolism, ending with the insurgence of a cytokine storm which may lead to death. Old adults with obesity, hypertension, and diabetes are among the high-risk category groups more prone to SARS-CoV-2 infection. Magnesium has been reported to play a major role both in physiology and in pathology, particularly in elderly people, regulating cytotoxic functions of natural killer (NK) cells and CD8+ T lymphocytes. In spite of the absence of controlled trials, the possibility of magnesium supplementation for supportive treatment in patients with COVID-19 should be encouraged. This could be useful in all phases of the COVID-19 disease.
Targeting Antigen-Presenting Cells in Multiple Sclerosis Treatment

Multiple sclerosis (MS) is common neurological disease of the central nervous system (CNS) affecting mostly young adults. Despite decades of studies, its etiology and pathogenesis are not fully unraveled and treatment is still insufficient. The vast majority of studies suggest that the immune system plays a major role in MS development. This is also supported by the effectiveness of currently available MS treatments that target immunocompetent cells. In this review, the role of antigen-presenting cells (APC) in MS development as well as the novel therapeutic options targeting those cells in MS are presented. It is known that in MS, peripheral self-antigen-specific immune cells are activated during antigen presentation process and they enter the CNS through the disrupted blood–brain barrier (BBB). Myelin-reactive CD4+ T-cells can be activated by dendritic cells, infiltrating macrophages, microglia cells, or B-cells, which all express MHC class II molecules. There are also suggestions that brain endothelial cells may act as non-professional APCs and present myelin-specific antigens with MHC class II. Similarly, astrocytes, the major glial cells in the CNS, were shown to act as non-professional APCs presenting myelin antigens to autoreactive T-cells. Several currently available MS drugs such as natalizumab, fingolimod, alemtuzumab, and ocrelizumab may modulate antigen presentation in MS. Another way to use this mechanism in MS treatment may be the usage of specific tolerogenic dendritic cells or the induction of tolerance to myelin antigens by peptide vaccines.
Assays : A Comparison of Thro Interoperator and Intraoperator Variability of Whole Blood Coagulation mboelastography and Rotational Thromboelastometry

Objectives: Near-patient viscoelastic tests have proved useful in decreasing blood and blood product use in cardiac surgery. Two different analyzers are available, TEG and ROTEM. Many different individuals operate these devices, which raises concern that this factor may significantly affect results. The present study sought to objectively assess variability in results between operators. Design: Prospective study. Setting: Regional cardiac center. Participants: Adult patients undergoing elective cardiac surgery. Interventions: Thirty-six mL of blood were taken from each of 21 patients. TEG kaolin and functional fibrinogen (FF) analyses and the equivalent ROTEM INTEM S and FIBTEM S analyses were performed. Six operators performed one of each test per patient to assess interoperator variability. One further operator performed 6 of each test per patient to assess intraoperator variability.
Book review: the Maudsley practice guidelines for physical health conditions in psychiatry

Healthy Body Healthy Mind is a bumper sticker that reminds us of the importance of physical health in our patients. The slogan makes me wonder about what a mind is. Isn’t it more of a philosophical concept than a bodily organ? I can’t help but think that this vagueness defines our speciality to some extent. How can you mend a broken mind when you don’t even know what a healthy mind looks like? How many more centuries are we going to blame Rene Descartes for substance dualism? Like Sam Seaborn, we are still looking for a mind at work. While this might make an interesting critical essay question, we will not find a mind by pondering about it. Recently, Firth and colleague proposed a blueprint to improve the physical health of people with mental disorders.1 Despite this massive progress, on a micro-level, as a psychiatrist standing in front of a patient, we are often uncertain how we might be able to help our patients’ physical health. This is where this newest addition to our beloved Maudsley series comes in handy.2
Understanding the Extratropical Liquid Water Path Feedback in Mixed-Phase Clouds with an Idealized Global Climate Model

A negative shortwave cloud feedback associated with higher extratropical liquid water content in mixed-phase clouds is a common feature of global warming simulations, and multiple mechanisms have been hypothesized. A set of process-level experiments performed with an idealized global climate model (a dynamical core with passive water and cloud tracers and full Rotstayn-Klein single-moment microphysics) show that the common picture of the liquid water path (LWP) feedback in mixed-phase clouds being controlled by the amount of ice susceptible to phase change is not robust. Dynamic condensate processes—rather than static phase partitioning—directly change with warming, with varied impacts on liquid and ice amounts. Here, three principal mechanisms are responsible for the LWP response, namely higher adiabatic cloud water content, weaker liquid-to-ice conversion through the Bergeron-Findeisen process, and faster melting of ice and snow to rain. Only melting is accompanied by a substantial loss of ice, while the adiabatic cloud water content increase gives rise to a net increase in ice water path (IWP) such that total cloud water also increases without an accompanying decrease in precipitation efficiency. Perturbed parameter experiments with a wide range of climatological LWP and IWP demonstrate a strong dependence of the LWP feedback on the climatological LWP and independence from the climatological IWP and supercooled liquid fraction. This idealized setup allows for a clean isolation of mechanisms and paints a more nuanced picture of the extratropical mixed-phase cloud water feedback than simple phase change.
Effects of Zembrin® (Sceletium tortuosum) Supplementation on Mood, Soreness, and Performance Following Unaccustomed Resistance Exercise: A Pilot Study

The purpose of this study was to investigate acute Zembrin® (Sceletium tortuosum) supplementation on muscle soreness, markers of muscle damage, mood, and exercise performance following unaccustomed resistance exercise. Untrained females (n = 16) were divided into two groups with a different three-day treatment regimen: (1) placebo (PL) and (2) Zembrin® (ZEM). During the initial visit, baseline perceived soreness, range of motion (ROM), mood state (profile of mood states (POMS) questionnaire), and plasma lactate dehydrogenase concentrations (LDH) were measured followed by the performance of an eccentric bicep curl protocol with their non-dominant arm. The total repetitions and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were recorded throughout the exercise. The participants then supplemented with the corresponding treatment immediately following, the subsequent day, and 30 min prior to completing a 48 h follow-up visit. For the 48 h visit, all procedures were repeated and comparisons were drawn for perceived soreness, ROM, LDH, mood scores, total repetitions, and RPE. The findings indicate that short-term ZEM supplementation resulted in lower perceived soreness (p = 0.020) and a greater preservation of ROM (p = 0.028) at 48 h versus the PL group. Mood worsened from the baseline to 48 h regardless of the treatment (p = 0.043) but the decrements were exacerbated in the PL group compared with the ZEM group (p < 0.001). LDH levels (p = 0.019) and RPE (p = 0.008) were higher and total repetitions were lower (p < 0.001) at 48 h irrespective of the treatment. Although short-term dietary enrichment with ZEM did not alter the exercise performance or biomarkers of muscle damage, the current results suggest ZEM supplementation may be effective in reducing the markers of soreness and preserve mood following unaccustomed eccentric exercise.
Suppression by Stealth: The Partisan Response to Protest in State Legislatures

Many scholars have investigated the relationship between protest and repression. Less often examined is the legislative suppression of protest by elites seeking to make protest more costly to protesters. Because state legislatures are largely invisible to the public, this “wholesale” suppression of protest is less likely to trigger public opposition than repression by the police. This study explains the sharp increase in the number and the severity of state legislative bills to repress the right to protest both before and after the election of Donald Trump. In particular, it examines whether these can be attributed either to Republican control of state legislatures or to protest threat. Contrary to the findings in much of the literature, bills aimed at suppressing protest are less closely related to threat than to the realignment of state politics. The article also finds that these proposals were influenced by diffusion through policy brokerage.
Periodic Event-Triggered Estimation for Networked Control Systems

This paper considers the problem of remote state estimation in a linear discrete invariant system, where a smart sensor is utilized to measure the system state and generate a local estimate. The communication depends on an event scheduler in the smart sensor. When the channel between the remote estimator and the smart sensor is activated, the remote estimator simply adopts the estimate transmitted by the smart sensor. Otherwise, it calculates an estimate based on the available information. The closed-form of the minimum mean-square error (MMSE) estimator is introduced, and we use Gaussian preserving event-based sensor scheduling to obtain an ideal compromise between the communication cost and estimation quality. Furthermore, we calculate a variation range of communication probability, which helps to design the policy of event-triggered estimation. Finally, the simulation results are given to illustrate the effectiveness of the proposed event-triggered estimator.
Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy successfully treated with mefloquine and literature review

Progressive multifocal leukoencephalopathy (PML) is an opportunistic infection due to reactivation of John Cunningham virus (JCV). The diagnosis depends on evidence from clinical, imaging, and virologic studies. When the cerebrospinal fluid shows a negative polymerase chain reaction result, brain biopsy is required to confirm the diagnosis. PML has no standard treatment except for immune reconstitution. The anti-JCV effect of mefloquine, however, is supported by some studies, and if brain biopsy is difficult, a mefloquine trial can be considered. We describe a case of possible PML successfully treated with mefloquine.
The Prognostic Values of HPV Genotypes and Tumor PD-L1 Expression in Patients With HPV-associated Endocervical Adenocarcinoma

Despite the well-established pathogenic effect of high-risk human papillomavirus (hrHPV) genotypes on endocervical adenocarcinomas (ECAs), the prognostic values of hrHPV genotypes and their association with other prognostic variables have not been established. We categorized 120 usual-type human papillomavirus–associated (HPVA) ECA cases into 3 species groups (HPV16+, HPV18/45+, and other genotypes+) based on the hrHPV status. The clinical-stage, invasion patterns (Silva), and programmed death ligand-1 (PD-L1) expression were compared among genotype groups. In addition, log-rank test and Kaplan-Meier survival curves were used to compare progression-free survival (PFS) among different patient groups. A total of 120 ECA cases with positive hrHPV tests were included in this study. Among them, 51 (42.5%) were positive for HPV16, 50 (41.7%) were positive for HPV18 or 18/45, 9 (7.5%) were positive for other hrHPV genotypes (not including HPV16/18/45). Our data showed patients had no significant difference in clinical stages (P=0.51), invasion patterns (P=0.55), and PFS (P=0.59) across genotype groups. Overall, a relatively high prevalence of PD-L1 expression was observed in HPVA ECAs (25% by tumor proportion score [TPS] and 55% by a combined positive score [CPS]). Using TPS, 19.6% (10/51) HPV16+ cases, 32.0% (16/50) cases of HPV18 or 18/45+ cases, and 22.2% (2/9) cases of other genotypes+ cases demonstrated PD-L1 positivity. No significant difference in PD-L1 expression was seen across genotype groups (P=0.35). PD-L1 expression in tumors with patterns B and C was significantly higher than in those with pattern A (P=0.00002). Patients with PD-L1-positive tumors by either CPS or TPS showed significantly poorer PFS than those with PD-L1-negative tumors (CPS, P=0.025; TPS, P=0.001). Our data support that HPV genotypes have no prognostic value in HPVA ECAs, while PD-L1 expression serves as a negative prognostic marker in HPVA ECAs and implies an unfavorable outcome.
Impact of Bullying on Psychosocial Adjustment of School-Aged Children in Nigeria

Bullying according to many studies and researches has been seen to have both social and psychological effects on the victims. In light of the foregoing, this study examined the impact of bullying on psychosocial adjustment of school-aged children in Nigeria sampling Education District II of Lagos State. The district comprised of secondary schools in the following zones; Shomolu Local Government Area, Kosofe Local Government Area, and Ikorodu Local Government Area respectively. Using stratified random sampling technique, 270 respondents were randomly selected as sample for this study. The research instrument, a self-constructed questionnaire titled; Impact of Bullying on Psychosocial Adjustment Questionnaire (IBPSAQ) was administered to the respondents. A descriptive research design was adopted. A total of four research questions and hypotheses were formulated and tested at 0.05 level of significance using Chi-Square. The findings revealed that bullying has significant impact on students’ anxiety and peer isolation. Findings however reflected that bullying does not have significant impact on student’s school absenteeism and possession of weapon. In the light of the findings reported, the researcher made the following recommendations: The schools and home should work in synergy to collaboratively instill good values in their children/students. The school should embrace counselling services to help the psychosocial wellbeing of victims of bullying. The school should develop strategies to mete out punishments for any discovered bully. Victims of bullying should be encouraged by counsellors to report bullying cases to school authority as soon as it is experienced.
“Third Floor Respect”: A Black Masculinist Examination of Morehouse College’s Mathematics Learning Community

ABSTRACT The disproportionate representation of Black men in mathematics has perplexed researchers for decades, and the undergraduate space has been championed as a lever to help remedy this issue. Thus, more research is needed that examines Black men’s experiences as mathematics majors. To advance knowledge in the field of higher education, this yearlong ethnographic study uses Black masculinity theory to examine Morehouse College’s mathematics learning community, which is comprised of 16 graduating seniors. I use demographic surveys, semi-structured interviews, and observations to investigate the experiences of these 16 mathematics majors. “Third floor respect” is a concept used to denote the mathematical prowess among Black male mathematics majors on the third/top floor of the academic building. Third floor respect is the central finding that ultimately described this mathematics learning community’s peer interactions and departmental attributes. Implications for practice and research are shared to advance asset-based empirical mathematics learning community scholarship, refute deficit narratives concerning Black men’s mathematical abilities, and broaden the participation of Black men in mathematics.
Health-promoting behaviour among adults in Germany – Results from GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS

Health-promoting behaviours are important at any age to prevent diseases and to promote well-being. Using data from GEDA 2019/2020-EHIS, a Germany-wide, representative survey, this article describes how often the adult population in Germany reports certain types of health-promoting behaviour in their everyday lives. The behaviours considered are nonsmoking, low-risk alcohol consumption, achievement of the World Health Organization’s (WHO) recommendations on aerobic physical activity, at least daily fruit and vegetable consumption, and maintaining a body weight within the normal range. This article describes the proportion of people who report these behaviours in their everyday lives by gender, age and education level, the number of health-promoting behaviours each person reports and the most common combinations in which they occur. Young adults between 18 and 29 years are most likely to achieve a health-promoting lifestyle. The proportion of people who report at least 150 minutes of physical activity per week and a normal body weight is lower in later adulthood than among 18- to 29-year-olds. The recommendation to eat fruit and vegetables daily is implemented least often of all five aspects of health behaviour under study. Finally, women are more likely to lead a health-promoting lifestyle than men.
Density‐dependent modulation of copepod body size and temperature–size responses in a shelf sea

Body size is a fundamental trait in ecology, and body size reduction with increasing temperature has been termed the third universal response to climate warming. Although effects of temperature and food on phenotypic plasticity of zooplankton adult body size have been investigated, density‐dependent effects have been neglected. We measured seasonal changes in the prosome length of 7098 adult females of 7 dominant copepod species in 13 yr spanning a 27‐yr period of warming at the L4 time series off Plymouth, UK. The seasonal temperature–size (T–S) response varied greatly among species, from reductions of 2.93% of carbon mass °C−1 for Paracalanus parvus to 10.15% of carbon mass °C−1 for Temora longicornis. Evidence for a long‐term T–S response was detected in at least two species, supporting the hypothesis that climatic warming leads to smaller adult sizes. April was a crucial month for determining the strength of the T–S response. During this month, body size related negatively to total zooplankton abundance. We suggest that the mechanism for this density dependence is via competition for food and/or intraguild predation, since spring was also the period when the ratio of food biomass to zooplankton biomass was at its lowest. Our study is among the first in situ demonstrations of density‐dependent effects on the body size of marine zooplankton and shows the need to consider the effect of top‐down as well as bottom‐up factors on body size in a warming climate.
On-Orbit Calibration and Performance of NOAA-20 VIIRS Reflective Solar Bands

The NOAA-20 (N20) satellite was launched on November 18, 2017 carrying the second Visible Infrared Imaging Radiometer Suite (VIIRS) instrument. Immediately following the launch, the VIIRS passed a series of intensive calibration and validation tests, after which regular calibration and operation activities have continued successfully for more than three years. The production of NASA Collection 2 Level 1B (C2 L1B) for N20 VIIRS began in summer 2019. In this article, we evaluate the early mission performance of the N20 VIIRS reflective solar bands (RSB) covering the first three full years of operation. The calibrated RSB gains are calculated primarily from the onboard solar diffuser (SD) and used in generating the C2 L1B reflectance and radiance products. We also show the on-orbit performance of the instrument noise, signal-to-noise ratio (SNR), and a reflectance uncertainty assessment. Comparisons are made to the first three years of operation of the first VIIRS instrument, aboard the Suomi National Polar-orbiting Partnership (SNPP) satellite. We evaluate the long-term stability of the calibrated N20 RSB reflectance product by looking at the long-term trends of lunar observations and data from the pseudo-invariant Libya 4 desert site. The N20 RSB have had excellent early mission performance, with changes in the gain of less than 0.5% in the first three years across all detectors, stable L1B reflectance, and very stable values of detector SNR and reflectance uncertainty.