Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AB0809 A new score to predict digital ulcers combining clinical data, imaging and patient history in systemic sclerosis

Background Ischaemic complications such as digital ulcers (DU) are a common complication in systemic sclerosis (SSc) patients. Objectives The aim of this study was to combine clinical characteristics and imaging methods to a composite predictive score. Methods Seventy-nine SSc patients received clinical examination and their patient history was taken. Furthermore, we performed nailfold capillaroscopy (NC), colour Doppler ultrasonography (CDUS) and fluorescence optical imaging (FOI) of the hands at baseline. Newly developed digital ulcers over a period of approximately 12 months were registered. We used criteria with significant (p<0.5) OR values above 3.5 in regard to the development of these new DU to create the score (CIP-DUS, clinical features, imaging, patient history – digital ulcer score) Results Twenty-nine percent of the patients developed new DU during follow-up (48.1% diffuse SSc, 18.4% limited SSc). The following criteria were used: SSc diffuse subtype (OR 4.127, p=0.0087), modified Rodnan skin score >8 (OR 9.429 [95%CI: 3.0–29.2], p<0.0001), pulmonary arterial hypertension (OR 6.854 [95%CI: 1.6–9.7], p=0.0088), present digital ulcers or pitting scars at baseline (OR 15.71 [95%CI: 3.3–74.3], p<0.0001), history of digital ulcer or pitting scars (OR 36.15 [95%CI: 2.1–626.9], p<0.0001), NC pattern (OR 18.6 [95%CI: 1.1–326.4], p=0.0035), reduced capillary density (n<7/mm) in digit III of the right hand in NC (OR 9.0 [95%CI: 1.1–73.6], p=0.0266), missing initial enhancement in FOI in digit III of the right hand (OR 3.857 [95%CI: 1.2–12.8], p=0.0323), percentage of pathologic (i. e. narrowed or occluded) vessels>35% in CDUS (OR 4.286 [95%CI: 1.5–12.4], p=0.0099). Criteria with greater OR should impact the score to a higher degree so we appointed three points to dichotomous criteria with OR >10, two points for criteria with OR between 5–10, and one point for criteria with OR <5. Regarding the NC pattern, 3 points were given to patients with late pattern, 2 points for active and 1 point for early pattern. Best results were found for a cut-off of >10 points with obtained sensitivity levels of 95% and specificity levels of 74% in regard to new DU (AUC=0.8687, p<0.0001). In the absence of CDUS and FOI data, specificity levels dropped slightly to 72% with unchanged sensitivity values of 95%. Conclusions A new score was introduced with the aim to predict digital ulcers. If applied correctly and with the new imaging techniques proposed, 95% of patients at risk of digital ulcers throughout 12 months could be identified. Disclosure of Interest None declared
No Republican, No Vote: Undervoting and Consequences of the Top-Two Primary System

Washington and California adopted the Top-Two Primary in 2008 and 2012, respectively. Under this new system, all candidates regardless of party affiliation run against each other, narrowing the field down to the top two for the general election. In some jurisdictions, the general election features two candidates from the same party. Ten percent of California voters chose not to vote in the 2016 U.S. Senate election which featured two Democrats. Using data from the Cooperative Congressional Election Study (2012–2016), I find that among those who vote in the national November elections, orphans, or voters without a copartisan candidate on the ballot are more likely to undervote, opting out of voting in their congressional race. Levels of undervoting are nearly 20 percentage points higher for orphaned voters compared to non-orphaned voters. Additionally, voters who abstain perceive more ideological distance between themselves and the candidates compared to voters who cast a vote. These findings support a multi-step framework for vote decisions in same-party matchups: voters are more likely to undervote if they are unable to vote for a candidate from their party (partisan model), but all voters are more likely to vote for a candidate when they perceive ideological proximity (ideological model).
Perceptions of Aging and their Impact on Older Adultsâ Health Outcomes

Abstract Background: Research suggests older adults’ aging selfperceptions and others’ stereotypes influence aging significantly. However, the association of self-perceptions and stereotypes with health outcomes remains unclear. Purpose: The authors’ primary purpose is to provide a review and commentary describing perceptions of aging and their associations with health outcomes and other determinants of health. In doing so, the authors will consider potential interventions to improve perceptions of the aging process. Methods: To streamline the focus of this paper and determine relevant work in this area, the authors conducted a targeted review of literature to describe various aging perspectives. A search of online databases identified relevant publications. Search terms were tailored to select results for inclusion. Results: Older adults’ aging self-perceptions and others’ stereotypes have not been reported extensively. No consensus exists to define these constructs, although selected measurement scales are available. Thus assessing self-perceptions, stereotypes, and their impact is challenging. Research suggests seniors place as much importance on psychosocial aspects of aging as on disease/disability, although various factors impact their views and outcomes. Generally, purpose in life, social involvement, perceived control, and resilience appear beneficial. However, interventions to enhance positive perspectives or minimize negative stereotyping are limited. Instead, initiatives tend to focus simply on assessing individuals’ viewpoints or describing the outcomes of negative stereotypes, but without proven solutions. Conclusions: While current research highlights the associations of aging self-perceptions and stereotypes with older adults’ health outcomes and quality of life, many questions remain. Limited studies examine these views and their impacts with the purpose of developing initiatives to support positive attitudes, leaving a research gap. Future research and interventions should emphasize improved perspectives of aging, perhaps through productive engagement and community involvement (purpose), social participation (improved connections), resilience, and healthy lifestyle behaviors as potential approaches.
E. Coli: A Practical Approach to the Organism and its Control in Foods

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Equilibrium Analysis of a Tax on Carbon Emissions with Pass-through Restrictions and Side-payment Rules

Chile was the first country in Latin America to impose a tax on carbon-emitting electricity generators. However, the current regulation does not allow firms to include emission charges as costs for the dispatch and pricing of electricity in real time. The regulation also includes side-payment rules to reduce the economic losses of some carbon-emitting generating units. In this paper we develop an equilibrium model with endogenous investments in generation capacity to quantify the long-run economic inefficiencies of an emissions policy with such features in a competitive setting. We benchmark this policy against a standard tax on carbon emissions and a cap-and-trade program. Our results indicate that a carbon tax with such features can, at best, yield some reductions in carbon emissions at a much higher cost than standard emission policies. These findings highlight the critical importance of promoting short-run efficiency by pricing carbon emissions in the spot market in order to incentivize efficient investments in generating capacity in the long run.
Time and well-being, an institutional, comparative perspective: Is it time to explore the idea of a time policy?

This article explores the relationship between time and well-being as a social policy question. Although the research on time and well-being is extensive, few have dealt with them together from a comparative institutional perspective. Based on data from the third European Quality of Life Survey (EQLS) of 2012, regarding 34 mostly European countries, in different welfare regimes, we explore two issues: (1) What are the effects of welfare regimes on the uses of time and subjective well-being? and (2) What are the effects of different uses of time on subjective well-being? We find that the institutional structure – the welfare regime – affects the way people use their time. Furthermore, the findings documented that uses of time have a direct effect on well-being when controlling for individual level as well as country-level variables. These findings may have important implications for policymaking.
A $7\times7\times2$ mm3 8.6- $\mu$ W 500-kb/s Transmitter With Robust Injection-Locking-Based Frequency-to-Amplitude Conversion Receiver Targeting for Implantable Applications

A transmitter (TX)/receiver (RX) pair using galvanic coupling to achieve in-body to on-body body channel communication (I2O-BCC) for ultra-low power (ULP) miniaturized implanted applications is presented. The I2O-BCC enables low loss communication (<40 dB) within 10–40 MHz band and up to 10-cm <italic>in vivo</italic> communication distance using the body as a transmission medium. Injection locking (IL)-based frequency-to-amplitude (F2A) conversion demodulator is proposed in RX. It can handle more than 20% frequency variations exhibited by the TX frequency-shift keying (FSK) signals due to the lack of accurate off-chip reference. The packaged implanted TX measures <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$7\,{\times }\,7\,{\times }\,2$ </tex-math></inline-formula> mm<sup>3</sup>. It contains a micro-battery, two micro-probes, and the designed SoC in 130-nm CMOS process. The in-body TX radio block consumes only 8.6 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> at 500 kb/s with an on-chip power management unit that exhibits a 45% power efficiency, while the on-body RX consumes 591.5 <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\mu \text{W}$ </tex-math></inline-formula>. The TX radio block power is 8<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$\times $ </tex-math></inline-formula> lower than previous works and achieves energy efficiency at 17.2 pJ/b with minimal bill of material (BOM).
Linking Environmental Regulation and Financial Performance: The Mediating Role of Green Dynamic Capability and Sustainable Innovation

This study develops a multiple mediating model for exploring the link between environmental regulation and financial performance through green dynamic capability, sustainability exploration/exploitation innovation, based on the data from 355 Chinese manufacturing firms. Empirical results support a mediating role of green dynamic capability and sustainability exploration/exploitation in the link between environmental regulation and financial performance, respectively. What’s more, our findings indicate that environmental regulation can help improve financial performance via two multiple mediating paths, i.e., green dynamic capability and sustainability exploration innovation, as well as green dynamic capability and sustainability exploitation innovation. These key findings will help to understand how important green dynamic capability and sustainable innovation is when Chinese manufacturing firms establish a business-politics tie.
Microsatellite evidence for multiple paternity in non-native populations of Pomacea canaliculata (Caenogastropoda: Ampullariidae) in China

Reproductive success is critical for the establishment and spread of non-native species. The apple snail, Pomacea canaliculata, is a dioecious and internally fertilizing freshwater gastropod that causes serious economic losses in its non-native ranges annually. Previous studies on P. canaliculata using laboratory-controlled experiments indicated that mating with a second male displaces sperm from the first one, suggesting that multiple paternity occurs in this snail. To investigate the occurrence and frequency of multiple paternity in natural populations, we provide results from two polymorphic microsatellite loci in eight egg clutches collected from four localities in China. By genotyping the hatchlings from each population, we found at least one to three siring fathers per clutch. The paternal contributions of the multiply sired clutches were strongly skewed in P. canaliculata. The total population genetic diversity in the hatchlings exhibited higher observed heterozygosity than that in the adult snails. Increased offspring heterozygosity through multiple paternity is a potential mechanism that may aid P. canaliculata in overcoming genetic bottlenecks, and enhance the ability to adapt to new habitats as an invasive species.
Exploring how a genetic attribution to disease relates to internalised stigma experiences of Xhosa people with schizophrenia and rheumatic heart disease in South Africa

Advances in genomics research have brought forth a number of psychosocial concerns. In Africa, in particular, one of the concerns relates to the potential impact of genomics research on stigma experienced by specific population groups. Using a mixed-methods approach, this study sought to explore how genetic causal explanation relates to the internalised stigma experiences of a sample of South African Xhosa people with schizophrenia (n= 36) and rheumatic heart disease (n= 46). Additionally, a pilot study was conducted with another sample of schizophrenia (n= 65) and rheumatic heart disease (n= 55) patients to translate and adapt an internalised stigma of mental illness scale into isiXhosa. The aim of the study was operationalised into three research questions, namely; 1. What causal attribution models do Xhosa people with schizophrenia and rheumatic heart disease employ to explain their illness and to what extent do genetic explanations play a role in these causal models? 2. What are the internalised stigma experiences of Xhosa people with schizophrenia and rheumatic heart disease? 3. How do the genetic causal explanations of Xhosa people with schizophrenia and rheumatic heart relate to their internalised stigma experiences, if at all? Through focus-group discussions participants were introduced to non-genetic and genetic causal explanations and then asked a series of open-ended questions eliciting their perceptions of disease causation, genetic causation and the possible implications these perceptions may have on internalised stigma they may have experienced. Next, an internalised stigma of mental illness scale (ISMI) was translated through a mixed-methods translation approach into Xhosa and adapted for use in both disease groups. Insights from this translation were used to gain an understanding of how the Xhosa language supports particular descriptions and conceptualisations of stigma experiences. Psychometric results provided further insights into particularly relevant internalised stigma items for each disease group. Findings from the FGDs and translation process suggested that firstly Xhosa people with schizophrenia and those with rheumatic heart
L2 Learners’ expected ideal English as a Second Language (ESL) Teacher

This study investigated the expected ideal English as a Second Language (ESL) teacher of the L2 learners in Sri Lanka. ESL teacher is a key person in the ESL classroom in Sri Lanka. School is the primary spot for the vast majority of the L2 students to start their L2 learning in Sri Lanka. This investigation was led among 30 Sri Lankan state funded university students by utilizing the mixed method. There were non-English majors among the participants and participation was voluntary. The questionnaire data were analyzed by utilizing SPSS and group discussion information were analyzed through categorization technique. The results of the questionnaire analysis showed that, L2 students expect their ESL educators to have good skill in using English language, be well prepared, have the capacity to motivate the students and possess great individual characteristics. Furthermore, through the group discussion, it was identified that most of the students lost their inspiration because of the personality and teaching ability of the ESL teacher at school. More significantly, these students feel motivated to begin their L2 learning later because of a motivating ESL instructor either in a tuition center or in an institute. Indeed, the findings recommend that the qualities and ability of the ESL teacher in an L2 classroom are critical in motivating the L2 students in Sri Lanka. These findings can be applied for the advancement of the selection of English Language teachers in Sri Lanka.
CouchEdit - a modular graphical editing architecture for flexible modeling

Models have long become an integral part of many system development activities. In particular, research in the field of Model Driven Engineering (MDE) strives to facilitate problem-oriented creation of complex systems. To this end, the use of graphical (diagram) notations is an important cornerstone, providing users with an intuitive way of interacting with models and taking advantage of wider areas of cognitive capability than possible through purely text-based approaches. However, contrary to these underlying goals, the support of such graphical notations through appropriate tools is still believed to be not optimal, with the usability of such tools being low, thus causing bad Modeling Experience. This is accompanied by new trends in productivity at large, such as the desire to work collaboratively and in a distributed fashion. From this, we saw a need for the conceptualization and development of a graphical editing framework that works on premises different to previous ideas. Following the Design Science Research paradigm, anchored on recent work from other research groups, a modular and flexible concept is presented which strives to remove as much limits as possible that are traditionally given by the user interface – and thus imposed on the user – based on the definition of the supported modeling notation. This concept
Diagnosis and Clinical Management of Neuroendocrine Tumor of the Breast: Report of Six Cases and Systematic Review of Existing Literature

Introduction: Neuroendocrine neoplasm of the breast (bNENs) are considered a rare disease, even if in WHO data they represent about 2-5 % of all breast cancer. The last WHO classification includes: welldifferentiated neuroendocrine tumor (bNET), neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) and invasive carcinoma with neuroendocrine differentiation. The current knowledge on clinical management of bNENs is poor and patients are usually treated according to non-endocrine tumor components guidelines. Materials and Methods: We presented our experience of six cases of bNENs. Moreover, we conducted a systematic review of published data on diagnosis, treatment and outcome of this kind of tumors. Results: bNENS usually presented as palpable breast masses, classically appearing as irregular hypoechoic lesions at US examination and as hyperdense masses at mammography. Usually pre-operative tumor biopsy is not able to recognize the neuroendocrine components and the final diagnosis is performed only on definitive histopathological assessment. The most frequent subtype seems to be neuroendocrine carcinoma and synaptophysin is positive in most specimens. Treatment strategies, including surgical treatment, radiotherapy and medical treatment are nowadays based on current non-endocrine breast cancer guidelines, independently from neuroendocrine components, even if some studies have proposed the use of somatostatin analogues for bNET and cisplatin-etoposide for NEC. Prognosis of all bNENs, especially of poorly differentiated neoplasia, seems worse compared to non-neuroendocrine breast cancer and stage and morphology seem the best predictor of tumor outcome. Conclusions: We provide an algorithm for clinical management of bNETs, basing on available data. More studies are necessary for confirming the best treatment strategy for these patients, in order to improve clinical outcome
Long‐Term SST Variability on the Northwest Atlantic Continental Shelf and Slope

The meridional coherence, connectivity, and regional inhomogeneity in long‐term sea surface temperature (SST) variability over the Northwest Atlantic continental shelf and slope from 1982–2018 are investigated using observational data sets. A meridionally concurrent large SST warming trend is identified as the dominant signal over the length of the continental shelf and slope between Cape Hatteras in North Carolina and Cape Chidley, Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada. The linear trends are 0.37 ± 0.06 and 0.39 ± 0.06 °C/decade for the shelf and slope regions, respectively. These meridionally averaged SST time series over the shelf and slope are consistent with each other and across multiple longer observational data sets with records dating back to 1900. The coherence between the long‐term meridionally averaged time series over the shelf and slope and basin‐wide averaged SST in the North Atlantic implies approximately two thirds of the warming trend during 1982–2018 may be attributed to natural climate variability and the rest to externally forced change including anthropogenic warming.
MERCURY HIGIENE PRACTICE AMONG PRACTICING DENTISTS AND UNDERGRADUATE DENTAL STUDENTS OF INDIA

OBJECTIVES: To assess mercury hygiene practices among dental undergraduate students and practicing dentists. MATERIAL AND METHOD: A questionnaire was designed to assess the dental students and practicing dentist’s perception for mercury hygiene practices as recommend by ADA. Final sample size accounted to 350 dentists and dental undergraduate students in their clinical years. RESULTS: Results revealed that neither of the dentists nor the dental students was following the recommended guidelines while working with amalgam. It was assessed that more than 80% of the sample believed mercury is hazardous to dentist, and more than half of the subjects was in favor that mercury is toxic to patients. CONCLUSIONS: Dentists and dental personnel are at risk of mercury exposure and this should be taken as a serious matter of concern. In spite of the results of this research, reasonable precautionary measures should be implemented by the dental personnel to assure safety of the patients, dentist and dental team members.
A Bright Side to Family Firms: How Socioemotional Wealth Importance Affects Dark Traits–Job Performance Relationships

Examining socioemotional wealth’s influence at the individual level, an interactionist approach was used to test its moderation effect on the dark personality traits–job performance relationship, using supervisor-employee dyads in family firms. Termed the Dark Triad, dark personality traits include narcissism, psychopathy, and Machiavellianism. Results showed that when supervisors in family firms prioritize socioemotional wealth, the expected relationships between the Dark Triad and employee job performance outcomes (task, citizenship, and counterproductive behaviors) is ameliorated. These findings demonstrate that family firms can create an environment that improves the otherwise negative impact that dark personality has on job performance.