Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Affecting Satisfaction with the Decision-Making Process and Decision Regret for Men with a New Diagnosis of Prostate Cancer

For men with newly diagnosed prostate cancer the decisions about treatment options are complex and difficult. The aim of this study was to investigate any association between the extent to which men wanted to be involved in the decision making process, their satisfaction with that process, and their levels of decision regret after treatment. The study population consisted of men diagnosed with prostate cancer at a regional center in Australia. Men (n = 324) were invited to complete a mail out survey which included demographic questions, the treatment chosen, and three validated tools: The Control Preference Scale to measure the degree of control assumed when making decisions about medical interventions; the Treatment Decision-Making Satisfaction Scale (TDM- SAT) to assess satisfaction with the treatment decision making process; and the Decision Regret Scale to assess the level of regret after treatment. The majority of the 151 respondents (47% response rate) expressed an active decision control preference. There was no correlation between age and the treatment chosen or the degree of control men exerted over the decision-making process. Men who preferred a passive role were less satisfied with the decision-making process than were those who took an active or collaborative approach. A strong inverse correlation was demonstrated between regret experienced and satisfaction with the decision-making process. In conclusion, for men newly diagnosed with prostate cancer, taking an active role in the treatment decision making process led to greater satisfaction with that process, which in turn reduced their chances of experiencing regret following treatment.
A scoping review of the effects of virtual reality and computer-based interventions for people with chronic pain: does it feel like we're there yet?

OBJECTIVE Although virtual reality VR is shown to have short-term analgesic effects in acute pain settings, its long-term efficacy with chronic pain conditions has not been established. This scoping review aims to provide a summary of VR approaches explored in chronic primary and secondary pain conditions as defined by the International Association for the Study of Pain. METHODS A systematic literature search in Ovid PubMed and Ovid Embase was conducted between January 5-10th 2021 using the Arksey and O'Malley six-step scoping review criteria. Articles were searched using search terms and keywords relating to ICD-defined primary and secondary chronic pain conditions, virtual reality, virtual illusion, distraction and effects on levels of pain. RESULTS Of 2118 articles located, 44 were included covering a range of primary and secondary chronic pain conditions, using a variety of different computer screen and headset protocols including gaming, mindfulness, exercise, relaxation and proprioceptive skills. CONCLUSIONS Studies show virtual reality to be an effective analgesic intervention for people with chronic pain. Given user satisfaction and lack of side effects such as cybersickness and relief of comorbid symptoms, VR has the potential as a worthwhile adjunct to chronic pain management programmes, thus enabling patients to take control of their symptoms.
A comprehensive model for measuring real‐life cost‐effectiveness in eyecare: automation in care and evaluation of system (aces‐rwm™)

This paper describes a holistic, yet simple and comprehensible, ecosystem model to deal with multiple and complex challenges in eyecare. It aims at producing the best possible wellbeing and eyesight with the available resources. When targeting to improve the real‐world cost‐effectiveness, what gets done in everyday practice needs be measured routinely, efficiently and unselectively. Collection of all real‐world data of all patients will enable evaluation and comparison of eyecare systems and departments between themselves nationally and internationally. The concept advocates a strategy to optimize real‐life effectiveness, sustainability and outcomes of the service delivery in ophthalmology. The model consists of three components: (1) resource‐governing principles (i.e., to deal with increasing demand and limited resources), (2) real‐world monitoring (i.e., to collect structured real‐world data utilizing automation and visualization of clinical parameters, health‐related quality of life and costs), and (3) digital innovation strategy (i.e., to evaluate and benchmark real‐world outcomes and cost‐effectiveness). The core value and strength of the model lies in the consensus and collaboration of all Finnish university eye clinics to collect and evaluate the uniformly structured real‐world outcomes data. In addition to ophthalmology, the approach is adaptable to any medical discipline to efficiently generate real‐world insights and resilience in health systems.
Multidimensional divergent selection, local adaptation, and speciation

Divergent selection applied to one or more traits drives local adaptation and may lead to ecological speciation. Divergent selection on many traits might be termed “multidimensional” divergent selection. There is a commonly held view that multidimensional divergent selection is likely to promote local adaptation and speciation to a greater extent than unidimensional divergent selection. We disentangle the core concepts underlying dimensionality as a property of the environment, phenotypes, and genome. In particular, we identify a need to separate the overall strength of selection and the number of loci affected from dimensionality per se, and to distinguish divergence dimensionality from dimensionality of stabilizing selection. We then critically scrutinize this commonly held view that multidimensional selection promotes speciation, re‐examining the evidence base from theory, experiments, and nature. We conclude that the evidence base is currently weak and generally suffers from confounding of possible causal effects. Finally, we propose several mechanisms by which multidimensional divergent selection and related processes might influence divergence, both as a driver and as a barrier.
SPARK: A Transcriptional Assay for Recording Protein‐Protein Interactions in a Defined Time Window

Protein‐protein interactions (PPIs) are ubiquitously involved in cellular processes such as gene expression, enzymatic catalysis, and signal transduction. To study dynamic PPIs, real‐time methods such as Förster resonance energy transfer and bioluminescence resonance energy transfer can provide high temporal resolution, but they only allow PPI detection in a limited area at a time and do not permit post‐PPI analysis or manipulation of the cells. Integration methods such as the yeast two‐hybrid system and split protein systems integrate PPI signals over time and allow subsequent analysis, but they lose information on dynamics. To address some of these limitations, an assay named SPARK (Specific Protein Association tool giving transcriptional Readout with rapid Kinetics) has recently been published. Similar to many existing integrators, SPARK converts PPIs into a transcriptional signal. SPARK, however, also adds blue light as a co‐stimulus to achieve temporal gating; SPARK only records PPIs during light stimulation. Here, we describe the procedures for using SPARK assays to study a dynamic PPI of interest, including designing DNA constructs and optimization in HEK293T/17 cell cultures. These protocols are generally applicable to various PPI partners and can be used in different biological contexts. © 2021 Wiley Periodicals LLC.
E2F4’s cytoplasmic role in multiciliogenesis is mediated via an N-terminal domain that binds two components of the centriole replication machinery, Deup1 and SAS6

Multiciliated cells play critical roles in the airway, reproductive organs, and brain. Generation of multiple cilia requires both activation of a specialized transcriptional program and subsequent massive amplification of centrioles within the cytoplasm. The E2F4 transcription factor is required for both roles and consequently for multiciliogenesis. Here we establish that E2F4 associates with two distinct components of the centriole replication machinery, Deup1 and SAS6, targeting nonhomologous domains in these proteins. We map Deup1 and SAS6 binding to E2F4’s N-terminus and show that this domain is sufficient to mediate E2F4’s cytoplasmic role in multiciliogenesis. This sequence is highly conserved across the E2F family, but the ability to bind Deup1 and SAS6 is specific to E2F4 and E2F5, consistent with their shared roles in multiciliogenesis. By generating E2F4/E2F1 chimeras, we identify a six-residue motif that is critical for Deup1 and SAS6 binding. We propose that the ability of E2F4 and E2F5 to recruit Deup1 and/or SAS6, and enable centriole replication, contributes to their cytoplasmic roles in multiciliogenesis.
Effect of Masker Head Orientation, Listener Age, and Extended High-Frequency Sensitivity on Speech Recognition in Spatially Separated Speech

Supplemental Digital Content is available in the text. Objectives: Masked speech recognition is typically assessed as though the target and background talkers are all directly facing the listener. However, background speech in natural environments is often produced by talkers facing other directions, and talker head orientation affects the spectral content of speech, particularly at the extended high frequencies (EHFs; >8 kHz). This study investigated the effect of masker head orientation and listeners’ EHF sensitivity on speech-in-speech recognition and spatial release from masking in children and adults. Design: Participants were 5- to 7-year-olds (n = 15) and adults (n = 34), all with normal hearing up to 8 kHz and a range of EHF hearing thresholds. Speech reception thresholds (SRTs) were measured for target sentences recorded from a microphone directly in front of the talker’s mouth and presented from a loudspeaker directly in front of the listener, simulating a target directly in front of and facing the listener. The maskers were two streams of concatenated words recorded from a microphone located at either 0° or 60° azimuth, simulating masker talkers facing the listener or facing away from the listener, respectively. Maskers were presented in one of three spatial conditions: co-located with the target, symmetrically separated on either side of the target (+54° and −54° on the horizontal plane), or asymmetrically separated to the right of the target (both +54° on the horizontal plane). Results: Performance was poorer for the facing than for the nonfacing masker head orientation. This benefit of the nonfacing masker head orientation, or head orientation release from masking (HORM), was largest under the co-located condition, but it was also observed for the symmetric and asymmetric masker spatial separation conditions. SRTs were positively correlated with the mean 16-kHz threshold across ears in adults for the nonfacing conditions but not for the facing masker conditions. In adults with normal EHF thresholds, the HORM was comparable in magnitude to the benefit of a symmetric spatial separation of the target and maskers. Although children benefited from the nonfacing masker head orientation, their HORM was reduced compared to adults with normal EHF thresholds. Spatial release from masking was comparable across age groups for symmetric masker placement, but it was larger in adults than children for the asymmetric masker. Conclusions: Masker head orientation affects speech-in-speech recognition in children and adults, particularly those with normal EHF thresholds. This is important because masker talkers do not all face the listener under most natural listening conditions, and assuming a midline orientation would tend to overestimate the effect of spatial separation. The benefits associated with EHF audibility for speech-in-speech recognition may warrant clinical evaluation of thresholds above 8 kHz.
Meaningful messaging: Sentiment in elite social media communication with the public on the COVID-19 pandemic

A new study finds how tone in elite messaging affects information spread and public reaction on social media during the pandemic. Elite messaging plays a crucial role in shaping public debate and spreading information. We examine elite political communication during an emergent international crisis to investigate the role of tone in messaging, information spread, and public reaction. By measuring tone in social media messages from members of the U.S. Congress related to the COVID-19 pandemic, we find clear partisan differences and a differential impact of tone on message engagement and information spread. This suggests that even in the midst of an international health crisis, partisanship and emotional rhetoric play a critical part in elite communications and contribute to the attention messages receive. The messaging on COVID-19 is polarized and fractured. The valenced messaging provokes divergence in public engagement, reaction, and information spread. These results have important implications for studies of representation, public opinion, and how government can effectively engage individuals in emergent situations or pivotal moments.
First‐recruited motor units adopt a faster phenotype in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) is an incurable neurodegenerative disorder of motor neurons, carrying a short survival. High‐density motor unit recordings permit analysis of motor unit size (amplitude) and firing behaviour (afterhyperpolarization duration and muscle fibre conduction velocity). Serial recordings from biceps brachii indicated that motor units fired faster and with greater amplitude as disease progressed. First‐recruited motor units in the latter stages of ALS developed characteristics akin to fast‐twitch motor units, possibly as a compensatory mechanism for the selective loss of this motor unit subset. This process may become maladaptive, highlighting a novel therapeutic target to reduce motor unit vulnerability.
Polymer/Ionic Liquid Thermoplastic Electrolytes for Energy Storage Processed by Solvent Free Procedures

A series of poly(ethylene oxide) (PEO)/lithium trifluoromethanesulfonate (LiTf)/room temperature ionic liquid (RTIL) composite electrolytes has been prepared by melt compounding, using sepiolite modified with d-α-tocopherol polyethylene glycol 1000 succinate (TPGS-Sep) as filler. These electrolytes have been extensively characterized, including thermal stability, relaxations and transitions, rheology, conductivity, ion diffusivity, and salt dissociation. This work shows how the ability of TPGS-S to act as a physical cross-linking site for PEO allows these electrolytes to behave as solids at T > 70 °C, while the abundance of an ionic liquid phase makes the ion diffusion coefficients at 25 °C considerably high, closer to those of a viscous liquid than to those of a solid phase. This combination of rheological and electrical properties, together with their simple and scalable preparation by melt-compounding, makes them a very appealing new class of sustainable electrolytes. This same concept can be applied t.
Magnesium isotope fractionation during 1 hydrothermal seawater-basalt interaction 2 3

15 Fluid-rock interactions in hydrothermal systems at or near mid-oceanic ridges (MOR) play a 16 major role in determining the composition of the oceanic crust and seawater. To quantify the 17 processes that govern cation exchange in these environments we have experimentally studied 18 the isotopic evolution of δ 26/24 Mg in the fluid phase during seawater-basalt interaction at 250 19 and 290 °C. Mass balance constraints indicate that isotopically heavy Mg was preferentially 20 incorporated into non-exchangeable (octahedral) sites in secondary clay minerals such as 21 saponite (Mg-rich smectite), leaving residual fluids enriched in light Mg isotopes. The 22 magnitude of fractionation observed during smectite precipitation in our experiments 23 ( ) ranged from to . This observation, which contrasts with the 24 preferential uptake of light Mg isotopes into biogenic and inorganic marine carbonates, 25 *Manuscript
Ready or not? Constructing the Monetary Union Readiness Index

Abstract While all EU Member States can join the group's monetary union, the euro area, some members are far more ready for the adoption and use of the single European currency. Here, we construct a new Monetary Union Readiness Index (MURI) for the EU Member States. The theoretical framework of the index is built on the economic theory of Optimal Currency Areas and EU regulations such as the Treaty and the Maastricht criteria, and the Regulation on the Macroeconomic Imbalance Procedure. The index measures (i) nominal convergence, (ii) real convergence, and (iii) macroeconomic stability. The MURI Index provides an easy to use real-time policy tool to evaluate both candidate and current euro area members. Hence, it complements, aggregates and communicates key information in annual convergence reports and in official statistics. Our evaluation finds that Austria, Finland, Denmark, Sweden and Germany showed the highest level of compliance with the different euro area criteria in 2018, while Greece, Cyprus, Romania, Spain, and Italy were the least compliant.
An Improved Model-Free Predictive Current Control With Advanced Current Gradient Updating Mechanism

Model-based predictive control that highly depends on system parameters is widely investigated. In contrast, model-free predictive current control (MFPCC) can be performed based on input or output measured data, rather than on any system model information, hence eliminating the influence of parameter uncertainties. In such a strategy, the current gradients due to each of the possible voltage vectors are stored and used to predict future currents. Current gradient knowledge therefore provides a significant foundation for MFPCC. In conventional MFPCC, however, the stagnation existing in the current gradient update always impacts the reliability of current gradients and further worsens the control performance. In this article, an improved MFPCC with an advanced current gradient updating mechanism is proposed. In the proposed strategy, to guarantee the reliability of the current gradients, two contiguous measured current gradients due to the applied voltage vectors are used to estimate the current gradients for all the possible voltage vectors. This simple method takes advantage of the mathematical relationships between the voltage vectors. In this way, all the current gradients can be obtained within one control period, effectively reducing the stagnation effect in conventional MFPCC. The proposed MFPCC scheme is evaluated on a permanent magnet synchronous machine drive setup to demonstrate its effectiveness.
Associations among perfectionism, anxiety, and psychological well-being/ill-being in college athletes of South Korea

The study was to investigate the relationships between perfectionism (i.e., self-oriented and socially-prescribed perfectionism) and psychological well-being (i.e., vitality)/ill-being (i.e., emotional/physical exhaustion) and to examine the mediating effects of competitive state anxiety on the relationships. Three hundred two collegiate athletes participated in the study (Mage = 21.12yrs, SD = 1.28). The participants completed four questionnaires: Multidimensional Perfectionism Scale, Revised Competitive State Anxiety Inventory-2, Subjective Vitality Scale, and Emotional/Physical Exhaustion from Athlete Burnout Questionnaire. The hypothesized model presented an acceptable fit to the data. Specifically, χ2 (80) = 179.99 (p < 0.001), CFI = 0.973, TLI = 0.965, SRMR = 0.042, and RMSEA = 0.052 with 90% CI [0.042, 0.062]. The results indicated that self-oriented perfectionism was negatively related to competitive state anxiety (β = -.14, p < .005) and positively related to vitality (β =.26, p < .001), whereas socially-prescribed perfectionism was positively related to competitive state anxiety (β =.28, p < .001) and emotional/physical exhaustion (β =.15, p < .05). Competitive state anxiety was negatively related to vitality (β = -.14, p < .05) and positively related to emotional/physical exhaustion (β =.31, p < .001). Competitive state anxiety partially mediated the relationships between socially-prescribed perfectionism and emotional/physical exhaustion. The full mediating effects of anxiety on the relationships between self-oriented perfectionism and emotional/physical exhaustion and between socially-prescribed perfectionism and vitality were observed. Findings supported that self-oriented perfectionism was functionally adaptive to and socially-prescribed perfectionism was maladaptive to athletes’ psychological well-/ill-being.
Developing a Character of Responsibility and Social Care With a STAD Type Cooperative Model

The behavioral deviations among students such as temper tantrums, disobedience to rules, physical aggression, difficulty in handling frustration, and excessive argumentativeness, negatively affect the value of national character. Therefore, every student needs to possess the characters of responsibility and social care by applying the Student Team Achievement Division (STAD) type model. This study aims to (1) develop the character of student responsibility, social care, (2) describe student learning outcomes, and (3) analyze the effect of responsibility and social care character on student learning outcomes after applying the STAD type cooperative model. This research was conducted using a quasi-experimental method with a time-series design. The purposive sampling method was used to obtained data from 30 students of class VIII-H SMP Negeri 15 Banjarmasin through observation and test techniques and analyzed using the normality test and multiple regression methods. The results showed that (1) the application of the cooperative model type STAD in mathematics learning developed the character of responsibility and social care among students, (2) the average learning outcome tends to increase and is included in the very good category, and (3) there is an effect of responsibility and social care character towards the increase of student achievement in mathematics learning.
Agent-based Modeling and Reinforcement Learning for Optimizing Energy Systems Operation and Maintenance: The Pathmind Solution

The optimization of the Operation and Maintenance (O&M) of energy systems equipped with Prognostics and Health Management (PHM) capabilities can be framed as a sequential decision process, which can be addressed by Reinforcement Learning (RL). However, using RL algorithms requires speciﬁc skills, whereas the understanding of the possibly counter-intuitive solutions proposed by RL is not straifhtforward. To sidestep both issues, we use Pathmind, a software tool which enables effectively exploiting the RL capabilities without deep knowledge of machine learning. Pathmind is encoded in the Anylogic environment, which is an Agent-Based simulation software that simpliﬁes the system modeling and allows easily visualizing the effects of the optimized policy. A scaled-down wind farm case study is used to demonstrate the potential of RL in identifying an optimal O&M policy and to show the ease of use of Pathmind and AnyLogic.