Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants for dental visit behavior among Hong Kong Chinese in a longitudinal study.

OBJECTIVES The aim of this research was to study the major determinants for dental services utilization among middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese in a longitudinal study using an expanded Andersen and Newman model as the theoretical framework. METHODS A random sample of 372 middle-aged Hong Kong Chinese were interviewed and clinically examined in an oral health survey. The findings were explained to the subjects and they were advised to seek care from their own dentist as appropriate. RESULTS A total of 322 subjects were interviewed over the telephone after 12 months. About half had visited a dentist within the study period. Results of the bivariate analysis showed that proportionally more subjects who had dental benefit coverage, had prevention-oriented attitudes, were regular users of dental services, had received counseling from a dentist, or had more filled teeth at the baseline examination had visited a dentist within the study period. Logistic regression analysis produced a final model consisting of seven factors and three interaction terms that was able to classify 68 percent of the subjects into the correct user category. CONCLUSION The expanded Andersen and Newman model was useful as a theoretical framework in studying the dental services utilization behaviors of the Hong Kong adults.
Parenting and Conduct Problems in Children: Australian Data and Psychometric Properties of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire

A wealth of research has shown links between parenting style and child behaviour, and the development of conduct problems in young children. Unfortunately, the most common and well-researched measures of parenting do not tap specific dimensions of parenting clearly related to risk for conduct problems in children. Recently, the development of the Alabama Parenting Questionnaire (APQ) appears to have overcome this problem. It has several subscales that were designed to correspond to empirically identified aspects of positive and negative parenting styles important to conduct problems. The current study evaluated the APO with a large community sample of 4- to 9-year-old Australian children. The results showed good internal consistency, validity, and test-retest reliability for the measure. Means, standard deviations, and proposed cut-off scores are presented. These data indicate the APQ is potentially a useful measure for clinicians and researchers working with Australian samples of children with conduct problems and their families.
Exploring cross-national differences in gender gaps in education

Although the participation rates of females in science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (or STEM) education is poor in most Western countries, considerable differences across countries exist as well. This may be due to differences in the so-called gender achievement gaps, that is, delays of one sex with respect to the other. The variation in gender gaps in mathematics, science, and reading literacy, both across countries and across schools within countries, is explored in the present study using the PISA data. The results of multilevel analyses show the participation of women in tertiary STEM education to increase as the relative achievements of girls with respect to boys in secondary education improve. When the characteristics of schools and countries are examined in relation to the size of the gender achievement gaps, integrated educational systems are found to be more favourable to the achievement of girls than differentiated educational systems.
Gender and graduate economics education in the US

Abstract This paper reports on the findings of a survey of top economics graduate schools as they relate to women and men. The results provide strong evidence that at these top graduate schools, women graduate students are less integrated in their economic disciplines than are male graduate students. In the second part of the paper, this paper relates those findings to alternative theories as to why this is the case. This paper concludes by suggesting that the emphasis on theoretical studies in the current core of the graduate economics program can be seen as a type of hazing process that seems to have a significant cost since many women (and men) with great creative promise are discouraged from continuing in economics and do not benefit nearly as much as they would have from more policy-driven core courses.
Active surveillance or radical prostatectomy? Which treatment is best?

OBJECTIVE We evaluated the patients who are candidates for active surveillance and treated with radical prostatectomy. These patients were compared with other patients who had not met the criteria of active surveillance. METHODS In total, 135 patients were included in the study. The patients were divided into two groups. The patients in Group 1 had less than three positive cores, Gleason 6 (3 + 3) and PSA level equal to or less than 10 ng/ml. Patients in Group 2 had three or more positive cores, Gleason 6 (3 + 3) and PSA level equal to or higher than 10 ng/ml. Pathological results of each groups were compared. RESULTS The patients' ages were between 52 and 76, and 50 and 77 in groups 1 and 2, retrospectively. There were 69 and 66 patients in groups 1 and 2, retrospectively. The mean age of patients, PSA levels, PSA density, and prostate volumes were 63.89 ± 5.89 years, 5.82 ± 1.84 ng/ml, 0.14 ± 0.07 and 51.21 ± 31.75 cc (Group 1) and 65.77 ± 6.36 years, 13.65 ± 17.11 ng/ml, 0.63 ± 1.03 and 45.44 ± 26.77 cc (Group 2). T2a, T2c, T3a and T3b were reported in 28 patients, 36 patients, 3 patients and 2 patients after pathological evaluation in Group 1,respectively. T2a, T2c, T3a and T3b were reported in 13 patients, 47 patients, 5 patients and 1 patient in the other group, respectively. CONCLUSION The final pathology showed that there is no difference in the positive surgical margin, proportion of insignificant prostate cancer and Gleason upgrading between groups. The clinicians must be aware of the fact that active surveillance can be misdiagnosed in some patients (Tab. 2, Ref. 20).
Functional Amblyopia; A Blinding Disease in a Normal Eye

Amblyopia is reduction of vision with the proper optical correction either in one or both eyes. The diagnosis of Amblyopia requires both the demonstration of visual acuity loss and the absence of an organic cause. A visual defect screening program was conducted on children aged 3-14 years of Bope-Poddala health unit area of the city of Galle Sri Lanka. Children aged 5-14 years were examined at each respective school. Children aged 3-5 years were examined at the pre schools . Children not attending to pre schools were examined in the community. All possitives and difficult to handle cases with a 10% of normal were referred to the ophthalmology clinic for secondary screening, investigation and diagnosis. Cases of diagnosed Amblyopia were called after one year for re-assessment. A total of 6685 school children and 934 preschool children were enrolled for this study. After exclusion, 5649 children were screened.Out of the total of 5649 children who were screened 439 (7.8%) were found to have eye diseases with or without visual defects giving a prevalence of 78/1000 children. Of those with such diseases, 88.8% had visual defects. The prevalence of visual defect was 6.9% (69/1000 children). Of the children with visual defects 90.0% (351) were due to refractive errors. The prevalence of refractive errors was 6.2% (62/1000 children). The analysis of the prevalence of different types of refractive errors showed that the prevalence of myopic astigmatism was 52.3%, Simple myopia was 24.6%, simple hypermetropia was 12.5%. Myopic astigmatism was the commonest type of refractive error in unilateral or bilateral involvement. The second commonest was simple myopia. It was found that out of 223 children with bilateral refractive errors 11.6% had unilateral Amblyopia and 17.5% had bilateral Amblyopia giving a total of 29.1%. Of all children with unilateral refractive errors 39.8% had Amblyopia. The development of Amblyopia among unilateral refractive errors was higher than bilateral refractive errors (p<0.05). The total prevalence of refractive Amblyopia was 2.1% of the population. Of them 1.4% had unilateral Amblyopia and 0.7% had bilateral Amblyopia. This difference was statistically significant. (P<0.05) Highest prevalence was observed in the age group of six and seven years (3.4% and 3.0%.). Distribution of Amblyopia among males and females were almost equal. The total prevalence of Amblyopia among children was 2.3%. Refractive Amblyopia calculated was 2.1% that consisted of 1.9% of Anisometropic Amblyopia.The strabismic Amblyopia was 0.2%. Deprivation Amblyopia was 0.2%. There were no Amblyopes found in the group of strabismic Amblyopia without refractive errors.
Comparative Studies on Color Preference in Japan and Other Asian Regions with Special Emphasis on the Preference for White

The results of three surveys are presented. The first survey was carried out in four large cities in Japan, and the findings were analyzed by factor analysis and cluster analysis. The second survey was carried out in Seoul, Korea and Tokyo, Japan to determine color preference in the two countries, focusing on the preference for white. The last survey compared color preference in Taipei and Tokyo, also with emphasis on the preference for white. In these successive studies on color preference in Japan and other Asian cities, the subjects were mainly asked to choose from a color chart the three colors they liked most and the three they liked least, and to state the reasons for their choices. The results of Survey 1 showed that color preference could be influenced by differences in age, sex, and geographical region. Also factor analysis and cluster analysis indicated some relation between color preference and the subjects' life styles. Dual scaling analysis of the results of Surveys 2 and 3 indicated that each Asian area has unique color preference tendencies and that there are statistically significant differences in the frequency of selection of colors of certain hues and tones. However, a high preference for white was common to all areas, along with preferences for some other colors. These results thus demonstrated a common strong preference for white in three neighboring Asian areas. The reasons given for the choices suggested that besides the factors of age and sex, associative images based on environmental and cultural aspects may be an important factor influencing color preference. © 1996 John Wiley & Sons, Inc.
Viral breakthrough after suppression with highly active antiretroviral therapy: experience from 233 individuals with viral loads of less than 50 copies/ml followed for up to 4 years.

The occurrence of viral breakthrough on treatment was examined in 233 previously antiretroviral-naive HIV-infected patients who started highly active antiretroviral therapy (HAART) and who achieved initial viral suppression to less than 50 copies/ml. The rate of viral breakthrough despite the continuation of therapy was 3.6 per 100 person-years (12 cases occurred during 332.8 person-years of follow-up). Viral suppression on HAART is proving extremely durable in those who can tolerate these regimens over long periods.
Is "Change Blindness" Attenuated by Domain-specific Expertise? An Expert-Novices Comparison of Change Detection in Football Images

When an aspect of a visual image is altered, observers often fail to notice the change. Recent studies suggest that successful change detection requires the observer to attend to and effortfully encode the changing aspect between the images. In this study we addressed the question of whether individual characteristics of the observer, namely expertise in a domain, selectively influence the ability to detect changes in images from that domain. A total of 48 individuals, half of whom were experts in the sport of American football and half of whom were American football novices, were presented alternating sequences of football-related and unrelated images. Our results indicate that expertise in a specific domain increases observers' sensitivity to semantic changes of domain-related images. Implications for the development of diagnostic tools are briefly addressed.
Prefrontally Driven Downregulation of Neural Synchrony Mediates Goal-Directed Forgetting

Neural synchronization between distant cell assemblies is crucial for the formation of new memories. To date, however, it remains unclear whether higher-order brain regions can adaptively regulate neural synchrony to control memory processing in humans. We explored this question in two experiments using a voluntary forgetting task. In the first experiment, we simultaneously recorded electroencephalography along with fMRI. The results show that a reduction in neural synchrony goes hand-in-hand with a BOLD signal increase in the left dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC) when participants are cued to forget previously studied information. In the second experiment, we directly stimulated the left dlPFC with repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation during the same task, and show that such stimulation specifically boosts the behavioral forgetting effect and induces a reduction in neural synchrony. These results suggest that prefrontally driven downregulation of long-range neural synchronization mediates goal-directed forgetting of long-term memories.
Lithology, Monsoon and Sea-Surface Current Control on Provenance, Dispersal and Deposition of Sediments over the Andaman Continental Shelf

Sediments deposited on the Northern and Eastern Andaman Shelf along with a few sediments from the Irrawaddy and the Salween Rivers are studied for their elemental, Sr and Nd concentrations and their isotope composition to identify their sources, constrain their transport pathways and assess the factors influencing the erosion in the catchment and their dispersal and deposition over the Andaman Shelf region. Major elemental compositions of the shelf sediments suggest mafic lithology such as ophiolites and ultrabasic rocks in the Irrawaddy drainage and over Indo – Burman – Arakan (IBA) ranges as their dominant source. 87Sr/86Sr ratios in sediments of the Northern and Eastern Andaman Shelf range between 0.712245 and 0.742183 whereas, eNd varies from -6.29 to -17.25. Sediments around Mergui have the highest 87Sr/86Sr and the lowest eNd values. Sr and Nd isotope composition of these sediments along with that in the potential sources suggest four major sources of these sediments to the Andaman Shelf, (i) the Irrawaddy River, (ii) the Salween River, (iii) Rivers draining the IBA ranges and (vi) Rivers draining the Western/Central granitic ranges of the Southern Myanmar and Western Thailand such as the Tavoy and the Tanintharyi Rivers. Erosion in the catchment is controlled by the precipitation and topography. Intensely focused precipitation over the higher relief of the western slopes of the IBA and western/central granitic ranges causes higher erosion over this mountainous region, supplying huge sediments through the Kaladan, Irrawaddy, Salween, and the Tanintharyi Rivers to the western Myanmar Shelf, Northern, and Eastern Andaman Shelves respectively. The majority of the sediments produced in the drainage are delivered to the shelf during the south-west monsoon which is dispersed eastward by sea-surface circulation from the mouth of the Irrawaddy Rivers towards the Gulf of Martaban and further southward. The Andaman Shelf receives very little sediment, if any, from the Ganga-Brahmaputra Delta. Higher erosion over the Western/Central granitic belt of the Southern Myanmar and Western Thailand and its importance in delivering sediments to the Eastern Andaman Shelf around the Mergui Archipelago are highlighted for the first time in this study.
Overview and insight into the MONICA research group

This paper deals with the activities of the MONICA research group of the Computer Networks Laboratory at the Technical University of Košice in Slovakia. MONICA stands for the Monitoring and Optimization of Network Infrastructures, Communications and Applications. Our main areas of interest are related to development of the BasicMeter tool built in conformity with the IPFIX architecture. In this paper we give an overview of our solution and proposal of several enhancements over the scope of IPFIX, such as time synchronization for the One-Way Delay measurements, the protocol for direct communication with the analyzing application, the centralized management of the monitoring platform, and support for real-time monitoring.
`Code talk' in soft work

The performance of writing software is an under-studied phenomenon in Information Systems (IS) studies. Key aspects of the process of software development — the practice of writing code, coding texts collectively, maintaining and extending source code — are too often glossed or treated unproblematically as technical `givens' rather than social accomplishments. Although ethnographic methods are now considered a valid mode of study in the software industry, there is a relative scarcity of ethnographic studies of the performance of programming itself. Utilizing data drawn from an ethnographic study of an Irish software development company, this article presents an intensive study of what I term `code talk', the verbal interactions which attend the performance of programming software. `Code talk' is then situated as a crucial element of a broader social understanding of collaborative knowledge work.
Loop distribution with arbitrary control flow

A general and optimal algorithm for loop distribution when control flow is present is proposed. The algorithm can be used to enhance the effectiveness of vectorizers, parallelizers, and programming environments. The method performs loop distribution in the presence of control flow based on control dependencies. This algorithm is optimal in that it generates the minimum number of new arrays and tests possible. A code generation algorithm that produces code for the resulting program without replicating statements or conditions is also presented. <<ETX>>
Preliminary study to identify cancer patients at high risk of venous thrombosis following major surgery

Summary This study investigated whether the pre‐surgical plasma levels of TAT and F1 + 2 of patients undergoing major surgery for localized tumours could identify patients at higher risk of thrombosis, and how heparin prophylaxis affected in vivo coagulation after cancer surgery. We measured the pre‐and post‐operative levels of TAT, F1+2, total factor VII (FVIIt) and zymogen FVII (FVIIz) in 117 cancer patients, with and without heparin prophylaxis. The end points of this study were DVT. ihitially detected by 125I‐fibrinogen uptake test and confirmed by ascending venography. Pre‐operative [TAT] and [Fl+2] of the cancer patients were significantly higher than those of age‐matched control subjects (n=50) (P<0.005 and P<0.05, respectively): pre‐operative [FVII] was not significantly different. One of the 83 patients receiving prophylaxis, and 8/34 not receiving prophylaxis developed post‐operative DVT. Of the parameters evaluated, only the pre‐operative [TAT] > 3. 5 ng/ml identified patients at higher risk for post‐operative DVT. Heparin reduced plasma TAT levels and FVII consumption following surgery, suggesting that heparin modulates coagulation associated with cancer surgery. The results of this study also suggest that the pre‐operative [TAT] may identify patients with higher risk for post‐operative DVT.
The Mutual Roles of Action Representations and Spatial Deictics in French Language

Many aspects of language associated with an object's noun inform about the location of the object the noun refers to, in relation to the action system. In the present study, we tested whether the determiners la (the) and cette (that) in French language carry embodied spatial information. In Experiment 1, participants performed a reachability judgement task after having evaluated the correct spelling of both a determiner (la or cette) and an object-noun (balle–ball, tasse–cup, or pomme–apple). We found that response time for judging reachability was shorter when the determiner la rather than cette was previously presented. The opposite pattern of results was observed with unreachable objects. Furthermore, the boundary of reachable space was perceived further away when the determiner la rather than cette was previously presented. In Experiment 2, we evaluated whether watching a reachable or unreachable object influenced the subsequent spelling judgement task of a determiner (la or cette) and a noun (balle, tasse, or pomme). Results showed that reachable space was wider, and reachability estimates were faster, when judging reachability than when judging unreachability. Moreover, spelling judgements were faster when the stimulus was the determiner la rather than cette, whatever the reachability of the object presented before. Considered together, these data stress the close connection between the spatial content of determiners and the representation of action possibilities, giving some evidence for embodied language processing. By contrast, presenting an object at a reachable or an unreachable location does not seem sufficient to activate the related linguistic descriptors.
Caution against the use of monotherapy in neutropenic patients.

tropenia [1], there was a discussion concerning the use of single antibiotics for febrile neutropenic patients. It was believed that under certain circumstances the broad-spectrum cephalosporins, ceftazidime and cefoperazone, and the carbapenem, imipenem, would be adequate due to their spectrum of activity. In the section on monotherapy, the authors mention some of the organisms frequently resistant to these antibiotics, namely Staphylococcus epidermidis, methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus, and certain other gram-negative species. Our own findings strongly agree with this view and its tendency to conservatism for the use of monotherapy. In the past year, we have seen nine episodes of bacteremia, in eight neutropenic patients, caused by Xanthomonas maltophilia. This emerging nosocomial pathogen is highly resistant to imipenem, and many strains are also resistant to ceftazidime and cefoperazone [2]. Enterococci are also ordinarily resistant to cephalosporins [3], and many strains, particularly of Enterococcus (Streptococcus) faecium, are resistant to imipenem as well [4]. As the use of these agents has increased in recent years, so has the list of organisms showing resistance in vivo, in vitro, or both grown longer. This now includes Listeria monocytogenes [5] and corynebacteria [6], and imipenem resistance has appeared in some Bacteroides species [7, 8]. The regular and widespread appearance of ceftazidime resistance in units that use this agent is also worrying [9]. In a recent trial of ceftazidime versus imipenem/cilastatin monotherapy in neutropenia [10], the ability of a variety of organisms to cause treatment failures, relapses, and superinfections was shown. In the light of the severity of a possible thera-