LLukas22/scidocs huggingface dataset:
Foreskin cutting beliefs and practices and the acceptability of male circumcision for HIV prevention in Papua New Guinea

BACKGROUND
Male circumcision (MC) reduces HIV acquisition and is a key public health intervention in settings with high HIV prevalence, heterosexual transmission and low MC rates. In Papua New Guinea (PNG), where HIV prevalence is 0.8%, there is no medical MC program for HIV prevention. There are however many different foreskin cutting practices across the country's 800 language groups. The major form exposes the glans but does not remove the foreskin. This study aimed to describe and quantify foreskin cutting styles, practices and beliefs. It also aimed to assess the acceptability of MC for HIV prevention in PNG.


METHODS
Cross-sectional multicentre study, at two university campuses (Madang Province and National Capital District) and at two 'rural development' sites (mining site Enga Province; palm-oil plantation in Oro Province). Structured questionnaires were completed by participants originating from all regions of PNG who were resident at each site for study or work.


RESULTS
Questionnaires were completed by 861 men and 519 women. Of men, 47% reported a longitudinal foreskin cut (cut through the dorsal surface to expose the glans but foreskin not removed); 43% reported no foreskin cut; and 10% a circumferential foreskin cut (complete removal). Frequency and type of cut varied significantly by region of origin (p < .001). Most men (72-82%) were cut between the ages of 10-20 years. Longitudinal cuts were most often done in a village by a friend, with circumferential cuts most often done in a clinic by a health professional. Most uncut men (71%) and longitudinal cut men (84%) stated they would remove their foreskin if it reduced the risk of HIV infection. More than 95% of uncut men and 97% of longitudinal cut men would prefer the procedure in a clinic or hospital. Most men (90%) and women (74%) stated they would remove the foreskin of their son if it reduced the risk of HIV infection.


CONCLUSION
Although 57% of men reported some form of foreskin cut only 10% reported the complete removal of the foreskin, the procedure on which international HIV prevention strategies are based. The acceptability of MC (complete foreskin removal) is high among men (for themselves and their sons) and women (for their sons). Potential MC services need to be responsive to the diversity of beliefs and practices and consider health system constraints. A concerted research effort to investigate the potential protective effects of longitudinal cuts for HIV acquisition is essential given the scale of longitudinal cuts in PNG.
ANN BASED PREDICTION OF SURFACE ROUGHNESS IN TURNING

Surface roughness, an indicator of surface quality is one of the most specified customer requirements in a machining process. For efficient use of machine tools, optimum cutting parameters (speed, feed and depth of cut) are required. Therefore it is necessary to find a suitable optimization method which can find optimum values of cutting parameters for minimizing surface roughness. The turning process parameter optimization is highly constrained and nonlinear. In present work, machining process was carried out on Mild steel material in dry cutting condition in a lathe machine and surface roughness was measured using Surface Roughness Tester. To predict the surface roughness, an artificial neural network (ANN) model was designed through back propagation network for the data obtained. Comparison of the experimental data and ANN results show that there is no significant difference and ANN was used confidently. The results obtained, conclude that ANN is reliable and accurate for solving the cutting parameter optimization.
Acupuncture for chronic low back pain: protocol for a multicenter, randomized, sham-controlled trial

BACKGROUND
Use of acupuncture has widely increased in patients with chronic low back pain. However, the evidence supporting its efficacy remains unclear. In this article, we report the design and the protocol of a multi-center randomized sham-controlled trial to treat chronic low back pain. Our goal is to verify the effect of acupuncture on chronic low back pain.


METHODS/DESIGN
This study is a multi-center randomized sham-controlled trial with 2 parallel arms. Participants included in the study met the following criteria: 1) low back pain lasting for at least the last 3 months, 2) a documented >or= 5 points on a 10 cm visual analog scale for bothersomeness of low back pain at the time of screening and 3) between 18 and 65 years of age. Participants were blinded to the real and sham acupuncture treatments. The real acupuncture treatment group received real acupuncture 2 times a week, during a total of 12 sessions over 6 weeks. The control group received sham acupuncture during the same period. In order to assess the primary and secondary outcome measures, the participants were asked to fill out a questionnaire at the baseline and 6, 8, 12 and 24 weeks after starting the treatments. The primary outcome was measured using the visual analog scale for bothersomeness of low back pain at 8 weeks after the initiation of treatments.


DISCUSSION
The result of this trial (which will be available in 2010) will demonstrate the efficacy of using acupuncture to treat chronic low back pain.


TRIAL REGISTRATION
This study is registered with the U.S. National Institutes of Health Clinical Trials registry: NCT00815529.
A retrospective analysis of ethnic and gender differences in alcohol consumption among emergency department patients: a cross-sectional study

BACKGROUND
Previous studies of alcohol use have recognized several trends in consumption patterns among gender and age yet few have examined ethnic differences. This study examines the intra- and inter-ethnic differences in alcohol consumption among a population of patients seen in the emergency department.


METHODS
This is a cross-sectional study conducted in the emergency department in a large urban setting. Information on drinking behavior and ethnicity was collected using the Computerized Alcohol Screening and Brief Intervention (CASI) tool. We explored differences in drinking patterns using a multivariate multinomial logistic regression model.


RESULTS
We analyzed the drinking habits of 2,444 patients surveyed between November 2012 and May 2014. The results indicate that when compared to non-Hispanic whites, Asians have the lowest odds of drinking within normal limits or excessively, followed by other Latinos, and Mexicans. Age and gender consistently showed statistically significant associations with alcohol-use. The odds of drinking within normal limits or excessively are inversely associated with age and were lower among females. The predicted probabilities show a marked gender-specific difference in alcohol use both between and within ethnic/racial groups. They also highlight an age-related convergence in alcohol use between men and women within ethnic groups.


DISCUSSION
The results of this study show intra-racial/ethnic variability associated with sex and education. The highlighted differences within and between ethnic groups reinforce the need to use refined categories when examining alcohol use among minorities.


CONCLUSION
The results of this study confirm some alcohol consumption trends among ethnic minorities observed in literature. It provides empirical evidence of the marked gender differences and highlights an age-related convergence for gender-specific alcohol use. Health-care personnel should be aware of these differences when screening and counseling.
Advantages and characteristics of nano-powders produced using plasma technology

Plasma technology, a technique for producing nano-powders, is briefly explained, and the characteristics of plasma-powders are illustrated, especially for the production of composites. The deficit of technical applications is compared to the new and interesting properties of the powders and the resulting advanced materials. This deficit is largely due to technological problems in the processing of the powder as well as insufficient demands from industry.
Principles of survey research: part 5: populations and samples

This article is the fifth installment of our series of articles on survey research. In it, we discuss what we mean by a population and a sample and the implications of each for survey research. We provide examples of correct and incorrect sampling techniques used in software engineering surveys.
Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction and Sense of Coherence Among Women with Fibromyalgia

Sense of Coherence (SOC) is conceptualized as a disposition to experience life as meaningful and manageable. Research suggests a protective effect of SOC on psychological health in stressful circumstances. This study assessed the capacity of SOC to buffer the effect of illness symptoms on psychological distress among patients with fibromyalgia. Self-reported changes in SOC after participation in a Mindfulness-Based Stress Reduction (MBSR) program were also examined. Ninety-one women with fibromyalgia provided baseline data pertaining to illness symptoms, perceived stress, and depression prior to participation in a randomized trial of MBSR. SOC and fibromyalgia symptoms were independently related to perceived stress and depression at baseline. SOC was not a statistically significant moderator of symptom effects on psychological distress. In comparison with wait-listed controls, program participants reported a significant increase in SOC after MBSR participation. These results provide the first demonstration from a randomized trial that SOC may be enhanced via intervention.
Exploring the Realization of Irony in Twitter Data

Cynthia Van Hee, Els Lefever and Véronique Hoste LT3, Language and Translation Technology Team Ghent University Groot-Brittanniëlaan 45, 9000 Ghent, Belgium cynthia.vanhee, els.lefever, veronique.hoste@ugent.be Abstract Handling figurative language like irony is currently a challenging task in natural language processing. Since irony is commonly used in user-generated content, its presence can significantly undermine accurate analysis of opinions and sentiment in such texts. Understanding irony is therefore important if we want to push the state-of-the-art in tasks such as sentiment analysis. In this research, we present the construction of a Twitter dataset for two languages, being English and Dutch, and the development of new guidelines for the annotation of verbal irony in social media texts. Furthermore, we present some statistics on the annotated corpora, from which we can conclude that the detection of contrasting evaluations might be a good indicator for recognizing irony.
An empirical study on behavioural intention to reuse e-learning systems in rural China

The learner‟s acceptance of e-learning systems has received extensive attention in prior studies, but how their experience of using e-learning systems impacts on their behavioral intention to re-use those systems has attracted limited research. As the applications of e-learning are still gaining momentum in developing countries, such as China, it is necessary to examine the relationships between e-learners‟ experience and perceptions and their behavioral intention to re-use because it is argued that system reuse is an important indicator of the system‟s success. Therefore, a better understanding of the multiple factors affecting the e-learner‟s intention to re-use could help e-learning system researchers and providers to develop more effective and acceptable e-learning systems. Underpinned by the information system success model, technology acceptance model, and self-efficacy theory, a theoretical framework was developed to investigate the learner‟s behavioral intention to re-use elearning systems. A total of 280 e-learners were surveyed to validate the measurements and proposed research model. The results demonstrated that e-learning service quality, course quality, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, and self-efficacy had direct effects on users‟ behavioral intention to re-use. System functionality and system response have an indirect effect, but system interactivity had no significant effect. Furthermore, self-efficacy affected perceived ease of use which positively influenced perceived usefulness.
The Sanitary Conditions of Food Service Establishments and Food Safety Knowledge and Practices of Food Handlers in Bahir Dar Town

BACKGROUND
Lack of basic infrastructure, poor knowledge of hygiene and practices in food service establishments can contribute to outbreaks of foodborne illnesses. The aims of this study were to investigate the food safety knowledge and practices of food handlers and to assess the sanitary conditions of food service establishments in Bahir Dar town.


METHODS
A cross-sectional study was conducted in Bahir Dar in May 2011 and data were collected using questionnaire and observation checklist on employees' knowledge of food hygiene and their practices as well on sanitary conditions of the food service establishments


RESULTS
The median age of the food handlers was 22 years and among the 455 subjects 99 (21.8%) have had food hygiene training. Sixty six percent of the establishments had flush toilets whereas 5.9% of the establishment had no toilet. Only 149 (33.6%) of the establishments had a proper solid waste collection receptacle and there was statistically significant association between the sanitary conditions and license status of the establishments (p=0.01). Most of all, knowledge gap in food hygiene and handling practice was observed. In addition, there was statistically significant difference between trained (professional) handlers and non-trained handlers with regard to food hygiene practices (p<0.05). While more than 50% of the handlers prepare meals ahead of the peak selling time, more than 50% of the left over was poorly managed.


CONCLUSION
This study revealed poor sanitary conditions and poor food hygiene practices of handlers. Educational programs targeted at improving the attitude of food handlers and licensing and regular inspections have been recommended.
A crystal-clear view

S imple biominerals are composed of complex structures, which often have precise architectural order over several length scales. TIlis amazing architecture contributes to their superior strength and toughness, allowing them to outperform synthetic materials. Biominerals rely heavily on their biological constituents, such as biomacromolecules, for' regulation of mineralization. Pathological mineralization leads to the formation of undesired biominerals such as kidney stones, artherosclerosis and dental calculus. It is therefore of great importance to unravel the mechanisms that cause the formation of both desirable and undesirable biominerals in organisms. One secret ofbiominerals' superior material properties is their organicinorganic hybrid structure whereby precise arrangement of the building blocks is achieved over several length scales. For example, the fracture resistance of nacre is 3,OOO-fold higher than that of brittle CaCO, (aragonite), which comprises 95% of nacre's weight. TIle adaptation of these building principles in synthetic models is highly attractive and can be further enhanced by synthetic chemistry'·'. To take advantage of these strategies for building better materials, a firm understanding ofbiomineralization mechanisms and design principles is required. As a consequence of the analytical challenges posed, these details of biomineralization remain unknown. Even in the case of bone and teeth with studies spanning several decades focused on these issues formation mechanisms remain ambiguous. This is demonstrated by the controversial debate surrounding whether bone mineralizes by means of ion-based or amorphous precursors. To complicate the
Association between online social networking and depression in high school students: behavioral physiology viewpoint.

BACKGROUND
Frequent use of Facebook and other social networks is thought to be associated with certain behavioral changes, and some authors have expressed concerns about its possible detrimental effect on mental health. In this work, we investigated the relationship between social networking and depression indicators in adolescent population.


SUBJECTS AND METHODS
Total of 160 high school students were interviewed using an anonymous, structured questionnaire and Back Depression Inventory - second edition (BDI-II-II). Apart from BDI-II-II, students were asked to provide the data for height and weight, gender, average daily time spent on social networking sites, average time spent watching TV, and sleep duration in a 24-hour period.


RESULTS
Average BDI-II-II score was 8.19 (SD=5.86). Average daily time spent on social networking was 1.86 h (SD=2.08 h), and average time spent watching TV was 2.44 h (SD=1.74 h). Average body mass index of participants was 21.84 (SD=3.55) and average sleep duration was 7.37 (SD=1.82). BDI-II-II score indicated minimal depression in 104 students, mild depression in 46 students, and moderate depression in 10 students. Statistically significant positive correlation (p<0.05, R=0.15) was found between BDI-II-II score and the time spent on social networking.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results indicate that online social networking is related to depression. Additional research is required to determine the possible causal nature of this relationship.
Multi-Class L2,1-Norm Support Vector Machine

Feature selection is an essential component of data mining. In many data analysis tasks where the number of data point is much less than the number of features, efficient feature selection approaches are desired to extract meaningful features and to eliminate redundant ones. In the previous study, many data mining techniques have been applied to tackle the above challenging problem. In this paper, we propose a new $\ell_{2,1}$-norm SVM, that is, multi-class hinge loss with a structured regularization term for all the classes to naturally select features for multi-class without bothering further heuristic strategy. Rather than directly solving the multi-class hinge loss with $\ell_{2,1}$-norm regularization minimization, which has not been solved before due to its optimization difficulty, we are the first to give an efficient algorithm bridging the new problem with a previous solvable optimization problem to do multi-class feature selection. A global convergence proof for our method is also presented. Via the proposed efficient algorithm, we select features across multiple classes with jointly sparsity, \emph{i.e.}, each feature has either small or large score over all classes. Comprehensive experiments have been performed on six bioinformatics data sets to show that our method can obtain better or competitive performance compared with exiting state-of-art multi-class feature selection approaches.
Serum sex steroids in premenopausal women and breast cancer risk within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition (EPIC).

BACKGROUND
Contrasting etiologic hypotheses about the role of endogenous sex steroids in breast cancer development among premenopausal women implicate ovarian androgen excess and progesterone deficiency, estrogen excess, estrogen and progesterone excess, and both an excess or lack of adrenal androgens (dehydroepiandrosterone [DHEA] or its sulfate [DHEAS]) as risk factors. We conducted a case-control study nested within the European Prospective Investigation into Cancer and Nutrition cohort to examine associations among premenopausal serum concentrations of sex steroids and subsequent breast cancer risk.


METHODS
Levels of DHEAS, (Delta4-)androstenedione, testosterone, and sex hormone binding globulin (SHBG) were measured in single prediagnostic serum samples from 370 premenopausal women who subsequently developed breast cancer (case patients) and from 726 matched cancer-free control subjects. Levels of progesterone, estrone, and estradiol were also measured for the 285 case patients and 555 matched control subjects who had provided information about the day of menstrual cycle at blood donation. Conditional logistic regression models were used to estimate relative risks of breast cancer by quartiles of hormone concentrations. All statistical tests were two-sided.


RESULTS
Increased risks of breast cancer were associated with elevated serum concentrations of testosterone (odds ratio [OR] for highest versus lowest quartile = 1.73, 95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.16 to 2.57; P(trend) = .01), androstenedione (OR for highest versus lowest quartile = 1.56, 95% CI = 1.05 to 2.32; P(trend) = .01), and DHEAS (OR for highest versus lowest quartile = 1.48, 95% CI = 1.02 to 2.14; P(trend) = .10) but not SHBG. Elevated serum progesterone concentrations were associated with a statistically significant reduction in breast cancer risk (OR for highest versus lowest quartile = 0.61, 95% CI = 0.38 to 0.98; P(trend) = .06). The absolute risk of breast cancer for women younger than 40 followed up for 10 years was estimated at 2.6% for those in the highest quartile of serum testosterone versus 1.5% for those in the lowest quartile; for the highest and lowest quartiles of progesterone, these estimates were 1.7% and 2.6%, respectively. Breast cancer risk was not statistically significantly associated with serum levels of the other hormones.


CONCLUSIONS
Our results support the hypothesis that elevated blood concentrations of androgens are associated with an increased risk of breast cancer in premenopausal women.
Prevalence of undernutrition and associated factors among children aged between six to fifty nine months in Bule Hora district, South Ethiopia

BACKGROUND
More than one-third of deaths during the first five years of life are attributed to undernutrition, which are mostly preventable through economic development and public health measures. To alleviate this problem, it is necessary to determine the nature, magnitude and determinants of undernutrition. However, there is lack of evidence in agro-pastoralist communities like Bule Hora district. Therefore, this study assessed magnitude and factors associated with undernutrition in children who are 6-59 months of age in agro-pastoral community of Bule Hora District, South Ethiopia.


METHODS
A community based cross-sectional study design was used to assess the magnitude and factors associated with undernutrition in children between 6-59 months. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data from 796 children paired with their mothers. Anthropometric measurements and determinant factors were collected. SPSS version 16.0 statistical software was used for analysis. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated to nutritional status of the children Statistical association was declared significant if p-value was less than 0.05.


RESULTS
Among study participants, 47.6%, 29.2% and 13.4% of them were stunted, underweight, and wasted respectively. Presence of diarrhea in the past two weeks, male sex, uneducated fathers and > 4 children ever born to a mother were significantly associated with being underweight. Presence of diarrhea in the past two weeks, male sex and pre-lacteal feeding were significantly associated with stunting. Similarly, presence of diarrhea in the past two weeks, age at complementary feed was started and not using family planning methods were associated to wasting.


CONCLUSION
Undernutrition is very common in under-five children of Bule Hora district. Factors associated to nutritional status of children in agro-pastoralist are similar to the agrarian community. Diarrheal morbidity was associated with all forms of Protein energy malnutrition. Family planning utilization decreases the risk of stunting and underweight. Feeding practices (pre-lacteal feeding and complementary feeding practice) were also related to undernutrition. Thus, nutritional intervention program in Bule Hora district in Ethiopia should focus on these factors.