Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence of Hypertension among Adults in Remote Rural Areas of Xinjiang, China

Objective: The present study aimed to estimate prevalence of hypertension among adults in rural remote areas of Xinjiang, China and evaluate the associated factors of hypertension. Methods: The survey was based on questionnaire interviews and clinical measurements of 11,340 individuals (≥18 years old), and was conducted during 2009–2010 via a stratified cluster random sampling method in the remote rural areas of Xinjiang, about 4407 km away from the capital Beijing. Hypertension was defined according to WHO/ISH criteria. Results: Systolic blood pressure (SBP) and diastolic blood pressure (DBP) of the population were (126.3 ± 21.4) and (80.9 ± 13.4) mmHg. Compared with Han nationality subjects, SBP and DBP of Kazakh nationality subjects were significantly high (p < 0.05), while the SBP and DBP of Uyghur subjects were significantly low (Kazakh: (128.7 ± 23.9) and (83.0 ± 14.6) mmHg, Uyghur: (123.6 ± 19.3) and (77.4 ± 12.7) mmHg, Han: (126.5 ± 20.5) and (82.6 ± 11.9) mmHg, p < 0.05). Prevalence of hypertension of the population was 32.1%, and was greater among Kazakhs and lower among Uyghur than Han (Kazakh: 36.9%, Uyghur: 26.1%, Han: 33.7%, p < 0.05). The age-standardized prevalence of hypertension was 30.2%, and was greater among Kazakhs while lower among Uyghurs than Han subjects (Kazakh: 37.0%, Uyghur: 26.0%, Han: 33.8%, p < 0.05, p < 0.05). Multivariate logistic regression analyses showed Gender (OR = 1.324), age (OR = 2.098, 3.681, 6.794, 9.473, 14.646), nationality (OR = 1.541), occupation (OR = 1.659, 1.576), education (OR = 1.260), BMI (OR = 1.842), WC (OR = 1.585), WHR (OR = 1.188), WHR (OR = 1.188), diabetes (OR = 1.879), hypertriglyceridemia (OR = 1.361), hypercholesterolemia (OR = 1.131) and high blood low density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C) (OR = 1.956) were all positively correlated with hypertension, while low blood high density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C) (OR = 0.765) was negatively correlated with hypertension. Conclusions: Prevalence of hypertension among adults in remote rural areas of Xinjiang was higher than the national average. Prevalence of hypertension was greater among Kazakhs and lower among Uyghurs than Han nationals, thus indicating significant differences between regions and nationalities. Gender, age, nation, occupation, education, overweight or obesity, abdominal obesity, diabetes, hyperlipidemia, hypercholesterolemia, high LDL-C were positively correlated with hypertension, low HDL-C was negatively correlated with hypertension.
A New Approach to Collapsed Building Extraction Using RADARSAT-2 Polarimetric SAR Imagery

Large-scale earthquakes severely damage people's lives and properties. Airborne and spaceborne remote sensing can be used accurately and effectively to monitor and assess earthquake disasters in near real time, providing an important scientific basis and decision-making support for government emergency command and postdisaster reconstruction. This letter proposes a new H-α-ρ method (H is the entropy, α is the average scattering mechanism, and ρ is the circular polarization correlation coefficient) for extracting the spatial distribution of collapsed buildings using RADARSAT-2 fine-mode polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data. The method was tested on imagery from the Yushu earthquake in the Qinghai Province of China which occurred in 2010. When compared with high-resolution optical imagery, the result indicates that the proposed method can be effectively used to identify collapsed buildings and also demonstrates that polarimetric SAR data have potential for application in urban disaster monitoring and assessment.
Inclusion and Exclusion—A Guiding Distinction to the Understanding of Issues of Cultural Background

Claims for equal rights and action against discrimination because of cultural background are current issues within the multicultural global society. How can society today manage cultural differences making differences? The main aim of this article is to contribute to the understanding of issues of immigration and cultural background or diversity. It is argued that such issues may be analyzed fruitfully through the use of inclusion and exclusion as a guiding distinction, in the sense it has been developed in systems theory by Niklas Luhmann and others. It is shown how inclusion and exclusion operates in different contexts. One conclusion is that in modern society, it is never only a case of a simple division into (full) ‘outsider-ship’ and ‘insider-ship’, respectively. Another conclusion is that discrimination is not structurally inherent in modern society as such, but that it is a possible outcome primarily because of the characteristics of organizations. Copyright © 2011 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Mergers of Black Hole-Neutron Star Binaries. I. Methods and First Results

We use a 3D relativistic SPH (smoothed particle hydrodynamics) code to study mergers of black hole-neutron star (BH-NS) binary systems with low mass ratios, adopting q ≡ MNS/MBH≃ 0.1 as a representative case. The outcome of such mergers depends sensitively on both the magnitude of the BH spin and its obliquity (i.e., the inclination of the binary orbit with respect to the equatorial plane of the BH). In particular, only systems with sufficiently high BH spin parameter a and sufficiently low orbital inclinations allow any NS matter to escape or to form a long-lived disk outside the BH horizon after disruption. Mergers of binaries with orbital inclinations above ~60° lead to complete prompt accretion of the entire NS by the BH, even for the case of an extreme Kerr BH. We find that the formation of a significant disk or torus of NS material around the BH always requires a near-maximal BH spin and a low initial inclination of the NS orbit just prior to merger.
Orthogonal Defect Classification - A Concept for In-Process Measurements

Orthogonal defect classification (ODC), a concept that enables in-process feedback to software developers by extracting signatures on the development process from defects, is described. The ideas are evolved from an earlier finding that demonstrates the use of semantic information from defects to extract cause-effect relationships in the development process. This finding is leveraged to develop a systematic framework for building measurement and analysis methods. The authors define ODC and discuss the necessary and sufficient conditions required to provide feedback to a developer; illustrate the use of the defect type distribution to measure the progress of a product through a process; illustrate the use of the defect trigger distribution to evaluate the effectiveness and eventually the completeness of verification processes such as inspection or testing; provides sample results from pilot projects using ODC; and open the doors to a wide variety of analysis techniques for providing effective and fast feedback based on the concepts of ODC. >
Guests in Someone Else’s House: Students of Color

Abstract: Findings suggest that the overall climate at a large Midwestern research university remains unwelcoming for students of color in spite of special programs to enhance their experience. This paper confirms a well-established trend in American higher education—the need to address the unwelcoming university climate at the level of deeply held, underlying belief systems in the university culture at large. It suggests actions for change on a university-wide scale.
On the latency for information dissemination in mobile wireless networks

In wireless networks, node mobility may be exploited to assist in information dissemination over time. We analyze the latency for information dissemination in large-scale mobile wireless networks. To study this problem, we map a network of mobile nodes to a network of stationary nodes with dynamic links. We then use results from percolation theory to show that under a constrained i.i. d. mobility model, the scaling behavior of the latency falls into two regimes. When the network is not percolated (subcritical), the latency scales linearly with the initial Euclidean distance between the sender and the receiver; when the network is percolated (supercritical), the latency scales sub-linearly with the distance.
The Ion Permeability Induced in Thin Lipid Membranes by the Polyene Antibiotics Nystatin and Amphotericin B

Characteristics of nystatin and amphotericin B action on thin (<100 A) lipid membranes are: (a) micromolar amounts increase membrane conductance from 10-8 to over 10-2 Ω-1 cm-2; (b) such membranes are (non-ideally) anion selective and discriminate among anions on the basis of size; (c) membrane sterol is required for action; (d) antibiotic presence on both sides of membrane strongly favors action; (e) conductance is proportional to a large power of antibiotic concentration; (f) conductance decreases ∼104 times for a 10°C temperature rise; (g) kinetics of antibiotic action are also very temperature sensitive; (h) ion selectivity is pH independent between 3 and 10, but (i) activity is reversibly lost at high pH; (j) methyl ester derivatives are fully active; N-acetyl and N-succinyl derivatives are inactive; (k) current-voltage characteristic is nonlinear when membrane separates nonidentical salt solutions. These characteristics are contrasted with those of valinomycin. Observations (a)–(g) suggest that aggregates of polyene and sterol from opposite sides of the membrane interact to create aqueous pores; these pores are not static, but break up (melt) and reform continuously. Mechanism of anion selectivity is obscure. Observations (h)–(j) suggest—NH3 + is important for activity; it is probably not responsible for selectivity, particularly since four polyene antibiotics, each containing two—NH3 + groups, induce ideal cation selectivity. Possibly the many hydroxyl groups in nystatin and amphotericin B are responsible for anion selectivity. The effects of polyene antibiotics on thin lipid membranes are consistent with their action on biological membranes.
Maximum Reach Versus Transmission Capacity for Terabit Superchannels Based on 27.75-GBaud PM-QPSK, PM-8QAM, or PM-16QAM

The performance of future terabit superchannels implemented using polarization-multiplexed quadrature phase-shift-keying (PM-QPSK) and polarization-multiplexed quadrature amplitude modulation based on 8 and 16 (PM-16QAM) signal points is investigated through simulations in order to assess the maximum reach for different spectral efficiencies, considering linear filtering penalties and nonlinear propagation over uncompensated standard single-mode fiber with erbium-doped fiber amplification and span loss of 25 dB. We find that PM-QPSK can reach 2400 km at a net capacity of 14 Tb/s across the C -band. Conversely, PM-16QAM can deliver 27 Tb/s, but over 300 km only.
Handbook of implicit learning

Research on implicit learning - a cognitive phenomenon in which people acquire knowledge without conscious intent or awareness - has been growing exponentially. This volume draws together this research, offering the first complete reference on implicit learning by those who have been instrumental in shaping the field. The contributors explore controversies in the field, and examine: functional characteristics, brain mechanisms and neurological foundations of implicit learning; connectionist models; and applications of implicit learning to acquiring new mental skills.
Organizational justice as buffer against stressful job demands

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of organizational justice in the context of Karasek’s job demand-control model. It is suggested that employees benefit from organizational justice in order to cope with high job demands. Furthermore, it is argued that justice perceptions are a precondition for the buffering role of job control with respect to job demands. Design/methodology/approach – A cross-sectional study on employees (n=197) in nursing houses was used. The hypotheses were tested by hierarchal regression analysis. Findings – Results showed that organizational justice buffered for the positive effect of job demands on turnover intentions and for the negative effect of job demands on job satisfaction. Furthermore, the results showed that justice serves as an important precondition for the moderating role of job control on the effect of job demands on job satisfaction and turnover intentions. Justice appeared to strengthen the role of job control as a buffer for high job demands.
Interleukin-6 Mediates Epithelial–Stromal Interactions and Promotes Gastric Tumorigenesis

Interleukin-6 (IL-6) is a pleiotropic cytokine that affects various functions, including tumor development. Although the importance of IL-6 in gastric cancer has been documented in experimental and clinical studies, the mechanism by which IL-6 promotes gastric cancer remains unclear. In this study, we investigated the role of IL-6 in the epithelial–stromal interaction in gastric tumorigenesis. Immunohistochemical analysis of human gastritis, gastric adenoma, and gastric cancer tissues revealed that IL-6 was frequently detected in the stroma. IL-6–positive cells in the stroma showed positive staining for the fibroblast marker α-smooth muscle actin, suggesting that stromal fibroblasts produce IL-6. We compared IL-6 knockout (IL-6−/−) mice with wild-type (WT) mice in a model of gastric tumorigenesis induced by the chemical carcinogen N-methyl-N-nitrosourea. The stromal fibroblasts expressed IL-6 in tumors from WT mice. Gastric tumorigenesis was attenuated in IL-6−/− mice, compared with WT mice. Impaired tumor development in IL-6−/− mice was correlated with the decreased activation of STAT3, a factor associated with gastric cancer cell proliferation. In vitro, when gastric cancer cell line was co-cultured with primary human gastric fibroblast, STAT3–related genes including COX-2 and iNOS were induced in gastric cancer cells and this response was attenuated with neutralizing anti-IL-6 receptor antibody. IL-6 production from fibroblasts was increased when fibroblasts were cultured in the presence of gastric cancer cell–conditioned media. IL-6 production from fibroblasts was suppressed by an interleukin-1 (IL-1) receptor antagonist and siRNA inhibition of IL-1α in the fibroblasts. IL-1α mRNA and protein were increased in fibroblast lysate, suggesting that cell-associated IL-1α in fibroblasts may be involved. Our results suggest the importance of IL-6 mediated stromal-epithelial cell interaction in gastric tumorigenesis.
Bounded Rationality and the Search for Organizational Architecture: An Evolutionary Perspective on the Design of Organizations and Their Evolvability

We employ a computational model of organizational adaptation to answer three research questions: (1) How does the architecture or structure of complexity affect the feasibility and usefulness of boundedly rational design efforts? (2) Do efforts to adapt organizational forms complicate or complement the effectiveness of first-order change efforts? and (3) To what extent does the rate of environmental change nullify the usefulness of design efforts? We employ a computational model of organizational adaptation to examine these questions. Our results, in identifying the boundary conditions around successful design efforts, suggest that the underlying architecture of complexity of organizations, particularly the presence of hierarchy, is a critical determinant of the feasibility and effectiveness of design efforts. We also find that design efforts are generally complementary to efforts at local performance improvement and identify specific contingencies that determine the extent of complementarity. We discuss the implications of our findings for organization theory and design and the literature on modularity in products and organizations.
Intimacy and Alienation: Memory, Trauma and Personal Being

The Self in Conversation. Part 1: Self and Development. I, Me, Myself. Conversational Play. Two Forms of Human Conversation. Memory. Part II: The Trauma System. Uncoupled Consciousness. Disrupted Maturation: Dissolution Hypothesis. A Theory of Value. Feeling Creates Reality. Malignant Internalisation. The Evocative Context. Priming and Projective Identification: On Being Constructed. Satellites of Trauma. Part III: Integration. Transforming the Chronicle. Flights & Perching. Epilogue. The Death of Narcissus,
QTc dispersion increases during hemodialysis with low-calcium dialysate.

BACKGROUND The risk of ventricular arrhythmias is known to increase during hemodialysis (HD) treatment, but the cause of this phenomenon has remained unidentified. QT dispersion (= QTmax - QTmin) reflects heterogeneity of cardiac repolarization, and increased dispersion is known to predispose the heart to ventricular arrhythmias and sudden cardiac death. METHODS We studied the effect of dialysate calcium concentration on cardiac electrical stability during HD treatment in 23 end-stage renal disease patients. Three HD treatments were applied with dialysate Ca++ concentrations of 1.25 mmol/L (dCa++1.25), 1.5 mmol/L (dCa++1.5), and 1.75 mmol/L (dCa++1.75). The QTc interval and QTc dispersion were measured before and after the three sessions. RESULTS With the dCa++1.5 and dCa++1.75 dialyses, serum Ca++ increased and the QTc interval remained stable (dCa++1.5) or decreased (dCa++1.75), but no significant change was noted in QTc dispersion. With dCa++1.25 HD, serum Ca++ decreased (1.24 +/- 0.11 vs. 1.20 +/- 0.09 mmol/L, P < 0. 05), and both the QTc interval (403 +/- 27 vs. 419 +/- 33 ms, P < 0. 05) and QTc dispersion increased (38 +/- 19 vs. 49 +/- 18 ms, P < 0. 05). The change in the QTc interval correlated inversely with the change in serum Ca++ (r = -0.68, P < 0.0001). Except for serum Ca++ and plasma intact parathyroid hormone, predialysis and postdialysis values in other blood chemistry, blood pressure, heart rate, body weight, and total ultrafiltration were equal in the three dialysis sessions. CONCLUSION This study is the first, to our knowledge, to demonstrate that HD increases QTc dispersion if a low-calcium (dCa++1.25) dialysate is used. This indicates that the use of low-calcium dialysate may predispose HD patients to ventricular arrhythmias and that perhaps it should be avoided, at least when treating patients with pre-existing cardiac disease.
A Network Coding-Based Approach to Probabilistic Packet Marking

Traceback schemes aim at identifying the source(s) of a sequence of packets and the nodes these packets traversed. This is useful for tracing the sources of high volume traffic, e.g., in Distributed Denial-of-Service (DDoS) attacks. In this paper, we are interested in Probabilistic Packet Marking (PPM) schemes, in which intermediate nodes probabilistically mark packets with information about their identity and the receiver uses information from several packets to reconstruct the paths traversed by these packets. The main idea of the paper is a network coding-based approach that marks packets with random linear combinations of the router ids instead of individual router ids. We show that this approach decreases significantly the number of packets required to reconstruct the attack paths. We also show that it is implementable in practice using a small number of under-utilized bits on the IP packet header; our proposed practical scheme optimizes the tradeoff in the bit-budget allocation, naturally raised by the network coding marking approach, and reconstructs the attack graph with low computational complexity, high accuracy and low delay. We also combine the network coding marking approach with adjusting the marking probabilities of different routers and show that this further improves the performance. Along the way, we accurately model the performance of our proposed as well as of prior PPM schemes based on the coupon collector’s problem with unequal probabilities. We show the significant benefit of our proposed schemes through comparison to several baseline schemes, under the same bit-budget, and considering various attack topologies. The ideas of network coding-based marking and adjusted marking probabilities are orthogonal to and can be combined with several existing PPM schemes to improve the overall performance.
Recurrence After Primary Pterygium Excision: Amniotic Membrane Transplantation with Fibrin Glue Versus Conjunctival Autograft with Fibrin Glue*

Abstract Purpose: The aim of the present study was to compare the surgical results and recurrence rates of primary pterygium excision with conjunctival autografts versus amniotic membrane grafts fixated with fibrin glue. Materials and methods: In this prospective study, 73 eyes of 65 patients who had undergone conjunctival autograft group (CAG) (n:37) or amniotic membrane group (AMG) (n:36) after pterygium excision were evaluated. Fibrin glue was used for the fixation of grafts in both groups. The patients were followed up for 12 months. Postoperative complications were recorded. The rate of recurrence was defined as the primary outcome measure. Results: In the CAG, partial dehiscence of the graft was observed on the nasal edge on postoperative day 1 in two (5.4%) eyes that healed with secondary re-epithelialization at week 1. Twelve (32.4%) eyes showed a yellowish-orange or hemorrhagic edema of the graft on postoperative day 7 that spontaneously resolved in 1 to 3 weeks. In the AMG, partial dehiscence and folding of the amniotic membrane occurred in two (5.5%) eyes. Two eyes (5.4 %) in the CAG developed corneal recurrence and five eyes (13.8%) in the amniotic membrane graft group developed recurrence; one limbal (2.7%), four corneal recurrences (11.1%) (p = 0.25). Conclusion: Fibrin glue is a safe and effective method for attaching conjunctival or amniotic membrane grafts for wound closure following pterygium surgery. Although the results were not statistically significant, amniotic membrane grafting using fibrin glue seems to have a higher pterygium recurrence rate compared with conjunctival autografting.
Urinary Potassium Excretion and Renal and Cardiovascular Complications in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes and Normal Renal Function.

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES We investigated the association of urinary potassium and sodium excretion with the incidence of renal failure and cardiovascular disease in patients with type 2 diabetes. DESIGN, SETTING, PARTICIPANTS, & MEASUREMENTS A total of 623 Japanese type 2 diabetic patients with eGFR≥60 ml/min per 1.73 m(2) were enrolled in this observational follow-up study between 1996 and 2003 and followed-up until 2013. At baseline, a 24-hour urine sample was collected to estimate urinary potassium and sodium excretion. The primary end point was renal and cardiovascular events (RRT, myocardial infarction, angina pectoris, stroke, and peripheral vascular disease). The secondary renal end points were the incidence of a 50% decline in eGFR, progression to CKD stage 4 (eGFR<30 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)), and the annual decline rate in eGFR. RESULTS During the 11-year median follow-up period, 134 primary end points occurred. Higher urinary potassium excretion was associated with lower risk of the primary end point, whereas urinary sodium excretion was not. The adjusted hazard ratios for the primary end point in Cox proportional hazards analysis were 0.56 (95% confidence interval [95% CI], 0.33 to 0.95) in the third quartile of urinary potassium excretion (2.33-2.90 g/d) and 0.33 (95% CI, 0.18 to 0.62) in the fourth quartile (>2.90 g/d) compared with the lowest quartile (<1.72 g/d). Similar associations were observed for the secondary renal end points. The annual decline rate in eGFR in the fourth quartile of urinary potassium excretion (-1.3 ml/min per 1.73 m(2)/y; 95% CI, -1.5 to -1.0) was significantly slower than those in the first quartile (-2.2; 95% CI, -2.4 to -1.8). CONCLUSIONS Higher urinary potassium excretion was associated with the slower decline of renal function and the lower incidence of cardiovascular complications in type 2 diabetic patients with normal renal function. Interventional trials are necessary to determine whether increasing dietary potassium is beneficial.