Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Factors Influencing Prereproductive Mortality in the Isolated and Preindustrial Western Mediterranean Population of La Alpujarra, 1900–1950

ABSTRACT We study the effects of several variables on the prereproductive mortality pattern in the isolated and rural population of La Alpujarra, located on the western Mediterranean coast (southeast Spain), in the first half of the 20th century. The study is a retrospective analysis from a total sample of 2,200 deliveries, 2,085 of which were born alive and 171 of which did not survive to the 20th birthday. The potential influences of birthdate of children, twinning, firstborn, parental inbreeding, and sex on Alpujarran mortality were analyzed through logistic regression. Parity, family size, and birth interval effects were estimated through the difference between observed and expected mortality rates. In every case four age groups of mortality were considered because of the large influence of child growth: neonatal (less than 1 month of life), postneonatal infant (between 1 month and 1 year old), childhood (1–5 years old), and youth (5–20 years old). The Alpujarran prereproductive mortality pattern can be summarized as the result of three main risk factors: biodemographic, biomechanical, and social and health determinants. In general, every factor showed a decreased effect as children grew. The most significant determinants were birthdate of children, which is more related to increased mother's awareness of child care than to health improvement, and family size associated with decreasing alimentary resources as the sibling number increased. Male mortality was higher than female mortality in children older than 1 year but not for infant mortality, possibly as a result of a reproductive behavior favorable to males. Although firstborn status and twinning appeared associated with high mortality, maternal age and birth interval were related to low risk, but these influences always ceased after the first month of life. Parental inbreeding did not show any effect on infant, childhood, or youth mortality.
Which cholesterol level is related to the lowest mortality in a population with low mean cholesterol level: a 6.4-year follow-up study of 482,472 Korean men.

To evaluate the relation between low cholesterol level and mortality, the authors followed 482,472 Korean men aged 30-65 years from 1990 to 1996 after a baseline health examination. The mean cholesterol level of the men was 189.1 mg/100 ml at the baseline measurement. There were 7,894 deaths during the follow-up period. A low cholesterol level (<165 mg/100 ml) was associated with increased risk of total mortality, even after eliminating deaths that occurred in the first 5 years of follow-up. The risk of death from coronary heart disease increased significantly in men with the highest cholesterol level (> or =252 mg/100 ml). There were various relations between cholesterol level and cancer mortality by site. Mortality from liver and colon cancer was significantly associated with a very low cholesterol level (<135 mg/100 ml) without any evidence of a preclinical cholesterol-lowering effect. With lengthening follow-up, the significant relation between a very low cholesterol level (<135 mg/100 ml) and mortality from stomach and esophageal cancer disappeared. The cholesterol level related with the lowest mortality ranged from 211 to 251 mg/100 ml, which was higher than the mean cholesterol level of study subjects.
Ethical leadership, employee well-being, and helping: The moderating role of human resource management.

In this multi-source study, we examined the link between ethical leadership, human resource management (HRM), employee well-being, and helping. Based on the Conservation of Resources Theory, we proposed a mediated moderation model linking ethical leadership to helping, which includes well-being as an intermediary variable and HRM as a contextual moderator. Results from 221 leader-employee dyads revealed that the relationship between ethical leadership and helping occurs through well-being only when HRM was low, but not when HRM was high. Job-related well-being fully mediated the relationship of the interaction between ethical leadership with HRM and employee helping.
A Jones matrix formalism for simulating three-dimensional polarized light imaging of brain tissue

The neuroimaging technique three-dimensional polarized light imaging (3D-PLI) provides a high-resolution reconstruction of nerve fibres in human post-mortem brains. The orientations of the fibres are derived from birefringence measurements of histological brain sections assuming that the nerve fibres—consisting of an axon and a surrounding myelin sheath—are uniaxial birefringent and that the measured optic axis is oriented in the direction of the nerve fibres (macroscopic model). Although experimental studies support this assumption, the molecular structure of the myelin sheath suggests that the birefringence of a nerve fibre can be described more precisely by multiple optic axes oriented radially around the fibre axis (microscopic model). In this paper, we compare the use of the macroscopic and the microscopic model for simulating 3D-PLI by means of the Jones matrix formalism. The simulations show that the macroscopic model ensures a reliable estimation of the fibre orientations as long as the polarimeter does not resolve structures smaller than the diameter of single fibres. In the case of fibre bundles, polarimeters with even higher resolutions can be used without losing reliability. When taking the myelin density into account, the derived fibre orientations are considerably improved.
Bamboo and Climate Change Mitigation : a comparative analysis of carbon sequestration

Printed on recycled paper Bamboo’s fast growth is one of its many attributes which make it a useful resource for mankind. It is also commonly seen as an indication of a high ability to capture and sequester atmospheric carbon and consequently mitigate climate change, in a similar way that trees do. This report analyses the work carried out to date to explore different aspects of bamboo’s growth, management and use which impact bamboo’s carbon sequestration potential. Using modeling and comparison studies, the findings of this report suggest that bamboo’s carbon sequestration rate can equal or surpasses that of fast-growth trees over short time periods in a new plantation, but only when bamboo is actively managed. A review of studies carried out in China indicates that bamboo is a relatively important carbon store at the ecosystem and national level. While the results of the report underline the gaps in knowledge in the field, they suggest that bamboo forest ecosystems can be leveraged to help mitigate climate change, whilst simultaneously providing other important services for human adaptation and development.
Weak convergence for a spatial approximation of the nonlinear stochastic heat equation

We find the weak rate of convergence of approximate solutions of the nonlinear stochastic heat equation, when discretized in space by a standard finite element method. Both multiplicative and additive noise is considered under different assumptions. This extends an earlier result of Debussche in which time discretization is considered for the stochastic heat equation perturbed by white noise. It is known that this equation only has a solution in one space dimension. In order to get results for higher dimensions, colored noise is considered here, besides the white noise case where considerably weaker assumptions on the noise term is needed. Integration by parts in the Malliavin sense is used in the proof. The rate of weak convergence is, as expected, essentially twice the rate of strong convergence.
Long-Term Retinal PEDF Overexpression Prevents Neovascularization in a Murine Adult Model of Retinopathy

Neovascularization associated with diabetic retinopathy (DR) and other ocular disorders is a leading cause of visual impairment and adult-onset blindness. Currently available treatments are merely palliative and offer temporary solutions. Here, we tested the efficacy of antiangiogenic gene transfer in an animal model that mimics the chronic progression of human DR. Adeno-associated viral (AAV) vectors of serotype 2 coding for antiangiogenic Pigment Epithelium Derived Factor (PEDF) were injected in the vitreous of a 1.5 month-old transgenic model of retinopathy that develops progressive neovascularization. A single intravitreal injection led to long-term production of PEDF and to a striking inhibition of intravitreal neovascularization, normalization of retinal capillary density, and prevention of retinal detachment. This was parallel to a reduction in the intraocular levels of Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor (VEGF). Normalization of VEGF was consistent with a downregulation of downstream effectors of angiogenesis, such as the activity of Matrix Metalloproteinases (MMP) 2 and 9 and the content of Connective Tissue Growth Factor (CTGF). These results demonstrate long-term efficacy of AAV-mediated PEDF overexpression in counteracting retinal neovascularization in a relevant animal model, and provides evidence towards the use of this strategy to treat angiogenesis in DR and other chronic proliferative retinal disorders.
Is School Choice a Mechanism for Sustaining Change?: Implications from a National Survey

chool choice is currently a hot political issue, and it has become a cornerstone of federal educational policy. In 1986, the National Governors' Association endorsed the goal of providing choice among public schools. In the nation's first Education Summit in October 1989, President Bush and the fifty governors agreed on choice as a major facet of the nation's education policy agenda. Today, thirty-three states and the District of Columbia have taken formal legislative action to increase the educational choices available to
Parametric Portfolio Policies: Exploiting Characteristics in the Cross Section of Equity Returns

We propose a novel approach to optimizing portfolios with large numbers of assets. We model directly the portfolio weight in each asset as a function of the asset’s characteristics. The coecients of this function are found by optimizing the investor’s average utility of the portfolio’s return over the sample period. Our approach is computationally simple, easily modified and extended, produces sensible portfolio weights, and oers robust performance in and out of sample. In contrast, the traditional approach of first modeling the joint distribution of returns and then solving for the corresponding optimal portfolio weights is not only dicult to implement for a large number of assets but also yields notoriously noisy and unstable results. Our approach also provides a new test of the portfolio choice implications of equilibrium asset pricing models. We present an empirical implementation for the universe of all stocks in the CRSP-Compustat dataset, exploiting the size, value, and momentum anomalies.
Evaluation of Conventional Doppler Fetal Cardiac Function Parameters: E/A Ratios, Outflow Tracts, and Myocardial Performance Index

Structural evaluation of the fetal heart is well established. Functional evaluation using pulsed-wave Doppler may also be performed. E/A ratios express the relationship between the maximal velocities of the E and A waveforms of ventricular filling. In normal fetuses, E/A ratios are usually <1 but show a constant increment during gestation, mainly related to the increment of the E wave. In intrauterine growth restriction (IUGR) fetuses, E/A ratios are lower compared to values in normally grown fetuses at the same gestational age. Cardiac outflows provide information on the time-velocity integral that, combined with the vessel area, allows calculation of the left and right cardiac outputs. In normal fetuses there is a predominance of the right ventricle (55–60%) in contributing to the combined cardiac output. In IUGR fetuses this predominance shifts to the left ventricle in order to increase the flow to the upper part of the fetal body and brain. The myocardial performance index (MPI) also provides information on systolic and diastolic cardiac function. The MPI is an early and consistent marker of cardiac dysfunction which becomes altered in early stages of chronic hypoxia or in cases with cardiac overload such as in twin-to-twin transfusion syndrome.
Social-Family Issues as Barriers to Career Advancement: The Perception of Women Employees in Kenya

This study aimed at determining the social and family issues that women employees perceive as barriers to their career advancement to managerial positions in Kenya. The research design was cross-sectional survey was carried out among 400 women employees in the Federation of Kenya Employerâ€™s (FKE) member organizations in Kenya. A structured questionnaire was used to collect data. The data was then analyzed using quantitative and qualitative techniques. The results show that family responsibilities and married status both have a significant relationship with the career advancement of women to managerial positions. The implications of the findings for policy makers and employers include that career advancement opportunities should be provided to all irrespective of their marital status and also, there should be the provision of flexible work arrangements to ensure fairness is accorded to women employees.
Internationalisation, Diversity and the Humanities Curriculum: Cosmopolitanism and Multiculturalism Revisited.

This article stages a dialogue between cosmopolitanism and multiculturalism in order to think through what is at stake in demands that universities should produce graduates who are sensitive to social diversity and attuned to the contemporary realities of globalisation. The argument is that, although ‘graduate attributes’ are no doubt an effective management tool in a massified higher education system, they can also be used to focus attention on what dispositions it is reasonable and desirable to expect graduates to develop. The arguments about cosmopolitanism of Jeremy Waldron and Martha Nussbaum are considered.
Early and Long-Term Effect of Thoracic Endovascular Aortic Repair for Stanford B Aortic Dissection

Abstract Background Uncomplicated Stanford B acute aortic dissection (AAD) is generally treated with medical management; whereas complicated dissections require surgery or thoracic endovascular aortic repair (TEVAR). Studies have demonstrated that long-term outcomes with medical management are suboptimal. Therefore, we sought to investigate the early and long-term clinical efficacy of TEVAR for Stanford B AAD. Materials and Methods From March 2004 to January 2008, 63 consecutive patients were treated and retrospectively placed into either one of the two groups, the TEVAR group (n = 42) and the medicine group (n = 21). All TEVAR procedures were performed in the acute phase. The changes of true and false lumen diameter were monitored with computed tomography angiography examinations in the thoracic aorta at the level of the stented segment at long-term follow-up. Results As compared with the medicine group, the age at intervention in the TEVAR group was higher (p < 0.05), and they also had more patent false lumen in this group. Patients in the TEVAR group had significantly longer hospital stays than those in the medicine group (p < 0.01). The incidence of the early events was not significantly different between the two groups. The incidence of aortic-related late events and late death were significantly higher in the medicine group than those in the TEVAR group. Log-rank tests demonstrated that patients treated with medical management had significantly more late adverse events than did those treated with TEVAR (p < 0.01). At 1-year follow-up, the true lumen diameter in the thoracic aorta at the level of the stented segment increased significantly after TEVAR, and the mean reduction of false lumen diameter was highly significant. The remodeling was stable at 3 and 5 years after TEVAR. Conclusion Patients with Stanford B AAD treated with TEVAR experienced fewer late adverse events than those treated with medical management, TEVAR could be an effective treatment for Stanford B AAD.
An African brain drain: Igbo decisions to immigrate to the US

This article outlines the conditions under which a particular group of professional Nigerians has made the decision to immigrate to the United States and how, once abroad, they have established a continuum for immigration from the home area. The paper has been generated from f ieldwork and interviews among Igbo people in the Chicago area, conducted between 1997 and 2000. The article explains the educational, cultural and economic conditions under which Igbo immigration to the US in the late 1970s and early 1980s were undertaken — the time during which members of the immigrant network came to the US. My work here constitutes an effort to define the way that a particular group of immigrants to Chicago came to develop and how they now utilise an immigrant social network. My preliminary question here: how did the Nigerians in my social network make the decision to immigrate to the States? Although there are several factors that affect this decision, for my study, I focus most closely on two interrelated factors: education and cultural specific institutions like household economic decision making patterns. Those factors were chosen because among Igbo middle‐class people of this generation, the need for educational opportunities and a tradition of emigration appears to be the necessary conditions to make an Igbo person decide to immigrate, while economic factors like reduced economic opportunities in Nigeria or lower pay were merely sufficient conditions. The qualitative data presented here is intended to give new shape to research questions that will further develop our understanding of how the socio‐economics of schooling and educational opportunities in Africa and the US come together to reinforce the brain‐drain process in which promising young professionals leave Africa for industrialised regions.
Prevalence of cognitive impairment

Background: The epidemiology and natural history of cognitive impairment that is not dementia is important to the understanding of normal aging and dementia. Objective: To determine the prevalence and outcome of cognitive impairment that is not dementia in an elderly African American population. Method: A two-phase, longitudinal study of aging and dementia. A total of 2212 community-dwelling African American residents of Indianapolis, IN, aged 65 and older were screened, and a subset (n = 351) received full clinical assessment and diagnosis. Subsets of the clinically assessed were seen again for clinical assessment and rediagnosis at 18 and 48 months. Weighted logistic regression was used to generate age-specific prevalence estimates. Results: The overall rate of cognitive impairment among community-dwelling elderly was 23.4%. Age-specific rates indicate increasing prevalence with increasing age: 19.2% for ages 65 to 74 years, 27.6% for ages 75 to 84 years, and 38.0% for ages 85+ years. The most frequent cause of cognitive impairment was medically unexplained memory loss with a community prevalence of 12.5%, followed by medical illness–associated cognitive impairment (4.0% prevalence), stroke (3.6% prevalence), and alcohol abuse (1.5% prevalence). At 18-month follow-up, 26% (17/66) of the subjects had become demented. Conclusions: Cognitive impairment short of dementia affects nearly one in four community-dwelling elders and is a major risk factor for later development of dementia.
Cognitive and affective factors influencing customer adoption of social commerce: an empirical study

The purpose of this study is to explore the determinants that influence a customer's adoption of social commerce. We seek a broader understanding from a cognitive and affective perspective to explain the formation of a customer's attitude. Based primarily on the theory of reasoned action, and supplemented by the cognitive, affective, and social influence, a sample of 446 customers of social commerce in Taiwan was tested. The findings show that perceived usefulness, communication quality, epistemic curiosity, affect-based trust, satisfaction, perceived playfulness, external influence, and interpersonal influence are critical determinants of a customer's attitude formation. The implications and recommendations for social commerce are discussed.
Current crowding effect on copper dual damascene via bottom failure for ULSI applications

Reliability of interconnect via is increasing an important issue in submicron technology. Electromigration experiments are performed on line/via structures in two level Cu dual damascene interconnection system and it is found that wide line/via fails earlier than the narrow line/via. Atomic flux divergence based finite element analyses is performed and stress-migration is found to be important in the failure rate behavior observed. Semi-classical width dependence Black's equation together with the finite element analysis revealed that the difference in the time to failure is due to the much larger average current density along the interface between the line and via for the wide line/via structure, and good agreement is obtained between the simulation and experimental results.
How Attitudes Toward Product Categories Drive Individual Brand Attitudes and Choice

Three experiments examine the role of attitudes toward the category to which a brand belongs in consumers’ attitudes toward individual brands. The core findings indicate that what consumers think generally about a category affects their evaluations of singular brands belonging to the category. Study 1 demonstrates that both consumers’ attitudes towards a category as well as their relative attitudes toward a brand versus intra-category competitors drive overall attitudes toward individual brands. Study 2 shows that manipulating attitudes towards a product category affects attitudes toward, and purchase intention of, individual brands belonging to that category. Study 3 demonstrates that more versus less favorably evaluated categories are more likely to exhibit brand positivity effects in judgments of singular brands. The results suggest the practical importance of measuring attitudes toward product categories, as well as the utility of marketing interventions aimed at the category level.