Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Combined Use of Waist and Hip Circumference to Identify Abdominally Obese HIV-Infected Patients at Increased Health Risk

Objectives To determine whether for a given waist circumference (WC), a larger hip circumference (HC) was associated with a reduced risk of insulin resistance, type 2 diabetes (T2D), hypertension and cardiovascular disease (CVD) in HIV-infected patients. A second objective was to determine whether, for a given WC, the addition of HC improved upon estimates of abdominal adiposity, in particular visceral adipose tissue (VAT), compared to those obtained by WC alone. Methods HIV-infected men (N = 1481) and women (N = 841) were recruited between 2005 and 2009. WC and HC were obtained using standard techniques and abdominal adiposity was measured using computed tomography. Results After control for WC and covariates, HC was negatively associated with risk of insulin resistance (p<0.05) and T2D [Men: OR = 0.91 (95% CI: 0.86–0.96); Women: OR = 0.91 (95% CI: 0.84–0.98)]. For a given WC, HC was also negatively associated with a lower risk of hypertension (p<0.05) and CVD [OR = 0.94 (95% CI: 0.88–0.99)] in men, but not women. Although HC was negatively associated with VAT in men and women after control for WC (p<0.05), the addition of HC did not substantially improve upon the prediction of VAT compared to WC alone. Conclusions The identification of HIV-infected individuals at increased health risk by WC alone is substantially improved by the addition of HC. Estimates of visceral adipose tissue by WC are not substantially improved by the addition of HC and thus variation in visceral adiposity may not be the conduit by which HC identifies increased health risk.
Lattice dynamics of the tin sulphides SnS 2 , SnS and Sn 2 S 3 : vibrational spectra and thermal transport †

We present an in-depth first-principles study of the lattice dynamics of the tin sulphides SnS 2 , Pnma and p -cubic SnS and Sn 2 S 3 . An analysis of the harmonic phonon dispersion and vibrational density of states reveals phonon bandgaps between low- and high-frequency modes consisting of Sn and S motion, respectively, and evidences a bond-strength hierarchy in the low-dimensional SnS 2 , Pnma SnS and Sn 2 S 3 crystals. We model and perform a complete characterisation of the infrared and Raman spectra, including temperature-dependent anharmonic linewidths calculated using many-body perturbation theory. We illustrate how vibrational spectroscopy could be used to identify and characterise phase impurities in tin sulphide samples. The spectral linewidths are used to model the thermal transport, and the calculations indicate that the low-dimensional Sn 2 S 3 has a very low lattice thermal conductivity, potentially giving it superior performance to SnS as a candidate thermoelectric material.
FPGA Designs with Optimized Logarithmic Arithmetic

Using a general polynomial approximation approach, we present an arithmetic library generator for the logarithmic number system (LNS). The generator produces optimized LNS arithmetic libraries that improve significantly over previous LNS designs on area and latency. We also provide area cost estimation and bit-accurate simulation tools that facilitate comparison between LNS and floating-point designs.
Mathematical models are a powerful method to understand and control the spread of Huanglongbing

Huanglongbing (HLB), or citrus greening, is a global citrus disease occurring in almost all citrus growing regions. It causes substantial economic burdens to individual growers, citrus industries and governments. Successful management strategies to reduce disease burden are desperately needed but with so many possible interventions and combinations thereof it is difficult to know which are worthwhile or cost-effective. We review how mathematical models have yielded useful insights into controlling disease spread for other vector-borne plant diseases, and the small number of mathematical models of HLB. We adapt a malaria model to HLB, by including temperature-dependent psyllid traits, “flushing” of trees, and economic costs, to show how models can be used to highlight the parameters that require more data collection or that should be targeted for intervention. We analyze the most common intervention strategy, insecticide spraying, to determine the most cost-effective spraying strategy. We find that fecundity and feeding rate of the vector require more experimental data collection, for wider temperatures ranges. Also, the best strategy for insecticide intervention is to spray for more days rather than pay extra for a more efficient spray. We conclude that mathematical models are able to provide useful recommendations for managing HLB spread.
A Mismatch between High-Risk Behaviors and Screening of Infectious Diseases among People Who Inject Drugs in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania

Background People who inject drugs are at risk of various infectious diseases. Despite such a risk, evidence is limited which studied the utilization of screening services for common infectious diseases among people who inject drugs in Tanzania. We aimed to examine their high-risk behaviors; utilization of screening services for HIV infection, hepatitis B/C, any other sexually transmitted infection, and tuberculosis; and their associated factors in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. Methods We conducted a baseline cross-sectional study as part of a prospective cohort study of people who inject drugs. We included 578 participants comprising of new enrollees of the integrated methadone-assisted treatment program and those who were selected from the communities but not enrolled in the program. We interviewed new enrollees preceding their enrollment and receipt of services from the program. We measured participants’ high-risk behaviors and their utilization of screening services. We analyzed the data descriptively and used multiple logistic regressions to identify the factors associated with ever being screened for infectious diseases. Results Of 578 participants, 14.2% shared injection needles. Of 547 sexually active participants, 37.5% had multiple sexual partners and only 17.4% used a condom. Of all participants, however, only 36.0% had ever been screened for HIV infection, 18.5% for tuberculosis, 11.8% for any other sexually transmitted infection, and 11.6% for hepatitis B/C. They were more likely to have ever been screened for HIV infection if they had education levels above primary education (adjusted odds ratio [AOR]: 2.54, 95% CI: 1.54–4.20), had a history of transactional sex (OR: 2.63, 95% CI: 1.01–6.84), and were new enrollees of the program (AOR: 7.41, 95% CI: 4.41–12.86). Conclusions People who inject drugs practice high-risk behaviors but their utilization of screening services for infectious diseases is poor in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania. It is crucial to increase the coverage of screening services for them and strengthen the counseling of safer sexual practices.
A Generalization of Join and an Algorithmic Recognition Problem

We consider a new graph operation c-join which generalizes join and co-join. We show that odd hole-free graphs ( odd antihole-free graphs) are closed under c-join and describe a polynomial time algorithm to recognize graphs that admit a c-join. The time complexity of the (a) recognition problem, (b) maximum weight independent set (MWIS) problem, and (c) minimum coloring (MC) problem for odd hole-free graphs are still unknown. Let H be an odd hole-free graph that contains an odd antihole as an induced subgraph and GH be the class of all graphs generated from the induced subgraphs of H by using c-join recursively. Then GH is odd hole-free, contains all P4-free graphs, complement of all bipartite graphs, and some imperfect graphs. We show that the MWIS problem, maximum weight clique (MWC) problem, MC problem, and minimum clique cover (MCC) problem can be solved efficiently for GH .
The invisible work force : transforming American business with outside and home-based workers

It is well known that the number of nonwage workers in the United States is growing rapidly. While clear definitions and relatively reliable data series are available to study the work characteristics and related employment trends of wage workers, for nonwage workers, there is only the broad classification of "self-employed workers. " This term, however, can embrace a wide diversity of actual labor-market relationships. The phrase "contingent workers" (a concept that has no official definition) has evolved in an attempt to focus attention on those members of the self-employed category who are not directly employed by employers but who are totally dependent on such employers for their livelihood. Phrases such as "temporary workers," "employee leasing," "contracting-out," or "home-based work" are also appearing in the literature to describe this phenomenon. Originally, these workers WAtere perceived as having some conditionality associated with their relationship with any particular employer. But, as the study reported in this book confirms, the actual situation is far more complex, for these workers frequently have an on-going attachment to specific employers. The author refers to these individuals as "informal workers" because they do not actually appear on company payrolls as employees. Collectively, she refers to them as "the invisible work force. " One could debate whether a new descriptive phrase is really necessary, given the battery of existing synonyms, but this is only a minor detraction from what is otherwise a very instructive discussion of an emerging pattern of work that has considerable private and public overtones.
The Role of Tyrosine 343 in Substrate Binding and Catalysis by Human Sulfite Oxidase*

In the crystal structure of chicken sulfite oxidase, the residue Tyr322 (Tyr343 in human sulfite oxidase) was found to directly interact with a bound sulfate molecule and was proposed to have an important role in mediating the substrate specificity and catalytic activity of this molybdoprotein. In order to understand the role of this residue in the catalytic mechanism of sulfite oxidase, steady-state and stopped-flow analyses were performed on wild-type and Y343F human sulfite oxidase over the pH range 6–10. In steady-state assays of Y343F sulfite oxidase using cytochrome c as the electron acceptor, kcat was somewhat impaired (∼34% wild-type activity at pH 8.5), whereas the Kmsulfite showed a 5-fold increase over wild type. In rapid kinetic assays of the reductive half-reaction of wild-type human sulfite oxidase, kredheme changed very little over the entire pH range, with a significant increase in Kdsulfite at high pH. The kredheme of the Y343F variant was significantly impaired across the entire pH range, and unlike the wild-type protein, both kredheme and Kdsulfite were dependent on pH, with a significant increase in both kinetic parameters at high pH. Additionally, reduction of the molybdenum center by sulfite was directly measured for the first time in rapid reaction assays using sulfite oxidase lacking the N-terminal heme-containing domain. Reduction of the molybdenum center was quite fast (kredMo = 972 s-1 at pH 8.65 for wild-type protein), indicating that this is not the rate-limiting step in the catalytic cycle. Reduction of the molybdenum center of the Y343F variant by sulfite was more significantly impaired at high pH than at low pH. These results demonstrate that the Tyr343 residue is important for both substrate binding and oxidation of sulfite by sulfite oxidase.
Demonstration of AT&T “Let's Go”: A production-grade statistical spoken dialog system

This is a demonstration of the AT&T “Let's Go” bus timetable spoken dialog system. This system was entered in the 2010 Spoken Dialog Challenge [1], where the task is to provide bus timetable information for Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania. Our primary aim in the challenge was to build a statistical spoken dialog system to commercial production standards, both in terms of user interface, and also in terms of compatibility with commercial development practices. AT&T Let's Go illustrates how this can be done, incorporating two statistical techniques: the AT&T Statistical Dialog Toolkit (ASDT) [2], which tracks a distribution over many dialog states in real time; and regression-based confidence scores, which are trained on a corpus of in-domain recognitions [3].
Theoretical Foundations for a Total Energy-Based Perspective Flight-Path Display

One of the most difficult aspects of manually controlled flight is the coupling between the control over the aircraft speed and altitude. These states cannot be changed independent of each other through the aircraft control devices, the elevator and the throttle. Rather, to effectively change an aircraft's speed and altitude, the controls have to be coordinated. The mediating mechanism that underlies the coordination of the controls is the management of the aircraft's energy state. This article shows that the abstraction hierarchy (AH; Rasmussen, 1986) framework can be effectively used to gain more insight into the underlying structure of the aircraft energy management problem. The derived AH representation is based on the analysis of the energy constraints on the control task. It reveals the levels of abstraction necessary to link the aircraft's physical controls to the speed and altitude goals and also how the aircraft energy is a critical mediating state of the control problem. Energy awareness can be increased by presenting explicit energy management information. The powerful and novel concepts of the total energy reference profile and energy angle are introduced in this article and applied in the context of a perspective flight-path display. The resulting display presents energy management information fully integrated with the tunnel-in-the-sky display and reveals 5 new and important energy cues, intuitively linking the controls and the goals.
The Relationships among Coping with Stress, Life Satisfaction, Decision-Making Styles and Decision Self-Esteem: An Investigation with Turkish University Students

Our aim in this study was to determine the relationships among styles of coping with stress, decision self-esteem, decision-making styles, and life satisfaction. The sample consisted of 492 university students. Life satisfaction was found to be positively correlated to problem-focused coping and seeking social support. It was also found that life satisfaction is significantly correlated to decision self-esteem and all decision-making styles (vigilance, buckpassing, procrastination, and hypervigilance). In addition, significant relationships were found among coping with stress, decision self-esteem and decision-making styles.
CFP and YFP, but Not GFP, Provide Stable Fluorescent Marking of Rat Hepatic Adult Stem Cells

The stable expression of reporter genes in adult stem cells (ASCs) has important applications in stem cell biology. The ability to integrate a noncytotoxic, fluorescent reporter gene into the genome of ASCs with the capability to track ASCs and their progeny is particularly desirable for transplantation studies. The use of fluorescent proteins has greatly aided the investigations of protein and cell function on short-time scales. In contrast, the obtainment of stably expressing cell strains with low variability in expression for studies on longer-time scales is often problematic. We show that this difficulty is partly due to the cytotoxicity of a commonly used reporter, green fluorescent protein (GFP). To avoid GFP-specific toxicity effects during attempts to stably mark a rat hepatic ASC strain and, therefore, obtain stable, long-term fluorescent ASCs, we evaluated cyan fluorescent protein (CFP) and yellow fluorescent protein (YFP), in addition to GFP. Although we were unable to derive stable GFP-expressing strains, stable fluorescent clones (up to 140 doublings) expressing either CFP or YFP were established. When fluorescently marked ASCs were induced to produce differentiated progeny cells, stable fluorescence expression was maintained. This property is essential for studies that track fluorescently marked ASCs and their differentiated progeny in transplantation studies.
Effect of Crosslinking Agent Concentration on the Properties of Unmedicated Hydrogels †

Novel polyethylene oxide (PEO) hydrogel films were synthesized via UV crosslinking with varying concentrations of pentaerythritol tetra-acrylate (PETRA) as crosslinking agent. The aim was to study the effects of the crosslinking agent on the material properties of hydrogel films intended for dermatological applications. Fabricated film samples were characterized using swelling studies, scanning electron microscopy, tensile testing and rheometry. Films showed rapid swelling and high elasticity. The increase of PETRA concentration resulted in significant increase in the gel fraction and crosslinking density (ρc), while causing a significant decrease in the equilibrium water content (EWC), average molecular weight between crosslinks (M¯c), and mesh size (ζ) of films. From the scanning electron microscopy, cross-linked PEO hydrogel network appeared as cross-linked mesh-like structure with interconnected micropores. Rheological studies showed PEO films required a minimum of 2.5% w/w PETRA to form stable viscoelastic solid gels. Preliminary studies concluded that a minimum of 2.5% w/w PETRA is required to yield films with desirable properties for skin application.
Effect of media richness on user acceptance of blogs and podcasts

Effective communication has long been recognised as a key element in problem solving and decision making within and among organisations including educational institutions. With the advent of Web 2.0 technologies, the communication choices have also been expanded. Media Richness Theory (MRT) has long been used to examine the effect of traditional and new media on decision making. However, less is known about media richness of Web 2.0 technologies. This paper attempts to examine the media richness capabilities of two popular Web 2.0 technologies, blogs and podcasts, and its effect on user acceptance of these two technologies in Computer Science education. A theoretical model is presented using MRT and technology acceptance model (TAM). Students enrolled in Bachelor / Master of Computer Science programs participated in an online survey that helped in evaluating the proposed model. The study findings confirm the significant effect of media richness on user acceptance of blogs and podcasts but contradict MRT as rich medium (podcast) exerted weaker influence on user acceptance as compared to lean medium (blog).
Seasonal Dynamics of Fish Assemblages on Breakwaters and Natural Rocky Reefs in a Temperate Estuary: Consistent Assemblage Differences Driven by Sub-Adults

Development of infrastructure around cities is rapidly increasing the amount of artificial substrate (termed artificial reef, ‘AR’) in coastal marine habitats. However, effects of ARs on marine communities remain unknown, because it is unclear whether ARs can maintain similar communities to natural reefs. We investigated whether well-established (> 30 years old) breakwaters could consistently approximate fish assemblages on interspersed rocky reefs in a temperate estuary over 6 consecutive seasons using regular visual surveys between June 2009 (winter) and November 2010 (spring). We examined whether assemblage differences between reef types were driven by differences in juvenile recruitment, or were related to differences in older life-stages. Assemblages on both reef types were dominated by juveniles (61% of individuals) and sub-adults (34% of individuals). Seasonal fluctuations in assemblage parameters (species richness, diversity, sub-adult abundance) were similar between reef types, and levels of species diversity and assemblage composition were generally comparable. However, abundance and species richness were consistently higher (1.9-7.6 and 1.3-2.6 times, respectively) on breakwaters. These assemblage differences could not be explained by differences in juvenile recruitment, with seasonal patterns of recruitment and juvenile species found to be similar between reef types. In contrast, abundances of sub-adults were consistently higher (1.1-12 times) at breakwaters, and assemblage differences appeared to be driven by this life-stage. Our results indicate that breakwaters in temperate estuaries are capable of supporting abundant and diverse fish assemblages with similar recruitment process to natural reefs. However, breakwaters may not approximate all aspects of natural assemblage structure, with differences maintained by a single-life stage in some cases.
Urban Hassles as Chronic Stressors and Adolescent Mental Health: The Urban Hassles Index

This paper discusses the continued development, theoretical framework, and utility of the Urban Hassles Index (UHI), which was designed to measure stressors affecting adolescents in the urban environment. These stressors are chronic and differ in context and content from the more acute life events that are usually measured in adolescent stressor indices. This paper highlights factor analysis results of the UHI and the conceptualization of the dimensions of the index. The UHI’s utility as a rapid assessment tool for practitioners and others working with adolescents is discussed. Directions for future research are also highlighted. [Brief Treatment and Crisis Intervention 5:85–94 (2005)]
Second Language Listening Instruction: Comparing a Strategies‐Based Approach With an Interactive, Strategies/Bottom‐Up Skills Approach

This quasi-experimental study compared a strategies approach to second language listening instruction with an interactive approach, one combining a roughly equal balance of strategies and bottom-up skills. The participants were lower-intermediate-level Taiwanese university EFL learners, who were taught for 22 hours over one and a half semesters. Their progress through the respective courses was charted via multiple instruments designed to assess growth in their listening proficiency, strategy use, bottom-up skills, and affect-related learner characteristics. Pretest and posttest one-way ANOVAs showed no significant differences between the two groups on any of the dimensions tested. However, a repeated-measures ANOVA showed significant gains by the strategies group in listening comprehension, but not by the interactive group. On this longitudinal within-group comparison, the strategies group also demonstrated larger effect sizes than the interactive group for listening instruction, one measure of strategies growth, and the learner characteristics of confidence and motivation, whereas the interactive group showed larger effect sizes than the strategies group for all measures of bottom-up skills involved. The outcome between the groups in terms of listening proficiency suggests that for lower-intermediate-level listeners, it is better to focus more on developing their listening strategies than to provide them with a balanced interactive approach.
Dynamical Phases of Driven Vortex Systems.

We study numerically the motion of vortices in dirty type II superconductors. In two dimensions at strong driving currents, vortices form highly correlated {open_quote}{open_quote}static channels. {close_quote}{close_quote} The static structure factor exhibits convincing scaling behavior, demonstrating quasi-long-range translational order in the transverse direction. However, order in the longitudinal direction is only short range. We clearly establish the existence of a finite transverse critical current, suggesting strong barriers against transverse driving forces. We discuss these results in terms of recently proposed theories of the moving vortex systems. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }