Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Is the prevalence of hypertension in overweight children overestimated?

Objectives The aim of this study is to explore different methods for screening and diagnosing hypertension—which definitions and criteria to use—in children and in addition to determine the prevalence of hypertension in Dutch overweight children. Design A cross-sectional study performed in the Dutch Child Health Care setting. Setting Four Child Health Care centres in different cities in the Netherlands. Participants 969 overweight (including obese) and 438 non-overweight children, median age 11.7 years (range 4.1–17.10), 49% boys. Main outcome measures The main outcome was blood pressure, and the difference in prevalence of hypertension using different criteria for blood pressure interpretation: using the first blood pressure measurement, the mean of two measurements and the lowest of three measurements on two different occasions. Results Looking at the first measurement alone, 33% of overweight and 21% of non-overweight children had hypertension. By comparing the mean of the first two measurements with reference values, 28% of overweight children and 16% of non-overweight children had hypertension. Based on the lowest of three consecutive measurements, the prevalence decreased to 12% among overweight children and 5% among non-overweight children at visit one and at visit two 4% of overweight children still had hypertension. Conclusions The prevalence of hypertension is highly dependent on the definitions and criteria used. We found a prevalence of 4% in overweight children, which is considerably lower than suggested by recent literature (4%–33%). This discrepancy can be explained by our more strict definition of hypertension. However, to draw any conclusions on the prevalence, normal values using the same definition of hypertension should be established. Despite the low prevalence, we recommend measuring blood pressure in all overweight children in view of later cardiovascular morbidity and mortality.
An energy-efficient power control approach for WLANs

In this paper we consider the problem of reducing energy consumption during the transmission phase in WLANs. We found that for a given network configuration, channel characteristics, and packet length, an optimum RF transmission power level exists which assures a minimum energy expenditure for the actually transmitted bit of information. Based on this observation, we present a packet length dependent power control mechanism. We performed discrete event simulations of an IEEE 802.11 LAN in ad hoc mode using a two state Markov channel model. The achieved simulation results indicate a significant potential for energy saving. We also present a workable approach for choosing the most energy-saving RF transmit power level which is based on the perceived packet error rate of a single mobile.
The ESSENCE project-signal to noise ratio in climate projections

A 17 member ensemble simulation of climate change in response to the SRES-A1b scenario has been carried out using the ECHAM5/MPI-OM climate model. The relatively large size of the ensemble enables us to better distinguish the forced signal from internal variability. We compare observed and modelled near-surface temperature trends and determine the statistical robustness of projected future trends of some important surface variables. We show that in large parts of the world the observed warming over the last 60 years is statistically indistinguishable from the estimated warming caused by increased greenhouse gas concentrations. Over large parts of Eurasia and Africa the warming signal will be distinguishable from the noise within the next 10 years.
Job Creation in the Arab Economies : Navigating Through Difficult Waters

The Arab Human Development Report Research Paper Series is a medium for sharing recent research commissioned to inform the Arab Human Development Report, and further research in the field of human development. The AHDR Research Paper Series is a quick-disseminating, informal publication whose titles could subsequently be revised for publication as articles in professional journals or chapters in books. The authors include leading academics and practitioners from the Arab countries and around the world. The findings, interpretations and conclusions are strictly those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the views of UNDP or United Nations Member States. The present paper was authored by Jad Chaaban. Jad Chaaban joined the American University of Beirut (AUB) as an Assistant Professor of Economics in September 2006, where he currently teaches development and agricultural economics. Prior to coming to AUB, he was an Economist in the World Bank's regional office in Beirut, where he undertook research related to poverty reduction and economic management, covering Lebanon, Syria, Jordan and Egypt. While at the Bank he contributed to drafting various policy strategies aiming to rationalize poverty alleviation, reduce unemployment, reform public sector expenditures and foster economic growth in the region. Chaaban is the president and founding member of the Lebanese Economic Association. He also currently serves as an expert for the Middle East Youth Initiative at the Wolfensohn Center for Development at Brookings; and as an Associate Researcher with the Toulouse School of Economics in France. from the same university. His current research interests include poverty and inequality in polarized societies; youth development and the economics of agro-food industries. He has published several scientific articles in international academic journals.
A Low-Power 1-GHz Razor FIR Accelerator With Time-Borrow Tracking Pipeline and Approximate Error Correction in 65-nm CMOS

A 1-GHz Razor FIR accelerator is implemented in a 65-nm CMOS process. Timing-error detection is implemented using Razor latches on critical paths. Real-time DSP systems necessitate fixed-latency error-correction, which is achieved using a combination of two distinct mechanisms. First, marginal timing violations are corrected using a time-borrow tracking algorithm that uses timing-error detection information to track excessive time borrowing. Second, persistent unresolved time borrowing is corrected at the end of the pipeline using a low-overhead approximate error-correction stage which is based on interpolation. Measurements at peak throughput of over 1 GS/s demonstrate an energy-efficiency improvement of 37%, while maintaining 10% supply voltage margin.
Population genetic structure of the toad Bufo woodhousii: an empirical assessment of the effects of haplotype extinction on nested cladistic analysis

Nested cladistic analysis (NCA) is increasingly being used to infer historical population‐level processes, including population fragmentation, range expansion and long‐distance colonization. However, the effects on interpretation of NCA inferences of stochastic extinction of haplotypes due to genetic drift (lineage sorting), or of haplotype loss via localized biotic or climatic influences, have not been thoroughly explored. We provide empirical evidence suggesting that NCA may misinterpret population history when haplotypes or haplotype groups from one clade are replaced by those of another clade. We do so by using NCA to analyse mitochondrial sequences from the toad Bufo woodhousii from 45 locations spanning the Great Plains and southwestern USA. Portions of this region were glaciated and/or desertified in the late Pleistocene and early Holocene, and hence uninhabitable for plains‐dwelling organisms. Although NCA inferences of isolation‐by‐distance and gradual range expansion in B. woodhousii are compatible with expectations based on climatic data and toad biology, NCA also detected several instances of long‐distance movement. Such movement seems unlikely, given the low vagility of this species. We conclude that inferences of long‐distance colonization likely result from extinction of haplotypes in intervening areas. We suggest using additional methods to look for congruent inferences, and amending the NCA inference key, to help avoid misinterpretations resulting from haplotype extinction.
Energy-modulated computing

For years people have been designing electronic and computing systems focusing on improving performance but "keeping power and energy consumption in mind". This is a way to design energy-aware or power-efficient systems, where energy is considered as a resource whose utilization must be optimized in the realm of performance constraints. Increasingly, energy and power turn from optimization criteria into constraints, sometimes as critical as, for example, reliability and timing. Furthermore, quanta of energy or specific levels of power can shape the system's action. In other words, the system's behavior, i.e. the way how computation and communication is carried out, can be determined or modulated by the flow of energy into the system. This view becomes dominant when energy is harvested from the environment. In this paper, we attempt to pave the way to a systematic approach to designing computing systems that are energy-modulated. To this end, several design examples are considered where power comes from energy harvesting sources with limited power density and unstable levels of power. Our design examples include voltage sensors based on self-timed logic and speed-independent SRAM operating in the dynamic range of Vdd 0.2–1V. Overall, this work advocates the vision of designing systems in which a certain quality of service is delivered in return for a certain amount of energy.
Investor Behavior in the Norwegian Equity Market

We examine investor behavior in the Norwegian equity market by studying two behavioral finance phenomena: The Disposition Effect and Herd behavior. Both utilize market data from Oslo Stock Exchange. This thesis will contribute to the existing literature on investor behavior by including evidence from Norway, characterized as a developed market. In the disposition effect paper, the methodology employed on the data examines the relationship between volume at a given point in time, and volume that took place in the past at different stock price levels. In the second paper focusing on herd behavior, a model that analyses the relationship between cross-sectional absolute deviations of asset returns and the corresponding market returns is used for the main part, while the final part combines the volume perspective from the disposition effect study with relevant assumptions for detecting herd behavior. The empirical analysis of the disposition effect presents scattered evidence, suggesting that the disposition effect exists to some extent in Norway. In addition, the evidence for tax-loss-selling, representing the opposite prediction of the disposition effect, is limited. Equivalently, by using the cross-sectional approach for detecting herd behavior we find no evidence of herding in the Norwegian market. In addition, no significant signs of herding are found in the investigation of herding through a volume perspective. Our results for the disposition effect and herd behavior in Norway suggests that they are not powerful factors in determining equity returns and volumes in the market, coinciding with similar empirical research on developed markets. This can partly be explained by sufficient access to diverse information and investment opportunities on individual stocks, and partly by the lack of comprehensive empirical models.
A model to secure a stable iodine concentration in milk

Background Dairy products account for approximately 60% of the iodine intake in the Norwegian population. The iodine concentration in cow's milk varies considerably, depending on feeding practices, season, and amount of iodine and rapeseed products in cow fodder. The variation in iodine in milk affects the risk of iodine deficiency or excess in the population. Objective The first goal of this study was to develop a model to predict the iodine concentration in milk based on the concentration of iodine and rapeseed or glucosinolate in feed, as a tool to securing stable iodine concentration in milk. A second aim was to estimate the impact of different iodine levels in milk on iodine nutrition in the Norwegian population. Design Two models were developed on the basis of results from eight published and two unpublished studies from the past 20 years. The models were based on different iodine concentrations in the fodder combined with either glucosinolate (Model 1) or rapeseed cake/meal (Model 2). To illustrate the impact of different iodine concentrations in milk on iodine intake, we simulated the iodine contribution from dairy products in different population groups based on food intake data in the most recent dietary surveys in Norway. Results The models developed could predict iodine concentration in milk. Cross-validation showed good fit and confirmed the explanatory power of the models. Our calculations showed that dairy products with current iodine level in milk (200 µg/kg) cover 68, 49, 108 and 56% of the daily iodine requirements for men, women, 2-year-old children, and pregnant women, respectively. Conclusions Securing a stable level of iodine in milk by adjusting iodine concentration in different cow feeds is thus important for preventing excess intake in small children and iodine deficiency in pregnant and non-pregnant women.
Interaction of young stellar object jets with their accretion disk

I reexamine recent observations of velocity profiles across jets blown by young stellar objects, and argue that the observations do not support the earlier interpretation of jets rotating around their symmetry axes. Instead, I propose that interaction of the jets with a twisted-tilted (wrapped) accretion disk can form the observed asymmetry in the jets' line of sight velocity profiles. The proposed scenario is based on two plausible assumptions. (1) There is an inclination between the jet and the outer parts of the disk, such that the jet is perpendicular to the inner part of the disk; i.e., there is a twisted-tilted (wrapped) disk. (2) The disk-jet interaction slows the jet down as the jet entrains mass from the disk, with larger decelaration of jet segments closer to the tilted disk. The proposed scenario can account for the basic properties of the observed velocity profiles, while offering the advantage of not needing to refer to any magnetic jet launching model, and there is no need to invoke jet rotation with a huge amount of angular momentum.
Spatial Exporter Dynamics

Using Chinese customs data for estimating a discrete choice model between potential export destinations, we present evidence for spatial export investment decisions of exporters driven by search and learning processes in foreign markets. We rationalize our empirical results by presenting a spatial learning by exporting model from which we derive our estimation equation. Our ndings hint at a positive correlation in unobserved rm prots
Transfer Behavior in the Health and Retirement Study: Measurement and the Redistribution of Resources within the Family

Recent work by a number of economists has opened a debate about the role played by intergenerational transfers. Using the new Health and Retirement Study (HRS), we are better able to address the issues involved. Contrary to the current literature on bequests, we do not find that parents give transfers equally to all children. Rather, we find that in the case of inter-vivos transfers, respondents give greaterfinancial assistance to their less well off children than to their children with higher incomes. Financial transfers to elderly parents are also found to be negatively related to the (potential) recipient's income. These results hold both for the incidence of transfers and for the amounts. In addition, we allow for unobserved differences across families by estimating fixed effect models and find our results to be robust to these specifications. A comparison of the HRS transfer data to other survey data demonstrates that the HRS is potentially quite useful for research on transfer behavior.
Sparse multivariate factor regression

We introduce a sparse multivariate regression algorithm which simultaneously performs dimensionality reduction and parameter estimation. We decompose the coefficient matrix into two sparse matrices: a long matrix mapping the predictors to a set of factors and a wide matrix estimating the responses from the factors. We impose an elastic net penalty on the former and an ℓ1 penalty on the latter. Our algorithm simultaneously performs dimension reduction and coefficient estimation and automatically estimates the number of latent factors from the data. Our formulation results in a non-convex optimization problem, which despite its flexibility to impose effective low-dimensional structure, is difficult, or even impossible, to solve exactly in a reasonable time. We specify a greedy optimization algorithm based on alternating minimization to solve this non-convex problem and provide theoretical results on its convergence and optimality. Finally, we demonstrate the effectiveness of our algorithm via experiments on simulated and real data.
Health Promoting Lifestyle, Perceived Health Competence, Barriers and Benefits Among Nursing Students in Alexandria

Increased understanding of health practices and greater efforts toward promoting healthy behaviors and wellbeing among youth is essential. Objective: Assess nursing students' current health promoting behaviors, perceived health competence, benefits and barriers to health promoting activities. The study was carried out at the Faculty of Nursing, Alexandria University. subjects of the study were 300 nursing students during the academic year 2015-2016. Five tools were used for data collection. The first tool was students’ basic data structured interview schedule to identify data related to students' personal and socio-demographic characteristics and health status. The second tool was Health Promoting Lifestyle Profile II (HPLP- II) to measure the health promoting behaviors. The third tool was Perceived Health Competence scale to measure the degree to which an individual feels capable of reasonably managing his/her health outcomes. The forth tool was Benefits Assessment Scale to measure the perceived benefits of health promoting behaviors, while the fifth tool was The Barriers to Health Promoting Activities Scale to measure the barriers that keep an individual from taking responsibility for his/her health. Findings of the present study revealed that the majority of the students had fair health promoting lifestyle and health competence level. More than half of the students had high perception of benefits of health promoting behaviors while lack of facilities, bad weather, work overload were among the main perceived barriers against such healthy behaviors. The study concluded that the majority of the students were fair in total health promoting lifestyle; the gender of the students didn’t affect their health promoting life style in a significant manner. The vast majority of the students had fair health competence, more than half of the students had high perception regarding the benefits of the health promoting lifestyle. Lack of convenient facilities was the first barrier to health promoting lifestyle. Keywords: Health promotion, Health competence, Benefits, Barriers, Youth
Percutaneous Coronary Intervention Versus Optimal Medical Therapy for Prevention of Spontaneous Myocardial Infarction in Subjects With Stable Ischemic Heart Disease

Background— Contemporary studies have shown that spontaneous but not procedural myocardial infarction (MI) is related to subsequent mortality. Whether percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) reduces spontaneous (nonprocedural) MI is unknown. Methods and Results— PubMed, EMBASE, and Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL) were searched for randomized clinical trials until October 2012 comparing PCI with optimal medical therapy (OMT) for stable ischemic heart disease and reporting MI outcomes: spontaneous nonprocedural MI, procedural MI, and all MI, including procedure-related MI. Given the varying length of follow-up between trials, a mixed-effect Poisson regression meta-analysis was used. From 12 randomized clinical trials with 37 548 patient-years of follow-up, PCI compared with OMT alone was associated with a significantly lower incident rate ratio (IRR) for spontaneous nonprocedural MI (IRR=0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.58–0.99) at the risk of a higher rate of procedural MI (IRR=4.11; 95% CI, 2.53–6.88) without any difference in the risk of all MI (IRR=0.96; 95% CI, 0.74–1.21). The point estimate for PCI versus OMT for all-cause mortality (IRR=0.88; 95% CI, 0.75–1.03) and cardiovascular mortality (IRR=0.70; 95% CI, 0.44–1.09) paralleled that for spontaneous nonprocedural MI (but not procedural or all nonfatal MI), although these were not statistically significant. Conclusions— PCI compared with OMT reduced spontaneous MI at the risk of procedural MI without any difference in all MI. Consistent with prior studies showing that spontaneous MI but not procedural MI is related to subsequent mortality, in the present report the point estimate for reduced mortality with PCI compared with OMT paralleled the prevention of spontaneous MI with PCI. Further studies are needed to determine whether these associations are causal.
The incidence of public expenditures on health and education

One of the way that services fail poor people is that public spending fails to reach the services that poor people use. This is not just an issue between sectors (although that may be true) but also an issue in the sectors where people typically think that spending is an effective way to reach poor people: health and education. As a part of documenting the experience with public spending on health and education for World Development Report 2004, a review of results on the expenditure incidence of public spending was undertaken. This note comprises three tables that document the findings and sources for those results. Table 1 reports summary data on the incidence of public expenditures on health and education. Table 2 reports a compilation of data in the incidence on public expenditures on health, with sources. Table 3 reports a compilation of data in the incidence on public expenditures on education, with sources.
Using African ubuntu theory in social work with children in Zimbabwe

Using indigenous knowledge systems such as Ubuntu in social work with children empowers them, their families, communities and workers. Yet, the potential of using frames that draw on indigenous ways of knowing, in children’s work, remain unrealised since social workers prefer Western models and theories. Ubuntu inspired models of social work view children from family, community, environmental and spiritual perspectives. In contrast, Western models are inspired by individualitic values, governmental policies and professional viewpoints. However, as will be shown in this article, foreign models have failed to live up to expectations because they tend to disempower and diminish the strengths of everyone involved in case situations. For example, the social worker has to administer a model that they are not fully familiar with or which contradicts their own values. The family is forced to adopt values that they do not know let alone believe in. The community becomes powerless in the process. This article discusses the use of Ubuntu theory in social work with children in Africa. The discussion includes five frameworks of Ubuntu: the orature, scholarly, liberation, practice and integrated. The Ubuntu inspired Zera model of child growth and development was used to aid the discussion. We conclude that, given social work’s emphasis on using strengths perspectives, i.e., those broader frames that deliberately look for and build on the strengths of clients and client systems, social work practice with children in Africa should engage with Ubuntu, as a matter of principle. Key terms : Ubuntu; Africa; Zimbabwe; indigenous; children; social work