Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Estimating the health-care usage associated with osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis in an older adult population in Ireland.

BACKGROUND An ageing population leads to increasing prevalence of age-related chronic conditions that present challenges to the health-care services. Despite this, in countries including Ireland, little is known about the health-care impact of conditions such as osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis amongst older adults. METHODS A series of count models are developed to investigate the incremental health-care usage of individuals with either osteoarthritis or rheumatoid arthritis on the use of general practitioners (GP) services, outpatients' services, accident and emergency visits and inpatient nights. RESULTS Both types of arthritic conditions lead to increased usage of GP and outpatients' services but not other hospital services. Differences in entitlements to care, as captured by the presence of a medical card in Ireland, lead to different health-care usage among arthritis sufferers. Translating the additional utilization into cost suggests a combined incremental annual cost of both types of arthritis of €13.6 million. CONCLUSIONS Osteoarthritis and rheumatoid arthritis present challenges to health-care services in the context of an ageing population. In the case of Ireland the burden falls predominantly on primary health-care and outpatient services. Within the context of changing health-care service provision in Ireland, the results of this study have implications for future planning of service delivery.
The role of extension officers and extension services in the development of agriculture in Nigeria

The role of agricultural extension in the development of agriculture throughout the world is not in doubt. It has remained one of the prime movers in the development of agriculture and invariably in the rural development. This paper reviewed the role of extension officers and extension services in the development of agriculture in Nigeria. The paper dwelt on the basic concepts underlying the scope, understanding and meaning of agricultural extension, role of extension service and extension officers. It is the belief of this paper that no nation will have real growth in the agricultural sector without effective extension service. It is also the belief of this paper that total eradication of agricultural development problems can be achieved through extension service approach if the role of extension is properly conceived and effectively administered.
Tradeoff between Area Spectral Efficiency and End-to-End Throughput in Rate-Adaptive Multihop Radio Networks

We investigate the impact of symbol rate control, modulation level control, and the number of hops on the area spectral efficiency of interference-limited multihop radio networks. By controlling symbol rate and modulation level, data rate can be adapted according to received power. In addition, varying the number of hops can control received power. First. , we evaluate the achievable end-to-end throughput of multihop transmission assuming symbol rate and modulation level control. Numerical results reveal that by controlling symbol rate or using multihop transmission, the end-to-end communication range can be extended at the cost of end-to-end throughput, and this may result in lower area spectral efficiency. Next, an expression for the area spectral efficiency of multihop radio networks is derived as a function of the number of hops and the end-to-end throughput. Numerical results also reveal that the resulting area spectral efficiency depends on the specific circumstances, which, however, can be increased only by using multihop transmission.
Influence of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist total dose in the ovarian stimulation in the long down-regulation protocol for in-vitro fertilization.

The goal of our study was to assess whether the total dose of gonadotrophin-releasing hormone agonist (GnRHa) administered affects the success of an in-vitro fertilization (IVF) programme. A retrospective analysis was performed on a total of 72 IVF cycles carried out on 70 patients with different causes of infertility included in our assisted reproduction programme. Cycles were divided into two groups according to the number of days of GnRHa administration (leuprolide acetate 1 mg/day) necessary until ovarian desensitization occurred: group I (GI) < 13 days (n = 27) and group II (GII) > or = 13 days (n = 45). The following parameters were assessed: number of gonadotrophin ampoules, number of stimulation days, endometrial thickness on the day of human chorionic gonadotrophin (HCG) administration, number of recovered oocytes, pregnancy rate. Pregnancy rate/cycle and pregnancy rate/transfer were positively correlated with the dose of GnRHa (GI: 44 and 60% respectively versus GII: 20% and 25% respectively). It is concluded that a long administration of GnRHa has no effect upon ovarian response, although the pregnancy rate is subsequently decreased.
Rank Dependence in Employees ’ Wellbeing

participants in an interdisciplinary symposium organised by Gary Becker (University of Chicago, 2004) for helpful suggestions. Any opinions in this article are those of the individual authors only; they do not necessarily reflect the views or policies of Watson Wyatt. 2 Abstract What makes workers happy? Here we argue that pure 'rank' matters. It is currently believed that wellbeing is determined partly by an individual's absolute wage (say, 30,000 dollars a year) and partly by the individual's relative wage (say, 30,000 dollars compared to an average in the company or neighborhood of 25,000 dollars). Our evidence shows that this is inadequate. The paper demonstrates that range-frequency theory — a model developed independently within psychology and unknown to most economists — predicts that wellbeing is gained partly from the individual's ranked position of a wage within a comparison set (say, whether the individual is number 4 or 14 in the wage hierarchy of the company). We report an experimental study and an analysis of a survey of 16,000 employees' wage satisfaction ratings. We find evidence of rank-dependence in workers' pay satisfaction. This paper examines the relationship between pay and wellbeing. We argue that pay satisfaction is influenced not only by the absolute level of pay, nor simply by relative pay. Instead, the skewness of wage distributions is important. An individual's wellbeing is determined partly by the rank-ordered position of their wage within a comparison set (e.g. whether they are the third most highly paid person in their organization, the twelfth most highly paid person, etc.). Consider Professor X, a relatively successful member of a small university department. Professor X earns $20,000 more than the average wage of professors in the department, and only $10,000 less than the most highly paid faculty member in the department. In fact, Professor X is the third most highly paid member of the department. Compare the likely satisfaction of Professor X with that of Professor Y, a colleague in a different department and better paid discipline. Professor Y earns $10,000 more than Professor X, corresponding to $20,000 more than the average wage in Professor Y's department. Thus the salaries of Professor X and Professor Y are the same distance from the mean of their respective departments. Like her less well-paid colleague, Professor Y happens to earn just $10,000 less than the highest wage in her department. However, Professor Y is only the fifth most highly paid …
Intraocular Pressure-Lowering Potential of Subthreshold Selective Laser Trabeculoplasty in Patients with Primary Open-Angle Glaucoma

Purpose. To compare the efficacy of subthreshold and conventional selective laser trabeculoplasty (SLT) in lowering intraocular pressure (IOP) in the patients with primary open-angle glaucoma (POAG). Methods. Fifty-two eyes from fifty-two POAG patients were randomized into two groups, one group treated with subthreshold SLT using two-thirds of the conventional energy and the other one treated with the conventional energy. IOP was measured with the Goldmann tonometer and the anterior chamber inflammation was determined using laser flare meter. Results. The initial energy dosage used in subthreshold SLT group was significantly lower than the amount of the energy used in conventional SLT group (0.4 ± 0.1 mJ versus 0.6 ± 0.1 mJ, P = 0.030). The total energy dosage was also significantly lower in subthreshold SLT group compared to the other group (37.6 ± 3.3 mJ versus 51.8 ± 5.7 mJ, P = 0.036). However, the level of inflammation in aqueous humor, amount of reduction in IOP, and the success rate in controlling IOP was the same in both groups. Conclusion. The efficacy of subthreshold SLT group in reducing IOP in POAG patients is comparable to the efficacy of conventional SLT group.
Alanylation of teichoic acids protects Staphylococcus aureus against Toll-like receptor 2-dependent host defense in a mouse tissue cage infection model.

Staphylococcus aureus is inherently resistant to cationic antimicrobial peptides because of alanylation of cell envelope teichoic acids. To test the effect of alanylated teichoic acids on virulence and host defense mediated by Toll-like receptor 2 (TLR2), wild-type (wt) S. aureus ATCC35556 (S.a.113) and its isogenic mutant expressing unalanylated teichoic acids (dlt(-)) were compared in a tissue cage infection model that used C57BL/6 wt and TLR2-deficient mice. The minimum infective doses (MID) to establish persistent infection with S.a. 113 were 10(3) and 10(2) colony-forming units (cfu) in wt and TLR2(-/-) mice, respectively. The corresponding MID for dlt(-) were 5x105 and 10(3) cfu in wt and TLR2(-/-) mice, respectively. Both mouse strains showed bacterial-load-dependent inflammation with elevations in tumor necrosis factor, macrophage inflammatory protein 2, and leukocytes, with increasing proportions of dead cells. These findings indicate that alanylated teichoic acids contribute to virulence of S. aureus, and TLR2 mediates host defense, which partly targets alanylated teichoic acids.
Renal actions of synthetic dendroaspis natriuretic peptide.

BACKGROUND Dendroaspis natriuretic peptide (DNP), recently isolated from the venom of the green Mamba snake Dendroaspis angusticeps, is a 38 amino acid peptide containing a 17 amino acid disulfide ring structure similar to that of atrial natriuretic peptide (ANP), brain natriuretic peptide (BNP), and C-type natriuretic peptide (CNP). DNP-like immunoreactivity (DNP-LI) was reported to be present in human plasma and atrial myocardium and to be elevated in human congestive heart failure. Although previously named DNP, it remains unknown if DNP is natriuretic or if is it present in canine plasma, urine, and atrial myocardium. METHOD Studies were performed in vivo in anesthetized dogs (N = 6) using intravenous infusion of synthetic DNP at 10 and 50 ng/kg/min. Employing a sensitive and specific radioimmunoassay for DNP, the presence of DNP-like peptide was assessed in the canine plasma and urine before, during, and following the administration of exogenous synthetic DNP. Additionally, we performed immunohistochemical studies using the indirect immunoperoxidase method with polyclonal DNP antiserum in normal atrial myocardium (N = 10). Atrial concentrations of DNP-LI were also assessed. RESULTS We report that DNP is markedly natriuretic and diuretic, which, like ANP and BNP, is associated with the increase in urinary and plasma cGMP. DNP-like peptide is also detected in canine plasma, urine, and atrial myocardium. CONCLUSION These studies establish that DNP is a potent natriuretic and diuretic peptide with tubular actions linked to cGMP and that DNP may play a physiological role in the regulation of sodium excretion.
Gauging Spacetime Symmetries on the Worldsheet and the Geometric Langlands Program

We study the two-dimensional twisted (0,2) sigma-model on various smooth complex flag manifolds G/B, and explore its relevance to the geometric Langlands program. We find that an equivalence - at the level of the holomorphic chiral algebra - between a bosonic string on G/B and a B-gauged version of itself on G, will imply an isomorphism of classical W-algebras and a level relation which underlie a geometric Langlands correspondence for G=SL(N,C). This furnishes an alternative physical interpretation of the geometric Langlands correspondence for G=SL(N,C), to that demonstrated earlier by Kapustin and Witten via an electric-magnetic duality of four-dimensional gauge theory. Likewise, the Hecke operators and Hecke eigensheaves will have an alternative physical interpretation in terms of the correlation functions of local operators in the holomorphic chiral algebra of a quasi-topological sigma-model without boundaries. A forthcoming paper will investigate the interpretation of a ``quantum'' geometric Langlands correspondence for G=SL(N,C) in a similar setting, albeit with fluxes of the sigma-model moduli which induce a ``quantum'' deformation of the relevant classical algebras turned on.
Effective envelopes: statistical bounds on multiplexed traffic in packet networks

A statistical network service which allows a certain fraction of traffic to not meet its QoS guarantees can extract additional capacity from a network by exploiting the statistical properties of the traffic. Here we consider a statistical service which assumes statistical independence of flows, but does not make any assumptions on the statistics of traffic sources, other than that they are regulated, e.g., by a leaky bucket. Under these conditions, we present functions, so-called local effective envelopes and global effective envelopes, which are, with high certainty, upper bounds of multiplexed traffic. We show that these envelopes can be used to obtain bounds on the amount of traffic on a link that can be provisioned with statistical QoS. A key advantage of our bounds is that they can be applied with a variety of scheduling algorithms. In fact, we show that one can reuse existing admission control functions that are available for scheduling algorithms with a deterministic service. We present numerical examples which compare the number of flows with statistical QoS guarantees that can be admitted with our effective envelope approach to those achieved with existing methods.
Supplier Selection and Order Allocation Models in Supply Chain Management: A Review

2 Abstract: Supplier selection decisions are an important component of production and logistics management for many firms. Such decisions entail the selection of individual suppliers to employ and the determination of order quantities to be placed with the selected suppliers. This paper reviews supplier selection and order allocation models based on an extensive search in the literature (170 paper during 2000-2010) and tries to show their contribution to supply chain management. After discussing different methods and their applications, the most prevalently used approaches and criteria are presented. In the second step, different attributes of these papers are defined and finally issues for future research are recommended.
Bullying, violence and mental distress among young people. Cross-sectional population-based studies in Scania, Sweden.

Maria Fridh disputerade med denna avhandling den 1 juni 2018 vid medicinska fakulteten, Lunds universitet. Lund University, Faculty of Medicine Doctoral Dissertation Series 2018:34, June 1st 2018. Maria Fridh, ST-lakare i socialmedicin. Socialmedicin och halsopolitik, Institutionen for kliniska vetenskaper i Malmo, Lunds universitet. E-post: maria.fridh@med.lu. se
Close Proximity Soundings within Supercell Environments Obtained from the Rapid Update Cycle

A sample of 413 soundings in close proximity to tornadic and nontornadic supercells is examined. The soundings were obtained from hourly analyses generated by the 40-km Rapid Update Cycle-2 (RUC-2) analysis and forecast system. A comparison of 149 observed soundings and collocated RUC-2 soundings in regional supercell environments reveals that the RUC-2 model analyses were reasonably accurate through much of the troposphere. The largest error tendencies were in temperatures and mixing ratios near the surface, primarily in 1-h forecast soundings immediately prior to the standard rawinsonde launches around 1200 and 0000 UTC. Overall, the RUC-2 analysis soundings appear to be a reasonable proxy for observed soundings in supercell environments. Thermodynamic and vertical wind shear parameters derived from RUC-2 proximity soundings are evaluated for the following supercell and storm subsets: significantly tornadic supercells (54 soundings), weakly tornadic supercells (144 soundings), nontornadic supercells (215 soundings), and discrete nonsupercell storms (75 soundings). Findings presented herein are then compared to results from previous and ongoing proximity soundings studies. Most significantly, proximity soundings presented here reinforce the findings of previous studies in that vertical shear and moisture within 1 km of the ground can discriminate between nontornadic supercells and supercells producing tornadoes with F2 or greater damage. Parameters that combine measures of buoyancy, vertical shear, and low-level moisture show the strongest ability to discriminate between supercell classes.
The Aftermath of Shelter: Abused Arab Women in Israel

Abstract Shelters for battered women play a major role in combating abuse against women. Extensive research has dealt with various aspects of shelters, including professional and ideological perceptions and the women’s experiences. However, scarce research exists on women’s coping following shelter-stay, especially research on the meaning of shelter-stay for women from collectivist societies. In the present study, we focused on how Arab women who had lived in a shelter coped after returning to the community to begin independent lives. In the Arab society in Israel, Arab women who live in shelters are perceived as violating a cultural norm. In-depth qualitative interviews were conducted with 12 Arab women aged between 25 and 42, who had stayed in a shelter for Arab women for at least six months. The major themes that emerged from the interviews revealed changes in perception of self and of social environment, including a self-transformation from weakness to strength, from perceiving themselves as devoid of rights to the development of an identity of entitlement. Through their release from weakening cultural systems, they were transformed from familial and societal victims to empowered beings, and moved from negative gender self-awareness to an empowered gender self-perception. These changes helped the interviewees to cope with stresses and to live independently. The findings are conceptualized in the discussion using relational-cultural theory.
Learning a similarity metric discriminatively for pose exemplar based action recognition

Exemplar-based action recognition has the advantages of being compact and time-invariant. But how to select suitable exemplars and measure the pose similarities between frames and exemplars are no easy tasks. In this paper, we propose an approach to efficiently select pose exemplars and learn a pose similarity metric between frames and pose exemplars. First, a subset of training frames is mapped into pose space, where clustering is performed to select pose exemplars. Second, a pose similarity metric between frames and pose exemplars is learned based on exemplar classifiers. Finally, both training and testing videos are embedded into a space defined by similarities to pose exemplars, where action classifiers are trained to recognize actions from videos. To test our method, we have used a publicly available dataset which demonstrates that , using very simple features and fewer exemplars, our method can achieve the same or better recognition rate as the state-of-the-art methods.
Differences In pHi Recovery In CO/sub 2/-Chemosensitive And Non-Chemosensitive Cells: Predictions From A Mathematical model

In this paper, we present a mathematic model designed to identify potential mechanisms responsible for the observed differences in pHi recovery in CO(2)-chemosensitive versus non-chemosensitive cells. The model suggests that differences in pHi regulation may be dependent upon differences in the activation set-point of the internal modifier site of the Na(+)/H(+) exchanger (NHE).
CONCEPTUAL STUDY TOWARDS INFORMATION SECURITY MODEL FOR E-LEARNING STAKEHOLDERS

This paper presents the conceptual model of the Information Security Vulnerability for E-learning Stakeholders. This model is the derived from literature reviews and multi method studies. The proposed model incorporates the dimensions, components which bringing out the relation of people’s behavior and information security. The model depicted the relationship of dimensions related in the management of information security of stakeholders in e-learning by addressing people’s behavior and their cultural view. The model serves as an integrative structure to understand and define the stakeholder’s cultural view in securing the e-learning environment.
On packet loss performance under varying network conditions with path diversity

In this paper we investigate the properties of packet losses when packets are transferred using an overlay network. Three packet loss models are established for different packet loss scenarios: random, burst and congestion. Based on these models, it has been shown through simulation that in random and burst packet losses environments the packet loss rate increases as the number of diverse paths increases, whilst the opposite is true in the congestion case. A combined model is presented and then developed to address the situation where the last link of the system experiences different loss patterns to the rest of the network, such as a wireless access link.
Auditory Temporal Resolution in Individuals with Diabetes Mellitus Type 2

Abstract Introduction “Diabetes mellitus is a group of metabolic disorders characterized by elevated blood sugar and abnormalities in insulin secretion and action” (American Diabetes Association). Previous literature has reported connection between diabetes mellitus and hearing impairment. There is a dearth of literature on auditory temporal resolution ability in individuals with diabetes mellitus type 2. Objective The main objective of the present study was to assess auditory temporal resolution ability through GDT (Gap Detection Threshold) in individuals with diabetes mellitus type 2 with high frequency hearing loss. Methods Fifteen subjects with diabetes mellitus type 2 with high frequency hearing loss in the age range of 30 to 40 years participated in the study as the experimental group. Fifteen age-matched non-diabetic individuals with normal hearing served as the control group. We administered the Gap Detection Threshold (GDT) test to all participants to assess their temporal resolution ability. Result We used the independent t-test to compare between groups. Results showed that the diabetic group (experimental) performed significantly poorer compared with the non-diabetic group (control). Conclusion It is possible to conclude that widening of auditory filters and changes in the central auditory nervous system contributed to poorer performance for temporal resolution task (Gap Detection Threshold) in individuals with diabetes mellitus type 2. Findings of the present study revealed the deteriorating effect of diabetes mellitus type 2 at the central auditory processing level.