Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Discrete elastic rods

We present a discrete treatment of adapted framed curves, parallel transport, and holonomy, thus establishing the language for a discrete geometric model of thin flexible rods with arbitrary cross section and undeformed configuration. Our approach differs from existing simulation techniques in the graphics and mechanics literature both in the kinematic description---we represent the material frame by its angular deviation from the natural Bishop frame---as well as in the dynamical treatment---we treat the centerline as dynamic and the material frame as quasistatic. Additionally, we describe a manifold projection method for coupling rods to rigid-bodies and simultaneously enforcing rod inextensibility. The use of quasistatics and constraints provides an efficient treatment for stiff twisting and stretching modes; at the same time, we retain the dynamic bending of the centerline and accurately reproduce the coupling between bending and twisting modes. We validate the discrete rod model via quantitative buckling, stability, and coupled-mode experiments, and via qualitative knot-tying comparisons.
Site Specific Mutation of the Zic2 Locus by Microinjection of TALEN mRNA in Mouse CD1, C3H and C57BL/6J Oocytes

Transcription Activator-Like Effector Nucleases (TALENs) consist of a nuclease domain fused to a DNA binding domain which is engineered to bind to any genomic sequence. These chimeric enzymes can be used to introduce a double strand break at a specific genomic site which then can become the substrate for error-prone non-homologous end joining (NHEJ), generating mutations at the site of cleavage. In this report we investigate the feasibility of achieving targeted mutagenesis by microinjection of TALEN mRNA within the mouse oocyte. We achieved high rates of mutagenesis of the mouse Zic2 gene in all backgrounds examined including outbred CD1 and inbred C3H and C57BL/6J. Founder mutant Zic2 mice (eight independent alleles, with frameshift and deletion mutations) were created in C3H and C57BL/6J backgrounds. These mice transmitted the mutant alleles to the progeny with 100% efficiency, allowing the creation of inbred lines. Mutant mice display a curly tail phenotype consistent with Zic2 loss-of-function. The efficiency of site-specific germline mutation in the mouse confirm TALEN mediated mutagenesis in the oocyte to be a viable alternative to conventional gene targeting in embryonic stem cells where simple loss-of-function alleles are required. This technology enables allelic series of mutations to be generated quickly and efficiently in diverse genetic backgrounds and will be a valuable approach to rapidly create mutations in mice already bearing one or more mutant alleles at other genetic loci without the need for lengthy backcrossing.
The Relationship between College Student's Internet Use and Loneliness

Objective:To explore the relationship between loneliness and internet use.Methods:160 college students were surveyed by UCLA Loneliness Scale, Emotional and Social Loneliness Scale and Scale of Internet Use, and the correlations among them were analyzed. Results: The average time spent on the internet was 10 hours per week, and there was a significant relationship between the time spent on internet and loneliness. Emotional Loneliness (EL) was higher than Social Loneliness (SL). Conclusion: The use of internet enhances loneliness. EL is easierly influenced by the use of internet than SL.
Global Burden of Sickle Cell Anaemia in Children under Five, 2010–2050: Modelling Based on Demographics, Excess Mortality, and Interventions

Frédéric Piel and colleagues combine national sickle cell anemia (SCA) frequencies with projected demographic data to estimate the number of SCA births in children under five globally from 2010 to 2050, and then estimate the number of lives that could be be saved following implementation of specific health interventions starting in 2015. Please see later in the article for the Editors' Summary
Stakeholders’ Views on Voluntary Human Capital Disclosures in Corporate Annual Reports of Top Bangladeshi and Indian Listed Companies

Anchored in stakeholder theory, the study aimed at examining the extent of voluntary human capital disclosures in annual reports of top 20 Bangladeshi and Indian listed companies. In addition to qualitative content analysis of the annual reports for the year 2010–2011, this study also conducted a series of in-depth interviews with a range of stakeholders of the companies of both the countries to understand their views on voluntary HC disclosures in corporate annual reports. It was found that the level of voluntary HC disclosures was very low in case of the companies of both the countries. Moreover, it was observed that HC disclosures of companies mostly composed of positive information. From the views of stakeholders, it was evident that stakeholders unanimously recognized the necessity of credible HC disclosures in corporate annual reports. The HC disclosure index framed in this study may be useful in developing a South Asian model of corporate HC disclosures. This study contributes to the existing literature on HC disclosures where there has been a distinct lack of engagement-based research works.
Nonfunctional Variant 3 Factor H Binding Proteins as Meningococcal Vaccine Candidates

ABSTRACT Neisseria meningitidis is a human-specific pathogen and leading cause of meningitis and septicemia. Factor H binding protein (fHbp), a virulence factor which protects N. meningitidis from innate immunity by binding the human complement regulator factor H (fH) with high affinity, is also a key antigen in vaccines being developed to prevent meningococcal disease. fHbp can be divided into three variant groups (V1, V2, and V3) that elicit limited immunological cross-reactivity. The interaction of fH with fHbp could impair the immunogenicity of this antigen by hindering access to the antigenic epitopes in fHbp, providing the rationale for the development of nonfunctional fHbps as vaccine candidates. Here, we characterized the two nonfunctional V3 fHbps, fHbpT286A and fHbpE313A, which each contains a single amino acid substitution that leads to a marked reduction in affinity for fH without affecting the folding of the proteins. The immunogenicity of the nonfunctional fHbps was assessed in transgenic mice expressing a single chimeric fH containing domains of human fH involved in binding to fHbp. No differences in anti-V3 fHbp antibody titers were elicited by the wild-type V3 fHbp, V3 fHbpT286A, and V3 fHbpE313A, demonstrating that the nonfunctional fHbps retain their immunogenicity. Furthermore, the nonfunctional V3 fHbps elicit serum bactericidal activity that is equivalent to or higher than that observed with the wild-type protein. Our findings provide the basis for the rational design of next-generation vaccines containing nonfunctional V3 fHbps.
Endowment Differences and the Composition of Intra‐Industry Trade

This paper investigates the relationship between differences in endowments and different types of trade, in particular vertical intra-industry trade (VIIT). We build a general equilibrium framework based on a hybrid of the Chamberlain-Heckscher-Ohlin and the specific factors models that generates predictions about how the shares of different types of intra-industry and net trade flows change with differences in endowments. We also present some empirical evidence for European Union trade with its 51 major trading partners. The econometric models of the determinants of the different types of trade confirm the theoretical predictions, namely that the effect of cross country differences in the endowments of trading partners on the share of vertical IIT in total bilateral trade differs from their effect on both horizontal IIT and net trade. The share of horizontal IIT (net trade) decreases (increases) for all increases in absolute endowment differences, but the share of vertical IIT can both increase and decrease with increases in endowment differences.
Antibodies to the Core Proteins of Nairobi Sheep Disease Virus/Ganjam Virus Reveal Details of the Distribution of the Proteins in Infected Cells and Tissues

Nairobi sheep disease virus (NSDV; also called Ganjam virus in India) is a bunyavirus of the genus Nairovirus. It causes a haemorrhagic gastroenteritis in sheep and goats with mortality up to 90%. The virus is closely related to the human pathogen Crimean-Congo haemorrhagic fever virus (CCHFV). Little is currently known about the biology of NSDV. We have generated specific antibodies against the virus nucleocapsid protein (N) and polymerase (L) and used these to characterise NSDV in infected cells and to study its distribution during infection in a natural host. Due to its large size and the presence of a papain-like protease (the OTU-like domain) it has been suggested that the L protein of nairoviruses undergoes an autoproteolytic cleavage into polymerase and one or more accessory proteins. Specific antibodies which recognise either the N-terminus or the C-terminus of the NSDV L protein showed no evidence of L protein cleavage in NSDV-infected cells. Using the specific anti-N and anti-L antibodies, it was found that these viral proteins do not fully colocalise in infected cells; the N protein accumulated near the Golgi at early stages of infection while the L protein was distributed throughout the cytoplasm, further supporting the multifunctional nature of the L protein. These antibodies also allowed us to gain information about the organs and cell types targeted by the virus in vivo. We could detect NSDV in cryosections prepared from various tissues collected post-mortem from experimentally inoculated animals; the virus was found in the mucosal lining of the small and large intestine, in the lungs, and in mesenteric lymph nodes (MLN), where NSDV appeared to target monocytes and/or macrophages.
Corporate Governance in China: Current Practices, Economic Effects and Institutional Determinants

This article provides a preliminary survey of the burgeoning literature on the Chinese listed firms' corporate governance. We structure the existing research around three themes: (1) What are the current corporate governance practices in China? (2) How do these corporate governance practices affect the Chinese listed firms' valuation and various corporate decisions? (3) How does China's unique institutional setting pre-determine the governance model adopted in China? The evidence indicates that the current governance practice adopted in China can be best described as a control-based model, which contrasts strikingly with the market-oriented model commonly used in the US and UK, and championed by most corporate governance advocates. The evidence also shows that Chinese firms, whose corporate governance practices deviate from the control-based model, demonstrate stronger performance, and tend to make decisions in line with the shareholders' interest. The evidence from the literature also suggests that the control-based model is rooted in the 'administrative governance' approach adopted by the Chinese regulatory authorities, and is tailed to China's specific institutional setting. (JEL classification: G3) Copyright 2006, Oxford University Press.
Numerical Estimation of Coercivity Constants for Boundary Integral Operators in Acoustic Scattering

Coercivity is an important concept for proving existence and uniqueness of solutions to variational problems in Hilbert spaces. But while coercivity estimates are well known for many variational problems arising from partial differential equations, they are still an open problem in the context of boundary integral operators arising from acoustic scattering problems, where rigorous coercivity results have so far only been established for combined integral operators on the unit circle and sphere. The fact that coercivity holds, even in these special cases, is perhaps surprising, as formulations of Helmholtz problems are generally thought to be indefinite. The main motivation for investigating coercivity in this context is that it has the potential to give error estimates for the Galerkin method which are both explicit in the wavenumber $k$ and valid regardless of the approximation space used; thus they apply to hybrid asymptotic-numerical methods recently developed for the high frequency case. One way to interpret coercivity is by considering the numerical range of the operator. The numerical range is a well established tool in spectral theory, and algorithms exist to approximate the numerical range of finite dimensional matrices. We can, therefore, use Galerkin projections of the boundary integral operators to approximate the numerical range of the original operator. We prove convergence estimates for the numerical range of Galerkin projections of a general bounded linear operator on a Hilbert space to justify this approach. By computing the numerical range of the combined integral operator in acoustic scattering for several interesting convex, nonconvex, smooth, and polygonal domains, we numerically study coercivity estimates for varying wavenumbers. We find that coercivity holds, uniformly in the wavenumber $k$, for a wide variety of domains. Finally, we consider a trapping domain, for which there exist resonances (also called scattering poles) very close to the real line, to demonstrate that coercivity for a certain wavenumber $k$ seems to be strongly dependent on the distance to the nearest resonance.
The influence of organizational and human resource management strategies on performance

T oday a firm’s success largely depends on the capabilities of its members. Firms may have the capital and technology, but it is Human Resources (HR) that will help firms face the challenges of business globalization. Capital can be generated. So can technology. But the HR required to propel an organization through the coming challenges must be rightly and appropriately encouraged and motivated.
Physical and Psychological Morbidity in Adolescents With Atypical Anorexia Nervosa

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVE: Adolescents with atypical anorexia nervosa (AN) have lost significant weight but are not underweight. This study aimed to describe the physical and psychological morbidity of adolescents diagnosed with atypical AN, and to compare them with underweight adolescents with AN. METHODS: All first presentations of atypical AN (n = 42) and full-threshold AN (n = 118) to a specialist pediatric eating disorder program between July 2010 and June 2014 were examined. Diagnosis was assessed by using the Eating Disorder Examination and anthropometric measurement. Psychological morbidity measures included eating and weight concerns, bingeing, purging, compulsive exercise, and psychiatric comorbidity. RESULTS: Compared with AN, more adolescents with atypical AN were premorbidly overweight or obese (71% vs 12%). They had lost more weight (17.6 kg vs 11.0 kg) over a longer period (13.3 vs 10.2 months). There was no significant difference in the frequency of bradycardia (24% vs 33%;) or orthostatic instability (43% vs 38%). We found no evidence of a difference in frequency of psychiatric comorbidities (38% vs 45%) or suicidal ideation (43% vs 39%). Distress related to eating and body image was more severe in atypical AN. CONCLUSIONS: Atypical AN considerably affects physical and psychological functioning, despite adolescents presenting within or above the normal weight range. There was little evidence that the morbidity of adolescents with atypical AN was any less severe than that of adolescents with full-threshold AN. The findings support the need for vigilance around weight loss in adolescents, regardless of body size.
Educating reflective systems developers

Abstract. Systems development research shows that practitioners seldom follow methods and that the competencies required for successful development of computer‐based systems go well beyond those represented in contemporary methods. These insights make us question the role that methods should play in educating would‐be developers. Pedagogical theories, such as situated learning and double‐loop learning, complement these insights. Integrating the two, we argue that students need to complement the simplified accounts that methods express, with reflections on methods‐in‐use and on development practice in general. We present operationalizations of this idea in two quite different academic settings. Based on a retrospective analysis of our experiences in these settings, and a comparison and evaluation of the two approaches, we propose a number of lessons that can be used to improve the education of would‐be developers.
Betrixaban: A New Oral Factor Xa Inhibitor for Extended Venous Thromboembolism Prophylaxis in High-Risk Hospitalized Patients

Objective: To review the pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, and safety of the factor Xa (FXa) inhibitor betrixaban for extended-duration prophylaxis of acute medically ill patients with venous thromboembolism (VTE) risk factors. Data Sources: A MEDLINE/PubMed (January 1990 to October 2017) search was conducted using the following keywords: betrixaban, PRT054021, FXa inhibitor, novel oral anticoagulant, NOAC, direct oral anticoagulant, DOAC, and target specific oral anticoagulant, TSOAC. References of identified articles were searched by hand for additional relevant citations. Study Selection and Data Extraction: We included English-language articles evaluating betrixaban pharmacology, pharmacokinetics, efficacy, or safety in human subjects for VTE prophylaxis. Data Synthesis: Betrixaban is a FXa inhibitor that decreases prothrombinase activity and thrombin generation. Betrixaban efficacy and safety has been compared with that of enoxaparin for prophylaxis of VTE in acutely ill medical patients. In the APEX trial and substudies, extended-duration betrixaban was superior in efficacy to standard-duration enoxaparin in patients at high risk for VTE, including those with elevated D-dimer levels (≥2× upper limit of normal) and of older age (≥75 years). Betrixaban is noninferior to enoxaparin in rates of major bleeding, but the former is associated with more clinically relevant nonmajor bleeding events. Conclusion: Betrixaban is the first oral agent approved for extended-duration VTE prophylaxis in acutely ill hospitalized patients. Extended-duration thromboprophylaxis with betrixaban reduces the risk of VTE compared with standard-duration thromboprophylaxis with enoxaparin but is associated with increased risk of bleeding.
What is childcare really about? An ethnographic analysis of care relationships in a resource-poor community

The main aim of this paper is to examine critically the nature of childcare, including ideals and practices, in a resource-poor community through close ethnographic analysis of three sets of data generated over the course of two years. We argue that childcare in Masiphumelele should be conceptualised as having an emotional component that operates in parallel with, and is as important as, material provision and practical action. Further, the analysis reveals the extent to which childcare is shaped by poverty and must be thought about in relation to broader physical and social mobility, and the continuities within such movement. We also show that HIV can further shape childcare by challenging existing cultural practices, such as those pertaining to communication between children and adults regarding death. Future work on childcare would benefit from the conceptual approach adopted across this work, one which views children and their carers in a series of interrelated and dynamic contexts that include both kin and non-kin, and extend from the household to the broader family and friendship networks which support these multiple individuals.
Confronting HIV/AIDS in a South African village: The impact of health-seeking behaviour 1

Much social science research on HIV/AIDS focuses on its impact within affected communities and how people try to cope with its consequences. Based on fieldwork in rural South Africa, this article shows ways in which the inhabitants of a village react to illness, in general, and the role their reactions play in facilitating the spread of communicable diseases such as HIV/AIDS. There is potentially a strong connection between the manner in which people respond to illness in general, and actual transmission of infection. By influencing the way villagers react to episodes of ill health, folk beliefs about illness and illness causation may create avenues for more people to become infected. This suggests that efforts to combat the HIV/AIDS pandemic cannot succeed without tackling the effects of folk beliefs. Therefore, in addressing the problem of HIV/AIDS, experts should focus on more than disseminating information about cause and transmission, and promoting abstinence, safe sex, and other technocratic fixes. Our findings suggest that people need information to facilitate not only decision-making about how to self-protect against infection, but also appropriate responses when infection has already occurred.
Altruism in Society: Evidence from a Natural Experiment Involving Commuters

We study social preferences in the form of altruism using data on 959 interactions between random commuters at selected traffic intersections in the city of Brisbane, Australia. By observing real decisions of individual commuters on whether to stop (give way) for others, we find evidence of (i) gender discrimination by both men and women, with women discriminating relatively more against the same sex than men, and men discriminating in favour of the opposite sex more than women; (ii) status-seeking and envy, with individuals who drive a more luxury motor vehicle having a 0.18 lower probability of receiving a kind treatment from others of low status, however this result improves when the decision maker is also of high status; (iii) strong peer effects, with those commuters accompanied by other passengers being 25 percent more likely to sacrifice for others; and (iv) an age effect, with mature-aged people eliciting a higher degree of altruism.
College of Education Graduate Tracer Study (GTS): Boon or Bane?

This study traced the employment profile of Cebu Technological University, Main Campus-College of Education (CTU MC CoE) graduates, from 2005-2009. Mix methods of descriptive survey method and thematic analysis were used to trace their status of employment, with the use of questionnaire and personal interviews. Data were analyzed of simple percentages and chi-square for significance of relationship. Illuminating were extrapolated and numbered. It aimed to: ascertain the profile of graduates; determine a relationship between their present occupation and the course they finished; and identify the cooperating industries/institution that employed BEEd and BSEd graduates. The CTU MC CoE graduates were proven to proficient and competent to be employable in the government schools as revealed in the 7 illuminating themes, thus resulted in boon opportunities. High school teachers predominate on the track than the elementary teachers with a negligible difference. The CTU mandate, as cascaded in its vision-mission, prepared graduates for the field of work, with personality that matters compared than other predetermined factors. Academic preparation and career performance exhibited signification of successful teaching employment in the public school.