Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
AIDS Impact special issue 2009: Sexual risk among orphaned adolescents: is country-level HIV prevalence an important factor?

Previous studies from sub-Saharan Africa have found that orphans experience increased sexual risk compared to non-orphans. We developed a theoretical framework for the investigation of determinants of HIV risk and used it to generate specific hypotheses regarding the effect of country-level HIV prevalence on the sexual risk experience of orphans. We expected that countries with high HIV prevalence would experience a higher prevalence of orphanhood. We further hypothesised that orphans in countries with high HIV prevalence would experience increased sexual risk because of pressure on the extended family network, which is primarily responsible for the care of orphans in sub-Saharan Africa, resulting in poorer standards of care and guidance. We used hierarchical logistic regression models to investigate this hypothesis using cross-sectional, Demographic and Health Survey data from 10 sub-Saharan African countries. We found that countries with high HIV prevalence did indeed have higher prevalence of orphanhood. We also found that, amongst female adolescents, maternal and double orphans were significantly more likely to have started sex than non-orphans in countries with high HIV prevalence but were not at increased risk in low HIV prevalence countries. This effect of country-level HIV prevalence on the sexual risk of orphans was not explained by household level factors such as wealth, overcrowding or age of the household head. The same pattern of risk was not observed for male adolescents – male orphans were not more likely to have started sex than non-orphans. This suggests that orphaned adolescent women are an important target group for HIV prevention and that efforts should be made to integrate prevention messages into existing support programmes for orphans and vulnerable children.
Exploring the Relationship Between Mobile Facebook and Social Capital: What Is the “Mobile Difference” for Parents of Young Children?

Mobile media have generally been found to reinforce close ties. Many have predicted this will bring about an onerous social insularity or “network privatism. ” However, mobile media now enable frequent communication and multimedia activities with larger, more diffuse social networks. Might we be at a tipping point where certain groups benefit from weak tie connections on mobile social media? To answer this question, this study considers how mobile media altered social capital outcomes on Facebook among parents with young children, a group that are heavy users of mobile media and requiring social support. An online survey (N = 262) conducted with parents with young children reveals a generally positive picture. Results show differences between desktop and mobile use of Facebook. Toward a contextual understanding of the impact of visual media, multimedia activities with social ties accrued bridging over bonding capital. Social capital was in turn correlated with mobile Facebook activities beneficial for parents’ well-being. Far from negative predictions, this study provides evidence of how mobile social media broaden our social spheres.
Resurgent Sodium Current and Action Potential Formation in Dissociated Cerebellar Purkinje Neurons

Voltage-dependent sodium channels were studied in dissociated cerebellar Purkinje neurons from rats. In whole-cell recordings, a tetrodotoxin (TTX)-sensitive inward current was elicited when the membrane was repolarized to voltages between −60 and −20 mV after depolarizations to +30 mV long enough to produce maximal inactivation. At −40 mV, this “resurgent” current peaked in 8 msec and decayed with a time constant of 30 msec. With 50 mm sodium as a charge carrier, the resurgent current was on average ∼120 pA. CA3 pyramidal neurons had no such current. The current may reflect recovery of inactivated channels through open states, because in Purkinje neurons (but not CA3 neurons) there was partial recovery from inactivation at −40 mV, coinciding with the rise of resurgent current. In single-channel recordings, individual channels gave openings corresponding to resurgent and conventional transient current. Action potentials were recorded from dissociated neurons under current clamp to investigate the role of the resurgent current in action potential formation. Purkinje neurons fired spontaneously at ∼30 Hz. Hyperpolarization to −85 mV prevented spontaneous firing, and brief depolarization then induced all-or-none firing of conglomerate action potentials comprising three to four spikes. When conglomerate action potentials were used as command voltages in voltage-clamp experiments, TTX-sensitive sodium current was elicited between spikes. The falling phase of an action potential is similar to voltage patterns that activate resurgent sodium current, and thus, resurgent sodium current likely contributes to the formation of conglomerate action potentials in Purkinje neurons.
A wireless mesh communication protocol for smart-metering

Worldwide there has been increasing interest over the past few years for so-called “Smart Meters”, in academia, governments and in industry. Such smart-metering systems need a way to communicate the collected data reliably and cost efficiently to the back-office for analysis. Several competing technologies exist and are in use world-wide. Mesh-networks have been the winning technology in the USA and Australia for the past two years, and are gaining interest in Europe at the moment due to its reduced costs and increased reliability. In this paper we present and evaluate a real-life implementation of a new routing protocol for use in smart-metering mesh-network grids. The routing protocol we present is designed with both technological constraints and legislative requirements as posed by the application area in mind. Our evaluation of the protocol is based on real-world experience and data collected from real-world devices, in combination with simulation studies of the protocol. Our evaluation shows that the protocol is a robust, reliable solution for communicating collected data in difficult scenarios, showing great resilience against both bit-errors and node-failures.
Correlating Context-Awareness and Mutation Analysis for Pervasive Computing Systems

Pervasive computing systems often use middleware as a means to communicate with the changing environment. However, the interactions with the context-aware middleware as well as the interactions among applications sharing the same middleware may introduce faults that are difficult to reveal by existing testing techniques. Our previous work proposed the notion of context diversity as a metric to measure the degree of changes in test inputs for pervasive software. In this paper, we present a case study on how much context diversity for test cases relates to fault-based mutants in pervasive software. Our empirical results show that conventional mutation operators can generate sufficient candidate mutants to support test effectiveness evaluation of pervasive software, and test cases with higher context diversity values tend to have higher mean mutation scores. On the other hand, for test cases sharing the same context diversity, their mutation scores can vary significantly in terms of standard derivations
Determinants of antiretroviral therapy coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa

Among 35 million people living with the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV) in 2013, only 37% had access to antiretroviral therapy (ART). Despite global concerted efforts to provide the universal access to the ART treatment, the ART coverage varies among countries and regions. At present, there is a lack of systematic empirical analyses on factors that determine the ART coverage. Therefore, the current study aimed to identify the determinants of the ART coverage in 41 countries in Sub-Saharan Africa. It employed statistical analyses for this purpose. Four elements, namely, the HIV prevalence, the level of national income, the level of medical expenditure and the number of nurses, were hypothesised to determine the ART coverage. The findings revealed that among the four proposed determinants only the HIV prevalence had a statistically significant impact on the ART coverage. In other words, the HIV prevalence was the sole determinant of the ART coverage in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Reputation on Stack Exchange: Tag, You're It!

Question and Answer sites like the Stack Exchange network allow users to contribute knowledge in a variety of topics. Of particular interest are the habits of expert users, or users with high reputation scores. Expanding on previous work done by Bosu et al., we performed an exploratory analysis of the data to determine if there is a positive correlation between user reputation scores and the diversity of tags a user contributed to. For our analysis, we used data available from Stack Exchange to created a visual network of user tagging habits. We found that there is a correlation between these two measures, suggesting that expert users contribute to a wide variety of tags. Our research also shows poor community structures in the networks studied. This is consistent with the prevailing literature on Stack Exchange use and the power law. Our findings confirms one of the recommendations put forward by Bosu et al. Through the use of a much larger population and put forward ideas for new areas of exploration on question and answer sites.
The effects of changes in physical activity on major cardiovascular risk factors, hemodynamics, sympathetic function, and glucose utilization in man: a controlled study of four levels of activity.

The effects of four levels of activity on heart rate, blood pressure, cardiac index, total peripheral resistance index (TPRI), norepinephrine (NE) spillover rate, insulin sensitivity, and levels of lipids and some hormones were studied in 12 normal subjects. The randomized periods were (1) 4 weeks of below-sedentary activity, (2) 4 weeks of sedentary activity, (3) 4 weeks of 40 min of bicycling three times per week, and (4) 4 weeks of similar bicycling seven times per week. Exercise three times per week reduced resting blood pressure by 10/7 mm Hg (p less than .01) and it was reduced by 12/7 mm Hg after exercise seven times per week (both p less than .01). This was associated with reduction in TPRI, an increase in cardiac index, and cardiac slowing. At the highest level of activity, NE spillover rate, an index of sympathetic activity, fell to 35% of the sedentary value (p less than .001) in eight of 10 subjects. In two other subjects NE spillover rate rose, although blood pressure and TPRI were reduced. Metabolic changes included lowering of total cholesterol, but high-density lipoprotein level was unchanged. Insulin sensitivity rose by 27% after exercise three times per week, but declined to sedentary levels with seven times per week exercise. Maximum oxygen uptake increased linearly with activity. Exercise performed three times per week lowers blood pressure and should reduce cardiovascular risk. The same exercise seven times per week enhances physical performance with little further reduction in cardiovascular risk factors. Exercise is potentially a major nonpharmacologic method of lowering blood pressure.
Moderating effects of Hyperactivity/Impulsivity and Oppositional Behavior on Working Memory Training for Children and Adolescents with Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

ii Dedication.iv Acknowledgements.v Vita.vi List of figures.x List of tables.xi Chapter 1: Introduction.1 Attention-Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder.1 Attention-Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder Subtypes.2 ADHD and Executive Functioning, Working Memory Specifically.7 Treatment for ADHD.12 Treatment for Working Memory Deficits in ADHD.16 The Present Study.28 Chapter 2: Methods.32 Participants.32 Measures.34 ix Procedures.41 Inclusion Determination and Baseline Assessment.43 Intervention.45 Working Memory Training.46 Data Analysis.49 Chapter 3: Results.52 Chapter 4: Discussion.57 Limitations.63 Future Directions.68 References.70 Appendix A: Figures and Tables.80
Ignorance, Debt and Financial Crises +

In this paper we provide a theory of money markets and private money. We show that preserving symmetric ignorance in liquidity provision is welfare maximizing and strictly dominates symmetric or even perfect information. A key property for the functioning of money markets is when agents have no need to ask questions and no incentive to produce private information about the value of the security. Debt is the optimal private money because it is least information acquisition sensitive. Bad public news (shock) about the fundamentals of assets that back debt can cause information-insensitive debt to become information-acquisition sensitive. The expected value of debt drops, but to prevent endogenous adverse selection agents reduce the amount of trade below the expected value of debt. The shock is amplified, leading to a financial crisis.
Successful Introduction of Routine Opt-Out HIV Testing in Antenatal Care in Botswana

Background:Botswana has high HIV prevalence among pregnant women (37.4% in 2003) and provides free services for prevention of mother-to-child transmission (PMTCT) of HIV. Nearly all pregnant women (>95%) have antenatal care (ANC) and deliver in hospital. Uptake of antenatal HIV testing was low from 1999 through 2003. In 2004, Botswana's President declared that HIV testing should be “routine but not compulsory” in medical settings. Methods:Health workers were trained to provide group education and recommend HIV testing as part of routine ANC services. Logbook data on ANC attendance, HIV testing, and uptake of PMTCT interventions were reviewed before and after routine testing training, and ANC clients were interviewed. Results:After routine testing started, the percentage of all HIV-infected women delivering in the regional hospital who knew their HIV status increased from 47% to 78% and the percentage receiving PMTCT interventions increased from 29% to 56%. ANC attendance and the percentage of HIV-positive women who disclosed their HIV status to others remained stable. Interviews indicated that ANC clients supported the policy. Conclusions:Routine HIV testing was more accepted than voluntary testing in this setting and led to substantial increases in the uptake of testing and PMTCT interventions without detectable adverse consequences. Routine testing in other settings may strengthen HIV care and prevention efforts.
The Milky Way, an Exceptionally Quiet Galaxy: Implications for the Formation of Spiral Galaxies

We compare both the Milky Way and M31 galaxies to local external disk galaxies within the same mass range, using their locations in the planes drawn by Vflat versus MK (the Tully-Fisher relation), jdisk (angular momentum), and the average Fe abundance, [Fe/H], of stars in the galaxy outskirts. We find, for all relationships, that the Milky Way is systematically offset by ~1 σ, showing a significant deficiency in stellar mass, angular momentum, disk radius, and [Fe/H] in the stars in its outskirts at a given Vflat. On the basis of their location in the (MK, Vflat, and Rd) volume, the fraction of spirals like the Milky Way is 7% ± 1%, while M31 appears to be a "typical" spiral. Our galaxy appears to have escaped any significant merger over the last ~10 Gyr, which may explain why it is deficient by a factor of 2-3 in stellar mass, angular momentum, and outskirt metallicity, thus unrepresentative of the typical spiral. As with M31, most local spirals show evidence of a history shaped mainly by relatively recent merging. We conclude that the standard scenario of secular evolution driven by the accretion of gas and disk instabilities is generally unable to reproduce the properties of most (if not all) spiral galaxies. However, the so-called spiral-rebuilding scenario proposed two years ago by Hammer et al. is consistent with the properties of both distant galaxies and of their descendants, the local spirals.
Multimedia presentation of lung sounds as a learning aid for medical students.

New educational technologies might help to compensate for the decrease in time and emphasis dedicated to physical examination in medical training. This may, in particular, be applicable for improving the skills in auscultation of the chest. We investigated whether a multimedia presentation of acoustic and graphic characteristics of lung sounds could improve the learning of pulmonary auscultation by medical students, in comparison with conventional teaching methods. We studied 48 medical students without clinical experience, who had received conventional formal teaching on chest examination. Chest auscultation skills were evaluated using an inaccuracy score for the student's auscultation report on three patients, selected according to a standardized procedure. After a baseline evaluation, 27 students in groups of 5-10, participated in a multimedia seminar on lung sounds during which digitized lung sounds were played and the corresponding time-expanded waveform and frequency spectrum were commented on and displayed on a computer. The remaining 21 students received conventional bedside training, acting as control group. The following week, all the students underwent a second evaluation of chest auscultation skills. No differences in the inaccuracy score were observed between the two groups in the preliminary test. However, in the second postintervention assessment, the inaccuracy score of the students who had followed the seminar (11.2 +/- 1.3 points) was significantly lower than that of the controls (16.6 +/- 1.6 points). The answers to a feedback questionnaire confirmed that the great majority of the students found the association of the acoustic signals with their visual image to be useful for learning and understanding lung sounds. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The Environmental Impact of Individual Behavior: Self-Assessment Versus the Ecological Footprint

Are individuals able to self-assess the environmental impact of their behavior? To answer this question, we first analyze the different behavioral determinants of the ecological footprint (EF), an often used measure of an individual’s environmental impact. Second, we compare the individuals’ EF with self-assessments of their own environmental impact (self-assessed environmental sustainability [SAES]). We use survey data from Belgium and find that people are largely unaware of the environmental impact they have, as the correlation between the EF and the SAES is small. Finally, we find that SAES reflects, to a large extent, individuals’ attitudes toward the environment, whereas the EF is mainly explained by sociodemographic characteristics.
Events that Promote Engineering Students' Intrinsic Motivation to Learn

Kathryn Trenshaw is currently a Postdoctoral Research Associate at Brown University’s Sheridan Center for Teaching and Learning. She received her B.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Missouri in 2009, her M.S. in Chemical Engineering from the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign in 2011, and her PhD in Chemical Engineering, also from Illinois, in 2014. Her research interests include science, technology, engineering, and mathematics (STEM) education; supporting diversity in STEM fields with an emphasis on lesbian, gay, bisexual, transgender, queer, and questioning (LGBTQ) students; and using the Myers-Briggs Type Indicator (MBTI) to improve students’ communication skills during group work.
Chronic Kidney Disease, Obesity, and Hypertension: The Role of Leptin and Adiponectin

Chronic kidney disease is a major public health problem and characterized by a progressive loss in renal function over a period of months or years as defined by structural or functional abnormalities of the kidney. Several elements contribute to determine a progression of the kidney injury, inducing a worsening of renal damage and accelerating the decline of renal function: obesity and hypertension are two known factors of kidney progression. Remarkable improvements have been recently achieved in the study of the endocrine features of the adipose tissue and have been able to produce hormone-like peptides named adipokines or adipocytokines. Among these adipocytokines, which represent a link between obesity, hypertension, and chronic nephropathy, leptins and adiponectin appear to play an important role. Leptin not only is a prohypertension element (renal progression factor) through the activation sympathetic nervous, but also is able to induce prosclerotic effects directly on the kidney. In contrast, a decline of adiponectin levels has been shown to be related to a picture of hypertension: an endothelial dysfunction has been described as the main pathogenic mechanism responsible for this phenomenon.
Determinants of Capital Structure across Selected Manufacturing Sectors of Pakistan

The present study examines the industry specific attributes of firms in Automobile, Engineering, and Cable and Electrical Goods Sectors affecting the determinants of capital structure and validates the results with Booth et. al. (2001) and Rajan and Zingales (1995) . The study uses pooled data regression model on the sample of 22 Automobile, 7 Cable and Electrical Goods and 8 Engineering Firms to identify the determinants of capital structure. The debt to total assets ratio is used as a proxy for leverage and the impact of size, profitability, tangibility of assets, cost of debt, taxes, liquidity and non debt tax shield is analyzed on leverage. It is pertinent to report that the study uses liquidity, tax and cost of debt variables which were not used in the earlier studies conducted in Pakistan on industry specific attribute of capital structure and have significant influence on debt financing decisions. The empirical results reflects that firms of these three sectors with good liquidity position and large depreciation allowances use retained earnings, followed by debt financing for growth and smooth operations and equity financing is considered as a last resort. The results supported the Static Tradeoff Theory and Pecking Order Theory.
Sustained Macroeconomic Reforms, Tepid Growth: A Governance Puzzle in Bolivia?

We are increasingly cognizant of the limits to large cross-country empirical studies in trying to understand in-depth a particular country reality, in ways useful for advice. At the same time, merely relying on a single country account at a particular point in time ignores the historical and comparative cross-country perspective. Worse, an in-depth investigation of a single issue within a country begs the question of whether such particular issue may be fundamental for the country's growth and development relative to other determinants, or not. Further, drawbacks exist from excessive reliance on narrow empirical approaches, or on mere qualitative narrative. Consequently, the approach undertaken here for the case of Bolivia is of an integrated nature, combining the following strands: i) an historical perspective from the twin standpoints of the evolution of the enterprise and government sectors over the past half century; ii) an in-depth review of the literature on explanations of Bolivia's performance; iii) an empirical analysis of the country's enterprise sector performance on the basis of a detailed firm- level survey conducted recently in 80 countries, and, iv) an empirical analysis of Bolivia's public agencies based on a survey of public officials in Bolivia working in over 100 institutions. To provide an additional element of comparability, we also utilize cross-country governance indicators.