Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Renal Function in Children Suffering from Sickle Cell Disease: Challenge of Early Detection in Highly Resource-Scarce Settings

Background The prevalence of Sickle cell disease is extremely high in Democratic Republic of Congo. Despite this high prevalence of the disease, data on renal abnormalities in children are rare. Method The study proposed to assess blood pressure, glomerular function, urea and uric acid levels in 65 steady state Congolese children with homozygous sickle cell disease and 67 normal controls. Results In Hb-SS group, blood pressure level tended to be lower than Hb-AA groups but there was no statistically significant difference (p>0.05) between the two groups. The absolute values for GFR corrected for BSA were significantly higher in Hb-SS group compared to Hb-AA group (130.5±34.1 ml/min/1.73 m2 vs 113.7±24.5 ml/min/1.73 m2; p = 0.004). Children with Hb-SS were more likely to hyperfiltrate (30.8% of subjects) than children with Hb-AA (6.1% of subjects). Proteinuria was found in 4 (6.2%) children with Hb-SS. Uric acid level was significantly increased in children with Hb-SS compared to corresponding values in control group (4.4±1.3 mg/dl vs 3.5±1.1 mg/dl; p<0.001). Urea level was significantly decreased compared to corresponding values in Hb-AA group (15.3±8.3 mg/dl vs 22.9±10.1 mg/dl; p<0.001). Conclusion Hyperfiltration, low creatinine, lower urea and high uric acid are more common in children with sickle cell disease than in normal controls.
Associations Between Prediabetes, by Three Different Diagnostic Criteria, and Incident CVD Differ in South Asians and Europeans

OBJECTIVE We examined longitudinal associations between prediabetes and cardiovascular disease (CVD) (coronary heart disease [CHD] and stroke) in Europeans and South Asians. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS This was a U.K. cohort study of 1,336 Europeans and 1,139 South Asians, aged 40–69 years at baseline (1988–1991). Assessment included blood pressure, blood tests, anthropometry, and questionnaires. Prediabetes was determined by OGTT or HbA1c, using either International Expert Committee (IEC) (HbA1c 6.0–6.5% [42–48 mmol/mol]) or American Diabetes Association (ADA) (HbA1c 5.7–6.5% [39–48 mmol/mol]) cut points. Incident CHD and stroke were established at 20 years from death certification, hospital admission, primary care record review, and participant report. RESULTS Compared with normoglycemic individuals, IEC-defined prediabetes was related to both CHD and CVD risk in Europeans but not South Asians (subhazard ratio for CHD 1.68 [95% CI 1.19, 2.38] vs. 1.00 [0.75, 1.33], ethnicity interaction P = 0.008, and for CVD 1.49 [1.08, 2.07] vs. 1.03 [0.78, 1.36], ethnicity interaction P = 0.04). Conversely, IEC-defined prediabetes was associated with stroke risk in South Asians but not Europeans (1.73 [1.03, 2.90] vs. 0.85 [0.44, 1.64], ethnicity interaction P = 0.11). Risks were adjusted for age, sex, smoking, total-to-HDL cholesterol ratio, waist-to-hip ratio, systolic blood pressure, and antihypertensive use. Associations were weaker for OGTT or ADA-defined prediabetes. Conversion from prediabetes to diabetes was greater in South Asians, but accounting for time to conversion did not account for these ethnic differences. CONCLUSIONS Associations between prediabetes and CVD differed by prediabetes diagnostic criterion, type of CVD, and ethnicity, with associations being present for overall CVD in Europeans but not South Asians. Substantiation of these findings and investigation of potential explanations are required.
Essays on monetary policy and financial markets

ESSAYS ON MONETARY POLICY AND FINANCIAL MARKETS by Hardik A. Marfatia The University of Wisconsin Milwaukee, 2013. Under the Supervision of Dr. N. Kundan Kishor. My dissertation utilizes the valuable information present in forward looking financial securities to understand important aspects of monetary policy analysis. In the first chapter, I attempt to address the long standing empirical challenge of estimating the forward-looking component of the New Keynesian Phillips Curve (NKPC). Since future inflation expectations are unobservable, I use the information in the inflation-indexed bond market to estimate the NKPC for the U.K. In order to account for any possible measurement error present in the inflation-indexed bond market proxy, the unobserved component model is used. This approach has the advantage of being able to extract the unobserved inflation expectations using the Kalman filter and to jointly estimate the parameters of the NKPC. Results show that the estimated inflation expectations from the model play a significant role
From Grass-root to Star : Identify and Predict Opinion Leaders in Microblog

Abstract: With the prosperity of online communities, more and more scholars begin to focus on the users’ leadership and influence in online communities. This paper presents a novel two-stage method to identify and predict online opinion leaders based on cluster analysis and statistical learning theory, not only taking into account the statistical measures but also the social network characteristics. By using the dataset crawled from one of the most popular microblog platform in China, our proposed method is demonstrated and evaluated. The empirical results show that our proposed method is a promising tool to identify and predict the opinion leaders. We argue that this two-stage method can be utilized by the microblog services providers to mine the actual and potential opinion leaders so that to facilitate the potential grassroots become the actual opinion stars. However, because it is difficult to achieve the transformation during a short period, a few online users can become stars from grassroots.
What Alters the Experience of Emerging Adulthood? How the Experience of Emerging Adulthood Differs According to Socioeconomic Status and Critical Life Events

The present mixed-methods study examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and the experience of emerging adulthood (EA). In Study 1, the associations among SES, EA, and critical life events (CLEs) were explored. CLEs were examined as a mediator between SES and EA in a German sample (N = 3,269). Participants’ educational attainment, SES, and occupation-related prestige were associated with the experience of EA. For example, lower SES was associated with higher perceived instability, with more experienced CLEs mediating this relationship. Lower SES was associated with a higher number of CLEs, which, for example, was related to more focus on others. In Study 2, interview data from emerging adults with low educational attainment who were engaged in vocational training (N = 12) were analyzed. In addition to reporting many CLEs, themes regarding their perception of their current life phase were established, indicating that low-SES youth experience aspects of EA as well.
Behavior of Oxidative Stress Markers in Alcoholic Liver Cirrhosis Patients

Alcohol is the most socially accepted addictive substance worldwide, and its metabolism is related with oxidative stress generation. The aim of this work was to evaluate the role of oxidative stress in alcoholic liver cirrhosis (ALC). This study included 187 patients divided into two groups: ALC, classified according to Child-Pugh score, and a control group. We determined the levels of reduced and oxidized glutathione (GSH and GSSG) and the GSH/GSSG ratio by an enzymatic method in blood. Also, protein carbonyl and malondialdehyde (MDA) content were estimated in serum. MDA levels increased in proportion to the severity of damage, whereas the GSH and GSSG levels decreased and increased, respectively, at different stages of cirrhosis. There were no differences in the GSH/GSSG ratio and carbonylated protein content between groups. We also evaluated whether the active consumption of or abstinence from alcoholic beverages affected the behavior of these oxidative markers and only found differences in the MDA, GSH, and GSSG determination and the GSH/GSSG ratio. Our results suggest that alcoholic cirrhotic subjects have an increase in oxidative stress in the early stages of disease severity and that abstinence from alcohol consumption favors the major antioxidant endogen: GSH in patients with advanced disease severity.
A THEORETICAL ASSESSMENT OF THE ABILITY OF BIRD SPECIES TO RECOVER FROM AN IMPOSED REDUCTION IN NUMBERS, WITH PARTICULAR REFERENCE TO 1080 POISONING

SUMMARY: A consideration of the composition of bird diets, and the list of bird species found deadl indicates that most New Zealand land bird species risk being killed by feeding directly on baits poisoned with Compound 1080 or by eating poisoned prey. Theoretically, if a population of a species is heavily reduced, its ability, or inability, to recover can be predicted from a consideration of its reproductive and dispersal capacities. Species with poor reproductive potential and poor dispersal have a high risk of non-recovery, e.g., the three species of kiwi, the takahe, kakapo, laughing owl, bush wren, rock wren, fernbird, yellowhead, stitchbird, saddleback, kokako, and New Zealand thrush. Species with either poor reproduction or poor dispersal are medium risk species, e.g., the New Zealand falcon, weka, New Zealand pigeon, kaka, kea, the three species of parakeets, the morepork, rifleman, brown creeper, whitehead, and robin. Species with good reproductive and good dispersal capacities are low risk species, e.g., the Australasian harrier, pukeko, kingfisher, welcome swallow, New Zealand pipit, grey warbler, fantail, tit, silvereye, bellbird, and tui. The implications of this classification are discussed in relation to forest managementpractice.
OCCURENCE AND LUMINOSITY FUNCTIONS OF GIANT RADIO HALOS FROM MAGNETO-TURBULENT MODEL

We calculate the probability to form giant radio halos ( 1 Mpc size) as a function of the mass of the host clusters by using a Statistical Magneto-Turbulent Model (Cassano & Brunetti, these proceedings). We show that the expectations of this model are in good agreement with the observations for viable values of the parameters. In particular, the abrupt increase of the probability to find radio halos in the more massive galaxy clusters () can be well reproduced. We calculate the evolution with redshift of such a probability and find that giant radio halos can be powered by particle acceleration due to MHD turbulence up to z0.5 in a ACDM cosmology. Finally, we calculate the expected Luminosity Functions of radio halos (RHLFs). At variance with previous studies, the shape of our RHLFs is characterized by the presence of a cut-off at low synchrotron powers which reflects the inefficiency of particle acceleration in the case of less massive galaxy clusters.
Road Pricing for Congestion Management: The Transition from Theory to Policy - eScholarship

Traffic congestion is a classic externality, especially pervasive in urban areas. The theoretical and empirical relationships governing it have been thoroughly studied. As a result, most urban economists and a growing number of other policy analysts agree that the best policy to deal with it would be some form of congestion pricing. Such a policy involves charging a substantial fee for operating a motor vehicle at times and places where there is insufficient road capacity to easily accommodate demand. The intention is to alter people’s travel behavior enough to reduce congestion.
Orthogonal Polynomials Associated with Complementary Chain Sequences

Using the minimal parameter sequence of a given chain sequence, we introduce the concept of complementary chain sequences, which we view as perturbations of chain sequences. Using the relation between these complementary chain sequences and the corresponding Verblunsky coefficients, the para-orthogonal polynomials and the associated Szeg\"o polynomials are analyzed. Two illustrations, one involving Gaussian hypergeometric functions and the other involving Carath\'eodory functions are also provided. A connection between these two illustrations by means of complementary chain sequences is also observed.
Distributed Containment Control with Multiple Dynamic Leaders for Double-Integrator Dynamics Using Only Position Measurements

This note studies the distributed containment control problem for a group of autonomous vehicles modeled by double-integrator dynamics with multiple dynamic leaders. The objective is to drive the followers into the convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders under the constraints that the velocities and the accelerations of both the leaders and the followers are not available, the leaders are neighbors of only a subset of the followers, and the followers have only local interaction. Two containment control algorithms via only position measurements of the agents are proposed. Theoretical analysis shows that the followers will move into the convex hull spanned by the dynamic leaders if the network topology among the followers is undirected, for each follower there exists at least one leader that has a directed path to the follower, and the parameters in the algorithm are properly chosen. Numerical results are provided to illustrate the theoretical results.
Maternal HIV and Adolescent Functioning in South Africa: The Role of the Mother-Child Relationship

Black South Africans are disproportionately affected by HIV compared with White counterparts. In their unique social context, South African families affected by HIV are vulnerable to adverse psychosocial effects. U.S.-based and emerging South African research suggests mothers living with HIV may experience compromised parenting. In the United States, mother-child relationship quality has been associated with internalizing (anxiety, depression) and externalizing (delinquency, acting out) child behaviors. This study adds to South African research with emphasis on the role of the mother-child relationship among HIV-affected South Africans from multiple communities. Structural equation modeling examined relationships between maternal health and child adjustment, operating through mother-child relationship. The best-fitting model suggested maternal health influences youth externalizing behaviors through the mother-child relationship, but that maternal health is directly related to child internalizing problems. Findings support and extend previous results. Further research would benefit from investigating ways the unique South African context influences these variables and their interactions.
Multiple paternity: determining the minimum number of sires of a large brood

We describe an efficient algorithm for determining exactly the minimum number of sires consistent with the multi‐locus genotypes of a mother and her progeny. We consider cases where a simple exhaustive search through all possible sets of sires is impossible in practice because it would take too long to complete. Our algorithm for solving this combinatorial optimization problem avoids visiting large parts of search space that would not result in a solution with fewer sires. This improvement is of particular importance when the number of allelic types in the progeny array is large and when the minimum number of sires is expected to be large. Precisely in such cases, it is important to know the minimum number of sires: this number gives an exact bound on the most likely number of sires estimated by a random search algorithm in a parameter region where it may be difficult to determine whether it has converged. We apply our algorithm to data from the marine snail, Littorina saxatilis.
Robust Human Body Shape and Pose Tracking

In this paper we address the problem of marker-less human performance capture from multiple camera videos. We consider in particular the recovery of both shape and parametric motion information as often required in applications that produce and manipulate animated 3D contents using multiple videos. To this aim, we propose an approach that jointly estimates skeleton joint positions and surface deformations by fitting a reference surface model to 3D point reconstructions. The approach is Based on a probabilistic deformable surface registration framework coupled with a bone binding energy. The former makes soft assignments between the model and the observations while the latter guides the skeleton fitting. The main benefit of this strategy lies in its ability to handle outliers and erroneous observations frequently present in multiview data. For the same purpose, we also introduce a learning Based method that partition the point cloud observations into different rigid body parts that further discriminate input data into classes in addition to reducing the complexity of the association between the model and the observations. We argue that such combination of a learning Based matching and of a probabilistic fitting framework efficiently handle unreliable observations with fake geometries or missing data and hence, it reduces the need for tedious manual interventions. A thorough evaluation of the method is presented that includes comparisons with related works on most publicly available multiview datasets.
Social Media Use During The College Transition

Starting college is an exciting and pivotal time for students. During this time, the student will be faced with challenges of his or her social identity and will need to develop or modify identities based on new social situations. Previous research shows that social media play a role in identity development, but there is little information regarding the extent. Are new college students using Facebook during their transition to communicate their new identity/social group to new peers? Are they using Facebook to maintain nostalgia for previous identities/social groups? This information will be valuable to higher education professionals working with these populations – particularly in determining the most effective methods to communicate support during their transition. Using a phenomenological, qualitative approach with individual interviews of new college students in their first semester of college, this study seeks to clarify the college transition and identify what ways new college students are using Facebook during their transition. Participants identified three key themes of their college transition: a fear of not fitting in, wanting a sense of belonging, and wanting to stay connected with high school friends. Overall, the students interviewed had a successful transition and utilized Facebook to assist in each of the three themes they identified. Specifically, though, new college students are using the Group feature of Facebook to create a community of peers. The use of Facebook and Groups leads to a more successful student with a quicker and stronger adjustment to college. Higher education administrators can take advantage of this data to enhance existing strategies to increase student success.
The study of information system development (ISD) process from the perspectives of power development stage and organizational politics

This paper is to study the information system development (ISD) by looking into fifty-six cases from the perspectives of power development stage and organizational polities. We intend to find out why the ISD will be a success or a failure. In this research we sort out 192 examples of political games from 56 cases, which can be categorized into forty-one kinds of games. Some of them, because of their special features, appear only in one of the ISD stages of planning, development, or implementation. We have come to the following conclusions: The unclear performance evaluation system, role ambiguity, distrust placed in individuals, will induce more political games. And the political games will thus bring negative impacts on the organizational culture, too. Leading an easy life and providing lip service, game players usually exploit only the type of power I. The ten kinds of game players, including staying aloof exploit the type of power II, and then they can hold stronger power for they can act on their own, with no need to contact with others or to be bound by others' interests or actions, and express this kind of behavior, through a cynical retreat from polities. The eleven kinds of games, including finding a scapegoat may unconsciously exaggerate the danger of conflict and reprisal, and therefore cause workers more anxiety, because the players use the type of power III. The other five kinds of game players, including building a favorable image use the type of power IV, which can promote workers' interests and resolve conflicts while helping the workers develop some attachment to co-workers and the organization and lead to conventional organizational polities. This paper finds that the MIS manager and professionals play as many as half of the games, so it takes less effort to manage the MIS professionals in order to prevent many political behaviors. Finally, besides the four major adverse effects (deflection of goals, dilemmas of administration, dissipation of energies, and diversion of resources), the forty-one kinds of games mentioned above can also result in a good effect-the success of project.
Evolution and Diversity of Listeria monocytogenes from Clinical and Food Samples in Shanghai, China

Listeria monocytogenes is a significant foodborne pathogen causing severe systemic infections in humans with high mortality rates. The objectives of this work were to establish a phylogenetic framework of L. monocytogenes from China and to investigate sequence diversity among different serotypes. We selected 17 L. monocytogenes strains recovered from patients and foods in China representing serotypes 1/2a, 1/2b, and 1/2c. Draft genome sequences were determined using Illumina MiSeq technique and associated protocols. Open reading frames were assigned using prokaryotic genome annotation pipeline by NCBI. Twenty-four published genomes were included for comparative genomic and phylogenetic analysis. More than 154,000 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) were identified from multiple genome alignment and used to reconstruct maximum likelihood phylogenetic tree. The 41 genomes were differentiated into lineages I and II, which consisted of 4 and 11 subgroups, respectively. A clinical strain from China (SHL009) contained significant SNP differences compared to the rest genomes, whereas clinical strain SHL001 shared most recent common ancestor with strain SHL017 from food. Moreover, clinical strains SHL004 and SHL015 clustered together with two strains (08-5578 and 08-5923) recovered from an outbreak in Canada. Partial sequences of a plasmid found in the Canadian strain were also present in SHL004. We investigated the presence of various genes and gene clusters associated with virulence and subgroup-specific genes, including internalins, L. monocytogenes pathogenicity islands (LIPIs), L. monocytogenes genomic islands (LGIs), stress survival islet 1 (SSI-1), and clustered regularly interspaced short palindromic repeats (CRISPR)/cas system. A novel genomic island, denoted as LGI-2 was identified. Comparative sequence analysis revealed differences among the L. monocytogenes strains related to virulence, survival abilities, and attributes against foreign genetic elements. L. monocytogenes from China were genetically diverse. Strains from clinical specimens and food related closely suggesting foodborne transmission of human listeriosis.