Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Determinants of blood pressure distribution in school children

Supplementary data are available at EURPUB online. Acknowledgements We thank the HSE participants, Natcen's interviewers and nurses, and colleagues at UCL, NatCen and the NHS Information Centre for their help with the survey, and Rachel Craig for helpful comments on the article. A, et al. Response rate to mailed epidemiologic questionnaires: a population-based randomized trial of variations in design and mailing routines. et al. Differences between respondents and nonrespondents in a multicenter community-based study vary by gender ethnicity. The effect of nonresponse on prevalence estimates for a referent population: insights from a population-based cohort study. Comparison of cause-specific mortality between respondents and nonrespondents in a population-based prospective study: ten-year follow-up of JPHC Study Cohort I. Total and cause specific mortality among participants and non-participants of population based health surveys: a comprehensive follow up of 54 372 Finnish men and women. 7 Tolonen H, Laatikainen T, Helakorpi S, et al. Marital status, educational level and household income explain part of the excess mortality of survey non-respondents. Background: Hypertension (potential risk for cardiovascular diseases) is a major health problem in developed and developing countries affecting approximately one billion individuals worldwide. Many of the risk factors associated with development of hypertension are preventable. Early identification of children at risk for hypertension is important to prevent serious complications. The present study aimed at determining the percentile of systolic blood and diastolic blood pressure and to investigate distribution of blood pressure and its association with anthropometric variables. Methods: A cross-sectional study among 701 school children (in the age group of 12–16 years), selected by stratified random sampling was conducted in Aligarh. Personal data were collected through a pre-tested questionnaire. Blood pressure, weight and height were measured through standardized techniques and quetelet index was used to determine BMI. The distributions of blood pressure by anthropometric characteristics were examined. Mean, standard deviation, chi square and correlation coefficient were used for statistical analysis using SPSS 12 software. High blood pressure was defined as systolic and/or diastolic blood pressure over the 95th percentile. Results: Out of 363 boys, 34 (9.36%) and out of 338 girls, 32 (9.46%) had hypertension with overall prevalence of 66 (9.4%) children. Mean systolic blood and diastolic blood pressure were higher as the range of weight, height and BMI increased and blood pressure of children showed positive correlation with anthropometrics characteristics. Conclusions: It is therefore recommended that the children must be screened regularly for blood …
A refurbished convergent-point method for finding moving groups in the Hipparcos Catalogue★

The Hipparcos data allow a major step forward in the research of ‘moving groups’ in the Solar neighbourhood, as the common motion of group members causes converging proper motions. Previous knowledge of these coherent structures in velocity space has always been limited by the availability, reliability and accuracy of ground-based proper-motion measurements. A refurbishment of Jones’ convergent point method is presented, which takes full advantage of the quality of the Hipparcos data. The original implementation of this method determines the maximum-likelihood convergent-point on a grid on the sky and simultaneously selects group members from a given set of stars with positions and proper motions. The refurbished procedure takes into account the full covariance matrix of the Hipparcos measurements instead of standard errors only, allows for internal motions of the stars, and replaces the grid-based approach by a direct minimization. The method is tested on Monte Carlo simulations of moving groups, and applied to the Hyades. Despite the limited amount of data used by the convergent-point method, the results for stars in and around the cluster-centre region agree very well with those of the recent comprehensive study by Perryman et al.
Clinical and microbiologic characteristics of vulvovaginitis in Korean prepubertal girls, 2009–2014: a single center experience

Objective To update information on the clinical and microbiologic characteristics of pediatric vulvovaginitis in Korean prepubertal girls. Methods A total of 120 girls (aged 0 to 9 years) with culture-confirmed pediatric vulvovaginitis, diagnosed between 2009 and 2014, were enrolled in the study. The epidemiologic and microbiologic characteristics, and clinical outcomes were assessed. Patients with sexual precocity, as well as those who were referred for suspected sexual abuse, were excluded. Results Girls aged 4 to 6 years were at the highest risk of pediatric vulvovaginitis. Seasonal distribution indicated obvious peaks in summer and winter. Of the 120 subjects, specific pathogens were identified in the genital specimens in only 20 cases (16.7%). Streptococcus pyogenes (n=12, 60%) was the leading cause of specific vulvovaginitis. Haemophilus influenzae was isolated in one patient. No cases presented with enteric pathogens, such as Shigella or Yersinia. A history of recent upper respiratory tract infection, swimming, and bubble bath use was reported in 37.5%, 15.8%, and 10.0% of patients, respectively. Recent upper respiratory tract infection was not significantly correlated with the detection of respiratory pathogens in genital specimens (P>0.05). Of 104 patients who underwent perineal hygienic care, 80 (76.9%) showed improvement of symptoms without antibiotic treatment. Furthermore, the efficacy of hygienic care was not significantly different between patients with or without specific pathogens (P>0.05). Conclusion Specific pathogens were only found in 16.7% of pediatric vulvovaginitis cases. Our results indicate an excellent outcome with hygienic care, irrespective of the presence of specific pathogens.
A Cocitation Analysis of Crisis Management Literature

Abstract : This thesis addresses the need for a structured mapping of academic literature relating to crisis management. An overview of current crisis management literature is provided, highlighting the gap and concentrating on predominant themes that have been identified in previous reviews, as well as those extracted from influential works. A review of bibliometric methodology is highlighted to address the gap. Research goals are named and the phased methodology necessary to meet those goals is outlined and followed. Results are covered in detail: The resultant factor analysis and multidimensional scaling confirm previous efforts to taxonomize the literature, further reinforcing the call to mature the field of crisis management literature.
Bem3, a Cdc42 GTPase-activating protein, traffics to an intracellular compartment and recruits the secretory Rab GTPase Sec4 to endomembranes

Summary Cell polarity is essential for many cellular functions including division and cell-fate determination. Although RhoGTPase signaling and vesicle trafficking are both required for the establishment of cell polarity, the mechanisms by which they are coordinated are unclear. Here, we demonstrate that the yeast RhoGAP (GTPase activating protein), Bem3, is targeted to sites of polarized growth by the endocytic and recycling pathways. Specifically, deletion of SLA2 or RCY1 led to mislocalization of Bem3 to depolarized puncta and accumulation in intracellular compartments, respectively. Bem3 partitioned between the plasma membrane and an intracellular membrane-bound compartment. These Bem3-positive structures were polarized towards sites of bud emergence and were mostly observed during the pre-mitotic phase of apical growth. Cell biological and biochemical approaches demonstrated that this intracellular Bem3 compartment contained markers for both the endocytic and secretory pathways, which were reminiscent of the Spitzenkörper present in the hyphal tips of growing fungi. Importantly, Bem3 was not a passive cargo, but recruited the secretory Rab protein, Sec4, to the Bem3-containing compartments. Moreover, Bem3 deletion resulted in less efficient localization of Sec4 to bud tips during early stages of bud emergence. Surprisingly, these effects of Bem3 on Sec4 were independent of its GAP activity, but depended on its ability to efficiently bind endomembranes. This work unveils unsuspected and important details of the relationship between vesicle traffic and elements of the cell polarity machinery: (1) Bem3, a cell polarity and peripherally associated membrane protein, relies on vesicle trafficking to maintain its proper localization; and (2) in turn, Bem3 influences secretory vesicle trafficking.
Just Look at the Image: Viewpoint-Specific Surface Normal Prediction for Improved Multi-View Reconstruction

We present a multi-view reconstruction method that combines conventional multi-view stereo (MVS) with appearance-based normal prediction, to obtain dense and accurate 3D surface models. Reliable surface normals reconstructed from multi-view correspondence serve as training data for a convolutional neural network (CNN), which predicts continuous normal vectors from raw image patches. By training from known points in the same image, the prediction is specifically tailored to the materials and lighting conditions of the particular scene, as well as to the precise camera viewpoint. It is therefore a lot easier to learn than generic single-view normal estimation. The estimated normal maps, together with the known depth values from MVS, are integrated to dense depth maps, which in turn are fused into a 3D model. Experiments on the DTU dataset show that our method delivers 3D reconstructions with the same accuracy as MVS, but with significantly higher completeness.
Carlitz’s Identity for the Bernoulli Numbers and Zeon Algebra

In this work we provide a new short proof of Carlitz’s identity for the Bernoulli numbers. Our approach is based on the ordinary generating function for the Bernoulli numbers and a Grassmann-Berezin integral representation of the Bernoulli numbers in the context of the Zeon algebra, which comprises an associative and commutative algebra with nilpotent generators.
Multi-way set enumeration in real-valued tensors

The analysis of n-ary relations receives attention in many different fields, for instance biology, web mining, and social studies. In the basic setting, there are n sets of instances, and each observation associates n instances, one from each set. A common approach to explore these n-way data is the search for n-set patterns. An n-set pattern consists of specific subsets of the n instance sets such that all possible n- ary associations between the corresponding instances are observed. This provides a higher-level view of the data, revealing associative relationships between groups of instances. Here, we generalize this approach in two respects. First, we tolerate missing observations to a certain degree, that means we are also interested in n-sets where most (although not all) of the possible combinations have been recorded in the data. Second, we take association weights into account. More precisely, we propose a method to enumerate all n- sets that satisfy a minimum threshold with respect to the average association weight. Non-observed associations obtain by default a weight of zero. Technically, we solve the enumeration task using a reverse search strategy, which allows for effective pruning of the search space. In addition, our algorithm provides a ranking of the solutions and can consider further constraints. We show experimental results on artificial and real-world data sets from different domains.
When Code-Anomaly Agglomerations Represent Architectural Problems? An Exploratory Study

Several projects have been discontinued in the history of the software industry due to the presence of software architecture problems. The identification of such problems in source code is often required in real project settings, but it is a time-consuming and challenging task. Some authors assume that architectural problems are reflected in source code through individual code anomalies. However, each architectural problem may be realized by multiple code anomalies, which are intertwined in several program elements. The relationships of these various code anomalies and their architecture problems' counterparts are hard to reveal and characterize. In fact, there is little knowledge about the manifestation of code-anomaly agglomerations in software projects and when they adversely impact (or not) the software architecture. To overcome this limitation, we propose studying the architecture impact of a wide range of code-anomaly agglomerations. An agglomeration is a group of code anomalies that are related to each other for some reason - e.g. all of them affect syntactically-related code elements in the program. In our study, we analyzed a total of 5418 code anomalies and 2229 agglomerations within 7 systems. We observed that architectural problems are much more often reflected as anomaly agglomerations rather than individual anomalies in the source code. More importantly, we also revealed when code-anomaly agglomerations were (or not) good indicators of architectural problems. For instance, the result of our study suggests that certain topologies of code-anomaly agglomerations are better indicators than others.
Few More Quasi-Orthogonal Space-Time Block Codes for Four Transmit Antennas

In this paper, we derive few new quasi-orthogonal space-time block codes for four transmit antennas. These codes differ from each other and existing codes in character matrices and/or correlated values in character matrices. These codes can be constructed using elementary sub-matrices. We also derive corresponding maximum-likelihood decoders for the proposed codes. We observe that decoding complexity of some of these codes is less as compared to the rest of them for rectangular-QAM modulation. Bit error rate performance of these codes have been shown to be same as those of existing quasi-orthogonal space time block codes for four transmit antennas over quasi-static flat Rayleigh fading channels.
Potential for green microalgae to produce hydrogen, pharmaceuticals and other high value products in a combined process

Green microalgae for several decades have been produced for commercial exploitation, with applications ranging from health food for human consumption, aquaculture and animal feed, to coloring agents, cosmetics and others. Several products from green algae which are used today consist of secondary metabolites that can be extracted from the algal biomass. The best known examples are the carotenoids astaxanthin and β-carotene, which are used as coloring agents and for health-promoting purposes. Many species of green algae are able to produce valuable metabolites for different uses; examples are antioxidants, several different carotenoids, polyunsaturated fatty acids, vitamins, anticancer and antiviral drugs. In many cases, these substances are secondary metabolites that are produced when the algae are exposed to stress conditions linked to nutrient deprivation, light intensity, temperature, salinity and pH. In other cases, the metabolites have been detected in algae grown under optimal conditions, and little is known about optimization of the production of each product, or the effects of stress conditions on their production. Some green algae have shown the ability to produce significant amounts of hydrogen gas during sulfur deprivation, a process which is currently studied extensively worldwide. At the moment, the majority of research in this field has focused on the model organism, Chlamydomonas reinhardtii, but other species of green algae also have this ability. Currently there is little information available regarding the possibility for producing hydrogen and other valuable metabolites in the same process. This study aims to explore which stress conditions are known to induce the production of different valuable products in comparison to stress reactions leading to hydrogen production. Wild type species of green microalgae with known ability to produce high amounts of certain valuable metabolites are listed and linked to species with ability to produce hydrogen during general anaerobic conditions, and during sulfur deprivation. Species used today for commercial purposes are also described. This information is analyzed in order to form a basis for selection of wild type species for a future multi-step process, where hydrogen production from solar energy is combined with the production of valuable metabolites and other commercial uses of the algal biomass.
The return of AdaBoost.MH: multi-class Hamming trees

Within the framework of AdaBoost.MH, we propose to train vector-valued decision trees to optimize the multi-class edge without reducing the multi-class problem to $K$ binary one-against-all classifications. The key element of the method is a vector-valued decision stump, factorized into an input-independent vector of length $K$ and label-independent scalar classifier. At inner tree nodes, the label-dependent vector is discarded and the binary classifier can be used for partitioning the input space into two regions. The algorithm retains the conceptual elegance, power, and computational efficiency of binary AdaBoost. In experiments it is on par with support vector machines and with the best existing multi-class boosting algorithm AOSOLogitBoost, and it is significantly better than other known implementations of AdaBoost.MH.
Corporate Finance Practices in Canada: Where Do We Stand?

This study investigates the financial practices of Canadian firms involving capital budgeting, cost of capital estimation, capital structure, and real options. Survey respondents express a strong preference for net present value followed by internal rate of return and payback methods. The least popular capital budgeting technique is real options. Unlike their U.S. and European counterparts, Canadian firms rely more on subjective risk assessments in adjusting their discount rate. The use of subjective judgment by Canadian managers also applies to risk analysis, forecasting project cash flows, and estimating the cost of equity capital. This finding differs markedly from the widespread use of the capital asset pricing model by U.S. and European firms. In examining capital structure choice, the results show support for trade-off theory relative to pecking order theory. Finally, firm size and the education of the chief executive officer influence corporate finance decisions.
Economies of Search ( with implications for horizontal mergers ) ∗

Often firms that merge choose to, in the mediumto long-run, shut down shops and crowd products together. When consumer search costs are significant, this process generates sizable demand-side economies. This paper studies the impact of these economies on the incentives to merge, and on the welfare consequences of mergers. We show that firms that merge may gain a prominent position in the market, even if they increase their prices more than what the non-merging firms do. In that case, consumers visit first the merged entity and the firms outside the merger lose out. Search cost economies may render a merger beneficial for consumers and so overall welfare may increase.
Gene Expression Profiling and Identification of Resistance Genes to Aspergillus flavus Infection in Peanut through EST and Microarray Strategies

Aspergillus flavus and A. parasiticus infect peanut seeds and produce aflatoxins, which are associated with various diseases in domestic animals and humans throughout the world. The most cost-effective strategy to minimize aflatoxin contamination involves the development of peanut cultivars that are resistant to fungal infection and/or aflatoxin production. To identify peanut Aspergillus-interactive and peanut Aspergillus-resistance genes, we carried out a large scale peanut Expressed Sequence Tag (EST) project which we used to construct a peanut glass slide oligonucleotide microarray. The fabricated microarray represents over 40% of the protein coding genes in the peanut genome. For expression profiling, resistant and susceptible peanut cultivars were infected with a mixture of Aspergillus flavus and parasiticus spores. The subsequent microarray analysis identified 62 genes in resistant cultivars that were up-expressed in response to Aspergillus infection. In addition, we identified 22 putative Aspergillus-resistance genes that were constitutively up-expressed in the resistant cultivar in comparison to the susceptible cultivar. Some of these genes were homologous to peanut, corn, and soybean genes that were previously shown to confer resistance to fungal infection. This study is a first step towards a comprehensive genome-scale platform for developing Aspergillus-resistant peanut cultivars through targeted marker-assisted breeding and genetic engineering.
Optimal Sets of Projections of High-Dimensional Data

Finding good projections of n-dimensional datasets into a 2D visualization domain is one of the most important problems in Information Visualization. Users are interested in getting maximal insight into the data by exploring a minimal number of projections. However, if the number is too small or improper projections are used, then important data patterns might be overlooked. We propose a data-driven approach to find minimal sets of projections that uniquely show certain data patterns. For this we introduce a dissimilarity measure of data projections that discards affine transformations of projections and prevents repetitions of the same data patterns. Based on this, we provide complete data tours of at most n/2 projections. Furthermore, we propose optimal paths of projection matrices for an interactive data exploration. We illustrate our technique with a set of state-of-the-art real high-dimensional benchmark datasets.
Development of flood hazard maps of Bangladesh using NOAA-AVHRR images with GIS

Abstract Flood hazard maps were developed using remote sensing (RS) data for the historical event of the 1988 flood with data of elevation height, and geological and physiographic divisions. Flood damage depends on the hydraulic factors which include characteristics of the flood such as the depth of flooding, rate of the rise in water level, propagation of a flood wave, duration and frequency of flooding, sediment load, and timing. In this study flood depth and “flood-affected frequency” within one flood event were considered for the evaluation of flood hazard assessment, where the depth and frequency of the flooding were assumed to be the major determinant in estimating the total damage function. Different combinations of thematic maps among physiography, geology, land cover and elevation were evaluated for flood hazard maps and a best combination for the event of the 1988 flood was proposed. Finally, the flood hazard map for Bangladesh and a flood risk map for the administrative districts of Bangladesh were proposed.
Effects of continuous fascia iliaca compartment blocks for postoperative analgesia in patients with hip fracture

Orthopedic surgery patients often experience severe postoperative pain, and effective analgesia is essential. In this study, the authors compared continuous fascia iliaca compartment block with patient-controlled intravenous analgesia using fentanyl postoperatively in patients with hip fractures. Changes in pain scores as well as delirium and postoperative nausea and vomiting were evaluated.