Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The handbook of inequality and socioeconomic position

Part one: Key concepts: Deprivation Ethnicity Health equity audits (HEAs)/profiles Inequality/equality Inequity/equity Lay epidemiology Life course socioeconomic position Living standards Official and vital statistics Poverty Psychosocial factors Segregation Social capital Social class Social exclusion Social mobility Social status Social stratification Status inconsistency Wealth Part two: Measures of socioeconomic position: Amenities Benefit claimants Breadline Britain and the Millennium Survey of Poverty and Social Exclusion Cambridge Social Interaction and Stratification Scale (CAMSIS) Car access and ownership Carstairs Deprivation Index Child poverty - the official government measure Deprivation indices Education Erikson and Goldthorpe class schema Fuel poverty Housing conditions Housing status (including homelessness) Housing tenure Housing wealth Income Index of Local Conditions 1991 Index of Local Deprivation 1998 Indices of Deprivation 2000 Indices of Deprivation 2004 Jarman underprivileged area (UPA) score Job (in)security National Statistics Socioeconomic Classification (NS-SEC) Northern Ireland Multiple Deprivation Measure 2005 (NIMDM 2005) Occupation-based measures Occupational Social Class - Registrar General's Social Classes (RGSC) Overcrowding Poverty - the official government measure Scottish Index of Multiple Deprivation 2004 (SIMD 2004) Townsend Index of Deprivation Unemployment Welsh Index of Multiple Deprivation 2005 (WIMD 2005) Part three: Measures of inequality: Absolute differences Dissimilarity Index Gini coefficient Households Below Average Income (HBAI) Index of Disparity Measures of average disproportionality Range Relative Concentration Index (RCI) Relative differences Relative Index of Inequality (RII) Slope Index of Inequality (SII) Standardised outcomes Theil Index and mean log deviation Part four: Theoretical and methodological issues: Age-period cohort analysis (or effects) Atomistic fallacy Bar charts Box and whisker plots Cartogram Choropleth map Correlation coefficients Ecological fallacy Funnel plots Geographic information system (GIS) Incidence Line graphs Percentages Populations Prevalence Proportional mortality ratio (PMR) Proportions Scatterplots.
Significance of connective tissue disease features in idiopathic interstitial pneumonia

In idiopathic interstitial pneumonia (IIP), the significance of connective tissue disease (CTD) features in the absence of a specific CTD diagnosis remains unclear. We studied the clinical and prognostic utility of a diagnosis of undifferentiated CTD (UCTD) in patients with biopsy-proven IIP. IIP patients undergoing surgical lung biopsy (1979–2005) were studied (nonspecific interstitial pneumonia (NSIP), n=45; idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis, n=56). UCTD was considered present when serum autoantibodies were present and symptoms or signs suggested CTD. The relationship between UCTD and NSIP histology was evaluated. A clinical algorithm that best predicted NSIP histology was constructed using a priori variables. The prognostic utility of UCTD, and of this algorithm, was evaluated. UCTD was present in 14 (31%) NSIP and seven (13%) IPF patients. UCTD was not associated with a survival benefit. The algorithm predictive of NSIP (OR 10.4, 95% CI 3.21–33.67; p<0.0001) consisted of the absence of typical high-resolution computed tomography (HRCT) features for IPF and 1) a compatible demographic profile (females aged <50 yrs) or 2) Raynaud’s phenomenon. In patients with an HRCT scan not typical for IPF, this algorithm predicted improved survival (hazard ratio 0.35, 95% CI 0.14–0.85; p=0.02) independent of IIP severity. UCTD is associated with NSIP histology. However, the diagnostic and prognostic significance of UCTD in IIP patients remains unclear.
CHAMP: a highly-resilient and energy-efficient routing protocol for mobile ad hoc networks

We present the caching and multipath (CHAMP) routing protocol, a new protocol for mobile ad hoc networks that uses data caching and shortest multiple path routing to achieve both robustness against mobility and energy-efficiency. Simulation results show that a 5-packet FIFO data cache combined with 2 routes exhibits significantly better performance compared to DSR (dynamic source routing) and AODV (ad-hoc on demand distance vector) routing. At very high loads, CHAMP outperforms DSR and AODV, delivering 50% and 30% more packets, respectively, while consuming 1/3 and 1/2 less energy (per packet delivered), respectively.
Does Foreign Aid In Education Promote Economic Growth? Evidence From Sub-Saharan Africa

This paper examines whether foreign aid in education has a significant effect on growth in Sub-Saharan Africa. Our analysis covers 38 countries over the period 1990–2004 and we control for initial per capita income, inflation, investment, government consumption, openness to trade and institutional quality. We find that (i) aid in primary education has a positive and significant effect on growth; (ii) aid in post-primary education has an adverse effect or at best no significant impact on growth; and (iii) growth increases as aid in primary education as a share of total education aid rises.
Overlap and diversity in antimicrobial peptide databases: compiling a non-redundant set of sequences

MOTIVATION The large variety of antimicrobial peptide (AMP) databases developed to date are characterized by a substantial overlap of data and similarity of sequences. Our goals are to analyze the levels of redundancy for all available AMP databases and use this information to build a new non-redundant sequence database. For this purpose, a new software tool is introduced. RESULTS A comparative study of 25 AMP databases reveals the overlap and diversity among them and the internal diversity within each database. The overlap analysis shows that only one database (Peptaibol) contains exclusive data, not present in any other, whereas all sequences in the LAMP_Patent database are included in CAMP_Patent. However, the majority of databases have their own set of unique sequences, as well as some overlap with other databases. The complete set of non-duplicate sequences comprises 16 990 cases, which is almost half of the total number of reported peptides. On the other hand, the diversity analysis identifies the most and least diverse databases and proves that all databases exhibit some level of redundancy. Finally, we present a new parallel-free software, named Dover Analyzer, developed to compute the overlap and diversity between any number of databases and compile a set of non-redundant sequences. These results are useful for selecting or building a suitable representative set of AMPs, according to specific needs.
Loss Aversion in the Laboratory

We report the results of a laboratory experiment testing for the existence of loss aversion in a standard risk aversion protocol (Holt and Laury, 2002). In our experiment, participants earn and retain money for a week before using it in an incentivized risk preference elicitation task. We find loss aversion, distinct from risk aversion, has a significant effect on behavior resulting in participants requiring higher compensation to bear risk.
Time to Sputum Smear Conversion in Smear-Positive Pulmonary Tuberculosis Patients and Factors for Delayed Conversion

Pulmonary tuberculosis is a common infection worldwide. In the eastern part of Iran, fluctuations in tuberculosis prevalence are seen due to the migration of people from Afghanistan. The aim of this study was to evaluate the time of bacteriologic sputum conversion after treatment and affecting factors in those whose smear does not become negative. This study was carried out on 85 smear-positive pulmonary tuberculosis patients with the mean age of 65.6±16.7 years. There were 38 male patients (44.7%), 47 urban residents (55.3%), and only 6 patients (7.1%) from Afghanistan. The mean time of sputum conversion after starting treatment was 1.99±1.06 months. The mean time of sputum conversion was significantly higher in males (P=0.046), increased bacilli density in the primary sputum sample (P<0.0001, R=0.507), and pre-existing medical illness (P=0.001). In this study, it was revealed that pre-existing illness, bacilli density in initial smear, and severe involvement of the lung on radiography, could be associated with delay in sputum smear conversion.
Oil Price Shocks and the Dynamics of Current Account Balances in Nigeria

This paper pioneers research on the relationship between oil price shocks and current account dynamics in Nigeria, a country that doubles as an oil exporter and importer. Structural vector autoregression is applied to quarterly data from 1970Q1 to 2008Q4 to identify oil price shocks and to evaluate its net effect on Nigeria's current account balances. After introducing three control variables (output gap, real exchange rate misalignment and the lagged values of current account ratio), we impose six structural restrictions on the model to help track and identify the structural shocks of oil prices on current account balances. Overall, we find that oil price shocks have a significant short‐run effect on current account balances for Nigeria. Specifically, the impulse response of the current account ratio to oil price shocks increases speedily in the first six quarters, and then, it declines afterwards until the 30th quarter. The variance decomposition analysis shows that approximately 15.77 per cent of the variations in current account dynamics are caused by oil price shocks. The insight we draw from this finding is that there is no one‐for‐one relation between oil price shocks and current account dynamics. Exchange rate misalignment provides the offsetting effect as revealed from our results. The implication for policy is that reserve‐augmenting strategies, lax monetary policy and intensified international financial integration would need to be enhanced and sustained by policy‐makers to reinforce the positive effects of oil price shocks on the Nigerian economy.
The Magnitude and Cyclical Behavior of Financial Market Frictions

We quantify the cross-sectional and time-series behavior of the wedge between the cost of external and internal finance by estimating the structural parameters of a canonical debt-contracting model with informational frictions. For this purpose, we construct a new dataset that includes balance sheet information, measures of expected default risk, and credit spreads on publicly traded debt for about 900 U.S. firms over the period 1997Q1 to 2003Q3. Using nonlinear least squares, we obtain precise time-specific estimates of the bankruptcy cost parameter and consistently reject the null hypothesis of frictionless financial markets. For most of the firms in our sample, the estimated premium on external finance was very low during the expansionary period 1997-99, but rose sharply in 2000--especially for firms with higher ratios of debt to equity--and remained elevated until early 2003.
Cooperative Intelligent Transport Systems: 5.9-GHz Field Trials

The mobile outdoor radio environment is challenging for vehicular communications. Although multipath propagation offers diversity and benefits in non-line-of-sight (NLOS) conditions, simultaneous multipath and mobility results in a doubly-selective fading channel. In practice, this means that the channel parameters vary significantly in both time and frequency within the bandwidth and typical packet durations used in 802.11p/WAVE standards for short-range vehicular communications. This paper presents the results of extensive field trial campaigns conducted in several countries, totaling over 1100 km. These field trials are scenario based, focusing on challenging low-latency, high-reliability vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V) safety applications including intersection collision warning, turn across path, emergency electronic brake light, do not pass warning, and precrash sensing. Vehicle-to-infrastructure (V2I) applications are also considered. The field trials compared the performance of off-the-shelf WiFi-based radio equipment with a more advanced 802.11p compliant radio employing more sophisticated channel estimation and tracking. Field trial results demonstrate significantly improved performance using the advanced radio, translating into greatly increased driver warning times and stopping distances. In fact the results show that off-the-shelf WiFi equipment fails to provide sufficient stopping distance to avert accidents in some cases. During the field trials, channel sounding data were also captured. Analysis of these channel measurements reveals the critical importance of accurate channel estimation, tracking the channel in both time and frequency within each packet. Delay spread and Doppler spread statistics computed from the channel measurements validate previously reported results in the literature. The results in this paper, however, provide the first instance of channel measurements performed simultaneously to application performance evaluation. The objective is to firmly establish the link between radio channel characteristics and the performance of critical V2V safety applications.
Robot tracking using vision and laser sensors

We present a real-time person tracking system for a mobile robot using the information from a PTZ video camera and a laser range finder. For robust tracking, the target person model is constructed. The model includes the color, edge and size information of the tracked person. People moving in the field of view are detected by the robot via the laser range finder and verified against the target person model using the images captured by the onboard camera. A particle filter is used to estimate the position and the velocity of the moving target person for controlling the robot to follow the target. Key characteristics of the proposed system are real-time operation and ability to adapt to different moving targets. Experimental results performed in indoor environments show the effectiveness and robustness of the developed approach.
SdfMetz: Extraction of Metrics and Graphs From Syntax Definitions — Tool Demonstration —

We developed SdfMetz, a tool for the extraction of metrics and graphs from syntax descriptions. SdfMetz supports various input languages, such as SDF, and the input formalisms of DMS, ANTLR, and Yacc. Among the extracted metrics are size and complexity metrics, feature metrics, and structure metrics. Some metrics are extracted directly from grammars, such as adaptations of the NPath and Cyclomatic Complexity metrics. Several structure metrics, such as tree impurity and recursiveness, are based on various kinds of grammar dependency graphs. The metrics and graphs can be emitted in several formats to allow their subsequent visualization and (statistical) analysis. We present the functionality of the tool, its implementation, and its use for grammar analysis and comparison.
Simulating Urban Growth Using the SLEUTH Model in a Coastal Peri-Urban District in China

China’s southeast coastal areas have witnessed rapid growth in the last two decades, owing mostly to their economic and social attractions. In this paper, we chose Jimei, a coastal peri-urban district of Xiamen city on the southeast coast of China, as a study area to explore the district’s growth dynamics, to predict future sprawl during the next decade and to provide a basis for urban planning. The SLEUTH urban growth model was calibrated against historical data derived from a series of Landsat TM 5 satellite images taken between 1992 and 2007. A Lee-Sallee value of 0.48 was calculated for the district, which is a satisfactory result compared with related studies. Five coefficients of urban growth, diffusion, spread, breed, slope resistance and road gravity had values of 25, 68, 86, 24 and 23, respectively, in 2007. The growth coefficients ( i.e ., urban character) can capture urban growth characteristics in Jimei district. The urban DNA revealed that, over the study period, urban growth in the district was dominated both by urbanization through establishment of new urban centers, and by expansion outward from existing urban centers. In contrast to interior cities, in which expansions are dramatically shaped by actual road patterns, urban expansion in the district was likely constrained by the nearby coastline. Future urban growth patterns were predicted to 2020 assuming three different development scenarios. The first scenario simulated a continuation of historical urban growth without changing current conditions. The second scenario projected managed growth in which urban growth is limited by a layer with areas excluded from urbanization, which is the future development plan for Jimei district and Xiamen city. The third scenario depicted a growth with maximum protection in which growth was allowed to continue, similar to the second scenario, but with lower diffusion and spread coefficients applied to the growth pattern. The third scenario demonstrated that valuable land could be saved, which is the most desirable outcome for Jimei urban development. The study showed that SLEUTH can be an extremely useful tool for coastal city managers to explore the likely outcomes of their city development plans.
Credit relationships: evidence from experiments with real bankers

We experimentally examine to what extent long-term "lender-borrower" relationships mitigate moral hazard. The originality of our research lies in recruiting not only students but also commercial and social bankers. The opportunity to engage in bilateral long-term relationships mitigates the repayment problem. Lenders take advantage of their long-term situation by increasing their rates. Consequently, borrowers are incited to take more risk. Improving information disclosure ameliorates the repayment but does not incite lenders to offer more credits. Social bankers exhibit a higher probability of granting a loan and make fairer credit offers to borrowers than the other subject pools do.
Takayasu's arteritis in pregnancy: review of literature and discussion

Abstract Takayasu's arteritis (TA) is a rare inflammatory disease of the arteries that affects women of childbearing age. The optimal management for pregnant patients with this disease has not yet been defined. The course of disease seems to be neither affected nor worsened by pregnancy. We could not find reported maternal deaths directly related to pregnancy. However, many authors report maternal as well as fetal unfavorable events in the course of pregnancy. We describe a 25-year-old primigravida of Turkish-Greek origin who presented at 30 weeks of pregnancy with active TA. In the 37th week, intrauterine fetal death occurred. Our patient did not show high blood pressure or aortic inflammation. The course of her disease was stable. Whether a newly diagnosed TA during pregnancy should be regarded as an indication for premature delivery is discussed. An interdisciplinary collaboration of rheumatologists, nephrologists and obstetricians is necessary to improve maternal and fetal prognosis.
Reliable Measurements of the β-Amyloid Pool in Blood Could Help in the Early Diagnosis of AD

The present study was aimed at assessing the capability of Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 levels in undiluted plasma (UP), diluted plasma (DP), and cell bound (CB) to distinguish between early stages of Alzheimer's disease (AD), amnesic mild cognitive impairment (MCI), and healthy control (HC). Four blood samples from each participant were collected during one month and the levels of Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 were determined by a blinded proprietary ELISA sandwich (Araclon Biotech. Zaragoza, Spain). First striking result was that the amount of Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 in UP represented only a small proportion (~15%) of the total beta-amyloid pool in blood (βAPB) described here as the sum of Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 in blood where they are free in plasma, bound to plasma proteins, and bound to blood cells. Furthermore, we found that levels of Aβ1-40 and Aβ1-42 in UP, DP, and CB were significantly higher in MCI when compared to HC. On average, the total βAPB was 1.8 times higher in MCI than in HC (P = 0.03) and allowed to discriminate between MCI and HC with a sensitivity and specificity over 80%. Thus, quantification of several markers of the βAPB could be useful and reliable in the discrimination between MCI and HC.
Sensitivity of SIMO blind equalizers to the channel precursor magnitude

The performance of one blind channel identification algorithm and three blind equalizers is studied. The main concern is in investigating their behavior when the communication channel has little energy in the beginning of its response. In our previous experiments, the equalizers' performance has not been satisfactory for such channels. All considered equalizers are based on a pseudo-inversion of a block-Toeplitz matrix. We study the effect of the channel precursor magnitude on the singular values of the matrix and consequently on the equalizer performance. For each algorithm, scatter plots are used to evaluate the success of the equalization under various conditions. We provide an explanation to the success or failure of the equalizers, based on the magnitude of the singular values.
Pitfalls of Using Body Mass Index (BMI) in Assessment of Obesity Risk

This review focuses on the potential drawbacks of using body mass index (BMI) which are often overlooked in the assessment of overweight or obesity risk, with special emphasis on the use of other equally important anthropometric measurements such as waist circumference (WC), waist-hip-ratio (WHR) and skin-fold thicknesses. There have been inconsistencies in findings when using BMI as an indicator of obesity risk. These have arisen mainly due to gender, age and ethnic differences in body fat composition and distribution coupled with increased reliance on self- reported values of weight and height. Since BMI remains the most widely used tool to screen obesity risk in many studies, establishment of gender-, age- and ethnicity-based cut-offs of BMI, tailored to specific populations, will significantly enhance public health policies and increase the success rates of obesity intervention programs. The use of other anthropometric measures such as WC and WHR in conjunction with BMI is also highly recommended to assess abdominal obesity or other body-specific areas.
How Might a Natural Resource Be Priced?

We try to develop a price theory for auctions of natural resources. We show that in our model of a uniform price mechanism with uncertain terminating bids, truthful revelation of price and quantity bids is a Nash Equilibrium of a game that incorporates this pricing information in its design. In the special case when all bidders have perfectly elastic demand curves, truthful revelation of price-bids is in fact a dominant strategy.
Phoenix rising: new models for the research monograph?

There is significant evidence that traditional university presses are continuing to face financial crises. Outlets for research monographs are drying up, print runs are being reduced and monograph costs are increasing. The combination of the digital networked environment and openarchive initiatives may, however, provide the opportunity, through institutional repositories, to rethink the role and nature of the distribution of research monographs in a university setting. The adoption of new models, untrammelled by the structures of the past, while still retaining editorial and refereeing standards, could revolutionize the access and distribution patterns of research knowledge within university frameworks. Ultimate success will depend, however, on programmes of scholarly advocacy in scholarly communication with the academic author as both creator and as consumer.