Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validity of cardiorespiratory fitness criterion-referenced standards for adolescents.

PURPOSE The clinical utility of cardiorespiratory fitness (CRF) criterion-referenced standards (FITNESSGRAM) has not been tested in adolescents. We aimed to determine the ability of the FITNESSGRAM standards to discriminate between low and high cardiovascular disease (CVD) risk in a population-based sample of US adolescents. METHODS Participants included 1247 adolescents (45.7% females) aged 12-19 yr. A submaximal walking treadmill test was used to estimate peak oxygen consumption as a measure of CRF. Participants were dichotomized based on meeting or failing the sex- and age-specific FITNESSGRAM standards. CVD risk factors included systolic blood pressure, sum of triceps and subscapular skinfolds, homeostatic model assessment (HOMA) of insulin resistance, triglycerides, and total cholesterol/high-density lipoprotein ratio. A sex- and age-specific CVD risk score was computed as the mean of these five standardized risk factors. A risk score >1 SD was considered to indicate a high CVD risk. RESULTS One third of the adolescents fail to meet the FITNESSGRAM standards. Body fat and CVD risk score were significantly lower in adolescents meeting versus failing the FITNESSGRAM standards (all P < 0.003). Receiver operating characteristics curve analyses revealed that the CRF thresholds that best discriminated between low and high CVD risk were very similar to those established by FITNESSGRAM: 44.1 and 40.3 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1) among 12- to 15- and 16- to 19-yr-old boys and 36.0 and 35.5 mL x kg(-1) x min(-1) among 12- to 15- and 16- to 19-yr-old girls, respectively. CONCLUSIONS The CRF criterion-referenced standards established by FITNESSGRAM discriminate adolescents with a more favorable cardiovascular profile from those with a less favorable profile. Identification of children who fail to meet these standards can help detect the target population for pediatric CVD prevention strategies.
Non-O157 Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli infections in the United States, 1983-2002.

BACKGROUND Shiga toxin-producing Escherichia coli (STEC) O157:H7 is a well-recognized cause of bloody diarrhea and hemolytic-uremic syndrome (HUS). Non-O157 STEC contribute to this burden of illness but have been underrecognized as a result of diagnostic limitations and inadequate surveillance. METHODS Between 1983 and 2002, 43 state public health laboratories submitted 940 human non-O157 STEC isolates from persons with sporadic illnesses to the Centers for Diseases Control and Prevention reference laboratory for confirmation and serotyping. RESULTS The most common serogroups were O26 (22%), O111 (16%), O103 (12%), O121 (8%), O45 (7%), and O145 (5%). Non-O157 STEC infections were most frequent during the summer and among young persons (median age, 12 years; interquartile range, 3-37 years). Virulence gene profiles were as follows: 61% stx(1) but not stx(2); 22% stx(2) but not stx(1); 17% both stx(1) and stx(2); 84% intimin (eae); and 86% enterohemolysin (E-hly). stx(2) was strongly associated with an increased risk of HUS, and eae was strongly associated with an increased risk of bloody diarrhea. STEC O111 accounted for most cases of HUS and was also the cause of 3 of 7 non-O157 STEC outbreaks reported in the United States. CONCLUSIONS Non-O157 STEC can cause severe illness that is comparable to the illness caused by STEC O157. Strains that produce Shiga toxin 2 are much more likely to cause HUS than are those that produce Shiga toxin 1 alone. Improving surveillance will more fully elucidate the incidence and pathological spectrum of these emerging agents. These efforts require increased clinical suspicion, improved clinical laboratory isolation, and continued serotyping of isolates in public health laboratories.
Psycholinguistic Investigations of Brand Names via Word Recognition and Memory Experiments

Most research investigating brand names is aimed at understanding consumerpurchasing behaviours. Although there are a number of studies on brand names within the fields of marketing and advertising, there are relatively few within the field of psycholinguistics. Consequently, there is little knowledge about brand name representation, including how these representations become components of language. The psycholinguistic findings of the five experiments in this study are as follows: brand names have a lexicalized status, ambiguous brand names have a reaction time advantage over nonambiguous brand names, pronounceable nonwords benefit from high orthographic neighbourhoods of real English words, repeated exposure to nonwords does not necessarily improve memory based on orthography, and the addition of semantic content offers very little effect in improving memory for novel brand names (i.e., novel nonwords). This information forms the basis for the Stratified Brand Name Hypothesis, which will provide a springboard for further investigations of linguistic properties of brand names.
Does QRS Voltage Correction by Body Mass Index Improve the Accuracy of Electrocardiography in Detecting Left Ventricular Hypertrophy and Predicting Cardiovascular Events in a General Population?

The authors assessed the value of body mass index (BMI) correction of two electrocardiographic criteria in improving detection of left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) and prediction of cardiovascular and all‐cause mortality in the Italian study Pressioni Arteriose Monitorate E Loro Associazioni (PAMELA) population. At entry, 1549 patients underwent diagnostic tests, 24‐hour ambulatory blood pressure (BP) monitoring, standard electrocardiography, and echocardiography. The BMI‐corrected Cornell voltage and Sokolow‐Lyon voltage criteria provided better results for detection of echocardiographic LVH as compared with unadjusted electrocardiographic parameters. Cornell voltage index, but not Sokolow‐Lyon index, was associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular events (and all‐cause mortality). The adjusted risk of cardiovascular events related to one‐standard deviation increment of BMI‐corrected Cornell voltage was similar to that conferred by the uncorrected criterion in the total population, but outperformed in obese participants. These findings show that correction for BMI may improve the diagnostic accuracy of Cornell voltage index in detecting LVH and prediction of cardiovascular mortality in obese individuals.
Public Health Chronicles

In 2004, a California jury sentenced Scott Peterson to death for killing his wife and future child.1 Peterson is an anomaly on death row, which is mostly occupied by men who committed serial murders, killed lawenforcement officers, or caused death during other violent crimes, such as armed robbery.2 Yet, the outcome of his case recalls a nineteenth-century tradition of executing men for murdering their lovers, wives, or other family members.3 Although no adequate public response to the problem of intimate violence was achieved in the past, the criminal justice system suffered from different flaws and biases in this regard than one might expect.
Consumer Search and Double Marginalization

The well-known double marginalization problem understates the inefficiencies arising from vertical relations in consumer search markets where consumers are uninformed about the wholesale prices charged by manufacturers to retailers. Consumer search provides a monopoly manufacturer with an additional incentive to increase its price, worsening the double marginalization problem and lowering the manufacturer's profits. Nevertheless, manufacturers in more competitive wholesale markets may not have an incentive to reveal their prices to consumers. We show that retail prices decrease in search cost, and so both industry profits and consumer surplus increase in search cost. (JEL D11, D42, D83, L12, L25, L60, L81)
Iterated Spectra of Numbers—Elementary, Dynamical, and Algebraic Approaches

IP ∗ sets and central sets are subsets of N which arise out of applications of topological dynamics to number theory and are known to have rich combinatorial structure. Spectra of numbers are often studied sets of the form {[nα + γ] : n ∈ N}. Iterated spectra are similarly defined with n coming from another spectrum. Using elementary, dynamical, and algebraic approaches we show that iterated spectra have significantly richer combinatorial structure than was previously known. For example we show that if α > 0 and 0 < γ < 1, then {[nα+ γ] : n ∈ N} is an IP ∗ set and consequently contains an infinite sequence together with all finite sums and products of terms from that sequence
Analysis of a Whole-Space Transient Electromagnetic Field in 2.5-Dimensional FDTD Geoelectric Modeling

Mine water inrush poses a serious threat to the safe production of coal mines in China. The transient electromagnetic method (TEM) on the ground has been applied to explore water-bearing structures, but the resolution is low. Therefore, some geophysicists in China moved the TEM onto underground coal mine roadways and obtained good results at the end of the last century. Although the TEM has been applied in mining for many years, there are so few theoretical studies that the data interpretation is not accurate. It is necessary to study the transient electromagnetic field diffusion in the entire space with physical or numerical simulation methods. First, based on the diffusion equations, we deduced the wave number domain equations, whose whole-space electromagnetic field is excited by a 3-D source in a 2-D geoelectric model; then, we derived the 2.5-D finite-difference time domain equations. At the beginning of the calculation, we gave the grid nodes near the source the initial values with the cosine filtering method. To improve the calculating efficiency, the time intervals gradually increased with time. At the end of the calculation, we transformed the calculating results from the wave number domain to the space domain by fitting the segmented exponential function. Compared with the analytical solutions, the numerical solutions are accurate, and the algorithm is reliable and efficient. The simulation results of a collapse-column model show that the transient electromagnetic field diffusion in the entire space is dominated by low-resistivity bodies.
DARK MATTER ANGULAR MOMENTUM PROFILE FROM THE JEANS EQUATION

Cosmological simulations of dark matter (DM) structures have shown that the equilibrated DM structures have a fairly small angular momentum. It appears from these N-body simulations that the radial profile of the angular momentum has an almost universal behavior, even if the different DM structures have experienced very different formation and merger histories. We suggest a perturbed Jeans equation, which includes a rotational term. This is done under a reasonable assumed form of the change in the distribution function. By conjecturing that the (new) subdominant rotation term must be proportional to the (old) dominant mass term, we find a clear connection, which is in rather good agreement with the results of recent high-resolution simulations. We also present a new connection between the radial profiles of the angular momentum and the velocity anisotropy, which is also in fair agreement with numerical findings. Finally, we show how the spin parameter λ increases as a function of radius.
Throwing like a girl and other essays in feminist philosophy and social theory

Feminist social theory and female body experience are the twin themes of Iris Marion Young's twelve outstanding essays written over the past decade and brought together here. Her contributions to social theory raise critical questions about women and citizenship, the relations of capitalism and women's oppression, and the differences between a feminist theory that emphasizes women's difference and one that assumes a gender-neutral humanity. Loosely following a phenomenological method of description, Young's essays on female embodiment discuss female movement, pregnancy, clothing, and the breasted body.In an introduction that situates her work in the context of shifts in feminist theory and politics over the past decade, Young emphasizes the rootedness of her theorizing in a dedicated and seasoned political activism. Iris Marion Young, Associate Professor of Public and International Affairs at the University of Pittsburgh, is author of "Justice and the Politics of Difference" and coeditor, with Jeffner Allen, of "The Thinking Muse: Feminism and Modern French Philosophy".
Working well : women's experience of managing psychological wellbeing as sex workers : a thesis presented in partial fulfilment of the requirements for the degree of Master of Arts in Psychology at Massey University, Aotearoa/New Zealand

Despite evidence to the contrary, policy makers, some researchers and many who provide health and social services to sex workers continue to reflect and reinforce the notion that sex workers are dysfunctional and constitute a threat to public health. This thesis presents the results of a study which explicitly examined how indoor sex workers look after their psychological wellbeing. Twelve participants (who had worked as sex workers for at least 3 years) took part in semi-structured interviews and discussed how they looked after themselves both at work and in their wider social context. Interviews were transcribed and analysed using interpretative phenomenological analysis. Two main themes emerged from the data. The first, “doing sex work”, relates to workplace practices. The second theme, “being a sex worker”, relates to how the women understand their experience of being a sex worker in their social context and how they care for themselves in this arena; also apparent in this theme are aspects related to entry and exit of the industry. All participants took part in the study to increase understanding of and social justice for sex workers. Most of the participants see sex work as having a positive contribution to their personal growth. The findings show that participants are resilient and employ self-care practices that are commonly used by many in occupations that deal with people or who are stigmatised in some way. Major conclusions drawn from the study are that working in a supportive environment, prior understandings of sex work, personal traits and reasons for entering the sex industry are closely related to positive psychological wellbeing.
Proceedings of the Australian Neuroscience Society Symposium: Schizophrenia A PROPOSED PATHOLOGICAL MODEL IN THE HIPPOCAMPUS OF SUBJECTS WITH SCHIZOPHRENIA

1. The hippocampal formation plays an important role in the normal functioning of the brain, being implicated in cognition and sensory gating, both of which are affected in schizophrenia. The hippocampal formation receives information from the association cortices, which is processed by glutamatergic transmission within the hippocampus. Dopamine, noradrenaline, 5‐hydroxytryptamine (5‐HT), acetylcholine and GABA, all of which have been proposed to play a role in the neurobiology of schizophrenia, can affect this transmission.
The role of low grade inflammation as measured by C-reactive protein levels in the explanation of socioeconomic differences in carotid atherosclerosis.

BACKGROUND The role of inflammation as part of the explanation of socioeconomic differences in carotid atherosclerosis has not been specifically investigated. METHODS AND RESULTS The associations between socioeconomic position (SEP), C-reactive protein (CRP), and preclinical carotid atherosclerosis were investigated in a general population sample of 3921 middle-aged Swedish men and women. Common carotid intima-media thickness (IMT) and presence of carotid plaque (focal IMT > 1.2 mm) were determined by B-mode ultrasound. The results showed that low SEP was associated with increased levels of CRP, independently of established risk factors. Furthermore, common carotid IMT increased with increasing CRP-levels. Presence of carotid plaque increased with increasing CRP-levels in men, but not in women. While the socioeconomic differences in carotid IMT were weak, there were associations between low educational level and carotid plaque prevalence with an age- and sex-adjusted odds ratio (OR) of 1.39 (95% CI: 1.21, 1.59). A similar association was seen for having a manual occupation, OR = 1.23 (95% CI: 1.07, 1.42). The age- and sex-adjusted absolute differences in carotid plaque prevalence were 9% with regard to educational level and 7% with regard to occupational status. Adjustment for CRP caused only a minor attenuation of the association between SEP and carotid atherosclerosis. CONCLUSIONS The association between SEP and carotid atherosclerosis as measured by carotid IMT and carotid plaque could only to a minor extent be referred to differences in low grade inflammation as measured by CRP.
Assessing Noncoding Sequence Variants of GJB2 for Hearing Loss Association

Involvement of GJB2 noncoding regions in hearing loss (HL) has not been extensively investigated. However, three noncoding mutations, c. -259C>T, c. -23G>T, and c. -23+1G>A, were reported. Also, c. -684_-675del, of uncertain pathogenicity, was found upstream of the basal promoter. We performed a detailed analysis of GJB2 noncoding regions in Portuguese HL patients (previously screened for GJB2 coding mutations and the common GJB6 deletions) and in control subjects, by sequencing the basal promoter and flanking upstream region, exon 1, and 3'UTR. All individuals were genotyped for c. -684_-675del and 14 SNPs. Novel variants (c.-731C>T, c.-26G>T, c.*45G>A, and c.*985A>T) were found in controls. A hearing individual homozygous for c. -684_-675del was for the first time identified, supporting the nonpathogenicity of this deletion. Our data indicate linkage disequilibrium (LD) between SNPs rs55704559 (c.*168A>G) and rs5030700 (c.*931C>T) and suggest the association of c. [*168G;*931T] allele with HL. The c. *168A>G change, predicted to alter mRNA folding, might be involved in HL.
Learning without Human Scores for Blind Image Quality Assessment

General purpose blind image quality assessment (BIQA) has been recently attracting significant attention in the fields of image processing, vision and machine learning. State-of-the-art BIQA methods usually learn to evaluate the image quality by regression from human subjective scores of the training samples. However, these methods need a large number of human scored images for training, and lack an explicit explanation of how the image quality is affected by image local features. An interesting question is then: can we learn for effective BIQA without using human scored images? This paper makes a good effort to answer this question. We partition the distorted images into overlapped patches, and use a percentile pooling strategy to estimate the local quality of each patch. Then a quality-aware clustering (QAC) method is proposed to learn a set of centroids on each quality level. These centroids are then used as a codebook to infer the quality of each patch in a given image, and subsequently a perceptual quality score of the whole image can be obtained. The proposed QAC based BIQA method is simple yet effective. It not only has comparable accuracy to those methods using human scored images in learning, but also has merits such as high linearity to human perception of image quality, real-time implementation and availability of image local quality map.
Higher number of live births is associated with left ventricular diastolic dysfunction and adverse cardiac remodelling among US Hispanic/Latina women: results from the Echocardiographic Study of Latinos

Introduction Female sex is a risk factor for heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF). Previous literature suggests that some diastolic dysfunction (DD) develops during pregnancy and may persist postdelivery. Our objective was to examine the relationship between parity and cardiac structure and function in a population-based cohort. Methods Participants included 1172 Hispanic/Latina women, aged ≥45 years, enrolled in the Echocardiographic Study of Latinos from four US communities (Bronx, Miami, San Diego and Chicago). Standard echocardiographic techniques were used to measure cardiac volumes, left ventricular mass, systolic and diastolic function. Using sampling weights and survey statistics, multivariable linear and logistic regression models were constructed adjusting for age, body mass index, diabetes or prediabetes, systolic blood pressure, use of antihypertensive medications, smoking, total cholesterol and high-density lipoprotein cholesterol. Results In the target population, 5.0% were nulliparous (no live births) and 10.5% were grand multiparous (≥5 live births). Among the nulliparous women, 46% had DD as compared with 51%–58% of women with 1–4 live births and 81% of women with ≥5 live births (p<0.01). In full multivariate models, higher parity was significantly associated with greater left ventricular end-systolic volumes, end-diastolic volumes, left atrial volume indices and presence of DD (all p<0.01) but was not associated with ejection fraction. The log odds for having any grade of DD in grand-multiparous women was over three times that seen in nulliparous women (OR=3.4, 95% CI 1.5 to 7.9, p<0.01) in models further adjusted for income and education. Conclusions Higher parity is associated with increased cardiac mass, volumes and the presence of DD. Further studies are needed to elucidate this apparent deleterious relation and whether parity can help explain the increased risk of HFpEF in women.
A compression technique to materialize transitive closure

An important feature of database support for expert systems is the ability of the database to answer queries regarding the existence of a path from one node to another in the directed graph underlying some database relation. Given just the database relation, answering such a query is time-consuming, but given the transitive closure of the database relation a table look-up suffices. We present an indexing scheme that permits the storage of the pre-computed transitive closure of a database relation in a compressed form. The existence of a specified tuple in the closure can be determined from this compressed store by a single look-up followed by an index comparision. We show how to add nodes and arcs to the compressed closure incrementally. We also suggest how this compression technique can be used to reduce the effort required to compute the transitive closure.