Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
OVERWEIGHT AND OBESITY AMONG PRESCHOOL CHILDREN IN BASRAH

A cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the frequency of overweight and obesity among infants and children aged 6-60 months in Basrah, and its association with different socio-demographic factors, dietary habits and physical activity of the child. Five-hundred fifty infants and children aged 6-60 months (283 males and 267 females) attending five primary health care centers in Basrah city during the period from November 2006 till the end of April 2007 were recruited. The frequency of overweight was 10.5% and for obesity 3.3% as calculated by weight for height Z-score for all children of different age groups. For children older than 2 years, the frequency of overweight was 7.6% and of obesity 3.6% using Body Mass Index. The study has revealed that there is a significant positive association between father's education, age, weight at birth, and the number of hours of television watching with overweight and obesity, while there was significant negative association between the duration of breastfeeding and overweight/obesity. Although the prevalence of wasting is still high (11.1%) in Basrah, at the same time another public health problem (obesity) emerges. There is a highly significant protective effect of breastfeeding against development of obesity if feeding continues for > 6 months.
LSA learner sentence comprehension in agglutinative and non-agglutinative languages

This work has been carried out in the context of automatic evaluation of learner summaries where text comprehension is gained using Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) and Natural Language Processing (NLP) techniques. We had intuitively observed that lemmatized versions of LSA matrixes resembled better human Basque similarity judgement than the non lemmatized ones. This research was conducted to test this idea comparing the impact of lemmatization in an agglutinative vs. a non-agglutinative language (Basque and Spanish respectively) when modelling semantic similarity. Parallel Basque-Spanish corpora replicate the same semantic knowledge in both languages. The reason to compare these parallel corpora was to observe how close or related the obtained results were in these two morphologically diverse languages. Lemmatized and non-lemmatized LSA measures have been compared to human judgements.
Syrosingopine sensitizes cancer cells to killing by metformin

Synthetic lethality between the clinically approved noncancer drugs metformin and syrosingopine specifically kills cancer cells. We report that the anticancer activity of the widely used diabetic drug metformin is strongly potentiated by syrosingopine. Synthetic lethality elicited by combining the two drugs is synergistic and specific to transformed cells. This effect is unrelated to syrosingopine’s known role as an inhibitor of the vesicular monoamine transporters. Syrosingopine binds to the glycolytic enzyme α-enolase in vitro, and the expression of the γ-enolase isoform correlates with nonresponsiveness to the drug combination. Syrosingopine sensitized cancer cells to metformin and its more potent derivative phenformin far below the individual toxic threshold of each compound. Thus, combining syrosingopine and codrugs is a promising therapeutic strategy for clinical application for the treatment of cancer.
Multivariate probabilistic forecasting using ensemble Bayesian model averaging and copulas

We propose a method for post‐processing an ensemble of multivariate forecasts in order to obtain a joint predictive distribution of weather. Our method utilizes existing univariate post‐processing techniques, in this case ensemble Bayesian model averaging (BMA), to obtain estimated marginal distributions. However, implementing these methods individually offers no information regarding the joint distribution. To correct this, we propose the use of a Gaussian copula, which offers a simple procedure for recovering the dependence that is lost in the estimation of the ensemble BMA marginals. Our method is applied to 48 h forecasts of a set of five weather quantities using the eight‐member University of Washington mesoscale ensemble. We show that our method recovers many well‐understood dependencies between weather quantities and subsequently improves calibration and sharpness over both the raw ensemble and a method which does not incorporate joint distributional information. Copyright © 2012 Royal Meteorological Society
Totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy: challenging but feasible: a single center case series

Aim: To report the initial monocentric experience of totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy, assessing its feasibility and safety, especially relating to the challenging step of esophago-jejunal (E-J) reconstruction. Methods: All consecutive patients, underwent laparoscopic total gastrectomy for gastric cancer with curative intent, between January 2017 and June 2018 at our institution, were considered. Data of the selected patients was retrieved from a prospectively collected database. Short and long term outcomes were analyzed. Results: Ten patients underwent totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy with D2 lymphadenectomy and 4 of these had received preoperative chemotherapy; Two patients also received the lymphadenectomy of the station 10. E-J reconstruction consisted of hemi-double stapling technique with transorally inserted anvil in 1 case, side-to-side overlap anastomosis in 5 cases and end-to-side anastomosis in 4 cases. One patient experienced intraoperative complications needing conversion to laparotomy. Seven patients experienced postoperative complications, three of these were severe according to Dindo-Clavien classification. All the specimens had free proximal resection margins with R0 resection in all the cases. Average postoperative length of hospital stay was 10 days and no patients died during hospitalization. Median overall survival and disease-free survival were 15.5 and 12.5 months respectively. Conclusion: Totally laparoscopic total gastrectomy is a feasible and safe option in the treatment of gastric cancer. The choice about the type of E-J reconstruction should be based on the single patient’s features and on the dexterity of the surgeon who should be able to perform more than one option for a tailored approach.
TARGET AND LEARNING NEEDS IN ENGLISH FOR MIDWIFERY STUDENTS

Teaching English for midwifery students is categorized as English for Specific Purposes (ESP). In this course, need analysis need to be conducted to discover what students already know, what they need to know, and what they want to know. To this end, the study investigated the target needs and learning needs of midwifery students. A total of 53 students responded to a questionnaire and open-ended interview. The results demonstrated that students wanted to be able to communicate English fluently. Also, they wanted to understand various English texts related to their midwifery field. The result also showed that most students were at the beginner level indicating that they were just able to understand simple sentences and expressions used in a daily life. Regarding learning needs, students preferred to have the input text in the form of dialogue and monologue provided with pictures with the length of the texts of less than 150 words and between 150-250 words. According to the results obtained from this study, it can be concluded that need analysis needs to be conducted before giving the English course based on the students’ field study.
Candidate Indistinguishability Obfuscation and Functional Encryption for all Circuits

In this work, we study indistinguishability obfuscation and functional encryption for general circuits: Indistinguishability obfuscation requires that given any two equivalent circuits C0 and C1 of similar size, the obfuscations of C0 and C1 should be computationally indistinguishable. In functional encryption, cipher texts encrypt inputs x and keys are issued for circuits C. Using the key SKC to decrypt a cipher text CTx = Enc(x), yields the value C(x) but does not reveal anything else about x. Furthermore, no collusion of secret key holders should be able to learn anything more than the union of what they can each learn individually. We give constructions for indistinguishability obfuscation and functional encryption that supports all polynomial-size circuits. We accomplish this goal in three steps: - (1) We describe a candidate construction for indistinguishability obfuscation for NC1 circuits. The security of this construction is based on a new algebraic hardness assumption. The candidate and assumption use a simplified variant of multilinear maps, which we call Multilinear Jigsaw Puzzles. (2) We show how to use indistinguishability obfuscation for NC1 together with Fully Homomorphic Encryption (with decryption in NC1) to achieve indistinguishability obfuscation for all circuits. (3) Finally, we show how to use indistinguishability obfuscation for circuits, public-key encryption, and non-interactive zero knowledge to achieve functional encryption for all circuits. The functional encryption scheme we construct also enjoys succinct cipher texts, which enables several other applications.
Low- and High-Volume of Intensive Endurance Training Significantly Improves Maximal Oxygen Uptake after 10-Weeks of Training in Healthy Men

Regular exercise training improves maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max), but the optimal intensity and volume necessary to obtain maximal benefit remains to be defined. A growing body of evidence suggests that exercise training with low-volume but high-intensity may be a time-efficient means to achieve health benefits. In the present study, we measured changes in VO2max and traditional cardiovascular risk factors after a 10 wk. training protocol that involved three weekly high-intensity interval sessions. One group followed a protocol which consisted of 4×4 min at 90% of maximal heart rate (HRmax) interspersed with 3 min active recovery at 70% HRmax (4-AIT), the other group performed a single bout protocol that consisted of 1×4 min at 90% HRmax (1-AIT). Twenty-six inactive but otherwise healthy overweight men (BMI: 25–30, age: 35–45 y) were randomized to either 1-AIT (n = 11) or 4-AIT (n = 13). After training, VO2max increased by 10% (∼5.0 mL⋅kg−1⋅min−1) and 13% (∼6.5 mL⋅kg−1⋅min−1) after 1-AIT and 4-AIT, respectively (group difference, p = 0.08). Oxygen cost during running at a sub-maximal workload was reduced by 14% and 13% after 1-AIT and 4-AIT, respectively. Systolic blood pressure decreased by 7.1 and 2.6 mmHg after 1-AIT and 4-AIT respectively, while diastolic pressure decreased by 7.7 and 6.1 mmHg (group difference, p = 0.84). Both groups had a similar ∼5% decrease in fasting glucose. Body fat, total cholesterol, LDL-cholesterol, and ox-LDL cholesterol only were significantly reduced after 4-AIT. Our data suggest that a single bout of AIT performed three times per week may be a time-efficient strategy to improve VO2max and reduce blood pressure and fasting glucose in previously inactive but otherwise healthy middle-aged individuals. The 1-AIT type of exercise training may be readily implemented as part of activities of daily living and could easily be translated into programs designed to improve public health. Trial Registration ClinicalTrials.gov NCT00839579
Computation of deep belief networks using special-purpose hardware architecture

The computation of deep belief networks (DBNs) requires a large number of arithmetic operations, which can be handled only by arithmetic operators. However, the operators are utilized only a small fraction of the time (1-5%) when they are computed by general-purpose computers. In this paper, a special-purpose hardware architecture that computes DBNs using a large number of arithmetic operators with a utilization rate greater than 60% is proposed. On the basis of neuron machine architecture, the computation units in the system are controlled according to stage operation table, which specify the sequence of the computation stages; thus, the complicated procedure of the DBN can be carried out in hardware. Moreover, the usage of the memory space is considerably improved by using offset addressing. The proposed schemes are implemented on a hardware simulator coded in MATLAB and on an FPGA chip. The full source code of the hardware simulator is available at a website. The readers can execute the code on the fly and reproduce the proposed schemes. The FPGA implementation achieves a lower computational time by a factor greater than 100 compared to a PC.
Does the Role of Student Factors with Adolescent Substance Use Vary by Geography?

This study assesses the association of 12th-grade student factors (e.g., grades, classroom misbehaviors) with substance use (i.e., binge drinking, cigarette smoking, marijuana) across large, medium-sized, and nonmetropolitan areas. Based on a sample of 2,189 students from the 2013 Monitoring the Future data set, logistic regression analyses showed that poor student academic and behavioral factors were associated with higher substance use after controlling for gender, race, and socioeconomic status. Interaction analyses further showed no significant differences in the influence of student factors on substance use across locales. Results suggest that prevention efforts against substance use should target student factors regardless of area of residency.
Sketching and Summarizing to Reduce Memory for Seductive Details in Science Text

Seductive details refers to interesting pieces of information within an expository text that are only tangentially related to the target concept (Garner, Gillingham, & White, 1989). When the presence of this information results in reduced comprehension, this is called the seductive details effect. Previous work has found the seductive details effect to be resistant to reduction via various instructional manipulations. One avenue that has not been investigated as a tool for reducing the seductive details effect is having students generate sketches. A growing body of research suggests that sketching activities are beneficial for science learning and, moreover, that sketching can improve learning from science text (Ainsworth, Prain, & Tytler, 2011; Van Meter, 2001). The goal of the present research was to investigate the impact of sketching as compared to generating summaries or thinking silently on recall and comprehension of a text that included seductive details. Across two studies, the seductive details effect was replicated; generating sketches did not eliminate it. In Experiment 2, students compared their sketches and summaries to correct ones and were asked to identify differences between them. Results indicated that participants in the summary group recalled the most core concepts and demonstrated the highest comprehension. These results suggest that sketching may not be effective for eliminating the seductive details and that having students generate summaries with feedback may be more successful. These findings inform the design of scaffolding to support learning from naturalistic science text with its distracting details.
Active vision techniques for visually mediated interaction

In this paper we introduce adaptive vision techniques used, for example, in video-conferencing applications. Radial basis function (RBF) networks have been trained for gesture-based communication with colour/motion cues to direct face detection and capture 'attentional frames'. These focus the processing for visually mediated interaction via an appearance-based approach with Gabor filter coefficients used as input to time-delay RBF networks. We use these methods for behaviour (user-camera) coordination in an integrated system.
Sense of community and social identity effect on brand love: Based on the online communities of a luxury fashion brands

ABSTRACT This study investigates the impacts of sense of community and social identity on brand love then its affect on brand advocacy on luxury online brand communities (OBC). It follows the stimulus–organism–response or the S–O–R framework wherein sense of community and social identity represent the stimuli element, while the brand love stands for the organism and lastly the response element is the brand advocacy. Mediating role of the sense of community between social identity and brand love has been also explored. Statistical results of structural equation modelling (SEM) through using AMOS indicate that both sense of community and social identity positively influence the brand love of the customers on OBCs’. Then with the help of these stimuli, the brand love has significant affect on the brand advocacy of the consumers. Mediating effect of the sense of community has been verified and results suggest both theoretical and managerial implications. Exploring the potential influence of the sense of community and social identity is in its infancy and denoting a vital contribution on literature and this paper offers relevant insights that managers could use to strengthen their marketing strategies on the OBCs’ setting.
State-Stewardship Theory and Executive Compensation

We propose a state-stewardship theory competing wit h the traditional agency theory to explain the corporate governance model and executive compensati o policy in China. Under China’s highly politically-oriented institutional environment, Chi nese managers (business elites) are not just profes si nal managers but also government officials (political e lites) directly appointed – even in ‘private’ firms – by the state. Consequently, they do not face inherent conf li ts of interest with the state, but are expected to act as responsible ‘stewards’ of the state. This state-ste ward relationship is amplified when more state-owne d shares are sold to the market. We test the state-stewardsh ip theory on all non-financial listed firms in Chin a for the period 2001 to 2011. Consistent with our conjecture s, we find that Chinese managers are paid much less than their international counterparts and that remunerat ion is lower in firms with larger state-ownership o r stronger (ultimate) state-control. Also, Chinese managers se em to be remunerated not for maximizing equity valu e b t for increasing the value of the state-owned assets. The board of directors only plays a symbolic role; it does not have much influence in terms of advice or super vision and does not seem to regulate managerial pay . Managerial duality does not seem to grant the gener al manager more power in influencing his own remuneration. Furthermore, managers’ remuneration i s not linked to competence and personal traits, but rather to their political connections and prestige, and to the contribution that their firms make to the loca l, regional, or national (macro-)economic targets and hence the (local) officials’ political achievements. Most of the above effects are stronger in the pre-2006 period, becaus e fter the split-share reform of 2006, companies b ecame more market-oriented though state influence still p revails. The results remain robust when we control for endogeneity, measurement errors, outlier effects, a nd sector and regional differences.
G-quadruplex formation in human telomeric (TTAGGG)4 sequence with complementary strand in close vicinity under molecularly crowded condition

Chromosomes in vertebrates are protected at both ends by telomere DNA composed of tandem (TTAGGG)n repeats. DNA replication produces a blunt-ended leading strand telomere and a lagging strand telomere carrying a single-stranded G-rich overhang at its end. The G-rich strand can form G-quadruplex structure in the presence of K+ or Na+. At present, it is not clear whether quadruplex can form in the double-stranded telomere region where the two complementary strands are constrained in close vicinity and quadruplex formation, if possible, has to compete with the formation of the conventional Watson–Crick duplex. In this work, we studied quadruplex formation in oligonucleotides and double-stranded DNA containing both the G- and C-rich sequences to better mimic the in vivo situation. Under such competitive condition only duplex was observed in dilute solution containing physiological concentration of K+. However, quadruplex could preferentially form and dominate over duplex structure under molecular crowding condition created by PEG as a result of significant quadruplex stabilization and duplex destabilization. This observation suggests quadruplex may potentially form or be induced at the blunt end of a telomere, which may present a possible alternative form of structures at telomere ends.
THE ROLE OF PARKS ON PHYSICAL ACTIVITY AND PUBLIC HEALTH

Regular physical activity has been shown to reduce morbidity and mortality by decreasing heart disease, diabetes, high blood pressure, colon cancer, feelings of depression/anxiety, and weight, while building and maintaining healthy bones, muscles, and joints. Due to increasingly sedentary jobs and an increased reliance on motorized transport, leisure-time physical activity may be important in fulfilling recommended physical activity levels. This paper discussed the role of parks to physical activity and public health. Park-based physical activity is a promising means to satisfy current physical activity requirements. However, there is little research concerning what park environmental and policy characteristics might enhance physical activity levels. This paper discussed the relationships between park benefits, park use, and physical activity, and the antecedents of park use. In this classification scheme, the discussion focuses on park environmental characteristics that could be related to physical activity, including park features, condition, access, aesthetics, safety, and policies. The concluded that parks may facilitate social interactions that are critical in maintaining community cohesion, pride, and social capital. It is further recommended that adequate information should be made to ensure that individuals have knowledge on the use and need of parks.
The Shapes, Orientation, and Alignment of Galactic Dark Matter Subhalos

We present a study of the shapes, orientations, and alignments of Galactic dark matter subhalos in the Via Lactea simulation of a Milky Way-size ΛCDM host halo. Whereas isolated dark matter halos tend to be prolate, subhalos are predominantly triaxial. Overall subhalos are more spherical than the host halo, with minor-to-major and intermediate-to-major axis ratios of 0.68 and 0.83, respectively. Like isolated halos, subhalos tend to be less spherical in their central regions. The principal axis ratios are independent of subhalo mass when the shapes are measured within a physical scale such as rVmax, the radius of the peak of the circular velocity curve. Subhalos tend to be slightly more spherical closer to the host halo center. The spatial distribution of the subhalos traces the prolate shape of the host halo when they are selected by the largest Vmax they ever had, i.e., before they experienced strong tidal mass loss. The subhalos’ orientation is not random: the major axis tends to align with the direction toward the host halo center. This alignment disappears for halos beyond 3r200 and is more pronounced when the shapes are measured in the outer regions of the subhalos. The radial alignment is preserved during a subhalo’s orbit and they become elongated during pericenter passage, indicating that the alignment is likely caused by the host halo’s tidal forces. These tidal interactions with the host halo act to make subhalos rounder over time.