Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence, motivations, and adverse effects of vaginal practices in Africa and Asia: findings from a multicountry household survey.

BACKGROUND Women worldwide use various vaginal practices to clean or modify their vulva and vagina. Additional population-level information is needed on prevalence and motivations for these practices, characteristics of users, and their adverse effects. METHODS This was a household survey using multistage cluster sampling in Tete, Mozambique; KwaZulu-Natal, South Africa; Yogyakarta, Indonesia; and Chonburi, Thailand. In 2006-2007, vaginal practices and their motivations were examined using structured interviews with women 18-60 years of age (n=3610). RESULTS Prevalence, frequency, and motivations varied markedly. Two thirds of women in Yogyakarta and Chonburi reported one or more practices. In Yogyakarta, nearly half ingest substances with vaginal effects, and in Chonburi, external washing and application predominate. In Tete, half reported three or four current practices, and a quarter reported five or more practices. Labial elongation was near universal, and 92% of those surveyed cleanse internally. Two third's in KwaZulu-Natal practiced internal cleansing. Insertion of traditional solid products was rare in Chonburi and Yogyakarta, but one tenth of women in KwaZulu-Natal and nearly two thirds of women in Tete do so. Multivariate analysis of the most common practice in each site showed these were more common among less educated women in Africa and young urban women in Asia. Explicit sexual motivations were frequent in KwaZulu-Natal and Tete, intended for pleasure and maintaining partner commitment. Practices in Chonburi and Yogyakarta were largely motivated by femininity and health. Genital irritation was common at African sites. CONCLUSIONS Vaginal practices are not as rare, exotic, or benign as sometimes assumed. Limited evidence of their biomedical consequences remains a concern; further investigation of their safety and sexual health implications is warranted.
Pupil Dilation as an Indicator of Cognitive Workload in Human-Computer Interaction

Pupil dilation is known to quickly respond to changes in the brightness in the visual field and a person's cognitive workload while performing a visual task. Pupil dilation is rarely analyzed in usability studies although it can be measured by most video-based eye-tracking systems and yields highly relevant workload information. This is mainly due to two problems: First, the variety of factors that can influence pupil dilation, and second, the distortion of pupil-size data by eye movements: The size of the pupil as seen by the eye-tracker camera depends on the person's gaze angle. In the present study, we developed and implemented a neural-network based calibration interface for eye-tracking systems, which is capable of almost completely eliminating the geometry-based distortion of pupil-size data for any human subject. Moreover, we compared the effects of cognitive workload and display brightness on pupil dilation and investigated the interaction of these two factors. The results of our study considerably facilitate the use of pupil dilation as a quick and reliable indicator of a person's cognitive workload.
Infection ecology of Philometra ovata (Nematoda: Philometridae) in a wild European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) population in Finland

SUMMARY Seasonal life cycle of body cavity dwelling (BCD) Philometra ovata (Nematoda: Philometridae) has been reported in southern and central European countries, but its swim bladder dwelling (SBD) stage and northern populations have remained unstudied. In this study, we investigated the seasonal life cycle and infection ecology of P. ovata in both swim bladder and body cavity in the European minnow (Phoxinus phoxinus) in Finland. The larval P. ovata infected the swim bladder of minnows mainly in August. Female SBD P. ovata emigrated to body cavity mostly in September, grew to their full size by the end of the next June, and evacuated from minnows in July. In addition, female SBD P. ovata retarding their development and staying in swim bladder were found commonly in minnows, thus the mean monthly prevalence (6·7 ± 3·9%) and mean intensity (1·4 ± 0·8) of BCD P. ovata was lower than that of SBD P. ovata (37·8 ± 15·1% and 2·0 ± 1·5, respectively). Finally, despite the large size of BCD individuals, infection of P. ovata did not impair body condition and relative gonad size of minnows, but increased the mortality and caused physical damages in their hosts during the evacuation period.
Nitrogen utilization, preweaning nutrient digestibility, and growth effects of Holstein dairy calves fed 2 amounts of a moderately high protein or conventional milk replacer

Abstract Studies have shown that calves fed milk replacers (MR) with crude protein (CP) concentrations greater than 20%, as typically found in conventional MR, have higher dry matter intakes (DMI) and greater average daily gains (ADG) but consume less starter, which can lead to stress during weaning and reduced rumen development. The greater amount of CP being fed to preweaned calves may alter their nitrogen (N) balance, and excess N may be excreted in the urine. The objective of this study was to determine N utilization in preweaned calves fed diets varying in the amount of CP and MR fed. This study used 24 newborn dairy heifer calves blocked by birth and randomly assigned to 1 of 3 treatments: (1) 446g dry matter (DM) of a conventional MR (CON; 20% CP, 20% fat), (2) 669g DM of a moderately high protein MR (moderate; MOD; 26% CP, 18% fat), or (3) 892g DM of a moderately high protein MR (aggressive; AGG; 26% CP, 18% fat). All calves had ad libitum access to starter and water. Both MR and starter were medicated with decoquinate. During weaning (d 43–49), the morning MR feeding ceased. On d 50, all MR feedings ended; however, starter and water intakes were continuously recorded until d 56. At 5wk of age, urine was collected using urinary catheters for 3d and chromium oxide was administered by bolus at 2g/d for 7d to estimate N efficiency. Calves fed MOD and AGG had similar starter intakes, feed efficiencies, and ADG, with the combined treatments having reduced starter intakes (258 vs. 537g/d), greater ADG (674 vs. 422g/d), and improved feed efficiency (0.57 vs. 0.45 gain:feed) compared with CON calves preweaning. However, DMI and water intake were similar across all treatments. Results from the N utilization phase showed that MOD and AGG treatments had similar but lower N efficiency compared with CON calves (45.5 vs. 52.7%). This could be due to MOD- and AGG-fed calves having greater urine volume and thereby, greater combined urine N output compared with CON calves (17.6 vs. 12.1 g/d). In summary, feeding >0.66kg (DM) from a 26% CP MR increased ADG and improved feed efficiency during the preweaning period but reduced starter intake and lowered N efficiency.
A Comparison of Maximum Likelihood and Median-Rank Regression for Weibull Estimation

ABSTRACT The Weibull distribution is frequently used in reliability applications. Many different methods of estimating the parameters and important functions of the parameters (e.g., quantiles and failure probabilities) have been suggested. Maximum likelihood and median-rank regression methods are most commonly used today. Largely because of conflicting results from different studies that have been conducted to investigate the properties of these estimators, there are sharp differences of opinion on which method should be used. The purpose of this article is to report on the results of our simulation study, to provide insight into the differences between the competing methods, and to resolve the differences among the previous studies.
Story segmentation in TV news broadcast

Segmentation of TV news broadcast into semantically meaningful stories is an essential pre-requisite for a wide range of video analytics applications. In this work we have introduced a hybrid approach for news story segmentation based on conditional random fields (CRFs). The story boundary detection problem is converted into a shot classification problem by classifying video shots into either of the four categories. These are start shot, end shot and middle shots of a story or single shot story. To achieve this classification, we have introduced two new features. These are overlay text based semantic similarity and grid-wise edge orientation histogram. The first feature measures the semantic similarity between video shots by linking them through a set of web news articles. We use overlay text with their relevance as weight to link a set of articles with the video shots. The second feature captures the variations in presentation formats. The CRF model effectively combines these two features to model the news stories. Experimental results on approximately 50 hours of news videos demonstrates the efficiency of the proposed features. We were able to achieve an F1 score of 81% with our proposed features.
Contrasted effects of increased N and CO2 supply on two keystone species in peatland restoration and implications for global change

1 Significant areas of temperate bogs have been damaged by peat harvesting but may regenerate. These secondary mires, if well managed, may act as strong C sinks, regulate hydrology and buffer regional climate. 2 The potential effects of bog regeneration will, however, depend on the successful establishment of the principal peat formers –Sphagnum mosses. The influence of hydrology and microclimate on Sphagnum re‐growth is well studied but effects of elevated CO2 and N deposition are not known. 3 We carried out two in‐situ experiments in a cutover bog during three growing seasons in which we raised either CO2 (to 560 p.p.m.) or N (by adding NH4NO3, 3 g m−2 year−1). The two treatments had contrasting effects on competition between the initial coloniser Polytrichum strictum (favoured by high N) and the later coloniser Sphagnum fallax (favoured by high CO2). 4 Such changes may have important consequences for bog regeneration and hence for carbon sequestration in cutover bogs, with potential feedback on regional hydrological and climatic processes.
Experimental Investigations of Behaviour of Biosurfactants in Brine Solutions Relevant to Hydrocarbon Reservoirs

In this study, we investigated the behaviour of rhamnolipid and Greenzyme in brine solutions relevant to hydrocarbon reservoir. Prior to this work, several studies only reported the behaviour of the biosurfactants dissolved in sodium chloride solutions of varied salinity. The results of this study are relevant to the application of the biosurfactants in enhanced oil recovery, during which the compounds are injected into reservoir saturated with formation water, typically of high salinity and complex composition. Surface tension and conductivity methods were used to determine the critical micelle concentrations of the biosurfactants, Gibbs surface excess concentrations and standard free energy at water-air interface. The results show that rhamnolipid and Greenzyme could reduce the surface tension of water from 72.1 ± 0.2 mN/m to 34.7 ± 0.4 mN/m and 47.1 ± 0.1 mN/m respectively. They were also found to be stable in high salinity and high temperature with rhamnolipid being sensitive to brine salinity, composition and pH while Greenzyme showed tolerance for high salinity. Furthermore, the Gibbs standard free energy of micellisation shows that rhamnolipid and Greenzyme have the tendency to spontaneously form micelles with rhamnolipid showing more surface adsorption. However from maximal Gibbs surface excess concentration calculations, Greenzyme monomers tend to favour aggregation more than that of rhamnolipid.
The role of gut endocrine cells in control of metabolism and appetite

What is the topic of this review? Gut hormones, especially glucagon‐like peptide‐1 (GLP‐1), have beneficial effects in diabetes and obesity. Recent research addresses the underlying mechanisms of the secretion and action of GLP‐1. What advances does it highlight? The development of transgenic reporter mice with fluorescently tagged GLP‐1‐secreting cells has helped to characterize the molecular mechanisms underlying hormone secretion and has challenged the traditional classification of enteroendocrine cells by hormone expression alone. Recent adoption of this strategy to label GLP‐1‐receptor‐positive cells has highlighted that peripheral and centrally released GLP‐1 acts on a number of different targets, including a variety of neurons. Evidence for their role in glucose homeostasis and appetite control is discussed.
The Design and Implementation of Open vSwitch

We describe the design and implementation of Open vSwitch, a multi-layer, open source virtual switch for all major hypervisor platforms. Open vSwitch was designed de novo for networking in virtual environments, resulting in major design departures from traditional software switching architectures. We detail the advanced flow classification and caching techniques that Open vSwitch uses to optimize its operations and conserve hypervisor resources. We evaluate Open vSwitch performance, drawing from our deployment experiences over the past seven years of using and improving Open vSwitch.
Emergency department discharge of patients with a negative cranial computed tomography scan after minimal head injury.

OBJECTIVE To determine the negative predictive value of cranial computed tomography (CT) scanning in a prospective series of patients and whether hospital admission for observation is mandatory after a negative diagnostic evaluation after minimal head injury (MHI). SUMMARY BACKGROUND DATA Hospital admission for observation is a current standard of practice for patients who have sustained MHI, despite having undergone diagnostic studies that exclude the presence of an intracranial injury. The reasons for this practice are multifactorial and include the perceived false-negative rate of all standard diagnostic tests, the belief that admission will allow prompt diagnosis of occult injuries, and medicolegal considerations about the risk of early discharge. METHODS In a prospective, multiinstitutional study during a 22-month period at four level I trauma centers, all patients with MHI were evaluated using the following protocol: a standardized physical and neurologic examination in the emergency department, cranial CT scanning, and then admission for observation. MHI was defined as either a documented loss of consciousness or evidence of posttraumatic amnesia and an emergency department Glasgow Coma Scale score of 14 or 15. Outcomes were measured at 20 hours and at discharge and included clinical deterioration, need for craniotomy, and death. RESULTS Two thousand one hundred fifty-two consecutive patients fulfilled the study protocol. The CT was interpreted as negative for intracranial injury in 1,788, positive in 217, and equivocal in 119. Five patients with CT scans initially interpreted as negative required intervention. There was one craniotomy in a patient whose CT scan was initially interpreted as negative. This patient had facial fractures that required surgical intervention and elevation of depressed intracranial fracture fragments. The negative predictive power of a cranial CT scan based on the preliminary reading of the CT scan and defined by the subsequent need for neurosurgical intervention in the population fully satisfying the protocol was 99.70%. CONCLUSIONS Patients with a cranial CT scan, obtained on a helical CT scanner, that shows no intracerebral injury and who do not have other body system injuries or a persistence of any neurologic finding can be safely discharged from the emergency department without a period of either inpatient or outpatient observation. Implementation of this practice could result in a potential decrease of more than 500,000 hospital admissions annually.
Mutation and Human Exceptionalism: Our Future Genetic Load

Although the human germline mutation rate is higher than that in any other well-studied species, the rate is not exceptional once the effective genome size and effective population size are taken into consideration. Human somatic mutation rates are substantially elevated above those in the germline, but this is also seen in other species. What is exceptional about humans is the recent detachment from the challenges of the natural environment and the ability to modify phenotypic traits in ways that mitigate the fitness effects of mutations, e.g., precision and personalized medicine. This results in a relaxation of selection against mildly deleterious mutations, including those magnifying the mutation rate itself. The long-term consequence of such effects is an expected genetic deterioration in the baseline human condition, potentially measurable on the timescale of a few generations in westernized societies, and because the brain is a particularly large mutational target, this is of particular concern. Ultimately, the price will have to be covered by further investment in various forms of medical intervention. Resolving the uncertainties of the magnitude and timescale of these effects will require the establishment of stable, standardized, multigenerational measurement procedures for various human traits.
The Hagedorn transition in noncommutative open string theory

The Hagedorn transition in noncommutative open string theory (NCOS) is relatively simple because gravity decouples. For NCOS theories in no more than five space–time dimensions, the Hagedorn transition is second order, and the high temperature phase involves long, nearly straight fundamental strings separating from the D-brane on which the NCOS theory is defined. Above five spacetime dimensions interaction effects become important below the Hagedorn temperature. Although this complicates studies of the transition, we believe that the high temperature phase again involves long strings liberated from the bound state.
Thermomechanical Implications of Sediment Transport for the Architecture and Evolution of Continental Rifts and Margins

Erosion and deposition redistribute mass as a continental rift evolves, which modifies crustal loads and influences subsequent deformation. Surface processes therefore impact both the architecture and the evolution of passive margins. Here we use coupled numerical models to explore the interactions between the surface, crust, and lithosphere. This interaction is primarily sensitive to the efficiency of the surface processes in transporting mass from source to sink. If transport is efficient, there are two possible outcomes: (1) Faulting within the zone of extension is longer lived and has larger offsets. This implies a reduction of the number of faults and the width of the proximal domain. (2) Efficient transport of sediment leads to significant deposition and hence thermal blanketing. This will induce a switch from brittle to ductile deformation of the upper crust in the distal domains. The feedbacks between these two outcomes depend on the extension history, the underlying lithospheric rheology, and the influence of submarine deposition on sediment transport. High erosion/sedimentation during early faulting leads to abrupt crustal necking, while intermediate syntectonic sedimentation rates over distal deep submarine hotter crust leads to unstructured wide distal domains. In models where rheological conditions favor the formation of asymmetric conjugate margins, only subaerial transport of sediments into the distal domains can increase conjugate symmetry by plastic localization. These models suggest that passive margin architecture can be strongly shaped by the solid Earth structure, sea level, and climatic conditions during breakup.
Homeopathic Complex Remedy in the Treatment of Allergic Rhinitis: Results of a Prospective, Multicenter Observational Study

Background: Seasonal allergic rhinitis (SAR), also known as hay fever, is a widespread chronic respiratory disease. In treatment of SAR the use of complementary therapies is increasing, but little has been published about homeopathic complex remedies so far. Therefore, we think it is time to conduct and publish an appropriate observational study. Methods: Course of single symptoms, impairment of quality of life, general efficacy, and tolerability of a homeopathic complex remedy containing active substances on a low dilution level have been assessed and analyzed. Altogether, 123 patients with a history of allergic rhinitis of up to 45 years have been observed for about 4 weeks. Results: The majority of symptoms were shown to improve substantially and the patients' quality of life increased clearly. The overall symptom score decreased significantly from 10.3 ± 4.7 to 3.9 ± 3.1 points (p < 0.0001), and reduction of impairment of quality of life from 5.7 ± 2.3 to 1.9 ± 1.8 score points was also significant (p < 0.0001). Rating of efficacy of study medication was markedly better than efficacy rating of previous therapies (p = 0.0193). Apart from one temporary allergic reaction, the treatment was well tolerated. Conclusion: The homeopathic complex remedy (Pascallerg®) tested in this observational study offers a useful option in treatment of SAR in children and adults.
Simulations of the galaxy population constrained by observations from z = 3 to the present day: implications for galactic winds and the fate of their ejecta

We apply Monte Carlo Markov Chain (MCMC) methods to large-scale simulations of galaxy formation in a LambdaCDM cosmology in order to explore how star formation and feedback are constrained by the observed luminosity and stellar mass functions of galaxies. We build models jointly on the Millennium and Millennium-II simulations, applying fast sampling techniques which allow observed galaxy abundances over the ranges 7<log(M*/Msun)<12 and z=0 to z=3 to be used simultaneously as constraints in the MCMC analysis. When z=0 constraints alone are imposed, we reproduce the results of previous modelling by Guo et al. (2012), but no single set of parameters can reproduce observed galaxy abundances at all redshifts simultaneously, reflecting the fact that low-mass galaxies form too early and thus are overabundant at high redshift in this model. The data require the efficiency with which galactic wind ejecta are reaccreted to vary with redshift and halo mass quite differently than previously assumed, but in a similar way as in some recent hydrodynamic simulations of galaxy formation. We propose a specific model in which reincorporation timescales vary inversely with halo mass and are independent of redshift. This produces an evolving galaxy population which fits observed abundances as a function of stellar mass, B- and K-band luminosity at all redshifts simultaneously. It also produces a significant improvement in two other areas where previous models were deficient. It leads to present day dwarf galaxy populations which are younger, bluer, more strongly star-forming and more weakly clustered on small scales than before, although the passive fraction of faint dwarfs remains too high.