Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence, Incidence, and Clearance of Anogenital Warts in Kenyan Men Reporting High-Risk Sexual Behavior, Including Men Who Have Sex With Men

Background. Human papillomavirus (HPV) causes a spectrum of disease, ranging from warts to cancer. Prevalence, incidence, and factors associated with anogenital warts in East African men are unknown. Methods. Kenyan men reporting high-risk sexual behavior were inspected for anogenital warts at enrollment and follow-up visits. Logistic regression was performed to identify associations with anogenital warts at baseline. Cox regression was performed to analyze predictors of incident anogenital warts, and Kaplan–Meier curves were used to estimate clearance. Results. Baseline anogenital wart prevalence in 1137 men was 2.9% (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.0%–4.0%) overall, 2.0% in human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)-uninfected men, and 9.4% in HIV-1-infected men (adjusted odds ratio, 5.43; 95% CI, 2.03–11.29). Over a median of 1.4 years, anogenital wart incidence among 1104 men was 5.3 (95% CI, 4.3–6.5) per 100 person-years. Having HIV-1 infection at baseline (adjusted hazard ratio [aHR], 1.66; 95% CI, 1.01–2.72) or a genital syndrome during follow-up (aHR, 4.78; 95% CI, 3.03–7.56) was associated with increased wart incidence. Wart clearance was lower in HIV-1-infected men (log-rank P<.001). Conclusions. Anogenital wart prevalence and incidence were increased in HIV-1-infected men, and anogenital warts co-occurred with other genital syndromes. Quadrivalent HPV vaccination should be recommended for young men in settings with high HIV-1 prevalence.
Relationships Between Delinquency and Substance Use Among Adolescents Emancipating from Foster Care

Adolescents emancipating from foster care exhibit high rates of both delinquency and substance use, although it is less clear how these behaviors relate to one another. We aimed to examine the reciprocal relationships between these risk behaviors while accounting for relevant child welfare factors. We use data from the Multi-Site Evaluation of Foster Youth Programs to explore longitudinal associations between delinquent behaviors and substance use (tobacco, alcohol, and marijuana) among youths ages 17 and 18 (N = 429). Delinquency at age 17 was a positive predictor of substance use at age 18, after controlling for baseline use of substances. In contrast, substance use at age 17 was not predictive of increased delinquency at age 18 after baseline delinquency was controlled. Findings indicate that among youths emancipating from the foster care system, delinquent behavior might increase vulnerability for future substance use, as opposed to the latter.
Patterns of Intergenerational Transmission of Education: the case of Senegal

This paper addresses the relationship between schooling and family background characteristics. The econometric analysis uses an original survey conducted in 2003 in Senegal that, uniquely, provides instruments to deal with the endogeneity of background variables. The estimated eect of father’s education more than doubles when its endogeneity is accounted for and, unexpectedly, becomes much bigger than the impact of mother’s education. We also present results suggesting that family background continues to have as much impact after entry to school as it does at younger ages, and that parental education aects children’s schooling through its contribution to parental preferences.
International Journal of Nephrology and Renovascular Disease Dovepress the Cost-utility of Treating Anemia with Continuous Erythropoietin Receptor Activator or Epoetin versus Routine Blood Transfusions among Chronic Hemodialysis Patients

work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms Objective: The purpose of this study was to determine the cost-utility of treating anemic dialysis patients with continuous erythropoietin receptor activator (CERA) once monthly or Epoetin Beta (EpoB) thrice weekly compared with a reference strategy of managing anemia with red blood cell transfusion (RBCT). Methods: Cost-utility analysis study design. Decision analysis model, National health care payer, over 1 year with the publicly funded health care system. Chronic hemodialysis patients with renal anemia were included. The outcome marker of this study was the incremental cost per quality-adjusted life-year (QALY) gained (incremental cost-utility ratio [ICUR]) of CERA or EpoB relative to RBCT. In sensitivity analysis, the model was most sensitive to hospitalization costs, hospital stay, and annual number of RBCT units. Also, assuming utility and survival improvement with erythropoiesis stimulating agents use resulted in a decrease in ICUR at 13,429 $/QALY for CERA and 15,331 $/QALY for EpoB. In probabilistic sensitivity analysis, the main results of our model were unchanged; CERA and EpoB were more costly and more effective than RBCT below a threshold of 19,500 $/QALY. CERA was the best option for a willingness to pay over 19,500 $/QALY. Limitations: Some model parameters were obtained from observational data, the comparator RBCT is not the standard of care. Conclusion: Our study suggests that managing anemia in dialysis patients with CERA or EpoB may result in better outcomes with higher overall costs. Considering different assumptions , we found substantial variability in the estimates of the cost-utility and incremental of using CERA or EpoB.
Automatic Concept Discovery from Parallel Text and Visual Corpora

Humans connect language and vision to perceive the world. How to build a similar connection for computers? One possible way is via visual concepts, which are text terms that relate to visually discriminative entities. We propose an automatic visual concept discovery algorithm using parallel text and visual corpora, it filters text terms based on the visual discriminative power of the associated images, and groups them into concepts using visual and semantic similarities. We illustrate the applications of the discovered concepts using bidirectional image and sentence retrieval task and image tagging task, and show that the discovered concepts not only outperform several large sets of manually selected concepts significantly, but also achieves the state-of-the-art performance in the retrieval task.
T‐tubule remodeling and increased heterogeneity of calcium release during the progression to heart failure in intact rat ventricle

A highly organized transverse‐tubule (TT) system is essential to normal Ca2+ cycling and cardiac function. We explored the relationship between the progressive disruption of TTs and resulting Ca2+ cycling during the development of heart failure (HF). Confocal imaging was used to measure Ca2+ transients and 2‐D z‐stack images in left ventricular epicardial myocytes of intact hearts from spontaneously hypertensive rats (SHR) and Wistar‐Kyoto control rats. TT organization was measured as the organizational index (OI) derived from a fast Fourier transform of TT organization. We found little decrease in the synchrony of Ca2+ release with TT loss until TT remodeling was severe, suggesting a TT “reserve” characterized by a wide range of TT remodeling with little effect on synchrony of release but beyond which variability in release shows an accelerating sensitivity to TT loss. To explain this observation, we applied a computational model of spatially distributed Ca2+ signaling units to investigate the relationship between OI and excitation‐contraction coupling. Our model showed that release heterogeneity exhibits a nonlinear relationship on both the spatial distribution of release units and the separation between L‐type Ca2+ channels and ryanodine receptors. Our results demonstrate a unique relationship between the synchrony of Ca2+ release and TT organization in myocytes of intact rat ventricle that may contribute to both the compensated and decompensated phases of heart failure.
Multispectral imagery band sharpening study

The fusion of multisensor and multiresolution satellite imagery is an effective means of exploiting the complimentary nature of various image types. With band sharpening (a type of imagery fusion), higher spatial resolution panchromatic data is fused with lower resolution multispectral imagery (MSI). This fusion creates a product with the spectral characteristics of the MSI and a spatial resolution approaching that of the panchromatic image (effective ground-sample distance, or GSD). Others have fused 10-m SPOT panchromatic with 20-m SPOT MSI or 30-m Landsat TM (sharpening factors of 2:l and 3:1). In this study, MSI of 10 m to 30 m was sharpened with 5- to 15-m imagery (sharpening factors of 2:1 to 6:l) using four algorithms. The research goals were to (1) determine the validity of the concept of "effective GSD"; (2) determine the relative utility of band sharpening by different factors; and (3) compare the relative effectiveness of different band sharpening algorithms.
COMPILACIÓN Y ANÁLISIS DE UN CORPUS PARALELO PARA LA INVESTIGACIÓN EN TRADUCCIÓN: PROYECTO CON DÉJÀ VU, TREETAGGER E IMS OPEN CORPUS WORKBENCH

Aunque en los ultimos anos la linguistica de corpus ha experimentado una gran evolucion y en la actualidad cuenta con una creciente presencia en proyectos de investigacion en torno a estudios de Linguistica y Traduccion (por ejemplo: Kubler y Foucou, 2003; Laroche y Langlais, 2010), los procedimientos tecnicos mas avanzados enfocados a la compilacion y explotacion de corpus siguen siendo un escollo. El principal proposito de este trabajo es, por tanto, hacer accesible este tipo de informacion a toda la comunidad investigadora poco experta en la materia. En concreto, presenta la experiencia de creacion de un corpus paralelo alineado con Deja Vu, etiquetado linguisticamente con TreeTagger, documentado con Notepad+ + e indexado con IMS Open Corpus Workbench. Ademas, incluye una breve introduccion a la exploracion y el analisis de corpus con Corpus Query Processor, la principal herramienta de IMS Open Corpus Workbench.
Self-Efficacy, Effort, Job Performance, Job Satisfaction, and Turnover Intention: The Effect of Personal Characteristics on Organization Performance

In the global competitive environment, how to establish and maintain the customer relationship is an important concept of the success. The connection and service of frontline employees to the consumer could play an important role and keep the long-term relationship. Therefore, managers need to find out the effective way in enhance the job performance and job satisfaction of frontline employees, help them provide prominent service, and keep the good long-term relationship with the customers. For the organization, there is a large body of literature that focuses on the variables of organization and how they effect on the frontline employees and job satisfaction. In contrast, little work has pay attention on the personal characteristics, such as the effect of self-efficacy and effort on job performance and job satisfaction. To shed light on these potentially complex relationships, this research was chosen on the basis of convenience sampling and was selected from automobile sales persons of Taipei, Taiwan. Among the total amount of 803 copies, a usable sample of 616 questionnaires was utilized in this study, yielding a response rate of 76.7%. We use the structural equation modeling (SEM) with LISREL to analyze and test the data. The results reveal that (1) Self-efficacy has a positive effect on job performance and job satisfaction; (2) effort has a positive effect on job performance and job satisfaction; (3) job satisfaction has a negative effect on turnover intention. These results increase understanding of the effect of personal characteristics on organization performance and helped organization to explore the management policies.
Acculturation Strategies and its Effect on Depressive Symptoms in the Brazilian Immigrant Community in the Greater Toronto Area

Among several difficulties associated with immigration, acculturation process has been recognized as one of the main stressors and one of the major risk factors associated in the incidence of mental disorders. The strategies adopted by individuals to deal with the acculturation process appear to be predictive of different mental health outcomes. This exploratory study investigated the relationship between acculturation strategies and the occurrence of symptoms of depression in the context of the Brazilian immigrant community living in the Greater Toronto Area. The results demonstrated that Separation and Assimilation were the predominant strategies for this sample and that acculturation strategies failed to serve as significant predictors of depression scores. However, participants with Separation as their predominant acculturation strategy exhibited higher depressive symptom endorsement. The significance of these findings in the context of previous research as well as its implications for future research and critical multicultural practice in mental health are discussed.
Left Ventricular Assist Device Infections: A Systematic Review

Left ventricular assist devices (LVADs) are becoming a more frequent life-support intervention. Gaining an understanding of risk factors for infection and management strategies is important for treating these patients. We conducted a systematic review and meta-analysis of studies describing infections in continuous-flow LVADs. We evaluated incidence, risk factors, associated microorganisms, and outcomes by type of device and patient characteristics. Our search identified 90 distinct studies that reported LVAD infections and outcomes. Younger age and higher body mass index were associated with higher rates of LVAD infections. Driveline infections were the most common infection reported and the easiest to treat with fewest long-term consequences. Bloodstream infections were not reported as often, but they were associated with stroke and mortality. Treatment strategies varied and did not show a consistent best approach. LVAD infections are a significant cause of morbidity and mortality in LVAD patients. Most research comes from secondary analyses of other LVAD studies. The lack of infection-oriented research leaves several areas understudied. In particular, bloodstream infections in this population merit further research. Providers need more research studies to make evidence-based decisions about the prevention and treatment of LVAD infections.
Anti-Hebbian Long-Term Potentiation in the Hippocampal Feedback Inhibitory Circuit

Long-term potentiation (LTP), which approximates Hebb's postulate of associative learning, typically requires depolarization-dependent glutamate receptors of the NMDA (N-methyl-D-aspartate) subtype. However, in some neurons, LTP depends instead on calcium-permeable AMPA-type receptors. This is paradoxical because intracellular polyamines block such receptors during depolarization. We report that LTP at synapses on hippocampal interneurons mediating feedback inhibition is “anti-Hebbian”:Itis induced by presynaptic activity but prevented by postsynaptic depolarization. Anti-Hebbian LTP may occur in interneurons that are silent during periods of intense pyramidal cell firing, such as sharp waves, and lead to their altered activation during theta activity.
Functional anatomy of interhemispheric cortical connections in the human brain

Interhemsipheric interaction between the human cerebral hemispheres is served by abundant white‐matter fibres in the human corpus callosum (CC). Damage to these fibres has notable behavioural and cognitive sequelae that depend on the exact location of the fibre loss. Until now, correlations between fibre loss and neurological disorders have been limited to post‐mortem studies. Here we used probabilistic diffusion magnetic resonance imaging tractography to produce a two‐dimensional map of the CC in the mid‐sagittal plane. We observed an antero‐posterior topography of interhemispheric tracts within the CC, consistent with our current neuroanatomical understanding of post‐mortem studies in human. Callosal tract to the left and right hemispheres had comparable volume. Gender, a factor that is often reported to affect CC shape and geometry, also had no effect on the volume of the tracts. Our map showed high consistency across individuals. We propose that this map might be useful in the study of the effects of damage to human CC in neurodegenerative and cognitive disorders.
Pentoxifylline suppressed LPS-induced inflammatory and apoptotic signaling in neuronal cells

Several studies have reported a relation between increased pro-inflammatory mediators such as TNF-α and apoptosis in neurodegenerative diseases such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD). It is known that lipopoly-saccharide (LPS) treatment induces neuroinflammation and memory deterioration, and it has been reported that LPS induces apoptosis mostly through the production of TNF-α. Pentoxifylline (PTX), is a vascular protective agent and a potent TNF-alpha inhibitor. However, the molecular neuroprotective mechanisms of PTX against LPS-induced neurotoxicity have not been well studied. In this study, we investigated the direct protective effect of PTX against LPS-induced toxicity in Rat pheochromocytoma (PC12) cell line. The results showed that a pretreatment with PTX prior exposure to LPS signifycantly decreased LPS-induced cell death. Mechanisms study showed that PTX has the potential to inhibit pro-inflammatory and pro-apoptotic pathways via the suppression of TNF-α and a caspase-dependent pathway in neuronal PC12 cells. This is the first study to report the anti-inflammatory and anti-apoptotic effects of PTX via inhibition of TNF-α and a caspase-dependent pathway in neuronal PC12 cells. Altogether, these observations indicate that PTX is capable of promoting neuroprotective effects, meanwhile also present some insights into the potential signaling pathways that are involved. Thus, these findings support the potential for PTX to be investigated as a potential agent for the treatment of neurodegenerative diseases such as AD.
Modifying Variability and Correlations in Winner-Take-All Contests

We consider contests with a fixed proportion of winners based on relative performance. Special attention is paid to winner-take-all contests, which we define as contests with relatively few winners receiving relatively large awards, but we consider the full range of values of the proportion of winners. If a contestant has the opportunity to modify the distribution of her performance, what strategy is advantageous? When the proportion of winners is less than one-half, a riskier performance distribution is preferred; when this proportion is greater than one-half, it is better to choose a less risky distribution. Using a multinormal model, we consider modifications in the variability of the distribution and in correlations with the performance of other contestants. Increasing variability and decreasing correlations lead to improved chances of winning when the proportion of winners is less than one-half, and the opposite directions should be taken for proportions greater than one-half. Thus, it is better to take chances and to attempt to distance oneself from the other contestants (i.e., to break away from the herd) when there are few winners; a more conservative, herding strategy makes sense when there are many winners. Our analytical and numerical results indicate that the probability of winning can change substantially as variability and/or correlations are modified. Furthermore, in a game-theoretic setting in which all contestants can make modifications, choosing a riskier (less risky) performance distribution when the proportion of winners is low (high) is the dominant best-response strategy. We briefly consider some practical issues related to the recommended strategies and some possible extensions.
A Discriminative Approach to Japanese Zero Anaphora Resolution with Large-scale Lexicalized Case Frames

We present a discriminative model for Japanese zero anaphora resolution that simultaneously determines an appropriate case frame for a given predicate and its predicate-argument structure. Our model is based on a log linear framework, and exploits lexical features obtained from a large raw corpus, as well as non-lexical features obtained from a relatively small annotated corpus. We report the results of zero anaphora resolution on Web text and demonstrate the effectiveness of our approach. In addition, we also investigate the relative importance of each feature for resolving zero anaphora in Web text.
Accurate sequence-based prediction of catalytic residues

MOTIVATION Prediction of catalytic residues provides useful information for the research on function of enzymes. Most of the existing prediction methods are based on structural information, which limits their use. We propose a sequence-based catalytic residue predictor that provides predictions with quality comparable to modern structure-based methods and that exceeds quality of state-of-the-art sequence-based methods. RESULTS Our method (CRpred) uses sequence-based features and the sequence-derived PSI-BLAST profile. We used feature selection to reduce the dimensionality of the input (and explain the input) to support vector machine (SVM) classifier that provides predictions. Tests on eight datasets and side-by-side comparison with six modern structure- and sequence-based predictors show that CRpred provides predictions with quality comparable to current structure-based methods and better than sequence-based methods. The proposed method obtains 15-19% precision and 48-58% TP (true positive) rate, depending on the dataset used. CRpred also provides confidence values that allow selecting a subset of predictions with higher precision. The improved quality is due to newly designed features and careful parameterization of the SVM. The features incorporate amino acids characterized by the highest and the lowest propensities to constitute catalytic residues, Gly that provides flexibility for catalytic sites and sequence motifs characteristic to certain catalytic reactions. Our features indicate that catalytic residues are on average more conserved when compared with the general population of residues and that highly conserved amino acids characterized by high catalytic propensity are likely to form catalytic sites. We also show that local (with respect to the sequence) hydrophobicity contributes towards the prediction.
Sustaining the support in four-year-olds in childcare services with the goal of promoting their cognitive and language development

ABSTRACT This paper aims to describe the quality of play as offered by early childhood educators working with four-year-olds within an educational childcare service. It also aims to identify the correlation between the quality of play support and a child’s cognitive, language and socio-emotional development. Finally, it focuses on the factors associated with the quality of play support provided by educational childcare centres and the characteristics of the educators involved. The sample included 170 educators working with four-year-olds. Results show that higher quality of play are linked with higher cognitive and language development. Other factors with a positive impact on play include: group of eight children, higher educator-to-child ratios, groups with male educators and groups whose personnel have followed more than 24 hours of in-service training and who express positive feelings towards their work. The discussion addresses the significance of these findings in childcare services.