Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
KNOWLEDGE, ATTITUDE AND PRACTICE TOWARDS HIV/AIDS IN A RURAL KENYAN COMMUNITY

The aim of this research was to explore people’s knowledge, attitude, behaviour and practice towards HIV/AIDS and sexual activity in rural Kenya, where HIV is widespread. The study community was located in south-eastern Kenya, 50 km north of Mombassa, and had an estimated population of 1500. Subjects aged between 16 and 49 were recruited using a stratified cluster-sampling method and they completed self-administered questionnaires.Almost all respondents knew the word ‘HIV’. Around 50% knew of a person living with HIV. About 80% gave ‘death’ or ‘fear’ as words representing their image of AIDS. With regard to sexual activity, the distribution of answers to the question ‘how many partners have you ever had in your life’ was bimodal in males but had only one peak in females, indicating that some men have a large number of sexual partners in their lifetime. First sexual intercourse was at around 12–13 years for both sexes, but female teenagers were more sexually experienced than their male counterparts.
UK wage inequality: An industry and regional perspective

This paper looks at male wage inequality in the United Kingdom across industries and regions over a fifteen year period. After controlling for the heterogeneity of productivity characteristics across the population, that part of wage inequality which cannot be explained by observable worker characteristics is examined. This is undertaken at both the industry and regional level to assess the key themes dominate in the literature capable of explaining within-group wage inequality, namely: technology; globalisation; female participation; immigration; shifts in the supply of relative education across cohorts; and falling unionisation.
Attitudes & effect of vocational school students' classroom smartphone use in the Spanish Castilla-Leon region

New ICT tools definitely mean new and different ways of accessing and processing information needed for teaching and learning in developed societies. It is of our research interest to study the relations between Spanish vocational school students' attitudes toward smartphone use and how their using educational APPs at class might influence their academic performances. Evidence shows different attitudes toward smartphone restriction policies in classrooms are mainly due to age gap among the surveyed students' population. However, the effect of classroom uses of smartphone on learning process calls for further constant long term observations.
The PDZ-Domain Protein Whirlin Facilitates Mechanosensory Signaling in Mammalian Proprioceptors

Mechanoreception is an essential feature of many sensory modalities. Nevertheless, the mechanisms that govern the conversion of a mechanical force to distinct patterns of action potentials remain poorly understood. Proprioceptive mechanoreceptors reside in skeletal muscle and inform the nervous system of the position of body and limbs in space. We show here that Whirlin/Deafness autosomal recessive 31 (DFNB31), a PDZ-scaffold protein involved in vestibular and auditory hair cell transduction, is also expressed by proprioceptive sensory neurons (pSNs) in dorsal root ganglia in mice. Whirlin localizes to the peripheral sensory endings of pSNs and facilitates pSN afferent firing in response to muscle stretch. The requirement of Whirlin in both proprioceptors and hair cells suggests that accessory mechanosensory signaling molecules define common features of mechanoreceptive processing across sensory systems.
Optimization of Fuel Cost and Emissions Using V2V Communications

Vehicular communication networks are increasingly being considered as a means to conserve fuel and reduce emissions within transportation systems. This paper focuses on using traffic light signals to communicate with approaching vehicles. The communication can be traffic-light-signal-to-vehicle (TLS2V) and vehicle-to-vehicle (V2V). Based on the information sent, the vehicle receiving the message adapts its speed to a recommended speed (SR), which helps the vehicle reduce fuel consumption and emissions. The key contribution of this paper is the proposal of a comprehensive optimization model that involves V2V and TLS2V communications. The objective function is to minimize fuel consumption by and emissions from vehicles. The speed that can achieve this goal is the optimum SR (SR*). We also propose efficient heuristic expressions to compute the optimum or near-optimum value of SR.
Relationships in couples after failed IVF treatment: a prospective follow-up study.

BACKGROUND There are few studies of couples that analyse satisfaction with treatment, adoption plans and relationships in couples after unsuccessful IVF. METHODS ENRICH marital inventory was used to describe marital dynamics and to gain information about treatment and adoption plans. A specially designed questionnaire was used. Of the 51 couples without previous children who were asked to participate after their first failed IVF cycle, 45 participated. The next stage of the study was carried out when the couples had reached the 6 months point after the first IVF cycle, and the last stage after the couples had been through one to three treatments, 1(1/2) years after the last treatment. RESULTS The couples displayed a stable relationship from the start as well as 1 year after the last IVF cycle. The vast majority of the couples had decided to go through with an adoption. Seventy-three per cent of the women were interested in more IVF treatment compared to 33% of the men. CONCLUSION The stresses associated with IVF treatment did not have a negative impact on the couples' appreciation of their relationships during and after the treatment period. After treatment had been completed, the couples seemed to have reoriented themselves toward other solutions to childlessness.
Innovation in Family Firms: A Systematic Literature Review and Guidance for Future Research

Through a systematic review of 118 peer-reviewed journal articles published between 1961 and 2017, this article provides an integrative picture of the state of the art of the family firm innovation literature. Our aim is to widen existing understanding of innovation in family firms by building a theoretical bridge with studies in the mainstream innovation literature. Specifically, in identifying the main gaps in the literature and providing future research directions, our critical and dynamic picture of family-specific determinants of innovation is intended to advance the debate on innovation in general, and family firms in particular.
Erythropoietin and Erythropoietin Receptors in Human CNS Neurons, Astrocytes, Microglia, and Oligodendrocytes Grown in Culture

Erythropoietin (EPO) is a hematopoietic growth factor that stimulates proliferation and differentiation of erythroid precursor cells and is also known to exert neurotrophic activity in the central nervous system (CNS). However, little is known about expression of EPO and EPO receptor (EPOR) in human CNS tissues. In the present study, we investigated the effects of proinflammatory cytokines on EPO and EPOR expression in highly purified cultures of human neurons, astrocytes, microglia, and oligodendrocytes using reverse transcription-polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (ELISA). EPO mRNA was demonstrated only in human astrocytes, while EPOR expression was found in human neurons, astrocytes, and microglia. Neither EPO nor EPOR expression was found in oligodendrocytes. In human astrocytes, EPO mRNA and secreted EPO protein levels were downregulated after exposure to proinflammatory cytokines (IL-1β, IL-6, or TNF-α). In human neurons, TNF-α treatment markedly increased EPOR expression. These results suggest that proinflammatory cytokines regulate expression of EPO and EPOR in human neurons, astrocytes, and microglia and further facilitate interactions among different cell types in the human CNS.
When and how abusive supervision leads to knowledge hiding behaviors

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the association between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors. The authors further investigate how abusive supervision is linked with knowledge hiding behaviors, and why some subordinates, unlike others, tend to engage in more knowledge hiding behaviors in response to abusive supervision. The authors propose that interpersonal justice mediates the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors, and that Islamic work ethics (IWE) weaken the hypothesized relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors. Design/methodology/approach The data were gathered in three time lags from 224 respondents working in the hospitality industry of Pakistan. Findings The results reveal that the abusive supervision is positively associated with a knowledge hiding behaviors. This relationship is mediated by perceptions of interpersonal justice, but the IWE moderated this relationship such that in the presence of high levels of IWE, the impact of abusive supervision on knowledge hiding behaviors is weak. Practical implications Employees’ values and beliefs can serve as a safeguard against reactions to abusive supervision. The impact of abusive supervision on employees’ behaviors may be minimized by building their ethical values around Islamic principles. Originality/value To the best of the knowledge, this is the first study to examine the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors. The authors integrate displaced aggression and social exchange theory with the IWE literature to offer new insights in-to the mechanisms and boundary conditions associated with the relationship between abusive supervision and knowledge hiding behaviors.
Extrachromosomal Recombinant Adeno-Associated Virus Vector Genomes Are Primarily Responsible for Stable Liver Transduction In Vivo

ABSTRACT Recombinant adeno-associated virus (rAAV) vectors stably transduce hepatocytes in experimental animals. Although the vector genomes are found both as extrachromosomes and as chromosomally integrated forms in hepatocytes, the relative proportion of each has not yet been clearly established. Using an in vivo assay based on the induction of hepatocellular regeneration via a surgical two-thirds partial hepatectomy, we have determined the proportion of integrated and extrachromosomal rAAV genomes in mouse livers and their relative contribution to stable gene expression in vivo. Plasma human coagulation factor IX (hF.IX) levels in mice originating from a chromosomally integrated hF.IX-expressing transposon vector remained unchanged with hepatectomy. This was in sharp contrast to what was observed when a surgical partial hepatectomy was performed in mice 6 weeks to 12 months after portal vein injection of a series of hF.IX-expressing rAAV vectors. At doses of 2.4 × 1011to 3.0 × 1011 vector genomes per mouse (n = 12), hF.IX levels and the average number of stably transduced vector genomes per cell decreased by 92 and 86%, respectively, after hepatectomy. In a separate study, one of three mice injected with a higher dose of rAAV had a higher proportion (67%) of integrated genomes, the significance of which is not known. Nevertheless, in general, these results indicate that, in most cases, no more than ∼10% of stably transduced genomes integrated into host chromosomes in vivo. Additionally, the results demonstrate that extrachromosomal, not integrated, genomes are the major form of rAAV in the liver and are the primary source of rAAV-mediated gene expression. This small fraction of integrated genomes greatly decreases the potential risk of vector-related insertional mutagenesis associated with all integrating vectors but also raises uncertainties as to whether rAAV-mediated hepatic gene expression can persist lifelong after a single vector administration.
Sensory environments, larval abilities and local self-recruitment

Models of larval dispersal rarely incorporate the behavior of larvae, yet many potential settlers of marine invertebrates and fishes may navigate toward suitable settlement sites by responding to gradients of environmental stimuli. Accordingly, a variety of stimuli may be used for navigation (directed movements to the source of stimuli) and partial navigation (e.g., migration to a current that may favor transport to a settlement site) in the pelagic environment. A broad diversity of taxa have senses that allow them to detect variation in: water chemistry (biotic sources, e.g., amino acids and abiotic sources, e.g., salinity), sound and vibration (biotic sources, e.g., grunting fishes, abiotic sources, e.g., waves breaking), white light gradients and images, polarized light, current direction, magnetism and water pressure. Some organisms can detect multiple stimuli (e.g., decapods and fishes) and integrated sensory responses are likely to be common; many potential settlers of these taxa are good swimmers. Demonstrations of strong orientation to stimuli and navigation over short (centimeters to meters) and broad spatial scales (tens of meters to tens of kilometers) are most common for these groups. Partial navigation, involving vertical migration, is common for invertebrate larvae. A consequence of vertical migration can be transportation that favors movement to suitable settlement habitat. Navigation over a range of spatial scales may use stimuli that are very predictable regardless of location (e.g., water pressure, gravity). The gradients of other stimuli may be more useful for environment-specific signals and even the location of natal habitats, locations and conspecifics (e.g., using sound or smell of specific taxa). We argue that some larvae may use a hierarchy of sensory cues to find suitable settlement sites and that some of the same types of stimuli may be used at more than one spatial scale (as demonstrated for adult salmonid fishes). There are good demonstrations of the use of cues for orientation and navigation at small spatial scales (less than a few meters). More information, however, is required at spatial scales that are relevant to navigation over kilometers before behavior can be incorporated more accurately into models of larval dispersal.
The Ecological Coherence of Temperature and Salinity Tolerance Interaction and Pigmentation in a Non-marine Vibrio Isolated from Salar de Atacama

The occurrence of microorganisms from the Vibrio genus in saline lakes from northern Chile had been evidenced using Numerical Taxonomy decades before and, more recently, by phylogenetic analyses of environmental samples and isolates. Most of the knowledge about this genus came from marine isolates and showed temperature and salinity to be integral agents in shaping the niche of the Vibrio populations. The stress tolerance phenotypes of Vibrio sp. Teb5a1 isolated from Salar de Atacama was investigated. It was able to grow without NaCl and tolerated up to 100 g/L of the salt. Furthermore, it grew between 17° and 49°C (optimum 30°C) in the absence of NaCl, and the range was expanded into cold temperature (4–49°C) in the presence of the salt. Other additional adaptive strategies were observed in response to the osmotic stress: pigment production, identified as the known antibacterial prodigiosin, swimming and swarming motility and synthesis of a polar flagellum. It is possible to infer that environmental congruence might explain the cellular phenotypes observed in Vibrio sp. considering that coupling between temperature and salinity tolerance, the production of antibacterial agents at higher temperatures, flagellation and motility increase the chance of Vibrio sp. to survive in salty environments with high daily temperature swings and UV radiation.
How ( Not ) to Raise Money 1

We show that standard winner-pay auctions are inept fund-raising mechanisms because of the positive externality bidders forgo if they top another’s high bid. Revenues are suppressed as a result and remain finite even when bidders value a dollar donated the same as a dollar kept. This problem does not occur in lotteries and all-pay auctions where bidders pay irrespective of whether they win. We introduce a general class of all-pay auctions, rank their revenues, and illustrate how they dominate lotteries and winner-pay formats. The optimal fund-raising mechanism is an all-pay auction augmented with an entry fee and reserve price.
Undergraduate fluency with information and communication technology: perceptions and reality

Students must be fluent with information and communication technology (ICT) to participate fully and confidently in the 21st century. However, there is growing concern that despite having grown up with computers and the Internet, today's undergraduates may not be sufficiently fluent with ICT. There is also evidence that suggests a discrepancy between perceptions and reality regarding students' ICT fluency. This paper reports student's perceptions regarding their own ICT fluency and compares their perceptions with actual ICT assessment results. Approximately 200 undergraduate students enrolled in a computer information science (CIS) general education course were surveyed and asked to rate their proficiency performing tasks requiring the use of ICT. These students also completed an online scenario based ICT assessment in which they were required to actually perform tasks associated with accessing, evaluating, integrating and communicating information. The majority of students did not perform at their own perceived level. Results of the study have implications for information literacy, ICT education and assessment.
Both high and low levels of blood vitamin D are associated with a higher prostate cancer risk: A longitudinal, nested case‐control study in the Nordic countries

Vitamin D inhibits the development and growth of prostate cancer cells. Epidemiologic results on serum vitamin D levels and prostate cancer risk have, however, been inconsistent. We conducted a longitudinal nested case‐control study on Nordic men (Norway, Finland and Sweden) using serum banks of 200,000 samples. We studied serum 25(OH)‐vitamin D levels of 622 prostate cancer cases and 1,451 matched controls and found that both low (≤19 nmol/l) and high (≥80 nmol/l) 25(OH)‐vitamin D serum concentrations are associated with higher prostate cancer risk. The normal average serum concentration of 25(OH)‐vitamin D (40–60 nmol/l) comprises the lowest risk of prostate cancer. The U‐shaped risk of prostate cancer might be due to similar 1,25‐dihydroxyvitamin D3 availability within the prostate: low vitamin D serum concentration apparently leads to a low tissue concentration and to weakened mitotic control of target cells, whereas a high vitamin D level might lead to vitamin D resistance through increased inactivation by enhanced expression of 24‐hydroxylase. It is recommended that vitamin D deficiency be supplemented, but too high vitamin D serum level might also enhance cancer development. © 2003 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Association between MUC1 gene polymorphism and expected progeny differences in Nelore cattle (Bos primigenius indicus)

MUC1 is a heavily glycosylated mammalian transmembrane protein expressed by mucosal secretory tissues for both protection against microbial infection and lubrication. An important characteristic of MUC1 is its variable number of tandem repeats (VNTR) containing several sites for O-glycosylation. VNTR length has been associated with many human diseases and with certain economically important traits in domestic ruminants. The aim of the present study was to correlate the length of MUC1 gene VNTR with expected progeny differences (EPDs) obtained for growth, fertility and carcass traits. Five alleles were identified, with alleles containing short VNTRs being more frequent than those with long, thereby demonstrating that Brazilian Nelore cattle are characterized by high frequencies in short MUC1 VNTRs. Statistical analyses revealed there to be no significant association between VNTR length and EPDs for weight at 120 days (W120 ), scrotal circumference at 365 (SC 365 ) and 450 (SC 450 ) days, age at first calving (AFC), and rib eye area (REA).
Scalable Adaptive Stochastic Optimization Using Random Projections

Adaptive stochastic gradient methods such as AdaGrad have gained popularity in particular for training deep neural networks. The most commonly used and studied variant maintains a diagonal matrix approximation to second order information by accumulating past gradients which are used to tune the step size adaptively. In certain situations the full-matrix variant of AdaGrad is expected to attain better performance, however in high dimensions it is computationally impractical. We present Ada-LR and RadaGrad two computationally efficient approximations to full-matrix AdaGrad based on randomized dimensionality reduction. They are able to capture dependencies between features and achieve similar performance to full-matrix AdaGrad but at a much smaller computational cost. We show that the regret of Ada-LR is close to the regret of full-matrix AdaGrad which can have an up-to exponentially smaller dependence on the dimension than the diagonal variant. Empirically, we show that Ada-LR and RadaGrad perform similarly to full-matrix AdaGrad. On the task of training convolutional neural networks as well as recurrent neural networks, RadaGrad achieves faster convergence than diagonal AdaGrad.
Monitoring Grassland Seasonal Carbon Dynamics, by Integrating MODIS NDVI, Proximal Optical Sampling, and Eddy Covariance Measurements

This study evaluated the seasonal productivity of a prairie grassland (Mattheis Ranch, in Alberta, Canada) using a combination of remote sensing, eddy covariance, and field sampling collected in 2012–2013. A primary objective was to evaluate different ways of parameterizing the light-use efficiency (LUE) model for assessing net ecosystem fluxes at two sites with contrasting productivity. Three variations on the NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index), differing by formula and footprint, were derived: (1) a narrow-band NDVI (NDVI680,800, derived from mobile field spectrometer readings); (2) a broad-band proxy NDVI (derived from an automated optical phenology station consisting of broad-band radiometers); and (3) a satellite NDVI (derived from MODIS AQUA and TERRA sensors). Harvested biomass, net CO2 flux, and NDVI values were compared to provide a basis for assessing seasonal ecosystem productivity and gap filling of tower flux data. All three NDVIs provided good estimates of dry green biomass and were able to clearly show seasonal changes in vegetation growth and senescence, confirming their utility as metrics of productivity. When relating fluxes and optical measurements, temporal aggregation periods were considered to determine the impact of aggregation on model accuracy. NDVI values from the different methods were also calibrated against fAPARgreen (the fraction of photosynthetically active radiation absorbed by green vegetation) values to parameterize the APARgreen (absorbed PAR) term of the LUE (light use efficiency) model for comparison with measured fluxes. While efficiency was assumed to be constant in the model, this analysis revealed hysteresis in the seasonal relationships between fluxes and optical measurements, suggesting a slight change in efficiency between the first and second half of the growing season. Consequently, the best results were obtained by splitting the data into two stages, a greening phase and a senescence phase, and applying separate fits to these two periods. By incorporating the dynamic irradiance regime, the model based on APARgreen rather than NDVI best captured the high variability of the fluxes and provided a more realistic depiction of missing fluxes. The strong correlations between these optical measurements and independently measured fluxes demonstrate the utility of integrating optical with flux measurements for gap filling, and provide a foundation for using remote sensing to extrapolate from the flux tower to larger regions (upscaling) for regional analysis of net carbon uptake by grassland ecosystems.