Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association between gait speed and muscle mass and strength in postmenopausal women

Background: ‪Gait speed (GS) is the most popular tool used in clinical practice to diagnose functional performance. In order to maintain the independence of the elderly, it is useful to determine the association between gait speed and skeletal muscle mass, as well as the strength of the lower and upper extremities, which was the aim of this study. Material and methods: ‪The study involved 95 women in the postmenopausal period. The skeletal muscle mass (SM) was determined using a bioelectric impedance method using an octapolar bioimpedance InBody 720 analyzer. Upper limb strength was measured using the handgrip strength (HS) and arm curl (SAC) tests. The strength of the lower extremities was tested using a 30-second chair stand (SCS) test and the speed was based on the GS test. Results: ‪A significant correlation between the GS test results and the strength of the lower extremities (r = 0.23; p = 0.03) was demonstrated. There was no correlation between GS and the strength of the upper extremities, muscle mass & the skeletal muscle mass index (SMI). Conclusions: ‪Our observations can be useful for instructors and trainers in the process of programming physical activity of older women and in diagnostics of sarcopenia.
An adaptive teleportation random walk model for learning social tag relevance

Social tags are known to be a valuable source of information for image retrieval and organization. However, contrary to the conventional document retrieval, rich tag frequency information in social sharing systems, such as Flickr, is not available, thus we cannot directly use the tag frequency (analogous to the term frequency in a document) to represent the relevance of tags. Many heuristic approaches have been proposed to address this problem, among which the well-known neighbor voting based approaches are the most effective methods. The basic assumption of these methods is that a tag is considered as relevant to the visual content of a target image if this tag is also used to annotate the visual neighbor images of the target image by lots of different users. The main limitation of these approaches is that they treat the voting power of each neighbor image either equally or simply based on its visual similarity. In this paper, we cast the social tag relevance learning problem as an adaptive teleportation random walk process on the voting graph. In particular, we model the relationships among images by constructing a voting graph, and then propose an adaptive teleportation random walk, in which a confidence factor is introduced to control the teleportation probability, on the voting graph. Through this process, direct and indirect relationships among images can be explored to cooperatively estimate the tag relevance. To quantify the performance of our approach, we compare it with state-of-the-art methods on two publicly available datasets (NUS-WIDE and MIR Flickr). The results indicate that our method achieves substantial performance gains on these datasets.
Input Choice under Carbon Constraint

This paper assesses the impact of emission trading on short-term input demand as well as on long-term production decisions, tacking into account uncertainty in the polluting input price and abatement by input substitution. We find that firms decisions depend on the interplay between three effects. First, the "average cost effect", due to the carbon price, causes a decrease in the input capacity with respect to a reference case where the permits market does not exist. Second, the "marginal variability effect" or the impact of price variability, which instead leads to an expansion of the installed equipment. Third, the "technology effect", i.e. the extent of substitution between polluting and clean inputs. Model simulations show that this interaction can result in weak emission reductions.
Concealment and revelation as bureaucratic and ethnographic practice: Lessons from Tunisian prisons

Drawing on preparatory work for a study of prison life in Tunisia, this article explores the twin practices of concealing and revealing that are common features of bureaucratic and ethnographic practice. Insights from the anthropology of bureaucracy and secrecy are brought into conversation with the experience of prison ethnographers (seasoned and novice) to illuminate the way prisons as peculiar sites of rule-based domination call for a particular hyper-reflexive methodological approach best understood as ‘craft’. The encounter between research team and prison bureaucracy is documented, and its multi-layered quality illustrated with descriptions of interactions in three prisons and at prison headquarters. This hesitant, slowly unfolding, constrained and contingent negotiation of boundaries is characterised as a gradual sharing of secrets where the configuration of our relationship with gatekeepers – with whom we shared and who shared with us – is highly instructive about prison life, bureaucratic practice and ethnography. The article demonstrates the fundamental role of practices of concealment and revelation in human and institutional interaction.
Kinetic control of translation initiation in bacteria

Translation initiation is a crucial step of protein synthesis which largely defines how the composition of the cellular transcriptome is converted to the proteome and controls the response and adaptation to environmental stimuli. The efficiency of translation of individual mRNAs, and hence the basal shape of the proteome, is defined by the structures of the mRNA translation initiation regions. Initiation efficiency can be regulated by small molecules, proteins, or antisense RNAs, underscoring its importance in translational control. Although initiation has been studied in bacteria for decades, many aspects remain poorly understood. Recent evidence has suggested an unexpected diversity of pathways by which mRNAs can be recruited to the bacterial ribosome, the importance of structural dynamics of initiation intermediates, and the complexity of checkpoints for mRNA selection. In this review, we discuss how the ribosome shapes the landscape of translation initiation by non-linear kinetic processing of the transcriptome information. We summarize the major pathways by which mRNAs enter the ribosome depending on the structure of their 5′ untranslated regions, the assembly and the structure of initiation intermediates, the individual and synergistic roles of initiation factors, and the mechanisms of mRNA and initiator tRNA selection.
Recovery From Monocular Deprivation Using Binocular Deprivation: Experimental Observations and Theoretical Analysis

Ocular dominance (OD) plasticity is a robust paradigm for examining the functional consequences of synaptic plasticity. Previous experimental and theoretical results have shown that OD plasticity can be accounted for by known synaptic plasticity mechanisms, using the assumption that deprivation by lid suture eliminates spatial structure in the deprived channel. Here we show that in the mouse, recovery from monocular lid suture can be obtained by binocular lid suture but not by dark rearing. This poses a significant challenge to previous theoretical results. We therefore performed simulations with a natural input environment appropriate for mouse visual cortex. In contrast to previous work we assume that lid suture causes degradation but not elimination of spatial structure, whereas dark rearing produces elimination of spatial structure. We present experimental evidence that supports this assumption, measuring responses through sutured lids in the mouse. The change in assumptions about the input environment is sufficient to account for new experimental observations, while still accounting for previous experimental results.
Assessment of Ethnicity in Indian Population using Tooth Crown Metric Dental Traits

Background: Tooth crown dimensions vary between different ethnic groups, providing insights into the factors controlling human dental development. This present study compares permanent mesiodistal (MD) and buccolingual crown dimensions between four ethnic groups, highlighting patterns of tooth size between these groups and considers the findings in relation to genetic and environmental influences. Materials and Methods: MD and buccolingual tooth crown dimensions were recorded using digital vernier calipers on dental casts derived from four different human population: Iranians, Hindus, Muslims, and Christians. Results: Obtained measurements were subjected to statistical analysis. The Christian sample was found to have the largest teeth overall, whereas the Iranian sample generally displayed the smallest MD and buccolingual crown dimensions (P < 0.001). Comparisons of coefficients of variation for teeth within each class showed that the later-forming teeth displayed greater variation in MD size than the earlier-forming teeth. Conclusion: The different patterns of tooth size observed between the study samples are thought to reflect differences in the relative contributions of genetic and environmental influences to dental development between the four population. Using a standardized methodology, significant differences in MD and buccolingual crown dimensions have been demonstrated between four human ethnic groups. There were also distinct differences in the patterns of crown size between the groups, with the later-forming teeth in each type generally showing greater size variation.
Combining lexicon-based and learning-based methods for twitter sentiment analysis

With the booming of microblogs on the Web, people have begun to express their opinions on a wide variety of topics on Twitter and other similar services. Sentiment analysis on entities (e.g., products, organizations, people, etc.) in tweets (posts on Twitter) thus becomes a rapid and effective way of gauging public opinion for business marketing or social studies. However, Twitter's unique characteristics give rise to new problems for current sentiment analysis methods, which originally focused on large opinionated corpora such as product reviews. In this paper, we propose a new entity-level sentiment analysis method for Twitter. The method first adopts a lexiconbased approach to perform entity-level sentiment analysis. This method can give high precision, but low recall. To improve recall, additional tweets that are likely to be opinionated are identified automatically by exploiting the information in the result of the lexicon-based method. A classifier is then trained to assign polarities to the entities in the newly identified tweets. Instead of being labeled manually, the training examples are given by the lexicon-based approach. Experimental results show that the proposed method dramatically improves the recall and the F-score, and outperforms the state-of-the-art baselines. External Posting Date: June 21, 2011 [Fulltext] Approved for External Publication Internal Posting Date: June 21, 2011 [Fulltext]  Copyright 2011 Hewlett-Packard Development Company, L.P. Combining Lexicon-based and Learning-based Methods for Twitter Sentiment Analysis Lei Zhang, Riddhiman Ghosh, Mohamed Dekhil, Meichun Hsu, Bing Liu Hewlett-Packard Laboratories University of Illinois at Chicago 1501 Page Mill Rd., Palo Alto, CA 851 S. Morgan St., Chicago, IL {riddhiman.ghosh, mohamed.dekhil, {lzhang3, liub}@cs.uic. edu meichun.hsu}@hp.com
Academic Freedom, Private-Sector Focus, and the Process of Innovation

We develop a model that clarifies the respective advantages and disadvantages of academic and private-sector research. Rather than relying on lack of appropriability or spillovers to generate a rationale for academic research, we emphasize control-rights considerations, and argue that the fundamental tradeoff between academia and the private sector is one of creative control versus focus. By serving as a precommitment mechanism that allows scientists to freely pursue their own interests, academia can be indispensable for early-stage research. At the same time, the private sector's ability to direct scientists toward higher-payoff activities makes it more attractive for later-stage research.
Seven new hypselostomatid species from China, including some of the world’s smallest land snails (Gastropoda, Pulmonata, Orthurethra)

Abstract Seven new species of Hypselostomatidae are described from the Chinese province Guangxi: Angustopila dominikae Páll-Gergely & Hunyadi, sp. n. , Angustopila fabella Páll-Gergely & Hunyadi, sp. n. , Angustopila subelevata Páll-Gergely & Hunyadi, sp. n. , Angustopila szekeresi Páll-Gergely & Hunyadi, sp. n. , Hypselostoma socialis Páll-Gergely & Hunyadi, sp. n. , Hypselostoma lacrima Páll-Gergely & Hunyadi, sp. n. and Krobylos sinensis Páll-Gergely & Hunyadi, sp. n. The latter species is reported from three localities. All other new species are known only from the type locality. Specimens nearly identical to the type specimens of Angustopila huoyani Jochum, Slapnik & Páll-Gergely, 2014 were found in a cave in northern Guangxi, 500 km from the type locality. Adult individuals of Angustopila subelevata sp. n. (shell height = 0.83–0.91 mm, mean = 0.87 mm) and Angustopila dominikae sp. n. (shell height of the holotype = 0.86 mm) represent the smallest known members of the Hypselostomatidae, and thus are amongst the smallest land snails ever reported. We note that Pyramidula laosensis Saurin, 1953 might also belong to Krobylos. Paraboysidia neglecta van Benthem Jutting, 1961, which was previously included in Angustopila, is classified in Hypselostoma.
Growth and development at the age of 1.5 years in children with maternal hypertension

To determine the effect of maternal hypertension additional to intrauterine growth retardation and prematurity, the growth and development of 58 preterm and 143 full-term children of hypertensive mothers was evaluated at 1.5 years of corrected age. The results were compared with 128 preterm and 175 full-term children of normotensive mothers, respectively. Children with intrauterine growth retardation were examined separately from those without. Growth was similar between index and control pairs of groups but was delayed in preterm children born to pre-eclamptic mothers. Developmental differences were found between the index and control groups, but the only children clearly at developmental risk were those born prematurely to pre-eclamptic mothers, and those born prematurely with IUGR irrespective of aetiology. Generally the outcome of children of hypertensive mothers was good.
Residents’ Willingness to Pay for Household Kitchen Waste Separation Services in Haidian and Dongcheng Districts, Beijing City

This paper reports a contingent valuation study on household kitchen waste separation (HKWS) services via willingness to pay (WTP) conducted in the Haidian and Dongcheng districts of Beijing city in 2013. This study focuses on a real program to understand households’ attitudes toward HKWS and to estimate the value of HKWS services. The results of this study revealed that 41.4% agreed to accept the proposed price of HKWS services, while 42.2% refused to pay, but with a positive attitude toward the HKWS program. In addition, respondents’ WTP for proposed HKWS services is significantly related to the level of bid price and their gender, age and education experience. Attitudinal factors that affect resident WTP were also found. For example, respondents who perceive themselves as having a higher ability to conduct HKWS at the source are more willing to pay for their HKWS services, while respondents who complain of the inconvenience of conducting HKWS show negative WTP. The results also showed that on average each household is willing to pay about US$1.44 per month for HKWS services, which is based on 327 respondents after excluding 64 (16.4% of all sample) who indicated complete opposition to the HKWS program.
Phylogenomic Analyses and Reclassification of Species within the Genus Tsukamurella: Insights to Species Definition in the Post-genomic Era

Owing to the highly similar phenotypic profiles, protein spectra and 16S rRNA gene sequences observed between three pairs of Tsukamurella species (Tsukamurella pulmonis/Tsukamurella spongiae, Tsukamurella tyrosinosolvens/Tsukamurella carboxy-divorans, and Tsukamurella pseudospumae/Tsukamurella sunchonensis), we hypothesize that and the six Tsukamurella species may have been misclassified and that there may only be three Tsukamurella species. In this study, we characterized the type strains of these six Tsukamurella species by tradition DNA–DNA hybridization (DDH) and “digital DDH” after genome sequencing to determine their exact taxonomic positions. Traditional DDH showed 81.2 ± 0.6% to 99.7 ± 1.0% DNA–DNA relatedness between the two Tsukamurella species in each of the three pairs, which was above the threshold for same species designation. “Digital DDH” based on Genome-To-Genome Distance Calculator and Average Nucleotide Identity for the three pairs also showed similarity results in the range of 82.3–92.9 and 98.1–99.1%, respectively, in line with results of traditional DDH. Based on these evidence and according to Rules 23a and 42 of the Bacteriological Code, we propose that T. spongiae Olson et al. 2007, should be reclassified as a later heterotypic synonym of T. pulmonis Yassin et al. 1996, T. carboxydivorans Park et al. 2009, as a later heterotypic synonym of T. tyrosinosolvens Yassin et al. 1997, and T. sunchonensis Seong et al. 2008 as a later heterotypic synonym of T. pseudospumae Nam et al. 2004. With the advancement of genome sequencing technologies, classification of bacterial species can be readily achieved by “digital DDH” than traditional DDH.
Achieving fairness in multiplayer network games through automated latency balancing

Over the past few years, the prominence of multiplayer network gaming has increased dramatically in the Internet. The effect of network delay (lag) on multiplayer network gaming has been studied before. Players with higher delays (whether due to slower connections, congestion or a larger distance to the server) are at a clear disadvantage relative to players with low delay. In this paper we evaluate whether eliminating the delay differences will provide a fairer solution whilst maintaining good gameplay. We have designed and implemented an application that can be used with existing network games to equalize the delay differences. To evaluate the effectiveness of the approach we use a novel method involving computer players (bots) instead of human players. This method provides some advantages over difficult and time-consuming human usability trials. We show that bots experience similar unfairness problems as humans and demonstrate that the application we have developed significantly improves fairness.
Foreign Acquisitions by UK Limited Companies: Long-run Performance in the US, Continental Europe and the Rest of the World

In this paper, we consider the short and long-run performance of UK firms following foreign acquisitions. Based on a near-exhaustive sample of significant foreign acquisitions by UK companies over the period 1985-1994, we show that short-run returns are insignificantly different from zero irrespective of the location of the acquisition. Further analysis reveals that the distribution of the event period returns is determined by changes in the exchange rate, the presence of the acquiring firm in the target country and by US tax reforms. While long-run returns are not significantly different from zero on average, they show considerable variation by region. Specifically, firms under-perform following acquisition in the US, show insignificant returns following acquisitions in the EU and acquisitions elsewhere show significant positive returns. Examination of the distribution of these returns suggest that, in accordance with the ownership-location-internalisation hypothesis of FDI, long-run performance is more likely to depend on the firm-specific advantages such as R&D.
Studying political microblogging: Twitter users in the 2010 Swedish election campaign

Among the many so-called microblogging services that allow their users to describe their current status in short posts, Twitter is probably among the most popular and well known. Since its launch in 2006, Twitter use has evolved and is increasingly used in a variety of contexts. This article utilizes emerging online tools and presents a rationale for data collection and analysis of Twitter users. The suggested approach is exemplified with a case study: Twitter use during the 2010 Swedish election. Although many of the initial hopes for e-democracy appear to have gone largely unfulfilled, the successful employment of the internet during the 2008 US presidential campaign has again raised voices claiming that the internet, and particularly social media applications like Twitter, provides interesting opportunities for online campaigning and deliberation. Besides providing an overarching analysis of how Twitter use was fashioned during the 2010 Swedish election campaign, this study identifies different user types based on how high-end users utilized the Twitter service. By suggesting a novel approach to the study of microblogging and by identifying user types, this study contributes to the burgeoning field of microblog research and gives specific insights into the practice of civic microblogging.
Oral Supplementation with Cholecalciferol 800 IU Ameliorates Albuminuria in Chinese Type 2 Diabetic Patients with Nephropathy

Background Low vitamin D levels can be associated with albuminuria, and vitamin D analogs are effective anti-proteinuric agents. The aim of this study was to investigate differences in vitamin D levels between those with micro- and those with macroalbuminuria, and to determine whether low dose cholecalciferol increases vitamin D levels and ameliorates albuminuria. Methods Two studies were performed in which 25-OH vitamin D3 (25(OH)D3) concentrations were determined by electrochemiluminescence immunoassay: 1) a cross-sectional study of patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) (n = 481) and healthy controls (n = 78); and 2) a longitudinal study of T2DM patients with albuminuria treated with conventional doses, 800 IU, of cholecalciferol for 6 months (n = 22), and a control group (n = 24). Results 1) Cross-sectional study: Compared to controls and T2DM patients with normoalbuminuria, serum 25(OH)D3 concentrations were significantly lower in patients with macro-albuminuria, but not in those with micro-albuminuria. Serum 25(OH)D3 levels were independently correlated with microalbuminuria. 2) Longitudinal study: Cholecalciferol significantly decreased microalbuminuria in the early stages of treatment, in conjunction with an increase in serum 25(OH)D3 levels. Conclusions Low vitamin D levels are common in type 2 diabetic patients with albuminuria, particularly in patients with macroalbuminuria, but not in those with microalbuminuria. Conventional doses of cholecalciferol may have antiproteinuric effects on Chinese type 2 diabetic patients with nephropathy.