Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Plastic Bodies: Sex Hormones and Menstrual Suppression in Brazil

In Plastic Bodies Emilia Sanabria examines how sex hormones are enrolled to create, mold, and discipline social relations and subjectivities. She shows how hormones have become central to contemporary understandings of the body, class, gender, sex, personhood, modernity, and Brazilian national identity. Through interviews with women and doctors; observations in clinics, research centers and pharmacies; and analyses of contraceptive marketing, Sanabria traces the genealogy of menstrual suppression, from its use in population control strategies in the global South to its remarketing as a practice of pharmaceutical self-enhancement couched in neoliberal notions of choice. She links the widespread practice of menstrual suppression and other related elective medical interventions to Bahian views of the body as a malleable object that requires constant work. Given this bodily plasticity, and its potentially limitless character, the book considers ways to assess the values attributed to bodily interventions. Plastic Bodies will be of interest to all those working in medical anthropology, gender studies, and sexual and reproductive health.
CEO Overconfidence and Dividend Policy

We develop a model of the dynamic interaction between CEO overconfidence and dividend policy. The model shows that an overconfident CEO views external financing as costly and hence builds financial slack for future investment needs by lowering the current dividend payout. Consistent with the main prediction, we find that the level of dividend payout is about one-sixth lower in firms managed by CEOs who are more likely to be overconfident. We document that this reduction in dividends associated with CEO overconfidence is greater in firms with lower growth opportunities and lower cash flow. We also show that the magnitude of the positive market reaction to a dividend-increase announcement is higher for firms with greater uncertainty about CEO overconfidence.
Suicidal Behavior in Schizophrenia may be Related to Low Lipid Levels

Background Lifetime suicide mortality in people with schizophrenia is approximately 4–5%, which is higher than in the general population. In mood disorders, many studies and meta-analyses have shown a link between suicidal behavior and low lipid levels, especially that of cholesterol, and some studies have also suggested such a relationship in schizophrenia. Therefore, the aim of the present study was to investigate a possible correlation between suicidal behavior and lipid levels in schizophrenia patients recently admitted to a psychiatric hospital. Material/Methods Our study included 148 (69 males, 79 females) schizophrenia patients with a mean age of 32±10 years, all recently admitted due to acute exacerbation of their mental illness. Psychometric and laboratory assessments were made within 24–72 hours after hospital admission. The main purpose of the interview was to assess occurrence of any suicidal thoughts, suicidal tendencies, and/or suicide attempts during the 3 months prior to admission. Serum total, LDL and HDL cholesterol, as well as triglycerides and total lipids were measured. Results A significant association was found between suicidal thoughts and attempts and low total cholesterol, LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and total lipids, in both male and female patients. In male patients with suicidal tendencies, correlation with low LDL cholesterol and triglycerides did not reach statistical significance. No association with suicidality was found with HDL cholesterol in subjects studied. Conclusions The results obtained suggest that, similar to depressed patients, low total and LDL cholesterol, triglycerides, and total lipids can be state-dependent risk factors for suicidal behavior in Polish patients with schizophrenia.
Soy Protein, Isoflavones, and Cardiovascular Health: An American Heart Association Science Advisory for Professionals From the Nutrition Committee

Soy protein and isoflavones (phytoestrogens) have gained considerable attention for their potential role in improving risk factors for cardiovascular disease. This scientific advisory assesses the more recent work published on soy protein and its component isoflavones. In the majority of 22 randomized trials, isolated soy protein with isoflavones, as compared with milk or other proteins, decreased LDL cholesterol concentrations; the average effect was ≈3%. This reduction is very small relative to the large amount of soy protein tested in these studies, averaging 50 g, about half the usual total daily protein intake. No significant effects on HDL cholesterol, triglycerides, lipoprotein(a), or blood pressure were evident. Among 19 studies of soy isoflavones, the average effect on LDL cholesterol and other lipid risk factors was nil. Soy protein and isoflavones have not been shown to lessen vasomotor symptoms of menopause, and results are mixed with regard to soy's ability to slow postmenopausal bone loss. The efficacy and safety of soy isoflavones for preventing or treating cancer of the breast, endometrium, and prostate are not established; evidence from clinical trials is meager and cautionary with regard to a possible adverse effect. For this reason, use of isoflavone supplements in food or pills is not recommended. Thus, earlier research indicating that soy protein has clinically important favorable effects as compared with other proteins has not been confirmed. In contrast, many soy products should be beneficial to cardiovascular and overall health because of their high content of polyunsaturated fats, fiber, vitamins, and minerals and low content of saturated fat.
A New Family of Zero-Voltage-Transition Nonisolated Bidirectional Converters With Simple Auxiliary Circuit

In this paper, a new family of zero-voltage-transition (ZVT) bidirectional converters are introduced. In the proposed converters, soft-switching condition for all semiconductor elements is provided regardless of the power flow direction and without any extra voltage and current stress on the main switches. The auxiliary circuit is composed of a coupled inductor with the converter main inductor and two auxiliary switches. The auxiliary switches benefit from significantly reduced voltage stress and without requiring floating gate drive circuit. Also, by applying the synchronous rectification to the auxiliary switches body diodes, conduction losses of the auxiliary circuit are reduced. In the auxiliary circuit, the leakage inductor is used as the resonant inductor and all the magnetic components are implemented on a single core which has resulted in significant reduction of the converter volume. In the proposed converters, the reverse recovery losses of the converter-rectifying diodes are completely eliminated and hence, using the low-speed body diode of the power switch as the converter-rectifying diode is feasible. The theoretical analysis for a bidirectional buck and boost converter is presented in detail and the validity of the theoretical analysis is justified using the experimental results of a 250-W prototype converter.
Parasitic infection reduces dispersal of ciliate host

Parasitic infection can modify host mobility and consequently their dispersal capacity. We experimentally investigated this idea using the ciliate Paramecium caudatum and its bacterial parasite Holospora undulata. We compared the short-distance dispersal of infected and uninfected populations in interconnected microcosms. Infection reduced the proportion of hosts dispersing, with levels differing among host clones. Host populations with higher densities showed lower dispersal, possibly owing to social aggregation behaviour. Parasite isolates that depleted host populations most had the lowest impact on host dispersal. Parasite-induced modification of dispersal may have consequences for the spatial distribution of disease, host and parasite genetic population structure, and coevolution.
In vitro fertilization by intracytoplasmic sperm injection.

Intracytoplasmic sperm injection (ICSI) is the latest, and by far the most efficient, variant of micromanipulation-assisted fertilization, whereby a single spermatozoon is selected, aspirated into a microinjection needle and injected to the oocyte cytoplasm. The development of this technique is mainly linked to application in human assisted reproduction for which it enables fertilization with defective spermatozoa that would not otherwise be able to penetrate an oocyte by their proper means. Because ICSI by-passes many steps of the natural fertilization process, it offers an extremely interesting model for the study of basic mechanisms underlying fertilization. This is particularly true for oocyte activation, whose mechanism needs to be revisited in light of the current ICSI research. The massive application of ICSI in human infertility treatment also represents a huge laboratory in which the impact of different genetic and epigenetic anomalies of the male gamete on fertilization and embryonic development can be studied.
The Idea of Equality and Qualitative Inquiry

With his path-breaking The Qualitative Manifesto. A Call to Arms (2010), Norman Denzin calls for qualitative inquiry to be carried out with the aim of contributing to the empowerment of subjects involved in the research. He pleads passionately and vehemently in favor of a research process that is led by the ideal of social justice. My contribution wants to plead for making radical equality between researchers and research subjects a core element of qualitative inquiries as well. For this purpose, I will turn to the work of the French philosopher Jacques Rancière, who has been largely ignored in qualitative inquiry. His work, though, is of central importance for critical qualitative research. The idea of equality opens up a new and more profound understanding of politics that would allow us to specify the political meaning of qualitative studies in late capitalism more accurately.
The evolution of jumping in frogs: Morphological evidence for the basal anuran locomotor condition and the radiation of locomotor systems in crown group anurans

Our understanding of the evolution of frog locomotion follows from the work of Emerson in which anurans are proposed to possess one of three different iliosacral configurations: 1) a lateral‐bending system found in walking and hopping frogs; 2) a fore‐aft sliding mechanism found in several locomotor modes; and 3) a sagittal‐hinge‐type pelvis posited to be related to long‐distance jumping performance. The most basal living (Ascaphus) and fossil (Prosalirus) frogs are described as sagittal‐hinge pelvic types, and it has been proposed that long‐distance jumping with a sagittal‐hinge pelvis arose early in frog evolution. We revisited osteological traits of the pelvic region to conduct a phylogenetic analysis of the relationships between pelvic systems and locomotor modes in frogs. Using two of Emerson's diagnostic traits from the sacrum and ilium and two new traits from the urostyle, we resampled the taxa originally studied by Emerson and key paleotaxa and conducted an analysis of ancestral‐character state evolution in relation to locomotor mode. We present a new pattern for the evolution of pelvic systems and locomotor modes in frogs. Character analysis shows that the lateral‐bender, walker/hopper condition is both basal and generally conserved across the Anura. Long‐distance jumping frogs do not appear until well within the Neobatrachia. The sagittal‐hinge morphology is correlated with long‐distance jumping in terrestrial frogs; however, it evolved convergently multiple times in crown group anurans with the same four pelvic traits described herein. Arboreal jumping has appeared in multiple crown lineages as well, but with divergent patterns of evolution involving each of the three pelvic types. The fore‐aft slider morph appears independently in three different locomotor modes and, thus, is a more complex system than previously thought. Finally, it appears that the advent of a bicondylar sacro‐urostylic articulation was originally related to providing axial rigidity to lateral‐bending behaviors rather than sagittal bending. J. Morphol. , 2011. © 2010 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Combining diverse neural nets

An appropriate use of neural computing techniques is to apply them to problems such as condition monitoring, fault diagnosis, control and sensing, where conventional solutions can be hard to obtain. However, when neural computing techniques are used, it is important that they are employed so as to maximise their performance, and improve their reliability. Their performance is typically assessed in terms of their ability to generalise to a previously unseen test set, although unless the training set is very carefully chosen, 100% accuracy is rarely achieved. Improved performance can result when sets of neural nets are combined in ensembles and ensembles can be viewed as an example of the reliability through redundancy approach that is recommended for conventional software and hardware in safety-critical or safety-related applications. Although there has been recent interest in the use of neural net ensembles, such techniques have yet to be applied to the tasks of condition monitoring and fault diagnosis. In this paper, we focus on the benefits of techniques which promote diversity amongst the members of an ensemble, such that there is a minimum number of coincident failures. The concept of ensemble diversity is considered in some detail, and a hierarchy of four levels of diversity is presented. This hierarchy is then used in the description of the application of ensemble-based techniques to the case study of fault diagnosis of a diesel engine.
An enhancement of the spectral statistical test for randomness

Random numbers play essential roles in cryptography, modeling and simulation applications. NIST statistical test suite for randomness is the most comprehensive set of random tests. It has been popular and used as a benchmark test for randomness. One of the random tests is spectral test. There has been serious problem in spectral test as pointed out by few researchers. In this paper, further theoretical improvement shall be proposed on the spectral test based on computational observation being made on random noise. A recommendation on the spectral test setting for short cryptographic keys shall also be made.
Immunological Markers and Hematological Parameters among Newly Diagnosed Tuberculosis Patients at Jimma University Specialized Hospital

Background Tuberculosis (TB) is a cause of 1.2–1.5 million deaths worldwide, including deaths from TB among HIV positive people. Determining the extent of immune cells belonging to cell mediated immunity and haematological parameters is critical to maximize the potential benefit of anti-tubercular treatment and case management. Materials and Methods Comparative cross sectional study was conducted to determine the white blood cell (WBC) count, CD4, CD8, haemoglobin (Hgb), red blood cell (RBC) count, mean corpuscular haemoglobin (MCHC), mean corpuscular volume (MCV) between newly diagnosed TB patients and apparently healthy controls (HCs). Results From consecutively enrolled 108 TB patients, pulmonary TB (PTB) accounted for 48(44.4%), TB lymphadenitis accounted for 48(44.4%), and disseminated/miliary TB accounted for 12(11.1%). Analysis of variance revealed that mean ± SD of CD4 count of male TB patients (650 ± 224cells/µl) was significantly lower than male control group (883 ± 256 cells/µl) (p= 0.001). In a similar manner, the mean CD4 count of female TB patients (793 ± 332cells/µl) was lower than female control group (975 ± 300 cells/µl) (p=0.001). There was no statistically significant difference in CD8 counts between cases and controls for both genders. Forty (37.0%) TB patients had developed anaemia of whom 22(55%) were among PTB, 13(32.5%) from tuberculous lymphadenitis and 5(20%) from disseminated TB. Morphologically, from all anaemia among TB patients, normocytic normochromic anaemia accounted for 15(37.5%) followed by normocytic hypochromic anaemia 13(30.4%). Conclusion CD4 lymphopenia was significant among TB patients. Granulocyte count was increased. Mild anaemia was found major haematological abnormality among newly diagnosed TB patients.
Determinants of individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions: a gender-comparative study

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to examine the differentiated effects of entrepreneurial self-efficacy and social norms on individuals’ entrepreneurial intentions (EIs), through the mediation of attitude toward entrepreneurship, by integrating the framework of gender schema theory with the theory of planned behavior. The authors posit that different factors stimulate the EIs of males and females, through attitude toward entrepreneurship, in developing countries. Design/methodology/approach Data are collected from graduating students of South Asia’s largest university. Structural equation modeling is used for model testing. Findings The results show that perceived entrepreneurial self-efficacy has a greater effect on the attitude of males toward entrepreneurship than on the attitude of females, but perceived social norms have a greater effect on female attitude toward entrepreneurship. Attitude toward entrepreneurship has a positive impact on EIs. Originality/value This is the first study of its nature which demonstrates that the EIs of males and females are induced by different factors. Where the social norms are the major factors in determining the EIs of the females, self-efficacy plays a vital role in predicting the EIs of their male counterparts. This study also attempts to clarify the relationship between self-efficacy, social norms, and EIs by positing entrepreneurial attitude as mediator. Moreover, it brings a fresh perspective through its setting in South Asia. By testing a model in the cultural setting of a developing country, this study differentiates the research from that conducted in the developed world.
Partial Adjustment Toward Target Capital Structures

The literature provides conflicting assessments about how firms choose their capital structures, with the "tradeoff", pecking order, and market timing hypotheses all receiving some empirical support. Distinguishing among these theories requires that we know whether firms have long-run leverage targets and (if so) how quickly they adjust toward them. Yet many previous researchers have relied on empirical specifications that fail to recognize the potential impact of adjustment costs on a firm's observed leverage. Likewise, few researchers have incorporated the effect of share price changes on market-valued leverage. We estimate a relatively general, partial-adjustment model of firm leverage decisions, and conclude that firms do have target capital structures. The typical firm closes more than half the gap between its actual and its target debt ratios within two years. 'Targeting' behavior as opposed to market timing or pecking order considerations explains a majority of the observed changes in capital structure.
MOND plus classical neutrinos are not enough for cluster lensing

Clusters of galaxies offer a robust test bed for probing the nature of dark matter that is insensitive to the assumption of the gravity theories. Both Modified Newtonian Dynamics (MOND) and General Relativity (GR) would require similar amounts of non-baryonic matter in clusters as MOND boosts the gravity only mildly on cluster scales. Gravitational lensing allows us to estimate the enclosed mass in clusters on small (� 20 50kpc) and large (� several 100 kpc) scales independent of the assumptions of equilibrium. Here we show for the first time that a combination of strong and weak gravitational lensing effects can set interesting limits on the phase space density of dark matter in the centers of clusters. The phase space densities derived from lensing observations are inconsistent with neutrino masses ranging from 2 - 7 eV, and hence do not support the 2 eV-range particles required by MOND. To survive, the plausible modifications for MOND may be either an additional degree of dynamical freedom in a co-variant incarnation or mass-varying theories of neutrinos.
Essays in Motivation

This thesis consists of three self-contained papers developing the idea of goal setting, an intrinsic motivator, as an alternative motivator to monetary incentives. A non-binding goal is a specific, challenging target with which there are no monetary rewards or punishments associated with success or failure. Chapter 2 focuses on studying the basis of goal setting, developing an experiment to test the effectiveness that assigning non-binding goals have on effort on a real effort task. It shows that setting a goal has a significant impact upon effort and that it is the result of both an increase in speed and accuracy. Chapter 3 develops the first chapter further into a dynamic setting, focusing on comparing whether personalised goals are more effective than uniform goals. I find that personalised goals lead to a significantly higher number of attempts than a uniform goal level, however these extra attempts are not converted into statistically higher number of correct answers over the uniform goals group. Thus, if production is costly, a uniform goal level is more appropriate as a personalised goal would lead to higher average production costs. Chapter 4 examines the effect of setting both assigned and personal (self-set) non-binding goals on a real effort task. Developing a simple model with goaldependent preferences, we derive a set of conjectures for our experiment. In line with previous studies, we find that goal setting leads to a higher average level of effort. However, we also find that previously assigned goals affect agents’ goal commitment, affecting future performance. We also observe that those with only personal goals perform worse on average than a control group with no goals. This suggests that there maybe a form of crowding-out of effort on the task when under personal goals versus no goals at all.
Acute neuropsychiatric disorders in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome: Japanese case reports

Background: The aim of this study was to evaluate acute neuropsychiatric disorders in adolescents and young adults with Down syndrome. We report 13 Japanese adolescents or young adults with Down syndrome who developed acute neuropsychiatric disorders including withdrawal, depression, obsessive-compulsive behaviors, and occasional delusions or hallucinations. Methods: The following information was collected from each patient: age at onset of acute neuropsychiatric disorder, complications, signs and symptoms, personality traits before the onset of the acute neuropsychiatric disorder, prescribed medications with their respective doses and the response to treatment, and senile changes observed on magnetic resonance imaging or computed tomography. Results: The mean age at onset of these disorders was 21.2 years. Brain imaging showed almost senile changes; patients responded well to low-dose psychotropic therapy. Patients had an onset at a young age and presented with treatable conditions, although the average age of the onset of Alzheimer’s disease is generally over 40 years of age in patients with Down syndrome. Conclusion: These findings suggest that the pathology of acute neuropsychiatric disorder in patients with Down syndrome may be related to presenile changes; however, these disorders present features and a clinical course that is different from those presented in typical Alzheimer’s disease with Down syndrome.