Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Association of Early‐Onset Coronary Heart Disease in South Asian Men With Glucose Intolerance and Hyperinsulinemia

BackgroundRates of coronary heart disease are higher in South Asians (Indians, Pakistanis, and Bangladeshis) settled overseas than in other ethnic groups. We tested the hypothesis that this excess risk results from metabolic disturbances associated with insulin resistance. Methods and ResultsThere were 1,421 South Asian men and 1,515 European men aged 40–69 years in London examined in the Southall Study. Prevalence of ischemic ECG abnormalities was higher in South Asians than in Europeans (17% versus 12%, p<0.001), with an excess of major Q waves (Minnesota codes 1–1 or 1–2) in younger South Asian men (p=0.01 for the age-ethnicity interaction). Major Q waves were strongly associated with glucose intolerance and hyperinsulinemia in younger South Asians; these factors accounted statistically for 73% of major Q waves in those aged 40–54 years. Age-standardized prevalence of a positive history of coronary heart disease was similar in South Asians and Europeans (8.5% versus 8.2%, NS), and positive history without Q waves was not associated with glucose intolerance or hyperinsulinemia in South Asians. Smoking rates and average plasma cholesterol were lower in South Asians than in Europeans; in a logistic model controlling for smoking and cholesterol, the odds ratio for major Q waves in South Asians compared with Europeans was 2.4 (95% CI, 1.5–3.8). Adjusting for glucose intolerance and hyperinsulinemia reduced this ratio to 1.5 (95% CI, 0.9–2.5). ConclusionsThese results are consistent with the hypothesis that insulin resistance underlies the high coronary risk in South Asian people and strengthen the evidence for a fundamental role of this metabolic pattern in the etiology of coronary heart disease.
The Role of Business Networks in Market Development in Sub‐Saharan Africa

Forthcoming in "Community and Market in Economic Development", edited by Masahiko Aoki and Yujiro Hayami. role of business networks in market development. The focus is principally on Sub-Saharan Africa; other regions of the world are discussed in other contributions to this volume. Business networks in Africa are shown to play a variety of functions and to take many shapes. We argue that pre-existing network affiliation such as lineage or co-residence seldom form the basis for market exchange, but can serve for non-market exchange. Sharing a common religion or ethnicity often facilitates trust building and exchange but it cannot be considered as entirely exogenous to the market formation process. We discuss the conditions under which 'clubs' with restricted entry can facilitate or restrict market expansion. We conclude with a discussion of alternative institutions that perform functions similar to those of business networks and we identify conditions under which they can substitute to networks.
An Efficient Concurrent Repetition Theorem

Hastad et al. (2008) prove, using Raz’s lemma (STOC ’95) the first efficient parallel repetition theorem for protocols with a non-constant number of rounds, for a natural generalization of public-coin protocols. They show that a parallel prover that convinces a fraction 1− γ of the embedded verifiers of a k-wise repeated m-message verifier can be turned into a prover with error probability 1 − γ − O(m √ − log ( ) /k). This improves previous results of Impagliazzo et al. (Crypto 2007) and Pass and Venkitasubramaniam (STOC 2007) that studies the constant round case. We prove a generalization of Raz’s Lemma to random processes that allows us to improve the analysis of the reduction of Hastad et al. in the public-coin case to 1 − γ − O( √ − log ( ) /k), i.e., we remove the dependence on the number rounds completely, and thus the restriction to settings where k > m. An important implication of the strengthened parallel repetition theorem is the first efficient concurrent repetition theorem for protocols with a non-constant number of rounds. In concurrent repetition, the verifiers execute completely independently and only report their final decision, i.e., the prover chooses arbitrarily in which order it interacts with the individual verifiers. This should be contrasted with parallel repetition where the verifiers are synchronized in each round.
A Prospective Multicenter Study on the Outcome of Type I Collagen Hydrogel–Based Autologous Chondrocyte Implantation (CaReS) for the Repair of Articular Cartilage Defects in the Knee

Background: The Cartilage Regeneration System (CaReS) is a novel matrix-associated autologous chondrocyte implantation (ACI) technique for the treatment of chondral and osteochondral lesions (Outerbridge grades III and IV). For this technology, no expansion of the chondrocytes in a monolayer culture is needed, and a homogeneous cell distribution within the gel is guaranteed. Purpose: To report a prospective multicenter study of matrix-associated ACI of the knee using a new type I collagen hydrogel (CaReS). Study Design: Case series; Level of evidence, 4. Methods: From 2003 to 2008, 116 patients (49 women and 67 men; mean age, 32.5 ± 8.9 years) had CaReS implantation of the knee in 9 different centers. On the basis of the International Cartilage Repair Society (ICRS) Cartilage Injury Evaluation Package 2000, the International Knee Documentation Committee (IKDC) score, pain score (visual analog scale [VAS]), SF-36 score, overall treatment satisfaction and the IKDC functional status were evaluated. Patient follow-up was performed at 3, 6, and 12 months after surgery and annually thereafter. Mean follow-up was 30.2 ± 17.4 months (range, 12-60 months). There were 67 defects of the medial condyle, 14 of the lateral, 22 of the patella/trochlea, and 3 of the tibial plateau, and 10 patients had 2 lesions. The mean defect size was 5.4 ± 2.4 cm2. Thirty percent of the defects were <4 cm2 and 70% were >4 cm2. Results: The IKDC score improved significantly from 42.4 ± 13.8 preoperatively to 70.5 ± 18.7 (P < .001) at latest follow-up. Global pain level significantly decreased (P < .001) from 6.7 ± 2.2 preoperatively to 3.2 ± 3.1 at latest follow-up. There also was a significant increase of both components of the SF-36 score. The overall treatment satisfaction was judged as very good or good in 88% by the surgeon and 80% by the patient. The IKDC functional knee status was grade I in 23.4%, II in 56.3%, III in 17.2%, and IV in 3.1% of the patients. Conclusion: Matrix-associated ACI employing the CaReS technology for the treatment of chondral or osteochondral defects of the knee is a safe and clinically effective treatment that yields significant functional improvement and improvement in pain level. However, further investigation is necessary to determine the long-term viability and clinical outcome of this procedure.
Friendly fire: Electoral discrimination and ethnic minority candidates

Discriminatory attitudes towards ethnic minorities are widespread, and a common presumption is that ethnic minority candidates suffer electorally as a result. However, some research has shown that little electoral discrimination occurs, because ethnic minority candidates tend to run for parties of the left, while voters with negative attitudes towards minorities are concentrated on the right. This study shows that when ethnic minority candidates do run for right-wing parties they suffer the brunt of electoral discrimination, while those on the left are insulated. To do so it leverages two methods: a candidate experiment and a difference-in-difference analysis of candidate demographic data and aggregate election results. An ideological stereotyping mechanism is also tested, but there is little evidence that right-wing voters reject ethnic minority candidates because they are viewed as left-leaning.
Governance of the conservation of nature

In many cultures, humans perceive themselves as capable of developing cogent decisions about what to do with nature and implementing those decisions through skilful and technology-enriched means. Other cultures see decisions about nature as arising from the spiritual and ancestral beings who are part of nature, and affect us much more than we are able to affect them. Some people perceive nature as benign and sacred, to be treated with reverence and moderation. Others see it as a condition of life, which needs to be dominated and controlled. Still others sense it as an inscrutable phenomenon controlling us from within: attempting to bend nature to the will of people is, for them, just an act of hubris. Whether we believe we are exercising power over nature or feel that nature is controlling us, whether we seek power from nature or simply feel at peace within it, we all live with nature and make sense of that interaction in order to survive and add meaning to our lives.
Notch Signaling Pathway and Human Placenta

Notch signaling was evolutionarily conserved and critical for cell-fate determination, differentiation and many other biological processes. Growing evidences suggested that Notch signaling pathway played an important role in the mammalian placental development. All of the mammalian Notch family proteins had been identified in human placenta except Delta-like 3, which appeared to affect the axial skeletal system. However the molecular mechanisms that regulated the Notch signaling pathway remained largely unknown in human placenta. Therefore, additional research was needed to investigate expression pattern of Notch family members and the mechanisms for activation of Notch signaling pathway in human placenta, which might help elucidate the roles of Notch signaling pathway in human placentation. This review would focus on the roles of Notch receptors and ligands in the human placental trophoblasts function and placental angiogenesis. It might hopefully provide perspectives for future research about human placentation of pregnancy complicated by preeclampsia and other placenta associated diseases.
Semi-Supervised QA with Generative Domain-Adaptive Nets

We study the problem of semi-supervised question answering—utilizing unlabeled text to boost the performance of question answering models. We propose a novel training framework, the Generative Domain-Adaptive Nets. In this framework, we train a generative model to generate questions based on the unlabeled text, and combine model-generated questions with human-generated questions for training question answering models. We develop novel domain adaptation algorithms, based on reinforcement learning, to alleviate the discrepancy between the model-generated data distribution and the human-generated data distribution. Experiments show that our proposed framework obtains substantial improvement from unlabeled text.
RAIDShield

Modern storage systems orchestrate a group of disks to achieve their performance and reliability goals. Even though such systems are designed to withstand the failure of individual disks, failure of multiple disks poses a unique set of challenges. We empirically investigate disk failure data from a large number of production systems, specifically focusing on the impact of disk failures on RAID storage systems. Our data covers about one million SATA disks from six disk models for periods up to 5 years. We show how observed disk failures weaken the protection provided by RAID. The count of reallocated sectors correlates strongly with impending failures. With these findings we designed RAIDShield, which consists of two components. First, we have built and evaluated an active defense mechanism that monitors the health of each disk and replaces those that are predicted to fail imminently. This proactive protection has been incorporated into our product and is observed to eliminate 88% of triple disk errors, which are 80% of all RAID failures. Second, we have designed and simulated a method of using the joint failure probability to quantify and predict how likely a RAID group is to face multiple simultaneous disk failures, which can identify disks that collectively represent a risk of failure even when no individual disk is flagged in isolation. We find in simulation that RAID-level analysis can effectively identify most vulnerable RAID-6 systems, improving the coverage to 98% of triple errors. We conclude with discussions of operational considerations in deploying RAIDShield more broadly and new directions in the analysis of disk errors. One interesting approach is to combine multiple metrics, allowing the values of different indicators to be used for predictions. Using newer field data that reports an additional metric, medium errors, we find that the relative efficacy of reallocated sectors and medium errors varies across disk models, offering an additional way to predict failures.
Influencing Factors on Mid-Life Crisis

Purpose: The purpose of this study was to describe the factors which may influence a reported mid-life crisis. Methods: The research design was a descriptive survey design using a convenience sampling. Data were collected from 209 middle aged men and women by using self-reported questionnaires including Korean versions of Mid-life Crisis Scale, Meaning in Life Questionnaire, Perceived Stress Scale, Ego-resiliency Scale and Multipledimensional Scale of Perceived Social Support. Data were analyzed using the SPSS/WIN 22.0 program for descriptive statistics, Pearson"s correlation coefficients and hierarchical multiple regression. Results: The mean for mid-life crisis was 2.69±0.58. A mid-life crisis was statistically significant in relationship to education (F=3.79, p=.024) and to economic status (F=4.07, p=.019). Further, there were significant correlations among meaning of life (r=-.34, p<.001), health status (r=-.42, p<.001), stress (r=.46, p<.001), ego resilience (r=-.29, p<.001), social support (r=-.47, p<.001), and mid-life crisis. Social support (β=-.29, p<.001), stress (β=.27, p<.001), and health status (β=-.22, p<.001) were significant predictors which explained 34% of the variance reported in a mid-life crisis. Conclusion: The results indicate that these factors influencing mid-life crisis should be considered when developing nursing intervention to cope with a mid-life crisis.
THE PREDICTION OF ADAPTIVE EVOLUTION: EMPIRICAL APPLICATION OF THE SECONDARY THEOREM OF SELECTION AND COMPARISON TO THE BREEDER’S EQUATION

Adaptive evolution occurs when fitness covaries with genetic merit for a trait (or traits). The breeder’s equation (BE), in both its univariate and multivariate forms, allows us to predict this process by combining estimates of selection on phenotype with estimates of genetic (co)variation. However, predictions are only valid if all factors causal for trait‐fitness covariance are measured. Although this requirement will rarely (if ever) be met in practice, it can be avoided by applying Robertson’s secondary theorem of selection (STS). The STS predicts evolution by directly estimating the genetic basis of trait‐fitness covariation without any explicit model of selection. Here we apply the BE and STS to four morphological traits measured in Soay sheep (Ovis aries) from St. Kilda. Despite apparently positive selection on heritable size traits, sheep are not getting larger. However, although the BE predicts increasing size, the STS does not, which is a discrepancy that suggests unmeasured factors are upwardly biasing our estimates of selection on phenotype. We suggest this is likely to be a general issue, and that wider application of the STS could offer at least a partial resolution to the common discrepancy between naive expectations and observed trait dynamics in natural populations.
Exposure to Urban Nature and Tree Planting Are Related to Pro-Environmental Behavior via Connection to Nature, the Use of Nature for Psychological Restoration, and Environmental Attitudes

Pro-environmental behaviors (PEBs) may be associated with a personal relationship with nature. We conducted a quasi-experiment with 423 residents who had or had not actively participated in a tree-planting scheme and lived in 20 neighborhoods that differ in their greenness level. We tested whether exposure to nature (specified by the amount of vegetation cover in residents’ neighborhoods) and/or past PEB (specified by tree-planting participation) was associated with residents’ PEB and whether key psychological constructs would mediate these relationships. Structural equation mediation models revealed that the level of neighborhood vegetation and involvement in the planting scheme explained 46% of the variance in PEB, with connection to nature, the use of nature for psychological restoration, and environmental attitudes mediating the relationships. Connection to nature was more strongly associated with engagement in PEB than the use of nature for psychological restoration and environmental attitudes.
Correlates of Team Performance in Volleyball

The overall performance of a Volleyball team depends on many factors, from which decisive are considered to be the execution of skills that lead immediately to winning or losing the rally. These are lost serves, aces, killattacks, attack errors and kill-blocks. The analysis of these skills in relation to team performance, as expressed by the ratio of sets won to the total number of sets, lead to the formation of two new correlates. These are the serving efficiency ratio (SER), defined as the ratio of lost serves to aces, and the attack efficiency ratio (AER), defined as the number of kill attacks divided by the sum of attack errors and kill-blocks. Analysis of the data collected from all the matches of the male A1 volleyball professional league of 2005-2006 in Greece proved that the two efficiency ratios were better predictors of the teams’ overall performance than the five original variables. The findings lead to clear-cut definitions of norms both for the serving and attack efficiency ratio. The leading teams had a SER of around two and an AER of around three. These criteria are valuable tools especially for Volleyball coaches in deciding for the appropriate tactics of their teams.
A formal model of annotations of digital content

This article is a study of the themes and issues concerning the annotation of digital contents, such as textual documents, images, and multimedia documents in general. These digital contents are automatically managed by different kinds of digital library management systems and more generally by different kinds of information management systems. Even though this topic has already been partially studied by other researchers, the previous research work on annotations has left many open issues. These issues concern the lack of clarity about what an annotation is, what its features are, and how it is used. These issues are mainly due to the fact that models and systems for annotations have only been developed for specific purposes. As a result, there is only a fragmentary picture of the annotation and its management, and this is tied to specific contexts of use and lacks-general validity. The aim of the article is to provide a unified and integrated picture of the annotation, ranging from defining what an annotation is to providing a formal model. The key ideas of the model are: the distinction between the meaning and the sign of the annotation, which represent the semantics and the materialization of an annotation, respectively; the clear formalization of the temporal dimension involved with annotations; and the introduction of a distributed hypertext between digital contents and annotations. Therefore, the proposed formal model captures both syntactic and semantic aspects of the annotations. Furthermore, it is built on previously existing models and may be seen as an extension of them.
European Conference on Information Systems ( ECIS ) Summer 10-6-2011 INVESTIGATING TRANSACTIVE MEMORY SHAPED BY KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT TOOLS – PROPOSING A LONGITUDINAL STUDY IN CHINA

Chinese firms are increasingly paying attention to the knowledge resources of their employees – and are seeking to leverage those recourses for the greater good of the firm. Based on prior research, we aim firstly to develop and test a theoretical model that explains the salient factors determining successful Knowledge Management (KM) practice in Chinese firms. We argue that the use of both formal and informal KM tools have significant impacts on shaping a firm’s transactive memory (TM), where the impacts are moderated by employees’ cultural orientation. In turn, TM has significant positive impacts on enhancing organisational performance. We will follow the theoretical validation with a case-based, action-oriented intervention. We have preliminarily identified two firms in each of the Public Relations and IT Services Offshoring industries that are interested in participating in the research. The theoretical validation will also involve survey-based data collection and statistical analysis. We aim to discover how specific KM practices influence key dimensions of organisational performance such as financial profits, customer satisfaction, operational efficiency, personal productivity and employee satisfaction. We expect that this two-pronged approach will generate knowledge of significant value to both KM researchers and organisations.
The Simple View of Reading Across Development: Prediction of Grade 3 Reading Comprehension From Prekindergarten Skills

We assessed the simple view of reading as a framework for Grade 3 reading comprehension in two ways. We first confirmed that a structural equation model in which word recognition, listening comprehension, and reading comprehension were assessed by multiple measures to inform each latent construct provided an adequate fit to this model in Grade 3. We next examined how well prekindergarten (pre-K) oral language (vocabulary, grammar, discourse) and code-related (letter and print knowledge, phonological processing) skills predicted Grade 3 reading comprehension, through the two core components of the simple view: word recognition and listening comprehension. Strong relations were evident between pre-K skills and the complementary Grade 3 constructs of listening comprehension and word recognition. Notably, the pre-K latent constructs of oral language and code-related skills were strongly related to each other, with a much weaker (nonsignificant) relation between the complementary Grade 3 constructs of listening comprehension and word recognition.
Keynesian Impulses Versus Solow Residuals: Identifying Sources of Business Cycle Fluctuations

We employ a neoclassical business-cycle model to study two sources of business-cycle fluctuations: marginal efficiency of investment shocks, and total factor productivity shocks. The parameters of the model are estimated using a Bayesian procedure that accommodates prior uncertainty about their magnitudes; from these estimates, posterior distributions of the two shocks are obtained. The postwar US experience suggests that both shocks are important in understanding fluctuations, but that total factor productivity shocks are primarily responsible for beginning and ending recessions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Simultaneous source location

We consider the problem of simultaneous source location: selecting locations for sources in a capacitated graph such that a given set of demands can be satisfied simultaneously, with the goal of minimizing the number of locations chosen. For general directed and undirected graphs we give an <i>O</i>(log <i>D</i>)-approximation algorithm, where <i>D</i> is the sum of demands, and prove matching Ω(log <i>D</i>) hardness results assuming <b>P</b> ≠ <b>NP</b>. For undirected trees, we give an exact algorithm and show how this can be combined with a result of Räcke to give a solution that exceeds edge capacities by at most <i>O</i>(log<sup>2</sup> <i>n</i> log log <i>n</i>), where <i>n</i> is the number of nodes. For undirected graphs of bounded treewidth we show that the problem is still <b>NP</b>-hard, but we are able to give a PTAS with at most (1 + &epsis;) violation of the capacities for arbitrarily small &epsis;, or a (<i>k</i>+1) approximation with exact capacities, where <i>k</i> is the treewidth.