Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Intimate Partner Violence, Condom Use and HIV Risk for Adolescent Girls

ABSTRACT Adolescent girls account for a growing number of new cases of HIV in the United States, primarily transmitted through heterosexual sex. The principal method of HIV prevention for heterosexually-active girls is condom use by their male partners. Most HIV prevention interventions aimed at adolescent girls have focused on promoting the girls' individual behavior change and are most effective in situations that are under girls' control. A growing body of literature indicates the importance of recognizing partner influence on girls' condom use and negotiation strategies, and a beginning recognition of the role that intimate partner violence (IPV) may play in the decision-making control within the dyad. To better understand these linkages, this paper examines the association between IPV and girls' HIV risk through condom non-use with a systematic review of the literature and a theory-informed conceptual background. Six studies with adolescent girls were found that reported an association between intimate partner violence and increased risk for HIV (indicated by condom non-use). Gaps in the literature and implications for future research and prevention strategies are described. Findings highlight the need for more research to further elucidate the mechanisms linking intimate partner violence to condom non-use and to identify common precursors (proximal and/or distal) to explain these often co-occurring health risks. Prevention strategies that address the influence of interpersonal power dynamics and gender norms on sexual decision-making, and also incorporate ways to reduce risk for exposure to abusive relationships, hold promise for increasing effectiveness of HIV prevention interventions for adolescent girls. Such interventions need to be youth-informed and include tailored strategies for at-risk groups.
Correlation between plasma alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone concentration and body mass index in healthy horses.

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the correlation between plasma alpha-melanocyte-stimulating hormone (alpha-MSH) concentration and body mass index (BMI) in healthy horses. ANIMALS 82 healthy horses. PROCEDURE Plasma alpha-MSH concentration was determined by radioimmunoassay. At the time blood samples were collected, body condition scores (BCS) were determined and measurements of girth circumference, body length, and height were obtained. Weight was estimated by use of the following formula: estimated weight (kg) = [girth (cm)2 x length (cm)]/11,877. Body mass index was calculated as estimated weight (kg)/height (m)2. RESULTS A correlation was found between BMI and BCS (rs = 0.60 [95% confidence interval (CI), 0.44 to 0.731). A weak correlation was found between plasma alpha-MSH concentration and BMI (rs = 0.25 [95% CI, 0.03 to 0.45]) and BCS (rs = 0.26 [95% CI, 0.04 to 0.46]). A correlation was found between plasma alpha-MSH concentration and BMI in horses > or = 10 years old (rs = 0.49 [95% CI, 0.20 to 0.69]) but not in horses < 10 years old (rs = -0.04). Horses in the upper quartile of BMI had significantly greater plasma alpha-MSH concentration (median, 9.1 pmol/L; range, 2.0 to 95.3 pmol/L) than horses in the lowest quartile of BMI (median, 70 pmol/L; range, 3.6 to 15.7 pmol/L). CONCLUSIONS AND CLINICAL RELEVANCE A correlation exists between plasma alpha-MSH concentration and BMI in horses. Further study is required to determine whether melanocortin receptor defects underlie this correlation or, alternately, whether plasma alpha-MSH concentration is simply a correlate of adiposity.
The influence of health policy and market factors on the hospital safety net.

OBJECTIVE To examine how the financial pressures resulting from the Balanced Budget Act (BBA) of 1997 interacted with private sector pressures to affect indigent care provision. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING American Hospital Association Annual Survey, Area Resource File, InterStudy Health Maintenance Organization files, Current Population Survey, and Bureau of Primary Health Care data. STUDY DESIGN We distinguished core and voluntary safety net hospitals in our analysis. Core safety net hospitals provide a large share of uncompensated care in their markets and have large indigent care patient mix. Voluntary safety net hospitals provide substantial indigent care but less so than core hospitals. We examined the effect of financial pressure in the initial year of the 1997 BBA on uncompensated care for three hospital groups. Data for 1996-2000 were analyzed using approaches that control for hospital and market heterogeneity. DATA COLLECTION/EXTRACTION METHODS All urban U.S. general acute care hospitals with complete data for at least 2 years between 1996 and 2000, which totaled 1,693 institutions. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS Core safety net hospitals reduced their uncompensated care in response to Medicaid financial pressure. Voluntary safety net hospitals also responded in this way but only when faced with the combined forces of Medicaid and private sector payment pressures. Nonsafety net hospitals did not exhibit similar responses. CONCLUSIONS Our results are consistent with theories of hospital behavior when institutions face reductions in payment. They raise concern given continuing state budget crises plus the focus of recent federal deficit reduction legislation intended to cut Medicaid expenditures.
What is Trendy ? Generative Models For Topic Detection in Scientific Literature

Algorithms that enable the process of automatically mining distinct topics in document collections have become increasingly important due to their applications in many fields and the extensive growth of the number of documents in many domains. Traditionally, the task of topic discovery has been mainly addressed through algorithms that work on a snapshot view of the repository, which ignores the temporal characteristics of the collection. In a significant number of collections, the documents are temporal in nature and this temporal dimension can influence the topic discovery process. This paper proposes a generative model based on latent Dirichlet allocation that integrates the temporal ordering of the documents into the generative process in an iterative fashion. The document collection is divided into time segments where the discovered topics in each segment is propagated to influence the topic discovery in the subsequent time segments. We conduct experiments on the collection of academic papers from CiteSeer repository. In addition to the textual content of the documents, we augment the text corpus with the addition of user queries and tags and integrate the citation graph to boost the weight of the topical terms. The experiment results show that segmented topic model can effectively detect distinct topics and their evolution over time.
Combining word prediction and r-ary Huffman coding for text entry

Two approaches to reducing effort in switch-based text entry for augmentative and alternative communication devices are word prediction and efﬁcient coding schemes, such as Huffman. However, character distributions that inform the latter have never accounted for the use of the former. In this paper, we provide the ﬁrst combination of Huffman codes and word prediction, using both trigram and long short term memory (LSTM) language models. Re-sults show a signiﬁcant effect of the length of word prediction lists, and up to 41.46% switch-stroke savings using a trigram model.
Diarrhea in Hospitalized Children in Tertiary Hospital

Diarrheal diseases are a great public health problem that leads to morbidity and mortality of infants and children particularly in developing countries and even in developed countries. The aim of the study was to determine the etiology of acute diarrhea in young children. This is a retrospective study. A total of 345 cases of acute diarrhea mainly in children below 5 years of age admitted at tertiary care Pediatric hospital in University Center “Mother Theresa” over the period 20112013 were included in the study. Medical history, diarrhea symptoms, treatment prior to hospitalization and demographics were obtained from medical records. Stool samples were analyzed for parasites, rotavirus and enteric bacteria. Of the total samples examined, 181 (53.3%) were positive for at least one pathogen: bacterial pathogens were isolated from 11 (3.2%) samples, parasites from 51 (14.8%), and rotavirus from 122 (35.8%) Etiologic data on diarrheal diseases and are important tools for clinical management and control strategic planning.
Study of the prevalence of sleep apnea syndrome's symptoms in a Moroccan population.

INTRODUCTION Sleep apnea syndrome is increasingly common in the general population and is under-diagnosed but we lack studies on the estimation of its specific prevalence in several populations including Morocco. MATERIALS AND METHODS The aim of the study is to determine the prevalence of the main clinical symptoms of sleep apnea syndrome including snoring, witnessed apnea and excessive daytime sleepiness in a middle aged Moroccan population through an epidemiological investigation in 288 men and 215 women, aged between 21 to 66 years who completed two self-questionnaires: the Berlin questionnaire to assess sleep and the Epworth scale to assess daytime sleepiness. RESULTS The mean age was 42.7 years ± 14.3. The Epworth Sleepiness Scale was on average 6.9 ± 3.4 (range: 1-16). It was above 10 in 21.7% in favor of excessive daytime sleepiness. The prevalence of snoring and apnea was respectively 54.7% and 11.1% in the general population, 63.9% and 13.9% in men, 42.3% and 7.4% in women. Forty eight subjects (9.5%) including 13 women and 35 men had the combination of these three main clinical signs suggestive of sleep apnea syndrome. This subpopulation was older (p= 0.04) and with more overweight (p= 0.03) than the general population. Hypertension rate was not statistically higher in this subgroup. CONCLUSION Prevalence of the main symptoms of sleep apnea syndrome is high in our study (9.5%). Polygraphy or polysomnography is warranted to diagnose and have an exact prevalence in the Moroccan population.
Effect of acetic acid and vinegar on blood glucose and insulin responses to orally administered sucrose and starch.

Majchrowicz and Hunt1* have reported that sodium acetate has an inhibitory effect on the rapid increase of blood ethanol concentration following oral administration of ethanol. Mochizuki et al.2'3) have reported that acetic acid and vinegar also have this effect. It is considered that many dietary factors have effects on the blood glucose concentration after a meal,4>5) so we examined the effect of acetic acid and vinegar (in which the major component is acetic acid) on the blood glucose response. In general,
Hemozoin-Inducible Proinflammatory Events In Vivo: Potential Role in Malaria Infection 1

During malaria infection, high levels of proinflammatory molecules (e.g., cytokines, chemokines) correlate with disease severity. Even if their role as activators of the host immune response has been studied, the direct contribution of hemozoin (HZ), a parasite metabolite, to such a strong induction is not fully understood. Previous in vitro studies demonstrated that both Plasmodium falciparum HZ and synthetic HZ (sHZ), β-hematin, induce macrophage/monocyte chemokine and proinflammatory cytokine secretion. In the present study, we investigated the proinflammatory properties of sHZ in vivo. To this end, increasing doses of sHZ were injected either i.v. or into an air pouch generated on the dorsum of BALB/c mice over a 24-h period. Our results showed that sHZ is a strong modulator of leukocyte recruitment and more specifically of neutrophil and monocyte populations. In addition, evaluation of chemokine and cytokine mRNA and protein expression revealed that sHZ induces the expression of chemokines, macrophage-inflammatory protein (MIP)-1α/CCL3, MIP-1β/CCL4, MIP-2/CXCL2, and monocyte chemoattractant protein-1/CCL2; chemokine receptors, CCR1, CCR2, CCR5, CXCR2, and CXCR4; cytokines, IL-1β and IL-6; and myeloid-related proteins, S100A8, S100A9, and S100A8/A9, in the air pouch exudates. Of interest, chemokine and cytokine mRNA up-regulation were also detected in the liver of i.v. sHZ-injected mice. In conclusion, our study demonstrates that sHZ is a potent proinflammatory agent in vivo, which could contribute to the immunopathology related to malaria.
Optical Fiber Probe as a Source of Errors and Uncertainty in Measurements for Optical Noninvasive Diagnostic Devices and Techniques

Over the last 10-15 years a large amount of methods and devices of noninvasive medical spectrophotometry including such techniques as in vivo Laser Fluorescent Diagnostics, Tissues Reflectance Oximetry, Laser Doppler Flowmetry, etc. has been developed and involved in a real clinical practice. In that number several problems of accuracy and reproducibility of clinical diagnostic results have been under discussion as well. But systematic metrological research in this field is still unknown. What dispersions and errors in diagnostic data can be estimated if measurements will be executed on the same object several times, by several doctors with different qualifications or using several devices from both the same and a different manufacturer? In this paper some results of the complex study of errors and uncertainties in diagnostic data caused by using an optical multi-fibers probe are presented. Dispersion and errors up to a level of +/-36,3% for the average registered values were discovered. It is shown that the interactive component of errors caused by interaction of the probe and a surveyed object gives the main contribution to the total uncertainty in diagnostic data.
GLOBAL STAR FORMATION RATE DENSITY OVER 0.7 < z < 1.9

We determine the global star formation rate (SFR) density at 0.7 < z < 1.9 using emission-line-selected galaxies identified in Hubble Space Telescope-Near Infrared Camera and Multi-Object Spectrograph (HST-NICMOS) grism spectroscopy observations. Observing in a pure parallel mode throughout HST Cycles 12 and 13, our survey covers ∼104 arcmin2 from which we select 80 galaxies with likely redshifted Hα emission lines. In several cases, a somewhat weaker [O iii] doublet emission is also detected. The Hα luminosity range of the emission-line galaxy sample is 4.4 × 1041 < L(Hα) < 1.5 × 1043 erg s−1. In this range, the luminosity function is well described by a Schechter function with ϕ* = (4.24 ± 3.55) × 10−3 Mpc−3, L* = (2.88 ± 1.58) × 1042 erg s−1, and α = −1.39 ± 0.43. We derive a volume-averaged SFR density of 0.138 ± 0.058 M☉ yr−1 Mpc−3 at z = 1.4 without an extinction correction. Subdividing the redshift range, we find SFR densities of 0.088 ± 0.056 M☉ yr−1 Mpc−3 at z = 1.1 and 0.265 ± 0.174 M☉ yr−1 Mpc−3 at z = 1.6. The overall star formation rate density is consistent with previous studies using Hα when the same average extinction correction is applied, confirming that the cosmic peak of star formation occurs at z > 1.5.
The Relationship Between Age at Onset and Comorbidity in Psychiatric Disorders

The Epidemiologic Catchment Area community sample data were analyzed to determine whether there is a general tendency for subjects with two or more disorders to have an earlier age of onset of the index disorder than subjects with only one disorder. DSM-III axis I disorders and antisocial personality were each used as index disorders in separate logistic regressions. The results show that an earlier age of onset is associated with greater comorbidity in major depression, with a similar trend for alcoholism. Schizophrenia and the phobias, however, showed significant results in the opposite direction. Overall, the results argue for specific rather than general effects of age of onset on comorbidity.
Nasal cell DNA methylation, inflammation, lung function and wheezing in children with asthma.

AIMS DNA methylation is increasingly proposed as a mechanism for underlying asthma-related inflammation. However, epigenetic studies are constrained by uncertainties on whether samples that can be easily collected in human individuals can provide informative results. METHODS Two nasal cell DNA samples were collected on different days by nasal brushings from 35 asthmatic children aged between 8 and 11 years old. We correlated DNA methylation of IL-6, iNOS, Alu and LINE-1 with fractional exhaled nitric oxide, forced expiratory volume in 1 s and wheezing. RESULTS Fractional exhaled nitric oxide increased in association with lower promoter methylation of both IL-6 (+29.0%; p = 0.004) and iNOS (+41.0%; p = 0.002). Lower IL-6 methylation was nonsignificantly associated with wheezing during the week of the study (odds ratio = 2.3; p = 0.063). CONCLUSION Our findings support the use of nasal cell DNA for human epigenetic studies of asthma.
Cerebrovascular Permeability in Mechanically Induced Hypertension

SUMMARY: Our previous studies of cerebrovascular permeability in angiotensin-induced acute hypertension demonstrated that the principal mechanism resulting in increased permeability is enhanced pinositose. In order to exclude the possibility that the enhanced pinositose was a direct effect of exogenous angiotensin, cerebrovascular permeability alterations were studied in nonpharmacologically induced acute hypertension. Rats receiving horseradish peroxidase (HRP) intravenously, were sacrificed 2½ minutes after the onset of hypertension induced by placing a clip on the abdominal aorta. These animals showed the same pattern of permeability alterations as had been observed previously in animals with angiotensin-induced acute hypertension. Focal segments of penetrating arterioles in the temporal and parietal cortex showed increased permeability to HRP. Permeable vessels showed increased numbers of pinocytotic vesicles and the interendothelial junctions revealed no alterations. Enhanced pinocytosis appears to be the principal mechanism resulting in increased cerebrovascular permeability in this model as well suggesting that the alterations of cerebrovascular permeability observed previously in angio-tensin-induced acute hypertension occur due to the hypertensive state and are not a direct drug effect of exogenous angiotensin.
Industrial-Organizational Psychology

The field of industrial-organizational psychology cognitive processes motivation theories and their applications motivational practices and their theories attitudes, commitments and values personality processes including emotional stress groups in organizational group decision making leadership styles leadership frontiers organization development the role of the individual, group and cultural differences job analysis and job evaluation approaches to performance rating systems research designs and selection models interviews, application blanks, and references employment testing training and development safety psychology and industrial clinical psychology.
Knowledge, attitude, and practice of dental professionals regarding the effect and management of food impaction associated with fixed partial denture prostheses: A survey

Objective: This survey was undertaken to assess dentist's opinion regarding the occurrence and pattern of food impaction in relation to fixed partial denture (FPD) prostheses, its commonly observed consequences, factors contributing to it, and its management. Methods: A descriptive survey was conducted on a sample size of 150 dental practitioners. The pro forma consisted of informed consent, demographic information, and questionnaire. The results were tallied and quantitative analysis was performed to obtain the descriptive statistics for the data using SPSS version 20. Results and Interpretation: All the study respondents had come across patients who complained of food impaction in relation to FPD. The most common consequences of food impaction were proximal caries of the adjacent teeth and interdental bone loss. Majority of the dentists considered faulty FPD design with improper contact relation, improper crown contour, poor margin adaptation, and faulty pontic design as the most likely reason for food impaction. Repeating the FPD with emphasis on prescribing and reinforcing the use of proper interdental aids was considered as the ideal treatment option. It was also observed that about half of the dentists always communicated inadequate information of the FPD prostheses that needed replacement to the dental laboratory technician for the successive bridge. Most of the times, prosthodontists were consulted to rectify the problem of food impaction resulting from faulty FPD prostheses. However, it is obvious that it is easier and more prudent to prevent rather than treat food impaction. This study gives an overview of some of the common errors in designing the FPD prostheses which often lead to food impaction and measures to be taken to overcome them. Conclusion: It may be concluded as all the dentists participating in the survey agreed that food impaction is one of the common complaint among FPD Patients. Proximal caries and interdental bone loss were the prevalent outcomes of food impaction. Faulty FPD design was allegedly attributed as the reason for food impaction. Prosthodontists were routinely consulted to resolve the dilemma of food impaction. However, it is rational to prevent food impaction rather than to tackle the sequel later.
Cigarette smoking and erectile dysfunction

Erectile dysfunction (ED, formerly referred to as impotence, is a common (especially in dia betic and older men) and distressing condition. Several risk factors have been identified; among these are smoking,hyperlipidaemia, hypertension and diabetes mellitus. These risk factors are shared with atherosclerotic vascular disease (e.g. ischaemic heart disease). This observation underlies a common vascular pathology. Smoking may cause ED by several mechanisms, including adversely affecting intrapenile blood flow. It is important to be aware of the link between smoking and ED since this information may motivate some male smokers to quit. In this context, it is important to be aware of the link between smoking and ED since this information may motivate smokers to quit. In this context, it is relevant that there is evidence that quitting may restore/improve erectile function.
Slower Perception Followed by Faster Lexical Decision in Longer Words: A Diffusion Model Analysis

Effects of stimulus length on reaction times (RTs) in the lexical decision task are the topic of extensive research. While slower RTs are consistently found for longer pseudo-words, a finding coined the word length effect (WLE), some studies found no effects for words, and yet others reported faster RTs for longer words. Moreover, the WLE depends on the orthographic transparency of a language, with larger effects in more transparent orthographies. Here we investigate processes underlying the WLE in lexical decision in German-English bilinguals using a diffusion model (DM) analysis, which we compared to a linear regression approach. In the DM analysis, RT-accuracy distributions are characterized using parameters that reflect latent sub-processes, in particular evidence accumulation and decision-independent perceptual encoding, instead of typical parameters such as mean RT and accuracy. The regression approach showed a decrease in RTs with length for pseudo-words, but no length effect for words. However, DM analysis revealed that the null effect for words resulted from opposing effects of length on perceptual encoding and rate of evidence accumulation. Perceptual encoding times increased with length for words and pseudo-words, whereas the rate of evidence accumulation increased with length for real words but decreased for pseudo-words. A comparison between DM parameters in German and English suggested that orthographic transparency affects perceptual encoding, whereas effects of length on evidence accumulation are likely to reflect contextual information and the increase in available perceptual evidence with length. These opposing effects may account for the inconsistent findings on WLEs.