Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clinical and Epidemiological Differences Among Meningococcal C Conjugate Vaccine Failures and Non-Vaccinated Cases

Introduction Although meningococcal C conjugate vaccines achieve high vaccine effectiveness, vaccine failures still occurs associated to a decline of bactericidal titres in time. Previous studies have found similar mortality between cases with meningococcal disease with prior vaccination compared to those non-vaccinated. However, nothing is known about if prior vaccination could protect against other outcomes or if the prognosis of the disease depends only on the severity of the clinical presentations. Methods We included 362 serogroup C laboratory confirmed cases (129 confirmed vaccine failures and 233 non-vaccinated cases) from the previous nationwide vaccine effectiveness study developed in Spain with data on 13 surveillance years after the conjugate vaccine introduction. Clinical diagnoses and procedures performed during the hospitalisation were obtained from the National Registry of Hospitalisations to compare epidemiological and clinical characteristics between cases presenting vaccine failure and non-vaccinated cases. Relationship among diagnoses and death event was also evaluated. Results Clinical information was found in 333 (92%) cases: 53.8% were men; 15.3% presented risk factors for the disease; 17.4% died (75.9% of them in ≤ 5 days); 28.8% developed meningitis, 51.7% septicemia and 16.8% both. Average age was lower in vaccine failure (mean: 6.2 years) vs. non-vaccinated cases (mean: 11.7 years). Average time to death was 3.4 vs. 5.6 days for vaccine failures vs. non-vaccinated cases and 5.3 vs. 2.8 days for meningitis vs. septicemia. Vaccine failures presented more septicemia (63.2% vs. 45.4%) but died less by it (12.2% vs. 23.5%) compared to non-vaccinated cases. Septicemia presented higher risk of heart disturbances, blood disorders, renal failure and shock/ coma compared to meningitis (p < 0.05). Risk factors for the disease (aOR: 5.36; p = 0.046), as well as charlson comorbidity index (aOR: 8.24; p = 0.015) were independently associated to death event in the vaccine failure cases, in which respiratory failure was the main risk factor for death (aOR: 46.67; p < 0.001). Conclusion Vaccine failures were younger, presented less meningitis (with slower progression) and more septicemia but lower fatality-rates, and died less after 7 days than non-vaccinated cases. Severity of the disease seems to be related to clinical presentation. In vaccine failure cases risk factors for death were respiratory failure, risk factors for infection and charlson comorbidity index showing that this group might be more affected by respiratory concomitant diseases.
The Caccioppoli ultrafunctions

Abstract Ultrafunctions are a particular class of functions defined on a hyperreal field ℝ ∗ ⊃ ℝ {\mathbb{R}^{\ast}\supset\mathbb{R}} . They have been introduced and studied in some previous works [2, 6, 7]. In this paper we introduce a particular space of ultrafunctions which has special properties, especially in term of localization of functions together with their derivatives. An appropriate notion of integral is then introduced which allows to extend in a consistent way the integration by parts formula, the Gauss theorem and the notion of perimeter. This new space we introduce, seems suitable for applications to Partial Differential Equations and Calculus of Variations. This fact will be illustrated by a simple, but meaningful example.
Export Diversification and Income Differences

The paper shows that diversification patterns at different stages of economic development reveal differently depending on the consideration of the intensive or extensive margin. Diversification at the extensive margin is found to be linear to log GDP per capita. Results from earlier studies identifying non-monotone diversification patters are possibly driven by statistical features rather than causality. In a general equilibrium, diversification patterns can be shown to resemble gravity forces (size and geography) and fundamental technology differences. Technology differences are proxied by income differences, which can be rationalized with neoclassical growth theory and its application to standard trade models. JEL-Classification: F11, F14, F43, O40, O11
Environmental sanitation unleashed: Effectiveness and challenges of the National Sanitation Day as a community sanitation participatory approach in Aboabo, Ghana

Abstract Investment in technical facilities by government alone is not enough to meeting the challenge of providing adequate sanitation services in communities. This study aimed at examining the effectiveness and challenges of the National Sanitation Day (NSD) as a community participatory module towards environmental sanitation in Aboabo, Ghana. Adopting a descriptive and inferential mixed method design, 10 key informants were interviewed using purposive sampling and 180 study participants using systematic sampling techniques. Result indicates an encouraging number of participation during the NSD. Statistically, higher educational attainment was a predictor of respondents’ participation in the exercise. Using respondents’ perception about the extent of environmental sanitation before the NSD exercise and their perception about the current environmental sanitation as benchmarks for assessing the programme’s effectiveness, the exercise was found to be ineffective. In recommendation, if needs be that prominent people are invited to intermittently grace the NSD exercise, their invitations should be to empower the local people to esteem the importance of the programme by making it their own rather than depending on their presence to increase patronage.
Staff Retention in Public Universities in Rwanda: Diagnostics and Strategies of Intervention

The increase in turnover in Rwandan Universities remains an inescapable phenomenon that the authorities have now to put up with. After the presentation of some of the factors likely to explain this phenomenon, the study reported in this article proposes a diagnostic and systemic approach allowing to analyze a problematic situation of non-loyalty of the staff in the Universities and Institutions of Higher Learning. The survey questionnaire has been administered to lecturers and administrative staff. 104 exploitable questionnaire have been analyzed and completed through face to face interviews. The analysis of the results confirm some of the elements from literature; they show that determining factors with an incidence on staff turnover are working conditions and their perception of what their profession is. Age and academic rank play an important role as well in this study in opposition to other individual characteristics which do not explain the reasons for such turnover. This article thus examines various political options capable of minimizing the negative effects of the departures of the staff. The principal hypothesis consists in saying that the most adequate strategy to face the problem of retention of the staff is that which rests on a rigorous follow-up in order to evaluate the effectiveness of the measures set up particularly by comparing the costs of the strategies of retention with those which are generated by the turnover. These tracks of intervention allow to note that the public Institutions are far from being stripped vis-a-vis the non-loyalty of their staff, as they hardly try to identify the causes. The conclusion relates to the stakes concerning the retention including that of the improvement of the quality of life of the staff. Key words : retention, factors of attraction, staff mobility, psychological contract, turnover.
Heavy metal compounds in a soil of technogenic zone as indicate of its ecological state

The emissions from the Novocherkassk power station comprise 1% of the total volume in the Russian Federation and up to 58% of the emissions in the Rostov oblast. The aim of this work was to assess the regularities of heavy metals accumulation and transformation in soils subjected to aerosol emissions from the power station on the basis of the fractional composition of their compounds. Studies have been conducted on the soils of monitoring plots distances from the power station (1.0–20.0 km) during 15 years. The monitoring plots located on fallow areas. Soil samples for the determination of soil properties and the contents of heavy metals compounds were taken from a depth of 0–20 cm. The soil cover in the region under study consisted of ordinary chernozems, meadow-chernozemic soils, and alluvial meadow soils. The total amount of heavy metals in soils was determined by X-ray fluorescence. Metals in soil extracts were determined by atomic absorption spectroscopy. The fractional composition of heavy metals was determined using combined fractionation. A combined approach for fractioning metal compounds in soils on the basis of and parallel extractions (1 N NH 4 Ac, pH 8; 1% EDTA in NH 4 Ac; and 1 N HCl) was used. Aerosol emissions from the power station are the major agents of technogenic impact on the soils under study in the Rostov oblast. The highest degree of contamination with metals (mg/kg: Ni - 64, Cd – 1.3, Cr - 145 and As – 12) was observed for soils located within a radius of 5 km from the power station along the predominant wind direction. It was marked the rise of metals mobility in the polluted soils and predominant participation of Cr and Ni organic-mineral complexes among their mobile species. The increasing of Cd mobility was provided predominantly by exchangeable forms and specifically sorbed by Fe-Mn (hydr)oxides. The environmental contamination hazard increases with the decreasing metal-buffering capacity of soils.
Effects of self-regulated strategy development on EFLlearners’ reading comprehension and metacognition

In most academic courses, success in school depends, in large part, on students’ ability to read effectively and implement the reading content to their future learning. Nevertheless, the lack of evidence-based instructional strategies in reading makes reading comprehension in a foreign language more difficult. In this light, learning about reading strategies has become an important issue because it provides the basis for a substantial amount of learning in literacy education and foreign language teaching/learning. This study then examined the effectiveness of a reading comprehension instruction (self-regulated strategy development, SRSD) on Iranian EFL learners’ reading comprehension of argumentative texts, and compared the effectiveness of such an instruction with nonstrategic-based (i.e., traditional) instruction. Additionally, it examined the metacognitive effects of participation in the nonstrategic-based instruction and strategic-based one, drawing on the TWA strategy (i.e., thinking before reading, thinking while reading, and thinking after reading). To achieve of this study aims, 70 Iranian EFL learners from a language school participated in the study with a pre-test and post-test control-group design. To collect data, reading summaries and a metacognitive awareness inventory (MAI) were used. Also, eht Oxford Placement Test was used to ensure the homogeneity of the participants at the entry phase, in terms of the target language (English) level. The analysis of covariance on the data indicated that the strategic-based i.e., SRSD, instruction had a positive impact on the participants’ reading comprehension of argumentative texts in the experimental group (i.e., SRSD group). Also, the effect of SRSD instruction on the participants’ reading comprehension of argumentative texts was significantly greater in the SRSD group than the non-SRSD (control) one. In addition, SRSD instruction significantly improved the L2 participants’ metacognition (including metacognitive awareness and regulation). The results draw L2 teachers’ attention to the importance of teaching self-regulated strategies as a way to improve argumentative reading and metacognition of L2 learners.
Soot on Snow experiment: bidirectional reflectance factor measurements of contaminated snow

Abstract. In order to quantify the effects of absorbing contaminants on snow, a series of spectral reflectance measurements were conducted. Chimney soot, volcanic sand, and glaciogenic silt were deposited on a natural snow surface in a controlled way as a part of the Soot on Snow (SoS) campaign. The bidirectional reflectance factors of these soiled surfaces and untouched snow were measured using the Finnish Geodetic Institute's Field Goniospectropolariradiometer, FIGIFIGO. A remarkable feature is the fact that the absorbing contaminants on snow enhanced the metamorphism of snow under strong sunlight in our experiments. Immediately after deposition, the contaminated snow surface appeared darker than the natural snow in all viewing directions, but the absorbing particles sank deep into the snow in minutes. The nadir measurement remained the darkest, but at larger zenith angles, the surface of the contaminated snow changed back to almost as white as clean snow. Thus, for a ground observer the darkening caused by impurities can be completely invisible, overestimating the albedo, but a nadir-observing satellite sees the darkest points, underestimating the albedo. Through a reciprocity argument, we predict that at noon, the albedo perturbation should be lower than in the morning or afternoon. When sunlight stimulates sinking more than melting, the albedo should be higher in the afternoon than in the morning, and vice versa when melting dominates. However, differences in the hydrophobic properties, porosity, clumping, or size of the impurities may cause different results than observed in these measurements.
Evaluating high pH for control of dreissenid mussels

Two field experiments were carried out using a custom built flow-through laboratory to test the effect of elevated pH on dreissenid mussels as a potential control method. Both experiments tested the ability of dreissenid pediveligers to settle under conditions of elevated pH and the long-term survival of adult dreissenids under the same conditions. The two experimental sites had different water quality and different species of dreissenids present. The settlement of quagga mussel pediveligers at the lower Colorado River was inhibited with increasing pH. At the maximum achieved pH of 9.1, there was approximately 90% reduction compared to the maximum settlement observed in the controls. Since the settlement was almost as low in pH 8.9 as at pH 9.1, the inhibition in settlement may have been due to the presence of a precipitate formed under high pH conditions rather than the increase in background pH. No mortality of quagga mussel adults was observed in the experimental pH levels at the lower Colorado River. At San Justo Reservoir, zebra mussel settlement decreased with increasing pH. New settlement was almost entirely absent at the highest pH tested (pH 9.6). The observed mortality of adult zebra mussels was low, but did tend to increase with increasing pH. We also tested the response of adult zebra mussels to short-term exposure to very high pH levels (i.e. pH 10, 11, and 12). Adult mussels in poor physical condition experienced 90% mortality after 12 hours at pH 12. For unstressed adult zebra mussels, 90% mortality was reached after 120 hours at pH 12. Significant mortalities were also observed both at pH 10 and pH 11. From this study, we conclude that pH elevation could be used both as a preventative treatment to eliminate settlement by dreissenid mussels and as an end of season treatment to eliminate adults. The high pH treatment would have to be tailored to the site water quality to prevent formation of precipitate during treatment and to minimize corrosive action on materials of construction.
Understanding Behavioural Aspects in Horizontal Purchasing Collaboration in Developing Countries: an Empirical Survey

In a large scale survey among 107 organizations, we tested the effects of behavioural aspects on horizontal purchasing collaboration in a developing country. The survey shows that the behavioural aspect affective commitment contributes more to collaboration than normative and instrumental commitment. The study recognises competences and critical resources of collaborating partners as important determinants of trust in the collaborative initiative. A critical minimum mass in terms of behavioural aspects is also suggested for meaningful collaborative results. Keywords: Horizontal purchasing collaboration; behavioural aspects; developing countries
An intensive study of aerosol optical properties in Beijing urban area

In order to quantify the aerosol impact on climate, a range of aerosol parameters are required. In this paper, two-year of ground-based observations of aerosol optical properties from an urban site in Beijing of China are assessed. The aerosol absorption coefficient (σ a ), scattering coefficient (σ s ), as well as single scattering albedo (ω) are analyzed to aid in characterizing Beijing's urban aerosol. Two-year averages (and standard deviations) for σ a at 532 nm, σ s at 525 nm and ω at 525 nm are 56±49 Mm −1 , 288±281 Mm −1 and 0.80±0.09, respectively. Meanwhile, there is a distinct diurnal variation for σ a , with its minimum occurring at approximately 14:00 to 15:00 and maximum at midnight. σ s peaks in the late morning and the minimum occurs in the evening. σ s in summer is higher than that in winter. ω is also higher in summer than that in winter, except before 07:00 a.m., and peaks in the early afternoon. Both σ a and σ s show strong dependence on local wind in all four seasons. When the wind blows from the north with low speed (0–2 m/s), the values of σ a are high, and in contrast, very low with wind speeds higher than 4 m/s. When the wind blows from south with low speed (0–4 m/s), σ a is intermediate. The patterns of the wind dependence of σ a indicates that σ a is mainly dominated by local emissions. σ s displays a similar dependence on wind speed and direction to σ a , except in summer. In summer, the σ s value is highest when wind is from southeast with speed of 0–6 m/s. This indicates that the particle pollution resulting from regional transport is only significant in the summer season. ω also shows wind dependence to some extent though not as strong as σ a or σ s . Overall, the wind dependence results provide valuable information about the locations of aerosol pollution sources and suggest that the air pollution in summer is a regional problem but in other seasons it is mainly affected by local urban emissions.
Which features of impulsivity influence alcohol consumption

Background: Impulsive behaviour and excessive alcohol consumption is a double edged sword. Impulsivity has been implicated in the literature regarding alcohol use. It is regularly disentangled for further analyses. Furthermore, previous literature has acknowledged such relationship yet there has been problematic findings and patterns related to this rapport. Impulsivity is a heterogeneous construct in scientific literature and is assessed by many different measures. Methods: 138 participants completed assessment of alcohol consumption, dependence and alcohol related problems using the AUDIT. Impulsivity was assessed using the UPPS-P behavioural scale (i.e. negative urgency, lack of premeditation, lack of perseverance, sensation seeking and positive urgency). Therefore, multiple regression analyses were performed to assess the predictive act of the sub-dimensions of impulsivity on alcohol consumption, dependence and alcohol related problems. Results: Sensation seeking was predictive of alcohol dependency. Where the remaining sub-dimensions were not predictive of any other alcohol related score in this model. Further, alcohol and age were correlated, finding older cohorts (31-71 years) engaging in alcohol consumption as well as being more dependent and having more alcohol related problems than the lower age group (18-30 years). Conclusion: Sensation Seeking was the only sub-dimension of impulsivity predictive of alcohol dependency. This finding is closely linked to previous research on the overall impact and importance of assessing sensation seeking and its relationship to alcohol. This study calls for further assessment, as well as the implementation of intervention programs.
THE FORMATION OF PRECIOUS OPAL: CLUES FROM THE OPALIZATION OF BONE

The composition and microstructure of opalized saurian bones (Plesiosaur) from Andamooka, South Australia, have been analyzed and compared to saurian bones that have been partially replaced by magnesian calcite from the same geological formation, north of Coober Pedy, South Australia. Powder X-ray-diffraction analyses show that the opalized bones are composed of opal-AG and quartz. Major- and minor-element XRF analyses show that they are essentially pure SiO2 (88.59 to 92.69 wt%), with minor amounts of Al2O3 (2.02 to 4.41 wt%) and H2O (3.36 to 4.23 wt%). No traces of biogenic apatite remain after opalization. The opal is depleted in all trace elements relative to PAAS. During the formation of the opal, the coarser details of the bone microstructure have been preserved down to the level of the individual osteons (scale of around 100 μm), but the central canals and the boundary area have been enlarged and filled with chalcedony, which postdates opal formation. These chemical and microstructural features are consistent with the opalization process being a secondary replacement after partial replacement of the bone by magnesian calcite. They are also consistent with the opal forming first as a gel in the small cavities left by the osteons, and the individual opal spheres growing as they settle within the gel. Changes in the viscosity of the gel provide a ready explanation for the occurrence of color and potch banding in opals. The indication that opalization is a secondary process after calcification on the Australian opal fields is consistent with a Tertiary age for formation.
Low-skilled Jobs: the French strategy

Since 1995, French governments implemented a specific strategy aiming at lowering unemployment or inactivity of so called unskilled workers, in fact of low wage workers. This strategy used two tools: cuts in employers' social contributions reduce companies' costs for hiring low-wage workers; the Prime Pour l'Emploi, PPE, raises low-wage workers' incomes, and increases the gap between wage and assistance benefits in order to increase incentives for low-wage workers to take a job. The paper provides a description of the situation of unskilled workers in France. It describes the history of measures lowering employers' contributions on low wages, presents and discusses the studies that have tried to assess the impact of such measures on employment. These cuts cost approximately 18 billion euros in 2007. An average estimate of about 550,000 jobs created would have an ex post cost of 9 billion euro, i.e. 176,000 euros per created job. The history and the structure of the PPE are presented. According to existing studies, the PPE would not have a significant effect on labour supply. Should it be concluded from it that there is not inactivity trap? Or, on the contrary, that the trap is very deep? The current debate on the appropriateness to maintain employers' contribution and PPE or to reform them is addressed.
Nontransitive dice sets realizing the Paley tournaments for solving Schütte's tournament problem

The problem of a multiple player dice tournament is discussed and solved in the paper. A die has a finite number of faces with real numbers written on each. Finite dice sets are proposed which have the following property, defined by Schutte for tournaments: for an arbitrary subset of k dice there is at least one die that beats each of the k with a probability greater than 1/2. It is shown that the proposed dice set realizes the Paley tournament, that is known to have the Schutte property (for a given k) if the number of vertices is large enough. The proof is based on Dirichlet's theorem, stating that the sum of quadratic nonresidues is strictly larger than the sum of quadratic residues.