Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Community factors associated with malaria prevention by mosquito nets: an exploratory study in rural Burkina Faso

Malaria‐related knowledge, attitudes and practices (KAP) were examined in a rural and partly urban multiethnic population of Kossi province in north‐western Burkina Faso prior to the establishment of a local insecticide‐treated bednet (ITN) programme. Various individual and group interviews were conducted, and a structured questionnaire was administered to a random sample of 210 heads of households in selected villages and the provincial capital of Nouna. Soumaya, the local illness concept closest to the biomedical term malaria, covers a broad range of recognized signs and symptoms. Aetiologically, soumaya is associated with mosquito bites but also with a number of other perceived causes. The disease entity is perceived as a major burden to the community and is usually treated by both traditional and western methods. Malaria preventive practices are restricted to limited chloroquine prophylaxis in pregnant women. Protective measures against mosquitoes are, however, widespread through the use of mosquito nets, mosquito coils, insecticide sprays and traditional repellents. Mosquito nets are mainly used during the rainy season and most of the existing nets are used by adults, particularly heads of households. Mosquito nets treated with insecticide (ITN) are known to the population through various information channels. People are willing to treat existing nets and to buy ITNs, but only if such services would be offered at reduced prices and in closer proximity to the households. These findings have practical implications for the design of ITN programmes in rural areas of sub‐Saharan Africa (SSA).
Influence of total quality-based human issues on organisational commitment

Most studies generally report consistent evidence that private-sector employees exhibit higher levels of organisational commitment, compared to employees in public-sector organisations. This paper focuses on the understudied public sector, and assesses the contribution of total quality-based human resources practices to enhancing employees’ organisational commitment, as well as the mediating role of job satisfaction in such relationship. A structural equation modelling approach was applied to data collected in three organisations belonging to the Portuguese public social security system. The findings are, to a large extent, in agreement with earlier fragmented studies, since they confirm the idea hypothesised according to which total quality-based human resources practices would have a significant effect on each of the dimensions of organisational commitment. Moreover, there is evidence of a mediation effect of employees’ job satisfaction on the relationship between total quality-based human resources practices and affective and normative dimensions of employees’ organisational commitment.
Megavoltage irradiation of neoplasms of the nasal and paranasal cavities in 77 dogs.

Seventy-seven dogs with malignant tumors of the nasal and paranasal cavities were treated by use of radiotherapy. The tumors included carcinomas (58) and sarcomas (19). Radiographic findings, including site of involvement and tumor extension, were the basis of clinical staging. Staging was performed according to the tumor, node, metastasis staging of the World Health Organization, and a modified staging scheme based on prognostic factors that seemed to correlate best with response to treatment. All irradiations were done with a telecobalt 60 unit. Fifty-six dogs were treated with irradiation alone, and 21 had partial tumor resection prior to radiotherapy. Treatment dose was 48 Gy (minimal tumor dose) administered on a Monday-Wednesday-Friday basis at 4 Gy/fraction over 4 weeks. The irradiation technique emphasized rostral field with a generous treatment volume. Duration of follow-up after irradiation ranged from 1 month to 61 months. The 1- and 2-year overall survival rates were 60.3% and 25%, respectively, and the 1- and 2-year relapse-free survival rates were 38.2% and 17.6%, respectively. Results of histologic examination and our modified staging scheme were significant (P = 0.02 and P = 0.04, respectively) prognostic factors of relapse-free survival. Conversely, tumor site, tumor extension, World Health Organization clinical stage, and cytoreductive surgery prior to irradiation did not affect the outcome of treatment. According to our modified staging scheme, dogs with stage-2- disease have a poorer prognosis than dogs with stage-1 disease, with a relative risk of relapse 2.3-fold higher. Dogs with carcinoma had a poorer prognosis than dogs with sarcoma (predominantly chondrosarcoma) with a relative risk of relapse 3.3-fold higher. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Osmium isotope evidence for two pulses of increased continental weathering linked to Early Jurassic volcanism and climate change

Large igneous provinces (LIPs) are proposed to have caused a number of episodes of abrupt environmental change by increasing atmospheric CO2 levels, which were subsequently alleviated by drawdown of CO2 via enhanced continental weathering and burial of organic matter. Here the sedimentary records of two such episodes of environmental change, the Toarcian oceanic anoxic event (T-OAE) and preceding Pliensbachian–Toarcian (Pl-To) event (both possibly linked to the Karoo-Ferrar LIP), are investigated using a new suite of geochemical proxies that have not been previously compared. Stratigraphic variations in osmium isotope (187Os/188Os) records are compared with those of mercury (Hg) and carbon isotopes (δ13C) in samples from the Mochras core, Llanbedr Farm, Cardigan Bay Basin, Wales. These sedimentary rocks are confirmed as recording an open-marine setting by analysis of molybdenum/ uranium enrichment trends, indicating that the Os isotope record in these samples reflects the isotopic composition of the global ocean. The Os isotope data include the first results across the Pl-To boundary, when seawater 187Os/188Os increased from ∼0.40 to ∼0.53, in addition to new data that show elevated 187Os/188Os (from ∼0.42 to ∼0.68) during the T-OAE. Both increases in 187Os/188Os correlate with negative carbon isotope excursions and increased mercury concentrations, supporting an interplay between terrestrial volcanism, weathering, and climate that was instrumental in driving these distinct episodes of global environmental change. These observations also indicate that the environmental impact of the Karoo-Ferrar LIP was not limited solely to the T-OAE.
How Do Firms Adapt to Discontinuous Change? Bridging the Dynamic Capabilities and Ambidexterity Perspectives

This article develops a conceptual integration of the dynamic capabilities and ambidexterity perspectives in order to understand how firms adapt to discontinuous change. Based on three illustrative case studies, it demonstrates that it is not possible to identify a universal set of dynamic capabilities. Rather, the distinct set of capabilities required depends on which of three modes of adaptation (structural separation, behavioral integration, or sequential alternation) has been prioritized. This article contributes a contingency perspective to dynamic capability research and offers guidance to managers about the alternative approaches they could take when seeking to adapt to environmental discontinuities.
A nightly bedtime routine: impact on sleep in young children and maternal mood.

BACKGROUND Establishment of a consistent bedtime routine is often recommended to parents of young children, especially those with sleep difficulties. However, no studies have investigated the efficacy of such a routine independent of behavioral intervention. Thus, the purpose of this study was to examine the impact of a consistent bedtime routine on infant and toddler sleep, as well as maternal mood. METHODS 405 mothers and their infant or toddler (ages 7-18 months, n=206; ages 18-36 months, n=199) participated in 2 age-specific 3-week studies. Families were randomly assigned to a routine or control group. The first week of the study served as a baseline during which the mothers were instructed to follow their child's usual bedtime routine. In the second and third weeks, mothers in the routine group were instructed to conduct a specific bedtime routine, while the control group continued their child's usual routine. All mothers completed the Brief Infant Sleep Questionnaire (BISQ) on a weekly basis and a daily sleep diary, as well as completed the Profile of Mood States. RESULTS The bedtime routine resulted in significant reductions in problematic sleep behaviors for infants and toddlers. Significant improvements were seen in latency to sleep onset and in number/duration of night wakings, P < 0.001. Sleep continuity increased and there was a significant decrease in the number of mothers who rated their child's sleep as problematic. Maternal mood state also significantly improved. Control group sleep patterns and maternal mood did not significantly change over the 3-week study period. CONCLUSION These results suggest that instituting a consistent nightly bedtime routine, in and of itself, is beneficial in improving multiple aspects of infant and toddler sleep, especially wakefulness after sleep onset and sleep continuity, as well as maternal mood.
Modeling and Testing Proxemic Behavior for humanoid Robots

Humanoid robots that share the same space with humans need to be socially acceptable and effective as they interact with people. In this paper we focus our attention on the definition of a behavior-based robotic architecture that (1) allows the robot to navigate safely in a cluttered and dynamically changing domestic environment and (2) encodes embodied non-verbal interactions: the robot respects the users personal space (PS) by choosing the appropriate distance and direction of approach. The model of the PS is derived from human–robot interaction tests, and it is described in a convenient mathematical form. The robot's target location is dynamically inferred through the solution of a Bayesian filtering problem. The validation of the overall behavioral architecture shows that the robot is able to exhibit appropriate proxemic behavior.
N9-substituted aromatic cytokinins with negligible side effects on root development are an emerging tool for in vitro culturing

Natural cytokinins as well as the majority of their synthetic derivatives show negative effects on root growth and development. Changes in morphology, primarily linked to the inhibition of the cell division in the meristematic zone, are manifested as thickening and shortening of the primary root and impaired lateral root branching. Rational design of cytokinin derivatives can partially overcome these drawbacks and reduce the negative effects. Using our database of cytokinin derivatives, we selected several aromatic cytokinin analogs with modifications at the N9 atom of the adenine moiety. We found that tetrahydropyranyl and tetrahydrofuranyl substitutions at the N9 atom led to enhanced acropetal transport of the modified cytokinin, and both derivatives also showed weak anticytokinin activity. Consequently, changes in the distribution of the active cytokinin pool together with gradual metabolic conversion of the modified cytokinin to its free form prevent root growth inhibition that limits cytokinin utilization in micropropagation techniques.
Participatory Culture in a Networked Era: A Conversation on Youth, Learning, Commerce, and Politics

In the last two decades, both the conception and the practice of participatory culture have been transformed by the new affordances enabled by digital, networked, and mobile technologies. This exciting new book explores that transformation by bringing together three leading figures in conversation. Jenkins, Ito and boyd examine the ways in which our personal and professional lives are shaped by experiences interacting with and around emerging media.Stressing the social and cultural contexts of participation, the authors describe the process of diversification and mainstreaming that has transformed participatory culture. They advocate a move beyond individualized personal expression and argue for an ethos of doing it together in addition to doing it yourself.Participatory Culture in a Networked Era will interest students and scholars of digital media and their impact on society and will engage readers in a broader dialogue and conversation about their own participatory practices in this digital age.
The regulation of aldosterone secretion in man: the role of fluid volume.

Although aldosterone has recently been shown to play a part in the retention of sodium by edematous subjects (5), the factors governing its production have not been defined. It has been reported (6) that sodium restriction in normal subjects leads to increases in urinary aldosterone-like steroids, and that the quantities of such steroids are, other things being equal, inversely proportional to the amount of sodium excreted in the urine (5). In the studies reported here we have confirmed these reports in part, and have sought to clarify the mechanism or mechanisms by which changes in sodium balance lead to changes in aldosterone secretion. The evidence supports the view that some function of extracellular fluid volume, and not sodium per se, mediates the regulation of aldosterone secretion by dietary sodium.
Where literature is scarce: observations and lessons learnt from four systematic reviews of zoonoses in African countries

Abstract The success of a systematic review depends on the availability, accessibility and quality of literature related to the review question. This paper presents the literature found in four systematic reviews conducted for a selection of zoonotic hazards in four livestock value chains in Africa, as well as setting out the challenges in conducting the reviews. The protocol was designed following international standards, and addressed four questions around prevalence, risk factors, control options and impact of various hazards and populations. Searches were conducted in four online databases. Articles were screened for relevance, and quality was assessed before data extraction. Literature on zoonotic hazards was in general scarce and access to full articles was limited. Overall, 25–40% of papers were considered poor quality. The diversity of approaches and designs in the studies compromised the ability to generate summarized estimates. We found that the emphasis of veterinary research has been on livestock problems rather than public health issues, although this seems to be shifting in the last decade; we also found there are limited studies on impact and control. While increasing literature is being published around zoonoses in Africa, this is still inadequate to appropriately inform policy and guide research efforts.
Filtering distributions of normals for shading antialiasing

High-frequency illumination effects, such as highly glossy highlights on curved surfaces, are challenging to render in a stable manner. Such features can be much smaller than the area of a pixel and carry a high amount of energy due to high reflectance. These highlights are challenging to render in both offline rendering, where they require many samples and an outliers filter, and in real-time graphics, where they cause a significant amount of aliasing given the small budget of shading samples per pixel. In this paper, we propose a method for filtering the main source of highly glossy highlights in microfacet materials: the Normal Distribution Function (NDF). We provide a practical solution applicable for real-time rendering by employing recent advances in light transport for estimating the filtering region from various effects (such as pixel footprint) directly in the parallel-plane half-vector domain (also known as the slope domain), followed by filtering the NDF over this region. Our real-time method is GPU-friendly, temporally stable, and compatible with deferred shading, normal maps, as well as with filtering methods for normal maps.
Downregulation of the Na/K-ATPase Pump by Leptospiral Glycolipoprotein Activates the NLRP3 Inflammasome

Leptospira interrogans is responsible for a zoonotic disease known to induce severe kidney dysfunction and inflammation. In this work, we demonstrate that L. interrogans induces NLRP3 inflammasome-dependent secretion of IL-1β through the alteration of potassium transport in bone marrow-derived macrophages. Lysosome destabilization also contributed to the IL-1β production upon stimulation with live, but not dead, bacteria. Using bone marrow-derived macrophages from various TLRs and nucleotide-binding oligomerization domain-deficient mice, we further determined that IL-1β production was dependent on TLR2 and TLR4, suggesting a participation of the leptospiral LPS to this process. Hypokaliemia in leptospirosis has been linked to the presence of glycolipoprotein, a cell wall component of L. interrogans that is known to inhibit the expression and functions of the Na/K-ATPase pump. We show in this study that glycolipoprotein activates the inflammasome and synergizes with leptospiral LPS to produce IL-1β, mimicking the effect of whole bacteria. These results were confirmed in vivo, as wild-type mice expressed more IL-1β in the kidney than TLR2/4-deficient mice 3 d postinfection with L. interrogans. Collectively, these findings provide the first characterization, to our knowledge, of bacteria-induced activation of the NLRP3 inflammasome through the downregulation of a specific host potassium transporter.
Origin of the deep reset and low variability of pulse-programmed W\Al2O3\TiW\Cu CBRAM device

In this paper we demonstrate for the first time the origin of the deep reset and low switching variability obtained on pulse-programmed (100ns) 90nm-size W\Al2O3\TiW\CuCBRAM device operated at 10 μA. To this aim we develop a Quantum-Point-Contact (QPC) model describing the conduction of the CBRAM states down to deep current levels, allowing to estimate the effective size of the defect particles in the QPC constriction. The model clearly points to smaller particles for CBRAM (Cu particles) as compared to OxRRAM (oxygen-vacancy Vo defects). As a consequence, smaller constrictions (thus larger resistance) may be obtained in CBRAM after reset. In addition, the fluctuation of the number of these small Cu particles in the constriction has lower impact on Random-Telegraph-Noise (RTN), as compared to Vo defects. Finally, the lower switching variability obtained for CBRAM as compared to OxRRAM is also attributed to the larger mobility of Cu ions as compared to Vo particles in Al2O3 medium.
Systolic Blood Pressure within an Intermediate Range May Reduce Memory Loss in an Elderly Hypertensive Cohort

The objective of this study was to determine if maintenance of systolic blood pressure (BP) within a high range or low range among treated hypertensive patients increases the risk of memory decline. Biennial neuropsychological evaluations were performed on 158 hypertensive subjects. Decline/year was measured on the Cued Selective Reminding test (total free recall and delayed recall) in three systolic BP groups (low—i.e., mean systolic BP during the follow-up period < 135 mm Hg; intermediate—i.e., 135 mm Hg ≤ mean systolic BP ≤ 150 mm Hg; high—i.e., mean systolic BP > 150 mm Hg). In total free recall, the three systolic BP groups had significantly different declines per year (P = .02), with patients in the high subgroup showing the greatest decline. In delayed recall, the three sys tolic BP groups also showed significantly different declines per year (P = .04), with patients in the low subgroup having the greatest decline. Chronically elevated systolic BP > 150 mm Hg is associated with accelerated memory decline compared to older treated hypertensive patients with systolic BP in an intermediate range. Chronically maintained systolic BP within a low normal range < 135 mm Hg in older treated hypertensive subjects may be asso ciated with accelerated memory decline, specifically in a test of delayed memory recall, compared to patients with systolic BP in an intermediate range. Optimal regulation of systolic BP may be a potential modifiable risk factor to prevent or minimize memory loss in older hypertensive patients. (J Geriatr Psychiatry Neurol 1999; 12:1-6).
Transmission cross section for apertures and arrays calculated using time-domain simulations

Continuing advancements regarding computer technology and simulation software means that the shielding performance of increasingly complex apertures can be calculated numerically. Having access to analytical equations that can be used to reduce the computational burden is, however, still desirable. Transmission cross sections are presented for a number of geometrically simple apertures and arrays in perfectly conducting, and infinitely thin, ground planes when illuminated by a plane wave incident from the normal direction. Comparisons are made between results obtained from numerical simulations, analytical equations as well as semi-analytical calculations obtained by combining analytical equations with numerical results. A previously reported transmission line model is shown to provide results in very good agreement with numerical simulations even for apertures with a relatively small value of the length-to-width ratio. For linear arrays of slot apertures excellent agreement is obtained between purely analytical results and numerical results. The final part of the paper presents a benchmark study illustrating the convergence of two different time-domain simulation software. It is also illustrated how the accuracy of the numerical results can be improved by taking into account the discretization of the computational domain.
Stability and Generalization of Learning Algorithms that Converge to Global Optima

We establish novel generalization bounds for learning algorithms that converge to global minima. We do so by deriving black-box stability results that only depend on the convergence of a learning algorithm and the geometry around the minimizers of the loss function. The results are shown for nonconvex loss functions satisfying the Polyak-{\L}ojasiewicz (PL) and the quadratic growth (QG) conditions. We further show that these conditions arise for some neural networks with linear activations. We use our black-box results to establish the stability of optimization algorithms such as stochastic gradient descent (SGD), gradient descent (GD), randomized coordinate descent (RCD), and the stochastic variance reduced gradient method (SVRG), in both the PL and the strongly convex setting. Our results match or improve state-of-the-art generalization bounds and can easily be extended to similar optimization algorithms. Finally, we show that although our results imply comparable stability for SGD and GD in the PL setting, there exist simple neural networks with multiple local minima where SGD is stable but GD is not.