Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Abortion and Contraception: Attitudes of South African University Students

Despite the availability of contraception, the rates of abortion among young women in South Africa continue to increase. We designed a study to examine young people's attitudes about abortion and contraception. One hundred and eighty-eight South African university students (97 females and 91 males) completed the survey. While we found moral objections to abortion for the sample as a whole, females showed stronger support for availability of abortion and women's autonomy compared with males. The respondents acknowledged the importance of contraception at a personal and general level, but more than 40% of them believed that women who use contraception are promiscuous. Females expressed difficulty with usage more frequently than males and indicated that they would not consider sexual intercourse if contraception were not available. For health care workers involved in counseling young people about their sexual and reproductive choices, the challenge lies in promoting a culture of equal rights and respect for women's reproductive freedom.
Matriptase-2 suppresses hepcidin expression by cleaving multiple components of the hepcidin induction pathway

Systemic iron homeostasis is maintained by regulation of iron absorption in the duodenum, iron recycling from erythrocytes, and iron mobilization from the liver and is controlled by the hepatic hormone hepcidin. Hepcidin expression is induced via the bone morphogenetic protein (BMP) signaling pathway that preferentially uses two type I (ALK2 and ALK3) and two type II (ActRIIA and BMPR2) BMP receptors. Hemojuvelin (HJV), HFE, and transferrin receptor-2 (TfR2) facilitate this process presumably by forming a plasma membrane complex with BMP receptors. Matriptase-2 (MT2) is a protease and key suppressor of hepatic hepcidin expression and cleaves HJV. Previous studies have therefore suggested that MT2 exerts its inhibitory effect by inactivating HJV. Here, we report that MT2 suppresses hepcidin expression independently of HJV. In Hjv−/− mice, increased expression of exogenous MT2 in the liver significantly reduced hepcidin expression similarly as observed in wild-type mice. Exogenous MT2 could fully correct abnormally high hepcidin expression and iron deficiency in MT2−/− mice. In contrast to MT2, increased Hjv expression caused no significant changes in wild-type mice, suggesting that Hjv is not a limiting factor for hepcidin expression. Further studies revealed that MT2 cleaves ALK2, ALK3, ActRIIA, Bmpr2, Hfe, and, to a lesser extent, Hjv and Tfr2. MT2-mediated Tfr2 cleavage was also observed in HepG2 cells endogenously expressing MT2 and TfR2. Moreover, iron-loaded transferrin blocked MT2-mediated Tfr2 cleavage, providing further insights into the mechanism of Tfr2's regulation by transferrin. Together, these observations indicate that MT2 suppresses hepcidin expression by cleaving multiple components of the hepcidin induction pathway.
Maternal Risk Factors for Low Birth Weight in a District Hospital in Ashanti Region of Ghana

This study examines the prevalence of low birth weight (LBW) among infants and its association with maternal risk factors in Manhyia District Hospital of Ku masi Metropolis in Ghana. Thiswas a facility study based on a cross sectionalstudy fro m the maternity ward of the hospital.A sample o f 1,200wo men with in the reproductive age (15 - 49 years) across the district and beyond between 2010 and 2012 were selected fro m a total delivery of 24,025 fo r the survey. In this study, a mu ltip le logistic regression was used to determine the relationship of maternal risk factors and low birth weight.The estimated LBW prevalence was 21.1% which is co mparable to other developing countries and higher than other parts of the wo rldespecially among the developed countries. This stands to reason that the rate indicates a public health problem (ACC/SCN, 2000). The factors observed to be highly significantly associated with LBW included Antenatal Care (p-value =0.0040), Haemoglobin level (anaemia) (p-value =0.0020),Residence (p-value =0.0000) and Fetal infection (p-value= 0.05). In a nutshell, fetal infection, haemoglob in level (anaemia in pregnancy), antenatal care and residence are highly significantly ris k factors associated with LBW at the hospital. Early/late maternal age also showed some level of significance with LBW. Gestational age, height weight, and babys' sex among others were however not significant.
True protein digestibility and amounts of endogenous protein measured with the 15N-dilution technique in piglets fed on peas (Pisum sativum) and common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris)

The faecal and ileal true protein digestibilities of the raw pea (Pisum sativum) varieties finale and frijaune and the ileal true protein digestibility of steam-processed common beans (Phaseolus vulgaris) were measured in piglets using the 15N-dilution technique. The faecal true protein digestibility of both pea varieties was about 97. The ileal true protein digestibility was between 93 and 95, indicating that the pea protein is almost completely enzymically digested in the small intestine. The faecal apparent protein digestibility was 85 for both varieties while at the ileal level it was 79 and 74 respectively. The lower ileal apparent protein digestibility of peas can be attributed completely to the excretion of endogenous protein. The ileal apparent protein digestibility of toasted common beans was about zero (–4); the ileal true protein digestibility was about 66. This indicates that the protein of the common bean, although toasted, was highly resistant to enzymic digestion. It was calculated that per kg ingested bean protein, 340 g undigested bean protein and 700 g endogenous protein passed the terminal ileum. The results of the present study explain why in previous experiments a strongly reduced weight gain and even weight loss was observed in piglets fed on raw and toasted common beans.
Compact single‐layer bandwidth‐enhanced balanced bandpass filter using half‐mode substrate‐integrated waveguide

A compact single-layer balanced bandpass filter using just one half-mode substrate-integrated waveguide (HMSIW) multimode resonator with slots is proposed. The pair of microstrip direct-feed lines with space about 0.5 λ g ( λ g is the guide wavelength of HMSIW at the centre frequency f 0 ) makes TEHM 103, TEHM 104 and TEHM 105 modes of the HMSIW multimode resonator operate in differential mode and TEHM 102 and TEHM 106 modes operate in common mode (CM). As a result, the features of wide bandwidth and low insertion loss (IL) can be achieved when compared with the state-of-art substrate-integrated waveguide balanced filters. Furthermore, the etched slots can be slightly tuned to make up for the performance deviations caused by the manufacturing error. A prototype is designed with a total size of 1.2 λ 0 × 0.14 λ 0 ( λ 0 is the wavelength in free space at f 0 ), the 3 dB fractional bandwidth (FBW) of 28% at the centre frequency of 6 GHz, the minimum IL of 0.86 dB, and the bandwidth of 20 dB CM suppression of 0.25 f 0 .
Neuroimaging of typical and atypical development: A perspective from multiple levels of analysis

To date, research involving functional neuroimaging of typical and atypical development has depended on several assumptions about the postnatal maturation of the brain. We consider evidence from multiple levels of analysis that brings into question these underlying assumptions and advance an alternative view. This alternative view, based on an “interactive specialization” approach to postnatal brain development, indicates that there is a need to: obtain data from early in development; focus more on differences in interregional interactions rather than searching for localized, discrete lesions; examine the temporal dynamics of neural processing; and move away from deficits to image tasks in which atypical participants perform as well as typically developing participants.
Surface Interaction of Nanoscale Water Film with SDS from Computational Simulation and Film Thermodynamics

Foam systems have been attracting extensive attention due to their importance in a variety of applications, e.g., in the cleaning industry, and in bubble flotation. In the context of flotation chemistry, flotation performance is strongly affected by bubble coalescence, which in turn relies significantly on the surface forces upon the liquid film between bubbles. Conventionally, unusual short-range strongly repulsive surface interactions for Newton black films (NBF) between two interfaces with thickness of less than 5 nm were not able to be incorporated into the available classical Derjaguin, Landau, Verwey, and Overbeek (DLVO) theory. The non-DLVO interaction would increase exponentially with the decrease of film thickness, as it plays a crucial role in determining liquid film stability. However, its mechanism and origin are still unclear. In the present work, we investigate the surface interaction of free-standing sodium dodecyl-sulfate (SDS) nanoscale black films in terms of disjoining pressure using the molecular simulation method. The aqueous nanoscale film, consisting of a water coating with SDS surfactants, and with disjoining pressure and film tension of SDS-NBF as a function of film thickness, were quantitatively determined by a post-processing technique derived from film thermodynamics.
The Impact of Pessary Use on Bowel Symptoms: One-Year Outcomes

Objectives The literature states that patients with pelvic organ prolapse have a higher prevalence of bothersome bowel symptoms and that surgical correction of prolapse may improve bowel function. There is limited knowledge regarding the impact of pessary use on bowel function in patients with prolapse. The aim of this study was to evaluate if there is a change in bowel symptoms in patients with prolapse treated with a vaginal pessary. Methods Women who presented for pessary insertion completed the validated questionnaires on the bowel symptom severity and on the effect of bowel symptoms on the quality of life at baseline and again at 12 months of continuous pessary use. Inferential statistics comprised Student t test for evaluating differences in continuous Gaussian data between groups and paired t tests were used to evaluate differences among subjects between the baseline and 12 months of use. Results One hundred four women participated in the original study, and 43 had complete data for analysis. Women who completed 12 months of pessary use reported significant improvements in both bowel-related symptoms and bowel-related quality of life (95% confidence interval of the difference 1.6–11.4 and 2.0–14.0, respectively). Patients who completed the 12-month follow-up were significantly older and more likely to have stage 3 or 4 prolapse than noncompleters, but there were no differences in body mass index, race, history of prior prolapse surgery, or menopause status. Conclusions In women with prolapse, the use of a pessary is associated with a decrease in complaints related to bowel symptoms.
Analysis of Elementary School Teachers’ Work Discipline at UPTD Education in Banyumanik, Semarang City

This study is aimed to describe the elementary school teachers’ work discipline at the UPTD Education in Banyumanik, Semarang City. The study involved 162 elementary school teachers. The instrument used in this study was a questionnaire consisting of 30 statement items, and 5 indicators of work discipline for elementary school teachers. The findings showed that each indicator of discipline of time was very good (90.8), discipline of work was good (90.1), discipline in work atmosphere was very good (91.4), discipline in serving community was good (88,9), discipline of attitude and behavior was sufficient (75). Overall, the work discipline of elementary school teachers was good (87). These findings indicated that the elementary school teachers at the UPTD education in Banyumanik, Semarang City worked in well-discipline.
Proteins Exposed at the Adult Schistosome Surface Revealed by Biotinylation*S

The human blood-dwelling parasite Schistosoma mansoni can survive in the hostile host environment for decades and must therefore display effective strategies to evade the host immune responses. The surface of the adult worm is covered by a living syncytial layer, the tegument, bounded by a complex multilaminate surface. This comprises a normal plasma membrane overlain by a secreted bilayer, the membranocalyx. Recent proteomic studies have identified constituents of the tegument, but their relative locations remain to be established. We labeled the most exposed surface proteins using two impermeant biotinylation reagents that differed only in length. We anticipated that the two reagents would display distinct powers of penetration, thereby producing a differential labeling pattern. The labeled proteins were recovered by streptavidin affinity and identified by tandem mass spectrometry. A total of 28 proteins was identified, 13 labeled by a long form reagent and the same 13 plus a further 15 labeled by a short form reagent. The parasite proteins included membrane enzymes, transporters, and structural proteins. The short form reagent additionally labeled some cytosolic and cytoskeletal proteins, the latter being constituents of the intracellular spines. Only a single secreted protein was labeled, implying a location between the plasma membrane and the membranocalyx or as part of the latter. Four host proteins, three immunoglobulin heavy chains and C3c/C3dg, a fragment of complement C3, were labeled by both reagents indicating their exposed situation. The presence of the degraded complement C3 implicates inhibition of the classical pathway as a major element of the immune evasion strategy, whereas the recovery of only one truly secreted protein points to the membranocalyx acting primarily as an inert protective barrier between the immune system and the tegument plasma membrane. Collectively the labeled parasite proteins merit investigation as potential vaccine candidates.
Molecular Basis for Lysine Specificity in the Yeast Ubiquitin-Conjugating Enzyme Cdc34

ABSTRACT Ubiquitin (Ub)-conjugating enzymes (E2s) and ubiquitin ligases (E3s) catalyze the attachment of Ub to lysine residues in substrates and Ub during monoubiquitination and polyubiquitination. Lysine selection is important for the generation of diverse substrate-Ub structures, which provides versatility to this pathway in the targeting of proteins to different fates. The mechanisms of lysine selection remain poorly understood, with previous studies suggesting that the ubiquitination site(s) is selected by the E2/E3-mediated positioning of a lysine(s) toward the E2/E3 active site. By studying the polyubiquitination of Sic1 by the E2 protein Cdc34 and the RING E3 Skp1/Cul1/F-box (SCF) protein, we now demonstrate that in addition to E2/E3-mediated positioning, proximal amino acids surrounding the lysine residues in Sic1 and Ub are critical for ubiquitination. This mechanism is linked to key residues composing the catalytic core of Cdc34 and independent of SCF. Changes to these core residues altered the lysine preference of Cdc34 and specified whether this enzyme monoubiquitinated or polyubiquitinated Sic1. These new findings indicate that compatibility between amino acids surrounding acceptor lysine residues and key amino acids in the catalytic core of ubiquitin-conjugating enzymes is an important mechanism for lysine selection during ubiquitination.
Human hand recognition from robotic skin measurements in human-robot physical interactions

This paper deals with the problem of using the tactile feedback generated by a robotic skin for discriminating a human hand touch from a generic contact. Humans understand collaboration intentions through different sensing modalities such as vision, hearing and touch. Among them, a physical interaction is mainly used for demonstrating or correcting a kind of motion and is usually started by touching with the hands the other human body. Until recently, it was difficult to perform the same in human-robot cooperation due to the lack of large-scale tactile systems functionally similar to a human skin. Our approach consists in transforming measurements of sensors distributed on the robot body into a convenient 2D representation of the contact shape, i.e., a contact image, then applying image classification techniques in order to discriminate a human touch from unexpected collisions. Experiments have been performed on a robotic skin composed of 768 pressure sensors integrated on a Baxter robot forearm. More than 1800 contact images have been generated from 43 different persons for training and testing two machine learning algorithms: Bag of Visual Words and Convolutional Neural Networks. The experimental results show that both approaches are valid, obtaining a classification accuracy higher than 96%.
A new class of disordered elements controls DNA replication through initiator self-assembly

The initiation of DNA replication in metazoans occurs at thousands of chromosomal sites known as origins. At each origin, the Origin Recognition Complex (ORC), Cdc6, and Cdt1 co-assemble to load the Mcm2-7 replicative helicase onto chromatin. Current replication models envisage a linear arrangement of isolated origins functioning autonomously; the extent of inter-origin organization and communication is unknown. Here, we report that the replication initiation machinery of D. melanogaster unexpectedly undergoes liquid-liquid phase separation (LLPS) upon binding DNA in vitro. We find that ORC, Cdc6, and Cdt1 contain intrinsically disordered regions (IDRs) that drive LLPS and constitute a new class of phase separating elements. Initiator IDRs are shown to regulate multiple functions, including chromosome recruitment, initiator-specific co-assembly, and Mcm2-7 loading. These data help explain how CDK activity controls replication initiation and suggest that replication programs are subject to higher-order levels of inter-origin organization.
The Disappearance of Planning in the Plan

Commenting on an infeasible plan means reopening a set of issues which were in the center of heated controversies of those years. In the hectic and tense days of 1928 and the first months of 1929 when the First Five-Year Plan was officially approved, academic and scholarly issues easily turned into ideological and political ones; the political ones very soon became the basis for criminal prosecution; finally, the executioner was brought in to resolve the controversies. An opinion on rates of growth uttered at that time was likely to lead to a degrading trial and prison sentence in 1930, to become "commuted," formally or informally, into a death sentence from 1935 on. Thus the cool re-evaluation by a mathematical economist of the set of figures which was triumphantly presented to the world in April-May 1929 as the text of the plan conjures up not merely specters of the past but burning political issues of the present which the Soviet leadership does not like to face. At that time many Soviet experts and politicians argued heatedly that the version of the plan as officially adopted was unrealistic. Such was the opinion of Gosplan's majority of specialists, especially the top nonparty men. But Bukharin, Rykov, and Tomsky, Politburo members, claimed the same. They disapproved of the more ambitious "optimal" version of the plan and preferred the more modest, "minimum" (otpravnoi) version of it.1 They also proposed working out a special "two-year plan" for agriculture to straighten things out in this field as the condition for the success of the whole plan. But it is quite clear that even dedicated and ardent party spokesmen in Gosplan, like Krzhizhanovsky and Strumilin, were aware of the plan's excessive rigidity. They were competent people and could not have missed the point that the whole set of "qualitative indicators" (labor productivity, costs, yields)-the plan, quite officia.lly, rested on those-were impossible targets if simultaneously the rate of accumulation in the national income was to be sharply increased. Perhaps justice should be done to those planners by recalculating the targets of the "minimum" version too, because there is enough evidence to believe that this was the one which the planners really
Use of the Cre-lox Recombination System To Investigate the lp54 Gene Requirement in the Infectious Cycle of Borrelia burgdorferi

ABSTRACT Borrelia burgdorferi, the causative agent of Lyme disease, has a complex genome consisting of a linear chromosome and up to 21 linear and circular plasmids. These plasmids encode numerous proteins critical to the spirochete's infectious cycle and many hypothetical proteins whose functions and requirements are unknown. The conserved linear plasmid lp54 encodes several proteins important for survival in the mouse-tick infectious cycle, but the majority of the proteins are of unknown function and lack homologs outside the borreliae. In this study we adapted the Cre-lox recombination system to create large deletions in the B. burgdorferi genome. Using Cre-lox, we systematically investigated the contribution of 14 adjacent genes on the left arm of lp54 to the overall infectivity of B. burgdorferi. The deletion of the region of lp54 encompassing bba07 to bba14 had no significant effect on the infectious cycle of B. burgdorferi. The deletion of bba01 to bba07 resulted in a slight growth defect but did not significantly affect the ability of B. burgdorferi to complete the infectious cycle. This study demonstrated the utility of the Cre-lox system to efficiently explore gene requirements in B. burgdorferi and surprisingly revealed that a large number of the highly conserved proteins encoded on lp54 are not required to complete the infectious cycle.
Perception of TQM benefits, practices and obstacles: The case of project managers and quality management representatives in Kuwait

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to identify the perception of total quality management (TQM) benefits, practices and obstacles in Kuwaiti industrial organizations certified against ISO 9001:2000 (or later) and following a TQM approach. A discrepancy in perception between project managers (PMs) and quality management representatives (QMRs) of organizations in the Gulf Cooperation Council countries has already been identified (Jaeger and Adair, 2013), and this study compares the perception of these two groups in more depth. Design/methodology/approach – Extensive representatives of both groups have been individually interviewed, a classification system for TQM benefits, practices and obstacles has been developed, and interview responses have been analyzed against this classification system. Findings – It emerges that all responses matched one of the benefits, obstacles and practices of the classification system. Comparing the total group of PMs with the total group of QMRs, it was found that both gro.
Lichenicidin Biosynthesis in Escherichia coli: licFGEHI Immunity Genes Are Not Essential for Lantibiotic Production or Self-Protection

ABSTRACT This study demonstrated, for the first time, that immunity genes licFGEHI are not essential for self-protection and production of the two-component lantibiotic lichenicidin in the Gram-negative heterologous host Escherichia coli BLic5. Additionally, it was experimentally demonstrated that lichenicidin lantibiotics are active against the E. coli imp4213 strain, a mutant strain possessing a permeable outer membrane.