Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Original communication: the role of street foods in the dietary pattern of two low-income groups in Nairobi

]> Objectives: To examine the frequency of street food consumption of people living in low-income settlements in Nairobi and the role of street foods in their daily diet and to reveal why people consume street foods rather than home-prepared foods. Setting, subjects and methods: A cross-sectional descriptive study was done with 1011 households and in-depth interviews with a subsample of 73 households in two selected areas in Nairobi: Korogocho, a low-income slum area and Dandora, a low ‐ middle-income area. Results: The frequency of street food consumption was higher in Korogocho than in Dandora (3.6 vs 2.0 days per week; P< 0.001). Street food consumption did not differ between different types of households, with the exception of household size. Employment status of the household head and street food consumption were related (P< 0.001): consumption frequency of 3.7 days per week when irregularly or unemployed, 2.9 days=week when self-employed and 2.1 days=week when regularly employed. Furthermore, where an adult woman with primarily a domestic role was present, street food consumption was less (2.55 days per week when present vs 2.95 when not present; P< 0.05). Conclusions: Street foods play an important role in the diet of poor households in Nairobi, in particular for breakfast and snacks, because they are cheap and convenient. The frequency of street food consumption is determined by a combination of at least four factors: level of household income; regularity of income; household size; and time available to prepare meals. Sponsorship: The project is financed by the Netherlands Foundation for the Advancement of Tropical Research (WOTRO), filenumber WV 96-153. Descriptors: street food consumption; Nairobi; urban poor European Journal of Clinical Nutrition (2001) 55, 562‐570
Attenuated Mengo virus: a new vector for live recombinant vaccines

Several features make Mengo virus an excellent candidate for use as a vaccine vector. The virus has a wide host range, including rodents, pigs, monkeys, and most likely humans, and expresses its genome exclusively in the cytoplasm of the infected cell. Stable attenuated strains exist which are deleted for part of the 5' noncoding region of the genome. Here we report an attenuated Mengo virus recombinant, vLCMG4, that encodes an immunodominant cytotoxic T-lymphocyte epitope of the lymphocytic choriomeningitis virus (LCMV) nucleo-protein. vLCMG4 induced protective immunity against lethal LCMV infection after a single, low-dose immunization in BALB/c mice and elicited an LCMV-specific CD8+ cytotoxic T lymphocyte response. This demonstrates the potential of recombinant Mengo virus vaccines to confer protection against infectious diseases by the induction of cellular immune responses.
Modulation Recognition for Incomplete Signals through Dictionary Learning

The automatic recognition of modulation type for a detected signal is a significant task in wireless communication, which is the intermediate step between signal detection and demodulation. There are two general methods adopted in modulation recognition, i.e., likelihood-based (LB) method and feature-based (FB) method. Both LB and FB approach do not perform well when the signals are incomplete and received from a very limited number of observations. Therefore, we adopt a method based on dictionary learning to identify the modulation type of incomplete signals. The orthogonal matching pursuit (OMP) method is used to obtain the sparse representation and the sequential generalization of K-means (SGK) method is used to update the dictionary set. The experimental result shows that the recognition accuracy of our method is much higher, compared with the method based on higher-order cumulant.
Smallholder farmers in the Great Ruaha River sub-Basin of Tanzania: coping or adapting to rainfall variability?

Climate change and variability are pervasive contemporary realities in Africa. In this paper, we investigate climate stressors (i.e. rainfall patterns and drought) that have occurred in the Great Ruaha River sub-Basin (GRRB), Tanzania. By making use of a mixed-methods approach, including both quantitative and qualitative data collection, we demonstrate that changes in rainfall pattern experienced by rural farmers in the GRRB have increased since the 1990s, as have limiting factors constraining sustainable response options. By interrogating data from focus group discussions with smallholder farmers, household questionnaire surveys, and records from government institutions, we show that sustainable livelihoods in this area are also being compromised by non-climatic stresses such as a lack of coordinated crop markets and poor access to loans, inadequate weather forecast information, and poor irrigation infrastructure and varying climate. As a consequence of climatic stresses, resources utilization, diversification of farming methods, and broader structural and development concerns, smallholder farmers have responded with corresponding changes in coping and adaptation strategies. Smallholder farmers are more frequently resorting to shorter term coping strategies rather than longer term adaptation, and are thus still heavily reliant on social, economic, and policy support to improve both their shorter term coping and longer term adaptive capacity.
Three-dimensional kinematics of the equine distal forelimb: effects of a sharp turn at the walk.

REASONS FOR PERFORMING STUDY Sharp turns are suspected to increase expression of several distal forelimb lamenesses even at the walk but the biomechanical consequences of such a movement remain unknown. OBJECTIVE To quantify the effects of a sharp turn at the walk on the 3-dimensional movements of the distal segments of the forelimb. METHODS Kinematics of the distal segments were measured in 4 healthy horses invasively with an ultrasonic system. Three-dimensional rotations of the digital joints were calculated by use of a joint coordinate system. Data obtained for a turn at the walk were compared to those obtained in a straight line. RESULTS During the stance phase in a turn, the inside forelimb underwent an adduction that induced lateromotion and medial rotation in the distal interphalangeal joint and medial rotation in the proximal interphalangeal joint. These movements were maximal at heel-off and decreased during breakover as the hoof underwent a sudden lateral rotation. CONCLUSIONS Walking in a sharp turn affects the kinematics of the digital joints outside the sagittal plane. POTENTIAL RELEVANCE This knowledge offers the opportunity to derive hypotheses on biomechanical factors that could contribute to the pathogenesis of digital injuries and on consequences for rational shoeing.
Collapsed publics: Orality, literacy, and vulnerability in academic Twitter

This paper outlines ways in which scholars build identity and connection on open networked platforms such as Twitter, and considers the risks and benefits of networked participatory engagement. The paper reports the findings of an ethnographic study examining the digitally-networked practices of scholars from a range of disciplines, identity positions, and geopolitical locations, and explores participants’ experiences of care and vulnerability within open, networked academic systems. The paper draws on White and LeCornu’s (2011) visitors and residents continuum, Veletsianos and Kimmons’ (2012) concept of Networked Participatory Scholarship (NPS), and Ong’s (1982) theories of secondary orality and secondary literacy to explore networked scholars’ practices and experiences. It examines ‘academic Twitter’ as a phenomenon in which oral and literate traditions – and audience expectations – are collapsed, creating a public that operates on very different terms from those of academia. The paper’s findings examine the risks of this collapse, yet also show that networked engagement – in which personal identity signals, humor, and expressions of commonality are found to be the dominant means by which scholars build networks ties – can result in opportunities and affinities that institutional scholarship may not offer. The substantive goal of the paper is to offer a portrait of networked scholars’ experiences and practices related to engagement, and to consider the tensions these practices raise within the contemporary academy.
Compensatory processing during rule-based category learning in older adults

ABSTRACT Healthy older adults typically perform worse than younger adults at rule-based category learning, but better than patients with Alzheimer’s or Parkinson’s disease. To further investigate aging’s effect on rule-based category learning, we monitored event-related potentials (ERPs) while younger and neuropsychologically typical older adults performed a visual category-learning task with a rule-based category structure and trial-by-trial feedback. Using these procedures, we previously identified ERPs sensitive to categorization strategy and accuracy in young participants. In addition, previous studies have demonstrated the importance of neural processing in the prefrontal cortex and the medial temporal lobe for this task. In this study, older adults showed lower accuracy and longer response times than younger adults, but there were two distinct subgroups of older adults. One subgroup showed near-chance performance throughout the procedure, never categorizing accurately. The other subgroup reached asymptotic accuracy that was equivalent to that in younger adults, although they categorized more slowly. These two subgroups were further distinguished via ERPs. Consistent with the compensation theory of cognitive aging, older adults who successfully learned showed larger frontal ERPs when compared with younger adults. Recruitment of prefrontal resources may have improved performance while slowing response times. Additionally, correlations of feedback-locked P300 amplitudes with category-learning accuracy differentiated successful younger and older adults. Overall, the results suggest that the ability to adapt one’s behavior in response to feedback during learning varies across older individuals, and that the failure of some to adapt their behavior may reflect inadequate engagement of prefrontal cortex.
A Comparison of Different Modes of Morning Priming Exercise on Afternoon Performance.

PURPOSE To assess the effects of different modes of morning (AM) exercise on afternoon (PM) performance and salivary hormone responses in professional rugby union players. METHODS On 4 occasions (randomized, crossover design), 15 professional rugby players provided AM (~8 AM) and PM (~2 PM) saliva samples before PM assessments of countermovement-jump height, reaction time, and repeated-sprint ability. Control (passive rest), weights (bench press: 5 × 10 repetitions, 75% 1-repetition maximum, 90-s intraset recovery), cycling (6 × 6-s maximal sprint cycling, 7.5% body mass load, 54-s intraset recovery), and running (6 × 40-m maximal sprints, 20-s intraset recovery) interventions preceded (~5 h) PM testing. RESULTS PM sprint performance improved (P < .05) after weights (>0.15 ± 0.19 s, >2.04% ± 2.46%) and running (>0.15 ± 0.17 s, >2.12% ± 2.22%) but not cycling (P > .05). PM jump height increased after cycling (0.012 ± 0.009 m, 2.31% ± 1.76%, P < .001) and running (0.020 ± 0.009 m, 3.90% ± 1.79%, P < .001) but not weights (P = .936). Reaction time remained unchanged between trials (P = .379). Relative to control (131 ± 21 pg/mL), PM testosterone was greater in weights (21 ± 23 pg/mL, 17% ± 18%, P = .002) and running (28 ± 26 pg/mL, 22% ± 20%, P = .001) but not cycling (P = .072). Salivary cortisol was unaffected by AM exercise (P = .540). CONCLUSIONS All modes of AM exercise improved at least 1 marker of PM performance, but running appeared the most beneficial to professional rugby union players. A rationale therefore exists for preceding PM competition with AM exercise.
Evolution in a Changing Environment: A Case Study with Great Tit Fledging Mass

Heritable phenotypic traits under significant and consistent directional selection often fail to show the expected evolutionary response. A potential explanation for this contradiction is that because environmental conditions change constantly, environmental change can mask an evolutionary response to selection. We combined an “animal model” analysis with 36 years of data from a long‐term study of great tits (Parus major) to explore selection on and evolution of a morphological trait: body mass at fledging. We found significant heritability of this trait, but despite consistent positive directional selection on both the phenotypic and the additive genetic component of body mass, the population mean phenotypic value declined rather than increased over time. However, the mean breeding value for body mass at fledging increased over time, presumably in response to selection. We show that the divergence between the response to selection observed at the levels of genotype and phenotype can be explained by a change in environmental conditions over time, that is, related both to increased spring temperature before breeding and elevated population density. Our results support the suggestion that measuring phenotypes may not always give a reliable impression of evolutionary trajectories and that understanding patterns of phenotypic evolution in nature requires an understanding of how the environment has itself changed.
Plasma levels of S100A4 in portopulmonary hypertension

We previously showed that a single nucleotide polymorphism in S100A4 was associated with portopulmonary hypertension (PPHTN) in patients with advanced liver disease. We aimed to determine the association between plasma levels of S100A4 and PPHTN. We performed a case–control study of patients with advanced liver disease. Cases with PPHTN had mean pulmonary artery pressure >25 mmHg, pulmonary vascular resistance >240 dynes s cm−5 and pulmonary capillary wedge pressure ≤15 mmHg. Controls with liver disease had right ventricular systolic pressure <40 mmHg and normal right atrial and ventricular morphology by echocardiography. Plasma samples were assayed for S100A4. The study sample included 14 cases with PPHTN and 32 controls with liver disease. There was no difference in mean age between cases and controls (p = 0.52). Seventy-nine percent of cases were female compared with 44% of controls (p = 0.03). There was no difference in S100A4 levels between cases and controls (p = 0.58). Both groups had significantly higher S100A4 levels than healthy volunteers (p <0.05). There was no significant difference in plasma levels of S100A4 between PPHTN patients and controls with liver disease, although liver disease itself was associated with increased S100A4 levels.
Macroeconomics of Commodity Price Fluctuations: A Structuralist Approach

The paper analyses the different sources of commodity price fluctuation and their attendant macroeconomic implications for developing countries in terms of the over(under)shooting hypothesis under perfect foresight. We construct two-sector, open economy macromodel to examine effects of different shocks on commodity price, employment and wage. The paper explores the nature of interlinkage in a dual economy structure which is open to international trade.
Using Functional Theory to Promote HIV Testing: The Impact of Value-Expressive Messages, Uncertainty, and Fear

This study tests the utility of the functional theory of attitudes and arousal of fear in motivating college students to get tested for HIV. It is argued from the perspective of functional theory that value-expressive appeals to get tested for the purpose of taking care of one's own health could be effective if that goal is desired by message targets who are sexually active and unaware of their sexually transmitted disease status. As part of the process, the effectiveness of these appeals is increased by the arousal of uncertainty and fear. A model detailing the mediating processes is proposed and found to be consistent with the data. Overall, messages advocating testing for the self-interested reason of one's own health were more effective than messages advocating testing for the goal of protecting one's partners.
Gender, Microenterprise Success and Cultural Context: The Case of South Asia

This paper demonstrates weaknesses in the ability of orthodox microenterprise development theory to represent issues relevant to women's success in the sector. Researchers tend to use gender simply as a variable to explain success without understanding gender as a social construct. Such work disregards how culturally specific power relations influence women's opportunities for success. Gender and microenterprise development theorists do better at incorporating power relations into explanations of why women start microenterprises and why their performance differs from that of men. They also take a broader view of microenterprise success by combining economic and empowerment outcomes, recognizing the diverse roles self employment plays for women. The relevance of power issues to success and the need for cultural sensitivity in evaluating women's opportunities to achieve positive enterprise outcomes are highlighted through the example of women's involvement in the microenterprise sector in South Asia.
Selection of Functional Variants of the NS3-NS4A Protease of Hepatitis C Virus by Using Chimeric Sindbis Viruses

ABSTRACT The NS3-NS4A serine protease of hepatitis C virus (HCV) mediates four specific cleavages of the viral polyprotein and its activity is considered essential for the biogenesis of the HCV replication machinery. Despite extensive biochemical and structural characterization, the analysis of natural variants of this enzyme has been limited by the lack of an efficient replication system for HCV in cultured cells. We have recently described the generation of chimeric HCV-Sindbis viruses whose propagation depends on the NS3-NS4A catalytic activity. NS3-NS4A gene sequences were fused to the gene coding for the Sindbis virus structural polyprotein in such a way that processing of the chimeric polyprotein, nucleocapsid assembly, and production of infectious viruses required NS3-NS4A-mediated proteolysis (G. Filocamo, L. Pacini, and G. Migliaccio, J. Virol. 71:1417–1427, 1997). Here we report the use of these chimeric viruses to select and characterize active variants of the NS3-NS4A protease. Our original chimeric viruses displayed a temperature-sensitive phenotype and formed lysis plaques much smaller than those formed by wild-type (wt) Sindbis virus. By serially passaging these chimeric viruses on BHK cells, we have selected virus variants which formed lysis plaques larger than those produced by their progenitors and produced NS3-NS4A proteins different in size and/or sequence from those of the original viruses. Characterization of the selected protease variants revealed that all of the mutated proteases still efficiently processed the chimeric polyprotein in infected cells and also cleaved an HCV substrate in vitro. One of the selected proteases was expressed in a bacterial system and showed a catalytic efficiency comparable to that of the wt recombinant protease.
[Restorative proctocolectomy with an ileoanal pouch. Postoperative course and long-term functional results].

INTRODUCTION Over the last 25 years restorative proctocolectomy with an ileoanal pouch has been the gold standard in the surgical treatment of ulcerative colitis and in selected patients with familial adenomatous polyposis. We present a study of the course, complications and long-term functional results. MATERIALS AND METHODS A prospective cohort analysis and a questionnaire in 178 consecutive patients operated since 1987 in Hvidovre Hospital. RESULTS Postoperative complications were seen in 38 patients (21%), but only few were serious: anastomotic leakage in 2 (1%), pelvic abscess in 4 (2%) and complications after ileostomy closure in 2 (1%). The late complications comprised reoperation for intestinal bowel obstruction in 10 (6%), pouch fistula in 6 (3%), pouchitis in 22 (12%), and anastomotic stricture in 8 (5%). Three patients (2%) had the pouch removed. After a median observation period of 7 years (range 1-19) the patients had a median of 7 bowel movements per 24 hours (range 3-15), and 2/3 were totally continent day and night. 88% were satisfied with the results. CONCLUSION Our results are similar to those in the literature, probably because the preoperative evaluation, operation, postoperative course and long-term follow-up were managed by few specialists in ileoanal pouch surgery. In our opinion restorative proctocolectomy with an ileoanal pouch is still the gold standard for patients with ulcerative colitis and for selected patients with familial adenomatous polyposis.
Towards a pain free hospital: an in-depth qualitative analysis of the pain experiences of head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy

Background: Treatment for head and neck cancer can frequently be a painful experience with implications for patients in terms of quality of life, nutrition and ultimately treatment outcomes. Pain may arise for a number of reasons in this patient group including the influence of localised tissue damage from radiotherapy, the effects of chemotherapeutic agents as well as the disease process itself. Early identification of cancer pain, through screening and early analgesic and pain management are thought to be the most appropriate approaches to the problem. Aim: To explore in-depth, patients’ views of the experience of pain related to radiotherapy for head and neck cancer, within the context of a randomised controlled trial (RCT) of pain screening and intervention. Sample: A purposive sample of head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy who were participating in a separate RCT of a proactive pain screening intervention. Methods: A qualitative design using one-off, face-to-face, in-depth interviews. Data were inductively analysed for themes using thematic analysis. Data were collected from September 2012 to January 2013. Findings: Eight participants were interviewed. Several issues around pain management arose and the influence of various factors became apparent. Four dominant themes emerged: facets of radiotherapy pain in head and neck cancer, facilitators and barriers to pain management, pain services and finally interdisciplinary working. Conclusion: The specific issues faced by head and neck cancer patients undergoing radiotherapy highlight the need for pain relieving interventions delivered by pain specialists, in tandem with the development of robust self-management strategies. An integrated approach to care is optimal, comprising pain screening at each outpatient encounter, and review by specialists as necessary.
The contribution of the colon to electrolyte and water conservation in man.

Abstract The compositions of terminal ileal contents and feces were compared in 5 healthy volunteers and in 2 patients with diarrhea; continuous sampling of the ileum was done during the slow infusion of a nonabsorbable marker under standard dietary conditions. By these means, colonic inflow, fecal output, and colonic absorption were quantified. With a standard diet in health, 1,500 ml. of water, 200 mEq. of sodium, 100 mEq. of chloride, 10 mEq. of potassium, 15 mEq. of calcium, and 9 mEq. of magnesium entered the colon each day. Fecal excretion of water, sodium, chloride, and potassium was small, and the colon absorbed more than 95 per cent of the sodium, chloride, and water and 50 per cent of the potassium traversing the ileocecal region. Small values for mean absorption of magnesium and secretion of calcium by the colon were also found. In a patient with severe nontropical sprue in relapse, colonic inflow was more than twice that in health and, despite colonic reabsorption of 3,000 ml. of water and electrolytes each day, severe diarrhea was present. In a patient with ileal resection and severe diarrhea, which was corrected by cholestyramine administration, excessive fecal volume was caused in part by colonic dysfunction. In two healthy subjects, the volume and the electrolyte content of the proximal ileum were approximately 50 per cent greater than those of the terminal ileum.