Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Uncertain Risks and Bitter Realities : The Reproductive Choices of HIV-infected Women

IN DECEMBER 1985 , THE CENTERS FOR DISEASE Control (CDC) officially recommended that women who are in­ fected with the Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) or who have the Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome (AIDS) should “ be advised to consider delaying pregnancy until more is known about peri­ natal transmission of the vims” (Centers for Disease Control 1985, 725). More recently. Dr. James Curran, head of the CDC AIDS program, commented: “Someone who understands the disease and is logical [em­ phasis added] will not want to be pregnant and will consider the test results when making family planning decisions” (CDC AIDS Weekly 1988, 2). Many state department of health materials go beyond the CDC’s advice and recommend unequivocally that HIV-infected women should not become pregnant (Bayer 1990). Nonetheless, many women who are HIV positive or who have AIDS are having babies. They are doing so even when they know they are infected, even when they have been counseled about the risks of perinatal transmission, even when they already have a child with HIV infection or AIDS, and even when that child has died (Holman et al. 1989; Selwyn et al. 1989). (In this article we will use the term “perinatal transmission,” rather than the more global, but largely synonymous term “vertical transmission.”)
Consequences of Perceived Organizational Justice: An Empirical Study of White-Collar Employees

Employees’ perception of fairness and organizational justice on pay practices are important antecedents of pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, commitment and turnover intention. Previous research shows the importance of different dimensions of organizational justice and its relationship with pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, commitment and turnover intention. The present empirical study is focused on perception on fairness of pay system as a whole in terms of distributive justice, procedural justice and interactional justice and its impact on various outcomes (pay satisfaction, job satisfaction, commitment and turnover intention). For studying the relationship we have collected data from 70 white collar employees. The result shows that interactional justice is a stronger predictor of turnover intention as well as job satisfaction than procedural and distributive justice. The results also illustrated distributive justice is a stronger determinant of pay satisfaction as well as organizational commitment than interactional justice. In the regression analysis we found the relationship between procedural justice and outcomes are not significant.
SEISMIC HAZARD EVALUATION FOR MAJOR CITIES IN MADAGASCAR

The seismic hazard in some areas in Madagascar has been assessed at regional scale in terms of peak ground motion values (displacement, velocity, acceleration) and their periods, following the Neodeterministic approach, based on the computation of realistic synthetic seismograms. The main data input integrates all available tectonic, seismicity and structural model information. The largest peak values are 1.6cm/s for the velocity, 0.03g for the acceleration and more than 0.5cm for the displacement. These values are consistent within a range of macroseismic intensity from VI to VII MCS, and indicate that relatively simple prevention measures and retrofitting actions may guarantee a high safety level and a well sustainable development.
Men's Sheds: A conceptual exploration of the causal pathways for health and well‐being

Abstract Although men have a lower life expectancy than women, and are more susceptible to illness, they have been found to be less likely to engage in health‐seeking behaviour. Men's Sheds, as a gendered intervention, has been identified as an effective way to engage men in meaningful activity and gain social support from others. However, links between sheds and health and well‐being are not well‐documented, and evidence is lacking of the potential causal pathways to health generation. This study aims to develop a plausible empirically based causal theory of how Men's Sheds influence the health and well‐being of their participants and to set out future research directions to test this theory. Drawing on a scoping review of academic, peer‐reviewed journal articles published between 1990 and 2018, potential causal linkages between shed activity and health and well‐being outcomes are synthesised into a logic model framework. Sixteen relevant peer‐reviewed journal were identified from the academic literature. The data from the articles are predominantly self‐reported, and characterised by small sample sizes and/ or low response rates. Further, information is lacking on the demographics of Men's Shed participants and the contexts in which they exist. Most notably, while there is some evidence on the potential mental health and social well‐being impacts of shed activities, physical health is less documented. The study shows that there is a lack of reliable and systematic evidence of the potential causal pathways between Men's Shed activities and health and well‐being outcomes. In order to address research gaps, further research is required to test and develop the proposed theory and logic model.
CdSe-ZnS Core-Shell Quantum Dots: Surface Plasmons Effect and Optical Spectra

Absorption and photoluminescence (PL) spectra of a colloidal CdSe-ZnS core-shell quantum dots (QDs) were measured within the strong confinement regime. The QDs were casted on half-coated quartz substrates with 50 nm of gold and prepared for studying the surface plasmons effect. The samples were optically arranged and pumped by different wavelengths, and the PL spectra were detected. Excitation with a wavelength of 400 nm reveals a structure fluorescence spectrum which consists of five distinct bands. These bands are more intense and resolved than the corresponding traditional weak absorption bands. They were detected for the first time and assigned according to the theoretical predictions of excitons in a spherical potential with Coulomb interactions and valence bands mixing. A scheme based on multiple exciton generation (MEG) for the appearance of the fluorescence bands was proposed. This scheme was confirmed by the recent theoretical prediction using the state-of-the art time domain ab initio density functional theory and the atomistic pseudopotential calculations. The detected surface plasmons effect in QDs enhances the intensity of the fluorescence bands. This surface plasmons effect facilitated the appearance of these mentioned bands in more intensive features than the corresponding traditional weak absorption bands. Furthermore, the reduction in the measured lifetime of the first excited electronic state from 20 ns for the QDs deposited directly on the quartz substrate to 7 ns for the QDs casted on the gold film, gives a further evidence of the surface plasmons effect in the (PL) of the CdSe-ZnS QDs.
Assessment of disease specific immune responses in enteric diseases using dried blood spot (DBS)

Background Blood collection, transportation and storage remain a problem in countries where infrastructure, laboratory facilities and skilled manpower are scarce. This limits evaluation of immune responses in natural infections and vaccination in field studies. We developed methods to measure antigen specific antibody responses using dried blood spot (DBS) in cholera, ETEC and typhoid fever patients as well as recipients of oral cholera vaccine (OCV). Methodology/Principle findings We processed heparinized blood for preparing DBS and plasma specimens from patients with, cholera, ETEC and typhoid as well as OCV recipients. We optimized the conventional vibriocidal method to measure vibriocidal antibody response in DBS eluates. We measured responses in DBS samples and plasma (range of titer of 5 to 10240). Vibriocidal titer showed strong agreement between DBS eluates and plasma in cholera patients (ICC = 0.9) and in OCV recipients (ICC = 0.8) using the Bland-Altman analysis and a positive correlation was seen (r = 0.7, p = 0.02 and r = 0.6, p = 0.006, respectively). We observed a strong agreement of lipopolysaccharide (LPS) and cholera toxin B (CTB)-specific antibody responses between DBS eluates and plasma in cholera patients and OCV recipients. We also found agreement of heat labile toxin B (LTB) and membrane protein (MP)-specific antibody responses in DBS eluates and plasma specimen of ETEC and typhoid patients respectively. Conclusion Our results demonstrate that dried blood specimens can be used as an alternate method for preservation of samples to measure antibody responses in enteric diseases and vaccine trials and can be applied to assessment of responses in humanitarian crisis and other adverse field settings.
Stellar population gradients in the cores of nearby field E+A galaxies

We have selected a sample of local E+A galaxies from the Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) Data Release 7 for follow-up integral field spectroscopy with the Wide Field Spectrograph (WiFeS) on the Australian National University's (ANU) 2.3-m telescope. The sample was selected using the Hα line in place of the [O ii] λ3727 line as the indicator of ongoing star formation (or lack thereof). This allowed us to select a lower redshift sample of galaxies than available in the literature since the [O ii] λ3727 falls off the blue end of the wavelength coverage in the SDSS for the very lowest redshift objects. This low-redshift selection means that the galaxies have a large angular to physical scale which allows us to resolve the central ∼1 kpc region of the galaxies; the region where stellar population gradients are expected. Such observations have been difficult to make using other higher redshift samples because even at redshifts z∼ 0.1 the angular to physical scale is similar to the resolution provided by ground-based seeing. Our integral field spectroscopy has enabled us to make the first robust detections of Balmer line gradients in the centres of E+A galaxies. Six out of our sample of seven, and all the galaxies with regular morphologies, are observed to have compact and centrally concentrated Balmer line absorption. This is evidence for compact young cores and stellar population gradients which are predicted from models of mergers and tidal interactions which funnel gas into the galaxy core. Given the generally isolated nature of our sample, this argues for the galaxies being seen in the late stage of a merger where the progenitors have already coalesced.
Dietary Supplementation with Sea Bass (Lateolabrax maculatus) Ameliorates Ulcerative Colitis and Inflammation in Macrophages through Inhibiting Toll-Like Receptor 4-Linked Pathways

Sea bass (Lateolabrax maculatus) is a kind of food material commonly consumed in daily life. In traditional Chinese medicinal books, it has been indicated that sea bass can be applied for managing many inflammation-associated conditions. However, the studies on the pharmacological mechanisms of inflammation of sea bass remain scarce. Hence, this study aims to investigate the molecular mechanisms of the anti-inflammatory activity of sea bass. Anti-inflammatory activities of sea bass were assessed using dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in a mice model and lipopolysaccharide (LPS)-activated macrophages model. Low body weight and short colon length were observed in DSS-fed mice that were significantly recovered upon sea bass treatments. Moreover, the colon histopathology score showed that sea bass-treated mice had decreased crypt damage, focal inflammation infiltration and the extent of inflammation, suggesting that treatment with sea bass could attenuate intestinal inflammation. In addition, the in-vitro study conjointly indicated that sea bass could suppress the inflammatory mediators in LPS-activated macrophage by inhibiting the TLR4-linked pathway. The present findings demonstrated that sea bass has an inhibitory effect on TLR4 signaling; thus, it could be a promising candidate for treating inflammation-associated conditions. A further justification for the clinical application of sea bass in treating inflammation-associated conditions is necessary.
The Analyses of Purchasing Decisions and Brand Loyalty for Smartphone Consumers

With the advent of smartphone, customers purchasing smartphones are sharply increasing over years. Since the Smartphone market extend, the major brands are getting more competitive. Each brand manufacturers are dedicating in developing a strong operating system, software applications, fashionable appearance, service quality, and so on. The purpose of this study is to explore consumers’ purchasing behavior, determinants of purchasing decision, and factors of brand loyalty of smartphones. The findings stated that some external factors markedly influenced customers on choosing smartphones. For example, a customer bought a smartphone because of the demand for using it. On the contrary, few customers would buy a smartphone due to the pursuit of vogue or modern trend and the influences by other people. Furthermore, some internal elements of decision processes have sharply influence on choosing a smartphone. The majority of respondents agreed that the price, internal functions of a smartphone all played an important role on making a purchasing decision. In the opposite side of our original thinking, ninety-three respondents (37%) disagreed that they would choose the one with lower price between two smartphones. In the third part related to the brand relationship quality for purchasing a smartphone, most respondents could hurriedly recall the symbolic logo of the brand and the after-sale service would affect their willingness of rebuying the same brand. In contrast, even though the evaluation of this brand is not good, they still intend to continue to buy this brand. Finally, brand loyalty led consumers to happily tell others the advantages of this brand and recommend the purchase, and to rebuy the brand when it launches a new product. In conclusion, Customers’ perceived value, brand experience, trust, satisfaction, service quality and commitment are found to be the key influencing factors of brand loyalty.
Influence of Power Bases on Leadership Strategies Adopted by Managers’ in Information Technology Organizations

Power is an integral and inescapable part of organizations. No manager can be efficient without understanding and using power in an appropriate manner. Today, managers need to make a transition from guiding and leading to shaping and influencing the growth by the ways in which they approach their work and interact with one another . The literature generally suggests that effective leaders express their need for power and influence in ways that create value to the organization. The present investigation focuses on power bases of managers and its influence on type of leadership strategies adopted by managers to lead their employees. 515 respondents representing 87 I.T companies were surveyed. Two standardized, valid and reliable instruments were used to measure the constructs. Leadership Strategies developed by Robert A. Cooke’s (1996) was adopted with permission and French and Raven’s (1959) bases of power was measured using a modified version of Hinkin and Schriesheim’s (1989). The Cronbach's Alpha reliability for the scales were 0.88 and above, the stratified random sampling technique was adopted. The major findings suggest that the Legitimate Power needs to be leveraged most in IT organizations as it significantly influences Prescriptive and Restrictive leadership strategies. The findings, conclusions, implications and suggestions for further research have been discussed. Key Words: Power bases, Formal power bases, Personal power bases, Leadership strategies, Prescriptive strategy, Restrictive strategy.
Comment on “Unilateral Global Bifurcation from Intervals for Fourth-Order Problems and Its Applications”

In the recent paper W. Shen and T. He and G. Dai and X. Han established unilateral global bifurcation result for a class of nonlinear fourth-order eigenvalue problems. They show the existence of two families of unbounded continua of nontrivial solutions of these problems bifurcating from the points and intervals of the line trivial solutions, corresponding to the positive or negative eigenvalues of the linear problem. As applications of this result, these authors study the existence of nodal solutions for a class of nonlinear fourth-order eigenvalue problems with sign-changing weight. Moreover, they also establish the Sturm type comparison theorem for fourth-order problems with sign-changing weight. In the present comment, we show that these papers of above authors contain serious errors and, therefore, unfortunately, the results of these works are not true. Note also that the authors used the results of the recent work by G. Dai which also contain gaps.
The sorption isosteric heats of rice grains in China

Equilibrium moisture content (EMC) data for the grains of thirteen rice cultivars were obtained by gravimetric method at 11% to 96% equilibrium relative humidity (ERH) and 10, 20, 25, 30, and 35°C above nine saturated salt solutions. Six commonly used mathematic models, namely, BET, Modified-Guggenheim–Anderson-deBoer (MGAB), Modified-Chung-Pfost (MCPE), Modified-Henderson (MHE), Modified-Oswin (MOE), and Strohman-Yoerger (STYE), were fitted to the data with evaluating the coefficient of determination, residue sum-of-squares, standard error of estimate, mean relative percent error, and residual plots. The best fitted equations to the EMC/ERH data were MCPE and STYE, but MCPE is three-parameter, readily transformed equation and adopted in this study. The isosteric heats for both rice desorption and adsorption, and for both the sorption of Japonica and Indica rice, decreased rapidly with an increase in seed moisture content until the moisture content of 20% d.b. (dry basis) was reached, and thereafter they decreased smoothly with increasing moisture content. The isosteric heats of rice desorption were higher than those of adsorption below 22.5% d.b. EMC, but thereafter there was no difference found between desorption and adsorption. The sorption isosteric heats of Indica rice were slightly higher than those of Japonica rice under all moisture contents at a constant temperature. Keywords : Equilibrium moisture content, Rice, Adsorption, Desorption, Mathematic model, Ventilation,Drying
Comparison of Reynolds Stress Estimates Derived from Standard and Fast-Ping ADCPs

Abstract A field experiment was conducted to directly compare the effects of different sampling modes on Reynolds stress estimates calculated from acoustic Doppler current profilers (ADCPs). Two 1.2-MHz ADCPs were deployed concurrently over a fortnightly cycle: one collected single-ping measurements using mode 1 and a second ADCP employed the fast-ping rate mode 12 with subping-averaged data recorded at the same sample rate as the first ADCP. While mode 12 clearly has a lower noise floor for the estimate of mean velocities, it has been an open question whether the averaging of subpings leads to a biased estimate of turbulence quantities, due to the temporal averaging inherent in this approach. Using the variance method, Reynolds stresses were estimated from the two ADCP datasets and compared with stresses computed directly from the velocity records obtained with a pair of fast sampling acoustic Doppler velocimeters (ADVs) collocated with the ADCPs. Mode-12 stresses were more accurate than mode 1 in compar.
Brief communication: Loss of life due to Hurricane Harvey

Abstract. An analysis was made of the loss of life caused by Hurricane Harvey. Information was collected for 70 fatalities that occurred due to the event and were recovered within the first 2 weeks after landfall. Most fatalities occurred due to drowning (81 %), particularly in and around vehicles. Males (70 %) and people over 50 years old (56 %) were overrepresented in the dataset. More than half of the fatalities occurred in the greater Houston area ( n = 37), where heavy rainfall and dam releases caused unprecedented urban flooding. The majority of fatalities were recovered outside the designated 100- and 500-year flood hazard areas.
High-resolution abundance analysis of red giants in the metal-poor bulge globular cluster HP~1

The globular cluster HP~1 is projected at only 3.33 degrees from the Galactic center. Together with its distance, this makes it one of the most central globular clusters in the Milky Way. It has a blue horizontal branch (BHB) and a metallicity of [Fe/H]~-1.0. This means that it probably is one of the oldest objects in the Galaxy. Abundance ratios can reveal the nucleosynthesis pattern of the first stars as well as the early chemical enrichment and early formation of stellar populations. High-resolution spectra obtained for six stars were analyzed to derive the abundances of the light elements C, N, O, Na, and Al, the alpha-elements Mg, Si, Ca, and Ti, and the heavy elements Sr, Y , Zr, Ba, La, and Eu. } High-resolution spectra of six red giants that are confirmed members of the bulge globular cluster HP~1 were obtained with the 8m VLT UT2-Kueyen telescope with the UVES spectrograph in FLAMES-UVES configuration. The spectroscopic parameter derivation was based on the excitation and ionization equilibrium of FeI and FeII. We confirm a mean metallicity of [Fe/H] = -1.06~0.10, by adding the two stars that were previously analyzed in HP~1. The alpha-elements O and Mg are enhanced by about +0.3<[O,Mg/Fe]<+0.5 dex, Si is moderately enhanced with +0.15<[Si/Fe]<+0.35dex, while Ca and Ti show lower values of -0.04<[Ca,Ti/Fe]<+0.28dex. The r-element Eu is also enhanced with [Eu/Fe]~+0.4, which together with O and Mg is indicative of early enrichment by type II supernovae. Na and Al are low, but it is unclear if Na-O are anticorrelated. The heavy elements are moderately enhanced, with -0.20<[La/Fe]<+0.43dex and 0.0<[Ba/Fe]<+0.75~dex, which is compatible with r-process formation. The spread in Y, Zr, Ba, and La abundances, on the other hand, appears to be compatible with the spinstar scenario or other additional mechanisms such as the weak r-process.
Performance evaluation of common grain drills in Iran

Afzalinia, S. , Shaker, M. and Zare, E. 2006. Performance evaluation of common grain drills in Iran. Canadian Biosystems Engineering/Le génie des biosystèmes au Canada 48: 2.39 2.43. The overall performance index (OPI) of the most common models of grain drills in Iran including Hassia, Nordstone, Hamadan Machine Barzegar, and Keshtgostar was determined under irrigated conditions. To calculate the OPI, parameters such as required draft, field efficiency, effective field capacity, uniformity of the seed planting depth, uniformity of the seed distribution, plant population, possibility of planting seed and fertilizer simultaneously, number of required labourers, the cost of operation, availability of furrower for irrigation, and planted crop yield were determined for each grain drill tested. A randomized complete block design was used to analyze data of this study. Results showed a significant difference between the grain drills for uniformity of the seed planting depth and draft requirement. The Machine Barzegar grain drill had the best planting depth uniformity (81.9%) and the highest draft requirement (7665 N). Comparison of the grain drills for OPI showed that the Hamadan Machine Barzegar grain drill had the highest OPI (0.91).