Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Risk-Sharing in Village Economies Revisited

The limited commitment model is popular for the analysis of village risk-sharing as it captures both the observed partial character of insurance and the presumption that incomes are well observed but formal contracts absent in rural communities. We study dynamic limited commitment when individuals can form new, smaller coalitions after reneging in a larger group, which makes group size an endogenous outcome of the model. This is important for theoretical consistency, but also because we show that enforcement constraints, which typically bind only in case of positive income shocks, counterfactually imply a stronger response of consumption to income increases than to income losses in village-size insurance groups. In small groups, in contrast, the response of consumption to income increases and declines is symmetric. The results show how equilibrium group sizes are much smaller than the typical village, bringing the predicted consumption process in line with the data. We thus argue that allowing for endogenous group formation in the dynamic limited commitment model strongly improves its predictive power for analyzing risk-sharing in village economies.
Out-of-pocket health care costs among older Americans.

OBJECTIVES Despite Medicare, elderly persons are exposed to substantial out-of-pocket health care cost burdens. As Medicare reform proposals are considered, it is important to determine the current size, distribution, and burden of these expenditures. METHODS Data from the 1995 Medicare Current Beneficiary Survey were used to analyze out-of-pocket expenditures and their burden in relation to income; the proportion of total health care expenditures paid out-of-pocket; and the role of pharmacy, hospital, physician, and other services in overall out-of-pocket spending. RESULTS Expenditures averaged 19.0% of income, for full-year Medicare beneficiaries alive during all of 1995. In bivariate analyses, higher-burden subgroups included those in poor health (28.5% of income), older than age 85 (22.4%), and with income in the lowest quintile (31.5%, despite Medicaid coverage for some). Those relying on fee-for-service Medicare only (23.0%) or with self-purchased supplemental insurance (25.5%) experienced more burden than those with employer-sponsored coverage or in HMOs. In multivariate analyses, functional impairment, number of medical conditions, self-perceived health and privately-purchased supplemental coverage were each associated with higher out-of-pocket burden, while HMO participation was associated with lower burden. Out-of-pocket expenditures averaged 15.2% of total health care expenditures with the proportion highest (22.6%) for those with no supplemental coverage. More than half of out-of-pocket payments for health care services were for prescription drugs and dental services. DISCUSSION Out-of-pocket cost burdens fall most heavily on those with chronic health conditions and without employer-subsidized supplemental coverage or Medicaid. Impact of Medicare reform proposals on these subgroups needs to be carefully evaluated.
AIDS as a moral metaphor: An analysis of the politics of the ‘Third Epidemic’

This paper examines some of the moral meanings of aids, and argues that in addition to understanding aids in the context of the sexual counter-revolution, it also needs to be placed in the wider context of global economic and ideological crises, and the ‘New Right's’ struggle for hegemony. Denis Altman refers to aids as ‘the most political of diseases’ (Altman 1986, p. 11). A few years ago, Evans Stark pointed out that all epidemics are ‘social events’, even though they may appear as natural, random phenomena. This is because they have become the focus of struggles for control over resources (principally housing, medicines, and sanitation) (Stark 1977). Epidemics further tend to throw into relief deeply held social tensions and anxieties, which can become triggers for social reorganisation around traditional values. It is not difficult to see how this is the case with aids, which is infused in particular with tensions over sexuality and desire. In relation to this it is important to emphasize first, that sexual contact is estimated to be responsible for around two-thirds of reported aids cases amongst adults in the U.S.A. (Gracie et al. 1986), but it is not actually an exclusively sexually transmitted disease; and secondly that compared with other major causes of morbidity and mortality, aids remains a relatively rare condition in many parts of the world. It is sociologically significant though, that the two major routes of transmission, IV use and penetrative sexual intercourse, involve issues of control over body boundaries.
Monetary Cost of the MyPlate Diet in Young Adults: Higher Expenses Associated with Increased Fruit and Vegetable Consumption

Background Cost is a commonly reported barrier to healthy eating. This is a secondary research analysis designed to examine the food expenditures of young adults on a university campus following the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) MyPlate guidelines for fruits and vegetables. Methods Meal receipts and dietary intake were recorded weekly. Anthropometrics and clinical assessments were recorded before intervention. Researchers rated compliance based on the participant's dietary food log, receipt matching, food pictures, and reports during weekly 1-hour consultations. Results Fifty-three young adults (18–30 years old) at-risk of, or diagnosed with, metabolic syndrome (MetS) were enrolled in the study, with 10 excluded (n = 43) from analyses due to enrollment in a fixed cost university campus dining meal plan. A two sample t-test assessed differences in food costs and regression analysis determined associations between food cost and diet compliance while controlling for confounding factors of age, sex, and body mass index (BMI). Diet compliant subjects (n = 38) had higher weekly food cost at $95.73 compared to noncompliant subjects (n = 5) who spent $66.24 (p=0.01). A regression analysis controlling for age, sex, BMI, and geographical region also indicated cost differences based on diet compliance (p < 0.0001). Conclusion Results indicate an ∼$29.00 per week increase in food cost when eating the recommended amount of fruit and vegetables. These findings can contribute to research incentive design, program planning cost, and determining effective interventions to improve diet in this population.
[Dental caries experience and its relation to oral hygiene in Mexican children].

INTRODUCTION Dental caries is public health problem in Mexico and there are few studies on preschool children. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to determine the caries experience in preschool children and its relation to oral hygiene in an underserved area of ​​the state of Mexico. MATERIAL AND METHODS A cross-sectional, descriptive, observational and analytical study in children aged four and five years of age enrolled in children´s centers. The sociodemographic variables were obtained through a questionnaire. Clinical evaluation of each of the infants was performed using the CPOD index for primary teeth caries , the criteria of the World Health Organization, and the significant caries index was calculated and oral hygiene was assessed using the criteria of the O'Leary index. Calibration was kappa>0.86 for indexes. RESULTS The study population consisted of children of both genders: 69.5% had caries experience, and the index of decayed, missing, and filled teeth (DMFT) was 3.52±3.7 (d=3.37±3.5; m=0; f=0.11±0.51). The significant caries index was 8.95±0.39 (d=8.68±0.41; f=0.26±0.13). In total, 98.2% of children with caries experience had poor oral hygiene (DMFT: 4.91: 95% CI: 3.99-5.84), whereas in children with good hygiene it was 0.17 (95% CI: -0.18-0.51); existing association between caries experience and oral hygiene RM 913 (95% CI: 864-962; p<0.01). CONCLUSIONS The caries experience of preschool children was high and was associated with poor oral hygiene affecting their dentition and usually is associated with caries in permanent dentition associated to social deprivation. Preventive programs are recommended from the first stage of life.
Treatment Success with Titratable Thermoplastic Mandibular Advancement Devices for Obstructive Sleep Apnea: A Comparison of Patient Characteristics

A titratable thermoplastic mandibular advancement devices (MAD) is clearly an effective treatment option in some patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA). Determining which patients may be more likely to respond to treatment with thermoplastic MADs and to adhere to treatment would be of obvious clinical relevance. This was an experimental descriptive study (N = 60). Patients with OSA were instructed to wear a titratable thermoplastic MAD for 3 months. Treatment success was defined as a ≥50% reduction from baseline in the apnea-hypopnea index (AHI) or AHI <10 when wearing MAD. Adherence was defined as MAD use ≥5 nights/week. Treatment was successful in 66.7% of patients and 60.0% were adherent. All Polysomnographic parameters and visual analogue scale scores (sleep quality, snoring, waking refreshed) were significantly improved after treatment. The patients in whom treatment failed had significantly higher neck circumferences (39.3 cm vs. 37.5 cm, p = 0.014), higher baseline AHI values (26.6 vs. 18.0, p = 0.016), and smaller AHI reduction (-31.8 vs -53.1, p < 0.001) than those in the group in whom treatment succeeded. There were no significant differences in Polysomnographic, cephalometric, or visual analogue scale measures between patients for whom treatment was and was not successful, regardless of baseline values or the change rates after the MAD was placed. Titratable thermoplastic MADs can improve indicators of sleep quality, even in patients in whom treatment is considered to have failed.
Change-points Estimation in Statistical Inference and Machine Learning Problems

Statistical inference plays an increasingly important role in science, finance and industry. Despite the extensive research and wide application of statistical inference, most of the efforts focus on uniform models. This thesis considers the statistical inference in models with abrupt changes instead. The task is to estimate change-points where the underlying models change. We first study low dimensional linear regression problems for which the underlying model undergoes multiple changes. Our goal is to estimate the number and locations of change-points that segment available data into different regions, and further produce sparse and interpretable models for each region. To address challenges of the existing approaches and to produce interpretable models, we propose a sparse group Lasso (SGL) based approach for linear regression problems with change-points. Then we extend our method to high dimensional nonhomogeneous linear regression models. Under certain assumptions and using a properly chosen regularization parameter, we show several desirable properties of the method. We further extend our studies to generalized linear models (GLM) and prove similar results. In practice, change-points inference usually involves high dimensional data, hence it is prone to tackle for distributed learning with feature partitioning data, which implies each machine in the cluster stores a part of the features. One bottleneck for distributed learning is communication. For this implementation concern, we design communication efficient algorithm for feature partitioning data sets to speed up not only change-points inference but also other classes of machine learning problem including Lasso, support vector machine (SVM) and logistic regression.
Child and adult forms of human herpesvirus 6 encephalitis: looking back, looking forward.

PURPOSE OF REVIEW This review evaluates publications on human herpesvirus 6 (HHV-6) encephalitis recognizing firstly that HHV-6A and HHV-6B are separate species with differing properties, and secondly the phenomenon of chromosomal integration; this occurs in a minority of persons and the complete viral genome of either HHV-6A or HHV-6B is present in every nucleated cell in the body. Although chromosomal integration has not been associated with disease, the resulting very high level of viral DNA in human tissues and blood has sometimes been wrongly misinterpreted as active infection. RECENT FINDINGS No disease has been linked to HHV-6A, whereas HHV-6B may cause encephalitis. Encephalitis due to primary HHV-6B infection in young children is commonly reported from Japan, but very rarely elsewhere in the world, suggesting a genetic predisposition. Reports of HHV-6A or HHV-6B encephalitis in immunocompetent older children/adults are most likely due to chromosomal integration and not active infection. HHV-6B reactivation is well established as causing limbic encephalitis after haematopoietic stem cell transplantation, particularly after receipt of cord blood; the outcome is poor and preventive strategies are ineffective. SUMMARY Understanding the pathophysiology of HHV-6B encephalitis remains incomplete, especially regarding young children. Clinical trials of antiviral therapy are warranted for treatment and prevention of HHV-6B encephalitis after transplantation.
Implementation of an Optimum Reduced Components Multicell Multilevel Inverter (MC-MLI) for Lower Standing Voltage

Multilevel inverters (MLI) with reduced components are becoming popular to achieve higher voltage levels with lower cost and complexities of the circuit. Most of the reduced switch MLIs use a large number of isolated voltage sources that have a large total standing voltage (TSV) and higher losses. Moreover, many reduced component MLIs have been developed to reduce the number of switches only and have not utilized the dc-link voltages properly. Thus, an inverter needs to be designed in which the number of dc sources is also small and utilized fully. In this paper, a novel single-phase, multicell MLI configuration is presented that can generate a maximum number of output voltage levels using a minimum number of switches and dc sources. Two optimal configurations of the proposed MLI are proposed based on the minimum requirements of components with the optimum voltage stress of the highest rated switches. Moreover, the TSV of the proposed optimal MLI also becomes low. A generalized multicell optimum MLI is presented and the number of components, voltage stress of all the switches, and the TSV of the proposed as well as the other inverters also determined by the generalized expressions for comparison purpose. The prototype of a specimen 15-level inverter and the optimal 75-level inverter cell is further developed and implemented using DS 1103 in the laboratory to show the effectiveness of the proposed configuration. The experimental results corresponding to the different modulation indices are presented here for the verification of the simulation results.
Mannitol Metabolism in Celery Stressed by Excess Macronutrients

The effect of excess macronutrients in the root environment on mannitol and sucrose metabolism was investigated in celery (Apium graveolens L. var dulce [Mill.] Pers.). Plant growth was inhibited progressively as macronutrient concentration in the media, as measured by electrical conductivity (E.C.), increased from 1.0 to 11.9 decisiemens m-1. Plants grown for 35 d at higher E.C. had a lower water content but similar dry weight in their roots, leaves, and petioles compared to plants grown at lower E.C. Macronutrient concentrations of leaves, roots, and petioles were not affected by the imposed stress, indicating that the macronutrient stress resulted in a water-deficit stress response rather than a salt-specific response. Mannitol accumulated in sink tissues and was accompanied by a drastic decrease in activity of mannitol-1-oxidoreductase. Sucrose concentration and activities of sucrose-metabolizing enzymes in sink tissues were not affected by the macronutrient stress. Mature leaves exhibited increased concentrations of both mannitol and sucrose, together with increased activity of mannose-6-phosphate reductase and sucrose phosphate synthase, in response to macronutrient stress. Thus, mannitol accumulation in osmotically stressed celery is regulated by diminished catabolism in sink tissues and increased capacity for mannitol biosynthesis in source leaves.
Cell‐mediated immune responses to artificial food additives in chronic urticaria

Abstract. In some cases of chronic urticaria it is suspected that food additives such as tartrazine and sodium benzoate or salicylates may play a role in the pathogenesis of the condition. Since, at times, chronic urticaria may appear histologically similar to a mild cell‐mediated immune response, the release of the T cell‐derived lymphokine leucocyte inhibitory factor (LIF), in response to incubation with these additives and with acetylsalicylic acid (ASA), was measured in vitro using cells from normal controls, from patients with chronic urticaria with or without clinically associated additive sensitivity and from patients with asthma with or without associated ASA sensitivity. It was found that significant production of LIF occurred in response to tartrazine and sodium benzoate in those individuals with chronic additive induced urticaria. In addition, tartrazine caused LIF release from mononuclear cells of ASA‐sensitive asthmatics. These results may indicate a possible role for additive‐induced cell‐mediated immune responses in the pathogenesis of some cases of chronic urticaria and suggest a potential diagnostic test for this condition.
Activity‐Based Near‐Infrared Fluorescent Probe for LMP7: A Chemical Proteomics Tool for the Immunoproteasome in Living Cells

Probing the unknown: The immunoproteasome, an alternative form of the constitutive proteasome, has been implicated in a number of pathological states such as cancer and autoimmune diseases. In an effort to understand the role of the immunoproteasome in cells, the first immunoproteasome-specific near-infrared fluorescent probe has been developed.
Prevalence and Clinical Course of the Juveniles with Brugada‐Type ECG in Japanese Population

Background: Although many studies on Brugada syndrome have been done, with many reports of genetic findings and clinical features, little evidence exists to support the role of this syndrome in sudden cardiac death in a juvenile population. We sought to determine the prevalence and clinical course in children exhibiting Brugada‐type ECG in a community‐based population.
pH sensitivity of ammonium transport by Rhbg

Rhbg, a non‐erythroid glycoprotein, is localized to the basolateral membrane of renal intercalated cells and is involved in NH4+ transport. In this study we characterized the pH sensitivity of Rhbg expressed in Xenopus oocytes. We used two‐electrode voltage clamp & ion‐selective microelectrodes to measure NH4+currents (INH4+) & changes in pHi. In oocytes expressing Rhbg, 5mM NH4+ induced an inward INH4+ of −79 nA, decreased pHi by 0.13 at a rate of −27×10−4 pH/sec & depolarized the cell by 45 mV. These changes were significantly larger than in H2O‐injected oocytes. Methyl ammonium (MA, 5 mM), often used as an NH4+ substrate, induced a current (IMA) of −63 nA in Rhbg oocytes but did not cause any change in control oocytes. Unlike NH4+, MA elicited a pHi increase but also induced a depolarization of the cell. Exposing the oocyte to MA at alkaline bath pH (8.2) enhanced both the pHi increase & IMA. Lowering bath pH to 6.5 inhibited the MA‐induced changes completely. The NH4+‐induced changes in pHi & current were similarly sensitive to pH. Exposing the oocyte to MA at low pHi (decreased by butyrate) abolished the MA‐induced current however pHi still increased. These data indicate that:
Catch Performance and Household Poverty among Artisanal Fisherfolks in Rivers State

The study analyzed the artisanal fishery performance and poverty status of fisher folks in Rivers State, Nigeria. A multi stage random sampling technique was used to select 170 fisher folks from the fishing communities. Primary data were obtained with the aid of structured questionnaire and interview schedule. Descriptive statistics, Net Margin, FGT and Tobit regression models were employed in the analysis of the data. The mean age of the distribution was 39.8 years with catch performance of 26.77kg/hr and efficiency of 305.57%. The total revenue of N64, 205.00 per fisher per month, variable cost and fixed cost are N16, 089.70 and N4, 921.80 respectively. The gross and net margin were calculated to be N48, 115.30 and N43, 193.50 respectively with rate of return on Investment of 2.06. The per capita expenditure per adult equivalent (PCEAE) and poverty line were N2, 445.26 and N1, 630.171 per month respectively. The poverty headcount, depth and severity were 0.8492, 0.455 and 0.2827 respectively. The results of Tobit model show that sigma (δ) was 0.127 (p<0.00). All the included explanatory variables had expected signs which imply that they follow the a priori expectation as regard to poverty status in the study area. However, only secondary dummy, household size, fishing experience, monthly income and labour effort were significant in the model. It is recommended that artisanal fishermen in the study area should be embrace adult education and modern fishing training programmes to improve their understanding of the new fishing methods and technologies and increase their catch performance and Government should assist artisanal fishermen with necessary inputs such as fishing equipment, training, soft loan in order to boost domestic fish supply to the economy.
Central projections of axons from taste hairs on the labellum and tarsi of the blowfly, Phormia regina Meigen

Taste hairs are located on the labellum and tarsi of blowflies. These multimodal hairs consist of four functionally distinct chemoreceptors and a mechanoreceptor. By staining selected multimodal hairs, we sought to identify the central projection patterns of multiple and single axons from those hairs. On each side of the labellum there are 11 “largest” hairs (LH). The neurons associated with the anteriormost (LH‐1), posteriormost (LH‐11), and one lateral (LH‐6) hair on the labellum were stained selectively with cobaltous sulfide. The overall projection pattern in the central nervous system (CNS) for axons from LH‐1 and LH‐11 is similar and differs markedly from axons from LH‐6. At least three individual axon‐projection patterns were determined for each labellar hair filled, indicating a partial functional organization for axons from multimodal hairs. One identified axon, the dorsalmost axon, has terminal arborizations that do not differ with the location of its associated hair. Another axon, thicker than the others, projects to a region that is distinct from the four thin axons. Within this region the arborizations of the thick axons occupy different areas depending on the location of their associated hair. Neurons from the largest hairs on the distalmost tarsomere (D5) of each leg were also stained and consisted of one thick and four thin axons. All axons except one thin axon from tarsal D5 hairs terminate in their respective leg neuromeres. The remaining thin axon projects to the suboesophageal ganglion ipsilateral to the hair filled and terminates in the same region as a branch of the labellar dorsalmost axon. These data suggest that axonal arbors from multimodal hairs have a limited functional and somatotopic organization in the blowfly CNS.