Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relationship Between Smoking Habit and Sperm Parameters Among Patients Attending an Infertility Clinic

Background This study aimed to estimate stress markers, oxidative stress (OS), reproductive hormones and sperm parameters in male smokers and non-smokers and observe the impact of oxidative stress markers and smoking on sperm count, motility and morphology in a selected population of Karachi, Pakistan. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted from July 2017 to July 2018 at Aga Khan University (AKU), in Karachi, Pakistan. The subjects were recruited from the Sindh Institute of Reproductive Medicine (SIRM), Karachi based on defined inclusion criteria. The subjects were categorized into fertile and infertile based on cut off values of sperm parameters as recommended by the WHO i.e., sperm count/ejaculate of 39 × 106/ml, sperm motility 40% and normal morphology 4%. Two hundred eleven fertile and 165 infertile male subjects were included in the study. Serum cortisol, adrenaline, superoxide dismutase (SOD), and glutathione peroxidase (GPX) were analyzed by ELISA kits. Data was analyzed on SPSS-22. A p-value of <0.05 was considered statistically significant. Results Age, Body Mass Index (BMI), and body fat were similar among smokers and non-smokers. Age was significantly lower, while mean BMI and body fat were significantly higher among infertile smokers vs. fertile smokers (p-value < 0.05). The testosterone levels were significantly reduced among smokers as compared to non- smokers (p-value < 0.05). The median cortisol levels were increased as well as GPX, and steroid hormone-binding globulin (SHBG) were significantly reduced among smokers as compared to non-smokers. Additionally, the same findings with a significant difference have also been observed among infertile smokers as compared to fertile smokers (p-value < 0.05). This study has shown that the semen parameters (total count, motility, and morphology) are decreased in infertile smokers as compared to infertile non-smokers. Furthermore, the multivariate analysis showed that smoking causes a significant decrease in sperm count and morphology but it did not have any significant effect on motility. Conclusion Smoking has a significant effect on fertility, specifically sperm count and normal morphology of sperm. This might be due to OS produced by smoking, which has devastating effects on semen parameters, thus reducing male fertility. Infertility specialist should counsel their patients about the ill effects of smoking on their fertility status and should advise maintaining a healthy lifestyle, including normal weight and avoiding smoking, to prevent future health problems. Hence smokers should quit smoking for their next generation.
Funding of Clinical Trials and Reported Drug Efficacy

Clinical trials are a key determinant of drug approvals and also influence prescription decisions. In recent years, an increasing share of clinical trials have been funded by pharmaceutical firms, as opposed to by the public sector. This paper estimates the effect of financial sponsorship on reported drug efficacy, leveraging the insight that the exact same sets of drugs are often compared in different randomized control trials conducted by parties with different financial interests. In principle, randomized control trials comparing the same drugs should yield comparable estimates, regardless of the interests of the trial’s funders. In practice, I use newly assembled data on hundreds of psychiatric clinical trials to estimate that a drug appears 0.15 standard deviations more effective when the trial is sponsored by that drug’s manufacturer, compared with the same drug in the same trial without the drug manufacturer’s involvement. Observable characteristics of trial design and patient enrollment explain little of this effect. In contrast, sponsored papers with non-positive results are more likely to remain unpublished. Back-of-the-envelope calculations suggest this publication mechanism can account for nearly half of the sponsorship effect. The sponsorship effect decreases over time as pre-registration requirements were implemented, which is suggestive, though not definitive, that pre-registration may be effective in overcoming sponsorship bias. ∗I am very grateful to Amy Finkelstein, Heidi Williams, and Jim Poterba for their invaluable advice and guidance. I would like to extend a special thanks to Pierre Azoulay, Jonathan Gruber, Frank Schilbach, and Scott Stern for helpful comments and support. This paper also benefited greatly from discussions with Sarah Abraham, David Autor, Ivan Badinski, Jane Choi, Joe Doyle, Colin Gray, Ryan Hill, Allan Hsiao, Simon Jaeger, Madeline Mckelway, Parinitha Sastry, Cory Smith, Carolyn Stein, Sean Wang, Michael Wong, and several anonymous clinical trial managers. Audrey Pettigrew provided excellent research assistance. This material is based upon work supported by the National Institute on Aging under Grant Number T32-AG000186 and the National Science Foundation Graduate Fellowship Program under Grant Number 1122374. †MIT Department of Economics. Email: oostrom@mit.edu
WHO EMRO | Systematic review of priority setting studies in health research in the Islamic Republic of Iran

Background: ‎Several research priority-setting studies have been conducted in different countries, including ‎the Islamic Republic of Iran. Aims: We conducted a systematic review and evaluated the quality of the priority-setting ‎reports about health research in the Islamic Republic of Iran. ‎ Methods: English and Farsi databases were searched from January to July 2016 to extract reports (up to December 2015) about priority setting in ‎health research in the Islamic Republic of Iran. We constructed a checklist to extract data from the identified studies. Articles were studied in detail ‎and content analysis was carried out. Relevant items were scored and analysed ‎using Microsoft Excel. ‎
Yoga as a Core Tourism Product: A Case Study of its Potential in Rishikesh

Wellness tourism is one of the most sought after vacations types of the new age tourist. With world population aging gradually, this is projected to gain further momentum. India has huge inventory products tobe offered as wellness tourism products like spiritualism, yoga and Ayurveda. This research paper primarily focuses on the view perception of tourists visiting Rishikesh and the standing Yoga has. The study also covers the perception of service providers in Rishikesh for yoga as a priority tourism product. With the outcome we can further develop strategies for the development and promotion of Yoga.
Design of New Circularly Polarized Wearable Dielectric Resonator Antenna for Off-Body Communication in WBAN Applications

A unique circularly polarized (CP) compact wearable dielectric resonator antenna (DRA) has been proposed for off-body communication in wireless body area network (WBAN) applications. The design is singly fed and a new H-shaped conformal metal strip has been used to excite the DRA. A circular polarization over a bandwidth of ~9.6% (7.47–8.25 GHz) in conjunction with an impedance matching bandwidth of ~20.7% (6.95–8.68 GHz) has been offered by the antenna. A prototype has been fabricated and measured. The antenna has been tested both in free space and on-body environment. A robust performance has been offered by the antenna against human body lossy effects. The measured results agree very well with the simulated results.
Determining Qibla Direction using al-Biruni's First Method from Kitab Tahdid Nihayat al-Amakin with The Implementation Based on Board Arduino MCU, GPS Module, and Digital Compass

Qibla is the direction to faces Kaaba (Mecca) when performing various worship of Muslims, especially in Sholat. Because of the Qibla direction is very important, Muslims scientists develop a various mathematical method for determining Qibla direction in a Location which far away from Kaaba. This paper describes the mathematical algorithm for determining Qibla direction using al-Biruni‘s (973 – 1050 CE) first method from Kitab Tahdid Nihayat Al-Amakin. In this paper, the computation for determining Qibla direction based on al-Biruni‘s first methods has been implemented using Python, and the result shows that the Qibla direction of al-Biruni‘s first method is equal to modern spherical trigonometry method. Al-Birunis first method has been implemented to develop an algorithm for Qibla finder devices (Q-Bot Ver. 3 digital instruments) based board Arduino microcontroller, GPS module, and digital compass.
Physical Layer Security by Exploiting Interference and Heterogeneous Signaling

Physical layer security (PLS) aims to protect end users who are equipped with low-complexity receivers for which implementing cryptographic algorithms for security purposes is not practical. This article presents a different approach to PLS and suggests natural and simple ways to achieve security in wireless networks. A practical assumption on the availability of channel state information (CSI) is considered for eavesdroppers (EVs) at the transmitter. Moreover, there is no restriction on EVs' placement, and as such EVs could be in better channel conditions when they are closer to the transmitter. The article describes how the interference channels can be exploited to simultaneously reduce the interference for the users' received signals and amplify the interference at the EV's received signal. It is also shown that when considering communication with energy- constrained nodes, the heterogeneous nature of the transmitted signals is an asset and can be exploited to confuse the eavesdropper. This is because information and energy signals are transmitted over different fractions of a time slot, and the EV can be confused since it does not know the time-fraction when information signal or energy signal is transmitted. Finally, the article also suggests how we can achieve secure information transmission under poor scattering environments, such as unmanned-aerial-vehicle-enabled communications.
Development and the Global Trade Architecture An Overview of the Global Trade and Financial Architecture Project

Introduction In December 2005, trade ministers will meet in Hong Kong to assess the progress made in implementing the mandate they gave to their negotiators in Doha, Qatar, at the end of 2001. This mandate called for the pursuit of multilateral negotiations to significantly reduce the use of trade-distorting policies and to bolster the development relevance of the World Trade Organisation. The Round has been dubbed the Doha Development Agenda, and the challenge confronting WTO members is to agree to a deal that delivers on development. As argued in the Millennium taskforce report on trade (UN 2005), achieving an ambitious outcome—through deep liberalisation of access to markets, abolishing all tariff peaks, greatly lowering agricultural protection, and making substantial commitments on freer trade in services—will generate global gains that far exceed the losses. By enhancing trade opportunities for competitive suppliers and reducing prices for consumers everywhere, it will advance global development prospects and help to achieve the Millennium Development Goals. Deep multilateral liberalisation would also reduce discrimination in trade, which is becoming increasingly prevalent with the ever-expanding number of preferential trading arrangements (Sutherland et al., 2004). This paper provides an overview and synthesis of the results of the research project “Global Trade and Financial Architecture”. The focus of this project was to
Stator Winding Faults investigation in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor using Motor Signatures: Part I

Among various available stator faults in Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motors (PMSMs). , the Stator Winding Faults (SWFs) are more recurrent. The main cause of SWF is the breakdown of insulation between the windings which leads to the heavy flow of inrush currents damaging the stator windings. Depending upon the location of fault in the stator winding, SWFs can be classified viz. Stator Inter-turn Fault (SITF), coil-to-coil fault, phase-to-phase fault and open-circuit winding fault. This paper shall emphasize in detail about Equivalent Electric Circuit (EEC) modeling approach of SWFs. A mathematical model of a PMSM suitable for SWF, is developed and the response of a machine in terms of stator currents, back-EMF, electromagnetic torque and mechanical speed is observed both under healthy and fault conditions. The corresponding changes in the characteristic behavior during faults has been used to classify SWFs of PMSM.
Hubungan Antara Faktor-Faktor Eksternal dengan Kejadian Penyakit Tuberkulosis pada Balita

Background: Tuberculosis (TB) poses a health problem both in developed countries and in developing countries. It is estimated that 160 of 100.000 people present TB (+), and 15% of them are children. In Kuantan Singingi district, the eradication program of TB is carried out with DOTS strategy in accordance with WHO recommendation. However, the program is still prioritized for adult patients although under-five children are the high risk group to be infected with the disease. In the past three years there have been increased cases of the incidence of tuberculosis found in under-five children. Many factors are related to the increased incidence of TB. Objective: This study aims at investigating most dominant external factors that are related to the incidence of TB among under-five children. Method: This was an observational study with a case control study design. Samples were 218 persons consisting of 109 persons as case and 109 persons as control selected with purposive sampling. Case was taken from under-five TB patients that were diagnosed by a pediatrician and a physician in community health center while control was taken from patients presenting other diseases attending the community health center in the past 12 months. Data were gathered through interview and the measure of ventilation and the degree of humidity. The collected data were presented with frequency distribution table and were then analyzed using bivariate and multivariate analyses. Results: The multivariate analysis showed that variables that were related to the incidence of under-five TB were smoking with OR = 2.6372 (p=0.0026), contact history with the case of TB (+) with OR = 2.6284 (p=0.0026) and family’s socio-economic status with OR = 2.587 (p=0.0012). Conclusion: The contact history, smoking and low socio-economic status were the risk factors related to the incidence of TB among under-five children in Kuantan Singingi District so that the programs of health promotion and health and safe life behavior (PHBS) needed to be enhanced especially the hazardous danger of smoking for smokers and the program of active case finding as well as complete and holistic treatment for the patients with a free of charge system in the community health centers needed to be realized. Keywords: external factor of tuberculosis, under-five children.
Computational and experimental pore-scale studies of a carbonate rock sample

Abstract Carbonate rocks host several large water and hydrocarbon reservoirs worldwide, some of them highly heterogeneous involving complex pore systems. Pre-salt reservoirs in the Santos Basin off the south-east coast of Brazil, are an example of such rocks, with much attention focused on proper characterization of their petrophysical and multiphase flow properties. Since it is very difficult to obtain rock samples (coquinas) from these very deep reservoirs, analogues from north-eastern Brazil are often used because of very similar geological age and petrophysical properties. We used a coquina plug from an outcrop in a quarry in northeast Brazil to perform a comprehensive set of analyses. They included Scanning Electron Microscopy (SEM), Energy-Dispersive X-ray Spectroscopy (EDS), X-ray Diffraction (XRD), and micro-computed tomography (μCT) image acquisition using a series of pixel sizes, as well as direct permeability/porosity measurements. Some of the experimental data were collected from the plug itself, and some from a small sample of the rock slab, including thin sections. Results included the carbonate rock composition and the pore system at different scales, thus allowing us to reconstruct and model the porosity and absolute permeability of the coquina using 3D digital imaging and numerical simulations with pore network models (PNMs). The experimental and numerical data provided critical information about the well-connected pore network of the coquina, thereby facilitating improved predictions of fluid flow through the sample, with as ultimate objective to improve hydrocarbon recovery procedures.
Classification of Motor Imagery Using Statistical Models

Nowadays, brain computer interfaces have become very popular in rehabilitation therapy, tools to help people with disabilities, daily application and videogames. There exist different models that use different types of brain signals. One of them is the model that employs sensorimotor rhythms, based on motor imagery. This work describes a semi-supervised method to classify motor imagery signals of the hand, foot, and a class that indicate inactivity, or relaxation. The classifier uses features obtained with statistical moments, and independent component analysis. Two classifiers were evaluated, one based on the k-means which achieved a performance of 85.16% during training, and 85.76% in validation. The other classifier tested was based on the knn. This classifier had a training performance of 90.45% and 90.64% in validation.
The medical risks of underwater diving and their control : review article

SCUBA diving carries with it not only the risks associated with any kind of adventurous outdoor activity, but also some hazards typical of the exposure to high environmental pressure while under water. Through a systematic overview of these hazards, the principles of barotrauma and decompression sickness are explained. Some of the discussion looks at the fact that many, if not most, of the commonly used decompression aids (e.g. tables or computers) use algorithms that have been derived from rather crude observations, and so can only, at best, give an "educated guess" at how to decompress a diver in trouble safely. It is thus unwise to dive to the limits of these devices, as this may dramatically increase the risk of having a diving accident.
Variable Selection via SCAD-Penalized Quantile Regression for High-Dimensional Count Data

This article introduces a quantile penalized regression technique for variable selection and estimation of conditional quantiles of counts in sparse high-dimensional models. The direct estimation and variable selection of the quantile regression is not feasible due to the discreteness of the count data and non-differentiability of the objective function, therefore, some smoothness must be artificially imposed on the problem. To achieve the necessary smoothness, we use the Jittering process by adding a uniformly distributed noise to the response count variable. The proposed method is compared with the existing penalized regression methods in terms of prediction accuracy and variable selection. We compare the proposed approach in zero-inflated count data regression models and in the presence of outliers. The performance and implementation of the proposed method are illustrated by detailed simulation studies and real data applications.
Distributed Gradient Descent Algorithm Robust to an Arbitrary Number of Byzantine Attackers

Due to the growth of modern dataset size and the desire to harness computing power of multiple machines, there is a recent surge of interest in the design of distributed machine learning algorithms. However, distributed algorithms are sensitive to Byzantine attackers who can send falsified data to prevent the convergence of algorithms or lead the algorithms to converge to value of the attackers’ choice. Some recent work proposed interesting algorithms that can deal with the scenario when up to half of the workers are compromised. In this paper, we propose a novel algorithm that can deal with an arbitrary number of Byzantine attackers. The main idea is to ask the parameter server to randomly select a small clean dataset and compute noisy gradient using this small dataset. This noisy gradient will then be used as a ground truth to filter out information sent by compromised workers. We show that the proposed algorithm converges to the neighborhood of the population minimizer regardless the number of Byzantine attackers. We further provide numerical examples to show that the proposed algorithm can benefit from the presence of good workers and achieve better performance than existing algorithms.
Beyond Value in Moral Phenomenology: The Role of Epistemic and Control Experiences

Many researchers in moral psychology approach the topic of moral judgment in terms of value—assessing outcomes of behaviors as either harmful or helpful, which makes the behaviors wrong or right, respectively. However, recent advances in motivation science suggest that other motives may be at work as well—namely truth (wanting to establish what is real) and control (wanting to manage what happens). In this review, we argue that the epistemic experiences of observers of (im)moral behaviors, and the perceived epistemic experiences of those observed, serve as a groundwork for understanding how truth and control motives are implicated in the moral judgment process. We also discuss relations between this framework and recent work from across the field of moral psychology, as well as implications for future research.
Running Head: Load Dependent Neural Systems Functional Connectivity Reveals Load Dependent Neural Systems Underlying Encoding and Maintenance in Verbal Working Memory

One of the main challenges in working memory research has been to understand the degree of separation and overlap between the neural systems involved in encoding and maintenance. In the current study we used a variable load version of the Sternberg item recognition test (SIRT; 2, 4, 6, or 8 letters) and a functional connectivity method based on constrained principal component analysis (CPCA) to extract load-dependent neural systems underlying encoding and maintenance, and to characterize their anatomical overlap and functional interaction. Based on the pattern of functional connectivity, CPCA identified a load-dependent encoding system comprising bilateral occipital (BA 17, 18), bilateral superior parietal (BA 7), bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal (BA 46), and dorsal anterior cingulate (BA 24, 32) regions. For maintenance, in contrast, CPCA identified a system that was characterized by both loaddependent increases and decreases in activation. The structures in this system jointly activated by maintenance load involved left posterior parietal (BA 40), left inferior prefrontal (BA 44), left premotor and supplementary motor areas (BA 6), and dorsal cingulate regions (BA 24, 32), while the regions displaying maintenance-load-dependent activity decreases involved bilateral occipital (BA 17, 18), posterior cingulate (BA 23) and rostral anterior cingulate/orbitofrontal (BA 10, 11, 32) regions. The correlation between the encoding and maintenance systems was strong and negative (Pearson’s r = -.55), indicting that some regions important for visual processing during encoding displayed reduced activity during maintenance, while subvocal rehearsal and phonological storage regions important for maintenance showed a reduction in activity during encoding. In summary, our analyses suggest that separable and complementary subsystems underlie encoding and maintenance in verbal working memory, and they demonstrate how CPCA can be employed to characterize neuronal systems and their functional contributions to higher-level cognition. WORDS: WORKING MEMORY; FUNCTIONAL CONNECTIVITY; ENCODING; MAINTENANCE; PRINCIPAL COMPONENT ANALYSIS; PHONOLOGICAL LOOP