Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Relation of ABO Blood Group and Hypertension in Medical Students of Kathmandu Medical College, Duwakot Bhaktapur

Introduction: Hypertension is one of the major health problem in the world. There are many factors like family history to life style are related with hypertension. This study was performed to find out the association of hypertension, ABO blood groups and obesity. Aim and objective: To find out the relation of hypertension with blood group in medical students of Kathmandu Medical College. Methods: This is a prospective study done in department of Physiology. Total participants were 340. ABO blood group was determined by antigenantibody reaction. Blood pressure was measured two times by standard mercury sphygmomanometer and mean was calculated for accuracy. Height and weight of students were measured by weight scale and measuring tape to calculate BMI (Body Mass Index). Results: In total, 167(49.1%) were male and 173(50.9%) were female. Mean age of students were 20.13. Maximum 112(32.9%) had blood group O. In total, 333 students had Rh-+ blood group and 7 had negative. Maximum obesity (≥30) was found in students with blood group B about 4(1.17%). No obesity in students with blood group AB. Prehypertension is most common 77(22.64%) in students with normal BMI. But, stage 2 hypertension was common 7(2.1%) in pre-obese students. Blood group B was more susceptible with prehypertension and hypertension. Conclusions: Blood group B were more susceptible for both prehypertension and hypertension. Prehypertension was seen in maximum with normal BMI students. But stage 2 hypertension was most common in preobese. There was highly significant relation of obesity and hypertension (P=0.00)
Meridional trapping and zonal propagation of inertial waves in a rotating fluid shell

Abstract Inertial waves propagate in homogeneous rotating fluids, and constitute a challenging and simplified case study for the broader class of inertio-gravity waves, present in all geophysical and astrophysical media, and responsible for energetically costly processes such as diapycnal and angular momentum mixing. However, a complete analytical description and understanding of internal waves in arbitrarily shaped enclosed domains, such as the ocean or a planet liquid core, is still missing. In this work, the inviscid, linear inertial wave field is investigated by means of three-dimensional ray tracing in spherical shell domains, having in mind possible oceanographic applications. Rays are here classically interpreted as representative of energy paths, but in contrast to previous studies, they are now launched with a non-zero initial zonal component allowing for a more realistic, localized forcing and the development of azimuthal inhomogeneities. We find that meridional planes generally act in the shell geometry as attractors for ray trajectories. In addition, the existence of trajectories that are not subject to meridional trapping is here observed for the first time. Their dynamics was not captured by the previous purely meridional studies and unveils a new class of possible solutions for inertial motion in the spherical shell. Both observed behaviours shed some new light on possible mechanisms of energy localization, a key process that still deserves further investigation in our ocean, as well as in other stratified, rotating media.
Preliminary ethnoarchaeological research on modern animal husbandry in Bestansur, Iraqi Kurdistan: Integrating animal, plant and environmental data

Abstract This paper presents preliminary results from an ethnoarchaeological study of animal husbandry in the modern village of Bestansur, situated in the lower Zagros Mountains of Iraqi Kurdistan. This research explores how modern families use and manage their livestock within the local landscape and identifies traces of this use. The aim is to provide the groundwork for future archaeological investigations focusing on the nearby Neolithic site of Bestansur. This is based on the premise that modern behaviours can suggest testable patterns for past practices within the same functional and ecological domains. Semi-structured interviews conducted with villagers from several households provided large amounts of information on modern behaviours that helped direct data collection, and which also illustrate notable shifts in practices and use of the local landscape over time. Strontium isotope analysis of modern plant material demonstrates that a measurable variation exists between the alluvial floodplain and the lower foothills, while analysis of modern dung samples shows clear variation between sheep/goat and cow dung, in terms of numbers of faecal spherulites. These results are specific to the local environment of Bestansur and can be used for evaluating and contextualising archaeological evidence as well as providing modern reference material for comparative purposes.
Face Template Protection Using Deep Convolutional Neural Network

The growing use of biometrics has led to rising concerns about the security and privacy of the biometric data (template) since it is unique to each individual and cannot be replaced. To address this problem, many biometric template protection algorithms have been reported but most have a trade-off between matching performance and template security. In this work, we propose a method for face template protection, which improves upon existing face template protection algorithm, to provide better matching performance. The proposed method uses deep Convolutional Neural Network (CNN), with one-shot and multi-shot enrollment, to learn a robust mapping from face images of the users to the unique binary codes (assigned to the users during enrollment phase). The cryptographic hash (like SHA-3 512) of the user's binary code represents the protected face template. The deep CNN is trained to minimize the intra-class variations and maximize the inter-class variations. During verification, given an input face image of a user, deep CNN predicts the binary code assigned to the user. The hash of the predicted binary code is matched with the hash of the actual binary code assigned to the user during enrollment. Three face datasets, namely CMU-PIE, FEI and Color FERET are used for evaluation. The proposed method improves the matching performance by ~6% and reduces Equal Error Rate by about 4 times when compared to related work, while providing high template security.
Portfolio Efficiency and Discount Factor Bounds with Conditioning Information: A Unified Approach

In this paper, we develop a unified framework for the study of mean-variance efficiency and discount factor bounds in the presence of conditioning information. We extend the framework of Hansen and Richard (1987) to obtain new characterizations of the efficient portfolio frontier and variance bounds on discount factors, as functions of the conditioning information. We introduce a covariance-orthogonal representation of the asset return space, which allows us to derive several new results, and provide a portfolio-based interpretation of existing results. Our analysis is inspired by, and extends the recent work of Ferson and Siegel (2001,2002), and Bekaert and Liu (2004). Our results have several important applications in empirical asset pricing, such as the construction of portfolio-based tests of asset pricing models, conditional measures of portfolio performance, and tests of return predictability.
Groundwater use and salinization with grassland afforestation

Vegetation changes, particularly transitions between tree‐ and grass‐dominated states, can alter ecosystem water balances and soluble salt fluxes. Here we outline a general predictive framework for understanding salinization of afforested grasslands based on biophysical, hydrologic, and edaphic factors. We tested this framework in 20 paired grassland and adjacent afforested plots across ten sites in the Argentine Pampas. Rapid salinization of groundwater and soils in afforested plots was associated with increased evapotranspiration and groundwater consumption by trees, with maximum salinization occurring on intermediately textured soils. Afforested plots (10–100 ha in size) showed 4–19‐fold increases in groundwater salinity on silty upland soils but 50% of the days, and depressed the water table 38 cm on average compared to the adjacent grassland. Soil cores and vertical electrical soundings indicated that ≈6 kg m−2 of salts accumulated close to the water table and suggested that salinization resulted from the exclusion of fresh groundwater solutes by tree roots. Groundwater use with afforestation in the Pampas and in other regions around the world can enhance primary production and provide a tool for flood control. However, our framework and experimental data also suggest that afforestation can compromise the quality of soils and water resources in predictable ways based on water use, climate, and soil texture.
Sparsity in penalized empirical risk minimization

Soit (X, Y) un couple aleatoire a valeurs dans S × T et de loi P inconnue. Soient (X 1 , Y 1 ),. , (X n , Y n ) des repliques i.i. d. de (X, Y), de loi empirique associee P n . Soit h 1 ,. , hN : S [―1, 1] un dictionnaire compose de N fonctions. Pour tout λ ∈ R N , on note f λ := Σ N j=1 λ j h j . Soit l:T × R R fonction de perte donnee que l'on suppose convexe en la seconde variable. On note (l • f)(x, y) := l(y; f(x)). On etudie le probleme de minimisation du risque empirique penalise suivant e := argmin[P n (l • fλ) + e∥λ∥ p lp ], λ∈R N qui correspond a la version empirique du probleme λ e :=argmln[P(l • f λ )+e∥λ∥ p lp ] λ∈R N (ici e ≥ 0 est un parametre de regularisation; λ 0 correspond au cas e = 0). Ce cadre general englobe un certain nombre de problemes de regression et de classification. On s'interesse au cas ou p ≥ 1, mais reste proche de 1 (de sorte que p ― 1 soit de l'ordre 1 log N, ou inferieur). On montre que la "sparsite" de λ e implique la "sparsite" de λe . En outre, on etudie les consequences de la "sparsite" en termes de bornes superieures sur l'exces de risque P (l • fλ s ) ― P(l • f λ 0) des solutions obtenues pour les differents problemes de minimisation du risque empirique.
Frontotemporal dementia – Differentiation from Alzheimer's disease

Organic dementia is dominated by primary degenerative disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and frontotemporal dementia (FTD). FTD is a distinct clinical syndrome with behavioural, personality, emotional and language disturbances preceding the cognitive decline. This clinical presentation is distinctly different from that of AD which is characterized by early cognitive changes, such as memory impairment, aphasia and apraxia, and a relatively preserved personality and behaviour. The differences between these two conditions reflect the predominant topographic distribution of brain pathology. The differences in clinical profiles and treatment strategies will be highlighted. In both disorders loss of functional ability, development of behavioural disturbances and dependency impose heavy demands on family and other caregivers. This presentation will concentrate on early recognition and diagnosis, using systematic clinical evaluation, neuropsychological testing and different brain imaging methods. This is important for a successful development of therapeutic strategies for both cognitive and behavioural symptoms in FTD and AD. (Less)
Spatio-temporal challenges in representing wildlife 1 disturbance within a GIS 2 3

14 Assessing the potential environmental impacts of disturbance on protected species during and after 15 the development process is a legislative requirement in most nations. However, the restrictions that 16 this legislation places on developers are often based on limited ecological understanding, over17 simplified methodologies, less-than-robust data and the subjective interpretations of field 18 ecologists. Consequently, constraints may be imposed with no transparent methodology behind 19 them to the frustration of, and occasionally large expense to, developers. Additionally, protected 20 species numbers continue to decline and biodiversity continues to be threatened. This paper 21 describes a GIS conceptual model for assessing ecological disturbance vulnerability, based upon a 22 case study development in Scotland. First, uncertainties in traditional methods of recording and 23 representing ecological features with GIS are reviewed such that they may be better accounted for 24 in the disturbance model. Second, by incorporating temporal fluctuations in ecological behaviour 25 into the disturbance susceptibility concept, it is argued that it is possible to synchronise 26 development with conservation requirements. Finally, a method is presented to account for 27 disturbance tolerances at the scale of the individual animal. It is anticipated that this model will 28 enable environmental impact assessors to produce more robust analyses of wildlife disturbance risk 29 and facilitate synchronisation between development and wildlife vulnerability to minimise 30 disturbance and better avoid delays to the works programme. 31
Professional Service Operations Management: sustaining the discipline?

Operations management (OM) theory suggests that professional services have some distinct operational challenges. There is an emerging consensus that professional services are changing, due to the socio-economic and political climates in which they operate. In order to investigate these issues a systematic literature review was undertaken. This paper makes a contribution by exploring the OM literature encompassing two decades of publications in terms of value, in relation to operational effectiveness within the ‘professions’. The analysis of the sample suggests a potential methodological mismatch between the core theoretical frameworks, exploring features of effectiveness and efficiency across the professions. This paper makes a contribution through a reflection on theories in the area of Professional Services Operations Management.
Nature of the crust in the Laxmi Basin (14°–20°N), western continental margin of India

The nature of the crust in the Laxmi Basin, western margin of India, is an uncertain issue; more importantly, this has implications on paleogeographic reconstructions of the western Indian Ocean. We have analyzed three geophysical data sets and modeled gravity and magnetic anomalies for determining nature of the crust. Basement of the Laxmi Basin includes numerous highs, which make the basement uneven and shallower compared to the Western Basin. The Laxmi Basin is characterized by a broad gravity high and a narrower prominent gravity low within it, while within the basin the broad anomaly gradually increases toward north. The Panikkar Ridge is associated with the gravity low, which is comparable, at least in sign, to known negative gravity anomaly of the Laxmi Ridge. Intrusive structures mapped in the Laxmi Basin coincide with significant magnetic anomalies, which were earlier interpreted as seafloor‐spreading anomalies. Model studies reveal that the Laxmi Basin consists of ∼14 km thick stretched continental crust, in which magmatic bodies have been emplaced, whereas the Panikkar Ridge remains less altered stretched continental crust. The crust of the Laxmi Basin is mostly thinner than crust under the Laxmi Ridge and continental margin. In addition to the rift‐drift‐related stretching of the continental margin, the Laxmi Basin possibly has undergone extra stretching in E‐W direction during the pre‐Tertiary period. At ∼68 Ma Deccan volcanism on western India may have disrupted the initial conditions that were leading to onset of spreading in the basin. Subsequently the Réunion hot spot had emplaced the volcanic material within the stretched thinned continental crust. We interpret the Laxmi Basin as a failed rift, undergone stretching following intraplate kinematics prior to Deccan volcanism.
The effect of Swedish massage on fasting glucose levels , insulin resistance , cortisol , adrenaline and heart rate in women with type II diabetes

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of Swedish massage on some physiological factors in women with type II diabetes. The experimental group included 12 women with type II diabetes and also had 12 patients with type II diabetes in the control group. The subjects received Swedish massage for four weeks (three sessions a week) in the back and in the abdomen respectively for 10 and 20 minutes. The blood samples were collected 24 hours before the fi rst session of massage and 24 hours after the last session and the changes of factors were measured at rest, as well as the mean blood pressure and resting heart rate before and 24 hours after the fi rst massage session of massage. Independent and dependent T-test was used to analyze the data. Results of the study did not show any statistically signifi cant changes in fasting blood glucose levels and insulin resistance in experimental and control groups. Cortisol, adrenaline and heart rate changes were signifi cant in experimental group (p <0/05) but not statistically signifi cant in the control group. All factors were non-signifi cant from the perspective of between-group changes. Overall, this paper showed that massage as an external factor did not have signifi cant impact on the physiological factors affecting diabetes, it can only have positive effects on the heart rate and stress factors, which means massage can be helpful as a relaxing factor.
Kinesiology taping as an adjunct for pain management: A review of literature and evidence

Current evidence-based practice guidelines for the management of nonacute persistent and recurring musculoskeletal-related pain have emphasized the use of holistic multidisciplinary approaches including nonpharmacological therapies. Kinesiology taping is a simple, economical, easy-to-apply, nondrug therapeutic technique that is used by health-care professionals for managing and rehabilitating musculoskeletal injuries. High-quality research on kinesiology taping is limited, although recent evidence suggests that kinesiology taping may have a small effect in mitigating pain and may be associated with mild cutaneous side effects. We present a review of the principles of kinesiology taping and an evaluation of research on its efficacy to catalyze discussion among clinicians about the merits of kinesiology taping as an adjunct for pain management.
Schuman Centre for Advanced Studies Global Governance Programme Habit , Prisoner ’ s Dilemma and Americans ’ Welfare Cost of Working Much More than Europeans

Europeans work much less than Americans. Some studies claim this is due to high taxes in Europe, which would benefit by adopting US tax rates and work time; others find that taxes have little or no impact on work time. I examine the hypothesis that Americans would benefit by reducing work time to Europe’s level. Empirical and experimental studies show utility falls as other people’s income rises. Due to its historical experience, Europe is able to internalize this and other negative externalities by restricting work time – through minimum vacation time and maximum weekly work hours – while the US is not, resulting in a Prisoner’s Dilemma “overworking trap” equilibrium. A simple model and work time data are used to derive the US welfare gain from reducing work time to Europe’s level. Findings are: i) parameter values are consistent with experimental results on the relative impact of own and other people’s income; ii) the welfare gain’s present value is about 120 percent of annual welfare; and iii) even if Europe's policy reduces work time excessively, it does remain beneficial as long as the reduction is less than twice the optimal one.
Tuning the Properties of Nanoceria by Applying Force: Stress-Induced Ostwald Ripening

The ionic conductivity and activity of a material, such as ceria, is central to its exploitation in applications such as fuel cells or catalysis. Grain boundaries (GB) influence profoundly the ionic conductivity and activity of a material. Accordingly, the ability to control GB concentrations is pivotal to these applications. Here, we show that Oswald ripening can be induced by applying uniaxial force. In particular, grain boundaries are purged to facilitate single nanocrystals from polycrystalline precursors. Our simulations thus predict mechanisms for strain-tunable properties.
Macroeconomic Volatility and Welfare in Developing Countries: An Introduction

Macroeconomic volatility, both a source and a reflection of underdevelopment, is a fundamental concern for developing countries. Their high aggregate instability results from a combination of large external shocks, volatile macroeconomic policies, microeconomic rigidities, and weak institutions. Volatility entails a direct welfare cost for risk-averse individuals, as well as an indirect one through its adverse effect on income growth and development. This article provides a brief overview of the recent literature on macroeconomic volatility in developing countries, highlighting its causes, consequences, and possible remedies. It then introduces the contributions of a recent conference on the subject, sponsored by the World Bank and Pompeu Fabra University, Barcelona.
A Hierarchical Metapopulation Model for Disease Dynamics Built on Population Movements of Both Patch-Coupling and Migration

In the past, frequent movements and migration were studied separately in metapopulation models. The levels that exist in a hierarchical metapopulation model were also limited to two and only recently increased to multiple levels. Moreover, a generalisable deterministic model was not available. Here we introduce a novel model incorporating both movement scenarios as well as a multiple-level structure. We describe the system in simple differential equation form. The simulations of different distributions of local contact rates for disease transmission suggest that local information is important for predicting disease dynamics. The comparison between the results from a solely migration-based multilevel model and the model discussed in this paper suggests that diseases with low transmission rates can spread rapidly and infect a large number of susceptible individuals in a short time if they appear in a population where frequent movements are dominant.
Analytical Investigation of Glaciation Time in Mixed-Phase Adiabatic Cloud Volumes

AbstractGlaciation in mixed-phase adiabatic cloudy parcels is investigated analytically using two new equations: the equation for coexistence of liquid water and ice and the mass balance equation. The analysis of glaciation time is performed for a vertically moving adiabatic mixed-phase cloud parcel. The effects of vertical velocity, liquid water content, and concentrations of ice particles, liquid droplets, temperature, and other parameters on the glaciation process are discussed. It is shown analytically that, for a certain envelope of vertical velocities, the glaciation time depends only on the vertical displacement of the parcel and does not depend on the trajectory along which the cloud parcel travels toward the glaciation point. Analytical dependencies of the glaciation time and of the altitude of glaciation on vertical velocity are presented. The results demonstrate a good agreement with those obtained using the corresponding parcel model. The limitations of the newly proposed approach are discusse.
Bad Corporate Marriages : Waking Up in Bed the Morning After

This paper examines corporate risk taking behavior in the wake of unsuccessful merger activities. We find that relative to other firms, firms that made bad acquisitions take both more systematic risk and more idiosyncratic risk. Moreover, higher risk is associated with greater value destruction and stronger corporate governance. The increased risk can be traced to increased cash flow volatility, increased leverage, decreased asset liquidity, more investment in R&D, and more equity-based executive compensation. These findings are in line with the behavioral approach suggesting that in the domain of losses, decision makers generally become more tolerant of risk.