Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Safety and Efficacy of High-dose Tumor Necrosis Factor (TNF) Inhibitors in the Management of Pediatric Inflammatory Diseases

Objectives: To review a cohort of patients receiving higher than standard or FDA approved dosing of TNF inhibitors to assess the safety and efficacy of these agents in the management of inflammatory joint and eye disease in a clinical pediatric rheumatology setting. Methods: A retrospective review was performed of patients 1-17 years of age with inflammatory diseases requiring TNF inhibitor therapy treated with at least six weeks of treatment of a higher than the standard FDA approved dose of TNF inhibitors, from 12/1/11-4/8/14. Entanercept (Enbrel) was given at doses greater than 0.8 mg/kg, Infliximab (Remicade) was infused in doses greater than 5 mg/kg or more frequently than every eight weeks, and Adalimumab (Humira) was given at either 20 mg/kg weekly for patients weighing less than 30 kg or 40 mg/kg weekly for patients weighing greater than 30 kg. Serious adverse events (SAE), infections, and infusion reactions were all documented. We also noted clinical improvement based on parent/patient’s report of decreased symptoms and provider assessment, including exam findings and laboratory parameters. Results: Thirty-five patients were included (average 11.3 years). Of these, 24 (68%) were noted to have improvement of either symptoms or exam. There was one SAE noted in the group and one infusion reaction, and 10 patients with illnesses that may have been exacerbated by immune suppression. Conclusion: Higher than standard-dose or FDA approved dosing of TNF inhibitors appear safe and efficacious in the management of pediatric inflammatory diseases, however, caution must be taken with interpretation of the results due to the retrospective chart review study design. Larger, prospective, controlled studies will be necessary to more fully evaluate safety and efficacy of this treatment approach.
Maize Storage and Consumption Practices of Farmers in Handeni District, Tanzania: Corollaries for Mycotoxin Contamination

In Tanzania, maize is the main complementary food for infants and primary school children. Dietary exposure to mycotoxins through complementary foods by Tanzanian infants is of concern. The maize storage and consumption practices of farmers in Handeni District, Tanzania and their implications for mycotoxin contamination of maize flour were investigated. A convenient sample of 60 farmers in Seza Kofi and Kwabojo villages in Mgambo and Ndolwa wards were surveyed. The majority of farmers (95%) stored their maize in the house using the roofing and sack methods. Most farmers (67%) did not visually or mechanically sort defective maize kernels before storage. In both villages, the most important storage problems reported by the farmers were rodents and insects. Forty two percent of the farmers surveyed indicated that they consumed dehulled maize, while 35 and 12% consumed non-dehulled and mixed (dehulled and non-dehulled), respectively. The preponderance of storage practices described was unfavorable to mycotoxin reduction in stored maize. It is therefore recommended that appropriate, area-specific farmer training regarding recommended storage practices including storage methods, effective management of storage pests and healthy maize preparation and consumption practices be conducted. Additionally, further research on maize storage and consumption practices for Tanzania is needed.
Transiting exoplanets from the CoRoT space mission - IX. CoRoT-6b: a transiting “hot Jupiter” planet in an 8.9d orbit around a low-metallicity star

The CoRoT satellite exoplanetary team announces its sixth transiting planet in this paper. We describe and discuss the satellite observations as well as the complementary ground-based observations ‐ photometric and spectroscopic ‐ carried out to assess the planetary nature of the object and determine its specific physical parameters. The discovery reported here is a ‘hot Jupiter’ planet in an 8.9d orbit, 18 stellar radii, or 0.08 AU, away from its primary star, which is a solar-type star (F9V) with an estimated age of 3.0 Gyr. The planet mass is close to 3 times that of Jupiter. The star has a metallicity of 0.2 dex lower than the Sun, and a relatively high 7 Li abundance. While the light curve indicates a much higher level of activity than, e.g., the Sun, there is no sign of activity spectroscopically in e.g., the [Caii] H&K lines.
Am I in the theater?: usability study of live performance based virtual reality

Duplicating the audience experience of an art performance with VR technology is a promising VR application, which is considered to provide better viewer experience than the conventional video. As various forms of art performances are recorded by the panoramic camera and broadcasted on the Internet, the impact of this new VR-based media to the viewers needs to be systematically studied. In this work, a two-level usability framework is proposed, which combines the traditional concepts of presence and the quality evaluation of art performances, aiming to systematically study the usability of such VR application. Both the conventional video and the panoramic video of a theatre performance were captured simultaneously, and were replayed to two groups of viewers in a cinematic setup and through an HMD respectively. The psychological measurement methods, including the questionnaire and the interview, as well as the psychophysical measurement methods, including the EEG and the motion capture techniques were both used in the study. The results show that the such VR application duplicates the live performance better by providing a higher sense of presence, higher engagement levels, and stronger desire to see live performance. For visual intensive performance contents, the new VR-based media can provide a better user experience. The future development of the new media forms based on the panoramic video technique could benefit from this work.
Leadership attitudes and beliefs of incoming first-year college students: A multi-institutional study of gender differences

Incoming first-year college students ( N = 4,292) were surveyed regarding attitudes and beliefs about leadership. Students’ opinions about their leadership ability were high and were related to having an outgoing personality, as well as the number of high school activities in which they had been involved. In addition, students’ understanding of leadership was largely hierarchical and unsophisticated. Gender was strongly related to beliefs about leadership, with males indicating a stronger belief in hierarchical leadership, and females indicating a stronger belief in systemic leadership. The results indicated men and women are most likely to be anchored in Komives et al.’s (2009) Stages 2 and 3
Seasonality in the uropygial gland size and feather mite abundance in house sparrows Passer domesticus: natural covariation and an experiment

The seasonal change, i.e. the marked differences between seasons of low and high productivity, in the abundance of ectosymbionts and the defence intensity of the host against pathogens is a well defined characteristic of temperate zone organisms. Here we investigate the seasonal variation in the uropygial gland size and the abundance of Proctophyllodes feather mites on the wing feathers of house sparrows Passer domesticus in two breeding populations. The size of the uropygial gland varied significantly in male and female house sparrows over the annual cycle. The gland was small during the non-breeding and mating season, after that it started to grow sharply, reaching its maximum size during breeding. Females had larger gland volumes than males during breeding, and the increase in gland size during breeding was more pronounced in females than in males. The number of feather mites was the lowest during breeding, followed by an increase during moult, and reaching its maximum between the wintering and mating seasons. The absence of a significant relationship between the uropygial gland size and the abundance of feather mites, after controlling for potential confounding variables, supports the view that gland oils do not regulate the number of mites. To investigate further this hypothesis, through a full factorial experimental design we tested the effect of uropygial gland and photoperiod manipulation on the population size and population dynamics of feather mites. The manipulation of uropygial gland had no effect on mites, supporting our observational results. As a result of the experimentally increased day-length, the abundance of feather mites on wing feathers decreased significantly and more sharply than in the control group, supporting the previous anecdotal evidence about the photosensitivity of these organisms. Using photoperiodic cues, feather mites may respond to seasonal changes that affect their life-history and population dynamics.
Law and banking development in a South Pacific island economy: the case of Fiji, 1970–2006

This paper examines the applicability of the prominent law–finance theory to banking development in Fiji, a representative island economy in the South Pacific region. Secondary and primary data are used to assess legal institutions and the level of development in the banking sector in Fiji (and, where possible, in other South Pacific island economies) in comparison with up to 53 other countries, both developed and developing. The paper also re-examines the question of a possible law–banking development connection internationally, in light of newly available data and a newly proposed composite index of banking development. While the results are broadly consistent with previous findings of a direct relationship between law enforcement quality and banking development, they also suggest that the legal rules codifying creditor rights may not be as influential as had been thought previously. The latter result accords with the experience of Fiji, where very weak legal rules combined with average law enforcement quality (and high accounting standards) yield a reasonable performance in terms of banking development over the 1970–2006 period. The paper also points out some possible policy implications of these results.
Study of Automatic PCB Jack Center Positioning System Based on Machine Vision

Make a study of real-time, automatic positioning of Printed Circuit Board (PCB) jack centers. Bwlabel algorithm is used to deal with the PCB images under the condition of backlighting. According to the feature of Bwlabel algorithm extract and match the jack center indexes for every component, calculate the jack center connection angle, and generate jack center positioning data, figuring out the jack center coordinates. Combining with camera parameters, both the radial and tangential lens distortion are corrected, revising the coordinates of jack centers. At last, an automatic PCB jack positioning system is developed.The system experiment results show that the requirement of production has been met with accuracy of positioning that minimum jack diameter of 2.32mm and average time of 0.21s, which provides coordinates information for automatic assembly operation by manipulator.
Public Investment and Re-Election Prospects in Developed Countries

A growing body of literature suggests that office-motivated politicians manipulate fiscal policy instruments to enhance their reelection prospects. This article directly examines the impact of fiscal policy on incumbents’ reelection prospects by focusing on the impact of public investment. This impact is estimated using a panel of 20 countries belonging in Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development over the period 1972–1999. We find that the level of public investment in the earlier years of an incumbent's term in office improves their reelection prospects, whereas election year manipulation of public investment is neither rewarded nor punished. Our evidence also suggests that, after controlling for the level of deficit and public investment, the level of government revenue both in the election and nonelection years does not seem to affect reelection prospects. Moreover, we find that deficit creation during elections and in nonelection years are not rewarded by voters.
Association of Neonectria macrodidyma with Dry Root Rot of Citrus in California

During yearly surveys that started in 2010 to identify pathogens associated with dry root rot disease of citrus in California, samples with root rot symptoms were collected in Tulare County. Small pieces of tissue from root samples were plated onto potato dextrose agar amended with 0.01% tetracycline and incubated at 25°C. Pure cultures of fungal isolates were identified by morphology and sequence analysis of the Internal Transcribed Spacer and Beta Tubulin regions. Neonectria macrodidyma (Cylindrocarpon macrodidymum) was first recovered in 2011 and has subsequently been recovered multiple times from citrus samples. The pathogen appeared to be widely distributed in association with citrus dry root rot and possibly interacts with Fusarium solani, Phytophthora nicotianae and P. citrophthora, the major soil borne pathogens that were frequently identified from plant samples with root and/or crown rot of citrus in California. The fungal genus Cylindrocarpon (Teleomorph: Neonectria wolenw=Dactylonect ria=Ilyonectria) contains ubiquitous soil borne pathogens that cause black foot disease on a wide range of hosts, including grapevine, strawberry, apple, and conifers. Hosts typically become infected through natural wounds on roots and other below ground parts. In this report, we present strain UCR3312, which is the most recently isolated pathogenic strain in 2015. Considering the potential damage that this organism may cause to the citrus industry, detailed studies are recommended to better understand its distribution, epidemiology, and the general pathogen biology to improve the disease management practices.
Ultrasonic Sol-Gel Arrays for Monitoring High-Temperature Corrosion

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IT Acceptance by Nurses in Morocco: Application of a Modified Unified Theory of Acceptance and Use of Technology

This communication aims to identify factors supporting the acceptance of IT by nurses in Morocco. It referred to a reduced version of UTAUT model and added the trust construct to study this acceptance. The study was conducted in health public and private hospitals in Agadir city, South of Morocco. It revealed that only Social influence and Trust influenced significantly this acceptance.
On the Transferability of Representations in Neural Networks Between Datasets and Tasks

Deep networks, composed of multiple layers of hierarchical distributed representations, tend to learn low-level features in initial layers and transition to high-level features towards final layers. Paradigms such as transfer learning, multi-task learning, and continual learning leverage this notion of generic hierarchical distributed representations to share knowledge across datasets and tasks. Herein, we study the layer-wise transferability of representations in deep networks across a few datasets and tasks and note some interesting empirical observations.
United Nations Population Fund (UNFPA)

Egypt’s population witnessed dramatic increase during the last decade and is estimated at 92, 3 million people compared to a total of 72 million people in 2006. In absolute terms, the population of Egypt has increased by over 20 million in 10 years. More than 90 per cent of today’s population lives on approximately 6 per cent of the territory, putting extreme pressure on limited land and water resources. This steady increase of 2.4 percent per year threatens to hinder all development efforts with major implications on security and quality of life, on basic services, education, health, housing, and water.
Natural Locomotion Interfaces - With a Little Bit of Magic!

The mission of the Immersive Media Group (IMG) is to develop virtual locomotion user interfaces which allow humans to experience arbitrary 3D environments by means of the natural walking metaphor. Traveling through immersive virtual environments (IVEs) by means of real walking is an important activity to increase naturalness of virtual reality (VR)-based interaction. However, the size of the virtual world often differs from the size of the tracked lab space so that a straightforward implementation of omni-directional and unlimited walking is not possible. Redirected walking is one concept to address this issue by inconspicuously guiding the user on a physical path that may differ from the path the user perceives in the virtual world. For example, intentionally rotating the virtual camera to one side causes the user to unknowingly compensate by walking on a circular arc into the opposite direction. In the scope of the LOCUI project, which is funded by the German Research Foundation, we analyze how gains of locomotor speed, turns and curvatures can gradually alter the physical trajectory with respect to the path perceived in the virtual world without the users observing any discrepancy. Thus, users can be guided in order to avoid collisions with physical obstacles (e.g., lab walls) or they can be guided to arbitrary locations in the physical space. For example, if the user approaches a virtual object, she can be guided to a real proxy prop that is registered to and aligned with its virtual counterpart. Hence, the user can interact with a virtual object by touching the corresponding real-world proxy prop that provides haptic feedback. Based on the results of psychophysical experiments we plan With such a user interface it becomes possible to intuitively interact with any virtual object by touching registered real-world props.
A Linear Speedup Analysis of Distributed Deep Learning with Sparse and Quantized Communication

The large communication overhead has imposed a bottleneck on the performance of distributed Stochastic Gradient Descent (SGD) for training deep neural networks. Previous works have demonstrated the potential of using gradient sparsification and quantization to reduce the communication cost. However, there is still a lack of understanding about how sparse and quantized communication affects the convergence rate of the training algorithm. In this paper, we study the convergence rate of distributed SGD for non-convex optimization with two communication reducing strategies: sparse parameter averaging and gradient quantization. We show that O(1/√MK) convergence rate can be achieved if the sparsification and quantization hyperparameters are configured properly. We also propose a strategy called periodic quantized averaging (PQASGD) that further reduces the communication cost while preserving the O(1/√MK) convergence rate. Our evaluation validates our theoretical results and shows that our PQASGD can converge as fast as full-communication SGD with only 3% - 5% communication data size.
Wearing their chains willingly: Athlete burnout and the case of adolescent Gaelic footballers in Ireland

The aim of this article is to challenge the widespread acceptance of player burnout as an athlete’s personal inability to deal with the situational demands of sporting competition. Adapting Coakley’s earlier assertion that burnout is ‘a social problem rooted in the social organization of high performance sport itself’, the interactions between Gaelic athletes and the social world in which they exist are unpacked within an Irish context. Linking findings to Gramsci’s theory of hegemony, ‘dominant power relations’ within the competitive sport setting are identified and critically analysed. It is argued that Gaelic players are exploited within a competitive culture in which they feel entrapped, because their actions are informed by the cultural norms of the Gaelic Athletic Association, the sport’s National Governing Body, and dependent upon relationships with coaches and others in positions of authority in the federation. As such, Gaelic footballers are not voluntary agents, somehow acting independently of the constraints of the complex structures in which they compete. Instead, and aware of the often very intricate interdependencies that exist within the sport, it is argued that player burnout in Gaelic football is best explained through the deployment of a Coakley’s ‘vocabulary of empowerment’.
Influence of oil and gas emissions on summertime ozone in the Colorado Northern Front Range

Tropospheric O3 has been decreasing across much of the eastern U.S. but has remained steady or even increased in some western regions. Recent increases in VOC and NOx emissions associated with the production of oil and natural gas (O&NG) may contribute to this trend in some areas. The Northern Front Range of Colorado has regularly exceeded O3 air quality standards during summertime in recent years. This region has VOC emissions from a rapidly developing O&NG basin and low concentrations of biogenic VOC in close proximity to urban‐Denver NOx emissions. Here VOC OH reactivity (OHR), O3 production efficiency (OPE), and an observationally constrained box model are used to quantify the influence of O&NG emissions on regional summertime O3 production. Analyses are based on measurements acquired over two summers at a central location within the Northern Front Range that lies between major regional O&NG and urban emission sectors. Observational analyses suggest that mixing obscures any OPE differences in air primarily influenced by O&NG or urban emission sector. The box model confirms relatively modest OPE differences that are within the uncertainties of the field observations. Box model results also indicate that maximum O3 at the measurement location is sensitive to changes in NOx mixing ratio but also responsive to O&NG VOC reductions. Combined, these analyses show that O&NG alkanes contribute over 80% to the observed carbon mixing ratio, roughly 50% to the regional VOC OHR, and approximately 20% to regional photochemical O3 production.
Comparative Analysis of Guided Modal Properties of Double-Positive and Double-Negative Metamaterial Slab Waveguides

The guided modal properties of double-positive and double-negative metamaterial slab waveguides are numerically analyzed and compared when varying the dielectric and magnetic constants. As the cutoff frequencies of both slab waveguides remained unchanged when the absolute value of the refractive index was kept invariant, this enabled an effective comparison of the respective guided modes. Thus, the guided mode dispersion charac- teristics of the double-positive and double-negative slab waveguides were analyzed and compared, including sev- eral higher order modes. As a result, this comparative analysis provides greater physical insights and a better understanding of the guided modal characteristics of double-negative metamaterial slab waveguides.