Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Deep Recurrent Neural Network-Based Explainable Prediction Model for Progression from Atrophic Gastritis to Gastric Cancer

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer type worldwide and one of the most frequently diagnosed cancers in South Korea. In this study, we propose DeepPrevention, which comprises a prediction module to predict the possibility of progression from atrophic gastritis to gastric cancer and an explanation module to identify risk factors for progression from atrophic gastritis to gastric cancer, to identify patients with atrophic gastritis who are at high risk of gastric cancer. The data set used in this study was South Korea National Health Insurance Service (NHIS) medical checkup data for atrophic gastritis patients from 2002 to 2013. Our experimental results showed that the most influential predictors of gastric cancer development were sex, smoking duration, and current smoking status. In addition, we found that the average age of gastric cancer diagnosis in a group of high-risk patients was 57, and income, BMI, regular exercise, and the number of endoscopic screenings did not show any significant difference between groups. At the individual level, we identified that there were relatively strong associations between gastric cancer and smoking duration and smoking status.
Comparative study of 24-hour urinary protein and spot urine protein creatinine ratio in pre-eclamptic women

Background: The aim of the study was to evaluate the ability of the random urine P/C ratio to predict significant proteinuria, as well as to introduce a diagnostic test for pre-eclampsia which will avoid the inconvenience and time consumption of 24-hour urine protein collection. The objective of this study was to compare spot urine protein- creatinine ratio with 24-hour urine protein for estimation of proteinuria in pre-eclampsia.Methods: A total of 50 pregnant women with pre-eclampsia were prospectively studied for proteinuria in Rajarajeswari medical college and Hospital Bangalore for a period of 9 months from September 2018 to May 2019. Spot urine specimens for measuring P/C ratio were obtained immediately before 24-hour urine collection. The correlation between the spot urine P/C ratio and urinary protein excretion in the 24-hour collections was examined using the Spearman correlation test.Results: PCR at a cut off value 0.15 g/mmol had sensitivity and specificity of 96.6% and 55% respectively. In prediction of proteinuria of 300 mg/24 hr positive predictive value and negative predictive value 76.3% and 91.6% respectively.Conclusions: We found that there was a strong correlation between 24-hour urine protein excretion and spot urine protein creatinine ratio in pre-eclamptic women. Spot PCR can be used as a reasonable alternative to 24-hour urine protein test which is a cumbersome.
High-Performance CMOS Latch Designs for Recovering All Single and Double Node Upsets

Latches areused extensivelyin digital circuits; however, as technology scaling reaches nanometric feature sizes, externally induced phenomena (such as radiation strikes in aerospace applications) may cause a single event upset (SEU) in either single or double nodes. Rather than masking, mitigation of an SEU is effectively achieved by recovering the correct value throughthe design of hardened latches. Using the polarity of the radiation-induced voltage pulse, a stacked design is proposed; this circuit permits to accomplish protection and SEU recovery at reduced overhead and so at substantially improved performance. The first proposed latch (RH-1) recovers all single node upsets and has an extremely low delay in its operation, because this latch propagates data to the output stage though only a transmission gate. The fast operation of RH-1 is utilized in the second latch (RH-2) proposed in this article. RH-2 consists of two RH-1 modules to guarantee that at least two nodes maintain the latched values under the occurrence of a double node upset. Simulation results are provided; they show that RH-1 (recovering all single node upsets and many double node upsets) has the best delay and power-delay-area product (PDAP, as combined metric) among all considered designs and the second-best area and dynamic power dissipation among the recovering schemes, and meanwhile RH-2 (recovering all double node upsets) has the best dynamic power dissipation and PDAP among all considered designs and the best area and delay among recovering schemes.
Engaging in a New Field: Business Owning Families’ Differential Approach to Impact Investing

We develop a theoretical framework explaining why and how business owning families (BOF) engage in impact investing. Despite its exponential growth, the burgeoning field impact investing is still subject to competing interpretations and varying practices. Building on the framework proposed by Nason et al. (2019b), we argue that a BOF’s frame of reference (backward vs. forward looking and internally vs. externally oriented) constitutes a relevant heterogeneity that triggers a unique driver for engaging in impact investing and a distinct set of practices to do so.
Biofilm Formation and Multiplex PCR detection of icaABCD Operon in Staphylococcus capitis

Aims: The ability to form biofilm is a major virulence factor in the virulence of the Coagulase negative Staphylococcus (CoNS) group of bacteria. Being the most predominant member of CoNS, the ability of S. epidermidis in causing biofilm-associated infections has been well established. On the other hand, S. capitis and has always been regard as a non-pathogenic species although recently it was found to be responsible in a variety of infections. Hence, this study aimed to determine the biofilm formation capabilities and the presence of icaABCD genes in clinical isolates of S. capitis, which have emerged as an important opportunistic pathogen in clinical settings. Methodology: S. capitis was isolated and identified from 17 out of 200 clinical samples. Biofilm formation assay was performed quantitatively using a microtitre plate method. Mulitplex PCR primers for icaABCD genes were designed from DNA sequences coding for the icaA, B, C, and D structural genes of S capitis JF930147.1 which was compared together with five other species of Staphylococcus. Amplification of the icaABCD genes was performed using the designated primers. Results: From the 17 strains of S. capitis clinical isolates, 14 were identified as S. capitis subsp capitis while the remaining three were identified as S. capitis subsp ureolyticus. Except for two of the S. capitis subsp capitis isolates, the remaining strains were able to form biofilm, with majority of them were strong biofilm formers. Multiplex PCR was successful in amplifying the four icaABCD genes which was demonstrated in all the S. capitis isolates, including the two non-biofilm forming isolates. Conclusion: Majority of the S. capitis isolates were able to form biofilm phenotypically suggesting the possibility in causing opportunistic infections through indwelling medical devices. Multiplex PCR however was able to detect the presence of the icaABCD genes in all the S. capitis isolates. This suggests that the biofilm assessment on microtitre plate is not a definitive tool in determining the production of polysaccharide intercellular adhesion (PIA) but the production of the icaABCD genes could be a better assessment in determining biofilm production in Staphylococcus.
The effect of gender and creativity on beauty premium on hiring decisions in Malaysia: Do male and female hirers weigh them differently?

Abstract The presence of a beauty premium in the labor market has been convincingly demonstrated in developed countries, although studies examining this issue in other countries have been few. Additionally, two related issues remain unclear: (i) Does the beauty premium have the same effect on the preferences of male and female personnel in charge of hiring? (ii) Does the interaction of attractiveness with creativity influence their evaluation differently? This study investigates the issues above in the context of a non-western country. A field experiment was conducted and the data were analyzed using regressions to test the interaction of the three factors (attractiveness, creativity and gender). We found that in common with findings elsewhere beauty is still used to decide who to hire, when no additional information is available, regardless of the gender of the hiring personnel. However, when information on creativity becomes available, male hirers give priority to it while female hirers continue to emphasize good looks. The reasons for this difference and whether or not this finding is unique to Malaysia are worth investigating in future studies.
Arsenic immobilization in anaerobic soils by the application of by-product iron materials obtained from the casting industry

ABSTRACT Reducing the arsenic (As) concentration in rice grains is of great interest from a human health perspective. Iron (Fe) materials immobilize As in soils, thereby effectively reducing the As concentration in rice grains. We investigated the effect of by-product Fe materials obtained from the casting industry on the As mobility in two soils (soil A and soil B) by a long-term (approximately 100 days) flooded soil incubation experiment. The examined Fe materials were spent steel shot (SSS), fine spent casting sand (SCS) containing steel shot, and two kinds of residual Fe materials (RIMs) from steel shot production. Commercial Fe materials used to immobilize As (zero-valent Fe and ferrihydrite) were tested for comparison. The dissolved As in soil solution of controls for soil A and soil B reached approximately 100 and 800 μg L‒1, respectively. The effect on As immobilization of all the by-product Fe materials increased with time and was comparable to or greater than that of commercial ferrihydrite, except for SCS. The additions of SSS and RIMs decreased by more than 90% of the dissolved As in soil A and decreased by more than 50% in soil B after 100 days incubation. Overall, the effect of the by-product Fe materials on the solubility of silicon and phosphorus was much less than that of the commercial Fe materials. Considering the cost advantage over commercial Fe materials, the Fe materials obtained from the casting industry as by-products are promising amendments for the immobilization of As in paddy soils.
Role of He-Ne laser pre-treatment in protecting Zea mays against the deleterious effects of ultraviolet radiations -

The current study aims to record the role of the pretreatment of Zea mays grains with a He-Ne laser damage repair of ultraviolet (UVA+B) radiation effect. Plants were divided into four groups; control group, group exposed to the HeÂ–Ne laser only for 1- 300 seconds, group exposed to UVA+B only and in the fourth group; grains were treated with different He-Ne laser irradiation duration and after 2 weeks were exposed to 3.6 and 7.2 KJ m−2 d−1 UVA+B radiation. Irradiation with He-Ne laser significantly (p≤0.05) increased shoot lengths, number of leaves, shoot biomass (week1), root dry weight, chlorophyll-a, chlorophyll b, and total chlorophyll. Superoxide free radical, hydrogen peroxide and lipid peroxidation was decreased at low doses and increased with higher doses of laser. Various deleterious effects of ultraviolet radiations were recorded in Zea mays including decreased photosynthetic pigments, shoot and root biomass, and root and shoot lengths. The pretreatment with a laser before exposure to UVA+B radiation causes a slight increase in plant length and leaves a number, an increase of root length, while a decrease of shoot/root length and an increase in leaf parameters at some laser treatments. The results revealed that the pretreatment of maize grains with HeÂ–Ne laser doses for 10s to 300s alleviated the damaging effects of UV-B radiation in the range of 7.2 KJ m−2 d−1 UVA+B radiation.
Supporting Secondary Students’ Morality Development in Science Education

ABSTRACT This review study synthesises 28 empirical research articles emphasising the learning of morality aspects in the context of addressing socioscientific issues (SSI) in secondary science education. The key interrelated questions we seek to address in this study are how morality is conceptualised in the science classroom in the light of emerging sustainability issues and how it can be developed. We used the Four Component Model of Morality to create a knowledge base for how morality has been conceptualised in the literature on secondary science education and how it can be developed. The findings of this review study show that not all studies have used concrete, explicit conceptualisations of morality and that the role of sense of place and the situatedness of morality have often been neglected. It also emerged that studies focusing on students’ moral character and action-taking were underrepresented. We recommend that further research be carried out on the interrelationships between moral character and enacted moral reasoning. The review also reveals a gap between morality research and teaching. Based on the outcomes of this review, we propose a set of recommendations aimed at guiding and encouraging students’ morality within secondary science education.
Communication in the Gig Economy: Buying and Selling in Online Freelance Marketplaces

The proliferating gig economy relies on online freelance marketplaces, which support relatively anonymous interactions through text-based messages. Informational asymmetries thus arise that can lead to exchange uncertainties between buyers and freelancers. Conventional marketing thought recommends reducing such uncertainty. However, uncertainty reduction and uncertainty management theories indicate that buyers and freelancers might benefit more from balancing—rather than reducing—uncertainty, such as by strategically adhering to or deviating from common communication principles. With dyadic analyses of calls for bids and bids from a leading online freelance marketplace, this study reveals that buyers attract more bids from freelancers when they provide moderate degrees of task information and concreteness, avoid sharing personal information, and limit the affective intensity of their communication. Freelancers’ bid success and price premiums increase when they mimic the degree of task information and affective intensity exhibited by buyers. However, mimicking a lack of personal information and concreteness reduces freelancers’ success, so freelancers should always be more concrete and offer more personal information than buyers. These contingent perspectives offer insights into buyer–seller communication in two-sided online marketplaces. They clarify that despite, or sometimes due to, communication uncertainty, both sides can achieve success in the online gig economy.
English teacher recruitment in Iran: A compatibility study with the global standards

Abstract This study aimed at examining the global standards of teacher effectiveness to be employed to evaluate teacher candidates in the English teacher recruitment process. For this purpose, the global standards of teacher effectiveness and the qualities indicative of them were extracted from the documents. Then, the educational managers of thirty English language institutes were interviewed to discover the extent to which theses global standards are considered for teacher selection in the language institutes in Iran. The use of global standards by the language institutes would confirm the fact that they are applicable to the recruitment process. Next, the global standards were used to employ five English teachers in a language institute in Kerman, Iran. The classroom behavior of these teachers was observed by the institute supervisor. Moreover, the perceptions of the recruited teachers’ students were probed by means employing a questionnaire containing the criteria of teacher effectiveness. The results of the study indicated that the educational managers of the institutes approved of the majority of the global standards to be used in the English teacher recruitment process. The perceptions of the students and those of the supervisor also manifested that the recruited teachers are doing their jobs well, which would verify the appropriateness of the criteria used for teacher selection. Based on the results, a framework for English teacher recruitment encompassing the global standards of teacher effectiveness, their definitions, and the qualities indicative of them was suggested.
Are interest rate changes comoving with financial cycle?

We explore to what extent official interest rate changes can potentially in a procyclical manner impact different financial cycle indicators (credit/GDP, debt service ratio, house prices and stock market indices). We test this on data covering 1995−2016 in 21 countries and the euro area using the Concordance index and Monetary policy procyclicality ratio. Results show that this was not a widespread phenomenon, but there was significant heterogenenity across countries. The procyclicality of interest rate changes was usually higher when financial cycle gaps were increasing and lower when they were decreasing. On average, central banks in several larger economies were running potentially less procyclical monetary policy than those in the smaller ones. The resulting propensity of conflicts between achieving price and financial stability by central banks was low, as only in 10% of the cases the objectives were conflicting (usually when inflation was below the target and the credit cycle was in an expansion phase).
Clinical Profile of Patients with Diabetic Foot Ulcer Treated Conservatively or Surgically and Effect of Risk Factors on Ulcer Healing

Objective: The aim of this study was to assess the clinical profile of patients with diabetic foot ulcer treated conservatively or surgically and effect of risk factors on ulcer healing. Methods: This was a retrospective observational study conducted in tertiary medical teaching hospital where medical records of diabetic patients who were admitted with foot problem were evaluated. All diabetic patients who were aged >18 years and admitted with DFU were included in this study. A structured proforma was used to collect data from the medical record. SPSS version 20.0 was used to perform the statistical analysis. Result: 280 subjects with diabetic foot ulcer (DFU) were evaluated in this study. 71% ulcers were healed where as 11% were persisted unhealed. Patients who were undergone for amputation 12% were minor (Foot only) and 4% were major (above the ankle). A statistically significant association between age, duration of diabetes, glycemic control peripheral neuropathy, and ulcer size were found with diabetic foot ulcer healing. Conclusion: Modifiable factors like good glycemic control, early management of ulcers and early treatment of peripheral neuropathy can influence Diabetic foot ulcer outcomes. Special care should be provided to diabetic subjects who are aged and have longer duration of diabetes. Keywords: Diabetic foot ulcers, ulcer severity, clinical profile, Wagner’s Classification, outcome.
Skill acquisition practices of coaches on the British Para swimming World Class Programme

This study set out to gain insight into the practices adopted by elite level Paralympic swimming coaches and to shed light on the knowledge and rationale underpinning their approaches. Coaching sessions were delivered by nine senior coaches from the British Para swimming (BPS) World Class Programme. A coaching session was observed from each coach and a semi-structured interview was recorded and transcribed to explore their intentions and rationale for the structure and content of the session delivered. Results indicated that coaches: (i) predominantly emphasised internal focus instruction and feedback cues, (ii) incorporated relatively low levels of between-skill variability and higher levels of within-skill variability, and (iii) applied mostly explicit learning techniques such as part-task training and verbal feedback, but also incorporated some implicit learning techniques such as analogies and constraints-based learning. Interview data indicated coaches had limited knowledge of key skill acquisition principles. The study serves to highlight potential gaps in understanding on the side of both research and applied practice in the hope of facilitating future collaborations between coaches and skill acquisition practitioners.
Green Technological Progress and the Backwardness Advantage of Green Development: Taking the Sustainable Development Strategy of Central and Western China as an Example

It is generally believed that research and development on green technology are difficult, but this paper finds that the gap in green technological progress between the central and western regions and the eastern region in China is significantly smaller than the gap in technological progress, and the per capita green GDP of the central and western regions caught up with the eastern region significantly faster than the per capita GDP. This paper proposes that the comparative advantage of human capital level in the central and western regions is the reason why these regions choose the direction of green technological progress, and the choice of the direction of green technological progress in the central and western regions may further bring about the backwardness advantages of green development in these regions. Through the system generalized method of moments (sys-GMM) estimation, empirical research using panel data from 29 provinces as well as the regional panel data in the mainland of China from 1995 to 2017 proved the above proposition. Specifically, due to the comparative advantages of human capital level, the central and western regions have chosen the direction of green technological progress; further, the central and western regions will obtain greater benefits of green GDP growth from the green technological progress, that is, the green technological progress enables these regions’ backwardness to take advantage from green development. This is a useful supplement to the theory of sustainable development and the theory of backwardness advantage.
Motivated by default—How nudges facilitate people to act in line with their motivation.

Nudges are defined as small adjustments in the choice architecture that help people perform desirable behavior. How nudges interact with individuals’ motivation has not been studied empirically. We conducted three studies with different types of defaults in three different behavioral domains and investigated how defaults and different types of motivation affect choice outcomes. In Study 1, we investigated the effectiveness of a default to stimulate healthy eating choices implemented in a hypothetical online supermarket setting. In Study 2, we used a scenario in which participants could choose from a list of green amenities (either preselected or not). In Study 3, we asked participants if they wanted to participate in a basic or longer version of our questionnaire, with the longer version option set as the default in the nudge condition. Across three studies we show that defaults are effective in promoting desirable behavior, and that goal strivings and autonomous motivation have additional positive main effects. We did not find evidence that controlled motivation did affect behavioral outcomes. Exploratory analyses revealed that amotivation negatively affected behavior, but the measure had poor reliability. No significant interaction effects were observed. Together, these studies imply that both defaults and motivation have main effects on behavior, such that the default sets the anchor from which people can adjust according to the type and strength of their motivation. Implications for the practice and ethics of nudging are discussed.