Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A New Zealand linkage study examining the associations between glycosylated haemoglobin concentration and mortality

Objective: To examine associations concentration and mortality in a New Zealand population. Research Design and Methods: During a Hepatitis Foundation screening campaign for hepatitis B (1999 to 2001), participants were offered HbA 1c testing. The participants were anonymously linked to the national mortality collection to 31 st December 2004. Hazard ratios (HRs) and 95% confidence intervals (95%CI) adjusted for age, ethnicity, smoking and gender were estimated using Cox regression. Results: There were 47,904 participants (71% M ā ori, 12% Pacific, 5% Asian, 12% Other). HbA 1c measurements were categorised as: <4.0% (n=142); 4.0–<5.0% (reference category; n=12,867); 5.0–<6.0% (n=30,222); 6.0–<7.0% (n=2,669); ≥ 7.0% (n=1,596); there were also 408 participants with a previous diabetes diagnosis. During the follow-up period, 815 individuals died. In those without a prior diabetes diagnosis, there were steadily increasing HRs from the HbA 1c reference category to the highest category ( ≥ 7.0%; HR 2.36, 95%CI 1.72–3.25). As well as all cause mortality, HbA 1c was associated with mortality from diseases of the circulatory system, endocrine, nutritional and metabolic and immunity disorders, and ‘other and unknown causes’. Mortality was also elevated in those with a prior diabetes diagnosis (HR 5.19, 95%CI 3.67–7.35), but this was only partially explained by their elevated HbA 1c levels. Conclusions: This is the largest study to date of HbA 1c levels and subsequent mortality risk. It confirms previous findings that HbA 1c levels are strongly associated with subsequent mortality in both men and women without a prior diabetes diagnosis.
Audit Committee and Timeliness of Financial Reporting: Malaysian Public Listed Companies

: This study investigates the relationship between Audit Committee (AC) characteristics and timeliness of financial reporting and examines the changes on the timeliness of financial reporting after the revision of Malaysian Code on Corporate Governance in 2007 (hereinafter referred as MCCG 2007) as compared to before the revised code. The sample of this study consists of companies listed on Bursa Malaysia for the year of 2004 to 2006 and 2009 to 2011 equivalent to 669 firm-years observation for each period, before and after MCCG 2007. This study is distinct from prior research conducted in Malaysia as it views and compares the timeliness of financial reporting for pre and post period of MCCG 2007. The results show that AC independence level and activity are significantly associated with the timeliness of financial reporting for the period before MCCG 2007. By contrast, the results for the period after MCCG 2007 show only composition of solely non-executive directors, size and financial expertise that are related to the timeliness of financial reporting. The mean values of timeliness after MCCG 2007 reports significant improvement suggesting the effectiveness and the efficiency of AC towards improving the timeliness of financial reports.
ON MATRIX AND DETERMINANT IDENTITIES FOR COMPOSITE FUNCTIONS

We present some matrix and determinant identities for the divided diﬀerences of the composite functions, which generalize the divided diﬀerence form of Fa`a di Bruno’s formula. Some recent published identities can be regarded as special cases of our results. Mathematics subject classiﬁcation: 65D05, 05A10, 15A23, 15A15.
The Modulatory Potential of Antioxidants Against Oxidative Stress in Autoimmune Disease

Free radicals and related compounds are commonly classified together as reactive oxygen species (ROS) to show their role in changing oxidative status within the cell. Cells commonly have different mechanisms to protect the body against damages created by free radicals. Problems are seen when synthesis of ROS is faster than their removal by the antioxidant protection mechanisms, or when the latter is impaired. This imbalance between cellular synthesis of ROS and the inability of cells to protect against them is known as oxidative stress (OS). OS can make cellular damage and then cell death due to the ROS oxidize cardinal cellular parts, such as lipids, proteins, and DNA. Antioxidants are exogenous (natural or synthetic) or endogenous factors play their role in several pathways including diminish of O2, scavenging ROS or their precursors, suppressing their production and binding metal ions required for catalysis of ROS production. The natural antioxidant mechanism can be classified into two major types: enzymatic. The LMWA group of molecules can be more classified into directly-acting antioxidants and indirectly acting antioxidants. Therefore, in this study, we aimed to shed a light on the role of antioxidants in the management of autoimmune diseases.
Lattices of classes of groupoids with one-sided quasigroup conditions

It is shown that two classes of groupoids satisfying certain one-sided quasigroup conditions, namely the classes of one-sided torsion groupoids and of one-sided ﬁnite exponent groupoids, are complete lattices, both isomorphic to the lattice of Steinitz numbers with the divisibility relation.
Mucosal Sites in Simian Immunodeficiency Blockade Augments Viral Replication at Immune Activation Driven by CTLA-4

The importance of chronic immune activation in progression to AIDS has been inferred by correlative studies in HIV-infected individuals and in nonhuman primate models of SIV infection. Using the SIV mac251 macaque model, we directly address the impact of immune activation by inhibiting CTLA-4, an immunoregulatory molecule expressed on activated T cells and a subset of regulatory T cells. We found that CTLA-4 blockade signiﬁcantly increased T cell activation and viral replication in primary SIV mac251 infection, particularly at mucosal sites, and increased IDO expression and activity. Accordingly, protracted treatment with anti-CTLA-4 Ab of macaques chronically infected with SIV mac251 decreased responsiveness to antiretroviral therapy and abrogated the ability of therapeutic T cell vaccines to decrease viral set point. These data provide the ﬁrst direct evidence that immune activation drives viral replication, and suggest caution in the use of therapeutic approaches for HIV infection in vivo that increase CD4 (cid:1) T cell proliferation. The Journal of Immunology, 2008, 180: 5439–5447. he pathogenesis of AIDS is not fully understood. One suggestion is that the ability of HIV to directly kill CD4 (cid:1) T cells is central in the progressive demise of the immune system (1–7). An alternative proposal is that indirect effects linked to the host immune response, including production of proinﬂam-matory cytokines and chemokines and increased CD4 (cid:1) T cell activation and turnover, are pivotal to
Profit shifting: a simPle

The taxation of multinational corporations (MNCs) is an arcane topic that has traditionally been of interest only to a small coterie of specialists. Recently, however, it has attracted an unprecedented level of political attention and public interest. The leaders of the G-20 group of nations issued a communiqué following their meeting in Los Cabos, Mexico in June 2012, stating that: “We reiterate the need to prevent base erosion and profit shifting and we will follow with attention the ongoing work of the OECD [Organization for Economic Cooperation and Development] in this area. ”3 This “ongoing work” – the OECD’s initiative on “base erosion and profit shifting” (BEPS) – has led to a major report issued in February 2013 (OECD 2013a) and to an action plan produced in July 2013 (OECD 2013b). The latter consists of fifteen specific action items that are intended to facilitate multilateral cooperation among governments with regard to the taxation of MNCs, with the general objective of seeking to “better align rights to tax with economic activity” (OECD 2013b, 11). In September 2014, the OECD released a set of recommendations to address seven of these action items (OECD 2014).
Measuring the dramaturgical quality of the entertainment event experience in shopping centres

Shopping centre entertainment events, such as school holiday events, catwalk shows, and market days, are an experiential marketing strategy widely deployed by shopping centres on a seasonal and strategic basis to create an entertaining and lively atmosphere within their retail spaces (Sit, Merrilees, & Birch, 2003; Tsai, 2010). Those events allow shopping centre managers to provide their customers with another reason to visit the centre, to visit more often, to stay longer and, ultimately, to spend more at their retail spaces (Andreu, Bigne, Chumpitaz, & Swaen, 2006). The effectiveness of these entertainment events in evoking shoppers’ patronage behaviours can be measured by the various dramaturgical elements (e.g. the actors, audience, setting and performance) constituting the entertainment event experience, which are captured within the service drama framework (Grove & Fisk, 1992). Such knowledge facilitates the consideration of how those dramaturgical elements can be strategically used to design and deliver a desired entertainment event experience (cf. Minor, Wagner, Brewerton, & Hausman, 2004).
Running Sustainable Consumption Powering Sustainable Consumption: The Roles of Green Consumption Values and Power Distance Belief

As human consumption is one of the key contributors to environmental problems, it is increasingly urgent to promote sustainable consumption. Drawing on the agentic-communal model of power, this research explores how the psychological feeling of power influences consumers’ preference for green products. We show that low power increases consumers’ preference for green (vs. conventional) products compared to high power (Studies 1a and 1b). Importantly, we identify two factors moderating the main effect of power on green consumption. Specifically, we find that the effect of power on green consumption is more salient among those with high green consumption values (Study 2). In addition, the effects of power are dynamic as a function of power distance belief (PDB), such that low power (vs. high power) promotes green consumption in the low-PDB context while high power (vs. low power) promotes green consumption in the high-PDB context (Study 3). Taken together, these findings provide novel insights into understanding green consumption from the perspectives of social power, green values, and PDB. Besides contributing to the literature, the findings have significant implications for marketers and policy-makers in promoting green campaigns, bridging the attitude-behavior gap, and building a more sustainable society.
Air-stable memory array of bistable rectifying diodes based on ferroelectric-semiconductor polymer blends

Organic bistable diodes based on phase-separated blends of ferroelectric and semiconducting polymers have emerged as promising candidates for non-volatile information storage for low-cost solution processable electronics. One of the bottlenecks impeding upscaling is stability and reliable operation of the array in air. Here, we present a memory array fabricated with an air-stable amine-based semiconducting polymer. Memory diode fabrication and full electrical characterizations were carried out in atmospheric conditions (23 °C and 45% relative humidity). The memory diodes showed on/off ratios greater than 100 and further exhibited robust and stable performance upon continuous write-read-erase-read cycles. Moreover, we demonstrate a 4-bit memory array that is free from cross-talk with a shelf-life of several months. Demonstration of the stability and reliable air operation further strengthens the feasibility of the resistance switching in ferroelectric memory diodes for low-cost applications.
Comment Listeriolysin O: a genuine cytolysin optimized for an intracellular

France Cholesterol-dependent cytolysins (CDCs)* are produced by a large number of pathogenic gram–positive bacteria. A member of this family, listeriolysin O (LLO), is produced by the intracellular pathogen Listeria monocytogenes . A unique feature of LLO is its low optimal pH activity ( (cid:2) 6) which permits escape of the bacterium from the phagosome into the host cell cytosol without damaging the plasma membrane of the infected cell. In a recent study (Glomski et al., 2002, this issue), Portnoy’s group has addressed the molecular mechanism underlying the pH sensitivity of LLO. Unexpectedly, a single amino acid substitution in LLO L461T results in a molecule more active at neutral pH and promoting premature permeabilization of the infected cells, leading to attenuated virulence. This finding highlights how subtle changes in proteins can be exploited by bacterial pathogens to establish and maintain the integrity of their speciﬁc
A ON DETECTION OF PREVALENCE OF LEPTOSPIROSIS AND THEIR COINFECTION IN ACUTE FEBRILE PATIENTS

: ABSTRACT BACK GROUND The prevalence of Dengue, Chikungunya, and Leptospirosis are increasingly reported in acutely febrile patients recently. Occurence of coinfection in these patients will increase the morbidity and mortality. Early diagnosis of coinfection has got prognostic significance in treating the patients effectively.AIM The study was undertaken to evaluate the prevalence of Dengue, Chikungunya, and Leptospira infection in acutely febrile patients and to evaluate their co-infection. Materials 165 adult in patients and outpatients of both sexes with history of 2-10 days fever and joint pain, with or without other signs and symptoms such as rashes, head ache, myalgia, joint swelling, oliguria, jaundice, petechial haemorrhage and conjunctival suffusion were included in the study. All samples were tested for Dengue, Chikungunya and Leptospira, by Dengue IgM capture ELISA, Chikungunya IgM capture ELISA and Macroscopic slide agglutination test respectively. Patients with primary or secondary immunodeficiency, fever with localizing symptoms suggestive of urinary tract infection, upper respiratory tract infection, central nervous system infections and autoimmune diseases were excluded from the study. Results Dengue IgM capture ELISA was positive in 45 cases (27.3), Chikungunya IgM capture ELISA was positive in 32 cases (19.4), Macroscopic slide agglutination test for Leptospirosis was positive in 60 cases (36.4) and 28 (16.9) cases were negative for all three tests. The commonest clinical presentation of Dengue and Chikungunya was maculopapular rashes (46.7) and (53.1) respectively and in leptospirosis was conjunctival suffusion (40). The commonest age group of Dengue and Chikungunya infection was 25-34 yrs (40 and 40.6 respectively) and Leptospirosis was 14-24yrs (31.7). These three infections were common in males. Commonest coinfection was dengue with chikungunya (9.6) followed by dengue with leptospirosis (2.4). Conclusion Coinfection of Dengue with Chikungunya and Dengue with leptospirosis was noted in our study. Therefore screening of cases with fever and arthralgia associated with rashes and conjunctival suffusion in patients with acute febrile illness will help to detect coinfection and to initiate appropriate treatment.
Neural responses to criticism and praise vary with and perceived emotional support

Schizotypy is a latent organisation of a cluster of personality styles, such as magical thinking, disorganisation and anhedonia, which are in the normal range of the psychosis continuum. Schizotypy relates to an increased likelihood of perceiving expressed emotion (EE). EE is characterised by criticism, rejection, and emotional over-involvement and less warmth from a close relative. Neuroimaging studies have found normal frontal lobe activation to EE-criticism in people with high schizotypy. Alternative electroencephalography measures of emotion processing are frontal theta power that responds to cognitive and affective processes and occipital alpha power that denotes less consciousness and emotional attention. This study aimed to determine the relation of these neural responses during criticism and praise to perceived emotional support. Participants (n=32) representing the full (low-to-high) range of positive schizotypy listened to and rated the self-relevance of EE-like criticism and praise and affectively neutral comments while undergoing electroencephalography. Participants completed self-report measures of schizotypy, depression and anxiety. A subset of those with a high positive schizotypy score (n=22) completed a measure of perceived EE - lack of emotional support. Higher perceived EE - lack of emotional support correlated with lower frontal theta power and lower occipital alpha power during criticism and praise in schizotypal participants. A reduction of frontal theta power that denotes less emotional arousal and lower occipital alpha power that denotes more alertness to emotional information may relate to less perceived emotional support in people with high schizotypy.
Affect MHC Class II Peptide Loading HLA-DMA Polymorphisms Differentially

During the adaptive immune response, MHCII proteins display antigenic peptides on the cell surface of APCs for CD4 + T cell surveillance. HLA-DM, a nonclassical MHCII protein, acts as a peptide exchange catalyst for MHCII, editing the peptide repertoire. Although they map to the same gene locus, MHCII proteins exhibit a high degree of polymorphism, whereas only low variability has been observed for HLA-DM. As HLA-DM activity directly favors immunodominant peptide presentation, polymorphisms in HLA-DM (DMA or DMB chain) might well be a contributing risk factor for autoimmunity and immune disorders. Our systematic comparison of DMA*0103/DMB*0101 (DMA-G155A and DMA-R184H) with DMA*0101/DMB*0101 in terms of catalyzed peptide exchange and dissociation, as well as direct interaction with several HLA-DR/peptide complexes, reveals an attenuated catalytic activity of DMA*0103/DMB*0101. The G155A substitution dominates the catalytic behavior of DMA*0103/DMB*0101 by decreas-ing peptide release velocity. Preloaded peptide–MHCII complexes exhibit ∼ 2-fold increase in half-life in the presence of DMA*0103/ DMB*0101 when compared with DMA*0101/DMB*0101. We show that this effect leads to a greater persistence of autoimmunity-related Ags in the presence of high-afﬁnity competitor peptide. Our study therefore reveals that HLA-DM polymorphic residues have a considerable impact on HLA-DM catalytic activity. The Journal of Immunology , 2015, 194: 000–000. canonical class
Nonasthmatic Eosinophilic Bronchitis and Asthma: Analysis of Biomarkers

Villalobos-Violan V1*, Betancor D1*, Mahíllo-Fernández I2, Sastre J1 1Allergology Service, Hospital Universitario Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Universidad Autónoma de Madrid and Instituto de Investigación Sanitaria (IIS) Fundación Jiménez Díaz, Madrid, Spain; CIBER de Enfermedades Respiratorias (CIBERES) 2Department of Biostatistics and Epidemiology, IIS-Fundación Jimenez Diaz UAM, Madrid, Spain *Contributed equally as first authors
Deep Visual Geo-localization Benchmark: Supplementary Material

Pitts30k [1] is a subset of Pitts250k [26], split in train, val and test set. It is collected from Google Street View imagery from the city of Pittsburgh cropping equirectangular panoramas into tiles, and applying a gnomonic projection to the tiles. Database and queries are collected two years apart, and there are no noticeable weather variations. Mapillary Street Level Sequence (MSLS) [28] spans multiple cities across six continents, covering a large variety of domains, cameras and seasons. As for Pitts30k, it is split in train, val and test set, although the test set’s ground truths are not currently released. We therefore report the validation recalls, following previous works [8]. Only Pitts30k and MSLS provide a train set with temporal variability, which is necessary for training a VG model [1]. Tokyo 24/7 [25] presents a relatively large database (from Google Street View) against a smaller number of queries, which are split into three equally sized sets: day, sunset and night. The latter are manually collected with phones. In some cases [1, 15, 31] Tokyo Time Machine (Tokyo TM) is used as a training set for Tokyo 24/7.
Effects of Carboxymethyl Cellulose, Cress Seed Gum, Whey Protein Concentrate and Whipping Time on the Physical, Textural and Rheological Properties of Camel Milk Whipped Cream

In this study, the effects of different amounts of carboxymethyl cellulose (CMC) (0 to 0.2%), cress seed gum (CSG) (0 to 0.2%), whey protein concentrate (WPC) (2 to 8%), and whipping time (WT) (2 to 8 min) on the physical and rheological properties of camel milk whipped cream were investigated. The results showed that with increasing the WT and WPC levels, overrun increased and samples with higher CMC had higher overrun than samples with higher CSG. The results also showed that the effect of different levels of WPC on the overrun of the samples was highly dependent on the whipping time and different concentrations of gums. With increasing the WPC and WT (in high WPC values), the foam stability of the samples increased and changing the ratio of CSG and CMC gums had no significant effect on the foam stability. The results of the back extrusion test showed that with increasing the WT and CSG, the hardness and adhesiveness of the samples increased. The results showed that with increasing the WPC and WT, the infinite and zero shear rate viscosities increased, while with increasing the WPC, the relaxation time of the samples decreased. The highest area of hysteresis was related to the samples containing the same amounts of CMC and CSG, but increasing the WPC reduced the area of hysteresis. To optimize the whipped cream formulation, the overrun, foam stability, hardness, consistency, and infinite shear rate viscosity were considered to be maximum, and adhesiveness and flow behavior index were adjusted to be minimum. According to the optimization results, the sample containing 0.15% CMC, 0.05% CSG, 2% WPC and produced with 7.2 min WT was the optimized formulation.
The sports drink as a functional food: formulations for successful performance

Functional foods are foods, or parts of foods, consumed as part of the daily diet that are designed and processed to provide health benefits for the consumer. There is a growing interest in functional foods for athletes, where the aim is not to improve health, but to improve performance in sport. An enormous number of different products are on offer, but in most cases the advertised benefits are not substantiated by a body of scientific evidence. The support for many products is based on circumstantial evidence or on reports of the effects of an active component, which is usually present in amounts far below those that have been shown to be effective in improving performance.
Governance and Performance: Does Bank Risk Matter?

Governance becomes a guideline for the banking management system and is essential for banking survival during regular economic crises. We investigate the impact of governance on performance in the Indonesians’ conventional and examine the mediating role of bank risk in bank governance and performance relationship. The samples are 18 conventional banks listed on Indonesia Stock Exchange (IDX) from 2014 to 2021 and analyzed using panel data regression and the Sobel test. We find that the risk of state-own banks is higher than private and foreign banks, which could lead to lower performance. Then the results indicate that board size and board age impacted bank risk and performance. Banks should consider the board size for efficiency and the maximum standard of their directors’ age based on arguments related to innovation-based work productivity in the competitive banking industry. Examining the differences in bank ownership and bank characteristics linked to bank risk needs the subsequent exploration of banking governance research. This result is strong evidence of mediation in this study.