Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The prevalence of transfusion transmitted infections: A focus on hepatitis B virus among blood donors at Hawassa blood bank center, Southern Ethiopia

Aims: Millions of lives are saved each year through blood transfusion but a safe blood supply is a critical component of health care to prevent the spread of blood-borne infectious diseases. Therefore, it is essential to assess the prevalence and identify the most common culprit and risk in transfusion services. Methods A cross-sectional study was conducted from April 2015 to May 2015 at the Hawassa blood bank center. Blood donors who donated blood for transfusion purposes were considered for the study. Whole blood was collected and serum was separated from each donor. The sera were used for examination of human immunodeficiency virus (HIV), hepatitis B virus (HBV), hepatitis C virus (HCV), and syphilis. Thick film was prepared and stained using Giemsa for malaria detection. Results: A total of 384 blood donors were screened during the study period. Among these donors, 67.2% (258) were males and 32.8% (126) were females. The overall prevalence of transfusion transmitted infections (TTI) was 28 out of 384 (7.29%) apparently healthy donors. The seroprevalence of HIV, HBV, HCV, syphilis Fisseha Bonja1, Mintewab Hussein1, Jemal Alemu1, Daniel Gemechu2, Misganaw Birhaneselassie2 Affiliations: 1Addis Ababa University, School of Laboratory Sciences, Addis Ababa, Ethiopia; 2Reach Ethiopia, Hawassa University, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Hawassa, Ethiopia. Corresponding Author: Misganaw -Birhaneselassie – Mengesha, Hawassa University, Department of Medical Laboratory Sciences, Hawassa, Ethiopia; Email: misganawbs@googlemail.com Received: 22 December 2016 Accepted: 28 February 2017 Published: 23 March 2017 and malaria was 6 (1.6%), 16 (4.2%), 2 (0.5%), 3 (0.8%) and 1 (0.3%) respectively. Two out of 384 (0.5%) had co-infections with HIV-HBV 1 (0.26%) and HBV-HCV 1 (0.26%). A 1:14 ratio (7.14%) of the blood collected was discarded only due to the presence of TTI. The highest discard rate was recorded from HBV infected units 57.1%, followed by HIV 21.40%, syphilis 10.7%, HCV 7.10%, and malaria 3.60%. Overall, TTIs were found in males (7.8%), married (2.5%), rural (8%), private/NGO employed donors (28.6%), 45–54 age group (20%), and in replacement/family donors (16.1%) (p = 0.039). Conclusion: The prevalence of TTIs in the Hawassa blood bank center was significantly high. HBV infection was the major cause for TTIs. Recommendations: Overall, effective clinical and laboratory screening of blood donors is essential. Proper treatment of TTI positive cases and a good donor selection program will help to reduce the prevalence of TTIs in donor units. Blood bank programs should give much more consideration in screening and diagnosis of HBV which is the main TTI that causes a high discard rate of blood.
SME growth speed: The relationship with board capital

ABSTRACT This study examines the effects of board capital on small and medium enterprise (SME) growth speed using a robust regression model, in a sample of the every firm listed on the MAB (alternative Spanish stock market). We adopted the resource-based view (RBV), the resource dependency perspective, and the Penrosean theory to argue that directors’ characteristics provide the resources required for SMEs to achieve a higher growth rate. Our research concludes that the board’s functional diversity positively affects SME growth, the extent of prior training among the directors of quoted SMEs is higher than expected, and there is no relationship between the previous experience of directors in CEO positions and SME growth.
Mountain-Associated Waves and their relation to Orographic Gravity Waves

Infrasound covers frequencies of around 10−3 Hz to approximately 20 Hz and can propagate in atmospheric waveguides over long distances as a result of low absorption, depending on the state of the atmosphere. Therefore, infrasound is utilized to detect atmospheric explosions. Following the opening of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty for signature in 1996, the International Monitoring System (IMS) was designed to detect explosions with a minimum yield of one kiloton of TNT equivalent worldwide. Currently 51 out of 60 IMS infrasound stations are recording pressure fluctuations of the order of 10−3 Pa to 10 Pa. In this study, this unique network is used to characterize infrasound signals of so-called Mountain-Associated Waves (MAWs) on a global scale. MAW frequencies range from 0.01 Hz to 0.1 Hz. Previous observations were constrained to regional networks in America and date back to the 1960s and 1970s. Since then, studies on MAWs have been rare, and the exact source generation mechanism has been poorly investigated. Here, up to 16 years of IMS infrasound data enable the determination of global and seasonal MAW source regions. A cross-bearing method is applied which combines the dominant back-azimuth directions of different stations. For better understanding the MAW generation conditions, the MAW occurrence is compared to tropospheric winds at the determined hotspots. Furthermore, ray-tracing simulations reflect middle atmosphere dynamics for describing monthly propagation characteristics. Both the geographic source regions and the meteorological conditions agree with those of orographic gravity waves (OGWs). A comparison with GW hotspots, derived from satellite data, suggests that MAW source regions match those of OGWs. Discrepancies in the respective source regions result from a stratospheric wind minimum that prevents an upward propagation of OGWs at some hotspots of MAWs. The process of breaking GWs is discussed in terms of the MAW generation.
Velocity Analysis of BP Decoding Waves for SC-LDPC Ensembles on BMS Channels: An Interpolation-Based Approach

This paper is concerned with the dynamics of spatially-coupled low-density parity-check (SC-LDPC) ensembles for transmission on general binary memoryless symmetric (BMS) channels under belief-propagation (BP) decoding. The decoding waves of such ensembles are found to exhibit solitonic behavior, propagating along the Tanner graphs at asymptotically constant velocities. A low-complexity approach termed interpolated density evolution (IDE) is proposed to predict the decoding wave velocities. In this approach, the densities of a decoding wave are approximated by interpolating between some fixed points of an uncoupled DE recursion with one-dimensional functions. Two transfer functions for updating these interpolation functions in the IDE recursion are established and a simple strategy is introduced to deal with the coexistence of multiple transition regions. In addition, a threshold analysis is developed based on two ansatzes, explaining why our approach can achieve a good trade-off between computational cost and accuracy, as illustrated with some numerical examples at the end of this paper.
Plants in Space

We study the number, size, and location of a firm's plants. The firm's decision balances the benefit of delivering goods and services to customers using multiple plants with the cost of setting up and managing these plants, and the potential for cannibalization that arises as their number increases. Modeling the decisions of heterogeneous firms in an economy with a vast number of widely distinct locations is complex because it involves a large combinatorial problem. Using insights from discrete geometry, we study a tractable limit case of this problem in which these forces operate at a local level. Our analysis delivers clear predictions on sorting across space. Productive firms place more plants in dense locations that exhibit high rents compared with less productive firms, and place fewer plants in markets with low density and low rents. Controlling for the number of plants, productive firms also operate larger plants than those operated by less productive firms in locations where both are present. We present evidence consistent with these and several other predictions using U.S. establishment-level panel data.
Distributed Primal-Dual Optimization for Online Multi-Task Learning

Conventional online multi-task learning algorithms suffer from two critical limitations: 1) Heavy communication caused by delivering high velocity of sequential data to a central machine; 2) Expensive runtime complexity for building task relatedness. To address these issues, in this paper we consider a setting where multiple tasks are geographically located in different places, where one task can synchronize data with others to leverage knowledge of related tasks. Specifically, we propose an adaptive primal-dual algorithm, which not only captures task-specific noise in adversarial learning but also carries out a projection-free update with runtime efficiency. Moreover, our model is well-suited to decentralized periodic-connected tasks as it allows the energy-starved or bandwidth-constraint tasks to postpone the update. Theoretical results demonstrate the convergence guarantee of our distributed algorithm with an optimal regret. Empirical results confirm that the proposed model is highly effective on various real-world datasets.
Image-Based 3D Reconstruction of Dynamic Objects Using Instance-Aware Multibody Structure from Motion

This work proposes a Multibody Structure from Motion (MSfM) algorithm for moving object reconstruction that incorporates instance-aware semantic segmentation and multiple view geometry methods. The MSfM pipeline tracks two-dimensional object shapes on pixel level to determine object specific feature correspondences, in order to reconstruct 3D object shapes as well as 3D object motion trajectories. Umfang: XVI, 163 S. Preis: €43.00 | £40.00 | $76.00
Reviewing the Existing Evidence of the Conditional Cash Transfer in India through the Partial Identification Approach

This paper re-estimates the causal impacts of a conditional cash transfer programme in India, the Janani Suraksha Yojana (JSY), on maternal and child healthcare use. The main goal is to provide new evidence and assess the validity of the identification assumptions employed in previous studies on the JSY, through the conservative partial identification approach. We find that the average treatment effects estimated under the conditional independence assumption lie outside the bound of the treatment effect estimated under weaker but more credible assumptions, thereby suggesting that the selection bias could not have been fully controlled for by the observable characteristics and that the average treatment effects estimated in the previous studies may have been over or under estimated.
Analysis of Surface Cross-Sectional Data Taken During the 90° Yaw Experiment of the TRMM Precipitation Radar

During the descent of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite at the end of its mission, three types of special experiments were conducted; wide swath, 90° yaw (90Y: along-track scanning), and dense sampling. In this article, the results from the analysis of 90° yaw experimental data are shown in terms of a normalized radar cross section (NRCS) of the surface. The advantage of the 90Y experiment is that obtaining the incident angle dependency of the NRCS enables deduction of the conditions at the surface, especially over the ocean. The slope and intercept are calculated from the NRCS–incident angle plot except for angles near nadir. The slope correlates well with the sea-surface wind speed and therefore the rain attenuation can be estimated from the intercept and compared with the attenuation estimated from the radar reflectivity factor of the rain profile. The effect of the rain drops striking the sea surface is also examined by comparing the wind speed–slope relationship.
An Oncogenic Enhancer Encodes Selective Selenium Dependency in AML

Deregulation of transcription is a hallmark of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) that drives oncogenic expression programs and presents opportunities for therapeutic targeting. We hypothesized that by integrating the active enhancer chromatin landscapes with pan-cancer enhancer and genetic dependency mapping, we would be able to identify targetable tumor-specific oncogenic enhancer regulation and gain mechanistic insights into the underlying basis of the regulation. Using this approach, we find that tumor-specific super enhancers statistically demarcate tumor-specific dependency (Fig. A). In addition to several well-known AML oncogenes (e.g. MYB, CDK6, FLI1…), we find SEPHS2 to have highly AML-specific enhancer regulation and genetic dependency (Fig. B). SEPHS2 is a key component of the selenoprotein production pathway and is required for the selenocysteine incorporation during protein translation (Fig. C). Across AML cell lines and primary patient samples, we observe a large AML-specific super enhancer at the SEPHS2 locus (Fig. D) that correlates with SEPHS2 genetic dependency (Fig. E) and includes a prominent binding site for AML transcription factors (Fig. D). We confirmed that the oncogenic transcription factor MYB strongly regulates SEPHS2 expression and that SEPHS2 expression correlates with poor prognosis in AML (not shown in this figure). Selenoproteins play an important role in mediating oxidative stress. We find that SEPHS2 knockout increases oxidative stress and that antioxidant treatment rescues viability effects of SEPHS2 knockout (Fig. F, G). Across murine and human in vivo AML models, genetic perturbation of selenoprotein production pathway genes strongly delays leukemogenesis (one example in Fig. H). Other cell lines (both cancerous and non-cancerous) are minimally affected by SEPHS2 knockout, confirming specificity in AML (Fig. E). As a druggable enzyme SEPHS2 merits strong consideration as a therapeutic target. In the interim, we hypothesized that selenium dietary restriction (Fig. I) may be able to phenocopy selenoprotein pathway inhibition with a lower regulatory burden. We show that mice tolerate selenium-depleted chow with no observable effects on body weight or hematopoiesis (one example in Fig. J). Confirming our hypothesis, AML transplanted into these mice exhibit a strong delay in leukemogenesis (Fig. K). Throughout the cancer biology field, there is broad interest in understanding how best to leverage pan-cancer genetic dependency data. We find that the integration of enhancer data adds another layer of specificity and helps provide mechanistic insight into the underlying basis of oncogenic deregulation and dependency. Our identification of AML-specific enhancer regulation of selenoprotein production - which has been minimally studied in this disease - validates our unbiased approach and points to selenoprotein production as a deregulated and therapeutically-actionable metabolic axis in AML. Figure Lin: Syros Pharmaceuticals: Equity Ownership, Patents & Royalties.
Appraisal of the Impact of Earnings Management on Financial Performance of Consumer Goods Firms in Nigeria

There are two different tools of earnings management; real activities and accruals. Prior research shows that the discussion on earnings management was primarily focused on accrual manipulation strategies while recently many articles have focused on real activity manipulation as a proxy for earnings management. In accrual manipulation, managers introduce their judgment and subjectivity by accounting choices in the financial reports, and hence it could distort a company’s underlying operating performance. The main objective of this study was to determine the impact of Earnings Management on financial performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study adopted the ex-post facto research design and used simple regression analysis for analysing the pooled secondary data obtained from three selected consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The dependent variable in this study is financial performance proxy by Total Assets, Equity and Total liability of the firms while Earnings Management is the independent variable (proxy by Net profit or Profit for the Year). The findings show that Earnings Management does not have significant impact on financial performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria. The study recommended that there should be conscious effort by management of consumer goods firms to improve the earnings management situation in order to impact on financial performance of the sector; Management of consumer goods firms should emphasize the equity of firms as a means of widening ownership fund position and internal source of capital; There must be re-assessment of the liabilities of such firms for proper positioning of financial performance of consumer goods firms in Nigeria.
Phylogeographical patterns and a cryptic species provide new insights into Western Indian Ocean giant clams phylogenetic relationships and colonization history

The unique biodiversity in the Red Sea is the result of complex ecological and evolutionary processes driven by Pleistocene climatic change. Here we investigate the species diversity, phylogenetic relationships and phylogeographical patterns of giant clams in the Western Indian Ocean (WIO) and the Red Sea to explore scenarios of marine speciation in this under‐studied region.
Evaluation study of treatment outcome in Tuberculosis patients receiving DOTS under RNTCP

Background : Tuberculosis is a global emergency and its control in community wholly depends on outcome of treatment taken by patient. India has 2 nd position in total number of cases in World. Objective: To evaluate the factors which affect treatment outcome? Material & Methods: The study was a follow up study, for treatment outcome of tuberculosis patients receiving DOTS under RNTCP. Data were collected into SPSS version 16 and analyzed using appropriate statistical tests. Results: 241 patients were included in the study. Overall treatment success rate was 87.1%, default rate was 4.6%, failure rate was 2.1% and death rate was 6.2 %. Treatment success rate was 91.2% in category I and 70.2% in category II. Failure rate was 0.5% and 8.5%, default rate was 3.6% and 8.5%, death rate was 4.6% and 12 % for category I and category II respectively. In univariate analysis, variable education, occupation, socio-economic status, overcrowding, habit of tobacco consumption, presence of pre–existing illness and category of tuberculosis significantly affect the treatment outcome but on multiple logistic regression analysis education, occupation, habit of tobacco consumption and category of TB had significant effect on treatment outcome. Conclusion: Treatment success was 87.1% in present study conclude that DOTs is an effective form of tuberculosis treatment. Education, occupation, socio economic status and overcrowding have significant effect on treatment outcome.
Influence of Rhizobium inoculation on dry bean yield and symbiotic nitrogen fixation potential

Abstract Inoculation of dry bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) might have potential to increase symbiotic nitrogen fixation (SNF) and to reduce dependency on chemical fertilizers. Peat based inoculant can cause clogging of air seeder and therefore, the potential of liquid inoculant was compared to peat based- and without inoculant during 2016 and 2017 growing seasons in the Red River Valley of ND and MN. Seed yield and SNF, using 15N isotope enrichment, response to inoculation were studied for four pinto and four kidney bean cultivars. Inoculation did not increase seed yield; moreover, both liquid and peat inoculation reduced kidney cultivars’ seed yield by 47% and 62% over control (without inoculation) treatment, respectively in 2016. In 2017, percent N derived from the atmosphere (%Ndfa) was significantly reduced by peat inoculation (61.2%) over control (76.7%). On average, pinto cultivars fixed 90.5 and 73.7 kg N ha−1 and kidney cultivars fixed 73.8 and 65.1 kg N ha−1, respectively in 2016 and 2017. The interaction between inoculation and cultivar influenced the quantity of SNF, specifically for kidney cultivars in 2017. Rather than inoculation, selection of cultivars had a more pronounced effect on seed yield and SNF.
The decentered translation of management ideas: Attending to the conditioning flow of everyday work practices

Based on a study of Lean management practices at the Swedish Migration Board, we develop a novel theoretical understanding of the translation of management ideas. We show how translation, rather than being reduced to a network of human intentions and actions governing the transformation of organizational practices, can instead be understood as a historically contingent, situated flow of mundane everyday work practices through which social and material translators simultaneously become translated, conditioned to be and act in certain ways. We show how prior actor-centric accounts of translation of management ideas can be understood as performative consequences of a conceptual vocabulary inherited from Callon and Latour. Contrasting this, the non-actor-centric vocabulary of social anthropologist Tim Ingold allows us to background the intentional human actor and foreground the flow of mundane, situated practices. In adopting this vocabulary, we capture how the flow of practices conditions subjects and objects to become enacted as well as act, and develop an understanding of translation as occurring within, rather than distinct from, these practices. In essence, our novel view of translation emphasizes how management ideas are radically unstable, and subject to alteration through the flow of practices rather than as a result of deliberate implementation efforts.
ASSOCIATION OF TUBERCULOSIS WITH SEVERE ACUTE MALNUTRITION

BACKGROUND: India houses highest number of malnourished children next to African countries. Malnutrition is lethal in combination with Tuberculosis. Efficacy of BCG vaccination, a part of Universal Immunization Programme in preventing TB infection and utility of TST in detection of TB infection in malnourished children needs to be studied. OBJECTIVE: 1. To obtain the morbidity pattern of tuberculosis. 2. To study the role of BCG vaccination and reliability of TST in under five children with severe acute malnutrition. MATERIAL AND METHODS: DESIGN: A prospective study. SETTING: Severe malnutrition unit in a tertiary level referral hospital in central India. PARTICIPANTS: Under five children with severe acute malnutrition in SMTU. OUTCOME MEASURES: 1. Presence of tuberculosis in SAM children. 2. Morbidity pattern of tuberculosis in SAM children. 3. Presence of BCG scar in diseased children. 4. Reactivity status of TST in diseased children. RESULTS: Tuberculosis was diagnosed in 22% of severe acute malnutrition cases. Seventy eight percent (78.50%) of the pulmonary tuberculosis cases were younger than 1 year. In children of 13-26 months of age, 50% of cases were pulmonary tuberculosis while neuro-tuberculosis and disseminated tuberculosis contributed 25% each. BCG scar was present in 86.6% of malnourished children with pulmonary tuberculosis while only 28.4% of extra pulmonary seriously ill cases had BCG scar. Positive tuberculin reaction was seen in only 8.0% children, 50% of them had 10-15mm induration. CONCLUSION: Tuberculosis is one of the treatable causes of malnutrition and there is high prevalence of tuberculosis infection among SAM children. Identifying adult cases and giving proper treatment as well as screening their malnourished children will help in early identification and preventing spread of pulmonary TB among children.
DIETARY INTAKE OF MACRO AND MICRO NUTRIENTS BY ELDERLY WOMEN RESIDING IN AN URBAN SLUM OF DELHI

The present study was undertaken to assess the dietary intake of macro and micro nutrient intake among elderly women aged 60-70 years residing in slums of North West Delhi.A total of 49 elderly women were enrolled in the study. Dietary information was collected using 24 hour dietary recall method and food frequency questionnaire. Mean intake of nutrients was calculated using Dietsoft software and was compared with the Recommended Dietary Allowance of Indian Council of Medical Research. Dietary data was analysed using central 90% values. Nutrient intake of elderly women residing in urban slums indicated gross inadequacy in folate, vitamin B 12 , vitamin B6, vitamin A, riboflavin, carotenes and minerals like zinc, magnesium and iron.