Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
PEPFAR Funding and Reduction in HIV Infection Rates in 12 Focus Sub-Saharan African Countries: A Quantitative Analysis

Background: HIV and AIDS continue to have a calamitous effect on individuals living on the continent of Africa. U.S. President George W. Bush implemented the President’s Emergency Plan for AIDS Relief (PEPFAR) with the objective of committing approximately $15 billion from 2004 through 2008 to assist with the reduction of the HIV pandemic worldwide. The majority of the PEPFAR policy and funding focused on 12 countries in sub-Saharan Africa: Botswana, Cote d’Ivoire, Ethiopia, Kenya, Mozambique, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, South Africa, Tanzania, Uganda, and Zambia. The policy question this research paper seeks to analyze is whether the PEPFAR funding (as a % of Gross Domestic Product (GDP)) allocated to the 12 countries in Africa had any effect on the decrease of HIV infection rates of males and females between the ages of 15 and 49. Methods: A fixed-effects panel regression analysis was conducted to determine if this association exists. This study examined the 12 African countries that received PEPFAR funding over the years 2002 to 2010; even though PEPFAR was only active from 2004 through 2008, this research included two years prior and two years after this timeframe in order to better estimate the effect of PEPFAR funding on HIV reduction. Results: The results illustrate that on average, ceteris paribus, for every 1 percentage point increase in PEPFAR funding per GDP a country received, the country’s HIV infection rate decreased by 0.355 percentage points. Conclusions and Global Health Implications: While the empirical findings in this study suggested that the correlation between PEPFAR funding and HIV reduction is statistically significant, the practical significance is perhaps less obvious. Arguably, the reduction rate should be higher given the extent of funding targeted to this project. The conclusion of this research provides suggestions on future research and the policy implications of PEPFAR.
A Veblenian-inspired critique of the “quasi-markets” concept

“Quasi‐markets” is the term predominantly employed as a means of conceptualising and describing the market‐oriented reforms primarily, but not exclusively, to the welfare state in the UK. This paper argues that the term, as popularly defined, cannot sustain a suitable analytical frame in the examination of an evolutionary process. In so doing, the paper draws heavily on Thorstein Veblen’s distinction between evolutionary and teleological approaches. The quasi‐markets concept, grounded in Oliver Williamson’s transaction cost economics, is predicated on the existence of “conventional markets”, defined as perfect competition. It is claimed that this renders the term devoid of analytical usefulness. Moreover, by presenting a narrow conception of exchange the quasi‐market terminology tacitly conveys an insipid pro‐market stance.
Interrupted Work Careers: Depreciation and Restoration of Human Capital.

The quantitative effects and even the existence of a "human capital depreciation" phenomenon have been a subject of controversy in the recent literature. Prior work, however, was largely cross-sectional and the longitudinal dimension, if any, was retrospective. Using longitudinal panel data (on married women in NLS) we have now established that real wages at reentry are, indeed, lower than at the point of labor force withdrawal, and the decline in wages is greater, the longer the interruption. Another striking finding is a relatively rapid growth in wages after the return to work. This rapid growth appears to reflect the restoration (or "repair") of previously eroded human capital. The phenomenon of "depreciation" and "restoration" is also visible in data for immigrants to the United States. However, while immigrants eventually catch up with and often surpass natives, returnees from the non-market do not fully restore their earnings potential.
A Multi-task Learning Approach for Improving Product Title Compression with User Search Log Data

It is a challenging and practical research problem to obtain effective compression of lengthy product titles for E-commerce. This is particularly important as more and more users browse mobile E-commerce apps and more merchants make the original product titles redundant and lengthy for Search Engine Optimization. Traditional text summarization approaches often require a large amount of preprocessing costs and do not capture the important issue of conversion rate in E-commerce. This paper proposes a novel multi-task learning approach for improving product title compression with user search log data. In particular, a pointer network-based sequence-to-sequence approach is utilized for title compression with an attentive mechanism as an extractive method and an attentive encoder-decoder approach is utilized for generating user search queries. The encoding parameters (i.e., semantic embedding of original titles) are shared among the two tasks and the attention distributions are jointly optimized. An extensive set of experiments with both human annotated data and online deployment demonstrate the advantage of the proposed research for both compression qualities and online business values.
Sequential R&D Strategy for Synfuels

The basic point of this article is that a "crash program" mentality leads to inappropriate questions and wrong answers about policy issues in large-scale government subsidized research, like the development of synfuels. R&D funding should be viewed as a sequential decision, not a once-and-for-all choice. Using some new results in the theory of information gathering, we apply an operational sequential methodology to analyze whether the U.S. government should subsidize the development of liquid synthetic fuels from coal.
Adaptive optics for ultrashort pulse manipulation

Shaping of femtosecond light pulses is typically performed in the frequency domain, by manipulation of the pulse spectral intensity and phase. One tool for phase control uses a deformable mirror in the Fourier plane of a 4-f stretcher. In this work we show the ability of adaptive optics to shape femtosecond pulses. By including the shaper and the characterization block in a closed loop, it is possible to correct spectral phase distortions accumulated in an optical chain in few automatic iterations.
On the Organization of Rural Markets and the Process of Economic Development

The authors consider how the organization of rural markets will affect capital accumul ation and long-run aggregate income in the development process. They show that in a simple, dual economy, overlapping-generations model, c apital accumulation and aggregate income will be lowest when both fac tor markets in the agricultural sector are fully competitive. Both ca pital and aggregate income will be higher when land is not traded but the labor market is competitive, and highest in the absence of compe titive markets in both factors in the agricultural sector, when incom e distribution favors rural workers over landlords. Copyright 1988 by American Economic Association.
Gaze detection based on head pose estimation in smart TV

In this paper, we propose a new gaze detection method based on head pose estimation in smart TV. First, the face, eyes and center of both nostrils positions are detected by using Adaboost method. After that, the proposed method uses the template matching method to find the position of the user's shoulder as well as the left and right boundaries of the face. Based on the positions of the detected shoulder and face's boundary, the horizontal and vertical head poses are estimated. Experimental results show that our method shows a good performance in user's gaze detection.
Motor Deficit Severity Mediates Effects of Intellectual Function in Predicting Speech Motor Control in Children with Cerebral Palsy

Objective: To elucidate whether motor deficit severity mediates effects of intellectual function in predicting motor speech functions in children with cerebral palsy (CP). Method: Twenty-five children with spastic CP aged 5-8 were classified into two groups, levels I-II (n=13) and levels III-IV(n=12) based on Gross Motor Function Classification System (GMFCS) levels. Predictor was the intelligence quotient (IQ). Speech outcome measures were Percentage of Consonants Correct (PCC) and Verbal Motor Production Assessment for Children (VMPAC). Pearson correlation analysis was used to investigate relationships between IQ and speech outcomes. A mediation analysis (a three-variable path model) was used to explain how GMFCS levels (the mediator) affect IQ to predict speech outcome. Results: Children with GMFCS levels I-II had greater scores in all IQ and all VMPAC sub scores, and PCC than those with GMFCS levels III-IV (p<0.05). Pearson correlation analysis showed that full IQ (FIQ) was correlated with all VMPAC scores (r=0.42-0.62, p<0.05), but not with PCC scores. The path model assumes path a from the predictor variable (FIQ) to the mediator (GMFCS levels), path b from the impact of the mediator (GMFCS levels) on the outcome variable (VMPAC), and two causal paths to the outcome variable (paths c and c'). Mediation analysis revealed that GMFCS level completely mediated the effect of FIQ when predicting global motor control (a=-0.027 ± 0.01, p=0.01; b=-17.910 ± 3.620, p<0.001; c=0.537 ± 0.235, p=0.032; c'=0.058 ± 0.192, p=0.766), focal motor control (a=-0.027 ± 0.01, p=0.01; b=-9.287 ± 2.441, p=0.001; c=0.315 ± 0.140, p=0.035; c'=0.067 ± 0.129, p=0.611), and average VMPAC (a=-0.027 ± 0.01, p=0.01; b=-10.976 ± 2.521, p<0.001; c=0.455 ± 0.154, p=0.007; c'=0.161 ± 0.133, p=0.241). GMFCS level partially mediated the effect of FIQ when predicting the VMPAC sequence (a=-0.027 ± 0.01, p=0.01; b=-5.732 ± 2.767, p=0.050; c=0.512 ± 0.135, p=0.001; c'=0.359 ± 0.146, p=0.023). Conclusion: Motor deficit severity mediates effect of intellectual functions on speech motor control. The findings allow clinicians to identify early motor speech problems in children with CP using the GMFCS level alone.
Hippo signaling is required for Notch-dependent smooth muscle differentiation of neural crest

Notch signaling has well-defined roles in the assembly of arterial walls and in the development of the endothelium and smooth muscle of the vasculature. Hippo signaling regulates cellular growth in many tissues, and contributes to regulation of organ size, in addition to other functions. Here, we show that the Notch and Hippo pathways converge to regulate smooth muscle differentiation of the neural crest, which is crucial for normal development of the aortic arch arteries and cranial vasculature during embryonic development. Neural crest-specific deletion of the Hippo effectors Yap and Taz produces neural crest precursors that migrate normally, but fail to produce vascular smooth muscle, and Notch target genes such as Jagged1 fail to activate normally. We show that Yap is normally recruited to a tissue-specific Jagged1 enhancer by directly interacting with the Notch intracellular domain (NICD). The Yap-NICD complex is recruited to chromatin by the DNA-binding protein Rbp-J in a Tead-independent fashion. Thus, Hippo signaling can modulate Notch signaling outputs, and components of the Hippo and Notch pathways physically interact. Convergence of Hippo and Notch pathways by the mechanisms described here might be relevant for the function of these signaling cascades in many tissues and in diseases such as cancer. Highlighted article: Direct interaction between the Hippo effector Yap and the Notch intracellular domain regulates Notch target gene expression during vascular smooth muscle differentiation from neural crest.
Dual specificity of activin type II receptor ActRIIb in dorso‐ventral patterning during zebrafish embryogenesis

Members of the transforming growth factor‐β (TGF‐β) superfamily are thought to regulate specification of a variety of tissue types in early embryogenesis. These effects are mediated through a cell surface receptor complex, consisting of two classes of ser/thr kinase receptor, type I and type II. In the present study, cDNA encoding zebrafish activin type II receptors, ActRIIa and ActRIIb was cloned and characterized. Overexpression of ActRIIb in zebrafish embryos caused dorsalization of embryos, as observed in activin‐overexpressing embryos. However, in blastula stage embryos, ActRIIb induced formation of both dorsal and ventro‐lateral mesoderm. It has been suggested that these inducing signals from ActRIIb are mediated through each specific type I receptor, TARAM‐A and BMPRIA, depending on activin and bone morphogenetic protein (BMP), respectively. In addition, it was shown that a kinase‐deleted form of ActRIIb (dnActRIIb) suppressed both activin‐ and BMP‐like signaling pathways. These results suggest that ActRIIb at least has dual roles in both activin and BMP signaling pathways during zebrafish embryogenesis.
Crime and unemployment in turbulent times

We use the exceptional variation in municipality-level unemployment in Sweden during the 1990s to identify the effect of unemployment on crime. Our findings are as follows: (i) There is a statistically and economically significant effect of general unemployment on the incidence of burglary, auto theft, and drug possession; (ii) we find no evidence for the popular view that youth unemployment matters for crime; (iii) prime-aged unemployment is robustly correlated with main categories of youthful crimes, a finding consistent with the idea that unstable life conditions of parents have adverse spillover effects on the life-choices of their children. (JEL: J00, K4) (c) 2007 by the European Economic Association.
Proportional Production Trade-Offs in DEA

The "trade-offs Data envelopment analysis (DEA)" model is built by adding an extra axiom to the traditional production possibility set. The axiom introduces some replacement relations as production rules between inputs and outputs and leads to some extensions to the production possibility set. It provides more discriminatory power of decision-making units (DMUs) in DEA models, and the results are more adaptable to real conditions. In this paper, these variations are defined in proportional forms, which make the variation proportionate to DMUs' sizes. So we call them proportional trade-offs, and they offer some advantages in comparison with simple trade-off vectors, which depend on input or output units of measurements. First of all, the proportional trade-offs vectors can fairly consider the DMUs' abilities and their strengths in adapting to the proposed changes. Secondly, it will be seen that proportional trade-off vectors can be used as a generalization of usual returns to scales (RTS), and finally the proportional trade-offs models cover the basic DEA models and their related production possibility set (PPSs) as special cases.
Predicting Benefit From Revascularization in Patients With Ischemic Heart Failure: Imaging of Myocardial Ischemia and Viability

Case History: A 62-year-old male with a history of hypertension and coronary artery disease with prior stenting to the left circumflex artery presented with chest pain. Echocardiography on admission demonstrated a globally reduced ejection fraction of 10% to 15% with regional wall-motion abnormality consistent with prior anterior and inferolateral infarction. End-diastolic volume of the left ventricle (LV) was 210 mL. Coronary angiography showed evidence of multivessel disease, with 100% occlusion of the left anterior descending coronary artery, 70% in-stent restenosis of the left circumflex artery, and 90% stenosis of the posterior descending artery. To evaluate for the presence of ischemia, the patient underwent a rest-stress myocardial perfusion imaging study, which showed a large area of moderate ischemia throughout the mid left anterior descending coronary artery territory. In addition, there was a small area of scar in the proximal left circumflex artery territory (Figure 1). Clinical discussion ensued as to whether this patient would benefit from bypass surgery or percutaneous revascularization.
Dynamical systems techniques in the analysis of neural systems

As we strive to understand the mechanisms underlying neural computation, mathematical models are increasingly being used as a counterpart to biological experimentation. Alongside building such models, there is a need for mathematical techniques to be developed to examine the often complex behaviour that can arise from even the simplest models. There are now a plethora of mathematical models to describe activity at the single neuron level, ranging from one-dimensional, phenomenological ones, to complex biophysical models with large numbers of state variables. Network models present even more of a challenge, as rich patterns of behaviour can arise due to the coupling alone. We first analyse a planar integrate-and-fire model in a piecewise-linear regime. We advocate using piecewise-linear models as caricatures of nonlinear models, owing to the fact that explicit solutions can be found in the former. Through the use of explicit solutions that are available to us, we categorise the model in terms of its bifurcation structure, noting that the non-smooth dynamics involving the reset mechanism give rise to mathematically interesting behaviour. We highlight the pitfalls in using techniques for smooth dynamical systems in the study of non-smooth models, and show how these can be overcome using non-smooth analysis. Following this, we shift our focus onto the use of phase reduction techniques in the analysis of neural oscillators. We begin by presenting concrete examples showcasing where these techniques fail to capture dynamics of the full system for both deterministic and stochastic forcing. To overcome these failures, we derive new coordinate systems which include some notion of distance from the underlying limit cycle. With these coordinates, we are able to capture the effect of phase space structures away from the limit cycle, and we go on to show how they can be used to explain complex behaviour in typical oscillatory neuron models.
What Can Explain the Increase in Earnings Inequality Among Males

Increases in the inequality of earnings among male workers since the late sixties have been attributed primarily to shifts in employment from goods-producing to service-producing activities and the baby-boom cohort's entry into the labor market. This paper provides empirical estimates of the magnitude of these and other potential causes of the increase in earnings inequality from 1967 to 1985. The results show that changes related to the age composition of the labor force and to the industrial composition of the labor force account for only a portion of the increase in inequality. Most of the increase in unexplained by either factor. Other contributing factors include a rise in the return to education, a change in the relationship between age and education among males, and a decline in the marriage rate among younger males.
Confused Professionals?: Capacities to cope with pressures on professional work

Abstract Public professionalism is increasingly subject to organizational and societal pressures, which has led to ambiguity concerning its nature. Professionals face conflicting situations due to potential clashes between multifaceted professional, organizational, and societal factors. This raises questions about how these factors affect professional work, how professionals experience conflicts and how they cope. We investigate such conflicts, confusion, and coping strategies in a group of veterinary inspectors. Using semi-structured interviews, we analyse their work and link the resulting insights to different perspectives on professionalism. We show that workers experience conflicts as less stressful when they accept organizational factors, or when they are able to enact a more integrated set of professional/organizational work principles. We call this organizing professionalism. We trace factors that hinder and favour such organizing coping strategies.
Implications of high food prices for poverty in Pakistan

The study estimates the impacts of rising world food prices on poverty in rural and urban areas of Pakistan. Household income and expenditure data for 2004/2005 is used to estimate compensated and uncompensated price and expenditure elasticities using the linear approximation of the almost ideal demand system. Taking the unexpected component of higher domestic food prices in 2007/2008, own and cross price compensated elasticities are used to derive the changes in the quantity consumed, food expenditure and impacts on poverty assuming the food crisis happened in 2004/2005. The results indicate that poverty increased by 34.8%, severely affecting the urban areas where poverty increased by 44.6% as compared to 32.5% in rural areas. The estimates show that 2.3 million people are unable to reach even one-half of poverty line expenditures while another 13.7 million are just below and 23.9 million are just above the poverty line. In the short run, it is important to ensure food availability to these people. In the long run, the policy environment of subsidizing urban food consumers by keeping wheat prices lower than the international price, needs to be reconsidered to provide the right incentives to increase food availability. Copyright (c) 2008 International Association of Agricultural Economists.
Available bandwidth-aware cell selection for expanded regions of small cells adopting ABS

Cell selection in current LTE-Advanced depend on reference signal received power or reference signal received quality which results to low user association probability. Therefore, we propose an aggregate objective cell selection technique based on enhanced inter-cell interference coordination technique developed by 3GPP in Rel-10 known as almost blank subframe. We also adopt the use of cell range expansion technique as means to encourage offloading. Cell range expansion was introduced in LTE-advanced, it encourages user equipment to select a small cell with a weakest signal as thier serving cell by adding a positive bias in cell selection process. Simulation shows that the proposed scheme results to high user association probability, while giving superior performance in average throughput compared to conventional single objective base cell selection for cell range expansion.
Covalently linking heparin to antithrombin enhances prothrombinase inhibition on activated platelets

Summary Factor (F)Xa within the prothrombinase complex is protected from inhibition by unfractionated heparin (UFH), enoxaparin and fondaparinux. We have developed a covalent antithrombin-heparin complex (ATH) with enhanced anticoagulant activity. We have also demonstrated that ATH is superior at inhibiting coagulation factors when assembled on artificial surfaces. The objective of the present study is to determine the ability of ATH vs AT+UFH to inhibit FXa within the prothrombinase complex when the enzyme complex is assembled on the more native platelet system. Discontinuous inhibition assays were performed to determine final k 2-values for inhibition of FXa, FXa within the platelet-prothrombinase, or FXa within prothrombinase devoid of various components. Thrombin generation and plasma clotting was also assayed in the presence of resting/activated platelets ± inhibitors. Protection of FXa was not observed for ATH, whereas a moderate 60% protection was observed for AT+UFH. ATH inhibited platelet-prothrombinase ∼4-fold faster than AT+UFH. Relative to intact prothrombinase, rates for FXa inhibition by AT+UFH in prothrombinase complexes devoid of either prothrombin (II)/activated platelets/FVa were higher. However, inhibition by AT+UFH of prothrombinase devoid of FII yielded slightly lower rates compared to free FXa inhibition. Thrombin generation and plasma clotting was enhanced with activated platelets, while inhibition was better by ATH compared to AT+UFH, thus suggesting an overall enhanced anticoagulant activity of ATH against platelet-bound prothrombinase complexes.