Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Human Rights and Human Trafficking: Quagmire or Firm Ground? A Response to James Hathaway

In a Fall 2008 article published in the Virginia Journal of International Law, James Hathaway questions whether the elimination of trafficking is a worthy objective and an appropriate focus for international law. Specifically he charges that while the elimination of trafficking is billed as the answer to contemporary slavery, the focus on trafficking has unfairly 'privileged' a small group of exploited individuals and diluted efforts that could have been better spent addressing the much broader problem of human enslavement. Hathaway also asserts that those human rights advocates and practitioners engaged on the issue of trafficking have been hoodwinked by preferred destination countries into supporting a covert extension and tightening of border controls, thereby driving migratory demand into the black market and increasing the difficulties faced by refugees seeking to access their right to protection under international law. This Article, written from the perspective of one who has been closely involved in the development of the new legal framework, as well as in its implementation at the national level in over forty countries, provides an alternative and a sharply differing perspective on the global battle to combat trafficking. In considering each of Hathaway’s major concerns in turn, and discrediting the assumptions and authorities on which they are based, I identify a number of serious flaws in both interpretation and application. In terms of the broader legal and political context, I conclude that far from damaging human rights, the issue of trafficking provides unprecedented opportunities for the renewal and growth of a legal system that, until recently, has offered only platitudes and the illusion of legal protection to the millions of individuals whose life and labor is exploited for private profit.
Setting up a comprehensive management model for chronic conditions/Puesta en marcha de un modelo de gestión integral de procesos crónicos

The ‘Valencia-La Fe’ Department of Health has launched a comprehensive management model for chronic diseases in order to introduce innovations in the care for these patients, identifying and stratifying their catchment population (Kaiser Permanente model), at the same time as ensuring continuity of care through appropriate coordination and integration of services across the different levels of care.
Health Insurance and Access to Health Care in the United States

Health insurance, poverty, and health are all interconnected in the United States. This article synthesizes a large and compelling body of health services research, finding a strong association between health insurance coverage and access to primary and preventive care, the treatment of acute and traumatic conditions, and the medical management of chronic illness. Moreover, by improving access to care, health insurance coverage is also fundamentally important to better health care and health outcomes. Research connects being uninsured with adverse health outcomes, including declines in health and function, preventable health problems, severe disease at the time of diagnosis, and premature mortality.
Crowdsourcing with multi-dimensional trust and active learning

We consider a typical crowdsourcing task that aggregates input from multiple workers as a problem in information fusion. To cope with the issue of noisy and sometimes malicious input from users, trust is used to model workers expertise. We propose a probabilistic model to jointly infer multi-dimensional trust of workers, multi-domain properties of questions, and true labels of questions. Our model is flexible and extensible to incorporate metadata associated with questions. To show that, we further propose two extended models, one of which handles input tasks with real-valued features and the other handles tasks with text features by incorporating topic models. In order to decrease entropies and reduce error rates more quickly with fewer annotations from workers, we further propose strategies for selecting which questions to ask and which workers to assign the questions to based on multidimension characteristics of questions and workers trust values in those dimensions. We evaluate our models and algorithms on real-world data sets. These results can be applied for fusion of information from multiple data sources like sensors, human input, machine learning results, or a hybrid of them.
Benefits of screening mammography.

Breast cancer is a leading cause of premature death for women in their forties, and mammographic screening significantly reduces the risk of death due to breast cancer. The latter was the conclusion of the United States Preventive Services Task Force (USPSTF) meta-analysis of the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of screening mammography1. The USPSTF concluded, however, that the absolute benefit from routine mammographic screening of women in their forties was too low to offset the harms. As a woman in her forties, and a radiologist specializing in breast imaging, I find their conclusions puzzling.
Differentially Private Identity and Closeness Testing of Discrete Distributions

We investigate the problems of identity and closeness testing over a discrete population from random samples. Our goal is to develop efficient testers while guaranteeing Differential Privacy to the individuals of the population. We describe an approach that yields sample-efficient differentially private testers for these problems. Our theoretical results show that there exist private identity and closeness testers that are nearly as sample-efficient as their non-private counterparts. We perform an experimental evaluation of our algorithms on synthetic data. Our experiments illustrate that our private testers achieve small type I and type II errors with sample size sublinear in the domain size of the underlying distributions.
Time-resolved diffuse reflectance measurement carried out on the head of an adult at large source-detector separation

Multichannel time-resolved optical monitoring system was constructed for measurements of diffuse reflectance in optically turbid medium at very large source-detector separation up to 9 cm. The system is based on femtosecond TiSa laser and sensitive photomultiplier tube detector. The laser light of 300mW of power was delivered to the surface of the head with the use of an optical fiber. A beam expander was applied in order to distribute the laser light on a large spot which allowed to avoid energetic stimulation of the tissue. The photomultiplier tube detector was positioned directly on the surface of the medium at the distance of 9cm from the center of the source position. In this paper we report results of an in-vivo experiment carried out on the head of an adult healthy volunteer. The time-resolved system was applied during intravenous injection of an optical contrast agent (indocyanine green - ICG) and the distributions of times of flight of photons were successfully acquired showing inflow and washout of the dye to the tissue. Time-courses of the moments of distributions of times of flight of photons are presented and compared with the results obtained simultaneously at shorter source-detector separations (3 cm, 4 cm and 5 cm).
Dividing a complex reaction involving a hypervalent iodine reagent into three limiting mechanisms by ab initio molecular dynamics

The electrophilic N‐trifluoromethylation of MeCN with a hypervalent iodine reagent to form a nitrilium ion, that is rapidly trapped by an azole nucleophile, is thought to occur via reductive elimination (RE). A recent study showed that, depending on the solvent representation, the SN2 is favoured to a different extent over the RE. However, there is a discriminative solvent effect present, which calls for a statistical mechanics approach to fully account for the entropic contributions. In this study, we perform metadynamic simulations for two trifluoromethylation reactions (with N‐ and S‐nucleophiles), showing that the RE mechanism is always favoured in MeCN solution. These computations also indicate that a radical mechanism (single electron transfer) may play an important role. The computational protocol based on accelerated molecular dynamics for the exploration of the free energy surface is transferable and will be applied to similar reactions to investigate other electrophiles on the reagent. Based on the activation parameters determined, this approach also gives insight into the mechanistic details of the trifluoromethylation and shows that these commonly known mechanisms mark the limits within which the reaction proceeds. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
MECHANICAL PROPERTISE OF KENAF FIBER COMPOSITE USING CO-CURED IN-LINE FIBER JOINT

The composites manufactured using long unidirectional fibers has been shown to have better performance than short randomly distributed fibers. However, the length of natural fibers that suitable for the manufacturing of fiber composites is 5 feet and this length may not be enough for manufacturing long fiber reinforced plastic(FRP) plate and pultrusion. Mechanical methods of jointing may the cause stress concentrations around the holes of riveted or bolted joints and may damage the continuous reinforcing fibres, affecting the overall load capacity of the structure. Little attention has been paid to joining unidirectionally natural fibre in the manufacture of natural fiber composite. Therefore the main objective of the paper is to investigate the performance of co-cured single lap shear joints kenaf (Hibiscus cannabinus L.) fiber reinforced plastic composites by varying the overlapping length namely 0 mm, 10 mm, 20 mm, 30 mm and 40 mm. The performance of kenaf fibre composite elements was evaluated in tension and bending to assess the strength of the structural bonds. This study has shown that the natural fiber composite can be manufactured using co-cured jointed fiber without requiring long overlapping length.
Prevention and treatment of hepatitis B recurrence after liver transplantation.

OBJECTIVE To study the efficacy of liver transplantation on end-stage hepatitis B related liver diseases, and the prevention and treatment strategies of hepatitis B recurrence after the transplantation. METHODS The efficacy of combined treatment of lamivudine and hepatitis B immune globulin (HBIG) therapy on 24 patients who had received liver transplantation was retrospectively studied. RESULTS All the 24 patients with end-stage hepatitis B-related liver diseases treated with lamivudine alone or combined therapy of lamivudine and HBIG showed normal liver function and 21 of them lost hepatitis B virus (HBV) markers. However, the remaining 3 patients became HBsAg positive again soon after liver transplantation. CONCLUSIONS Liver transplantation is effective for patients with end-stage hepatitis B-related liver diseases. Combined treatment of lamivudine and HBIG may prevent the recurrence of hepatitis B after the operation.
Expression of E2F-4 Gene in Colorectal Adenocarcinoma and Corresponding Covering Mucosa: An Immunohistochemistry, Image Analysis, and Immunoblot Study

E2F-4 is a transcription factor involved in the transition of the cell from the resting state (G0/G1) to the proliferative stage (S). It has been associated with the p107 and p130 members of the Rb-family and it is responsible for many important growth suppressive functions. E2F-1, one member of the E2F family, has a similar structure to E2F-4; however, both have different mechanisms of action in regulating cell-cycle progression. Although E2F-4 acts mainly as a repressor in the early part of the cell cycle, E2F-1 has the ability to function as both an oncogene and a tumor suppressor gene. In an attempt to identify the role of E2F-4 as a potential mediator of cell proliferation, differentiation, tumorigenesis, and apoptosis in colorectal mucosa comparing with that of E2F-1, the authors examine 20 patients with human colon cancer and their corresponding histologically healthy mucosa by using immunohistochemical methods, computerized quantitative image analysis, and immunoblot analysis. Immunohistochemical studies were performed with formalin-fixed, paraffin-embedded sections stained with a monoclonal antibody against the E2F-4 protein. Apoptosis levels were determined by in situ assay. Positivity was scored by a Computerized Image Analyzer to detect the relative amount of the protein. Immunoblot analysis was performed on protein extracts from snap-frozen tissues of the same specimens. The results show that the expression of E2F-4 was greater in the tumor cells than in their corresponding benign epithelium as determined by immunohistochemical staining and image analysis. This was confirmed by semiquantitative IB analysis of the E2F-4 protein. The labeling index (LI) of E2F-4 in the tumors was inversely proportional to the LI of apoptotic cells. Within these cases, 12 cases showed a very high E2F-4 LI corresponding to low apoptosis LI. Three cases with relatively lower levels of E2F-4 LI were characterized with high apoptotic rates. These data suggest that E2F-4 gene overexpression plays a role in the development of colorectal tumors and appears to play a role in suppressing apoptosis.
Exploring key antecedents of supply chain agility: An empirical study

The importance of supply chain agility has been widely recognized by researchers and practitioners, especially with the increasing turbulence of the global economy in recent years. This research aims at clarifying the concept of agility in supply chain research and identifying key antecedents of supply chain agility. In particular, we propose responsiveness, flexibility, and quickness as key dimensions of overall supply chain agility, and identify process integration, information integration, market sensitivity as enablers of the three dimensions of supply chain agility.
Why do Danish adolescents take up smoking?

BACKGROUND For the first time a comprehensive international research-based smoking prevention programme addressing adolescents has been launched in Denmark. The ESFA cohort study started in 1997, and this article presents baseline findings. Factors that relate to the initiation of adolescent smoking are found among the concepts of attitude, social norms, social pressure and self-efficacy beliefs. METHODS Baseline findings from Danish adolescents (n = 1770) in secondary school (mean age 13.8 years). RESULTS The cross-sectional baseline data show that the attitude-social influence-efficacy-model proves to be of value in highlighting the associations of adolescent smoking behaviour. Social self-efficacy, peer smoking behaviour and the intention to smoke proved to have the strongest associations with smoking. CONCLUSION It is recommended that self-efficacy beliefs and the individual intentions to smoke should be included in the future in smoking prevention programmes in Denmark. Furthermore, a distinction between the roles of parents and peers should be emphasized when addressing the social environment of adolescents in health promotion.
Attending to emotional expressions: no evidence for automatic capture in the dot-probe task

ABSTRACT Research on automatic attention to emotional faces offers mixed results. Therefore we examined validity effects for facial expressions of different emotions (compared to neutral faces) with a dot-probe paradigm in seven studies (total N = 308). Systematic variations of type of emotion, CTI, task, cue size, and masking allow for a differentiated assessment of attentional capture by emotions and possible moderating factors. Results indicate a general absence of emotional validity effects as well as a lack of significant interactions with either of the manipulated factors, indicating that facial expressions of emotions do not capture attention in a fully automatic fashion. These findings suggest that situational and contextual factors have to be taken into account when investigating attentional capture of emotional faces.
Variables modulating depression in dementia caregivers: a longitudinal study

ABSTRACT Background: Dementia caregiving has been linked to negative consequences for mental health in caregivers. Although depression seems to be an enduring psychological consequence associated with caregiving, little is known about the longitudinal effects that modulating variables related to coping strategies have on caregiver's changes in depression over time. This study is aimed at investigating whether, in a one-year longitudinal study with 130 dementia caregivers, caregivers’ depression scores co-vary with modulating variables such as self-efficacy for controlling upsetting thoughts, frequency of leisure activities, and cognitive reappraisal, after controlling for gender and caregivers’ stressors (frequency of disruptive behaviors). Methods: Linear mixed models analysis was used to analyze the associations between time-varying values for caregivers’ stressors and modulating variables in predicting caregivers’ depression. Results: It was found that increases in caregivers’ self-efficacy, frequency of leisure activities, and cognitive reappraisal significantly predicted decreases in caregivers’ depression over time, even after controlling for gender and frequency of disruptive behaviors. In addition, increases in stressors were significantly related to increases in depression over time. Conclusions: The inclusion of modulating variables significantly contributed to the explanation of the variance in caregivers’ depression, adding explanatory power to the variables usually included in the stress and coping model (gender and stressors).
Long-term monitoring of patients with infantile-onset Pompe disease on enzyme replacement therapy using a urinary glucose tetrasaccharide biomarker

Purpose: To investigate the correlation of the urinary glucose tetrasaccharide, Glcα1-6Glcα1-4Glcα1-4Glc, (Glc4) with skeletal muscle glycogen content and the long-term clinical response to enzyme replacement therapy with recombinant human acid alpha glucosidase in infantile Pompe disease.Methods: Eighteen patients, ≤6 months old, were enrolled in a clinical trial of enzyme replacement therapy for up to 142 weeks. Urinary Glc4, skeletal muscle glycogen, and other clinical and laboratory assessments were made at baseline and at regular intervals. Urinary Glc4 was determined using an isotope-dilution tandem mass spectrometric assay. The clinical response to treatment was defined according to the motor function response. Trends in urinary Glc4 were correlated with the clinical response and compared with serum enzyme markers of skeletal muscle damage, creatine kinase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alanine aminotransferase.Results: Urinary Glc4, in contrast to the serum markers, correlated closely with skeletal muscle glycogen content and with the clinical response. Patients with the best response to treatment maintained the lowest levels of Glc4 throughout the trial.Conclusion: The results from this study support the use of urinary Glc4 for monitoring patients with infantile-onset Pompe disease on therapy.
Analytic and numerical study of preheating dynamics.

We analyze the phenomenon of preheating, i.e., explosive particle production due to parametric amplification of quantum fluctuations in the unbroken symmetry case, or spinodal instabilities in the broken symmetry phase, using the Minkowski space O({ital N}) vector model in the large {ital N} limit to study the nonperturbative issues involved. We give analytic results for weak couplings and times short compared to the time at which the fluctuations become of the same order as the tree level terms, as well as numerical results including the full back reaction. In the case where the symmetry is unbroken, the analytical results agree spectacularly well with the numerical ones in their common domain of validity. In the broken symmetry case, interesting situations, corresponding to slow roll initial conditions from the unstable minimum at the origin, give rise to a new and unexpected phenomenon: the dynamical relaxation of the vacuum energy. That is, particles are abundantly produced at the expense of the quantum vacuum energy while the zero mode comes back to almost its initial value. In both cases we obtain analytically and numerically the equation of state which in both cases can be written in terms of an effective polytropic index that interpolatesmore » between vacuum and radiationlike domination. We find that simplified analyses based on the harmonic behavior of the zero mode, giving rise to a Mathieu equation for the nonzero modes, miss important physics. Furthermore, such analyses that do not include the full back reaction and do not conserve energy result in unbound particle production. Our results rule out the possibility of symmetry restoration by nonequilibrium fluctuations in the cases relevant for new inflationary scenarios. Estimates of the reheating temperature and the inconsistency of a kinetic approach to thermalization when a nonperturbatively large number of particles are created are discussed. {copyright} {ital 1996 The American Physical Society. }« less
Improving redundancy addition and removal using unreachable states for sequential circuits

Redundancy Addition and Removal (RAR), one of the major combinational logic perturbation techniques, has been shown to be very useful for many EDA optimization tasks. However, all the currently known RAR techniques did not analyze and make use of unreachable states, which are abundant in sequential circuits. These unreachable states can be considered as input don't cares and can add an extra flexibility in locating alternative wires. In this paper, we study the fundamental theory and propose a reasoning scheme for locating alternative wires without performing wasteful redundancy tests. To explore the deeper effect of unreachable states, the concept is extended to illegal assignments and the fault independent redundancy identification is applied on illegal assignments to find flexibilities introduced by unreachable states. On the experiments carried for both MCNC and industry benchmarks, it is shown that using such an idea, a remarkable increase of more than 100% (averagely) in the number of alternative wires can be found, which should be quite useful as most of today's practical circuits are sequential.
IL-16 Regulation of Human Mast Cells/Basophils and Their Susceptibility to HIV-11

AIDS patients often contain HIV-1-infected mast cells (MCs)/basophils in their peripheral blood, and in vivo-differentiated MCs/basophils have been isolated from the blood of asthma patients that are HIV-1 susceptible ex vivo due to their surface expression of CD4 and varied chemokine receptors. Because IL-16 is a ligand for CD4 and/or an undefined CD4-associated protein, the ability of this multifunctional cytokine to regulate the development of human MCs/basophils from nongranulated progenitors residing in cord or peripheral blood was evaluated. After 3 wk of culture in the presence of c-kit ligand, IL-16 induced the progenitors residing in the blood of normal individuals to increase their expression of chymase and tryptase about 20-fold. As assessed immunohistochemically, >80% of these tryptase+ and/or chymase+ cells expressed CD4. The resulting cells responded to IL-16 in an in vitro chemotaxis assay, and this biologic response could be blocked by anti-IL-16 and anti-CD4 Abs as well as by a competitive peptide inhibitor corresponding to a sequence in the C-terminal domain of IL-16. The additional finding that IL-16 induces calcium mobilization in the HMC-1 cell line indicates that IL-16 acts directly on MCs and their committed progenitors. IL-16-treated MCs/basophils also are less susceptible to infection by an M/R5-tropic strain of HIV-1. Thus, IL-16 regulates MCs/basophils at a number of levels, including their vulnerability to retroviral infection.