Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender Disparities in the Awareness and Control of Hypertension

Hypertension is an important risk factor for the commonest cause of death among men, namely, cardiovascular diseases. The purpose of this study was to provide data concerning gender difference in the awareness, treatment, and control of hypertension in adults. We conducted a cross-sectional study in Riyadh, the capital city of Saudi Arabia. Subjects were asked if they had been told by a physician that they had hypertension or were on blood pressure (BP) medication. Blood pressure was measured using standardized Joint National Committee (JNC) protocol. The study sample consisted of 814 adults who were at least 18 years old. Of the estimated 27.6% people with hypertension, 38.6% were unaware of their hypertension, 29.8% were aware of their condition but were not being treated, and among those who had been treated 40.8% remained uncontrolled. Independent predictors of a lack of awareness of hypertension were an age of at least 45 years, male gender, and BMI greater than 30. The extent of awareness and control of hypertension did not differ significantly by monthly income, educational level, physical activities, or smoking status. Awareness and control of hypertension is low in men, making them public health priorities. Achieving more stringent BP control will require increased attention by physicians and public education to improve the awareness and control of hypertension.
The metazoan protein disaggregase and amyloid depolymerase system

A baffling aspect of metazoan proteostasis is the lack of an Hsp104 ortholog that rapidly disaggregates and reactivates misfolded polypeptides trapped in stress induced disordered aggregates, preamyloid oligomers, or amyloid fibrils. By contrast, in bacteria, protozoa, chromista, fungi, and plants, Hsp104 orthologs are highly conserved and confer huge selective advantages in stress tolerance. Moreover, in fungi, the amyloid remodeling activity of Hsp104 has enabled deployment of prions for various beneficial modalities. Thus, a longstanding conundrum has remained unanswered: how do metazoan cells renature aggregated proteins or resolve amyloid fibrils without Hsp104? Here, we highlight recent advances that unveil the metazoan protein-disaggregase machinery, comprising Hsp110, Hsp70, and Hsp40, which synergize to dissolve disordered aggregates, but are unable to rapidly solubilize stable amyloid fibrils. However, Hsp110, Hsp70, and Hsp40 exploit the slow monomer exchange dynamics of amyloid, and can slowly depolymerize amyloid fibrils from their ends in a manner that is stimulated by small heat shock proteins. Upregulation of this system could have key therapeutic applications in various protein-misfolding disorders. Intriguingly, yeast Hsp104 can interface with metazoan Hsp110, Hsp70, and Hsp40 to rapidly eliminate disease associated amyloid. Thus, metazoan proteostasis is receptive to augmentation with exogenous disaggregases, which opens a number of therapeutic opportunities.
Approaches used by cross-cultural and cross-discipline students in teamwork for a first-year course in web design

Cross-cultural and cross-discipline teams are commonplace in ICT global work projects, an area where students in an IT program may head. This paper presents preliminary research that is concerned with outcomes from an intervention strategy designed to help students identify and address cross-cultural and cross-disciplinary team issues while undertaking a series of team-based assessment tasks in a web design course. Students were asked to complete an online questionnaire three times over the semester to rate attributes for communication, task management, relationships, and cultural dimensions as a means of self-assessing their approach to teamwork. Using the data collected from the three surveys, a quantitative evaluation was conducted. This paper presents a preliminary result from this analysis and also discusses future research directions.
Modified gravity theories from the Barrow hypothesis

Barrow proposed that quantum gravity effects might introduce fractal corrections to the area of the event horizon of black holes. The area law gets modified as $S \propto A^{1+\Delta/2}$, with $0\leq\Delta\leq 1$. It was so far unclear whether this assumption could lead to meaningful quantum gravity theories beyond general relativity. In this paper, we argue that this is indeed the case. In particular, assuming $\Delta$ to be a radial function, we show that the Barrow hypothesis, together with the Jacobson's approach can generate non-trivial modified gravity theories.
Contour trees and small seed sets for isosurface traversal

For 2D or 3D meshes that represent the domain of continuous function to the reals, the contours|or isosurfaces|of a speci ed value are an important way to visualize the function. To nd such contours, a seed set can be used for the starting points from which the traversal of the contours can begin. This paper gives the rst methods to obtain seed sets that are provably small in size. They are based on a variant of the contour tree (or topographic change tree). We give a new, simple algorithm to compute such a tree in regular and irregular meshes that requires O(n logn) time in 2D for meshes with n elements, and in O(n) time in higher dimensions. The additional storage overhead is proportial to the maximum size of any contour (linear in the worst case, but typically less). Given the contour tree, a minimum size seed set can be computed in roughly quadratic time. Since in practice this can be excessive, we develop a simple approximation algorithm giving a seed set of size at most twice the size of the minimum. It requires O(n log n) time and linear storage once the contour tree is known. We also give experimental results, showing the size of the seed sets for several data sets.
Modeling the factors associating with health-related habits among Japanese students

The aim of the present study was to clarify the structural relationship between health-related habits and psychosocial factors during adolescence/early adulthood. An anonymous, self-administered questionnaire was provided to 1141 third- and fourth-year students at eight academic departments from six universities in regional Japanese cities. Surveys included items addressing participants' demographic characteristics, psychosocial factors (individual-level social capital, self-efficacy, mental health (from health-related quality of life SF-36v2), and sense of coherence (SOC)), and health-related habits. A multiple indicator analysis based on structural equation modeling was conducted to examine the structural relationship between health-related habits and these factors. Valid responses were obtained from 952 participants. The final model demonstrated a high level of goodness of fit. While the path from SOC to health-related habits was significant, those from self-efficacy to health-related habits and from mental health to health-related habits were not significant. The path coefficient from SOC to health-related habits was greater than the path coefficient from background characteristics. In the multiple population comparison that considered gender, a nearly identical model was supported for men and women. Psychosocial factors related to health-related habits were social capital, self-efficacy, mental health, and SOC. Furthermore, it was suggested that SOC functions as an intervening factor for maintaining a healthy lifestyle. It was observed that individual psychosocial factors influence health-related habits more than their background characteristics. Findings highlight that supporting the building of social relationships and social environments is essential to promote a healthy lifestyle among university students.
GLOBAL CULTURE AND THE COMMUNITY COLLEGE

This investigation addresses the alteration of the community college from a local institution to one that is more entrepreneurial and corporate as well as more connected to the global community. This multi-case study of seven community colleges in two countries - The United States and Canada - focuses on three cultural aspects of globalization as they pertain to community colleges: (1) the dominant ideology associated with globalization, (2) the involvement and interactions of people in and with other cultures, and (3) the conceptualization of the world as a single place. The first two of these cultural aspects are identified as organizational behaviors within community colleges. The third aspect is viewed as cultural change potentially promulgated by the use of electronic technology.
Severity of Illness, Race, and Choice of Local Versus Distant Hospitals Among the Elderly

This study examines travel patterns for hospitalization among elderly patients to address whether there are differences by age and race/ethnicity, and whether the differences persist even when a severe illness occurs. Using the Healthcare Cost and Utilization Project (HCUP) State Inpatient database (SID) of the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality, the study focuses on New York residents in the 65-and-over age group who are hospitalized in New York or neighboring states. Two types of hospital admissions are used: referral-sensitive admissions (fairly discretionary, high-technology procedures) and ambulatory care–sensitive admissions (avoidable with appropriate primary care). The study found that, after adjusting for other covariates, travel progressively declines with age among the elderly. Travel patterns across elderly age cohorts were not significantly different when patients were more severely ill. Members of racial/ethnic minority groups were less likely to travel than whites, and this gap persisted even when a severe illness occurred.
IDIAP SUBMISSION TO THE NIST SRE 2016 SPEAKER RECOGNITION EVALUATION

Idiap has made one submission to the ﬁxed condition of the NIST SRE 2016. It consists of two gender-dependent i-vector systems that use posteriors from a Universal Back-ground Model and a Deep Neural Network, respectively, whose scores have been fused via logistic regression. Both systems use Linear Discriminant Analysis (LDA) for i-vector post-processing and Probabilistic LDA for inference. The entire system was implemented using the Kaldi toolkit. The speech/non-speech senone posteriors from a DNN forward pass were used to segment the data for Voice Activity Detection. The gender-dependent PLDA models were trained on a subset of past SRE data and unsupervisedly adapted to the unlabelled development data provided for the SRE’16.
Contrast sensitivity measured by two different test methods in healthy, young adults with normal visual acuity

This study reports contrast sensitivity (CS) reference values obtained by two different test methods in a strictly selected population of healthy, young adults with normal uncorrected visual acuity. Based on these results, the index of contrast sensitivity (ICS) is calculated, aiming to establish ICS reference values for this population and to evaluate the possible usefulness of ICS as a tool to compare the degree of agreement between different CS test methods.
Task difficulty and self‐repair behavior in second language oral production

This study investigated how the degree of task difficulty, operationalized as the existence of a loose or tight storyline structure, affects self-repair behavior in L2 oral speech. Thirty Iranian female lower-intermediate EFL learners performed two oral narrative tasks, with loose and tight storyline structures. Then, they listened to the audio-tapes of their own performances and were asked to report their thoughts at the time they were performing the task, retrospectively. Results of the analyses revealed that there is a relationship between task difficulty and self-repair behavior such that with the difficult task, participants mostly effectuated appropriacy and different-information repairs. However the participants who performed the less difficult task were predominantly concerned with rectifying their ungrammatical or lexically inappropriate utterances and therefore executed error-repairs more frequently.
The “where” of social attention: Head and body direction aftereffects arise from representations specific to cue type and not direction alone

Human beings have remarkable social attention skills. From the initial processing of cues, such as eye gaze, head direction, and body orientation, we perceive where other people are attending, allowing us to draw inferences about the intentions, desires, and dispositions of others. But before we can infer why someone is attending to something in the world we must first accurately represent where they are attending. Here we investigate the “where” of social attention perception, and employ adaptation paradigms to ascertain how head and body orientation are visually represented in the human brain. Across two experiments we show that the representation of two cues to social attention (head and body orientation) exists at the category-specific level. This suggests that aftereffects do not arise from “social attention cells” discovered in macaques or from abstract representations of “leftness” or “rightness. ”
Data exchange with the columbus schema for c++

To successfully carry out a software maintenance or reengineering task, a suitably assembled set of tools is required, which interoperate seaminglessly. To achieve this goal, an exchange format is needed that can be used to represent the facts extracted from a software system in a standardized way; serving as an output of one tool and as an input for other tools. In this paper we propose a modular schema for C++, called the Columbus schema. The schema has been implemented in the Columbus/CAN front end framework tool and is already utilized in several usages, one of which is its representation in the GXL form.
Translation of hepatitis C virus RNA

The 341‐nucleotide 5’ non‐translated region is the most conserved part of the hepatitis C virus (HCV) genome. It contains a highly structured internal ribosomal entry site (IRES) that mediates cap‐independent initiation of translation of the viral polyprotein by a mechanism that is unprecedented in eukaryotes. The first step in translation initiation is assembly of eukaryotic initiation factor (eIF) 3, eIF2, GTP, initiator tRNA and a 40S ribosomal subunit into a 43S preinitiation complex. The HCV IRES recruits this complex and directs its precise attachment at the initiation codon to form a 48S complex in a process that does not involve eIFs 4A, 4B or 4F. The IRES contains sites that bind independently with the eIF3 and 40S subunit components of 43S complexes, and structural determinants that ensure the correct spatial orientation of these binding sites so that the 48S complex assembles precisely at the initiation codon.
Differential growth triggers mechanical feedback that elevates Hippo signaling

Significance To form organs of correct size and proportion, growth must be tightly controlled. Previous studies have characterized how biochemical signals influence organ growth; this report describes an interrelationship between tissue mechanics and organ growth. We show that differential growth leads to accumulation of mechanical stress within tissues and describe both theoretically and experimentally how this mechanical stress can result in reduced tension within faster-growing cells. We show how this reduced tension can increase the activity of the Hippo signaling pathway, which decreases growth rates, and show that this mechanism influences patterns of cell proliferation in vivo. Our results support and extend a theoretical model, termed “mechanical feedback,” that described the relationship between growth rates and tissue mechanics. Mechanical stress can influence cell proliferation in vitro, but whether it makes a significant contribution to growth control in vivo, and how it is modulated and experienced by cells within developing tissues, has remained unclear. Here we report that differential growth reduces cytoskeletal tension along cell junctions within faster-growing cells. We propose a theoretical model to explain the observed reduction of tension within faster-growing clones, supporting it by computer simulations based on a generalized vertex model. This reduced tension modulates a biomechanical Hippo pathway, decreasing recruitment of Ajuba LIM protein and the Hippo pathway kinase Warts, and decreasing the activity of the growth-promoting transcription factor Yorkie. These observations provide a specific mechanism for a mechanical feedback that contributes to evenly distributed growth, and we show that genetically suppressing mechanical feedback alters patterns of cell proliferation in the developing Drosophila wing. By providing experimental support for the induction of mechanical stress by differential growth, and a molecular mechanism linking this stress to the regulation of growth in developing organs, our results confirm and extend the mechanical feedback hypothesis.
T Cell–specific Ablation of Fas Leads to Fas Ligand–mediated Lymphocyte Depletion and Inflammatory Pulmonary Fibrosis

To study the role of Fas–Fas ligand (FasL) interaction-mediated apoptosis in lymphocyte homeostasis, we generated a mutant fas allele allowing conditional inactivation of the fas gene through Cre-mediated recombination. Experiments in which Fas was ablated in T cells, B cells, T and B cells, or in a more generalized manner demonstrated that the development of lymphoproliferative disease as seen in Fas-deficient mice requires Fas ablation in lymphoid and nonlymphoid tissues. Selective inactivation of Fas in T cells led to a severe lymphopenia over time, accompanied by up-regulation of FasL on activated T cells and apoptosis of peripheral lymphocytes. In addition, the mutant animals developed a fatal wasting syndrome caused by massive leukocyte infiltration in the lungs together with increased inflammatory cytokine production and pulmonary fibrosis. Inhibition of Fas–FasL interaction in vivo completely prevented the loss of lymphocytes and initial lymphocyte infiltration in the lungs. Thus, FasL-mediated interaction of activated, Fas-deficient T cells with Fas-expressing cells in their environment leads to break down of lymphocyte homeostasis and development of a lung disease strikingly resembling idiopathic pulmonary fibrosis in humans, a common and severe disease for which the mutant mice may serve as a first animal model.
4-Second Exercise Test: Reference Values for Ages 18–81 Years

Background Physiological reflexes modulated primarily by the vagus nerve allow the heart to decelerate and accelerate rapidly after a deep inspiration followed by rapid movement of the limbs. This is the physiological and pharmacologically validated basis for the 4-s exercise test (4sET) used to assess the vagal modulation of cardiac chronotropism. Objective To present reference data for 4sET in healthy adults. Methods After applying strict clinical inclusion/exclusion criteria, 1,605 healthy adults (61% men) aged between 18 and 81 years subjected to 4sET were evaluated between 1994 and 2014. Using 4sET, the cardiac vagal index (CVI) was obtained by calculating the ratio between the duration of two RR intervals in the electrocardiogram: 1) after a 4-s rapid and deep breath and immediately before pedaling and 2) at the end of a rapid and resistance-free 4-s pedaling exercise. Results CVI varied inversely with age (r = -0.33, p < 0.01), and the intercepts and slopes of the linear regressions between CVI and age were similar for men and women (p > 0.05). Considering the heteroscedasticity and the asymmetry of the distribution of the CVI values according to age, we chose to express the reference values in percentiles for eight age groups (years): 18–30, 31–40, 41–45, 46–50, 51–55, 56–60, 61–65, and 66+, obtaining progressively lower median CVI values ranging from 1.63 to 1.24. Conclusion The availability of CVI percentiles for different age groups should promote the clinical use of 4sET, which is a simple and safe procedure for the evaluation of vagal modulation of cardiac chronotropism.
The School Curriculum and Environmental Education: A School Environmental Audit Experience.

Thirteen primary and pre-primary schools in Extremadura (Spain) were participants in an educational research project, "Ecocentros", based on school environmental audits (ecoaudits). To understand the contribution these experiences can make to achieving the objectives of environmental education, it is essential to know what is actually incorporated into the curriculum and how. Progress was made in the integration of environmental education at the classroom level. This strengthens the development of the processes of participation and the motivation of the pupils and the teaching community.
The X-COSIM integration framework for a seamless semantic desktop

In this paper, we present X-COSIM, a framework for cross context semantic information management consisting of the ontology X-COSIMO and the application programming interface X-COSIMA. X-COSIM provides what is lacking in current semantic desktops: A consistent seamless integration of a conceptually broad reference model and context dependent conceptualizations as required by applications dedicated to supporting complex work processes. We present the design of X-COSIMO and illustrate the application of X-COSIM in a scenario that involves multiple desktop applications.
Common Variables Associated with the Development of Stockholm Syndrome: Some Case Examples

Abstract Stockholm Syndrome is a paradoxical psychological experience which both intrigues and often frustrates law enforcement and mental health professionals alike. Much attention has been directed toward understanding and defining the contextual variables associated with the development of Stockholm Syndrome. Since it appears that the formation of Stockholm Syndrome may increase the likelihood of hostage survival, discerning the factors that may encourage its occurrence is a priority for crisis negotiators. The purpose of this paper is to (1) analyze crisis situations using actual case examples in which evidence of Stockholm Syndrome has been reported and (2) examine the variables associated with the development of this phenomenon. Case information was obtained from the Hostage Barricade Database System (HOBAS) of the FBI’s Crisis Negotiation Unit. Results of this analysis conclude that some, but not all, factors previously hypothesized as requisite to the development of Stockholm Syndrome find additional support from this case analysis.
Effects of empowering leadership on performance in management team

Purpose – The purpose of this paper is to extend an integrated model of the antecedents that help explain and predict team performance in relation to empowering leadership behaviors. To this end, the authors examine the intervening roles of knowledge sharing and team cohesion in the relationship between empowering leadership and performance in teams.Design/methodology/approach – Data were obtained from 261 team members from 79 management teams in a major international fast‐food chain restaurant operating in Taiwan. Confirmatory factor analysis and multiple regressions were used for data analysis.Findings – It was found that two indirect effects supplemented the direct effect of empowering leadership on team performance, the mechanisms of knowledge sharing and team cohesion. In other words, knowledge sharing and team cohesion, respectively, mediated the relationship between empowering leadership and performance in management teams.Research limitations/implications – This study extended existing research to.