Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The roles of men in family planning - a study of married men at the UKM primary care clinic.

INTRODUCTION Traditionally, family planning initiatives were concentrated on women despite it being a family matter. As family dynamics evolved over the years, fathers' involvement in family planning has become crucial in enhancing the family well-being. OBJECTIVES This study aimed to identify the role played by men in family planning activities and the association of socio-economic characteristics with these roles. METHODOLOGY This was a cross-sectional study carried out in a university primary care clinic. All married male attendees to the clinic, aged 50 years and below, were approached to answer a set of self-administered questionnaires, asking for their involvement in family planning practices. The data were analysed using descriptive and inferential statistics. RESULTS There were 167 participants in the study. A high proportion of men participated in the discussions regarding previous pregnancies (60.42%), future child planning (89.76%) and desired family size (89.76%). However, the discussions on the usage of family planning methods (FPMs; 39.16%) were significantly low. Socio-economic factors associated with higher likelihood of men discussing family planning activities were older age (p < 0.0), higher education level (p = 0.010), higher monthly income (p < 0.001) and longer duration of marriage (p = 0.0049). CONCLUSIONS The level of participation of men varied in the discussions of four family planning activities. The roles taken by men in family planning were associated with older age and higher socio-economic class. The majority of men needs to be encouraged to play a more active role in the discussion of FPMs.
Drinking to thirst versus drinking ad libitum during road cycling.

CONTEXT The sensation of thirst is different from the complex behavior of drinking ad libitum. Rehydration recommendations to athletes differ, depending on the source, yet no previous researchers have systematically compared drinking to thirst (D(TT)) versus ad libitum drinking behavior (D(AL)). OBJECTIVE To compare 2 groups of trained cyclists (D(TT) and D(AL)) who had similar physical characteristics and training programs (P > .05). The D(TT) group (n = 12, age = 47 ± 7 years) drank only when thirsty, whereas the D(AL) group (n = 12, age = 44 ± 7 years) consumed fluid ad libitum (ie, whenever and in whatever volume desired). DESIGN Cohort study. SETTING Road cycling (164 km) in the heat (36.1 °C ± 6.5 °C). PATIENTS OR OTHER PARTICIPANTS Ultraendurance cyclists (4 women, 20 men). INTERVENTION(S) We recorded measurements 1 day before the event, on event day before the start, at 3 roadside aid stations, at the finish line, and 1 day after the event. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE(S) Body mass, urinary hydration indices, and food and fluids consumed. RESULTS No between-groups differences were seen on event day for total exercise time (DTT = 6.69 ± 0.89 hours, DAL = 6.66 ± 0.77 hours), urinary indices (specific gravity, color), body mass change (D(TT) = -2.22% ± 1.73%, DAL = -2.29% ± 1.62%), fluid intake (D(TT) = 5.63 ± 2.59 L/6.7 h, D(AL) = 6.04 ± 2.37 L/6.7 h), dietary energy intake, macronutrient intake, ratings of thirst (D(TT) start = 2 ± 1, D(TT) finish = 6 ± 1, DAL start = 2 ± 1, D(AL) finish = 6 ± 1), pain, perceived exertion, or thermal sensation. Total fluid intake on recovery day +1 was the primary significant difference (D(AL) = 5.13 ± 1.87 L/24 h, D(TT) = 3.13 ± 1.53 L/24 h, t18 = 2.59, P = . 02). CONCLUSIONS Observations on event day indicated that drinking to thirst and drinking ad libitum resulted in similar physiologic and perceptual outcomes. This suggests that specific instructions to "drink to thirst" were unnecessary. Indeed, if athletes drink ad libitum, they can focus on training and competition rather than being distracted by ongoing evaluation of thirst sensations.
Working the ‘front lines’ in Washington, DC: Digital age terrorism reporting by national security prestige press

This article reports on a critical tier in the global flow of terrorism information gathered through in-depth interviews with 35 national security journalists in the Washington, DC, ‘prestige press’. This research offers value by organizing, describing and analyzing the opinions of this elite group on terrorism reporting in the digital age. Rarely studied but extremely influential as conversation-shapers and a conduit to other press, these ‘front-line’ reporters offer insider knowledge and unique perceptions regarding the interplay of terrorist goals with resulting media coverage, the decline of traditional journalism, and how new media technologies are affecting their work. Findings include evidence of altered post-9/11 journalist routines. Reported results can offer practitioners insight into best practices and an opportunity for information-users to better understand and evaluate what they are receiving.
Bcl-2 in Cell-Cycle Regulation of Hematopoietic Cells by Transforming Growth Factor-β1

We reported that several growth factors regulate the doubling lime of hematopoietic progenitor cells by modulating the time required to pass through the GI phase. As recent studies revealed the link between cell death and cell-cycle progression. we asked if cell death regulators such ss Bel-2 play a role in regulating the cell-cycle of hematopoietic cells by growth factors. Among growth factors. transforming growth factor-β1 (TCF-β1). a negative regulator of hematopoietis, was chosen. When a large number of cells was required for analysis, we used IL-3-dependent Ba/F3 cells instead of primary hematopoietic progenitor cells because the response of Ba/F3 cells to TGF-β1 was similar to that of primary hematopoietic progenitor cells. TGF-β1 decelerated the cell-cycling of hematopoietic cells by inducing a delay in G1 to S phase transition, an event associated with increase in the level of Bel-2 as well as p27. a cyclin/cyclin-dependent kinase inhibitor. In experiments using Ba/F3 cells with the potential to produce Bel-2 in an inducible manner. Bel-2 apparently functions upstream of p27. The effects of TGF-β1 on Bel-2 and p27 expression as well as cell growth were abrogated by c-kit ligand. These findings suggest that Bel-2 plays a crucial role in regulating the cell-cycle of hematopoietic progenitor cells.
Study of LANs access technologies in wind power system

Due to the energy challenges in the world, new types of generation technologies, such as renewable energy based generators, attract great attention and are being quickly developed, which results in the dramatic developments and changes in modern power systems, the communication technologies play a increasingly important role in guaranteeing the power system's stability, reliability, and security. In this paper the necessity of communication technologies employed in wind power system are introduced. According the International Standards Organization (ISO) reference 7-layered model, the communication techniques are addressed individually for each layer. Because of the particularity of the offshore wind farm, the communication network of the offshore wind farm may be treated as a LAN. Therefore the popular LANs access techniques, including Ethernet, at the Data Link Layer of the ISO seven-layers in wind power environment are explained and discussed. Furthermore the simulation of application of Ethernet in an offshore wind farm communication network by a software, OPNET, is elaborated. With the investigation of the communication technologies in this paper, the offshore wind farm SCADA system can be further modernized.
Androgen receptor is a tumor suppressor and proliferator in prostate cancer

Targeting androgens/androgen receptor (AR) functions via androgen deprivation therapy (ADT) remains the standard treatment for prostate cancer. However, most tumors eventually recur despite ADT. Here we demonstrate that the prostate AR may function as both a suppressor and a proliferator to suppress or promote prostate cancer metastasis. Results from orthotopically recombining stromal WPMY1 cells with epithelial PC3 prostate cancer cells in mice demonstrated that restoring AR in epithelial PC3 cells or knockdown of AR in stromal WPMY1 cells suppressed prostate cancer metastasis. Knockdown of the AR in epithelial CWR22rv1 prostate cancer cells also resulted in increased cell invasion in vitro and in vivo. Restoring AR in PC3 cells (PC3-AR9) results in decreased invasion in bone lesion assays and in vivo mouse models. Mice lacking the prostate epithelial AR have increased apoptosis in epithelial luminal cells and increased proliferation in epithelial basal cells. The consequences of these two contrasting results led to the expansion of CK5/CK8-positive intermediate cells, and mice developed larger and more invasive metastatic tumors in lymph nodes and died earlier than wild-type littermates. Mechanistic dissection suggested that androgens/AR might directly or indirectly modulate metastasis-related genes and suppression of TGFβ1 signals results in the partial inhibition of AR-mediated metastasis. Collectively, our understanding of these opposing roles of prostatic AR may revolutionize the way we combat prostate cancer, and allow the development of new and better therapies by targeting only the proliferative role of AR.
Smoothing methods for mathematical programs with complementarity constraints

Computational methods for optimal control are for dealing with bottlenecks in industries. By implementing optimal operation strategies that are obtained form the important computational methods into dynamic systems, objectives such as saving energy, reducing cost, exploiting protential, improving efficiency can be achieved. In this paper, to conquer the difficulties that arise from inequality path constraints, the smooth approximation functions are studied, and the smoothed penalty function methods are proposed. The validities and convergencies of these smoothed penalty function methods are proved rigorously. Results from one case study indicate the capability of the proposed approaches to efficiently obtain physically meaningful solutions.
Proliferation and Differentiation of MC3T3-E1 Cells on Calcium Phosphate/Chitosan Coatings

The incorporation of chitosan into electro-deposited calcium phosphate (CaP) coatings increases bone marrow stromal cell attachment. We hypothesized that such electrodeposited CaP/chitosan coatings can also enhance the proliferative ability and differentiation potential of osteoblasts. To verify this hypothesis, we cultured osteoblast-like MC3T3-E1 cells on these CaP coatings. It was found that MC3T3-E1 cells cultured on the electrodeposited CaP/chitosan coatings had cell proliferation rates higher than those on the electrodeposited CaP coatings. At the same time, both alkaline phosphatase activity and collagen expression were increased, and both bone sialoprotein and osteocalcin genes were up-regulated when MC3T3-E1 cells were cultured on the electrodeposited CaP/chitosan coatings. Additionally, within the range of selected chitosan concentrations in solution, no significant difference was found between the CaP/chitosan coatings. Our results suggest that the electrodeposited CaP/chitosan coatings are favorable to the proliferation and differentiation of MC3T3-E1 cells, which may endow them with great potential for future applications.
Racial Segregation and Differential Outcomes in Hospital Care

This exploratory study of patients in Pennsylvania (PA) and Virginia (VA) hospitals in 1998-1999 measures the segregation of care for Black patients receiving inpatient care for specific medical and surgical conditions. It also examined inpatient mortality risk for Black patients and the impact of treatment in heavily segregated hospitals on mortality for Blacks and non-Blacks. Segregation of hospital care was found across both states but was more pronounced in PA. Blacks did not experience higher mortality rates than non-Blacks either before or after controls for clinical risk factors in either state and for certain admission types had lower mortality. Both Black and non-Black surgical, heart failure, and lung disease patients treated in VA hospitals with more Black patients had poorer outcomes. Future research should examine how access, patient choice, hospital organization, processes of care, and factors related to nursing care might influence hospital outcomes for patients from different racial backgrounds.
Time-efficient Logo Spotting using Text/Non-text Separation as Preprocessing and Approximate Nearest Neighbor Search

Searching for the most similar matches to high dimensional feature vectors is the most computationally expensive part of many computer vision and document retrieval systems. This work proposes a time-efficient document retrieval system based on logo spotting. The spotting approach is based on feature matching and grouping. In order to reduce the number of keypoint features to be matched, we propose to utilize a text/non-text separation method to get rid of text layer features which are irrelevant to logo matching. The separation method is used as a fast and effective preprocessing step. We further optimize the key-point feature matching step by using an approximate nearest neighbor search algorithms. The overall document retrieval with focused logo retrieval is evaluated on the standard Tobacco-800 database and also our private advertisement magazine database. The results show that the two proposed speed up steps – specially the text separation – reduce the computation time of the system sharply by 75% and 47% on the two databases respectively, while its precision remains unaffected. MOTS-CLÉS : Détection et recherche de logos1, Séparation texte/non-texte2, Système efficace de détection3.
Nuclear Aggregation of Polyglutamine-expanded Ataxin-3

Expansion of a polymorphic polyglutamine segment is the common denominator of neurodegenerative polyglutamine diseases. The expanded proteins typically accumulate in large intranuclear inclusions and induce neurodegeneration. However, the mechanisms that determine the subcellular site and rate of inclusion formation are largely unknown. We found that the conserved putative nuclear localization sequence Arg-Lys-Arg-Arg, which is retained in a highly aggregation-prone fragment of ataxin-3, did not affect the site and degree of inclusion formation in a cell culture model of spinocerebellar ataxia type 3. Addition of synthetic nuclear export or import signals led to the expected localization of ataxin-3 and determined the subcellular site of aggregate formation. Triggering a cellular stress response by heat shock transcription factor ΔHSF1 coexpression abrogated aggregation in the cytoplasm but not in the nucleus. These findings indicate that native aggregation-prone fragments derived from expanded ataxin-3 may eventually escape the cytoplasmic quality control, resulting in aggregation in the nuclear compartment.
On the Additive Bases Problem in Finite Fields

We prove that if $G$ is an Abelian group and $A_1,\ldots,A_k \subseteq G$ satisfy $m A_i=G$ (the $m$-fold sumset), then $A_1+\ldots+A_k=G$ provided that $k \ge c_m \log n$. This generalizes a result of Alon, Linial, and Meshulam [Additive bases of vector spaces over prime fields. J. Combin. Theory Ser. A, 57(2):203--210, 1991] regarding the so called additive bases.
The potential of desferrioxamine-gallium as an anti-Pseudomonas therapeutic agent

The opportunistic pathogen Pseudomonas aeruginosa causes infections that are difficult to treat by antibiotic therapy. This bacterium can cause biofilm infections where it shows tolerance to antibiotics. Here we report the novel use of a metallo-complex, desferrioxamine-gallium (DFO-Ga) that targets P. aeruginosa iron metabolism. This complex kills free-living bacteria and blocks biofilm formation. A combination of DFO-Ga and the anti-Pseudomonas antibiotic gentamicin caused massive killing of P. aeruginosa cells in mature biofilms. In a P. aeruginosa rabbit corneal infection, topical administration of DFO-Ga together with gentamicin decreased both infiltrate and final scar size by about 50% compared to topical application of gentamicin alone. The use of DFO-Ga as a Trojan horse delivery system that interferes with iron metabolism shows promise as a treatment for P. aeruginosa infections.
Performance improvement for CMT-SCTP via load-balancing virtual connections

As the rapid advance of communication and network technologies, many new applications have been created and the bandwidth needed for these Internet applications are more increasing than ever. Due to the limitations of traditional communication protocols with single-path transmission, its bandwidth is not enough for bandwidth-hungry applications such as real-time multimedia streaming. However, most of today's computers or mobile devices have at least two or more wired or wireless network interfaces. Some scholars have proposed different idea of concurrent multipath transfer (CMT) to aggregate available bandwidth from heterogeneous networks over Internet. In this paper, we focus on the performance problem from concurrent multipath transfer. The problem is about how to effectively transport data over asymmetric paths with very different bandwidth provision. The best-known reason of inefficient bandwidth-aggregation of CMT is buffer blocking problem for paths' uneven bandwidth. Thus, we propose an enhanced CMT scheme via load-balancing virtual connections (VC). We actually construct and configure the VC-CMT test-bed based on the original CMT-SCTP stack on FreeBSD operating system. The performance results demonstrate the high feasibility of our proposed VC-CMT, which can provide cost-effective bandwidth aggregation for multi-link transmission.
Selective Activation of the Developmentally Regulated Ha hsp17.6 G1 Promoter by Heat Stress Transcription Factors1

Using two well-characterized heat stress transcription factors (Hsfs) from tomato (Lycopersicon peruvianum; LpHsfA1 and LpHsfA2), we analyzed the transcriptional activation of theHa hsp17.6 G1 promoter in sunflower (Helianthus annuus) embryos. In this system, we observed transient promoter activation only with LpHsfA2. In contrast, both factors were able to activate mutant versions of the promoter with improved consensus Hsf-binding sites. Exclusive activation by LpHsfA2 was also observed in yeast (Saccharomyces cerevisiae) without other Hsfs and with a minimal Cyc1 promoter fused to theHa hsp17.6 G1 heat stress cis-element. Furthermore, the same promoter mutations reproduced the loss of activation selectivity, as observed in sunflower embryos. The results of in vitro binding experiments rule out differential DNA binding of the two factors as the explanation for the observed differential activation capacity. We conclude that the specific sequence of this heat stress cis-element is crucial for Hsf promoter selectivity, and that this selectivity could involve preferential transcriptional activation following DNA binding. In sunflower embryos, we also observed synergistic transcriptional activation by co-expression of LpHsfA1 and LpHsfA2. Mutational analyses of the Ha hsp17.6 G1 promoter, combined with in vitro binding assays, suggest that mixed oligomers of the two factors may be involved in promoter activation. We discuss the relevance of our observations for mechanisms of developmental regulation of plant heat stress protein genes.
Detection of Extended-Spectrum β Lactamases and AmpC β-Lactamase Production in Escherichia coli Causing Urinary Tract Infection among HIV and Non-HIV Patients

Problem statement: Opportunistic infections have been documented as a leading cause of morbidity among HIV patients. Gram negative pathogens that elaborate beta-lactamases have been reported to be associated with increased morbidity and mortality, especially amongst immunocompromised patients on intensive care and high-dependency units. The most common mechanism of β-lactam drug resistance in Escherichia coli include ESBL, AmpC production. Approach: In this study, we assessed the prevalence of UTI in two groups of individuals which included patients with HIV/AIDS and non-HIV antenatal patients. Results: E. coli was the predominant pathogen associated with bacteriuria in both the HIV group and the non-HIV group. In vitro sensitivity revealed that 96.2 and 31.8% of the E. coli isolates from the HIV patients and non-HIV patients were resistant to co-trimoxazole. Also, 72.7 and 4.5% of E. coli strains produced ESBL and/or AmpC among the HIV and the non-HIV antenatal patients respectively. Conclusion: Our data suggests that UTI may represent a relevant cause of morbidity among the HIV/AIDS patients.
Shaping Synaptic Learning by the Duration of Postsynaptic Action Potential in a New STDP Model

Single spikes and their timing matter in changing synaptic efficacy, which is known as spike-timing-dependent plasticity (STDP). Most previous studies treated spikes as all-or-none events, and considered their duration and magnitude as negligible. Here we explore the effects of action potential (AP) duration on synaptic plasticity in a simplified model neuron using computer simulations. We propose a novel STDP model that depresses synapses using an AP duration dependent LTD window and induces potentiation of synaptic strength when presynaptic spikes arrive before and during a postsynaptic AP (dSTDP). We demonstrate that AP duration is another key factor for insensitizing the postsynaptic neural firing and for controlling the shape of synaptic weight distribution. Extended AP durations produce a wide unimodal weight distribution that resembles the ones reported experimentally and make the postsynaptic neuron tranquil when disturbed by poisson noise spike trains, while equivalently sensitive to the synchronized. Our results suggest that the impact of AP duration, modeled here as an AP-dependent STDP window, on synaptic plasticity can be dramatic and should motivate future STDP studies.
The Perverse Law of Child Pornography

In this article, Professor Adler argues that child pornography law, intended to protect children from sexual exploitation, threatens to reinforce the very problem it attacks. The article begins with a historical claim: our culture has become preoccupied with child sexual abuse and child pornography in a way that it did not used to be. The article traces the rapid development of child pornography law, showing that a cultural transformation in our notion of childhood sexual vulnerability has coincided with the birth and dramatic expansion of the law. Professor Adler then introduces various causal accounts of this chronological correlation between the regulation of child pornography and the growing crisis of child sexual abuse. First, she explores the possibility that the burgeoning law of child pornography may invite its own violation through a dialectic of taboo and transgression. She then presents another reading of the relationship between child pornography law and culture: the law may unwittingly perpetuate and escalate the sexual representation of children that it seeks to constrain. In this view, the legal tool that we designed to liberate children from sexual abuse threatens us all, by constructing a world in which we are enthralled---anguished, enticed, bombarded---by the spectacle of the sexual child.