Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Clustering of cardiovascular risk factors in a middle-income country: a call for urgency

Background: This study aimed to estimate the prevalence of cardiovascular risk factors and its clustering. The findings are to help shape the Malaysian future healthcare planning for cardiovascular disease prevention and management. Methods: Data from a nationally representative cross-sectional survey was used. The survey was conducted via a face-to-face interview using a standardised questionnaire. A total of 37,906 eligible participants aged 18 years and older was identified, of whom 34,505 (91%) participated. Focus was on hypertension, hyperglycaemia (diabetes and impaired fasting glucose), hypercholesterolaemia and central obesity. Results: Overall, 63% (95% confidence limits 62, 65%) of the participants had at least one cardiovascular risk factor, 33% (32, 35%) had two or more and 14% (12, 15%) had three risk factors or more. The prevalence of hypertension, hyperglycaemia, hypercholesterolaemia and central obesity were 38%, 15%, 24% and 37%, respectively. Women were more likely to have a higher number of cardiovascular risk factors for most age groups; adjusted odds ratios ranging from 1.1 (0.91, 1.32) to 1.26 (1.12, 1.43) for the presence of one risk factor and 1.07 (0.91, 1.32) to 2.00 (1.78, 2.25) for two or more risk factors. Conclusions: Cardiovascular risk-factor clustering provides a clear impression of the true burden of cardiovascular disease risk in the population. Women displayed higher prevalence and a younger age shift in clustering was seen. These findings signal the presence of a cardiovascular epidemic in an upcoming middle-income country and provide evidence that drastic measures have to be taken to safeguard the health of the nation.
Design methodology of a high speed switched reluctance generator drive for aircrafts

The paper proposes a high speed switched reluctance (SR) drive for aircraft applications, covering the demand of more electric aircrafts (MEA) and defending the particular benefits of this machine technology against others, such as permanent magnet synchronous generators. An appropriate topology of electrical machine and power converter for a high speed DC distribution grid is selected. Firstly, the electromagnetic design of the generator, by means of FEM, is described in detail, paying attention to the problem of the torque ripple and pointing out some solutions to improve it, based on an iterative optimisation of both stator and rotor geometries and phases activation and deactivation angles. Then, the design of power electronics is also analysed, obtaining the required modules and cooling system from a simulation model, using the maximum and average current levels as well as the duty cycles. The model has been developed from the generator electromagnetic design and integrates the control strategy, in charge of controlling the DC-link voltage. An iterative procedure using FEM analysis and the simulation model is also used to validate the thermal and mechanical behaviour of the system. Finally, the integration of the complete electric drive is discussed with the criteria of maintaining the system within the available room and keeping the temperature under the maximum limits. The application of aircraft equipment is specially demanding in terms of robustness, low maintenance, fault tolerance, high temperature and harsh environment, and those are the reasons why the SR generator is a reliable alternative.
Sexual Strategies Across Sexual Orientations

Abstract The psychological intersection of biological sex, personality, and sexual orientation represents a unique prospect for investigating the evolution of human mating strategies. Evolved sex differences in human psychology may encounter different mating environments within homosexual and heterosexual contexts. The personality traits of homosexuals, if different from heterosexuals, may influence human mating dynamics in revealing ways. In the current study, 5,310 men (5,083 heterosexuals, 131 homosexuals, and 96 bisexuals) and 7,589 women (7,240 heterosexuals, 143 homosexuals, and 206 bisexuals) across four major world regions completed personality and sexuality self-report surveys. Consistent with previous research, sociosexual behavior (e.g., number of one-night stands) and personality traits (e.g., masculinity and openness to experience) varied across sexual orientation. In addition, personality traits were predictably related to sociosexual behavior. However, variability in personality traits did not account for the observed differences in sociosexual behavior across sexual orientation.
Compact, Low-Loss, Wideband, and High-Power Handling Phase Shifters With Piezoelectric Transducer-Controlled Metallic Perturber

Compact phase shifters with large phase shift, low loss, and high-power-handling capability are desired for a variety of applications. In this paper, a new type of compact meander line phase shifter with metallic perturber controlled by a piezoelectric transducer (PET) has been designed, fabricated, and tested. The new phase-shifter design led to a large phase shift of 360° with a control voltage of 50 V at 3.5 GHz, a low insertion loss of 1 ~ 3 dB, a wide range of operation frequency of 1 ~ 6 GHz, a high-power-handling capability beyond 30 dBm on a compact meander line of 18 mm × 18 mm, compared with similar phase shifters with a dielectric perturber which exhibited very limited phase shift at the S-band. In addition, this is a low-cost phase-shifter design that is extendable to the W -band and beyond. Combined with a low loss, large phase shift, compact size, and a high-power-handling capability, the new meander line phase shifter with PET-controlled metallic perturber showed great potential to be used in different RF/microwave systems.
BonnPlace: A Self-Stabilizing Placement Framework

We present a new algorithm for VLSI placement. Our tool BonnPlace incorporates a partitioning-based legalization into a force-directed loop by iteratively pulling circuits towards their positions in a legalized placement. This self-stabilizing algorithm combines the accuracy of partitioning-based methods with the stability of force-directed placement strategies. Using information from earlier iterations, it is capable of improving netlength as well as more involved objective functions like routability and timing behavior. In contrast to previous techniques, we legalize with higher effort, which allows us to reduce the number of iterations. Performance is further improved by adapting a clustering heuristic that takes into account the current cell positions, both for clustering and unclustering. We tested our tool on recent instances from industry and on publicly available benchmark suites. In particular on the routability-driven placement instances of the DAC 2012 contest, our algorithm produces the best known results.
Studies of Plain-to-Rolled Fingerprint Matching Using the NIST Algorithmic Test Bed (ATB)

SUMMARY A series of fingerprint matching studies have been conducted on an experimental laboratory system called the Algorithmic Test Bed (ATB). The ATB is a system used to test the functional characteristics of the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) component of the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s (FBI) Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System (IAFIS). It was supplied by Lockheed Martin a , the vendor of IAFIS, whose technology it shares. The ATB includes a built-in gallery of nearly 1.2M subjects, effectively a 3% representative sample of the FBI’s criminal master file, with some room for additions. The ATB provides broad control over its operating modes and set points. The ATB, like IAFIS, was originally designed to identify (and verify) subjects using submitted (predominantly rolled) fingerprint cards. The database against which the submitted cards were to be matched was likewise predominantly composed of rolled images from fingerprint cards. As demand rose for the use of plain (or flat or slap) images, ascertaining the operational characteristics of this matcher with plain submissions became important. These studies were organized in three major groups. Studies of plain-to-rolled matching as a function of data source made up the first group. Studies of plain-to-rolled matching using large sets of operational data made up the second. Studies of plain-to-plain matching made up the third. The studies answered nine major questions:
TUBERCULOSIS IN EUROPEAN BADGERS (MELES MELES) AND THE CONTROL OF INFECTION WITH BACILLE CALMETTE-GUÉRIN VACCINATION

The eradication of tuberculosis (Mycobacterium bovis infection) from cattle herds may be compromised if infected wildlife species, such as European badgers (Meles meles), share the same environment and contribute to transfer of infection. Options for dealing with tuberculosis in this wild reservoir host are limited by conservation and social concerns, despite a clear implication that infected badgers are involved with the initiation of tuberculosis in cattle herds. Vaccination of badgers against M. bovis, if successfully employed, would directly facilitate the completion of bovine tuberculosis eradication in affected areas. Vaccine trials in captive badgers have established that the M. bovis bacille Calmette-Guérin (BCG) vaccine can induce a protective response that limits the distribution and severity of tuberculosis disease following experimental challenge. The protective effect of the vaccine has been demonstrated when the vaccine was delivered by subcutaneous injection, deposited on mucous membranes, and given orally in a lipid formulation. A large-scale field trial of oral BCG vaccine has been designed to measure the protection generated in wild badgers subjected to natural transmission of infection and to estimate vaccine efficacy. These parameters will be estimated by comparing the prevalence of M. bovis infection in vaccinated and nonvaccinated badgers. The results will provide a framework for the development and implementation of a national strategy to eliminate the disease in badger populations and if successful will remove this major impediment to bovine tuberculosis eradication.
Potential Role of Drug Transporters in the Pathogenesis of Medically Intractable Epilepsy

Summary: The pathogenesis underlying pharmacoresistance in epilepsy is unclear. One of the candidate mechanisms that has attracted growing interest is the limitation of antiepileptic drug (AED) access to the seizure focus by a range of efflux transporters, the prototype of which is P‐glycoprotein (P‐gp). P‐gp is encoded by the multidrug resistance (MDR1 or ABCB1) gene. Predominantly expressed in organs with excretory functions and at blood–tissue barriers, P‐gp is thought to act as a physiologic defense by extruding xenobiotics from mammalian cells and affording protection of sensitive organs. The high level of P‐gp in the cerebrovascular endothelium is believed to contribute to the functionality of the blood–brain barrier. Overexpression of P‐gp causes multidrug resistance in certain cancers. It has been hypothesized that overexpression of P‐gp and other efflux transporters in the cerebrovascular endothelium, in the region of the epileptic focus, also may lead to drug resistance in epilepsy. This hypothesis is supported by the findings of elevated expression of efflux transporters in epileptic foci in patients with drug‐resistant epilepsy, induction of expression by seizures in animal models, and experimental evidence that some commonly used AEDs are substrates. Conflicting reports suggest a possible association between variants of the MDR1 gene and medical intractability in epilepsy. Further studies to delineate the exact role, if any, of P‐gp and other efflux transporters in drug‐resistant epilepsy are warranted.
Reproductive Biology and Endocrinology Open Access the Use of Digit Ratios as Markers for Perinatal Androgen Action

Since the ratio of the second-to-fourth finger length was first proposed as a marker for prenatal androgen action in 1998, over 100 studies have been published that have either further tested the association between the digit ratio and prenatal androgens, or employed digit ratios as a marker to investigate the association between prenatal androgens and a variety of outcomes, including behavior, fertility, and disease risks. Despite the clear demand for an adult marker of prenatal androgen action and increased use of digit ratios as such a marker, its validity remains controversial. This review (1) evaluates current evidence for the relationship between digit ratios and prenatal androgens (using experimentation with animal models, amniotic testosterone, and congenital adrenal hyperplasia case-control studies), (2) describes opportunities for future validation tests, and (3) compares the potential advantages and disadvantages of digit ratio measures with more established methods for studying the effects of prenatal androgens.
Bifid mandibular canals: cone beam computed tomography evaluation.

OBJECTIVES For surgical procedures involving the posterior mandible, it is important to be familiar with the details of the bifid mandibular canal. To our knowledge, there have been no systematic studies evaluating the bifid mandibular canal using sectional imaging. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the incidence and configuration of the bifid mandibular canal using cone beam CT. METHODS 252 patients (301 mandible sides) underwent cone beam CT between October 2004 and September 2005 and were included in this study. The cone beam CT images were evaluated for the presence and configuration of the bifid mandibular canal. The patterns of bifurcation were classified into four types according to the classification of Nortjé et al (Variations in the normal anatomy of the inferior dental (mandibular) canal: a retrospective study of panoramic radiographs from 3612 routine dental patients. Br J Oral Surg 1977; 15: 55-63). The diameter of the accessory canal was classified into two categories: 50% or more and less than 50% of the diameter of the main mandibular canal. RESULTS Of the 301 subjects, 47 (15.6%) demonstrated a bifid mandibular canal. They were Type I in 2, Type II in 40, Type III in 0, and Type IV in 5 cases. The diameter of the accessory canal was greater than or equal to 50% of the main canal in 23, and less than 50% in 24 cases. CONCLUSIONS On the basis of the cone beam CT, a bifid mandibular canal was found in 15.6% of cases, a markedly higher proportion than found in previous reports using panoramic images. Cone beam CT is considered a suitable modality for detailed evaluation of bifid mandibular canals.
DISA at ImageCLEF 2014 Revised: Search-based Image Annotation with DeCAF Features

This paper constitutes an extension to the report on DISA MU team participation in the ImageCLEF 2014 Scalable Concept Image Annotation Task as published in [3]. Specifically, we introduce a new similarity search component that was implemented into the system, report on the results achieved by utilizing this component, and analyze the influence of different similarity search parameters on the annotation quality.
Learning nonadjacent dependencies in phonology: Transparent vowels in vowel harmony

Nonadjacent dependencies are an important part of the structure of language. While the majority of syntactic and phonological processes occur at a local domain, there are several processes that appear to apply at a distance, posing a challenge for theories of linguistic structure. This article addresses one of the most common nonadjacent phenomena in phonology: transparent vowels in vowel harmony. Vowel harmony occurs when adjacent vowels are required to share the same phonological feature value (e.g. V<sub xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+F</sub> C V<sub xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+F</sub>). However, transparent vowels create a second-order nonadjacent pattern because agreement between two vowels can ‘skip’ the transparent neutral vowel in addition to consonants (e.g. V<sub xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+F</sub> C <b>V<sup>T</sup><sub>–F</sub></b> C V<sub xmlns:m="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">+F</sub>). Adults are shown to display initial learning biases against second-order nonadjacency in experiments that use an artificial grammar learning paradigm. Experiments 1–3 show that adult learners fail to learn the second-order long-distance dependency created by the transparent vowel (as compared to a control condition). In experiments 4–5, training in terms of overall exposure as well as the frequency of relevant transparent items was increased. With adequate exposure, learners reliably generalize to novel words containing transparent vowels. The experiments suggest that learners are sensitive to the structure of phonological representations, even when learning occurs at a relatively rapid pace.
A Software Toolkit for Viewing Annotated Multimodal Data Interactively over the Web

This paper describes a software toolkit for the interactive display and analysis of automatically extracted or manually derived annotation features of visual and audio data. It has been extensively tested with material collected as part of the FreeTalk Multimodal Conversation Corpus. Both the corpus and the software are available for download from sites in Europe and Japan. The corpus consists of several hours of video and audio recordings from a variety of capture devices, and includes subjective annotations of the content, along with derived data obtained from image processing. Because of the large size of the corpus, it is unrealistic to expect researchers to download all the material before deciding whether it will be useful to them in their research. We have therefore devised a means for interactive browsing of the content and for viewing at different levels of granularity. This has resulted in a simple set of tools that can be added to any website to allow similar browsing of audio- video recordings and their related data and annotations.
Explaining Expressive Performance: Component Cognitive Skills in an Aural Modeling Task

This study is an examination of musicians' expressive performances, in an aural modeling task, paying special attention to the skills of goal imaging and motor production. Twenty-five university musicians heard expressive piano excerpts preceded by expressionless “deadpan” versions to use as the bases of comparison. After giving imitative performances of each expressive model, subjects indicated the perceived dynamic and tempo contours of the model by drawing on a chart. Multiple regression analyses were used to explain the dynamic variations of subjects' expressive performances. A theoretical model designated “contextual goal image” consisted of (a) subjects' previous attempts at performing in a deadpan manner (indicating the expressive conventions automatically applied to the excerpts' musical contexts) and (b) their line drawings of what they perceived in the models. Overall, the contextual goal image model explained a large proportion of the variance in performance, indicating the importance of supplementing automatically applied performance conventions with an explicit goal performance plan.
Are Gas Discharges Capable of Generating Maser Radiation?:—Part 1

The linear interactions between two electromagnetic waves arising from high-speed electrons in the resonant cavity are studied by observing the effects stated in the quantum electronics, i.e., due to the microwave amplification by stimulated emission of radiation. Einstein's equation is used. The first electromagnetic wave arises from the high-speed electrons in the corona discharge occurring at the helix. The second electromagnetic wave is due to the high-speed electrons in the gas discharge that is occurring in the small gaps. Many experimental data are analyzed and three examples are presented.
THE EFFECTS OF IMPLIED MOTION ON SHORT-TERM MEMORY FOR PICTURES

This research examined the effects of motion expectations on memory for static pictures. The central hypothesis was that as implied motion for a picture increases, memory distortions will also increase in the direction of implied motion. A secondary hypothesis predicted that people will find pictures with increased implied motion more interesting than pictures with less implied motion. Experiment 1 established a methodology for measuring memory distortion in art images. Performance on a "same-different" recognition task measured specific memory distortions for three pictures. In experiment 2, implied motion was varied by using combinations of pictorial devices that imply motion (action lines, posture, orientation, and multiple images). Memory distortion was tested using the methodology established in experiment 1. Participants also rated the amount of implied motion in each picture and level of interest for each picture. Results showed that the more motion devices were contained in a picture, the more memory was distorted in the direction of motion. In addition, as the number of motion devices increased, the amount of iv motion and interest rated for the pictures increased. Interest and motion ratings were positively correlated. However, neither motion nor interest ratings were significantly related to performance on the memory distortion task using a correlational analysis across individual pictures. Experiment 3 used a new set of line drawings of the human body. This set contained more realistic figures, fading action lines and fading multiple images. Participants found this set of pictures more interesting than the previous experiment, but there were no overall differences in motion ratings and memory distortions. However, for particular pictures, differences were found. Thus we can conclude that not all motion devices are alike, and depending on the way they are produced, they can influence perception and memory. Overall, the results supported the hypothesis that as implied motion increases, memory distortions increase in pictures. Results also provided some evidence that the amount of implied motion in a picture may affect a person's level of interest for the picture. These findings contribute to the growing body of knowledge that expectations about motion affect basic perception and representation of visual pictures. Jennifer Freyd for her guidance, support, and enthusiasm for this research. In addition, thanks goes to John McConnell for his patience with all my computer questions these many years, and to Dr. Kean Chew and Dr. Robert Mauro for their statistical advice. viii DEDICATION This dissertation is dedicated to my …
Study on the Inconsistency between a Pre-service Teacher's Mathematics Education Beliefs and Mathematics Teaching Practice

Using the conversation syllabus based on some researchers’ views and the spirits of New Basic Curriculum Reform in China, we studied a Chinese high school pre-service teacher’s mathematics education beliefs. At the same time, we observed one mathematics lesson that was taught by this teacher and we found that there were inconsistencies between this teacher’s mathematics education beliefs and her mathematics teaching practice. The main reason for these inconsistencies was that the pre-service teacher lacked PCK (pedagogical content knowledge) about mathematics teaching. Thus, teacher educators should help pre-service teachers to realize that mathematics teaching and learning was very complex process further, should teach preservice teachers more teaching strategies and should instruct pre-service teachers to do self-reflection and so on.