Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of patterns of substance abuse in Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates

The aim in the present study was to compare the patterns of substance abuse in the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia (KSA) and the United Arab Emirates (UAE). One hundred and twenty substance abusers from the KSA and 79 substance abusers from the UAE participated. All par ticipants were males. Age, education, age at onset of abuse, substances abused, duration of abuse, mode of abuse, and employment were investigated. Analysis of the data revealed some similarities including age, employment, and substances prevalent among poly-substance abusers. Differences in patterns of substance abuse included age at onset, prevalence of poly- substance abuse, and substances prevalent among single-substances abusers. The findings are discussed and compared with previous reports. Recommendations for future studies are made.
A jitter characterization system using a component-invariant Vernier delay line

Jitter characterization has become significantly more important for systems running at multigigahertz data rates. Time and frequency domain characterization of jitter is thus a crucial element for system specification testing. Time domain jitter measurement on a data signal with subgate timing resolution can be achieved using two delay chains feeding into the clock and datalines of a series of D-latches known as a Vernier delay line (VDL). An important drawback to the VDL structure is that its measurement accuracy depends on the matching of the various delay elements. Although careful layout techniques can help to minimize these mismatches, it cannot eliminate them completely. As well, due to the nature of the design, a relatively large silicon area is required for silicon implementation. In this paper, a novel technique is developed which reduces the silicon area requirements by two orders of magnitude, as well enables the measurement device to be synthesized from a register transfer level (RTL) description. A custom IC was designed and fabricated in a 0.18-/spl mu/m CMOS process as a first proof of concept. The design requires a silicon area of 0.12 mm/sup 2/ and measured results indicate a timing resolution of 19 ps. The synthesizable nature of the design is demonstrated using an field-programmable gate-array implementation. As test time is an important consideration for a production test, an extension to the component-invariant VDL technique is provided that reduces test time at the expense of more hardware. Finally, a method for obtaining the frequency domain characteristics of the jitter using the VDL will also be given.
Virulence factors of urinary pathogens.

Despite the widespread use of antibiotics urinary tract infections (UTI) remain among the most common bacterial infections in the human population. About 5% of adult females are likely to have a UTI at any moment in time, while more than 50% of all women will experience a UTI at some stage in their lives [l]. Because individual women can alternate between symptomatic and asymptomatic episodes of infection it seems likely that the bacteria associated with overt infections are more pathogenic than their covert counterparts. The observation that most cases of UTI are caused by strains of Escherichia coli with a restricted range of 0-serotypes [2-41, and that the pattern of these 0-serotypes does not correspond to the distribution for Esch. coli strains in the normal faecal flora [S], supports the idea that urinary pathogens possess definite determinants of virulence. Furthermore, carriage of genes coding for haemolysin synthesis [3, 61, resistance to the cidal effect of serum [7] and the ability to cause mannoseresistant haemagglutination (MRHA) of human erythrocytes [3, 61 are all associated with the 0-serotypes which predominate in urinary Esch. coli isolates. Such markers of virulence appear to be particularly common among bacterial strains isolated from patients with infections of the upper urinary tract [2], and in particular, the MRHA adhesions designated P fimbriae have been shown to occur with a frequency of between 81% [8] and 94% [9] in subcultured pyelonephritic strains of Esch. coli. A great deal of attention has been paid in the last decade to the identification and charac-
Oil-immersed transformer online hot spot temperature monitoring and accurate life lose calculation based on liber Bragg grating sensor technology

The insulation capacity of electric power transformer will be affected by running in overheated conditions, and the winding hot spot temperature is the main limiting factor of transformer load, so the winding hot spot temperature should be measured accurately. Online temperature monitoring method using Fiber Bragg grating is presented in this paper. By the application of optical fiber grating temperature sensor in oil-immersed transformer, electromagnetic interference is avoided and direct temperature measurement of internal transformer can be realized. The system is built in an 110kV oil-immersed transformer and the transformer is put in operation for 10 months, it works safely and the measurement temperature data is stable and accurate. Based on the data, an accurate estimate of transformer life loss is work out through continuous integration of hot spot temperature and measurement time.
Jak/Stat signalling in niche support cells regulates dpp transcription to control germline stem cell maintenance in the Drosophila ovary

The existence of specialised regulatory microenvironments or niches that sustain stable stem cell populations is well documented in many tissues. However, the specific mechanisms by which niche support (or stromal) cells govern stem cell maintenance remain largely unknown. Here we demonstrate that removal of the Jak/Stat pathway in support cells of the Drosophila ovarian niche leads to germline stem cell loss by differentiation. Conversely, ectopic Jak/Stat activation in support cells induces stem cell tumours, implying the presence of a signal relay between the stromal compartment and the stem cell population. We further show that ectopic Jak/Stat signalling in support cells augments dpp mRNA levels and increases the range of Dpp signalling, a Bmp2 orthologue known to act as a niche extrinsic factor required for female germline stem cell survival and division. Our results provide strong evidence for a model in which Jak/Stat signalling in somatic support cells regulates dpp transcription to define niche size and to maintain the adjacent germline stem cells in an undifferentiated state.
Entering the ‘Darwinian Markets of Europe’: Strategic Management of Space–Time in Two Regional Strategy Processes in Southern Finland, 1990–94

Abstract This paper provides an analysis of the strategic orientation towards regional transformation through the notion of ‘strategic management of space–time’. It argues that regional strategy processes are about a construction of selective semiotic economic imaginaries, controllable ‘slices’ out of the messiness of the ‘actually existing economy’. The paper presents a three-dimensional framework to analyse regional strategy processes focusing on strategic gaze, strategy sites and the spaces of strategy. In the framework, strategy process is perceived as partially ‘hermetic’ space that produces its own worldview, its distinctive perspective, out of the hybrid contextual materials. The perspective is the central ‘product’ of the regional strategy process; it strongly frames the landscape of potentialities (what is possible, what is plausible, what is desirable) created in the process. The paper exemplifies this framework by studying two strategy processes realised in Southern Finland in 1990–94. In both of these, the strategic gaze was built on an optic of Europe as a new kind of ‘Darwinian market space’ in which the economic survival and success would require specific regional capacities.
The Mental Health Needs of Children and Adolescents with Cleft Lip and/or Palate

Children with cleft lip and/or palate and their families have a range of emotional and psychological difficulties associated with this congenital anomaly. This article reviews the literature available on this subject and highlights the main difficulties as being those of social isolation, speech and language difficulties, specific and global learning difficulties and poor self-image. There is a description of the interventions a child with cleft may require, ranging from surgical and orthodontic procedures, long-term speech and language therapy and frequent clinic appointments. It then goes on to describe the current services provided by cleft teams and suggests ways to enhance the mental well-being of these children and adolescents. This includes better communication between professionals of the difficulties this population may encounter, early identification and intervention where problems exist, input from mental health professionals and social skills workshops.
Generalized Confidence Interval Estimation for the Difference in Paired Areas Under the ROC Curves in the Absence of a Gold Standard

Receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves can be used to assess the accuracy of tests measured on ordinal or continuous scales. The most commonly used measure for the overall diagnostic accuracy of diagnostic tests is the area under the ROC curve (AUC). A gold standard (GS) test on the true disease status is required to estimate the AUC. However, a GS test may be too expensive or infeasible. In many medical researches, the true disease status of the subjects may remain unknown. Under the normality assumption on test results from each disease group of subjects, we propose a heuristic method of estimating confidence intervals for the difference in paired AUCs of two diagnostic tests in the absence of a GS reference. This heuristic method is a three-stage method by combining the expectation-maximization (EM) algorithm, bootstrap method, and an estimation based on asymptotic generalized pivotal quantities (GPQs) to construct generalized confidence intervals for the difference in paired AUCs in the absence of a GS. Simulation results show that the proposed interval estimation procedure yields satisfactory coverage probabilities and expected interval lengths. The numerical example using a published dataset illustrates the proposed method.
A Comparative Cross-Domain Study of the Occurrence of Laughter in Meeting and Seminar Corpora

Laughter is an intrinsic component of human-human interaction, and current automatic speech understanding paradigms stand to gain significantly from its detection and modeling. In the current work, we produce a manual segmentation of laughter in a large corpus of interactive multi-party seminars, which promises to be a valuable resource for acoustic modeling purposes. More importantly, we quantify the occurrence of laughter in this new domain, and contrast our observations with findings for laughter in multi-party meetings. Our analyses show that, with respect to the majority of measures we explore, the occurrence of laughter in both domains is quite similar.
Development of a fast method for determining psychophysical tuning curves

Psychophysical tuning curves (PTCs) can be used to assess the frequency selectivity of the auditory system and to detect and delimit “dead regions” in the cochlea. However, the traditional method for determining PTCs takes too long for use in clinical practice. We evaluated a fast method for determining PTCs, using a band of noise that sweeps in centre frequency and a Békésy method to adjust the masker level required for threshold. The shapes of the PTCs were similar for the fast and traditional methods, for both normally hearing and hearing-impaired subjects. Rates of change of masker level of 2 dB/s or less gave the most reliable results. A relatively wide bandwidth (20 percent of the signal frequency or 320 Hz, whichever is the smaller) was needed to minimise the influence of beat detection. When the signal frequency fell within a dead region, the fast method gave PTCs with shifted tips.
The Association between Self‐Reported Symptoms of Asthma and Allergic Rhinitis and Self‐Reported Traffic Density on Street of Residence in Adolescents

&NA; We examined the association between self‐reported symptoms of asthma and allergic rhinitis and self‐reported exposure to motor vehicle traffic in adolescents in Münster, Germany. A total of 3,703 German students age 12‐15 years completed a written and video questionnaire in 1994‐1995. We found positive associations between both wheezing and symptoms of allergic rhinitis during the past 12 months and self‐reported frequency of truck traffic. The sex‐ and age‐adjusted prevalence odds ratios and 95% confidence intervals (CI) for truck traffic, contrasting the categories “frequent” and “constant” against “never,” were, for wheezing obtained by written questionnaire: 1.53 (95% CI = 1.15‐2.05) and 2.15 (95% CI = 1.44‐3.21); for wheezing obtained by video questionnaire: 1.61 (95% CI = 1.26‐2.07) and 2.47 (95% CI = 1.74‐3.52); and for symptoms of allergic rhinitis: 1.71 (95% CI = 1.36‐2.15) and 1.96 (95% CI = 1.40‐2.76), respectively. We found a similar positive association with self‐reports on traffic noise. Putative confounding variables, including indicators of socioeconomic status, smoking, etc, did not alter these associations substantially. The results correspond closely with findings of a survey carried out in 1991 in Bochum, Germany. Our results support the hypothesis that exposure to motor vehicle traffic is related to symptoms of asthma and allergic rhinitis in children, but we cannot rule out misclassification due to self‐reports of traffic exposure. (Epidemiology 1996;7:578‐582)
Exploring consumer status and conspicuous consumption

In seeking to expand an understanding of consumption, this study assesses the relationship between status consumption and conspicuous consumption. Theoretically, the relationship between status consumption and conspicuous consumption is problematic and, therefore, the main focus of this paper examines the theoretical and empirical separation of consumers' status consumption and conspicuous consumption. Data were gathered via a survey of individuals aged between 18 and 25. The findings indicate that status consumption and conspicuous consumption are distinct constructs. Differences in status consumption tendencies between males and females were not found; however, in relation to conspicuous consumption gender differences were found. Status consumption was affected by self-monitoring and interpersonal influences, but conspicuous consumption was affected only by interpersonal influences. The brands examined also clearly differed in terms of status and conspicuous consumption perceptions. Copyright © 2004 Henry Stewart Publications Ltd.
Ethnic Identity Among Chinese-American Youth: The Role of Family Obligation and Community Factors on Ethnic Engagement, Clarity, and Pride

The purpose of this study was twofold. First, using the 14-item Multigroup Ethnic Identity Measure, we established the appropriate factor structure of ethnic identity for a sample of Chinese-American youth. Second, we examined how family obligation and community factors (i.e., ethnic density, cultural resources, and perceived discrimination) related to the various factors of ethnic identity. The sample included 127 Chinese-American college students, recruited from an ethnically diverse university in Northern California. Confirmatory factor analysis revealed that a three-factor solution of ethnic engagement, clarity, and pride best described our sample. Further, we found that family obligation related positively to ethnic engagement and pride, that ethnic density related positively to ethnic pride, and that cultural resources related positively to ethnic engagement and clarity. Finally, we found that perceived discrimination related positively to ethnic engagement but negatively to ethnic pride. Thus, focusing on components of ethnic identity separately is valuable as it reveals how factors (such as discrimination) can, for instance, both promote and hinder a strong ethnic identity.
Structuring the Macromarket: Lessons from Alexander Hamilton

As the first U.S. Secretary of the Treasury, Alexander Hamilton exerted significant influence on the formation of governmental policy. This article examines Hamilton's attempt to institute a macromarketing plan for the United States. This plan would have promoted commerce, as well as economic and social development, but it failed. Hamilton's experience exemplifies the difficulty in developing a comprehensive macromarketing plan.
Prevalence of visual impairment in people aged 75 years and older in Britain: results from the MRC trial of assessment and management of older people in the community

Aims: To measure the prevalence of visual impairment in a large representative sample of people aged 75 years and over participating in the MRC trial of assessment and management of older people in the community. Methods: 53 practices in the MRC general practice research framework. Data were obtained from 14 600 participants aged 75 years and older. Prevalence of visual impairment overall (binocular visual acuity <6/18) which was categorised separately into low vision (binocular visual acuity <6/18–3/60) or blindness (binocular visual acuity of <3/60). The prevalence of binocular acuity <6/12 was presented for comparison with other studies. Visual acuity was measured using Glasgow acuity charts; glasses, if worn, were not removed. Results: Visual acuity was available for 14 600 people out of 21 241 invited (69%). Among people with visual acuity data, 12.4% overall (1803) were visually impaired (95% confidence intervals 10.8% to 13.9%); 1501 (10.3%) were categorised as having low vision (8.7% to 11.8%), and 302 (2.1%) were blind (1.8% to 2.4%). At ages 75–79, 6.2% of the cohort were visually impaired (5.1% to 7.3%) with 36.9% at age 90+ (32.5% to 41.3%). At ages 75–79, 0.6% (0.4% to 0.8%) of the study population were blind, with 6.9% (4.8% to 9.0%) at age 90+. In multivariate regression, controlling for age, women had significant excess risk of visual impairment (odds ratio 1.43, 95% confidence interval 1.29 to 1.58). Overall, 19.9% of study participants had a binocular acuity of less than 6/12 (17.8% to 22.0%). Conclusion: The results from this large study show that visual impairment is common in the older population and that this risk increases rapidly with advancing age, especially for women. A relatively conservative measure of visual impairment was used. If visual impairment had been defined as visual acuity of <6/12 (American definition of visual impairment), the age specific prevalence estimates would have increased by 60%.
Structured re-assessment system at 6 months after a disabling stroke: a randomised controlled trial with resource use and cost study.

BACKGROUND national policy recommends routine re-assessment of disabled patients and their carers at 6 months after stroke onset. The clinical and resource outcomes of this policy were investigated. DESIGN prospective, single-blind, randomised controlled trial in two centres. PARTICIPANTS a total of 265 patients with a disabling stroke and their carers. INTERVENTIONS a structured re-assessment system for patients and their carers at 6 months post-stroke or existing care. OUTCOME MEASURES primary: patient independence (Frenchay activities index) and carer stress (general health questionnaire 28). Secondary: activities of daily living, mood state, satisfaction with services, carer strain index, health and social service resource use and costs. RESULTS independence at 12 months post-stroke was similar in both groups (Frenchay activities index, adjusted mean difference 0.64; 95% confidence interval -0.74-2.02). Emotional distress in carers was similar in both groups (general health questionnaire 28, mean difference 0.02; 95% confidence interval -0.95-1.00). Results for the secondary outcome measures and total mean costs were similar for both groups. The intervention group patients used 301 fewer hospital bed days and 1,631 fewer care home bed days. CONCLUSIONS the structured, systematic re-assessment for patients and their carers was not associated with any clinically significant evidence of benefit at 12 months. Health and social care resource use and mean cost per patient were broadly similar in both groups. TRIAL REGISTRATION International Standard Randomised Controlled Trial Register; number: ISRCTN55412871.
The Relationship between Music and Reading in Beginning Readers

This study investigated the relationship of both phonemic and musical sound discrimination to reading ability in children in their first year at school. Awareness to changes in pitch and timbre of musical stimuli was assessed using a specially designed test of musical ability. Tests of phonemic awareness and of reading performance were also administered, with particular emphasis on ability at employing phonic skills in reading. The results support the hypothesis that discrimination of musical sounds is related to reading performance, but reveal that the influential factor in this relationship is a specific awareness of pitch changes.
Extrapolation and sharp norm estimates for classical operators on weighted Lebesgue spaces

We obtain sharp weighted L p estimates in the Rubio de Francia extrapolation theorem in terms of the Ap characteristic constant of the weight. Precisely, if for a given 1 r it is bounded on L p (v) by the same increasing function of the Ap characteristic constant of v, and for p < r it is bounded on L p (v) by the same increasing function of the r 1 p 1 power of the Ap characteristic constant of v. For some operators these bounds are sharp, but not always. In particular, we show that they are sharp for the Hilbert, Beurling, and martingale transforms.
Features of the built environment related to physical activity friendliness and children's obesity and other risk factors.

OBJECTIVES We investigated the relationships among environmental features of physical activity friendliness, socioeconomic indicators, and prevalence of obesity (BMI status), central adiposity (waist circumference, waist-height ratio), and hypertension. DESIGN AND SAMPLE The design was cross-sectional; the study was correlational. The sample was 911 kindergarteners through sixth graders from three schools in an urban school district residing in 13 designated neighborhoods. MEASURES Data from walking environmental community audits, census data for socioeconomic indicators, body mass index, waist circumference, waist-height ratio, and blood pressure were analyzed. A modified Alfonzo's Hierarchy of Walking Needs model was the conceptual framework for environmental features (i.e., accessibility, safety, comfort, and pleasurability) related to physical activity. RESULTS Accessibility was significantly and negatively correlated with prevalence of obesity and with prevalence of a waist-height ratio >0.50. When neighborhood education was controlled, and when both neighborhood education and poverty were controlled with partial correlational analysis, comfort features of a walking environment were significantly and positively related to prevalence of obesity. When poverty was controlled with partial correlation, accessibility was significantly and negatively correlated with prevalence of waist-height ratio >0.50. CONCLUSIONS The built environment merits further research to promote physical activity and stem the obesity epidemic in children. Our approach can be a useful framework for future research.