Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prevalence, patterns and factors associated with hypertensive crises in Mulago hospital emergency department; a cross-sectional study

Background Hypertension is increasing in sub-Saharan Africa (SSA) and it's the single most important modifiable stroke risk factor, yet it's control is not routinely emphasized. The prevalence, pattern and factors associated with hypertensive urgencies and emergencies in Uganda is not well established. A cross-sectional study, was conducted between November 2015 and February 2016, using a complete clinical examination and pre-tested standardized questionnaire subjects were enrolled. The prevalence of hypertensive crises and associations of demographic and clinical factors determined using logistic regression. Results The prevalence of hypertensive crises was 5.1%, (203/4000) of all admissions at the medical section of the accident and emergency ward of Mulago National Referral Hospital. The hypertensive urgencies and emergencies accounted for 32.5% and 67.5% respectively among study subjects with hypertension. Among those with hypertensive crises, 41.1% were aged 45–65 years and half were female. Self-reported compliance was significantly different between those with hypertensive crisis compared to non-hypertensive crisis with OR; (95% CI) 52.4; (24.5 — 111.7), p-value =<0.001. Acute stroke was the commonest hypertensive emergency. Conclusion Hypertensive emergencies are common and significantly associated with poor compliance to prescribed anti-hypertensive drugs. Acute stroke is the commonest presentation in our setting.
Molecular haplotyping by linking emulsion PCR: analysis of paraoxonase 1 haplotypes and phenotypes

Linking emulsion PCR (LE-PCR) enables formation of minichromosomes preserving phase information of two polymorphic loci, hence the haplotype. Emulsion PCR confines two amplicons of two linked polymorphic sites on a single template molecule to one aqueous-phase droplet. Linking PCR uses biotinylated, overlapping linking primers to connect these amplicons in the droplet. After LE-PCR, unlinked amplicons are removed on streptavidin-coated magnetic beads and single-stranded runoff products are capped by primer extension. Quantitative ASPCR can then be used to ascertain the haplotypes of the two polymorphic loci on the minichromosomes. Using LE-PCR, we determined the human paraoxonase-1 [PON1] molecular haplotypes at three loci (−909g>c, L55M, Q192R) in women who were compound heterozygotes for −909g>c/L55M (n = 89), −909g>c/Q192R (n = 77) and L55M/Q192R (n = 68). We observed a strong association between PON1 substrate specificity (paraoxon/phenylacetate substrate activity ratios) and −909g>c/Q192R haplotype. We have demonstrated here a powerful molecular haplotyping technology that can be applied in population studies.
Semantics and the stratification of explanation in cognitive science

This work is concerned with a pervasive problem in Cognitive Science which I have called the "stratificational" approach. I argue that the division into "levels of explanation" that runs as a constant theme through much work in Cognitive Science and in particular natural language semantics, is in direct conflict with neuroscientific evidence. I claim it is also in conflict with a right understanding of the philosophical notion of "evidence". The neuroscientific work is linked with the philosophical problem to provide a critique of concrete cases of research within the natural language semantics community. More recent neuroscientifically aware research is examined and it is demonstrated that it suffers similar problems due to the same deep running assumptions as those which effect traditional formalist theory. The contribution of this thesis is thought to be that of a demonstration of the essential nature and indeed the ubiquity of the basic assumptions in the field. Also, a new link is forged between the concerns of the formalists and certain seemingly more abstract philosophical work. This link enables us to see how much philosophical problems infect research into cognition and language. It is argued that practical research in Cognitive Science simply cannot be seen to be independent of the philosophical basis of the entire subject. The resulting picture of Cognitive Science and its place is outlined and explored with special emphasis on what I have called the "Principle of Semantic Indistinguishabliity" which says that the contribution of what can be broadly termed "environment" is epitemologically opaque to our cognition. The importance of this principle is discussed.
The question of idealism in McDowell

John McDowell has attempted to defend himself against the charge that the view presented in his influential book Mind and World is idealist. This paper argues that in spite of that defence, there is a clear way in which the view does depend on a form of idealism. McDowell is committed to the thought that the world is ‘conceptually organized’. I consider what this means, and argue that, although it does not formally imply idealism, it is only defensible from a broadly idealist view—one which is in fact in tension with important claims made by McDowell in other works.
Capacitated Network Design - Polyhedral Structure and Computation

We study a capacity expansion problem that arises in telecommunication network design. Given a capacitated network and a traffic demand matrix, the objective is to add capacity to the edges, in multiples of various modularities, and route traffic, so that the overall cost is minimized. We study the polyhedral structure of a mixed-integer formulation of the problem and develop a cutting-plane algorithm using facet defining inequalities. The algorithm produces an extended formulation providing both a vary good lower bound and a starting point for branch and bound. The overall algorithm appears effective when applied to problem instances using real-life data.
From Collision To Exploitation: Unleashing Use-After-Free Vulnerabilities in Linux Kernel

Since vulnerabilities in Linux kernel are on the increase, attackers have turned their interests into related exploitation techniques. However, compared with numerous researches on exploiting use-after-free vulnerabilities in the user applications, few efforts studied how to exploit use-after-free vulnerabilities in Linux kernel due to the difficulties that mainly come from the uncertainty of the kernel memory layout. Without specific information leakage, attackers could only conduct a blind memory overwriting strategy trying to corrupt the critical part of the kernel, for which the success rate is negligible. In this work, we present a novel memory collision strategy to exploit the use-after-free vulnerabilities in Linux kernel reliably. The insight of our exploit strategy is that a probabilistic memory collision can be constructed according to the widely deployed kernel memory reuse mechanisms, which significantly increases the success rate of the attack. Based on this insight, we present two practical memory collision attacks: An object-based attack that leverages the memory recycling mechanism of the kernel allocator to achieve freed vulnerable object covering, and a physmap-based attack that takes advantage of the overlap between the physmap and the SLAB caches to achieve a more flexible memory manipulation. Our proposed attacks are universal for various Linux kernels of different architectures and could successfully exploit systems with use-after-free vulnerabilities in kernel. Particularly, we achieve privilege escalation on various popular Android devices (kernel version>=4.3) including those with 64-bit processors by exploiting the CVE-2015-3636 use-after-free vulnerability in Linux kernel. To our knowledge, this is the first generic kernel exploit for the latest version of Android. Finally, to defend this kind of memory collision, we propose two corresponding mitigation schemes.
Non-central limit theorem for the cubic variation of a class of selfsimilar stochastic processes

By using multiple Wiener-Itô stochastic integrals, we study the cubic variation of a class of selfsimilar stochastic processes with stationary increments (the Rosenblatt process with selfsimilarity order H ∈ ( 12 , 1)). This study is motivated by statistical purposes. We prove that this renormalized cubic variation satis es a non-central limit theorem and its limit is (in the L(Ω) sense) still the Rosenblatt process. 2000 AMS Classi cation Numbers: 60G15, 60G35, 60H05, 94A05.
Using current biometrics technologies for authentication in e-learning assessment

This paper introduces current biometric technologies that can be easily used for advanced authentication methods for remote assessment in e-learning solutions. The focus is on technologies which are not expensive and can be used without any special equipment. The main inputs of the proposed biometric analysis can be camera, microphone, keyboard or mouse. All these input devices are usually present in personal computers, laptops, tablets or smartphones. Using these inputs the system can authenticate the user statically (during the login) or dynamically (during the assessment process). The important factor for practical usage is also the liveness detection to recognize a presentation attack or frauds reported for the specific technique.
mm-Wave pulse-generation circuits in 65nm CMOS

Three mm-wave pulse generation circuits fabricated in a standard 65nm CMOS process are presented. Two versions are based on the cross-coupled NMOS LC-VCO (500um × 300 um), and one is based on the Colpitts VCO (600um × 300 um). No additional buffers are used in the cross-coupled versions, as they are directly loaded by 50 Ohms through a balun. They can produce measured pulses exceeding 8dBm peak output power suitable for impulse radio (IR) systems, and also capable of producing pulses at 6.2pJ/pulse. A drive stage is used in the Colpitts based version to drive 50 Ohm measurement equipment, achieving phase coherent pulses with 8.6pJ/pulse, suitable for pulsed radar applications or IR systems.
The emotional and physical impact of wet age-related macular degeneration: findings from the wAMD Patient and Caregiver Survey

Objectives This was a cross-sectional survey to evaluate the physical and emotional impact of wet age-related macular degeneration (wAMD) on a global cohort of patients who were receiving (or had previously received) antivascular endothelial growth factor injections, and caregivers (paid and unpaid). Methods The survey was performed in nine countries using an ophthalmologist-devised questionnaire. Results A total of 910 patients and 890 caregivers completed the questionnaire. Most patients had been diagnosed and receiving antivascular endothelial growth factor injections for more than 1 year (74.7% and 63.8%, respectively), and many patients (82.1%) received support from a caregiver (usually a child/grandchild [47.3%] or partner [23.3%]). wAMD had a negative impact on most patients (71.6%); many rated fear (44.9%), sadness (39.9%), frustration (37.3%), and depression (34.0%) as common. It was linked to physical consequences, such as difficulty in reading (61.1%). Many effects were significantly greater in patients with a longer duration of disease or with wAMD in both eyes. Some caregivers (unpaid) also reported that caregiving had a negative impact on them (31.1%); many reported emotions such as sadness (34.9%) and depression (24.4%), but many also felt useful (48.4%). Overall, 27.2% of caregivers (unpaid) rated caregiving as inconvenient; this was linked to days of employment/personal obligations missed. Conclusion wAMD has a significant negative impact on the lives of patients, including vision-related depression, poor mobility, and limitations in day-to-day activities. The impact on nonprofessional caregivers may be underestimated in terms of emotional impact (such as depression) and loss of productivity.
Narrow-band and wide-band single filter frequency masking FIR filters

In this paper single filter frequency masking FIR filters are discussed. We briefly review the previously proposed lowpass narrow-band filters and propose a design method for highpass narrow-band filters. Wide-band filters are also discussed. The proposed approach uses several identical filters, except for periodicity, which are mapped to a single hardware structure using folding. This results in an area-efficient implementation with a small number of multipliers and adders at the cost of more memory. An example discusses the design of a wide-band lowpass filter and shows that substantial savings can be made.
Classroom Proof of the Density Theorem for Gabor Systems

In this note we present a short and easy proof of the density theorem for Gabor systems (g, a, b): (i) when (g, a, b) is a Gabor frame we have ab ≤ 1, (ii) when (g, a, b) is a Riesz-Gabor basis we have ab ≥ 1.
Matrix Metalloproteinase 9 Secreted by Hypoxia Cardiac Fibroblasts Triggers Cardiac Stem Cell Migration In Vitro

Cessation of blood supply due to myocardial infarction (MI) leads to complicated pathological alteration in the affected regions. Cardiac stem cells (CSCs) migration plays a major role in promoting recovery of cardiac function and protecting cardiomyocytes in post-MI remodeling. Despite being the most abundant cell type in the mammalian heart, cardiac fibroblasts (CFs) were underestimated in the mechanism of CSCs migration. Our objective in this study is therefore to investigate the migration related factors secreted by hypoxia CFs in vitro and the degree that they contribute to CSCs migration. We found that supernatant from hypoxia induced CFs could accelerate CSCs migration. Four migration-related cytokines were reported upregulated both in mRNA and protein levels. Upon adding antagonists of these cytokines, the number of migration cells significantly declined. When the cocktail antagonists of all above four cytokines were added, the migration cells number reduced to the minimum level. Besides, MMP-9 had an important effect on triggering CSCs migration. As shown in our results, MMP-9 induced CSCs migration and the underlying mechanism might involve TNF-α signaling which induced VEGF and MMP-9 expression.
Cognitive-affective predictors of green purchase intentions among health workers in Nigeria

Article history: Received: May 16, 2018 Received in revised format: May 24, 2018 Accepted: July 31, 2018 Available online: August 1, 2018 Consumers’ consumption culture of the twentieth century has culminated into environmental degradation and its adverse consequences on health and the ecosystem. Despite these concerns, consumers still fail to purchase environmentally-friendly or green products due to the lack of awareness and belief about the benefits of such products. This study seeks to understand consumers’ attitude towards green products by investigating the effect of consumers’ green product knowledge, green product belief, environment affect and environmental concern on green product purchase intention drawing on the cognitive-affect-behaviour model. Multiple regression analysis was used to analyse the data from 348 Health workers from a South-eastern Health Institution in Nigeria and examined the proposed hypotheses. The result shows that green product purchase intention was significantly influenced by green product knowledge and environmental affect but no significant effect was found for green product belief and environmental concern. Environmental effects had the most impact on green product purchase intention. Therefore, it is recommended that marketers focus their marketing campaigns towards educating consumers on the availability and benefits of green products by using eco-labels and emphasizing the health and environment benefits of green products; appealing to consumers’ morals and emotions in marketing campaigns for green products to spur consumers’ interest in green products and adopting a green lifestyle.
Particle filter for sequential detection and tracking of an extended object in clutter

The problem is joint detection and tracking of a non-point or extended moving object, characterised by multiple feature points which can result in detections. Due to imperfect detection, only some of the feature points are detected and in addition false alarms (or clutter) can also be present. Standard tracking techniques assume point objects, that is at most one detection per object, and hence are not adequate for this problem. The paper presents a theoretical solution in the form of the optimal Bayes filter, referred to as the Bernoulli filter for an extended object. The derivation follows the random set filtering framework introduced by Mahler. The filter is implemented approximately as a particle filter and subsequently tested using simulated data.
Cytotype diversity and genome size variation in eastern Asian polyploid Cardamine (Brassicaceae) species.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS Intraspecific ploidy-level variation is an important aspect of a species' genetic make-up, which may lend insight into its evolutionary history and future potential. The present study explores this phenomenon in a group of eastern Asian Cardamine species. METHODS Plant material was sampled from 59 localities in Japan and Korea, which were used in karyological (chromosome counting) and flow cytometric analyses. The absolute nuclear DNA content (in pg) was measured using propidium iodide and the relative nuclear DNA content (in arbitrary units) was measured using 4,6-diamidino-2-phenylindole fluorochrome. KEY RESULTS Substantial cytotype diversity was found, with strikingly different distribution patterns between the species. Two cytotypes were found in C. torrentis sensu lato (4x and 8x, in C. valida and C. torrentis sensu stricto, respectively), which displays a north-south geographical pattern in Japan. Hypotheses regarding their origin and colonization history in the Japanese archipelago are discussed. In Korean C. amaraeiformis, only tetraploids were found, and these populations may in fact belong to C. valida. C. yezoensis was found to harbour as many as six cytotypes in Japan, ranging from hexa- to dodecaploids. Ploidy levels do not show any obvious geographical pattern; populations with mixed ploidy levels, containing two to four cytotypes, are frequently observed throughout the range. C. schinziana, an endemic of Hokkaido, has hexa- and octoploid populations. Previous chromosome records are also revised, showing that they are largely based on misidentified material or misinterpreted names. CONCLUSIONS Sampling of multiple populations and utilization of the efficient flow cytometric approach allowed the detection of large-scale variation in ploidy levels and genome size variation attributable to aneuploidy. These data will be essential in further phylogenetic and evolutionary studies.
Establishing Visible Interferometer System Responses: Resolved and Unresolved Calibrators

This investigation examines the propagation of errors through the uniform disk visibility function. The implications of those errors on measurements of absolute visibility through optical and near-infrared interferometers are considered within the context of using calibration stars to establish system visibilities for these instruments. We suggest a simple ratio test to establish empirically whether or not the measured visibilities produced by such an instrument are relative (errors dominated by calibrator angular size prediction error) or absolute (errors dominated by measurement error).
Research on Distribution Pricing Model Based on Package Methodology

In this paper, a distribution pricing model based on package methodology is presented in which the distribution pricing method is studied and the distribution network costs are analyzed in detail. The cost of distribution utility is sorted into fixed cost and variable cost. The marginal cost method is used to allocate the variable cost and the accounting cost pricing method is used to allocate the fixed cost. The distribution pricing model is the effective combination of the two excellent methods.
Clinical Outcomes in Diabetic Patients Who Underwent Percutaneous Coronary Intervention during the Plain Old Balloon Angioplasty (POBA)-, Bare Metal Stents (BMS)- and Drug-eluting Stents (DES)-eras from 1984 to 2010

Objective Diabetes is a negative predictor in coronary artery disease patients. Since the introduction of percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI), PCI has evolved through technological advances in devices, improvements in operators' techniques and the establishment of effective therapeutic protocols. The aim of this study is to examine the changes in the clinical outcomes following PCI in patients with diabetes. Methods We compared the clinical outcomes in patients with diabetes following PCI from 1984 to 2010 at Juntendo University over three eras (plain old balloon angioplasty (POBA)-, bare metal stents (BMS)- and drug-eluting stents (DES)-eras). The primary endpoint was a composite of all-cause mortality, non-fatal myocardial infarction, non-fatal stroke and repeat revascularization within 3 years after the index PCI. Results A total of 1,584 patients were examined. The baseline characteristics became unfavorable over time with regard to age, prevalence of hypertension, presentation with acute coronary syndrome and a reduced left ventricular ejection fraction. The administration of aspirin, statins and β-blockers increased over time. The event-free survival rate for the 3-year cardiovascular events was lower in the DES-era. The adjusted relative risk reduction for 3-year cardiovascular events was 46 % in the DES-era compared with the POBA-era. Conclusion The incidence of 3-year cardiovascular events decreased from 1984 to 2010 in patients with diabetes following PCI, despite the higher risk profiles in the DES-era.
Numerical Approximation of a One-Dimensional Elliptic Optimal Design Problem

We address the numerical approximation by finite-element methods of an optimal design problem for a two phase material in one space dimension. This problem, in the continuous setting, due to high frequency oscillations, often does not have a classical solution, and a relaxed formulation is needed to ensure existence. On the contrary, the discrete versions obtained by numerical approximation have a solution. In this article we prove the convergence of the discretizations and obtain convergence rates. We also show a faster convergence when the relaxed version of the continuous problem is taken into account when building the discretization strategy. In particular it is worth emphasizing that, even when the original problem has a classical solution so that relaxation is not necessary, numerical algorithms converge faster when implemented on the relaxed version.
Portfolio Choice and Fair Pricing in Life and Pension Insurance Companies

We investigate the implications of optimal portfolio choice on fair pricing of specific pension insurance contracts. We motivate that the manager of the insurance company should optimize utility of final payout for the policy holders. The payout to the policy holder is highly non-linear in wealth, implying that the optimization problem is non-trivial. Still, we find closed form solutions. Simultaneously with the optimal portfolio choice we find fair contract specifications in the sense that the market values of future claims to policy and equity holders, respectively, are equal to their initial deposits. We find that the introduction of a dynamic optimal portfolio changes the fair contract specifications as well as the comparative statics considerably compared to the case with a fixed underlying portfolio. The utility loss, measured by a certainty equivalent wealth, of not introducing portfolio choice can have an arbitrary sign since the fair contract specifications change by the introduction of optimal portfolio choice. Our findings illustrate that dynamic portfolio choice should not be ignored when analyzing fair insurance contracts. JEL Classification: G11, G13, G22