Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Heavy Episodic Drinking Trajectories Among Underage Young Adult Women: The Role of Feminine Norms

BACKGROUND Heavy episodic drinking (HED; 4 or more drinks in a 2-hour period) in U.S. college women has increased by 40% in the past 30 years. This dramatic shift suggests that women are "closing the gender gap" and are drinking at rates similar to men. Multidimensional feminine norms, or beliefs and expectations about what it means to be a woman, are theoretically promising and gender-relevant factors that may help account for within-group differences in problematic drinking patterns among this increasingly at-risk group. The aim of this study was to identify distinct developmental trajectories of HED among underage young adult women and examine the gender-relevant factors that predict these typologies. METHODS Growth mixture modeling was used to identify latent trajectory classes of HED over the course of a year (3 time points) in 700 underage (Wave 1, Mage = 18, SD = 0.32) young adult women from a Mid-Atlantic university in the United States. Logistic regression analyses evaluated feminine norm endorsement, sorority status, perceived peer norms, expectancies, alcohol-related consequences, and marijuana use as predictors of the latent trajectory classes. RESULTS About 64.4% of underage women reported engaging in HED. Three HED latent trajectory classes were identified as follows: (i) High Risk, (31%) reported weekly HED over the course of the year; (ii) Monthly HED (33.4%) reported engaging in HED roughly once a month; and (iii) Abstainers (35.6%) reported no HED over the course of the year. The High-Risk class reported significantly more alcohol-related problems and marijuana use than the other trajectory classes. The multidimensional feminine norms of sexual fidelity and appearance were significantly associated with the latent trajectory classes even when controlling for well-established correlates of drinking. CONCLUSIONS High-risk drinking typologies were identified in underage women, and these trajectories were related to feminine norms. Prevention and intervention programs targeting gender-relevant factors may help reduce problematic drinking and marijuana use among underage women engaging in problematic patterns of drinking.
Variance Component and Breeding Value Estimation for Reproductive Traits in Laying Hens Using A

1. Dissertationen (187) GÄDE, SIBYLLE: Estimates of genetic parameters for functional traits in dairy cows and sows (188) HELLBRÜGGE, BARBARA: Genetic aspects of piglet losses and the maternal behaviour of sows (189) HÜTTMANN, HAUKE: Analyse der Futteraufnahme und der Energiebilanzmerkmale bei hochleistenden, erstlaktierenden Milchkühen (190) REINHARDT, JUDITH: Untersuchungen zur Funktion und Expression antimikrobieller Peptide in der bovinen Milchdrüse (191) WALKER, STEFANIE: Monitoring zum Wachstum und zu Gliedmaßenveränderungen von (2007): Exclusion of NFYB as candidate gene for congenital splay leg in piglets and radiation hybrid mapping of further five homologous porcine genes from human chromosome 12 (2007): Quantitative trait loci for chemical body composition traits in pigs and their positional associations with body tissues, growth and feed intake.
Friendship-aware task planning in mobile crowdsourcing

Recently, crowdsourcing platforms have attracted a number of citizens to perform a variety of location-specific tasks. However, most existing approaches consider the arrangement of a set of tasks for a set of crowd workers, while few consider crowd workers arriving in a dynamic manner. Therefore, how to arrange suitable location-specific tasks to a set of crowd workers such that the crowd workers obtain maximum satisfaction when arriving sequentially represents a challenge. To address the limitation of existing approaches, we first identify a more general and useful model that considers not only the arrangement of a set of tasks to a set of crowd workers, but also all the dynamic arrivals of all crowd workers. Then, we present an effective crowd-task model which is applied to offline and online settings, respectively. To solve the problem in an offline setting, we first observe the characteristics of task planning (CTP) and devise a CTP algorithm to solve the problem. We also propose an effective greedy method and integrated simulated annealing (ISA) techniques to improve the algorithm performance. To solve the problem in an online setting, we develop a greedy algorithm for task planning. Finally, we verify the effectiveness and efficiency of the proposed solutions through extensive experiments using real and synthetic datasets.
Cellular interaction of folic acid conjugated superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles and its use as contrast agent for targeted magnetic imaging of tumor cells

The purpose of the study was to develop tumor specific, water dispersible superparamagnetic iron oxide nanoparticles (SPIONs) and evaluate their efficacy as a contrast agent in magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We have developed SPIONs capped with citric acid/2-bromo-2-methylpropionic acid which are compact, water dispersible, biocompatible having narrow range of size dispersity (8–10 nm), and relatively high T2 relaxivity (R2 = 222L · mmol−1 · sec−l). The targeting efficacy of unconjugated and folic acid-conjugated SPIONs (FA-SPIONS) was evaluated in a folic acid receptor overexpressing and negative tumor cell lines. Folic acid receptor-positive cells incubated with FA-SPIONs showed much higher intracellular iron content without any cytotoxicity. Ultrastructurally, SPIONs were seen as clustered inside the various stages of endocytic pathways without damaging cellular organelles and possible mechanism for their entry is via receptor mediated endocytosis. In vitro MRI studies on tumor cells showed better T2-weighted images in FA-SPIONs. These findings indicate that FA-SPIONs possess high colloidal stability with excellent sensitivity of imaging and can be a useful MRI contrast agent for the detection of cancer.
Effects of two feeding systems, two protein levels, and different dietary energy sources and levels on performance of squabbing pigeons.

Two experiments were conducted to study the effects on the performance of squabbing pigeons of two feeding systems based on two protein levels, two fat sources, and varying fat and energy levels. The first experiment was carried out with birds housed in pens and fed pelleted feeds of different CP levels (16 and 22%), with or without whole yellow corn. In the second experiment, birds were housed in pair cages. Two fat types (sunflower oil and animal tallow) were tested at three levels (0, 3, and 6%) to give three energy levels (2,650, 2,900, and 3,150 kcal ME/kg of diet) in isonitrogenous diets (15% CP). In the first experiment, the 16% CP diet with corn adversely affected squab livability and growth without affecting egg production traits or adult body weight. The 22% CP diet with or without corn and the 16% CP diet without corn gave similar responses for both the adult birds and their squabs. Daily intakes per pair of birds fed these three diets varied between 106 and 126 g for feed, 17.4 and 23.4 g for CP, and 340 and 398 kcal ME. In the second experiment, birds fed the diet with no supplemental fat did not produce squabs, whereas fat-supplemented diets resulted in production of at least six squabs. The source of fat did not significantly affect squab production. Feed intake decreased with increase in dietary energy level, resulting in similar consumption levels of energy for birds on all the diets. Average energy intake was about 235 kcal ME per pair per day for pigeons not producing squabs. Energy intake did not appear to correlate with squab production. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Legislative Veto Players and the Effects of International Human Rights Agreements

Do national legislatures constitute a mechanism by which commitments to international human rights treaties can be made credible? Treaty ratification can activate domestic mechanisms that make repression more costly, and the legislative opposition can enhance these mechanisms. Legislative veto players raise the cost of formalistic repressive strategies by declining to consent to legislation. Executives can still choose to rely on more costly, extralegal strategies, but these could result in severe penalties for the leader and require the leader to expend resources to hide. Especially in treaty member-states, legislatures can use other powers to also increase the cost of extralegal violations, which can further reduce repression. By using an empirical strategy that attempts to address the selection effects in treaty commitment decisions, I show that positive effects of human rights treaties increase when there are more legislative veto players.
Is postoperative decrease of serum albumin an early predictor of complications after major abdominal surgery? A prospective cohort study in a European centre

Objective To test postoperative serum albumin drop (ΔAlb) as a marker of surgical stress response and early predictor of clinical outcomes. Design Prospective cohort study (NCT02356484). Albumin was prospectively measured in 138 patients undergoing major abdominal surgery. Blood samples were collected before surgery and on postoperative days 0, 1 2 and 3. ΔAlb was compared to the modified estimation of physiologic ability and surgical stress (mE-PASS) score and correlated to the performances of C reactive protein (CRP), procalcitonin (PCT) and lactate (LCT). Postoperative outcomes were postoperative complications according to Clavien classification and Comprehensive Complication Index (CCI), and length of hospital stay (LoS). Setting Department of abdominal surgery in a European tertiary centre. Participants Adult patients undergoing elective major abdominal surgery, with anticipated duration ≥2 hours. Patients on immunosuppressive or antibiotic treatments before surgery were excluded. Results The level of serum albumin rapidly dropped after surgery. ΔAlb correlated to the mE-PASS score (r=0.275, p=0.01) and to CRP increase (r=0.536, p<0.001). ΔAlb also correlated to overall complications (r=0.485, p<0.001), CCI (r=0.383, p<0.001) and LoS (r=0.468, p<0.001). A ΔAlb ≥10 g/L yielded a sensitivity of 77.1% and a specificity of 67.2% (AUC: 78.3%) to predict complications. Patients with ΔAlb ≥10 g/L on POD 1 showed a threefold increased risk of overall postoperative complications. Conclusions Early postoperative decrease of serum albumin correlated with the extent of surgery, its metabolic response and with adverse outcomes such as complications and length of stay. A decreased concentration of serum albumin ≥10 g/L on POD 1 was associated with a threefold increased risk of overall postoperative complications and may thus be used to identify patients at risk.
Interval Consensus for Multiagent Networks

The constrained consensus problem considered in this paper, denoted interval consensus, is characterized by the fact that each agent can impose a lower and upper bound on the achievable consensus value. Such constraints can be encoded in the consensus dynamics by saturating the values that an agent transmits to its neighboring nodes. We show in the paper that when the intersection of the intervals imposed by the agents is nonempty, the resulting constrained consensus problem must converge to a common value inside that intersection. In our algorithm, convergence happens in a fully distributed manner, and without need of sharing any information on the individual constraining intervals. When the intersection of the intervals is an empty set, the intrinsic nonlinearity of the network dynamics raises new challenges in understanding the node state evolution. Using Brouwer fixed-point theorem we prove that in that case there exists at least one equilibrium, and in fact the possible equilibria are locally stable if the constraints are satisfied or dissatisfied at the same time among all nodes. For graphs with sufficient sparsity it is further proven that there is a unique equilibrium that is globally attractive if the constraint intervals are pairwise disjoint.
Hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate: a high affinity sorbent for aflatoxin.

Aluminas, silicas and aluminosilicates were evaluated for their ability to sorb radiolabeled aflatoxin B1 (AFB1) from aqueous solution (in vitro). Hydrated sodium calcium aluminosilicate (HSCAS) was selected for testing in vivo due to its high affinity for AFB1, because of its stable association with AFB1, and its GRAS (generally recognized as safe) status as an anticaking agent. The HSCAS, when added to the diet of Leghorn and broiler chicks at a level of . 5%, significantly diminished the adverse effects of feeding 7.5 mg AFB1/kg of feed. Thus, this agent (and other aluminosilicate congeners) may prove effective in the preventive management of aflatoxicosis.
Effect of oligosaccharide-free soybean meal on true metabolizable energy and fiber digestion in adult roosters.

Adult Leghorn roosters were precision-fed 44% protein soybean meal (SBM) or 80% ethanol-extracted soybean meal (ESBM) to determine nutritional differences due to the removal of oligosaccharides. Dry-matter digestibility and TMEn as well as apparent hemicellulose and cellulose digestion were determined. The transit time, rate of passage, and pH of the cecal contents were also established with roosters that had consumed a . 3% chromic-oxide diet that contained SBM or ESBM. The protein content of the SBM and the ESBM was 46.1 and 64.4%, respectively. The true-dry matter digestibility of SBM was 54%. The TMEn of the SBM on a dry-matter basis was 2,794 kcal per kg; and the apparent hemicellulose and cellulose digestibility was 9% and 0%, respectively. The true dry-matter digestibility of the ESBM was 67%. On a dry-matter basis, the TMEn of the ESBM was 3,368 kcal per kg; and the apparent hemicellulose and cellulose digestibility was 62% and 35%, respectively. Oligosaccharide digestion occurred mainly anterior to the ileo-cecal junction. Hemicellulose and cellulose digestion occurred predominantly in the lower gastrointestinal tract. The transit time for the ESBM diet was 115 min, compared to 71 min for the SBM diet. Based on a 16-h collection of excreta, the rate of passage was approximately 50% slower for the ESBM diet than for the SBM diet. The pH of the cecal contents from roosters consuming the ESBM diet was 7.21 versus 6.51 for the SBM diet.
FPGA Implementation of ECG feature extraction using Time domain analysis

An electrocardiogram (ECG) feature extraction system has been developed and evaluated using Virtex-6 FPGA kit which belongs to Xilinx Ltd. In time domain, Pan-Tompkins algorithm is used for QRS detection and it is followed by a feature extractor block to extract ECG features. This whole system can be used to detect cardiac arrhythmia. The completed algorithm was implemented on Virtex-6(XC6VLX240-T) device and tested using hardware co-simulation in Modelsim and simulink environment. The software generated ECG signals are obtained from MIT-BIH arrhythmia Database [1]. The memory and time complexities of the implemented design were recorded and feature extraction has been done. We have achieved satisfactory results which is mainly due to parallel implementation. Therefore accurate arrhythmia detection using hardware implementation a viable approach.
Prevalence of Undiagnosed Hypertension Among Traders at A Regional Market in Nigeria

Background: Hypertension is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide which often remains undiagnosed and subsequently untreated. Data from diverse populations on the prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension therefore become imperative. This study examined the prevalence and risk factors of undiagnosed hypertension among traders at the in a major regional market in Nigeria. Subjects and Methods: Blood pressure measurement, body mass index (BMI) and socio-demographic data of 411 traders at the Monday market in Northeastern Nigeria were obtained in this longitudinal study. Hypertension was defined as systolic blood pressure of 140 mmHg or higher, or diastolic blood pressure of 90 mmHg or higher in two consecutive measurements. Inferential statistics was used to examine associations between prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension and socio-demographic characteristics and BMI of the traders. Results: Mean (SD) age of the traders was 36.3 (10.4) years while male traders were in the majority (83%). Undiagnosed hypertension was detected in 25% (102/411) of the traders. Prevalence of undiagnosed hypertension was significantly associated with the age (P<0.001), marital status (P<0.001) and body mass index (P=0.03) of the traders with higher prevalence among older, married and obese traders. Conclusion: One in four market traders had undiagnosed hypertension with a significantly higher prevalence among older, married and obese traders. The need for regular high blood pressure screening and effective preventive and attenuating strategies is emphasized.
Minimizing internal speedup for performance guaranteed optical packet switches

Providing QoS guarantees for Internet services is very important. It evokes the issue that packet switches should provide guaranteed performance (i.e. 100% throughput with bounded worst-case delay). Optical switching technology is widely considered as an excellent solution for packet switches in future networks. However, to achieve guaranteed performance in optical packet switches, an internal speedup is required due to the existence of reconfiguration overhead. How to reduce the internal speedup is the main concern for making these switches practical. In this paper, we first derive the internal speedup S as a function of the number of switch configurations N/sub S/ and the reconfiguration overhead /spl delta/, or S=f(N/sub S/,/spl delta/). We show that the recently proposed ADJUST algorithm is flawed. Based on the internal speedup function we derived, a new algorithm (ADAPTIVE), with time complexity of O((/spl lambda/-1)N/sup 2/logN), is proposed to minimize S.
Chicken lines differ in production of interferon-like activity by peripheral white blood cells stimulated with phytohemagglutinin.

Interferon (INF) activity was evaluated in the supernatants from peripheral white blood cells (WBC) of chickens from six lines. The WBC were cultured in flasks or 24-well plates with medium or medium and phytohemagglutinin (PHA). After 2 to 5 d, duplicate supernatant samples were tested for INF activity, i.e., the log2 titer inhibiting 50% destruction of the cytopathic effect of vesicular stomatitis virus on primary chick embryo fibroblasts. Also triplicate WBC samples were tested for proliferation by [H3]-thymidine labeling and scintillation counting. In the absence of PHA, INF was significant for only two lines, i.e., 7(2) (two trials) and C (one trial). With PHA the level of INF produced was similar if flasks were sampled daily or on successive days. The INF levels were highest using 10 or 20 microg/mL PHA, but line differences were best distinguished using 5 or 10 microg/mL. In three trials there was a low correlation between PHA-stimulated WBC proliferation and INF titer (r > or = 0.30; P < 0.05). It was concluded that supernatants from chicken WBC stimulated with 10 microg/mL PHA contain INF, and inbred Lines 72 and C repeatedly produce more INF than inbred Lines 63 and 15I(5). This is the first evidence for line differences in INF production in chickens, and these lines may be useful for characterization of the relevant genes and their importance in immune response(s) and disease resistance.
Mesophilic leaching of copper sulphide sludge

Copper was precipitated using a sodium sulphide solution as the pre- cipitation agent from an acid solution containing 17 g/l copper and 350 g/l sul- phuric acid. The particle size of nearly 1 µm in the sulphide sludge sample was detected by optical microscopy. Based on chemical and X-ray diffraction analy- ses, covellite was detected as the major sulphide mineral. The batch bioleach amenability test was performed at 32 °C on the Tk31 mine mesophilic mixed culture using a residence time of 28 days. The dissolution of copper sulphide by direct catalytic leaching of the sulphides with bacteria attached to the par- ticles was found to be worthy, although a small quantity of ferrous ions had to be added to raise the activity of the bacteria and the redox potential of the cul- ture medium. Throughout the 22-day period of the bioleach test, copper reco- very based on residue analysis indicated a copper extraction of 95 %, with cop- per concentration in the bioleach solution of 15 g/l. The slope of the straight line tangential to the exponential part of the extraction curve gave a copper so- lubilisation rate of 1.1 g/l per day. This suggests that a copper extraction of 95 % for the period of bioleach test of 13.6 days may be attained in a three-stage bioreactor system.
Health‐related quality of life and economic burden of vestibular loss in older adults

Vestibular loss is a debilitating condition, and despite its high prevalence in older adults, the quality of life (QoL) burden of vestibular loss in older individuals has not been well‐studied. This report quantifies the impact on overall QoL and identifies domains of health most affected. We hypothesize vestibular loss will be associated with impairment in diverse domains of health‐related QoL.
Effect of an oral healthcare program on gingival health status in rural areas of South Korea.

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study was to analyze the effects of an oral health care program administered at rural public health subcenters on oral hygiene status and bleeding on probing (BOP) scores among Korean rural residents older than 40 years. METHODS Residents older than 40 years living in two rural areas were allocated randomly by order of visit into an intervention group (n=23) and control group (n=23). Changes in plaque and BOP score were analyzed between the groups using repeated-measures ANOVA. Hierarchical multiple regression analysis was conducted to identify factors affecting changes in BOP score. RESULTS The BoP score decreased by 22.87 in the intervention group and 0.27 in the control group between baseline and the eighth week (p<0.001). Multiple regression analysis showed that the change in BoP score (ΔBoP score) increased significantly with an increase in the reduction of the plaque (PHP) index (ΔPHP index) (t=-2.174, p<0.05) and increased significantly more in the intervention group than in the control group (t=2.143, p<0.05). CONCLUSIONS Professional care and continuous oral health education for 8 weeks prior to scaling among adults older than 40 years living in rural environments resulted in a change in oral health behaviors and a substantial reduction in gingival bleeding.