Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Age-disparate and intergenerational sex in southern Africa: the dynamics of hypervulnerability

This paper reviews the current state of knowledge on age-disparate sexual relationships in the context of the southern African HIV/AIDS hyperepidemic. Disproportionately high HIV infection rates among young women aged 15–24 years have been attributed to their greater involvement in relationships with older-aged partners. Whereas early studies emphasized economic concerns in the context of poverty as driving girls to accept or seek the attentions of older employed men, close-grained studies reveal a complex interplay of meanings and motives that prompt both men and women across socioeconomic strata to engage in intergenerational sex. Studies have revealed that age-disparate relationships are meaningful and perceived as beneficial at a number of levels, including social, physical, psychological, as well as economic and symbolic. In the context of growing economic inequalities and cultural expectations for men to give and women to receive a compensation for sex, relationships with older men are a common and readily available way through which young women gain materially, affirm self-worth, achieve social goals, increase longer-term life chances, or otherwise add value and enjoyment to life. Awareness of HIV risks in these relationships remains low. HIV prevention policies and programmes need to start from an understanding of how those engaged in risky behaviour perceive their sexual relationships and conceptualize the choices they make and the strategies they use. A more comprehensive policy on women and girls with better integration of communities in assessing and addressing issues, and an expansion of campaigns and programmes on the role of men as protectors and supporters of women are recommended.
The Effects of Low Frame Rate on a Measure for User Performance in Virtual Environments

This report investigates the e ect of low frame rate on human performance in a desktop virtual environment. This is done using an objective measure of users' ability to perform a simple heading task at various frame rates (2.3{14.2 Hz). Two principal experiments are presented. The rst experiment shows that for a drop in frame rate from 11.5 Hz to 2.3 Hz, users' accuracy and time to complete the task degraded signi cantly. The second experiment reveals a continuous, asymptotic relationship between frame rate and performance for the chosen task. At low frame rates (up to 10-15 Hz) there is a sharp improvement in performance as frame rate increases. After around 15 Hz this increase is substantially less rapid. The results provide evidence for reinforcing that a minimum frame rate of around 15 Hz is necessary for virtual environments, but also that further increases in frame rate will continue to yield greater performance levels, albeit at a much reduced rate.
Identification of new surfaces of cofilin that link mitochondrial function to the control of multi-drug resistance

ADF/cofilin family proteins are essential regulators of actin cytoskeletal dynamics. Recent evidence also implicates cofilin in the regulation of mitochondrial function. Here, we identify new functional surfaces of cofilin that are linked with mitochondrial function and stress responses in the budding yeast Saccharomyces cerevisiae. Our data link surfaces of cofilin that are involved in separable activities of actin filament disassembly or stabilisation, to the regulation of mitochondrial morphology and the activation status of Ras, respectively. Importantly, charge alterations to conserved surfaces of cofilin that do not interfere with its actin regulatory activity lead to a dramatic increase in respiratory function that triggers a retrograde signal to upregulate a battery of ABC transporters and concurrent metabolic changes that support multi-drug resistance. We hypothesise that cofilin functions within a bio-sensing system that connects the cytoskeleton and mitochondrial function to environmental challenge.
Prospects for Detecting Deception on Twitter

This paper discusses the prospects for building a system that helps a human analyst to detect deception on Twitter. First, based on a previously published taxonomy of cyber deception, Twitter deception is examined. Second, a number of indicators are introduced. These are cues, helpful for a human analyst but not necessary or sufficient characteristics of deception. Third, with the indicators as a background, the prospects for deception detection are discussed. The paper represents a first step towards a systematic method for detecting deception on Twitter.
On-the-fly detection of access anomalies in nested parallel loops

One of the major bugs in shared-memory parallel programs is the instructions accessing a shared variable with at least one write-access without coordinations in a set of parallel tasks. Such bugs, called data race or parallel access anomaly, result in unintended nonde-terministic executions of the programs, and then make debugging parallel programs diicult. This paper investigates an eecient on-they technique to detect and locate the access anomalies in parallel programs. The programs we consider may have nested parallel loop constructs and have no synchronization instructions. Our technique resorts to a new labeling method, called NR Labeling, to generate information on tasks, and to determine the logical con-currency between two instructions accessing a shared variable. The eeciency of the technique makes on-they anomaly detection more practical. The storage space for the concurrency information is O(V +NT) in the worst case, where V is the number of shared variables in a debugged program P, N is the maximum number of dynamic nestings of parallel loop constructs in P, and T is the maximum number of mutually concurrnt tasks in an execution of P. The time to generate the concurrency information in the creation or the termination of each task is O(N) in the worst case. The time to detect an anomaly in each access of a shared variable is O(log 2 N) in the worst case.
Coevolution of teaching activity promotes cooperation

Evolutionary games are studied where the teaching activity of players can evolve in time. Initially all players following either the cooperative or defecting strategy are distributed on a square lattice. The rate of strategy adoption is determined by the payoff difference and a teaching activity characterizing the donor's capability to enforce its strategy on the opponent. Each successful strategy adoption process is accompanied by an increase in the donor's teaching activity. By applying an optimum value of the increment, this simple mechanism spontaneously creates relevant inhomogeneities in the teaching activities that support the maintenance of cooperation for both the prisoner's dilemma and the snowdrift game.
Understanding Mobile Application Usage During the 2014 FIFA World Cup

Understanding how users consume mobile services during large events is a key factor in the improvement of the provided services. In 2014, Brazil hosted the FIFA World Cup, one of the biggest events in the world. The objective of this work is to exploit mobile data to discover important insights on how Brazilians accessed mobile applications during this event. The dataset studied here is composed of mobile application usage records collected during 2014 by a software agent installed on smartphones of 5,342 Brazilians. The results reveal interesting findings regarding how mobile accesses differ during the matches in comparison with ordinary days.
Folic acid, one-carbon metabolism & childhood cancer

Folate has been studied in relation to many diseases, especially cancer. Although it has been postulated to exert a dual effect on development of cancer, its role remains to be clearly defined. Its effect on cancer is the result of gene-nutrient interaction between the genes in folate metabolic pathway and dietary folate availability; mutations in genes of folate metabolism have been shown to alter individual susceptibility to certain childhood cancers as well as response to cancer chemotherapy. Although mandatory fortification of food items with folate has been initiated in some countries, many countries are yet to adopt this due to concerns about undesired adverse effects of high folate levels on health, especially cancer. However, initial reports suggest that folate fortification has led to reduction in incidence of certain childhood cancers such as neuroblastoma, wilms tumour and leukaemias. Despite studies showing folate depletion during antifolate chemotherapy and higher toxicity of chemotherapy in folate-depleted individuals, folate supplementation during cancer chemotherapy is not routinely recommended. Studies investigating the precise effect of folate supplementation during chemotherapy on both short- and long-term outcomes of cancer are needed to arrive at a consensus guideline.
Estimating the Economic Burden of Lung Cancer in Iran

Objectives: Lung cancer is a major public health problem and one of the most costly illnesses. The study aimed to estimate the economic burden of lung cancer in Iran in 2014. Methods: A cross-sectional study was conducted to estimate the direct and indirect costs for patients with lung cancer using a prevalence-based approach. A human capital approach was employed to estimate the indirect costs. Data were obtained from several sources such as through patient interview using structured questionnaire, medical records, the GLOBOCAN databases, the Iranian Statistical Center, the Iranian Ministry of Cooperation, Labor and Social Welfare, and the Institute for Health Metrics and Evaluation (IHME). Results: The economic burden of lung cancer in Iran in the year 2014 was 3,225,998,555,090 IR. The main components of the cost were associated with mortality (81.9 %) and hospitalization (7.6 %). The costs of direct medical care, non-medical aspects, patient time, and mortality accounted for 10.8%, 2.7%, 4.5%, and 81.5% of the total cost, respectively. Conclusion: Findings from this study indicated that the economic burden of lung cancer is substantial both to Iran’s health system and to society as a whole. Early diagnosis, strengthening cancer prevention, implementing new cancer therapy and medical technology, and effective smoking-cessation interventions could offset some of the costs associated with lung cancer in Iran.
Identification of protein complexes from co-immunoprecipitation data

Motivation: Advanced technologies are producing large-scale protein–protein interaction data at an ever increasing pace. A fundamental challenge in analyzing these data is the inference of protein machineries. Previous methods for detecting protein complexes have been mainly based on analyzing binary protein–protein interaction data, ignoring the more involved co-complex relations obtained from co-immunoprecipitation experiments. Results: Here, we devise a novel framework for protein complex detection from co-immunoprecipitation data. The framework aims at identifying sets of preys that significantly co-associate with the same set of baits. In application to an array of datasets from yeast, our method identifies thousands of protein complexes. Comparing these complexes to manually curated ones, we show that our method attains very high specificity and sensitivity levels (∼ 80%), outperforming current approaches for protein complex inference. Availability: Supplementary information and the program are available at http://www.cs. tau.ac.il/~roded/CODEC/main.html. Contact: roded@post.tau.ac.il Supplementary information: Supplementary data are available at Bioinformatics online.
Activity-sensitive clock tree construction for low power

This paper presents an activity-sensitive clock tree construction technique for low power design of VLSI clock networks. We introduce the term of node difference based on module activity information, and show its relationship with the power consumption. A binary clock tree is built using the node difference between different modules to optimize the power consumption due to the interconnections (i.e., clock gating signals and clock edges). We also develop a method to determine gating signals with minimum number of transitions. After the clock tree is constructed, the gating signals are optimized for further power savings.
Flash floods versus river floods – a comparison of psychological impacts and implications for precautionary behaviour

Abstract. River floods are among the most damaging natural hazards that frequently occur in Germany. Flooding causes high economic losses and impacts many residents. In 2016, several southern German municipalities were hit by flash floods after unexpectedly severe heavy rainfall, while in 2013 widespread river flooding had occurred. This study investigates and compares the psychological impacts of river floods and flash floods and potential consequences for precautionary behaviour. Data were collected using computer-aided telephone interviews that were conducted among flood-affected households around 9 months after each damaging event. This study applies Bayesian statistics and negative binomial regressions to test the suitability of psychological indicators to predict the precaution motivation of individuals. The results show that it is not the particular flood type but rather the severity and local impacts of the event that are crucial for the different, and potentially negative, impacts on mental health. According to the used data, however, predictions of the individual precaution motivation should not be based on the derived psychological indicators – i.e. coping appraisal, threat appraisal, burden and evasion – since their explanatory power was generally low and results are, for the most part, non-significant. Only burden reveals a significant positive relation to planned precaution regarding weak flash floods. In contrast to weak flash floods and river floods, the perceived threat of strong flash floods is significantly lower although feelings of burden and lower coping appraisals are more pronounced. Further research is needed to better include psychological assessment procedures and to focus on alternative data sources regarding floods and the connected precaution motivation of affected residents.
Takagi-Sugeno Systems with Improved Interpretability and Interpolation Using a Complementary Interpolation Model

The paper deals with the interpretability problem of 1 order Takagi-Sugeno systems and interpolation issues in particular. Interpolation improvement is carried out by a corrective secondary model (essentially a black box) complementing the primary (interpretable) model. Optimization technique for this two-model configuration is developed. Experimental results suggest that this approach achieves a better accuracy-interpretability tradeoff than the methodologies currently in use.
Tubercle Modifications in Marine Propeller Blades

Tubercles are essentially sinusoidal serrations that are present in the fins of humpback whales. They have been widely postulated as a form of passive flow control device for aerodynamic surfaces. Studies pertaining the implementation of tubercles into aerofoils and turbine blades are widely present, while efforts in incorporating these tubercles onto marine propeller blades and how their presence alters the original propeller blade flow behaviour are comparatively less well understood. In this study, tubercle modifications are investigated in marine propellers through the use of high-fidelity Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD). The results indicate that while there is a substantial increase in thrust generation of up to 10%, there is also a 5% decrease in propeller efficiency. The results indicate that the particular design and implementation of leading-edge tubercles here confer selected favourable flow effects upon propeller performance by varying the pressure and velocity distributions of the propeller blades.
Evidence for a functional role of IgE anticitrullinated protein antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a systemic autoimmune disease involving inflammation of the joints. Among the autoantibodies described in RA, anticitrullinated protein antibodies (ACPAs) are highly specific and predictive for RA. In addition, ACPAs have been implicated in the pathogenesis of RA. However, a direct functional response of immune cells from ACPA+ RA patients toward citrullinated proteins has not been demonstrated. In this study, we show that exposure to citrullinated antigens leads to activation of basophils from ACPA+ RA patients within 20 minutes. This was not observed after exposure of basophils to noncitrullinated control antigens or after stimulation of basophils from ACPA− RA patients and healthy controls. Basophil activation was correlated with the binding of citrullinated proteins to basophils. Furthermore, serum from ACPA+ RA patients in contrast to that from ACPA− RA patients could specifically sensitize human FcεRI expressing rat basophil cells (RBL), enabling activation by citrullinated proteins. Mast cell degranulation products such as histamine levels were enhanced in synovial fluid of ACPA+ RA patients as compared with ACPA− RA and osteoarthritis patients. In addition, histamine levels in synovial fluid from ACPA+ RA patients correlated with IgE levels, suggesting degranulation of mast cells by cross-linking IgE. Immunohistochemistry on synovial biopsies demonstrated an increased number of degranulated CD117+ mast cells in ACPA+ RA patients; IgE and FcεRI expression in synovial mast cells from ACPA+ RA patients was increased. In conclusion, our results show an immunological response of immune cells from ACPA+ RA patients in a citrulline-specific manner. Moreover, these data indicate a role for IgE-ACPAs and FcεRI-positive cells in the pathogenesis of RA.
Comparative evaluation of the inhibitory activities of the novel penicillanic acid sulfone Ro 48-1220 against beta-lactamases that belong to groups 1, 2b, and 2be

The inhibitory activity of the penicillanic acid sulfone Ro 48-1220 against group 1, 2b, and 2be beta-lactamases was evaluated. Ro 48-1220 inhibited TEM and SHV as effectively as clavulanate and tazobactam. It also inhibited group 1 beta-lactamases at lower concentrations than tazobactam. Ro 48-1220, at a concentration of 4 micrograms/ml, protected ceftriaxone and ceftazidime against strains producing group 1 and 2be beta-lactamases.
Predicting climate effects on Pacific sardine

For many marine species and habitats, climate change and overfishing present a double threat. To manage marine resources effectively, it is necessary to adapt management to changes in the physical environment. Simple relationships between environmental conditions and fish abundance have long been used in both fisheries and fishery management. In many cases, however, physical, biological, and human variables feed back on each other. For these systems, associations between variables can change as the system evolves in time. This can obscure relationships between population dynamics and environmental variability, undermining our ability to forecast changes in populations tied to physical processes. Here we present a methodology for identifying physical forcing variables based on nonlinear forecasting and show how the method provides a predictive understanding of the influence of physical forcing on Pacific sardine.
Current and future prophylactic vaccines for hepatitis C virus

The development of a vaccine is necessary to combat the global hepatitis C virus (HCV) epidemic. The key to the development of a prophylactic vaccine is understanding the immune response in those who spontaneously resolve HCV infections versus those who develop chronic disease. Several promising vaccine candidates based on the use of viral vectors are currently in Phase I and Phase II clinical trials. The recently solved structures of the E2 glycoprotein have greatly aided epitope- and antibody-based vaccine design.
The More Social Cues, The Less Trolling? An Empirical Study of Online Commenting Behavior

We examine how online commenting is affected by different degrees of commenters’ identifiability: 1) real name accounts on social networking sites (or “real name-SNS accounts”; e.g., Facebook); 2) pseudonym accounts on social networking sites (or “pseudonym-SNS account”; e.g., Twitter); 3) pseudonymous accounts outside social networking sites (or “non-SNS accounts”; e.g., an online newspaper website’s account). We first construct a conceptual model of the relationship between the degree of identifiability and commenting behavior. When users can freely choose the account type between a non-SNS account and an SNS account to write a comment, the decision determines degree of identifiablity. This decision will be correlated to the propensity of using ‘offensive’ words (classified from a comprehensive list of swear terms in the Korean language) in their comments. To take endogeneity into consideration, we estimate a bivariate probit model between the choice of account type and the choice of using offensive words. We apply our model to a unique set of data consisting in over 75,000 comments attached to news stories collected from a variety of online news media websites. Our analysis highlights interesting dynamics between the degree of identifiability and commenters’ behavior. When commenters use an SNS account (which consists in a more identifiable condition) rather than a non-SNS account, they are less likely to use offensive words. We also find that the use of real name-SNS accounts (which provide an even more identifiable condition due to the disclosure of one’s real name), is associated with lower occurrence of offensive words than the case in which commenters use a pseudonym-SNS account for commenting. While the disclosure of true identity is likely to reduce the probability of using offensive words, the greater number of users seems to prefer participating in the commenting activity by using their pseudonym accounts
MicroRNAs in cardiovascular disease: an introduction for clinicians

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small, non-coding, RNA molecules approximately 22 nucleotides in length which act as post-transcriptional regulators of gene expression. Individual miRNAs have been shown to regulate the expression of multiple genes. Conversely, the expression of individual genes can be regulated by multiple miRNAs. Consequently, since their discovery just over 20 years ago, miRNAs have been identified as key regulators of complex biological processes linked to multiple cardiovascular pathologies, including left ventricular hypertrophy, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure, hypertension and arrhythmias. Furthermore, since the finding that miRNAs are present in the circulation, they have been investigated as novel biomarkers, especially in the context of acute myocardial infarction (AMI) and heart failure. While there is little convincing evidence that miRNAs can outperform traditional biomarkers, such as cardiac troponins, in the diagnosis of AMI, there is potential for miRNAs to complement existing risk prediction models and act as valuable markers of post-AMI prognosis. Encouragingly, the concept of miRNA-based therapeutics is developing, with synthetic antagonists of miRNAs (antagomiRs) currently in phase II trials for the treatment of chronic hepatitis C virus infection. In the cardiovascular field, promising preclinical studies suggest that they could be useful in treating disorders ranging from heart failure to dyslipidaemia, although several challenges related to specificity and targeted delivery remain to be overcome. Through this review, we provide clinicians with a brief overview of the ever-expanding world of miRNAs.