Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alcohol Use and Transactional Sex among Women in South Africa: Results from a Nationally Representative Survey

Background Transactional sex is a risk factor for HIV infection. Alcohol use may increase the risk of transactional sex. No nationally-representative studies have examined the relationship between multiple dimensions of alcohol use and transactional sex in women in South Africa. The aim of the study was to examine the relationship between alcohol dependence, binge drinking and frequency of drinking in the past month and transactional sex in adult women in South Africa. Methods A cross-sectional study using multi-stage, cluster sampling collected data from a nationally representative sample of 5,969 women aged 16–55 years in 2012. The analysis conducted for this paper was restricted to women reporting sexual activity in the past 12 months (n = 3,594). Transactional sex was defined as having received money/gifts in exchange for sex with any sex partner in the past year. Alcohol use measures included: alcohol dependence (≥2 positive responses to the CAGE questionnaire); binge drinking (≥4 drinks for women on one occasion); and drinking frequency in the previous month. Logistic regression models were built to test the hypotheses that each dimension of alcohol use was associated with transactional sex. Results About 6.3% (n = 225) of sexually active women reported transactional sex. Almost a third (30.6%) of sexually active women had ever drunk alcohol, and 19.2% were current (past month) drinkers. Among lifetime drinkers, 28.0% were alcohol dependent and 56.6% were binge drinkers. Alcohol dependent women were twice as likely to report transactional sex (AOR 2.0, 95% CI 1.1–4.3, p<0.05) than those not alcohol dependent. Binge drinkers were 3.1 times more likely to have had transactional sex (95% CI 1.5–6.6, p<0.01) than non-binge drinkers. There was no significant relationship between frequency of drinking in the past month and transactional sex. Conclusion Alcohol dependency and binge drinking are significantly associated with transactional sex in South African women. HIV prevention programmes need to target these women, and address both their alcohol use, as well as the HIV risks associated with transactional sex.
Trace: a tool for logging operating system call transactions

A log of operating system calls made by a process can be used for debugging, profiling, verification and reverse engineering. Such a log can be created by acting as an intermediary between the traced process and the operating system. We describe the design and implementation of such a tool under the MS-DOS operating system environment, and provide some examples of its uses.
Recent trends in hospitalization and in-hospital mortality associated with traumatic brain injury in Canada: A nationwide, population-based study

BACKGROUND Traumatic brain injury (TBI) is the leading cause of traumatic death and disability worldwide. We examined nationwide trends in TBI-related hospitalizations and in-hospital mortality between April 2006 and March 2011 using a nationwide, population-based database that is mandatory for all hospitals in Canada. METHODS Trends in hospitalization rates for all acute hospital separations in Canada were analyzed using linear regression. Independent predictors of in-hospital mortality were evaluated using logistic regression. RESULTS Hospitalization rates remained stable for children and young adults but increased considerably among elderly adults (age ≥ 65 years). Falls and motor vehicle collisions (MVCs) were the most common causes of TBI hospitalizations. TBIs caused by falls increased by 24% (p = 0.01), while MVC-related hospitalization rates decreased by 18% (p = 0.03). Elderly adults were most vulnerable to falls and experienced the greatest increase (29%) in fall-related hospitalization rates. Young adults (ages, 15–24 years) were most at risk for MVCs but experienced the greatest decline (28%) in MVC-related admissions. There were significant trends toward increasing age, injury severity, comorbidity, hospital length of stay, and rate of in-hospital mortality. However, multivariate regression showed that odds of death decreased over time after controlling for relevant factors. Injury severity, comorbidity, and advanced age were the most important predictors of in-hospital mortality for TBI inpatients. CONCLUSION Hospitalizations for TBI are increasing in severity and involve older populations with more complex comorbidities. Although preventive strategies for MVC-related TBI are likely having some effects, there is a critical need for effective fall prevention strategies, especially among elderly adults. LEVEL OF EVIDENCE Epidemiologic/prognostic study, level II.
Counterpoint: Medullary Pacemaker Neurons Are Essential for Gasping, but Not Eupnea, in Mammals

activity imbues the respiratory network with the plasticity essential for eupnea. The extreme view, i.e., that pacemakers play no role in eupnea, would require that all bursting properties are suppressed in normoxia. For this notion, there is as little evidence as for the proposal that the pre-Bötzinger complex is suppressed during eupnea. Endogenous neuromodulators are essential for bursting during well-oxygen-ated conditions (i.e., normoxia). Blockade of endogenously activated serotonin receptors (5-HT 2A) abolishes busting in Cd-insensitive pacemakers, but retains action potential generation. At the network level, 5-HT 2A blockade dramatically affects regularity and frequency, which coincides with the blockade of bursting in Cd-insensitive pacemakers (8). Moreover , the remaining network becomes dependent on ICAN. Thus the persistence of network activity does not indicate that rhythm-generating mechanisms are unaffected (18). The same is true following blockade of INaP. While this manipulation does not abolish respiratory rhythm generation in normoxia (2, 7, 10), rhythm generation is altered and destabilized in presence of norepinephrine (19). If eupnea characterizes breathing with all its plasticity and ability to adapt to changes in environmental and metabolic conditions, then these experiments are consistent with the notion that pacemaker properties are essential for generating eupnea and gasping. Neuromodulators and synaptic mechanisms are capable of continuously regulating the relative contribution of different types of bursting mechanisms, which stabilizes network activity and imbues the network with the enormous plasticity that characterizes eupnea. By reducing some of these properties, the respiratory rhythm may persist, but the persisting rhythm is limited in its adaptive capability, which is one of the hallmarks of eupnea. Sodium and calcium current-mediated pacemaker neurons and respiratory rhythm generation. Point:Counterpoint: The parafacial respiratory group (pFRG)/pre-Botzinger complex (preBotC) is the primary site of respiratory rhythm generation in the mammal. Normal breathing requires preBötzinger complex neurokinin-1 receptor-expressing neurons. rhythm generation during gasping depends on persistent sodium current. Endogenous activation of serotonin-2A receptors is required for respiratory rhythm generation in vitro. DW. Selective lesioning of the cat pre-Bötzinger complex in vivo eliminates breathing but not gasping. Role of inspiratory pacemaker neurons in mediating the hypoxic response of the respiratory network in vitro. Norepinephrine differentially modulates different types of respiratory pacemaker and nonpacemaker neurons. comparisons of eupnoea and gasping in neonatal rats. Large lesions in the pre-Bötzinger complex area eliminate eupneic respiratory rhythm in awake goats. For more than 80 years, the brain stem mechanisms that might underlie the neurogenesis of automatic ventilatory …
OpenFlow Virtualization Framework with Advanced Capabilities

Due to its simplicity, transparency and performance, Flow Visor takes it all in today's virtualization tools for OpenFlow networks. We argue that this effectiveness comes at the price of intolerance towards diverse OpenFlow versions used simultaneously and also limited switch functionality. What is more Flow Visor based management frameworks cannot run and configure the network controllers. In this paper we present an integrated OpenFlow virtualization framework, that is capable of (i) running and managing multiple instances of OpenFlow switches with different forwarding capabilities and OpenFlow versions, (ii) running and configuring full controllers or network applications designed for controlling a virtual network under the management of the proposed framework, and (iii) configuring QoS in the network. Besides introducing the architecture we share implementation and deployment details in our prototype system.
Reinforcement learning in the game of Othello: Learning against a fixed opponent and learning from self-play

This paper compares three strategies in using reinforcement learning algorithms to let an artificial agent learn to play the game of Othello. The three strategies that are compared are: Learning by self-play, learning from playing against a fixed opponent, and learning from playing against a fixed opponent while learning from the opponent's moves as well. These issues are considered for the algorithms Q-learning, Sarsa and TD-learning. These three reinforcement learning algorithms are combined with multi-layer perceptrons and trained and tested against three fixed opponents. It is found that the best strategy of learning differs per algorithm. Q-learning and Sarsa perform best when trained against the fixed opponent they are also tested against, whereas TD-learning performs best when trained through self-play. Surprisingly, Q-learning and Sarsa outperform TD-learning against the stronger fixed opponents, when all methods use their best strategy. Learning from the opponent's moves as well leads to worse results compared to learning only from the learning agent's own moves.
Scaling Bounds for Function Computation over Large Networks

We develop order bounds on the refresh rate of computing functions over large multi-hop sensor networks, with finite degree (finite neighbors for each node). The refresh rate quantifies how often the function can be re-computed with new data at sensor nodes. Giridhar and Kumar (2005) considered deterministic function computation for two important classes of functions (type-threshold and type-sensitive functions) and showed that for networks with high degree (random planar geometric graph with n nodes and average degree Theta(log n)), type- threshold functions (e.g. max) are easy to compute (refresh rate of Theta(1/log(n))), and type-sensitive functions (e.g. average) can be computed only at a rate Theta(1/log(n)). In this paper, we first show that type-threshold functions can be computed at an optimal refresh rate of Theta(1) over networks with finite degree. However, the computation of type-sensitive function do not become uniformly faster as the graph degree becomes smaller. We demonstrate that while some type-sensitive functions (such as computing parity) are not hard to compute in finite degree graphs (we can achieve a refresh rate proportional to (1/d), where d is the maximum graph degree), there exist type-sensitive functions (e.g., computing the average to one-bit precision) in this class that cannot be deterministically computed faster than Theta(1/log n) even for finite degree graphs. However, by relaxing the requirements to allow probabilistic guarantees, computing the average can be achieved at a refresh rate of Theta(1) over any graph with bounded degree and a refresh rate of Theta(1/ log log n) for random planar networks. Further, for random planar networks operating over an AWGN channel with signal power path-loss, we show that even refresh rates of Theta(1) can be achieved with vanishing distortion when the power path- loss exponent is strictly less than 4. Thus, relaxing deterministic computation guarantees to probabilistic requirements enables sizea
GLOMECTOMY FOR ASTHMA.

SUMMARY In the past three years, 69 patients with intractable asthma have been selected for treatment by glomectomy at the Overholt Thoracic Clinic. Some benefit was found in four out of five patients. Over half were improved to a marked or significant degree. These clinical results parallel closely those reported by Nakayama. The carotid body is a chemoreceptor, sensitive to: (1) hypoxemia, (2) decreased pH, and (3) CO2 retention. Stimulation causes hyperpnea. This is beneficial if airways are clear. In the asthmatic, such a reflex initiates a vicious cycle. An already diminished functional capacity, due to bronchospasm, mucosal swelling, and secretion accumulation, is further reduced by hyperpnea. Removal of one carotid body apparently prevents such an unwanted sequence, as well as partially interrupts pathways of communication to the pulmonary plexus which contains bronchodilator fibers.
Metadata for Energy Disaggregation

Energy disaggregation is the process of estimating the energy consumed by individual electrical appliances given only a time series of the whole-home power demand. Energy disaggregation researchers require datasets of the power demand from individual appliances and the whole-home power demand. Multiple such datasets have been released over the last few years but provide metadata in a disparate array of formats including CSV files and plain-text README files. At best, the lack of a standard metadata schema makes it unnecessarily time-consuming to write software to process multiple datasets and, at worse, the lack of a standard means that crucial information is simply absent from some datasets. We propose a metadata schema for representing appliances, meters, buildings, datasets, prior knowledge about appliances and appliance models. The schema is relational and provides a simple but powerful inheritance mechanism.
Sintering Temperature Dependence of Grain Boundary Resistivity in a Rare‐Earth‐Doped ZnO Varistor

We present a rare-earth-doped ZnO ceramic with nonohmic electrical properties. Analysis of the microstructure and composition indicates that the ceramic is composed of the main phase of ZnO and the second phase of rare-earth oxides (e.g., Dy2O3, Pr6O11, Pr2O3). The average grain size is markedly increased from 3 to 18 μm, with an increase in the sintering temperature from 1150° to 1350°C. The corresponding varistor voltage and nonlinear coefficient decrease from 1014 to 578 V/mm, and from 15.8 to 6.8, respectively. The resistivity of grain and grain boundary evaluated by the complex impedance spectrum indicates that the resistivity of the grain is approximately constant (∼103Ω), and the resistivity of the grain boundary decreases. The relative dielectric permittivity of the sintered ceramic samples is much larger than that of pure ZnO ceramic, which should be ascribed to the internal boundary layer capacitance effect.
A Network Framework for Noisy Label Aggregation in Social Media

This paper focuses on the task of noisy label aggregation in social media, where users with different social or culture backgrounds may annotate invalid or malicious tags for documents. To aggregate noisy labels at a small cost, a network framework is proposed by calculating the matching degree of a document’s topics and the annotators’ meta-data. Unlike using the back-propagation algorithm, a probabilistic inference approach is adopted to estimate network parameters. Finally, a new simulation method is designed for validating the effectiveness of the proposed framework in aggregating noisy labels.
Measuring inequality in a cross-tabulation with ordered categories: From the Gini coefficient to the Tog coefficient

This paper introduces the Tog coefficient, which can be used to measure the level of inequality in a cross-tabulation of two ordinal-level variables. The Gini coefficient is a standard measure of income inequality which has been adapted by other authors for use in different contexts such as the measurement of health inequalities and the quantification of occupational segregation; the Tog coefficient represents a further stage in this process of development. The paper outlines the construction of the Tog coefficient and illustrates this using a social mobility table based on data from the 1972 Oxford Mobility Study. The trend in social mobility-related inequality as measured by the Tog coefficient is compared with the findings of Goldthorpe et al. based on odds ratios. A more elaborate application of the Tog coefficient uses a variety of data relating to the similarity of spouses' class backgrounds to demonstrate the existence of a long-term decline in the level of inequality in British society.
Using weighted finite state morphology with VISL CG-3 - Some experiments with free open source Finnish resources

Traditionally, the coupling of finite state morphology and constraint grammar has been strictly rule-based, making binary distinctions between allowed and disallowed readings, however, in the recent years much of the research in the finite state morphologies has adapted the contemporary paradigm of statistically weighted analysis. This is reflected in current versions of free and open source morphology of Finnish, omorfi, in the finite state morphology part. In this paper we examine two strategies of making use of the weights as a part of VISL CG-3 pipeline. We evaluate the results intrinsically on small sample of analyses we have disambiguated by hand ourselves, and extrinsically on the effect it has on the rule-based machine translation of that text using the freely available open source translator, apertiumfin-eng.
The epigenetic bottleneck of neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases

Abstract The orchestrated expression of genes is essential for the development and survival of every organism. In addition to the role of transcription factors, the availability of genes for transcription is controlled by a series of proteins that regulate epigenetic chromatin remodeling. The two most studied epigenetic phenomena are DNA methylation and histone-tail modifications. Although a large body of literature implicates the deregulation of histone acetylation and DNA methylation with the pathogenesis of cancer, recently epigenetic mechanisms have also gained much attention in the neuroscientific community. In fact, a new field of research is rapidly emerging and there is now accumulating evidence that the molecular machinery that regulates histone acetylation and DNA methylation is intimately involved in synaptic plasticity and is essential for learning and memory. Importantly, dysfunction of epigenetic gene expression in the brain might be involved in neurodegenerative and psychiatric diseases. In particular, it was found that inhibition of histone deacetylases attenuates synaptic and neuronal loss in animal models for various neurodegenerative diseases and improves cognitive function. In this article, we will summarize recent data in the novel field of neuroepigenetics and discuss the question why epigenetic strategies are suitable therapeutic approaches for the treatment of brain diseases.
Uterine Vasculature Remodeling in Human Pregnancy Involves Functional Macrochimerism by Endothelial Colony Forming Cells of Fetal Origin

The potency of adult‐derived circulating progenitor endothelial colony forming cells (ECFCs) is drastically surpassed by their fetal counterparts. Human pregnancy is associated with robust intensification of blood flow and vascular expansion in the uterus, crucial for placental perfusion and fetal supply. Here, we investigate whether fetal ECFCs transmigrate to maternal bloodstream and home to locations of maternal vasculogenesis, primarily the pregnant uterus. In the first instance, endothelial‐like cells, originating from mouse fetuses expressing paternal eGFP, were identified within uterine endothelia. Subsequently, LacZ or enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP)‐labeled human fetal ECFCs, transplanted into immunodeficient (NOD/SCID) fetuses on D15.5 pregnancy, showed similar integration into the mouse uterus by term. Mature endothelial controls (human umbilical vein endothelial cells), similarly introduced, were unequivocally absent. In humans, SRY was detected in 6 of 12 myometrial microvessels obtained from women delivering male babies. The copy number was calculated at 175 [IQR 149–471] fetal cells per millimeter square endothelium, constituting 12.5% of maternal vessel lumina. Cross‐sections of similar human vessels, hybridized for Y‐chromosome, positively identified endothelial‐associated fetal cells. It appears that through ECFC donation, fetuses assist maternal uterine vascular expansion in pregnancy, potentiating placental perfusion and consequently their own fetal supply. In addition to fetal growth, this cellular mechanism holds implications for materno‐fetal immune interactions and long‐term maternal vascular health. STEM Cells2013;31:1363–1370
The effect of stereoscopy and motion cues on 3D interpretation task performance

We study the effectiveness of stereoscopy and smooth motion as 3D cues for medical interpretation of vascular structures as obtained by 3D medical imaging techniques. We designed a user study where the user has to follow a path in a mazelike solid shaded 3D structure. The user controls rotation of the model. We measure user performance in terms of time taken and error rate. The experiment was executed with 32 (medical and non-medical) users. The results show that motion cue is more important than stereoscopy, and that stereoscopy has no added value when motion is already present, which is not consistent with previous experiments.
Progression towards Persuasive Holistic Human System Interaction: Conceptualization and Modeling framework

In present era of ubiquitous computing environment, as the plethora of modern digital artefacts and services resulting due to emergence and evolution of new-fangled kind of communication and computation formats comes increasingly into play in everyday practice and experience virtually almost for every type of activity, the people‟s requirement and aspiration to be an active part of this global digital ecosystem flourishes high-andhigh. At the same time the periphery between digital and physical spaces diminishes sharply. Offering only superior usability and efficacy through intelligent interface and systems will not indubitably be sufficient in such ubi-com environment considering the nature and diversity of fragmentation present in user‟s demand and expectations. The need is to look forward, beyond the usability issues, towards offering high-quality enchanting ubiquitous interaction environment enriched not only with the abilities of autonomous personalization and adaptation but importantly ensemble persuasive, engaging abilities in the perspective of social signalling, social context, human values and ethics. This paper firstly conceptualizes such holistic environment. It presents a novel modelling and designing framework for realizing such a holistic interaction environment encompassing particularly the technology mediated humanhuman concerns.