Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Occurrence & predictors of osteoporosis & impact of body composition alterations on bone mineral health in asymptomatic pre-menopausal women with HIV infection

Background & objectives: Data on bone mineral density (BMD) and sarcopenia are scant from young females with HIV. This study was conducted to determine occurrence, predictors and impact of body composition alterations on osteoporosis in pre-menopausal women with HIV. Methods: A total of 214 females with serologically documented HIV infection were screened, of whom 103 pre-menopausal women, 25-45 yr age, clinically stable, having at least one year follow up data, underwent hormonal and dual-energy X-ray absorptiometry analysis for BMD and body composition. Seventy five matched controls were also evaluated. Results: Females with HIV had significantly lower BMD and Z-score at lumbar spine (LS), total femur, neck of femur (NOF), and radius ultra-distal (UD) compared to controls. Osteoporosis at least at one site was observed in 34.95 per cent patients, compared to eight per cent in controls (P<0.001). Most common site of osteoporosis in females with HIV was radius UD (24.27%), followed by radius 33 per cent (17.48%), radius total (15.53%) and greater trochanter, NOF and LS (6.80% each). HIV patients had significantly lower bone mineral content, lean mass (LM), fat per cent, android (A) fat, gynoid (G) fat, and A/G ratio. LM and fat mass (FM) were −15.65 and −11.54 per cent lower in HIV patients, respectively. Osteoporosis patients had significantly higher use of antiretroviral therapy and lower LM, FM and fat per cent. On logistic regression, LM followed by A/G ratio and BMI were the best predictors of osteoporosis. Sarcopenia was observed in 17.5 per cent patients. Interpretation & conclusions: Our results showed that osteoporosis and sarcopenia were significant problems in young women with HIV. HIV was associated with greater LM loss, which was critical for bone health. Sarcopenia may predict low BMD in HIV.
Consumer preferences for and beliefs about slow growth chicken

ABSTRACT Improvements in genetics, feed, and housing have dramatically reduced the time required for broilers to reach market weight. However, some advocacy organizations have argued that the improvements in productivity have been accompanied by reductions in animal welfare and meat quality, prompting retailers to consider policies that either set a minimum number of days of production or require slower‐growing heritage breeds. The overriding purpose of this project is to determine the market potential and consumer willingness‐to‐pay for chicken breast with different labels, with primary focus on slow growth labels. A national survey of over 2,000 US chicken consumers was conducted. A choice experiment, which simulates retail purchases, was included to compare slow growth chicken breast demand for consumers exposed to different types of information and who made choices in the presence or absence of brands. Willingness‐to‐pay for slow growth chicken, and importance of the attribute in consumer choice, is sensitive to the information provided and is generally lower in importance than other labels, except when consumers are provided pro slow growth information. There are multiple market segments consisting of consumers with distinct preferences for chicken breast attributes. Depending on the treatment in question, 30 to 40% of consumers are insensitive to price changes. If presented with a pairwise choice between slow growth chicken priced at a $0.72/lb premium, an estimated extra cost of slow growth, and an unlabeled chicken breast, slow growth is projected to be chosen by 37, 48, and 35% of respondents in the no added information, pro slow growth, and anti slow growth information conditions, respectively.
Patient and Prescriber Views of Penicillin Allergy Testing and Subsequent Antibiotic Use: A Rapid Review

About 10% of U.K. patients believe that they are allergic to penicillin and have a “penicillin allergy label” in their primary care health record. However, around 90% of these patients may be mislabelled. Removing incorrect penicillin allergy labels can help to reduce unnecessary broad-spectrum antibiotic use. A rapid review was undertaken of papers exploring patient and/or clinician views and experiences of penicillin allergy testing (PAT) services and the influences on antibiotic prescribing behaviour in the context of penicillin allergy. We reviewed English-language publications published up to November 2017. Limited evidence on patients’ experiences of PAT highlighted advantages to testing as well as a number of concerns. Clinicians reported uncertainty about referral criteria for PAT. Following PAT and a negative result, a number of clinicians and patients remained reluctant to prescribe and consume penicillins. This appeared to reflect a lack of confidence in the test result and fear of subsequent reactions to penicillins. The findings suggest lack of awareness and knowledge of PAT services by both clinicians and patients. In order to ensure correct penicillin allergy diagnosis, clinicians and patients need to be supported to use PAT services and equipped with the skills to use penicillins appropriately following a negative allergy test result.
Combining MUD Policies with SDN for IoT Intrusion Detection

The IETF's push towards standardizing the Manufacturer Usage Description (MUD) grammar and mechanism for specifying IoT device behavior is gaining increasing interest from industry. The ability to control inappropriate communication between devices in the form of access control lists (ACLs) is expected to limit the attack surface on IoT devices; however, little is known about how MUD policies will get enforced in operational networks, and how they will interact with current and future intrusion detection systems (IDS). We believe this paper is the first attempt to translate MUD policies into flow rules that can be enforced using SDN, and in relating exception behavior to attacks that can be detected via off-the-shelf IDS. Our first contribution develops and implements a system that translates MUD policies to flow rules that are proactively configured into network switches, as well as reactively inserted based on run-time bindings of DNS. We use traces of 28 consumer IoT devices taken over several months to evaluate the performance of our system in terms of switch flow-table size and fraction of exception traffic that needs software inspection. Our second contribution identifies the limitations of flow-rules derived from MUD in protecting IoT devices from internal and external network attacks, and we show how our system is able to detect such volumetric attacks (including port scanning, TCP/UDP/ICMP flooding, ARP spoofing, and TCP/SSDP/SNMP reflection) by sending only a very small fraction of exception packets to off-the-shelf IDS.
Factor structure and psychometric properties of a Persian translation of the Epworth Sleepiness Scale for Children and Adolescents

Background: Given the high prevalence of excessive daytime disorder (EDS) among children and adolescents, daytime sleepiness should be effectively measured for them to design appropriate intervention program. However, the commonly used instrument Epworth Sleepiness Scale for Children and Adolescents (ESS-CHAD) has little information in its psychometric properties. This study aimed to apply 2 different test theories to examine the psychometric properties of the Persian ESS-CHAD among a large sample of Iranian adolescents and children. Methods: In this methodological study, participants from 8 high schools (n=1371; 700 males), in Qazvin, Iran, completed the ESS-CHAD, a background information sheet, and Insomnia Severity Index (ISI). The ESS-CHAD was translated by using a forward-backward translation method.Two weeks later, the participants completed the ESS-CHAD again. Internal consistency using Cronbach’s alpha, test-retest reliability using intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC), regression analysis testing the correlation between ESS-CHAD and ISI, Confirmatory factor analysis (CFA)with measurement invariance, Rasch analysis with differential item functioning (DIF), and latent class analysis (LCA) were used to examine the psychometric properties of the ESS-CHAD. Results: The internal consistency (α=0.79), test-retest reliability (ICC=0.84), regression findings(β=0.39, P<0.001), CFA (comparative fit index [CFI])=0.974, root-mean square error of approximation [RMSEA]=0.040), supported measurement invariance (∆CFI=-0.009 to 0.007,∆RMSEA=-0.009 to 0.001), Rasch analysis (infit mean square=0.88 to 1.31, outfit mean square=0.68 to 1.19), and no substantial DIF (DIF contrast=-0.43 to 0.38) all indicated that ESSCHAD is a reliable and valid instrument. The LCA further classified the sample into 2 distinctclasses. Conclusion: Persian ESS-CHAD could be used to assess daytime sleepiness for adolescents who are speaking Persian.
On Design of A Fine-Grained Access Control Architecture for Securing IoT-Enabled Smart Healthcare Systems

The Internet of Things (IoT) is facilitating the development of novel and cost-effective applications that promise to deliver efficient and improved medical facilities to patients and health organisations. This includes the use of smart 'things' as medical sensors attached to patients to deliver real-time data. However, the security of patient data is an ever-present concern in the healthcare arena. In the wider deployment of IoT-enabled smart healthcare systems one particular issue is the need to protect smart 'things' from unauthorised access. Commonly used access control approaches e.g. Attribute Based Access Control (ABAC), Role Based Access Control (RBAC) and capability based access control do not, in isolation, provide a complete solution for securing access to IoT-enabled smart healthcare devices. They may, for example, require an overly-centralised solution or an unmanageably large policy base. To address these issues we propose a novel access control architecture which improves policy management by reducing the required number of authentication policies in a large-scale healthcare system while providing fine-grained access control. We devise a hybrid access control model employing attributes, roles and capabilities. We apply attributes for role-membership assignment and in permission evaluation. Membership of roles grants capabilities. The capabilities which are issued may be parameterised based on further attributes of the user and are then used to access specific services provided by IoT 'things'. We also provide a formal specification of the model and a description of its implementation and demonstrate its application through different use-case scenarios. Evaluation results of core functionality of our architecture are provided.
A ZVS‐ZCS phase shift full bridge DC‐DC converter with secondary‐side control for battery charging applications

The output power requirement of battery charging circuits can vary in a wide range, hence making the use of conventional phase shift full bridge DC‐DC converters infeasible because of poor light load efficiency. In this paper, a new ZVS‐ZCS phase shift full bridge topology with secondary‐side active control has been presented for battery charging applications. The proposed circuit uses 2 extra switches in series with the secondary‐side rectifier diodes, operating with phase shift PWM. With the assistance of transformer's magnetizing inductance, the proposed converter maintains zero voltage switching (ZVS) of the primary‐side switches over the entire load range. The secondary‐side switches regulate the output voltage/current and perform zero current switching (ZCS) independent of the amount of load current. The proposed converter exhibits a significantly better light load efficiency as compared with the conventional phase shift full bridge DC‐DC converter. The performance of the proposed converter has been analyzed on a 1‐kW hardware prototype, and experimental results have been included.
Infrastructuring urban commons over time: learnings from two cases

This paper contributes to the understanding of urban commons and how they might be (co)-designed. Insights from two cases are used to articulate how urban commons develop over time and to discuss how the approach of infrastructuring can enable urban commoning on a long-term basis. First, an overview of commons and urban commons is provided with a special focus on communing, as in, the understanding of commons as an ongoing process rather than a stable arrangement. Thereafter, the paper gives an overview of the participatory design community's findings about co-designing commons, with infrastructuring proposed as a possible approach. By looking at the development of two urban commons over time, the paper tentatively presents an understanding of urban commoning. This emerges as a process that entails the exploration, reification, and reworking of collaborative arrangements over time. It is a process that requires transparency and accountability, and its transformative potential in relation to urban governance should be carefully considered. From these findings, the paper suggests that prolonged infrastructuring efforts for urban commons need to: (1) foster the understanding of the temporal and fallible nature of arrangements; (2) support accountability and transparency over time; (3) recognize and address the installed base; and (4) articulate democratic and governance aspects in commoning.
Real-Time Feedback on Mechanical Power Output: Facilitating Crew Rowers' Compliance With Prescribed Training Intensity.

PURPOSE Athletes require feedback in order to comply with prescribed training programs designed to optimize their performance. In rowing, current feedback parameters on intensity are inaccurate. Mechanical power output is a suitable objective measure for training intensity, but due to movement restrictions related to crew rowing, it is uncertain whether crew rowers are able to adjust their intensity based on power-output feedback. The authors examined whether rowers improve compliance with prescribed power-output targets when visual real-time feedback on power output is provided in addition to commonly used feedback. METHODS A total of 16 crew rowers rowed in 3 training sessions. During the first 2 sessions, they received commonly used feedback, followed by a session with additional power-output feedback. Targets were set by their coaches before the experiment. Compliance was operationalized as accuracy (absolute difference between target and delivered power output) and consistency (high- and low-frequency variations in delivered power output). RESULTS Multilevel analyses indicated that accuracy and low-frequency variations improved by, respectively, 65% (P > .001) and 32% (P = .024) when additional feedback was provided. CONCLUSION Compliance with power-output targets improved when crew rowers received additional feedback on power output. Two additional observations were made during the study that highlighted the relevance of power-output feedback for practice: There was a marked discrepancy between the prescribed targets and the actually delivered power output by the rowers, and coaches had difficulties perceiving improvements in rowers' compliance with power-output targets.
In vitro selection of an XNA aptamer capable of small-molecule recognition

Abstract Despite advances in XNA evolution, the binding capabilities of artificial genetic polymers are currently limited to protein targets. Here, we describe the expansion of in vitro evolution techniques to enable selection of threose nucleic acid (TNA) aptamers to ochratoxin A (OTA). This research establishes the first example of an XNA aptamer of any kind to be evolved having affinity to a small-molecule target. Selection experiments against OTA yielded aptamers having affinities in the mid nanomolar range; with the best binders possessing KD values comparable to or better than those of the best previously reported DNA aptamer to OTA. Importantly, the TNA can be incubated in 50% human blood serum for seven days and retain binding to OTA with only a minor change in affinity, while the DNA aptamer is completely degraded and loses all capacity to bind the target. This not only establishes the remarkable biostability of the TNA aptamer, but also its high level of selectivity, as it is capable of binding OTA in a large background of competing biomolecules. Together, this research demonstrates that refining methods for in vitro evolution of XNA can enable the selection of aptamers to a broad range of increasingly challenging target molecules.
Understanding Software Developers' Approach towards Implementing Data Minimization

Data Minimization (DM) is a privacy practice that requires minimizing the use of user data in software systems. However, continuous privacy incidents that compromise user data suggest that the requirements of DM are not adequately implemented in software systems. Therefore, it is important that we understand the problems faced by software developers when they attempt to implement DM in software systems. In this study, we investigate how 24 software developers implement DM in a software system design when they are asked to. Our findings revealed that developers find it difficult to implement DM when they are not aware of the potential of data they could collect at the design phase of systems. Furthermore, developers were inconsistent in how they implemented DM in their software designs.
Study on Upconversion and Thermal Properties of Tm3+/Yb3+ Co-Doped La2O3-Nb2O5-Ta2O5 Glasses

The effect of Yb3+ ions on upconversion luminescence and thermal properties of Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped La2O3-Nb2O5-Ta2O5 glasses has been studied. Glass transition temperature is around 740 °C, indicating high thermal stability. The effect of Yb3+ ions on the thermal stability is not obvious. Both the glass forming ability and the upconversion luminescence first increase and then decrease with the increase of Yb3+ ions. The glasses perform low glass forming ability with ΔT around 55 °C. Blue and red emissions centered around 477, 651, and 706 nm are obtained at the excitation of 976 nm laser. The upconversion luminescence mechanism is energy transfer from Yb3+ to Tm3+ mixed with two- and three- photon processes. The thermal kinetic Differential Thermal Analysis (DTA)-analysis indicates that the average activation energy first increases and then decreases with the increase of Yb3+ ions. This result can be introduced in order to improve upconversion luminescence of glasses by crystallization in the future. Tm3+/Yb3+ co-doped La2O3-Nb2O5-Ta2O5 glasses with good upconversion and thermal properties show promising applications in solid-state laser, optical temperature sensing.
High-speed per-flow software monitoring with limited resources

Software packet processing has always been a relevant solution for both industry and academia. Because of its unparalleled flexibility with respect to proprietary hardware solutions, software packet processing is widely used for the prototyping and debugging of new protocols. While software packet processing has usually been several orders of magnitude slower than its hardware counterpart, the situation started to change with the emergence of fast packet I/O libraries such as netmap [7] and Data Plane Development Kit (DPDK) [5]. Of particular significance, we now assist to the advent of flow-level high-speed applications that either provide per-flow fairness [3], or propose a high-performance user-space flow-level network function framework [4]. The emergence of such applications requires not only to generate but also to monitor traffic flows in real-time, which
Purification and characterization of FtsZ from the citrus canker pathogen Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri

Xanthomonas citri subsp. citri (Xac) is the causative agent of citrus canker, a plant disease that significantly impacts citriculture. In earlier work, we showed that alkylated derivatives of gallic acid have antibacterial action against Xac and target both the cell division protein FtsZ and membrane integrity in Bacillus subtilis. Here, we have purified native XacFtsZ and characterized its GTP hydrolysis and polymerization properties. In a surprising manner, inhibition of XacFtsZ activity by alkyl gallates is not as strong as observed earlier with B. subtilis FtsZ. As the alkyl gallates efficiently permeabilize Xac membranes, we propose that this is the primary mode of antibacterial action of these compounds.
Attitude of Pre-Service Teacher Trainees towards the Use of Computers in Mathematics Instruction in Secondary Schools in Kenya

: The need to use computers in the teaching and learning process in order to improve performance in mathematics is critical and needs urgent address. The purpose of this study was to investigate the attitude of pre-service teacher trainees towards the use of computers in mathematics instruction in secondary schools in Kenya. A descriptive survey research design was adopted for this study. The target population was teacher trainees of mathematics at Kenyan universities. The accessible population was 200 teacher trainees of mathematics from four Kenyan Universities that offer Bachelor of Education degree courses. Stratified and simple random sampling procedures were employed in this study. The instruments for data collection were the pre-service teacher questionnaire, and face to face interview schedule. The data collected were analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The findings indicated that teacher trainees of mathematics at Kenyan universities have positive attitude towards computers and they believe that computers can be an effective tool in supporting the teaching and learning of mathematics. To exploit the positive attitude of the pre-service teachers towards the use of computers, it is recommended that pre-service teachers of mathematics in universities be given professional development training in the use of computer technology in classroom instruction while on the other hand the Ministry of Education should roll out programs in schools that would enhance use of computers in mathematics instruction in secondary schools in Kenya with a view of improving performance in mathematics.
Sunk Costs Effect: Does Theoretical Knowledge Affects Students’ Decision Process?

The sunk cost is defined as a greater disposition to continue an endeavor, once an investment in money, effort or time has been made. According to economic theory, however, these past expenses should not be taken into consideration, as they cannot be recovered. The objective of this study is to investigate if the student from undergraduate courses in the area of business is less susceptible to the sunk costs effect than students from other areas. Five hundred and twenty eight questionnaires were applied on students of nine undergraduate courses of three universities of Santa Catarina. The results confirm the relevance of the cognitive bias caused by sunk costs, as they indicate a lower probability of choosing the right answer when these involve sunk costs in the decisions. The assumption that the students from the business area are less affected by this bias was not confirmed.