Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Smoking During Pregnancy Among Immigrant Women With Same-Origin and Swedish-Born Partners

Abstract Introduction Although ethnically mixed couples are on the rise in industrialized countries, their health behaviors are poorly understood. We examined the associations between partner’s birthplace, age at immigration, and smoking during pregnancy among foreign-born women. Methods Population-based register study including all pregnancies resulting in a livebirth or stillbirth in Sweden (1991–2012) with complete information on smoking and parental country of birth. We compared the prevalence of smoking during pregnancy between women in dual same-origin foreign-born unions (n = 213 111) and in mixed couples (immigrant women with a Swedish-born partner) (n = 111 866) using logistic regression. Swedish-born couples were used as a benchmark. Results The crude smoking rate among Swedish women whose partners were Swedish was 11%. Smoking rates of women in dual same-origin foreign-born unions varied substantially by birthplace, from 1.3% among women from Asian countries to 23.2% among those from other Nordic countries. Among immigrant groups with prevalences of pregnancy smoking higher than that of women in dual Swedish-born unions, having a Swedish-born partner was associated with lower odds of smoking (adjusted odds ratios: 0.72–0.87) but with higher odds among immigrant groups with lower prevalence (adjusted odds ratios: 1.17–5.88). These associations were stronger among women immigrating in adulthood, whose smoking rates were the lowest. Conclusions Swedish-born partners “pull” smoking rates of immigrant women toward the level of smoking of Swedish-born women, particularly among women arrived during adulthood. Consideration of a woman’s and her partner’s ethnic background and life stage at migration may help understand smoking patterns of immigrant women. Implications We found that having a Swedish-born partner is associated with higher rates of smoking during pregnancy among immigrants from regions where women smoke less than Swedish women, but with lower smoking rates among immigrants from regions where women smoke more. This implies that prevention efforts should concentrate on newly arrived single women from low prevalence regions, such as Africa and Asia, whereas cessation efforts may target women from high prevalence regions, such as other European countries. These findings suggest that pregnancy smoking prevention or cessation interventions may benefit from including partners and approaches culturally tailored to mixed unions.
Evidence on the Link between Respiratory Syncytial Virus Infection in Early Life and Chronic Obstructive Lung Diseases

Abstract There is growing evidence in medical literature to support an association between early-life respiratory syncytial virus lower respiratory tract-lower respiratory tract infection (RSV-LRTI) and recurrent wheezing/asthma-like symptoms. It has been estimated that children with a history of RSV-LRTI have a 2- to 12-fold higher risk of developing asthma. The connection between RSV infection and a developmental trajectory of reduced lung function remains throughout adolescence and early adulthood, suggesting a possible role for RSV even in the inception of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. That is why the postnatal period appears to offer a specific window of opportunity for early intervention to prevent chronic obstructive lung diseases. The mechanisms by which RSV contributes to the onset of wheezing/asthma and lung function impairment are not fully understood but appear to relate to injury caused directly by the virus and/or to pre-existing predisposing factors. While awaiting a deeper understanding of the association between RSV and chronic lung diseases, the crucial role of pediatricians and physicians is to develop strategies to prevent RSV infections to try and protect children's lifelong respiratory health. Key Points Several evidence suggest a link between RSV infection in early life and wheezing/asthma development. RSV infection appears to have long term respiratory effects. The prevention of RSV infections could reduce the incidence of chronic obstructive respiratory diseases.
Generating national projections of dementia cases for Ireland using a calibrated macro-simulation model

Introduction Epidemiological data on dementia is not available in many European countries and regions due to the high cost and complexity of conducting large scale dementia screening studies. The available epidemiological studies identify potentially substantial variation in the prevalence of dementia over time and across Europe. Methods In this paper we generate simulations of the number of dementia cases in Ireland from 1991 to 2036 using a three-state Markov illness-death model. Parameters values are selected for each simulation from a range using a random parameter search pattern. We employ a novel calibration method which exploits the strong relationship between dementia, ageing and mortality. Simulation weights are generated based on differences between observed and modelled cohorts of older people and the reported number of deaths from dementia. Irish Census data from 1991 to 2016 and the number of recorded deaths due to dementia in 2018 are used as calibration points. A weighted average projection of the number of dementia cases is generated. Results We estimate a weighted average number of cases of dementia in 2016 of 54 877 increasing to 98 946 in 2036; this estimate is substantially lower than the estimates generated using extrapolation methods. We show the wide range of possible outcomes given the range in the available parameter estimates and show that irrespective of whether the incidence rate of dementia is declining the number of cases of dementia is rapidly increasing due to population ageing. Conclusion Previous studies have used parameter estimates from meta-analyses of the literature or from individual studies. In this paper we supplement these with a calibration approach using observed cause of death and population age structure data. These additional sources of data can be used to generate estimates of dementia prevalence in any country or region which has census data and data on deaths due to dementia.
Three rarely encountered and one new Culiseta species (Diptera: Culicidae) in Germany.

With few exceptions, systematic large-scale field studies on the mosquito fauna have not been performed in Germany for decades. Thus, up-to-date data on the occurrence and distribution of the indigenous mosquito species are lacking. In particular, there is no information on whether once rare and restrictively occurring species are still present. Here we describe the recent finding of four Culiseta species rarely encountered in Germany: Cs. alaskaensis, Cs. glaphyroptera and Cs. ochroptera, which have always been considered endemic but were seldom found and last reported a long time ago, and Cs. longiareolata, which has recently been found to have established in southern Germany. Journal of the European Mosquito Control Association 31: 36-39, 2013
INTROGRESSION OF RESISTANCE TO BLAST DISEASE FROM MONOGENIC LINE IRBLta2-Re TO CIHERANG RICE VARIETY

1 Department of Biology, Faculty of Mathematics and Natural Sciences, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia 2 Research Center for Bioresources and Biotechnology, Bogor Agricultural University, Indonesia 3 Research Center for Biotechnology, Indonesian Institute of Sciences, Indonesia 4 Indonesian Center for Rice Research, Indonesia *Corresponding author’s email: sony-sh@apps.ipb. ac.id Email addresses of coauthors: nurulfitriah2@gmail.com, nugroho_satya@yahoo.com, miftahudin@apps.ipb. ac.id, pakwarno@gmail.com
ANN BASED OVER-MODULATED SPACE VECTOR PULSE WIDTH MODULATOR FOR VCIM DRIVES

A high performance overmodulation strategy for PWM voltage-source inverter (VSI) fed induction motor drive is proposed in this paper. Kohonen’s Competitive Net based space vector PWM is used to extend its operation from under-modulation (linear mode) to over-modulation (non-linear mode) that is smoothly up to six-step mode. This ANN-based modulator was then incorporated in induction motor drive with rotor flux oriented vector control. This scheme is evaluated under simulation for a variety of operating conditions of the drive. As the full inverter voltage utilization is important from cost and power density improvement perspective, the scheme presents the robust and best strategy for drives operation extended up to six-step mode.
In Vitro Antibacterial and Cytotoxicity Evaluation of Aloe Vera Associated Endophytic Fungi

Objective: The present study was aimed to evaluate in vitro antimicrobial and cytotoxicity of endophytic fungi and its metabolites. Methods: against Escherichia coli, Stapylococcus aureus, Klebsiella sp, Salmonella sp, Proteus sp, Shigella sp, Candida albicans, Cryptococcus sp, Trychophyton sp, and Penecillium sp, as well as their cytotoxicity on MOLT -3 cell line. Results: Isolated endophytic fungi showed significant inhibition against test microorganisms by the method of dual culture techniques. The crude secondary metabolite of isolate showed highest zone of inhibition against test organisms and the enzyme showed moderate activity. Aloe Vera associated Aspergillus sp produce amylase enzyme which showed slight to mild antiproliferative activity on MOLT-3 cell line. Conclusion: The results of the present study, suggest that Aloe Vera associated Aspergillus sp was potential antimicrobial and antiproliferative agents.
Effect of growth hormones on caryopses formation and plant regeneration frequency in durum wheat x maize crosses

Hormonal application is one of the most critical steps for the success of wheat x maize crosses. Tiller injections of 2,4-D have become a standard practice and 100 ppm concentration was almost invariably used for bread wheat. Separate standardization was carried out for concentration and combination of auxins as post pollination tiller injection in durum wheat x maize crosses. 2,4-D + picloram @ 100 ppm each was found to be the most efficient auxin combination giving CFF of 78.21% and EFF of 20.22%. Embryo rescue medium is considered to be a major factor affecting the regeneration frequency thereby, the overall number of plants. Embryo rescue medium supplemented with 500 mg/l casein hydrolysate and 2 g/l activated charcoal was found to improve regeneration to a magnitude of 76.7%.
The Institute have the financial support of l’Autorité des marchés financiers and the Ministère des finances du Québec. Working paper

In this study, we use executive compensation contracts to investigate whether the cross-sectional variation in the degree of accounting hedge designation is a function of reporting choice or indicative of the underlying economics of the derivative position. We first use principal component analysis to categorize firms based on their degree of exposure to business risks. We then test a series of hypotheses developed to examine whether the prevalence of derivatives designated as accounting hedges is attributable to reporting or behavioral incentives created by the structure of managers’ compensation contracts. We find no evidence of managers making opportunistic reporting choices, either in the context of earnings-based or market-based performance measures. We consistently find evidence, however, that the prevalence of undesignated derivatives varies with the overall risk environment of the firm. In addition, we find that, under certain circumstances, undesignated derivatives appear to reduce the firm’s overall risk as opposed to creating exposures.
Towards Emerging Nonverbal Communication Protocols for Multi-Robot Populations

The ability to communicate effectively with other agents is part of a necessary skill repertoire of intelligent agents and occurs only in multi-agent contexts. Within the field on multiagent learning (MAL), emergent communication literature primarily focuses on language acquisition1 to communicate agent intent [9, 3, 4, 1, 7]. While language is a powerful and expressive modality for communication, not all agents will have access to this modality. For example, zoomorphic agents, robotic manipulators, and prelingual infants are generally not expected to use language to communicate. Even when language is a possible modality, it is sometimes not available to agents (e.g. when agents are too far in proximity for verbal communication or when encountering agents that don’t have the ability to hear). Just as important as the inability to use language as a modality for communication is the ability for multi-modal communication. Non-verbal communication is an important co-expressive form of communication, alongside language [8]. Embodied agents inherently have access to another expressive modality for communication, through manual (articulation motion) communication, which we explore in this work. It is, to the best of our knowledge, a first investigation into the emergence of high-dimensional motion generation for nonverbal communication in cooperative agent environments. We focus on the task of learning to generate goalconditioned motion by having agents play a gesture-based referential game. Referential games have been extensively explored in the emergent communication literature [3, 2, 4, 7]. The basic idea is that through repeated agent-agent interactions the community of agents converges on a communication protocol, such that each agent in the community can both generate and interpret the language developed. In our problem setting, the messages consist of motion trajectories, with different trajectories corresponding to different intents. In this work, no explicit supervision is provided, to indicate how communicative intents should be mapped to the trajectory space. This makes learning a non-verbal communication protocol with desirable properties (e.g. generality, interpretability) challenging since the space of possible trajectories is RJ×m×T , where J is the number of joints of the agent, m the number of degrees of freedom per joint, and T a fixed time horizon.
Factors Associated With Oxidative Stress in the Testes and the Mitigating Role of Antioxidants: A Review

Present day’s reports have increased on relation to infertility of males associated with decreasing semen quality by the oxidative stress causing factors. Numerous external and internal factors were responsible for the ROS (reactive oxygen species) production, excessive ROS further effects on cellular antioxidant capacity in consequence leads to oxidative tension. The exogenous factors like, high testicular temperature, diabetes, Present life style and food habits, Declined testicular antioxidants, exposure of toxicants, exposure of radiation (X-ray) responsible for the imbalance production of hormones and antioxidants. However, under normal condition, the body has the ability to synthesize antioxidant defense enzymes for prohibiting the undesirable oxidative stress effects. But chronic exposure to environmental toxicants (endocrine disrupters, pesticides, xenobiotics) ionizing radiation and heat stress the body’s antioxidants cannot stabilize the free radicals for prevention of deleterious oxidative stress in the testis. The impaired antioxidant system is associated with declining levels of antioxidant enzymes, increased levels of stress markers and probably affects the hormonal mechanism. This leads to abnormal sperm production and testicular morphological changes occur, finally leading to infertility in males. Exogenous antioxidant therapy (zinc, selenium, vitamins, and plant related compounds) can chelate the oxidative stress reaction and play an important role in improving the body’s ability to fight against free radicals induced oxidative stress factors, and therefore betterment in the course of spermatogenesis.
Changes in growth and abundance of seagrasses in Barbados, West Indies.

The goal of the research was to document and interpret short and long-term changes in growth and abundance of seagrasses (Thalassia testudinum, Syringodium filiforme) in Barbados. The short-term changes were in response to a 15-month discharge of turbid water into St. Lawrence Bay; the long-term changes were over the 25-year period 1969--1994. To facilitate interpretation of the changes, effects of seasonality and shoot age on Thalassia were investigated, and nutrient and light competition between Thalassia and Syringodium was assessed. Seasonal variation was observed in growth of Thalassia, being highest when nutrient availability (leaf nutrient levels) was highest. Effects of shoot age on Thalassia leaf growth were investigated in 3 shoot age categories. Most growth variables increased with shoot age, with shoot age explaining more of the variance in younger than older shoot age categories. Thalassia abundance and growth decreased significantly during the 15-month discharge event in St. Lawrence Bay, probably through reduced light levels. Syringodium abundance increased during the event, probably through increased nutrient availability, suggesting that Thalassia may be the more effective nutrient competitor. This may result from the higher belowground to aboveground biomass ratio characteristic of Thalassia. In a canopy removal experiment, Syringodium inhibited Thalassia growth through light competition more than the reverse. This suggests that Syringodium is the more effective light competitor, possibly because of its higher aboveground to belowground biomass ratio. Thalassia abundance and growth decreased, and Syringodium abundance increased, between 1969 and 1994. The impact of a hurricane in 1980 may best explain the Thalassia loss, and the Syringodium increase may be a response to this loss. The decrease in Thalassia growth could result from increased light competition from Syringodium, from a long term decrease in coastal water clarity believed to have occurred in Barbados, or perhaps from a younger Thalassia shoot age distribution resulting from the hurricane impact.
A Multi-Task Learning Neural Network for Emotion-Cause Pair Extraction

Emotion-cause pair extraction, which aims at extracting both the emotion and its corresponding cause in text, is a signiﬁcant and challenging task in emotion analysis. Previous work formulated the task in a two-step framework, i.e., emotion and cause extraction, and emotion-cause relation classiﬁcation. However, different tasks may correlate with each other and the two-step framework does not fully exploit the interactions between tasks. In this paper, we propose a multi-task neural network to perform emotion-cause pair extraction in a uniﬁed model. The task of relation classiﬁcation is learned together with emotion and cause extraction. To this end, we develop a method to obtain training samples for relation classiﬁcation without the dependence on the result of emotion and cause extraction. To fully exploit the interactions between different tasks, our model shares useful features across tasks. Moreover, we propose a method to incorporate position-aware emotion information in cause extraction to further improve the performance. Experimental results show that our model outperforms the state-of-the-art model on emotion-cause pair extraction.
A Discussion on Multi-view Video Streaming in Wireless Networks

Several techniques have been proposed such as SCC, MVC and UDMVT for transmission of multi-view videos which requires more bandwidth than conventional multimedia. However, there is no sufﬁcient discussion on the streaming over wireless networks, where the latency and packet loss increase due to varying conditions. This paper discusses the multi-view video streaming on wireless networks. At ﬁrst, problems of multi-view video streaming in wireless networks are addressed and existing techniques are compared to ﬁnd loads of encoders and decoders and network trafﬁc. Then, a framework with two-step encoding to reduce the latency and packet loss is presented. The primary encoder uses SCC or MVC depending on server capacity in wired networks, while the secondary encoder uses UDMVT in wireless networks for de-coded stream primarily encoded. We evaluate SCC, MVC and UDMVT for the secondary encoder. Results show that UDMVT outperforms others regarding transmission bit-rate, latency and packet loss.
Topic-diversified Neural Dialogue Generation

Conventional neural dialogue generation approaches, neglecting the topics of the context, are awkward to generate topic-specific responses when confronted with multi-topic conversations. To address the issues of dialogue generation in multi-topic scenarios, in this paper, we propose a T opic-diversified N eural D ialog generation framework—TND, to leverage the common ground and the difference across multiple topics of conversations. In particular, an encoder first transforms the input context into a hidden context representation vector; a topic indicator is applied to figure out the topical information of the given context; topic-wised responses are then generated through multiple topic-specific generators, where each generator dynamically injects the effects of the topical information into the response generation; and the most appropriate response is finally selected referring to the topical proximity be-tween the context and the response. Extensive experiments on a large scale conversation dataset show that the proposed framework surpasses the state-of-the-art baselines on both the automatic evaluations and human evaluations, and the visualization further verifies the effectiveness of TND as well.
A Multi-Objective Genetic Programming Hyper-Heuristic Approach to Uncertain Capacitated Arc Routing Problems

The Uncertain Capacitated Arc Routing Problem (UCARP) is a very important problem which has many real world applications. Genetic Programming Hyper-heuristic (GPHH), which can automatically evolve effective routing policies, is considered as a promising technique that can handle UCARP effectively. However, GP-evolved routing policies are often very complex and hard to be understood and trusted by human users. In this paper, we aim to improve the interpretability of the GP-evolved routing policies by reducing the size of the GP-evolved routing policies since smaller routing policies tend to be easier to understand. We propose a new Multi-Objective GP (MOGP) to optimise the performance (total cost) and size simultaneously. One main challenge is that the size is much easier to be optimised than the performance. Thus, the population tends to be biased to the small but poor routing policies and quickly lose the ability of exploration. To address this issue, we propose a MOGP approach with $\alpha$ dominance strategy ($\alpha$-MOGP) which can balance the tradeoff between performance and individual size. The experimental results showed that $\alpha$-MOGP could obtain much smaller routing policies than the state-of-the-art single-objective GPHH, without deteriorating the performance. Compared with traditional MOGP, $\alpha$-MOGP can obtain a much better and more widespread Pareto front.
Assessing digital maturity of organizations

: The authors proposed a mathematical model of the level of development of digital leadership. There are five areas, which include both quantitative and qualitative criteria. Using the lower level of the hierarchy, the criteria of one direction are compared in pairs by the power of their influence on the key direction as a whole. Thus, the higher is the index - the higher is the place of the organization in the digitalization ranking.