Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Value Chain Up-Gradation Through Collective Action: A Step Towards Inclusive Growth

Objectives : Small and marginal farmers are being excluded from emerging innovative models owing to the high transaction cost in aggregation, poor quality and information asymmetry among the farmers. There are several opportunities to upgrade the traditional value chains leading to high price realization among the farmers. In the present study, Organic Fruits and Vegetable value chains were analyzed to suggest the strategies for value chain upgrading (Product, Process and Functional upgrade) through collectivization for inclusive growth. Method : The survey was conducted in Karnataka state in South India, by involving 200 farmers through purposive random sampling drawn from an official list of certified organic farmers followed by interview with 14 other value chain actors, focus group & key informant interviews, direct observation and documents to obtain necessary information. Findings : Results revealed that, there are five distinct market linkages prevailing involving informal contracts along the chain. Great potential for process and product upgrading through collective action leading to higher price realization and social capital formation among small and marginal farmers. Application : Results have a potential policy and practical implications for directing Institutions to help smallholder producer organizations for the improvement of organic fruit and vegetable production and processing activities for inclusive agricultural growth.
A systematic review of the association between circulating concentrations of C reactive protein and cancer

The objective of this study was to review and summarise the published evidence for an association between circulating concentrations of C reactive protein (CRP) and cancer through a systematic review. 90 discrete studies were identified. 81 (90%) were prevalent case–control or cross-sectional studies, and only 9 studies had a prospective design. In most prevalent studies, CRP concentrations were found to be higher in patients with cancer than in healthy controls or controls with benign conditions. Of the nine large prospective studies identified in this review, four reported no relationship between circulating CRP levels and breast, prostate or colorectal cancers, and five studies found that CRP was associated with colorectal or lung cancers. Most of the studies evaluating CRP as a diagnostic marker of cancer did not present relevant statistical analyses. Furthermore, any association reported in the prevalent studies might reflect reverse causation, survival bias or confounding. The prospective studies provided no strong evidence for a causal role of CRP in cancer. Instead of further prevalent studies, more large prospective studies and CRP gene–cancer association studies would be valuable in investigating the role of CRP in cancer.
Relationship between sick leave, unemployment, disability, and health‐related quality of life in patients with inflammatory bowel disease

Background The goal of this study was to determine the rate of work disability, unemployment, and sick leave in an unselected inflammatory bowel disease (IBD) cohort and to measure the effect of working status and disability on the patient's health‐related quality of life (HRQOL). Materials and Methods All eligible patients were clinically examined and interviewed at the 5‐year follow‐up visit. In addition, they completed the 2 HRQOL questionnaires, the Short Form‐36 Health Survey (SF‐36) and the Inflammatory Bowel Disease Questionnaire validated for use in Norway (N‐IBDQ). Data regarding sick leave, unemployment, and disability pension (DP) also were collected. Results All together, 495 patients were or had been in the workforce during the 5‐year follow‐up period since diagnosis. Forty‐two patients (8.5%) were on DP compared with 8.8% in the background population. Women with Crohn's disease (CD) had the highest probability of receiving DP (24.6%). A total of 58 patients (11.7%) reported they were unemployed at 5 years. This was equally distributed between men and women but was more frequent in patients with ulcerative colitis. Sick leave for all causes was reported in 47% with ulcerative colitis and 53% with CD, whereas IBD‐related sick leave was reported in 18% and 23%, respectively. A majority (75%) had been sick <4 weeks, and a relatively small number of patients (25%) contributed to a large number of the total sick leave days. Both unemployment and DP reduced HRQOL scores, but the most pronounced effect on HRQOL was found in patients reporting IBD‐related sick leave, measured with SF‐36 and N‐IBDQ. The observed differences also were highly clinically significant. Multiple regression analysis confirmed that IBD‐related sick leave was the independent variable with the strongest association to the observed reduction in HRQOL scores. Conclusions Unemployment or sick leave is more common in IBD patients than in the Norwegian background population. The number of patients receiving DP is significantly increased in women with CD but not in the other patient groups. Unemployment, sick leave, and DP are related to the patient's HRQOL in a negative way, but this effect is most pronounced in patients reporting IBD‐related sick leave.
MicroRNA Expression Profiles in Serous Ovarian Carcinoma

Purpose: Although microRNAs have recently been recognized as riboregulators of gene expression, little is known about microRNA expression profiles in serous ovarian carcinoma. We assessed the expression of microRNA and the association between microRNA expression and the prognosis of serous ovarian carcinoma. Experimental Design: Twenty patients diagnosed with serous ovarian carcinoma and eight patients treated for benign uterine disease between December 2000 and September 2003 were enrolled in this study. The microRNA expression profiles were examined using DNA microarray and Northern blot analyses. Results: Several microRNAs were differentially expressed in serous ovarian carcinoma compared with normal ovarian tissues, including miR-21, miR-125a, miR-125b, miR-100, miR-145, miR-16, and miR-99a, which were each differentially expressed in >16 patients. In addition, the expression levels of some microRNAs were correlated with the survival in patients with serous ovarian carcinoma. Higher expression of miR-200, miR-141, miR-18a, miR-93, and miR-429, and lower expression of let-7b, and miR-199a were significantly correlated with a poor prognosis (P < 0.05). Conclusion: Our results indicate that dysregulation of microRNAs is involved in ovarian carcinogenesis and associated with the prognosis of serous ovarian carcinoma.
[The development and Assessment on the general quality of life intrument for Chinese people].

OBJECTIVE To develop a general quality of life (QOL) instrument for Chinese in accordance with the Chinese culture and to assess its reliability, validity and sensitivity. METHODS A 35-item QOL questionnaire(QOL-35) was developed with reference to the World Health Organization QOL questionnaire(WHO-100) and the 36-item medical outcomes study on short-form health status(SF-36). Thirty five items were divided into six domains (general, physical, independent, psychological, social, environment) and one item on QOL transition. The reliability of QOL-35 was assessed by a test-retest survey among 127 adults with an interval of 24-72 hours. The internal consistency and validity were evaluated by a survey on 135 adults from outpatients or general population, using QOL-35, WHO-100 and SF-36. The adaptability was assessed by application to 1356 community-based samples in Beijing. RESULTS (1)Test-retest reliability of QOL-35: weighted Kappa indexes for items were from 0.86 to 1.00. Intraclass correlation coefficients were from 0.68 to 0.94 for domains, and 0.94 for total score. (2) On internal consistency: Cronbach's Alphas were 0.93, 0.97 and 0.89 for QO1-35, WHO-100 and SF-36. (3)On construct validity. The accumulated proportions of variances of the preceding seven factors were 66.5%, 50.3% and 65.3% for QOL-35, WHO-100 and SF-36. (4) On criterion validity. Spearman correlation coefficients of total QOL score of QOL-35 with those of WHO-100 and SF-36 were 0.805 and 0.745. (5)The rates of chronic diseases were 53.1%, 33.1%, 26.4% and 25.1% from first to fourth quantile of the total QOL scores of QOL-35(P<0.05). (6)Cronbach's Alpha was from 0.68 to 0.93 in 135 subjects, and from 0.71 to 0.91 in 1356 individuals of natural population. CONCLUSION The QOL-35 instrument satisfied test-retest reliability and was highly correlated with WHO-100 and SF-36, having fewer items but better construction validity, better internal consistency, and better discrimination ability. We suggested that QOL-35 be used as a replicable tool to assess quality of life in the Chinese general population.
[Placental mitochondrial respiratory function of native Tibetan at high altitude].

OBJECTIVE To explore the mitochondrial mechanism of adaptation to hypoxia of Tibetan. METHODS The body weights and heights of 32 neonates borne by native Tibetan women and of 20 neonates borne by immigrant Han women were measured immediately after birth. The placentae were collected to measure the weight and volume and placental mitochondria were isolated. The mitochondrial respiratory state III (ST3), respiratory state IV (ST4), and respiratory control ratio (RCR) were measured with Clark electrode and the oxidative phosphorylation rate (OPR) was calculated. RESULTS (1) The mean body weight of the neonates borne by native Tibetan women was 3.495+/-0.493 kg, significantly greater than that of the neonates borne by immigrant Han women (2.952+/-0.388 kg, t=3.365, P=0.000). The mean body height of the neonates borne by native Tibetan women was 49.81+/-2.56 cm, significantly greater than that of the neonates borne by immigrant Han women (48.10+/-2.30 cm, t=2.025, P=0.000). The mean weight of the placentae of the native Tibetan women was 0.509+/-0.090 kg, significantly greater than that of the migrant Han women too (0.429+/-0.099 kg, t=0.695, P=0.004), and the mean volume of the placentae of the native Tibetan women was 657.66+/-167.10 cm3, significantly greater than that of the migrant Han women (500.46+/-140.69 cm3, t=1.834, P=0.001). (2) The ST3, RCR, and OPR of the placental mitochondria of the native Tibetan women were 4.22+/-0.97, 67.78+/-13.57 nmol Oxmin(-1)xmg pro(-1), and 117.93+/-32.69 nmol Oxmin(-1)xmg pro(-1), all significantly higher than those of the migrant Han women (3.21+/-0.37, 41.27+/-10.49 nmol Oxmin(-1)xmg pro(-1), and 68.94+/-28.88 nmol Oxmin(-1)xmg pro(-1) respectively, t=3.232, 5.257, and 2.985, P=0.004, 0.000, and 0.001 respectively), while ST4 showed no significant difference between the two groups (16.58+/-3.53 nmol Oxmin(-1)xmg pro(-1) vs. 14.79+/-4.69 nmol Oxmin(-1)xmg pro(-1), t=1.069, P=0.297). CONCLUSION The mitochondrial oxidative phosphorylation activity is significantly higher in the native Tibetan than in the immigrant Han population, indicating that Tibetans are able to utilize much more oxygen under hypoxic conditions at high altitude. This may be an important mechanism by which Tibetans adapt well to hypoxic environment at high altitude.
Commercialization of Inorganic Waste-based Eco Friendly Creative Products to Improve Living Standard of Women Street Vendors in Cikapundung

Bandung is one of the icons or portraits of a rich city both in terms of education and creative human resources. Nevertheless, there is something ironic about this city. Right in the middle of it, there is an urban village which holds poor icon in this city known as flower city. This research designated as an empowerment program with the aim to improve living standards and reduce the amount of inorganic waste by processing them into eco-friendly creative products with an economic and high selling value for the street vendors of Cikapundung riverbank, Bandung, West Java. Based on Participatory Action Research (PAR) approach, the results of this research are to improve living standard and welfare of the poor people by building family's economic independence in generating per capita income in accordance with national welfare standard, to understand and foster the entrepreneurial spirit through caring for the environment, to be able to create creative and innovative results, to be able to overcome environmental problems, to be able to maintain the environmental hygiene through the spirit of concerning for the environment, and also to increase the economic value of creative and innovative products by processing inorganic wastes into valued products to obtain additional earnings. Keywords—inorganic waste; commercialization products; environmental friendly; street vendors; Cikapundung riverbank
Localization of the type 3 iodothyronine deiodinase (DIO3) gene to human chromosome 14q32 and mouse chromosome 12F1.

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Survey on Water-saving Agricultural Internet of Things based on Wireless Sensor Nerwork

Wireless Underground Sensor Networks (WUSN) have the potential to impact a wide variety of novel applications including intelligent irrigation, soil information monitoring, etc, the internet of tings for water-saving agriculture. WUSN consist of wireless devices that operate below the ground surface. These devices are buried completely under dense soil. The main difference between WUSN and the terrestrial wireless sensor network is the communication medium. This work provides an extensive overview of the research and application situations in agricultural internet of things for WUSN. The water-saving agricultural internet of things based on WUSN architecture is developed. Here, the main research for the underground communication channel including methods for predicting signal losses in an underground link. Based on the test model, research tests and results are discussed.
Real-time object based single-stream to multi-stream network enabled multimedia system using an adder-less reconfigurable fast area correlator processor

This paper presents a network enabled reconfigurable FPGA based real-time system for selectively detecting, adding, deleting or displacing irregular shaped video objects in high-resolution video sequence obtained from a digital camera. Real-time irregular shaped object detection and insertion from a high-resolution high-frame rate video requires a high performance system. The system can selectively add or delete video objects from a single video stream and produce multiple streams for broadcasting in a network. Each host in the network get a different version of the video. In this paper we present a run-time reconfigurable design of an area correlator, which is a hardware efficient technique for detecting objects in a frame. The main contribution resides in the concurrent approach which modifies the algorithm for hardware specific implementation, novel hardware building blocks, and a set of architectures which can be mapped as reconfigurable design at runtime. This system provides flexibility in creative video enriched multimedia applications and has wide range of applications and is applicable in object detection, video recording, surveillance, conferencing, broadcasting and augmented reality.
Early Childhood Internalizing Problems in Mexican- and Dominican-Origin Children: The Role of Cultural Socialization and Parenting Practices

This study examined mother- and teacher-rated internalizing behaviors (i.e., anxiety, depression, and somatization symptoms) among young children using longitudinal data from a community sample of 661 Mexican and Dominican families and tested a conceptual model in which parenting (mother's socialization messages and parenting practices) predicted child internalizing problems 12 months later. Children evidenced elevated levels of mother-rated anxiety at both time points. Findings also supported the validity of the proposed parenting model for both Mexican and Dominican families. Although there were different pathways to child anxiety, depression, and somatization among Mexican and Dominican children, socialization messages and authoritarian parenting were positively associated with internalizing symptoms for both groups.
Handling Weighted, Asymmetric, Self-Looped, and Disconnected Networks in ORA

When Linton C. Freeman made his conceptual clarifications about centrality measures in social network analysis in 1979 he exclusively focused on unweighted, symmetric, and connected networks without the possibility of self-loops. Even though a lot of articles have been published in the last years discussing network measures for weighted, asymmetric or unconnected networks, the vast majority of researchers dealing with social network data simplify their networks based on Freeman’s 1979 definitions before they calculate centrality measures. When dealing with weighted and/or asymmetric networks which can have self links and consist of multiple components, researchers are confronted with a lack of standardization. Different tools for social network analysis treat specific cases differently. In this article we describe and discuss the ways the software ORA (developed by CASOS at Carnegie Mellon University) handles the most important network measures in case of weighted, asymmetric, self-looped, and disconnected networks. In the center of our attention are the following measures, degree centrality, closeness centrality, betweenness centrality, eigenvector centrality, and clustering coefficient.iii
Sharing the blame: smoking experimentation and future smoking-attributable mortality due to Joe Camel and Marlboro advertising and promotions

BACKGROUND Despite public denials, internal tobacco company documents indicate that adolescents have long been the target of cigarette advertising and promotional activities. Recent longitudinal evidence suggests that 34% of new experimentation occurs because of advertising and promotions. OBJECTIVE To apportion responsibility for smoking experimentation and future smoking-attributable mortality among major cigarette brands attractive to young people (Camel and Marlboro). DATA SOURCES, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS Data were from confirmed never-smoking adolescents (12–17 years old) responding to the 1993 (n = 2659) and 1996 (n = 2779) population-based California Tobacco Surveys. MAIN OUTCOMES Adolescents named the brand of their favourite cigarette advertisements and tobacco promotional items. Using these “market shares” and the relative importance of advertising and promotions in encouraging smoking, we estimated how many new experimenters from 1988 to 1998 in the United States can be attributed to Camel and Marlboro. From other data on the natural history of smoking, we projected how many future deaths in the United States can be attributed to each brand. RESULTS Although Camel advertisements were favoured more than Marlboro and other brands in 1993 and 1996, the “market share” for promotional items shifted markedly during this period from Camel and other brands towards Marlboro. We estimated that between 1988 and 1998, there will be 7.9 million new experimenters because of tobacco advertising and promotions. This will result in 4.7 million new established smokers: 2.1, 1.2, and 1.4 million due to Camel, Marlboro, and other brands’ advertising and promotions, respectively. Of these, 1.2 million will eventually die from smoking-attributable diseases: 520 000 from Camel, 300 000 from Marlboro, and the remainder from other brands. CONCLUSIONS Our analysis provides a reasonable first estimate at sharing the blame for the long-term health consequences of smoking among the major brands that encourage adolescents to start smoking.
An Open Letter to Institutional Review Boards Considering Northfield Laboratories' PolyHeme® Trial

At the time of this writing, a widely publicized, waived-consent trial is underway. Sponsored by Northfield Laboratories, Inc. (Evanston, IL) the trial is intended to evaluate the emergency use of PolyHeme®, an oxygen-carrying resuscitative fluid that might prevent deaths from uncontrolled bleeding. The protocol allows patients in hemorrhagic shock to be randomized between PolyHeme® and saline in the field and, still without consent, randomized between PolyHeme® and blood after arrival at an emergency department. The Federal regulations that govern the waiver of consent restrict its applicability to circumstances where proven, satisfactory treatments are unavailable. Blood—the standard treatment for hemorrhagic shock—is not available in ambulances but is available in hospitals. The authors argue that the in-hospital stage of the study fails to meet ethical and regulatory standards.
Mobile Application development for labor intermediation as a solution for sectors excluded from the labor market. An Instrument for the definition of public policies

A social app where local workers can build a reputation based on theirs clients califications. With a strong focus in real life interactions this platform offer a great solution to those who demand a service or product and have interest in compare local options,and also for those who offer a service and want to expand their work opportunities. Registers users can geolocate their working area and detailed their abbilities for free. This project was developed by a workteam established between the National University of Rosario (UNR) and the National University of Rio Negro (UNRN). This paper presents technical details of the application and explains the context for its use, as well as associated benefits and necessary technical resources.
Secondary Organic Aerosol Formation and Organic Nitrate Yield from NO3 Oxidation of Biogenic Hydrocarbons

The secondary organic aerosol (SOA) mass yields from NO3 oxidation of a series of biogenic volatile organic compounds (BVOCs), consisting of five monoterpenes and one sesquiterpene (α-pinene, β-pinene, Δ-3-carene, limonene, sabinene, and β-caryophyllene), were investigated in a series of continuous flow experiments in a 10 m3 indoor Teflon chamber. By making in situ measurements of the nitrate radical and employing a kinetics box model, we generate time-dependent yield curves as a function of reacted BVOC. SOA yields varied dramatically among the different BVOCs, from zero for α-pinene to 38–65% for Δ-3-carene and 86% for β-caryophyllene at mass loading of 10 μg m–3, suggesting that model mechanisms that treat all NO3 + monoterpene reactions equally will lead to errors in predicted SOA depending on each location’s mix of BVOC emissions. In most cases, organonitrate is a dominant component of the aerosol produced, but in the case of α-pinene, little organonitrate and no aerosol is formed.