Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Correlates of individual-level abortion stigma among women seeking elective abortion in Nigeria

Objective This study aimed to measure individual-level abortion stigma (ILAS) and determine its correlates among women receiving safe elective abortion services. Patients and methods Data were collected from a cross-section of women who received safe elective abortion services in select intervention health facilities. Respondents were recruited through a self-selection sampling. ILAS was assessed using a 16-item scale (Cronbach’s alpha =0.9122). Respondents were categorized as high (summed score >40) or low ILAS (summed score ≤40) on a spectrum of a summed minimum score of 16 to a maximum score of 64. A log-binomial regression model was constructed to determine the ILAS correlates. Results Among 382 respondents, 43% expressed high ILAS. Women’s age and education, provider’s cadre and type of abortion procedure were significant correlates in the model. Older women (age 25–34 and age ≥35) were less likely (prevalence ratio [PR]=0.60 and 0.39, p<0.001) to express high ILAS than the younger women (age ≤24); those with higher educational status were more likely to express (PR=1.64, p<0.05) high ILAS than those with None/Primary education; those who had medical abortion were less likely (PR=0.54, p<0.01) to express high ILAS than those who had surgical abortion; and lastly, those who received care from midlevel providers were more likely (PR=1.31, p<0.05) to express high ILAS than those who received care from physicians. Conclusion High ILAS still exists among women accessing safe elective abortion care in Nigeria. Therefore, interventions at all levels of the socioecological model of abortion stigma need to be considered to address this societal problem that affects and impacts women.
Coordinated Tuning of the Parameters of PSS and POD Controllers Using Bioinspired Algorithms

This paper presents a technique based on the novel bat algorithm (NBA) for the design of the parameters of power system stabilizers and the generalized Unified power flow controller-power oscillation damping in a multimachine power system. The objective is to ensure minimal damping rates to low-frequency electromechanical oscillation modes. Simulations were carried out on the New England system to compare the performance of the NBA with three other techniques: particle swarm optimization, bacterial foraging optimization oriented by particle swarm optimization, and the bat algorithm. For the cases analyzed in this paper, the NBA produced results superior to other techniques. Moreover, the proposed methodology was able to obtain solutions with high damping levels, which showed to be robust when a wide range of loading conditions of the power system were considered.
A Battery Management System for Efficient Adherence to Energy Exchange Commands Under Longevity Constraints

This paper is focused on the problem of controlling the energy storage such that the energy exchange between the storage and the remaining system is performed in the required amount with maximum efficiency, and that all the constraints for the storage system longevity are adhered to. There is a huge need for such storage management in energy flow optimization of microgrids where energy flows from/to storages are planned in order to achieve maximum gain in microgrid operation. The case of a valve-regulated lead-acid battery is elaborated. The underlying computation tractability and the performance of such a battery management system is demonstrated both in simulation and experimentally.
Interleaved Current-Driven Phase-Shift Full-Bridge Converter With Magnetic Integration and Voltage Doubler Rectifiers

This paper presents an interleaved current-driven phase-shift full-bridge converter for plug-in hybrid electric vehicle (PHEV) applications. In the proposed converter, soft switching of the active switches can be realized for a wide range of operating conditions by using a simple auxiliary circuit. Due to the current-driven nature of secondary rectifiers, the proposed converter is able to eliminate the voltage spikes across the output diodes and provides smooth commutations for the secondary rectifiers. Thus, diodes with lower breakdown voltage rate and lower forward voltage drop can be used to further improve the efficiency. All the passive magnetic components are integrated into the main transformer. The numbers of the output diodes are minimized because of the voltage doubler rectifier configuration. The input filtering requirements, as well as the current stresses of the switch devices, are also significantly reduced owing to the interleaving approach. Therefore, the proposed converter would be a good candidate for PHEV applications. The steady-state operation and relevant analysis results of the proposed converter are presented. Experimental results obtained from a 2-kW prototype with a peak efficiency of 97.4% validate feasibility of the proposed converter.
Evidence-based complementary treatment of pancreatic cancer: a review of adjunct therapies including paricalcitol, hydroxychloroquine, intravenous vitamin C, statins, metformin, curcumin, and aspirin

Despite new and exciting research and renewed optimism about future therapy, current statistics of survival from pancreatic cancer remains dismal. Patients seeking alternative or complementary treatments should be warned to avoid the hype and instead look to real science. A variety of relatively safe and inexpensive treatment options that have shown success in preclinical models and/or retrospective studies are currently available. Patients require their physicians to provide therapeutic guidance and assistance in obtaining and administrating these various therapies. Paricalcitol, an analog of vitamin D, has been shown by researchers at the Salk Institute for Biological Studies to break though the protective stroma surrounding tumor cells. Hydroxychloroquine has been shown to inhibit autophagy, a process by which dying cells recycle injured organelles and internal toxins to generate needed energy for survival and reproduction. Intravenous vitamin C creates a toxic accumulation of hydrogen peroxide within cancer cells, hastening their death. Metformin inhibits mitochondrial oxidative metabolism utilized by cancer stem cells. Statins inhibit not only cholesterol but also other factors in the same pathway that affect cancer cell growth, protein synthesis, and cell cycle progression. A novel formulation of curcumin may prevent resistance to chemotherapy and inhibit pancreatic cancer cell proliferation. Aspirin therapy has been shown to prevent pancreatic cancer and may be useful to prevent recurrence. These therapies are all currently available and are reviewed in this paper with emphasis on the most recent laboratory research and clinical studies.
Analytical model for coupling Whispering gallery mode silica microcavity for sensing application

An analytical expression for the coupling of whispering gallery mode is derived by adding the coupling and intrinsic loss terms. The resonant frequency of a weak probe mode can be shifted by a strong pump mode due to XPM and the frequency shift of the probe is proportional to the pump energy. We found large negative frequency shift when pump and probe power are perfectly matched, consistant with the reported experimental observations. It can also be found that XPM induced frequency shift is much smaller as compared with SPM induced frequency shift due to the lower power coupled to mode 2. This result opens up a range of new applications in nonlinear sensing and quantum optics.
Standalone Photovoltaic Water Pumping System Using Induction Motor Drive With Reduced Sensors

A simple and efficient solar photovoltaic (PV) water pumping system utilizing an induction motor drive (IMD) is presented in this paper. This solar PV water pumping system comprises two stages of power conversion. The first stage extracts the maximum power from a solar PV array by controlling the duty ratio of a dc–dc boost converter. The dc bus voltage is maintained by the controlling the motor speed. This regulation helps in the reduction of motor losses by reducing motor currents at higher voltage for the same power injection. To control the duty ratio, an incremental conductance based maximum power point tracking (MPPT) control technique is utilized. A scalar-controlled voltage source inverter serves the purpose of operating an IMD. The stator frequency reference of IMD is generated by the proposed control scheme. The proposed system is modeled, and its performance is simulated in detail. The scalar control eliminates the requirement of a speed sensor/encoder. Consequently, the need of motor current sensor is also eliminated. Moreover, the dynamics are improved by an additional speed feedforward term in the control scheme. The proposed control scheme makes the system inherently immune to the variation in the pump constant. The prototype of PV-powered IMD emulating the pump characteristics is developed in the laboratory to examine the performance under different operating conditions.
Functional profiles of coronal and dentin caries in children

ABSTRACT Background: Dental caries results from a dysbiosis of tooth-associated biofilms and frequently extends through enamel into dentin which has a different structure and composition. Objective: To evaluate the metatranscriptome of caries to determine the metabolic potential of caries communities compared with health. Design: Samples from children, caries-free (CF: n = 4) or with coronal (CC: n = 5) or dentin (DC: n = 5) caries were examined for gene expression potential. Functional profiling was performed using HUMAnN2 (HMP Unified Metabolic Analysis Network). Results: There was increased gene expression diversity in DC compared with CC and CF. Genes in CF included alcohol dehydrogenase from Neisseria sicca, methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase from Streptococcus sanguinis and choline kinase from streptococci. Genes in CC mapped mainly to Streptococcus mutans. Arginine deiminase in DC mapped to S. sanguinis and Actinomyces naeslundii. Glycerol kinase genes mapped to S. sanguinis in all groups whereas glycerol kinase in DC were from Rothia, Prevotella and streptococci. Uracil-DNA glycosylase in DC mapped to Prevotella denticola and Actinomyces. Repressor LexA in DC mapped to Scardovia wiggsiae, Dialister invisus and Veillonella parvula. Conclusions: Functional profiling revealed enzyme activities in both caries and caries-free communities and clarified marked differences between coronal and dentin caries in bacterial composition and potential gene expression.
Testing of Big Data Analytics Systems by Benchmark

With the rapid development of big data technologies and applications, various big data analytics systems have been released by open source communities and industry. So testing and evaluating the overall performance of these big data analytics systems has become an important research topic. The paper analyzes in detail the challenges of testing big data analytics systems and proposes the method and strategies for the testing. Furthermore, the paper presents two cases of testing big data analytics systems by benchmark.
Research On Variable-Length Transfer Delay and Delayed-Signal-Cancellation-Based PLLs

In power and energy applications, implementing a large number of phase-locked loops (PLLs) involves using transfer delays. These delays are employed for different control and filtering purposes, such as creating a fictitious orthogonal signal (which is required for the frame transformation in single-phase PLLs) and filtering harmonics, dc offset, and other disturbances. Depending on the application in hand and the expected variation range of the grid frequency, the length of these delays may be variable or fixed. Roughly speaking, the variable-length delays are often preferred for applications where large frequency drifts are anticipated and a high accuracy is required. To the best of authors’ knowledge, the small-signal modeling of a variable-length delay-based PLL has not yet been conducted. The main aim of this paper is to cover this gap. The tuning procedure and analysis of these PLLs are also presented. As design examples, some well-known single-phase and three-phase PLLs are considered.
Finite-Time Cluster Synchronization of Lur’e Networks: A Nonsmooth Approach

This paper is devoted to the finite-time cluster synchronization issue of nonlinearly coupled complex networks which consist of discontinuous Lur’e systems. On the basis of the definition of Filippov regularization process and the measurable selection theorem, the discontinuously nonlinear function is mapped into a function-valued set, then a measurable function is accordingly selected from the Filippov set to ensure the existence of the solution for the discontinuous system. By designing the finite-time pinning controller, some sufficient conditions are obtained for cluster synchronization of the identical and nonidentical Lur’e networks, respectively. In addition, the settling time for achieving the cluster synchronization is estimated by applying the finite-time stability theory. And finally, a numerical example is presented to illustrate the validity of theoretical analysis.
A Satisfiability-Based Approach to Generation of Constrained Locating Arrays

A locating array is a mathematical object that is intended to be used for fault localization in combinatorial interaction testing. However, applying it to a real-world testing is difficult because a system under test often has constraints among test parameter values. Test cases must satisfy such constraints to be executed; but the definition of locating arrays does not consider constraints. Hence directly using a locating array as a test suite results in interactions that are not tested as well as faulty interactions that cannot be identified. In this paper, we propose a method of generating Constrained Locating Arrays (CLAs), which are a constraint-aware extension of locating arrays. The proposed method uses a Satisfiability Modulo Theories (SMT) solver to search for a CLA. Experimental results show that the proposed method is often fast enough to find a minimum CLA for a nontrivial case.
On the Automation of Testing a Logic-Based Diagnosis System

In this paper, we report on the introduction of test suites partially generated automatically for the reasoning core of a logic-based diagnosis system implemented in Java. We discuss why certain testing techniques like model-based testing can hardly be used for the application. We introduce the testing requirements comprising functional testing but also performance testing for identifying memory leaks. Furthermore, we discuss open challenges and needs for automating not only test suite execution but test suite generation.
Use of a novel camelid-inspired human antibody demonstrates the importance of MMP-14 to cancer stem cell function in the metastatic process

Matrix metalloproteinases (MMPs) are considered excellent targets for cancer therapy because of their important roles in multiple aspects of tumor growth and metastatic spread. However, not all MMPs, or even all activities of specific MMPs, promote cancer. Therefore, there is a need for highly specific inhibitors. Monoclonal antibodies provide the potential for the degree of specificity required, but the isolation of antibodies able to inhibit a specific protease with high selectivity is challenging. Proteolysis specificity lies in recognition of the substrate in or around the active site, which generally forms a concave cleft inaccessible by human IgGs. Inspired by camelid antibodies, which have convex paratopes, we have produced a recombinant human IgG, designated 3A2, which binds in the substrate cleft of MMP-14, inhibiting its activity, but not the activity of highly homologous MMPs. In the 4T1 highly metastatic, syngeneic, orthotopic model of breast cancer, IgG 3A2 markedly inhibited growth of the primary tumor, but more importantly reduced metastatic spread to the lungs and liver by 94%. Stem cells in the tumor population expressed twice as much MMP-14 mRNA as bulk tumor cells. In addition to reducing dissemination of tumor stem cells, as would be expected from inhibition of MMP-14's ability to degrade components of the extracellular matrix, IgG 3A2 also inhibited the ability of individual stem cells to proliferate and produce colonies. We conclude that it is possible to produce antibodies with sufficient specificity for development as therapeutics and that IgG 3A2 has therapeutic potential.
Reproduction performance and blood biochemical parameters in dairy cows: Relationship with oxidative stress status

Background and Aim: During the last decades, reproduction performances declined dramatically worldwide, but little is known concerning the involvement of oxidative stress as a causative factor. Oxidative stress may act at different levels, with negative impacts on cell membrane integrity and other active molecules with potential subsequent effects on reproduction. The aim of the current study was to investigate the oxidative stress status in cows according to their reproductive performances. Materials and Methods: Peripheral blood concentration of two oxidative stress biomarkers, glutathione S-transferase (GST) and malondialdehyde (MDA), and other biochemical parameters (glucose, total lipids, cholesterol, triglycerides, albumin, total proteins, calcium, urea, creatinine, direct bilirubin, alanine aminotransferase, aspartate aminotransferase, and alkaline phosphatase) were determined in 40 healthy cows. Body condition score (BCS), calving to first service interval (FSI), calving to conception interval (CCI), and the number of service per conception (SPC) were simultaneously recorded for each cow. Results: Concerning FSI, three groups were established: Group 1 (from 44 to 60 days), Group 2 (from 60 to 70 days), and Group 3 (from 70 to 80 days). For CCI, two groups were considered: Group 1 (<110 days) and Group 2 (>110 days). MDA showed significant high values only in cows with the lowest BCS (1.5) compared to cows with BCS note of 2.5 and 3.5. No significant difference was observed in cows oxidative stress status (MDA and GST) according to reproductive performances (FSI, CCI, and SPC) in all studied groups. Conclusion: The results revealed relatively altered oxidative stress status in cows with abnormal reproductive performances; however, no significant difference was recorded whatever the considered reproductive parameter.
Predictions and Observations for the Oceanic Lithosphere From S‐to‐P Receiver Functions and SS Precursors

The ocean lithosphere is classically described by the thermal half‐space cooling (HSC) or the plate models, both characterized by a gradual transition to the asthenosphere beneath. Scattered waves find sharp seismic discontinuities beneath the oceans, possibly from the base of the plate. Active source studies suggest sharp discontinuities from a melt channel. We calculate synthetic S‐to‐P receiver functions and SS precursors for the HSC and plate models and also for channels. We find that the HSC and plate model velocity gradients are too gradual to create interpretable scattered waves from the base of the plate. Subtle phases are predicted to follow a similar trend as observations, flattening at older ages. Therefore, the seismic discontinuities are probably caused by a thermally controlled process that can also explain their amplitude, such as melting. Melt may coalesce in channels, although channels >10 km thick should be resolvable by scattered wave imaging.
Impact of region of diagnosis, ethnicity, age, and gender on survival in acute myeloid leukemia (AML)

Abstract Aim: Acute myeloid leukemia (AML) is an aggressive hematopoietic clonal disorder characterized by the increased blasts and poor survival outcome, which is mainly driven by cytogenetic and molecular abnormalities. Here, we investigated the prognostic impact of other demographic parameters on the survival outcomes in AML patients. Method: We reviewed the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Result (SEER) database to collect demographic information, including age, diagnosis, gender, race, and geographic region in patients with non-acute promyelocytic leukemia AML, between 2004–2008. The primary end-point of our study was 3-year overall survival (OS), which was estimated by the Kaplan–Meier method and Cox regression model. Results: A total of 13,282 patients were included in our analyses. Increasing age (HR 1.2, p < .0001), male gender (HR 1.05, p = .01), and geographic region of Midwest (HR 1.07, p = .002) were associated with inferior 3-year OS in univariate analysis, and these parameters remained independent prognostic factors in multivariate analyses. Conclusions: AML is a heterogeneous myeloid neoplasm with patient outcomes largely dictated by the cytogenetics and somatic mutations. In our study, additional demographic factors, including advanced age, male gender, and geographic region of AML diagnosis were associated with OS outcome in non-APL AML patients.
A New Controller for Bidirectional Wireless Power Transfer Systems

Wireless power transfer (WPT) is a promising technology for supplying power to various applications with no physical contacts. Recently, bidirectional WPT (BD-WPT) systems are gaining popularity for grid-to-vehicle and vehicle-to-grid applications which essentially require power transfer in both directions. However, BD-WPT systems are complex in nature, and require sophisticated control strategies to provide synchronization as well as to regulate the power flow between two sides. This paper proposes a new controller that uses measured active power (P) and reactive power (Q) at the resonant network of BD-WPT systems to regulate the power flow in both directions while providing synchronization between two sides without a dedicated communication interface for controlling power transfer. The controller, located on the pickup side, is applicable to BD-WPT systems with either single or multiple loads and ensures that the volt-ampere rating of the pickup converter is at lowest for battery charging, by keeping the reactive power at the resonant tank intake by the load side minimum. Experimental results obtained from a 1-kW prototype system show good agreement with simulated results, validating that the proposed controller can be used to regulate the power flow in BD-WPT systems.
Institutional Theory and Environmental Pressures: The Moderating Effect of Market Uncertainty on Innovation and Firm Performance

Although considerable research has investigated the influence of institutional pressures on environmental practices, few studies have examined its impact on innovation among third-party logistics (3PL) providers. Moreover, extant scholarship equivocates on the relationships between various institutional pressures and green innovation. Different industries develop unique responses to their contexts and 3PL providers may counter environmental issues unlike other sectors (e.g., manufacturing). Integrating the institutional theory and natural-resource-based view, this paper examines green innovations of 3PL providers as a response to their institutional pressures and to gain competitive advantages, as well as explores the contingent effect of market uncertainty. Based on survey data acquired from 165 3PL providers in China, the empirical results suggest customer pressure and competitive pressure significantly impel 3PL providers to adopt a green innovation, while to this point, regulatory pressure has not affected such innovation. Additionally, green innovation positively affects financial performance for 3PL providers in China. Moreover, market uncertainty alleviates the driving effect of customer pressure on green innovation, but amplifies its contributive effect on performance. Research implications for green innovation in the 3PL context, practical implications, and future research direction are discussed.