Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Associations between genetic factors, tobacco smoking and autoantibodies in familial and sporadic rheumatoid arthritis

Objectives: The objective of this study was to investigate the association between genes (HLA-DRB1 and PTPN22) and tobacco smoking, separately as well as combined, and serological markers of rheumatoid arthritis (RA) in a French population with RA. Methods: 274 patients with RA with half of them belonging to RA multicase families, were genotyped for HLA-DRB1 allele and for PTPN22-1858 polymorphism. IgM rheumatoid factor and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibodies were determined by ELISA method. The search for association relied on χ2 test and odds ratio with 95% confidence interval calculation. The interaction study relied on the departure-from-additivity-based method. Results: The presence of at least one shared epitope (SE) allele was associated with anti-CCP antibodies presence (82.5% vs. 68.4%, p = 0.02), particularly with HLA-DRB1*0401 allele (28.0% vs. 16.4%, p = 0.01). Tobacco exposure was associated with anti-CCP antibodies, but only in presence of SE. A tendency toward an interaction was found between tobacco, the presence of at least one HLA-DRB1*0401 allele and anti-CCP antibodies (attributable proportion due to interaction = +0.24 (−0.21+0.76)). The cumulative dose of cigarette smoking was correlated with anti-CCP antibody titres (r = 0.19, p = 0.04). The presence of both SE and 1858T alleles was associated with a higher, but not significantly different, risk for anti-CCP antibodies presence than for each separately. No association was found between PTPN22-1858T allele and tobacco smoking for autoantibody positivity. Conclusions: Our findings suggest an association between SE alleles and tobacco smoking for anti-CCP positivity and a tendency toward an interaction between the HLA-DRB1*0401 allele and smoking for anti-CCP positivity in this sample of RA.
A New Species of Barbastella (Chiroptera: Vespertilionidae) from North China

Abstract A new species of Barbastella is described, originally discovered in 2001 in Beijing, northern China. The description of the new species is based on both morphological and molecular data. The morphology of the skull and ears of the new bat is more similar to that of the Egyptian barbastelle (B. leucomelas) and B. barbastellus distributed in Europe than to B. leucomelas found in southern China and Taiwan. Projections and notches occur along the posterior margin of each ear, and a small lobe (vaulted process) protrudes from the middle outer edge of each pinna. The skull and body size of the new species are larger than in B. leucomelas. Echolocation calls were of 2 types, a brief frequency-modulated call that was alternated with longer calls with a convex frequency–time course. The calls were very similar to those of B. barbastellus recorded in Europe, although they may be slightly lower in frequency. Molecular phylogenies were reconstructed from cytochrome-b (Cytb) and nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide dehydrogenase subunit 1 (ND1) gene sequences. Cladograms of ND1 indicated that barbastelles from the Beijing area form a monophyletic group, which is the sister to B. leucomelas from Egypt. The clade including the new species and Egyptian barbastelle clusters with B. barbastellus, but not with B. leucomelas from Sichuan, Taiwan, and Japan. The genetic distances (corrected Kimura 2-parameter) between Barbastella sp. nov. and most bats from other localities (including all B. barbastellus) were 14.31–17.69% at the ND1 gene and 15.01–17.36% at the Cytb gene. However, ND1 divergence is 12.79% between Barbastella sp. nov. and B. leucomelas from Egypt. All these results support the hypothesis that the barbastelle from Beijing is a new species. Additionally, because Egypt is the type locality of B. leucomelas, the paraphyletic nature of B. leucomelas suggests that barbastelles from Sichuan, Taiwan, and Japan—which are currently classified as B. leucomelas darjelingensis—should not be considered conspecific with B. leucomelas.
Vaccination, Quarantine, and Hygiene: Korean Sex Slaves and No. 606 Injections During the Pacific War of World War II

During the Pacific War (World War II), Japan maintained an elaborate system of sexual slavery by implementing certain practices based on institutionalized policies of hygiene, efficiency, and the use of mostly Korean girls and women. Two hygienic techniques were established—vaccination and quarantine. No. 606 injections were given at mandatory regularly scheduled medical examinations to prevent and treat venereal disease, and to also deter pregnancy, induce abortions, and ultimately sterilize sex slaves. Methods: Secondary textual analysis of data collected from 1995–2000, N = 67 interview transcripts, and participant observation in 2003 and 2006. Geographic area: East Asia and the Pacific Islands.
Recent occurrence of Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense tropical race 4 in Asia.

Fusarium wilt, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), is an important disease of banana in almost all banana-producing countries of the world. The recent occurrence of a highly virulent form of Foc in Asia, known as ‘tropical race 4’ (TR4), presents an imminent threat to the region’s Cavendish-based banana industries. Foc-TR4 has caused severe damage to the Cavendish banana industry of Taiwan since 1967, destroyed new plantations of Cavendish banana in Indonesia and Malaysia since the early 1990s and caused field epidemics in the Northern Territory of Australia between 1997 and 1999. In 2004, severe Foc infection in banana plantations in Guangdong province, South China, heightened the TR4 threat. All outbreaks are associated with the vegetative compatibility group (VCG) complex 1213/16. Historical field observations of Foc in Cavendish banana cultivars in the Philippines since 1970 are described. More than 30,000 individual reports of infection were officially recorded in the Philippines from 1974 to 1991. These infections were tested and identified as VCG 0122, 0123 and 0126, which are believed to be less virulent than the VCG 01213/16 complex. In September 2006, 30 infected plant samples were collected from highland and lowland Cavendish banana farms in Davao. These samples confirmed that the recent outbreaks of Fusarium wilt in Cavendish in the Philippines were caused by the VCG 01213/16 complex. The Philippine government, private banana companies and Bioversity International are collaborating to manage the disease and to try to contain further spread of Foc-TR4. INTRODUCTION Fusarium wilt, caused by Fusarium oxysporum f. sp. cubense (Foc), is a major concern of the global banana industry. The devastating disease destroyed ‘Gros Michel’ (AAA genome) plantations in the Central American/Caribbean region in the 1950s and lead to the disappearance of the cultivar as the traditional export banana. Cavendish cultivars (AAA genome), which are resistant to Foc race 1 that attacks ‘Gros Michel’, were used as replacements. Today, Cavendish cultivars are the mainstay of the world’s banana export industries. The recent occurrence of a virulent form of Foc in Asia that affects Cavendish banana cultivars in the tropics presents a serious new threat. This new form of Foc belongs to the vegetative compatibility group (VCG) 01213/16 and has been associated with severe field epidemics in Indonesia and Malaysia. Referred to as ‘tropical race 4’ (TR4), this pathogen has been observed in several countries in Asia where Cavendish banana cultivars are important for local consumption and export. In addition, all banana cultivars that are susceptible to Foc races 1 and 2 also succumb to TR4. It is believed that Foc has co-evolved with banana in Asia and that Foc-TR4 is endemic in this part of the world. This paper will review the historical occurrences of Proc. IS on Banana Crop Prot. , Sust. Prod.
A study of factors that affect attitude toward deploying smart-farm technologies in Tanud subdistrict, Damnoen Saduak district in Ratchaburi province

Tanud subdistrict, Damnoen Saduak District in Ratchaburi Province is an area where there are a lot of farms, especially Guava farms. Guava produces both small and medium sizes with fast productivity for harvesting, this brings Guava farmers in good business. However, now Guava and several of agriculture products are imported from many countries such as China, Taiwan, etc. As a result of competition, it causes Thai farmers suffer from its quality supply chain. Therefore, Thai farmers have to involve in adopting of modern, innovative, and high technology for increasing their productivity. The “Smart-Farm Technologies are technologies which help farmers, especially Guava farmers, in order to compete with their potential exported markets. On the other hand, almost Thai farmer in this research had no experience for using any technology before. Thus, this study was focused on the farmer's attitude of adapt this technology in their farm. The research is a Quantitative Research by survey questionnaires including open-end questions to purposive sampling. Starting from awareness session running in parallel with the collection of data through survey questionnaires with farmers, the majority are Guava farmers. Then, analysis has been done by computer program (SPSS) with Multiple Linear Regression Analysis.The research model is adapted through the theory of TAM (Technology Acceptance Model), consisting of nine hypotheses from three independent factors (Usability Factor, Financial Factor, Area Structure Factor), and three dependent factors (Perceived Ease of Use, Perceived Usefulness, and Attitude for using). According to results, hypotheses are accepted. However, recommendations may be to government for further development of mechanism in two areas; 1) first investment funding and 2) technology standard. Recommendation may also to do survey in wider area than one subdistrict.
Cointegration between the Black Sea and Kansas City Wheat Futures: The impact of Russian invasion of Ukraine

We investigate the effect of the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Black Sea Wheat futures. We find that the Black Sea Wheat futures are cointegrated with the Kansas City Wheat futures, the global standard for wheat prices. However, the relationship between these two series significantly changes as a reaction to the main geopolitical events in the region. We also document a significant drop in open interest after the invasion. Our results are relevant to many market participants, such as Ukrainian farmers and consumers in developing countries, including the World Food Program, which buys about forty percent of its wheat supplies from Ukraine.
An Introduction to Landscape Architecture: The Profession and Education

This paper is an introduction to the book Landscape Architecture: The Profession and Education. This book is so far the most comprehensive collection of writings about the profession and education of landscape architecture. The collected papers are some classical writings by some of the world renowned LA educators, including Hideo Sasaki, Carl Steinitz, as well as by some of the Chinese professors from mainland China, Taiwan and Hong Kong. The editors called for a revolutionary breakthrough in the profession of landscape architecture in China, in terms of practice and education.
The Geopolitics of Tourism: Mobility, Territory, and Protest in Taiwan and China

This dissertation analyzes outbound tourism from the People’s Republic of China to Taiwan to unpack the geopolitics of the state and the everyday, to theorize the mutual constitution of the tourist and the nation-state, and to explore the role of tourism in new forms of protest and resistance, including the 2014 Taiwan Sunflower and Hong Kong Umbrella Movements. It presents a theoretical argument that tourism should be viewed as a technology of state territorialization; that is, as a mode of social and spatial ordering that produces tourists and state territory as effects of power. Based on ethnographies of tourism practices and spaces of resistance conducted between 2012 and 2015 and supported by ethnographic content analysis, this dissertation explores the engagement of PRC tourists with Taiwanese hosts, political representations of Taiwan and China, the territorializing effects of tourism, the production of multiple sensations of stateness, and the ways that tourism is aggravating contradictions between the different territorialization programs of China and Taiwan. It demonstrates that tourism mobilities are entangled with shifting forms of sovereignty, territoriality, and bordering. This dissertation argues that embodied, everyday practices such as tourism cannot be divorced from state-scale geopolitics and that future research should pay closer attention to its unpredictable political instrumentalities and chaotic effects. In dialogue with both mobilities research and borders studies, it sheds light not only on the vivid particularities of the region but on the cultural politics and geopolitics of tourism in general.
Road Warriors : State Power , Territorial Control , & Popular Support in Insurgencies

In countries with an active insurgency, under what conditions will increases in state coercive power and territorial control improve support for the state? One school of thought is that noncombatant support is a function of coercive territorial control. Theories of this nature find support in studies that focus on governmental wars, such as Vietnam and Greece. However, empirical support fades as researchers move beyond this type of conflict. Recognizing these irregularities, this dissertation presents a conditional control-collaboration theory of support in insurgencies. The central proposition is that the political goal of the insurrection – territorial or governmental – and whether insurgent elites make appeals to identity or to ideology when mobilizing the noncombatant population condition the effects state power and territorial control have on popular support. This project uses data on (1) the Maoist governmental/ideology insurgency in Central India, and (2) the Bodoland territorial/identity conflict in Assam, India to test this theory.
Changing Mortality Distribution in Developed Countries from 1970 to 2010: Looking at Averages and Beyond Them

Abstract The methods typically developed in income inequality and poverty research are employed to observe changes in life spans distribution in 35 developed countries. The analyses are performed at two levels, using the same methods when possible: i/ taking the countries as the units with a mean length of life being a single parameter representing the distribution, ii/ utilizing the country life tables (taking people as the units) in order to compare other than mean length of life attributes of mortality distribution. Increasing divergence in the mean length of life across the countries is due to growing distance of the countries below the median, mainly the post-communist ones, to the upper half. The comparisons of the within-country distributions of ages at death by means of the Kullback-Leibler divergence provides similar results. However, poverty and inequality indices calculated at this level yield opposite conclusions. Hence, most of the between-country variation might be attributed to the variation in the mean length of life while the changes in within-country inequality reduced this effect. At the same time, huge alterations in the within-country mortality rankings can be observed. Australia, Japan, Taiwan, Austria and Luxembourg may be said to be the “winners” while most of the post-communist countries are among the “losers”.
International trends in technological progress: stylized facts from patent citations, 1980-2011

We analyze cross-country trends in technological progress over the period of 1980-2011 by examining citations data from almost 4 million utility patents granted by the US Patent and Trademark Oce (USPTO). Our estimation results on patent quality and distance to the knowledge frontier reveal the following stylized facts. The emerging Asian economies of Korea, Taiwan and China have indeed achieved substantial catch-up towards the technology frontier. In the case of Korea and Taiwan, progress has been made in terms of patent quality as well as distance to the frontier. Chinese patents are of higher quality now than before but Chinese inventors have yet to reduce the citation lag relative to the frontier. In contrast, advanced economies of Europe and Japan have displayed steady decline in their patent quality. Finally, the US has maintained, and in some cases strengthened, its position as the world technology frontier.
Hong Kong unrest and implications for the Hang Seng Index

Abstract With the September 2014 ‘Umbrella Revolution’ in Hong Kong, China faced one of the biggest political challenges since the Tiananmen Square events. Beijing’s proposed electoral reform was perceived as a direct attack to democracy, and the ensuing protest triggered concerns amid local and international investors; the financial sector took the hardest hit, with stocks of companies exposed to the Hong Kong market facing significant losses. Volatility continued to increase to a seven-month high over worries that the student blockade in Hong Kong’s streets could drag on for longer than expected. The econometric-based analysis in this paper looks at the implications of the protest and its spillover effect on the Hang Seng Index with a focus on sectoral performance. The ultimate objective is to gain a better understanding of the impact of the protests on different stocks and sectors with the goal of identifying market vulnerability and potential volatility patterns.
Boosting Malaysian Tourism – The Food Way!

Malaysia‟s aim to become a developed nation has spurred growth in many areas of the economy including tourism. Malaysian tourism destinations have been well promoted along with the uniqueness of the Malaysian culture which is an exciting blend of the Malay, Chinese, Indian and other native subcultures. However, one of the reasons tourists repeatedly come back to the country has been neglected. This paper focuses on this – how food can be used as a strategy to boost Malaysian tourism. A comparative study is done on how Hong Kong and Singapore has capitalized on food in their tourism initiatives. Based on this, a comparison is then made on what has been done in Malaysia and what is still missing. Five key strategies are proposed to boost Malaysian tourism including food trails, on-line promotions, quality certification, culinary classes and packages and community involvement. These will contribute to the number of tourist arrivals, regional development, tourist pattern of dispersion and community development. (Abstract by authors)
Multidisciplinary Chronic Kidney Disease Clinic Practices: A Scoping Review

Background: Multidisciplinary chronic kidney disease (CKD) clinics improve patient outcomes but their optimal design is unclear. Objective: To perform a scoping review to identify and describe current practices (structure, function) associated with multidisciplinary CKD clinics. Design: Scoping review. Setting: Databases included Medline, EMBASE, Cochrane, and CINAHL. Patients: Patients followed in multidisciplinary CKD clinics globally. Measurements: Multidisciplinary CKD clinic composition, entry criteria, follow-up, and outcomes. Methods: We systematically searched the literature to identify randomized controlled trials, non-randomized interventional studies, or observational studies of multidisciplinary CKD clinics defined by an outpatient setting where two or more allied health members (with or without a nephrologist) provided longitudinal care to 50 or more adult or pediatric patients with CKD. Included studies were from 2002 to present. Searches were completed on August 10, 2018. Title, abstracts, and full texts were screened independently by two reviewers with disagreements resolved by a third. We abstracted data from included studies to summarize multidisciplinary CKD clinic team composition, entry criteria, follow-up, and processes. Results: 40 studies (8 randomized controlled trials and 32 non-randomized interventional studies or observational studies) involving 23 230 individuals receiving multidisciplinary CKD care in 12 countries were included. Thirty-eight focused on adults (27 with CKD, 10 incident dialysis patients, one conservative therapy) while two studies focused on adolescents or children with CKD. The multidisciplinary team included a mean of 4.6 (SD 1.5) members consisting of a nephrologist, nurse, dietician, social worker, and pharmacist in 97.4%, 86.8%, 84.2%, 57.9%, and 42.1% of studies respectively. Entry criteria to multidisciplinary CKD clinics ranged from glomerular filtration rates of 20 to 70 mL/min/1.73m2 or CKD stages 1 to 5 without any proteinuria or risk equation-based criteria. Frequency of follow-up was variable by severity of kidney disease. Team member roles and standardized operating procedures were infrequently reported. Limitations: Unstandardized definition of multidisciplinary CKD care, studies limited to CKD defined by glomerular filtration rate, and lack of representation from countries other than Canada, Taiwan, the United States, and the United Kingdom. Conclusions: There is heterogeneity in multidisciplinary CKD team composition, entry criteria, follow-up, and processes with inadequate reporting of this complex intervention. Additional research is needed to determine the best model for multidisciplinary CKD clinics. Trial registration: Not applicable.
A budget impact analysis for making treatment decisions based on anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) testing in rheumatoid arthritis

Abstract Aim: Given that rheumatoid arthritis (RA) patients with high anti-citrullinated protein antibodies (ACPA) titer values respond well to abatacept, the aim of this study was to estimate the annual budget impact of anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) testing and treatment selection based on anti-CCP test results. Materials and methods: Budget impact analysis was conducted for patients with moderate-to-severe RA on biologic or Janus kinase inhibitor (JAKi) treatment from a hypothetical US commercial payer perspective. The following market scenarios were compared: (1) 90% of target patients receive anti-CCP testing and the results of anti-CCP testing do not impact the treatment selection; (2) 100% of target patients receive anti-CCP testing and the results of anti-CCP testing have an impact on treatment selection such that an increased proportion of patients with high titer of ACPA receive abatacept. A hypothetical assumption was made that the use of abatacept would be increased by 2% in Scenario 2 versus 1. Scenario analyses were conducted by varying the target population and rebate rates. Results: In a hypothetical health plan with one million insured adults, 2,181 patients would be on a biologic or JAKi treatment for moderate-to-severe RA. In Scenario 1, the anti-CCP test cost was $186,155 and annual treatment cost was $101,854,295, totaling to $102,040,450. In Scenario 2, the anti-CCP test cost increased by $20,684 and treatment cost increased by $160,467, totaling an overall budget increase of $181,151. This was equivalent to a per member per month (PMPM) increase of $0.015. The budget impact results were consistently negligible across the scenario analyses. Limitations: The analysis only considered testing and medication costs. Some parameters used in the analysis, such as the rebate rates, are not generalizable and health plan-specific. Conclusions: Testing RA patients to learn their ACPA status and increasing use of abatacept among high-titer ACPA patients result in a small increase in the total budget (<2 cents PMPM).