Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The USA's ivory markets—how much a threat to elephants?

This article gives the principal findings of the first quantitative survey of the main towns and cities selling elephant ivory in the USA. The survey took place in 2006–7 with numbers and types of outlets, ivory items and prices recorded. Information was also collected on imports, craftsmen, buyers, law enforcement efforts and views about the future demand for ivory. We counted about 24,000 ivory items in nearly 660 outlets in 16 survey localities. While vendors say they are selling much less ivory nowadays, as demand has declined since the 1990 CITES ban, there has been a recent increase in ivory for sale on the Internet, with inadequate control measures in place. Most buyers are residents of the USA. New York City had the most items for sale, and most were antiques. East Asians have been smuggling in recently-carved items from Hong Kong and China in fairly significant quantities; these communities are selling worked ivory mainly in Honolulu, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Their outlets are not adequately checked and very few seizures have been made. These are probably the main outlets, along with the Internet, for recent (post CITES ban) ivory. Craftsmen work only part-time in ivory and number 120 to 200. They do repair work or craft small amounts and thus they require only small pieces of ivory, with enough being recycled in the USA to meet most of their demands.
Optimization of Culture Conditions for Enhanced Production of Bioactive Metabolites Rich in Antimicrobial and Antioxidant Activities Isolated from Emericella quadrilineata an Endophyte of Pteris pellucida

An endophytic fungus was isolated from leaf of Pteris pellucida collected from Arunachal Pradesh, India during April, 2011. Microscopically it was identified as Aspergillus species but later authenticated as Emericella quadrilineata applying molecular technique. The bioassay profile of E. qudrilineata includes antibacterial, antifungal and antioxidant activities. The growth conditions were optimized for improved production of bioactive metabolites and enhanced bioactivity against pathogens. Potato dextrose broth (PDB) has been found to be the best medium for growth and production of metabolites amended with different carbon and nitrogen sources. PDB with -0.1% starch was found to increase the antimicrobial activity against pathogenic bacteria such as Staphylococcus aureus and Aeromonas hydrophila. Incubation period of 25 days coupled with 25oC temperature were the most suitable for better production of bioactive compounds. E. quadrilineata had shown salt stress tolerance from 10 mM to 100 mM NaCl when incubated for 21 days at 26 oC. The antimicrobial activity of E. quadrilineata was elevated only from 10 mM to 30 mM NaCl, whereas relatively it showed low activity above 40 mM. This endophyte had also shown antifungal activity against Fusarium oxysporum, Corynespora sp. , Aspergillus niger and Curvularia sp. Apart from antimicrobial activity, the culture also exhibited remarkable antioxidant activity. After exploring the culture condition such as media formulation, temperature, incubation time and salt stress, it is evident that different culture conditions affect the production of biomass and activity of bioactive compounds.
Validation of international predictive nomograms for non-sentinel lymph node metastases in Hong Kong breast cancer patients with positive sentinel lymph nodes

Department of Surgery, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, Hong Kong, China Contributions: (I) Conception and design: YY Wong; (II) Administrative support: YY Wong; (III) Provision of study materials or patients: YY Wong; (IV) Collection and assembly of data: YY Wong; (V) Data analysis and interpretation: YY Wong; (VI) Manuscript writing: Both authors; (VII) Final approval of manuscript: Both authors. Correspondence to: Dr. Yu Yan Wong. Department of Surgery, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, 30 Gascoigne Road, Kowloon, Hong Kong, China. Email: wyy185@ha.org. hk.
Estimation of Parameters of Logistic Regression with Missing Covariates via Joint Conditional Likelihood Method

Phuoc-Loc Tran, Truong-Nhat Le, Shen-Ming Lee, and Chin-Shang Li Department of Mathematics, College of Science, Can Tho University, Viet Nam tploc@ctu.edu. vn Faculty of Mathematics and Statistics, Ton Duc Thang University, Viet Nam letruongnhat@tdtu.edu. vn Department of Statistics, Feng Chia University, Taiwan, R.O. C. smlee@mail.fcu. edu.tw School of Nursing, The State University of New York, University at Buffalo, Buffalo, NY, USA csli2003@gmail.com
Current Choices and Management of Treatment in Persons with Severe Hemophilia A without Inhibitors: A Mini-Delphi Consensus

Background. Regular treatment to prevent bleeding and consequent joint deterioration (prophylaxis) is the standard of care for persons with severe hemophilia A, traditionally based on intravenous infusions of the deficient clotting FVIII concentrates (CFCs). In recent years, extended half-life (EHL) CFCs and the non-replacement agent emicizumab, subcutaneously administered, have reduced the treatment burden. Methods. To compare and integrate the opinions on the different therapies available, eight hemophilia specialists were involved in drafting items of interest and relative statements through the Estimate-Talk-Estimate (ETE) method (“mini-Delphi”), in this way reaching consensus. Results. Eighteen items were identified, then harmonized to 10, and a statement was generated for each. These statements highlight the importance of personalized prophylaxis regimens. CFCs, particularly EHL products, seem more suitable for this, despite the challenging intravenous (i.v.) administration. Limited real-world experience, particularly in some clinical settings, and the lack of evidence on long-term safety and efficacy of non-replacement agents, require careful individual risk/benefit assessment and multidisciplinary data collection. Conclusions. The increased treatment options extend the opportunities of personalized prophylaxis, the mainstay of modern management of hemophilia. Close, long-term clinical and laboratory follow-up of patients using newer therapeutic approaches by specialized hemophilia treatment centers is needed.
Taxonomic revision of Agraphydrus Régimbart, 1903 I. China and Taiwan (Coleoptera: Hydrophilidae: Acidocerinae).

The species of Agraphydrus Régimbart, 1903 from China and Taiwan are revised. Nine species are redescribed and 33 new species are described: A. activus sp. n. , A. agilis sp. n. , A. arduus sp. n. , A. audax sp. n. , A. calvus sp. n. , A. cantonensis sp. n. , A. chinensis sp. n. , A. comes sp. n. , A. confusus sp. n. , A. conicus sp. n. , A. connexus sp. n. , A. contractus sp. n. , A. fasciatus sp. n. , A. fikaceki sp. n. , A. forcipatus sp. n. , A. fujianensis sp. n. , A. globipenis sp. n. , A. gracilipalpis sp. n. , A. igneus sp. n. , A. jilanzhui sp. n. , A. longipenis sp. n. , A. niger sp. n. , A. reductus sp. n. , A. reticuliceps sp. n. , A. robustus sp. n. , A. schoenmanni sp. n. , A. setifer sp. n. , A. splendens sp. n. , A. umbrosus sp. n. , A. uncinatus sp. n. , A. variabilis sp. n. , A. wangmiaoi sp. n. , and A. yunnanensis sp. n. Agraphydrus ryukyuensis (Matsui, 1994) is synonymized with A. coomani (Orchymont, 1927). The latter is recorded from China for the first time. A total of 42 species are now known from China and Taiwan. Agraphydrus orientalis (Orchymont, 1932) was erroneously recorded from China. Gymnhelochares Orchymont, 1932 is synonymized with Agraphydrus s. str. Régimbart, 1903. All species reviewed here are aquatic or occur in habitats near water. Species have been collected in a wide variety of flowing and stagnant water bodies, and four species are known to be hygropetric. Agraphydrus jilanzhui is exclusively found north of the Yangtze River; the other species occur south of it, with nine of them occurring on both sides. Eleven species covered here also occur outside of China and Taiwan. Habitus, male genitalia and morphological details are illustrated and a key to the species from China and Taiwan is added.
Academic Conference Analysis for Understanding Country-Level Research Topics Using Text Mining

The importance of academic conferences is getting intensively larger as a way to publish the up-to-date research results on each particular research topics in a fast manner unlike journals, and the number of conferences tends to be increased year by year. Moreover, since a conference information, mostly accessible on the Internet, contains not only topics but also geographical areas where the conference was held, these are considered as a valuable source to understand the research trends according to countries. In this paper, we aim to develop methods for analyzing country-level research trends and the relationships among the countries by using text mining and clustering techniques. Specifically, we collected conference information from 8,957 websites from 2015 to 2017, and we found three clusters of countries according to their distributions of topics and the similarities among them. The experimental results show that some countries focus on various topics ranging from social science and medicine, while the others mainly concentrated on some particular topics such as engineering. Moreover, we found country groups that show quite similar in terms of topics. For instance, the following three country groups are found (Philippines, Indonesia, Thailand), (China, Japan, Hong Kong), and (Austria, Czech Republic, Netherlands).
Performance Evaluation of an Information Technology Intervention Regarding Charging for Inpatient Medical Materials at a Regional Teaching Hospital in Taiwan: Empirical Study

Background The process of manually recording the consumption of medical materials can be time consuming and prone to omission owing to its detailed and complicated nature. Implementing an information system will better improve work performance. Objective The Information System Success Model was adopted as the theoretical foundation. The opinions of nursing staff were collected to verify the impact of the system intervention on their work performance. Methods This cross-sectional study was conducted at a regional teaching hospital. Nursing staff were invited to participate in the field survey. A total of 296 questionnaires were collected, and of these, 284 (95.9%) were valid and returned. Results The key findings showed that two critical factors (“subjective norm” and “system quality”) had significant positive effects (both P<.001) on user satisfaction (R2=0.709). The path of “service quality” to “user satisfaction” showed marginal significance (P=.08) under the 92% CI. Finally, the explanatory power of the model reached 68.9%. Conclusions Support from the top management, appointment of a nurse supervisor as the change agent, recruitment of seed members to establish a pioneer team, and promotion of the system through the influence of opinion leaders in small groups were critical success factors needed for implementing the system in the case hospital. The target system was proven to be able to improve work performance, and the time saved could be further used for patient care, thereby increasing the value of nursing work. The positive experiences gained from this study could lay the foundation for the further promotion of the new system, and this is for future studies to replicate. The example of the successful experience of the case hospital could also serve as a reference for other hospitals in developing countries like Taiwan with regard to the promotion of nursing informatization.
‘From alliance to trust’: constructing Crip-Queer intimacies

Abstract Yes, we fuck! (2015) is a documentary that seeks to portray the sexuality of people with functional diversity that focuses on their empowerment and critiques ableism. Its filming has helped to generate alliances between Spanish activist groups, which have been named Alianzas Tullido-Transfeministas (Crip-Queer Alliances). Based on a research project that combined traditional and digital ethnography, this article reflects on how these crip-queer alliances have been constructed. First, we present a genealogy that contextualizes key events and explains their origins. Second, we analyse the construction process of the alliances, from queer to crip and vice versa, in order to reflect on the notions of intimacy that these alliances mobilize, while analysing their discourses and performances around the body, bonding, desire and sexuality. Finally, we explain the potential, as well as the difficulties and challenges, of these alliances. We conclude that they have followed their own situated process, where activists bring into play their bodies, emotions and intimacies and thus generate enormous potential for political action that questions ableism and heteropatriarchy.
Incidence of nontuberculous mycobacterial disease and coinfection with tuberculosis in a tuberculosis-endemic region

Abstract Nontuberculous mycobacteria (NTM) infection may interfere in the diagnosis and treatment of tuberculosis (TB) in TB-endemic regions. However, the population-based incidence of NTM disease and NTM–TB coinfection remains unclear. We used Taiwan's National Health Insurance Research Database to identify new diagnoses of NTM disease and TB from 2005 to 2013 and calculated the incidence rate and the proportion of NTM–TB coinfection. The patients with NTM disease or TB were determined by the use of disease codes from International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision, Clinical Modification, laboratory mycobacterium examination codes, and antimycobacterial therapy receipts. From 2005 to 2013, the age-adjusted incidence rate of NTM disease increased from 5.3 to 14.8 per 100,000 people per year and the age-adjusted incidence rate of NTM–TB coinfection was around 1.2 to 2.2 per 100,000 people per year. The proportion of NTM–TB coinfection among patients with confirmed TB was 2.8%. Male and older patients had a significantly higher incidence of NTM disease. The effects of urbanization and socioeconomic status (SES) on the incidences of TB and NTM disease were different. Rural living and lower SES were significantly associated with increasing the incidence of confirmed TB but not with that of NTM disease. For NTM disease, those living in the least urbanized area had significantly lower incidence rate ratio than in the highest urbanized area. The incidence of NTM–TB coinfection was higher in older patients and compared with patients aged < 45 years, the incidence rate ratio of the patients aged> 74 years was 12.5. In TB-endemic Taiwan, the incidence of NTM disease increased from 2005 to 2013. Male gender and old age were risk factors for high incidence of NTM disease. SES did not have a significant effect on the incidence of NTM disease, but rural living was associated with lower incidence of NTM disease. In TB-endemic areas, NTM–TB coinfection could disturb the diagnosis of TB and treatment, especially in elderly patients.
Chinese Wall or Swiss Cheese? Keyword filtering in the Great Firewall of China

The Great Firewall of China (GFW) prevents Chinese citizens from accessing online content deemed objectionable by the Chinese government. One way it does this is to search for forbidden keywords in unencrypted packet streams. When it detects them, it terminates the offending stream by injecting TCP RST packets, and blocks further traffic between the same two hosts for a few minutes. We report on a detailed investigation of the GFW’s application-layer understanding of HTTP. Forbidden keywords are only detected in certain locations within an HTTP request. Requests that contain the English word “search” are inspected for a longer list of forbidden keywords than requests without this word. The firewall can be evaded by bending the rules of the HTTP specification. We observe censorship based on the cleartext TLS Server Name Indication (SNI), but we find no evidence for bulk decryption of HTTPS. We also report on changes since 2014 in the contents of the forbidden keyword list. Over 85% of the forbidden keywords have been replaced since 2014, with the surviving terms referring to perennially sensitive topics. The new keywords refer to recent events and controversies. The GFW’s keyword list is not kept in sync with the blocklists used by Chinese chat clients.
Rheumatoid factor and anticitrullinated protein antibodies in rheumatoid arthritis: diagnostic value, associations with radiological progression rate, and extra-articular manifestations

Background: Autoantibodies such as rheumatoid factor (RF) and anticitrullinated protein antibodies can be detected in rheumatoid arthritis (RA) sera. Objective: To determine the diagnostic values of RF, anticitrullinated protein antibodies, and the shared epitope (SE), and their associations with radiological progression rates and extra-articular manifestations. Methods: Population 1 consisted of sera from 315 patients, consecutively sent for detection of anticitrullinated protein antibodies, of which 264 were used to determine the sensitivity and specificity of RF and of antibodies against three synthetic citrullinated peptides: peptide A (pepA), peptide B (pepB), and CCP2. Population 2 consisted of sera from 180 longstanding RA patients and was used to determine associations of RA associated antibodies and the SE with radiological progression rates and extra-articular manifestations. Antibodies to pepA and pepB were detected by line immunoassay, and antibodies to CCP2 by ELISA. HLA Class II typing was performed by LiPA. Results: In population 1, we defined adapted cut offs corresponding to a specificity of ⩾98.5%. This yielded the following sensitivities: RF 12.8%; anti-pepA antibodies 63.6%; anti-pepB antibodies 54.2%; and anti-CCP2 antibodies 73.7%. In population 2, significant differences in radiological progression rates were found between positive and negative patients for different RA antibodies and the SE. RF, but not anticitrullinated protein antibodies or the SE, were more frequent in patients with extra-articular manifestations. Conclusion: A valid comparison of RA associated antibodies shows superior sensitivity of the anticitrullinated protein antibodies compared with RF. The presence of RA associated antibodies and the SE are indicative for poorer radiological outcome, and presence of extra-articular manifestations is associated with RF but not with anticitrullinated protein antibodies.
Management in China During the Age of Reform

Yang and Hou were able to emerge a kind of contextualization that is so well provided for in both the discussions on PRC and Hong Kong cinema in this volume. The fine essays by Esther Yau and Li Cheuk-to demonstrate that one of the central preoccupations of 1980s Hong Kong cinema is the colony's relationship with the Mainland, especially as it is configured as biopolitics conflating notions of "nation" and "family". In a sensitive discussion of Allen Fong's Fiiziqiitg (Father and Son, 1981), Li Cheuk-to underscores the analogy of the uncomfortable paternal relationship in the film, of a son incapable of escaping his father's shadow, to the colony's relationship to the Mainland. Yau's essay, on the other hand, skillfully demonstrates how the metaphor of the border between China and Hong Kong and the act of border-crossing in films of the 1980s both expressed and constructed the Hong Kong identity crisis at this particular political-historical conjuncture. Both contributors write about how specific historical events impact the representational practices of cinema, which in turn affect the way in which these films are interpreted by local audiences. A film like Ann Hui's Toriben iiiilini (Boat People, 1982) about the plight of refugees from Vietnam inevitably led local audiences to equate the Vietnamese Communists with their Chinese counterparts and thus was widely read as a dark allegory for post-1997 Hong Kong. Instead, Yim Ho's Sliisiri liniiiait (Homecoming, 1984), according to Esther Yau. "showed Chinese history as personal, existential, emotional, and to some extent timeless", thus providing an ideological context that Yau argues made it possible for border-crossing from Hong Kong to become homecoming, and "for mainland China to become 'home"' (p. 192). Noted literary critic Leo Ou-fan Lee suggests that much of the pleasure and pertinence of entertainment films from Hong Kong stem from their mode of self-parody. While allowing savvy film audiences to delight in their highly self-conscious mixing and troping of established film genres, 1980s blockbusters from the likes of Jackie Chan and Tsui Hark offered a peculiar allegory of the dislocated history of Hong Kong. In that sense, these films from Hong Kong at the "fin-de-siecle" serve as a form of cultural inscription and critique, and, to borrow Lee's elegant phrase, they become "ironic parables" of the colony's uncertain future after 1997. This collection is an important and welcome addition to both the growing field of study of Chinese film as well as to the literaturc of visual culture and Chinese historical studies. (Eileen Clieiig-yiit Chow. Coiiiparative Literature. Stailford Uitiversity. USA)
The costs of smoking and secondhand smoke exposure in Taiwan: a prevalence-based annual cost approach

Objectives To assess the costs of the health effects of cigarette smoking and secondhand smoke (SHS) exposure to society. Design Prevalence-based, disease-specific cost-of-illness study. We used an epidemiological population-attributable risk method to determine the costs that can be attributed to smoking and SHS exposure. Setting Taiwan. Participants All adult population aged 35 and older. Primary outcome measures Direct costs of healthcare expenditures spent for treating tobacco-related diseases, indirect mortality costs measured by the value of lost productivity due to tobacco-related premature deaths and indirect morbidity costs measured by the value of time lost from work due to tobacco-related illness. Results In 2010, direct costs of smoking and SHS exposure amounted to US$828 million, accounting for 3.4% of Taiwan's total personal healthcare expenditures. Smoking and SHS exposure also contributed to 15 555 premature deaths—corresponding to a loss of 284 765 years of life and US$820 million in productivity—and US$22 million in indirect morbidity costs. These direct and indirect costs totalled US$1670 million, representing 0.4% of Taiwan's gross domestic product and averaging about US$720/adult smoker. The share of the total costs was greater from active smoking (92%) than SHS exposure (8%), and greater for men (92%) than women (8%). Conclusions Smoking and SHS exposure impose a huge financial loss in Taiwan. Sustained tobacco control efforts to encourage people to quit smoking, prevent smoking uptake by children and young adults and protect all people from SHS exposure are needed.
Postmodern and modern value orientations and life satisfaction among Hong Kong Chinese

Despite incidents about postmodernization in Hong Kong society, the significance of postmodernization is uncharted. If postmodernization is significant, it will particularly satisfy people with greater orientation to postmodern values. This study examines the hypothesis by conducting a survey in 2000 of a random sample of the adult population in Hong Kong, China. Results indicate that those with higher postmodern value orientations were less satisfied in 2000. These findings do not demonstrate the significance of postmodernization in Hong Kong. Thus, Hong Kong may not be sufficiently postmodern even though some of its inhabitants hold high orientation to postmodern values.