Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sexual, contraceptive, and drug use behaviors of women with HIV and those at high risk for infection: results from the Women's Interagency HIV Study.

OBJECTIVE To document the sexual and contraceptive practices of women with HIV infection or who are at risk for infection. DESIGN Data on the baseline behaviors of 561 HIV-negative and 2040 HIV-positive women were collected as part of the Women's Interagency HIV Study (WIHS). WIHS is a multisite, longitudinal study following the natural history of HIV infection among women in the United States. METHODS Each participant contributed an interviewer administered, self-report interview including questions on sexual and contraceptive behavior. RESULTS Women with HIV were less likely to report heterosexual activity in the previous 6 months (65% HIV-positive, 76% HIV-negative). Among sexually active women, there were no differences in the proportion of those reporting vaginal (97% HIV-positive, 98% HIV-negative) or anal sex (12% HIV-positive, 10% HIV-negative), although women with HIV were less likely to report cunnilingus (41% HIV-positive, 70% HIV-negative) and fellatio (48% HIV-positive, 57% HIV-negative). Of women with HIV, 63% always used condoms during vaginal sex (versus 28% HIV-negative), with lower rates reported during other sexual activities. Crack, cocaine, or injecting drug use, reported by 27% of HIV-positive and 35% of HIV-negative women, was associated with inconsistent condom use, independent of serostatus. HIV-positive women who reported using condoms and another contraception method were less consistent condom users (57% consistent versus 67%). CONCLUSIONS The prevalence of sexual risk behavior in this sample suggests that, although women with HIV exhibit lower levels of sexual risk behavior than uninfected women, many have not been successfully reached with regard to implementing safer behaviors. These findings have implications for more widespread and effective behavioral intervention efforts.
Association of rheumatoid arthritis treatment response and disease duration with declines in serum levels of IgM rheumatoid factor and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody.

OBJECTIVE To examine the association of treatment response and disease duration with changes in rheumatoid factor (RF) and anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide (anti-CCP) antibody levels among patients with rheumatoid arthritis (RA). METHODS The study sample included 66 RA patients who completed double-blind, randomized clinical protocols and for whom baseline and followup serum samples were available. Anti-CCP and RF levels were measured using commercially available assay kits. Odds ratios (ORs) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CIs) were used to describe the association of response and disease duration with declines in antibody levels. RESULTS Patients had a mean +/- SD age of 49.9 +/- 12.0 years and were predominantly female (n = 51; 77%). The mean +/- SD duration between the times at which the baseline and followup serum samples were obtained was 13.7 +/- 8.6 months. Among the 64 subjects with positive antibody at baseline, 33 (52%) experienced a > or =25% reduction in the anti-CCP antibody level during the course of treatment, and 35 patients (55%) had a > or =25% reduction in RF. After adjustment for the baseline anti-CCP antibody level, only a shorter disease duration (< or =12 months) was significantly associated with a decline in the level of anti-CCP antibody (OR 3.0, 95% CI 1.0-8.8), and no association with treatment response was observed. Conversely, treatment response was the only significant determinant of a decrease in RF levels (OR 3.6, 95% CI 1.2-10.4). CONCLUSION Shorter disease duration predicts greater declines in anti-CCP antibody levels with treatment in RA. Although treatment response is a robust determinant of a decrease in RF, it does not appear to be associated with declines in the anti-CCP antibody level.
Left ventricular function at two-year follow-up in treatment-naive rheumatoid arthritis patients is associated with anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody status: a cohort study

Objectives: In rheumatoid arthritis (RA), the role of autoimmunity, especially anti-cyclic citrullinated peptide antibody (anti-CCP) level, and the time-course of left ventricular (LV) function is unknown. The objective was to assess LV function and the amount of coronary calcium in relation to anti-CCP levels in a cohort of treatment-naive RA patients, and to assess changes in these parameters during a 2 year follow-up period. Method: Sixty-six steroid- and disease-modifying anti-rheumatic drug-naive RA patients were treated with methotrexate according to the Danish national guidelines. We assessed LV function by conventional echocardiography and speckle-tracking echocardiography. We estimated the amount and progression of coronary calcium by coronary computed tomography. Patients were examined at the time of diagnosis and after 2 years. Results: Patients with elevated anti-CCP at baseline and after 2 years, compared to those with non-persistently elevated anti-CCP, had significantly less improvement in S´ (1 ± 1.4 cm/s vs 0.2 ± 0.9 cm/s; p = 0.04) and a worsening in global longitudinal systolic strain (GLS) (0.6 ± 1.8% vs −1 ± 2.8%; p = 0.04). There was a significant correlation between ΔGLS over 2 years and anti-CCP at 2 year follow-up (r = 0.36; p = 0.006). We observed a small progression of coronary calcium score during the 2 year follow-up period. No differences in progression were found between patients with high anti-CCP titres at baseline and 2 year follow-up (n = 12) and patients with normal/low anti-CCP titres (n = 32) (23.8 ± 40.3 vs 22.6 ± 68.9; p = 0.96). Conclusions: Deformation analysis by speckle-tracking echocardiography is a valuable tool to detect early development of myocardial dysfunction despite normal ejection fraction in RA.
Service Innovation:A Case Study of Taiwanese Firm

The service sector plays an important role in the modern economies of the developed countries and Taiwan as well. Service innovation has been one of the critical determinants to the success of the business performance and is the essential element to meet the customers’ needs and requirements. In this paper, a concept is proposed to depict a leading brand in the kitchen design and appliances industry. Taiwan-based company – Sakura Corporation has developed and plans to implemented a 3D kitchen furniture design and ordering systems as well as new service mode throughout the Kitchen Life Stores across Taiwan starting from 2010. The successful factors for the service innovation project are top management support, technological readiness, knowledge management capabilities, external focus and internal focus. The 3D kitchen furniture design and ordering systems are the crucial and enabling roles to enhance the level of customer satisfaction. Keywords-service innovation, project management, customer satisfaction
EXPLORE LINKAGE BETWEEN KNOWLEDGE MANAGEMENT AND ORGANIZATIONAL PERFORMANCE IN ASIAN FOOD MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY Che Wan Jasimah bt Wan Mohamed Radzi

This paper is about to examine the relationship of organisational learning (OL) with knowledge management (KM) and their effect on organisational performance (OP) in food industries. The conceptual framework proposed in this research is a creative model that contributes to relevant theories of KM, OL, and OP literature. 168 companies in food industry were selected in China, Taiwan, Malaysia, and structural equation modelling (SEM) is applied to test the hypotheses in our research model. The research model includes three constructs including KM, OL and OP, and three measurement variables include firm age, size, and type. The results show that KM and OL have positive effect on OL and OL is a mediator in the relationship between KM and OP. Moreover, firm age, size, and type are moderators in the relationship among three constructs in the research model.
Universality and Control of Fat Tails

Motivated by applications in hydrodynamics and networks of thermostatically-control loads in buildings we study control of linear dynamical systems driven by additive and also multiplicative noise of a general position. Utilizing mathematical theory of stochastic multiplicative processes we present a universal way to estimate fat, algebraic tails of the state vector probability distributions. This prompts us to introduce and analyze mean-<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$q$ </tex-math></inline-formula>-power stability criterion, generalizing the mean-square stability criterion, and then juxtapose it to other tools in control.
Cashing in on Contacts: Characterizing the OnlyFans Ecosystem

Adult video-sharing has undergone dramatic shifts. New platforms that directly interconnect (often amateur) producers and consumers now allow content creators to promote material across the web and directly monetize the content they produce. OnlyFans is the most prominent example of this new trend. OnlyFans is a content subscription service where creators earn money from users who subscribe to their material. In contrast to prior adult platforms, OnlyFans emphasizes creator-consumer interaction for audience accumulation and maintenance. This results in a wide cross-platform ecosystem geared towards bringing consumers to creators’ accounts. In this paper, we inspect this emerging ecosystem, focusing on content creators and the third-party platforms they connect to.
Sentiment of the Tweets on Russo-Ukrainian War: the Social Network Analysis

This paper presents the analysis of social network posts using standard natural language processing (NLP) methods and undirected graph representations. The Twitter data used in this work is based on two keywords: Ukraine and Russia in May, October, November and December 2022. After standard pre-processing of the raw data and sentiment classification using “Valence Aware Dictionary and sEntiment Reasoner” (VADER), we proceed to the construction of a weighted and undirected network with hashtags as nodes and hashtag co-occurrences as weighted edges. This representation enables topic extraction based on Louvain community detection. For the quantification of the polarity in the network-community, we propose the “stanciness” metric based on “pnlogratio”. The results show that combining sentiment with community structures gives us a deeper insight into the polarity of public opinion on the Russian-Ukrainian war.
Socio-economic inequalities in mental health and their determinants in South Korea

Suicide rates in South Korea (hereafter ‘Korea’) have seen a sharp upward trend over the past decade, and now stand amongst the highest in OECD countries. This raises urgent policy concerns about population mental health and its socioeconomic determinants, an area that is still poorly understood in Korea. This thesis sets out to investigate socio-economic inequalities in the domain of mental health, particularly for depression and suicidal behaviour, in contemporary Korea. The thesis first evaluates the extent of income-related inequality in the prevalence of depression, suicidal ideation and suicide attempts in Korea and tracks their changes over a 10-year period (1998-2007) in the aftermath of the 1997/98 economic crisis. Based on four waves of the Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (KHANES) data, concentration indices reveal a growing trend of pro-rich inequalities in all three outcomes over this period. To understand the potential impact of the observed widening income inequality, the next empirical investigation examines whether income inequality has a detrimental effect on mental health that is independent of a person’s absolute level of income. Due to the paucity of time series data, the analysis focuses on an association between regional-level income inequality and mental health, using the 2005 KHANES data. The results provide little evidence to support the link between the two at regional level. The thesis pays special attention to suicide mortality rates given their disconcerting trend in contemporary Korea. Using mortality data for 2004-2006, the third empirical investigation first elucidates the spatial patterns of suicide rates, highlighting substantial geographical variations across 250 districts. The results of a spatial lag model suggest that area deprivation has an important role in shaping the geographical distribution of suicide, particularly for men. The final empirical investigation sets out to understand the suicide trend in Korea in the context of other Asian countries (Hong Kong, Japan, Singapore, and Taiwan), using both panel data and country-specific time-series analyses (1980-2009). Despite similarities in geography and culture, the suicide phenomenon is unique to Korea, particularly for the elderly. The overall findings suggest that low levels of social integration and economic adversity may in part explain the atypical suicide trend in Korea.
On the Importance of Being an AS: An Approach to Country-Level AS Rankings

Recent geopolitical events demonstrate that control of Internet infrastructure in a region is critical to economic activity and defense against armed conflict. This geopolitical importance necessitates novel empirical techniques to assess which countries remain susceptible to degraded or severed Internet connectivity because they rely heavily on networks based in other nation states. Currently, two preeminent BGP-based methods exist to identify influential or market-dominant networks on a global scale-network-level customer cone size and path hegemony-but these metrics fail to capture regional or national differences. We adapt the two global metrics to capture country-specific differences by restricting the input data for a country-specific metric to destination prefixes in that country. Although conceptually simple, our study required tackling methodological challenges common to most Internet measurement research today, such as geolocation, incomplete data, vantage point access, and lack of ground truth. Restricting public routing data to individual countries requires substantial downsampling compared to global analysis, and we analyze the impact of downsampling on the robustness and stability of our country-specific metrics. As a measure of validation, we apply our country-specific metrics to case studies of Australia, Japan, Russia, Taiwan, and the United States, illuminating aspects of concentration and interdependence in telecommunications markets. To support reproducibility, we will share our code, inferences, and data sets with other researchers.
Chemical profile and antiproliferative activity of essential oil of Centella asiatica from Mebo, Pasighat in Arunachal Pradesh, India

Abstract Centella asiatica (CA) is a perennial herb with critical uses in traditional medicines. This study reports the chemical composition of the essential oil of C. asiatica (CAEO) collected from Mebo, a high altitude location in Arunachal Pradesh in India, and its antiproliferative activity. Hydrodistillation yielded pale yellow coloured essential oil (0.2 mL, 0.14% v/w). Twenty-five compounds were identified in CAEO by gas chromatographic analysis of which sesquiterpene hydrocarbons constituted 87.82%, followed by oxygenated sesquiterpenes (2.57%), monoterpene hydrocarbons (1.38%) and other miscellaneous compounds (2.28%). Sesquiterpenes, α-humulene (41.31% ± 0.03), E-caryophyllene (19.72% ± 0.01), α-copaene (7.98% ± 0.00), β-elemene (5.56% ± 0.08) and γ-muurolene (5.18% ± 0.01), were the major constituents in CAEO. In MTT assay CAEO displayed significant cytotoxicity against SKBr3 and DLA cells with CD50 values of 4.7 µg/mL and 9.2 µg/mL, respectively. The major components of CAEO, α-humulene and (E)-caryophyllene, displayed cytotoxicity on SKBr3 and DLA cells, whereas (E)-caryophyllene demonstrated higher toxicity than α-humulene. CD50 values of (E)-caryophyllene on SKBr3 and DLA cells were 51.6 and 47.2 µg/mL, respectively. The antiproliferative activity of CAEO is due to the synergistic effects of its terpenoid constituents, and it supports the nutritional and medicinal uses of CA. GRAPHICAL ABSTRACT
Relations between Some Horizontal‐Component Ground‐Motion Intensity Measures Used in Practice

Various measures using the two horizontal components of recorded ground motions have been used in a number of studies that derive ground‐motion prediction equations and construct maps of shaking intensity. We update relations between a number of these measures, including those in Boore et al. (2006) and Boore (2010), using the large and carefully constructed global database of ground motions from crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions developed as part of the Pacific Earthquake Engineering Research Center–Next Generation Attenuation‐West2 project. The ratios from the expanded datasets generally agree to within a few percent of the previously published ratios. We also provide some ratios that were not considered before, some of which will be useful in applications such as constructing ShakeMaps. Finally, we compare two important ratios with those from a large central and eastern North American database and from many records from subduction earthquakes in Japan and Taiwan. In general, the ratios from these regions are within several percent of those from crustal earthquakes in active tectonic regions. [Electronic Supplement:][1] Figures of ground‐motion intensity measure (GMIM) ratios, and csv files with average ratios and the coefficients of fits to the ratios. [1]: http://www.bssaonline. org/lookup/suppl/doi:10.1785/0120160250/-/DC1
Assessing Light Pollution in China Based on Nighttime Light Imagery

Rapid urbanization and economic development inevitably lead to light pollution, which has become a universal environmental issue. In order to reveal the spatiotemporal patterns and evolvement rules of light pollution in China, images from 1992 to 2012 were selected from the Defense Meteorological Satellite Program Operational Linescan System (DMSP/OLS) and systematically corrected to ensure consistency. Furthermore, we employed a linear regression trend method and nighttime light index method to demonstrate China’s light pollution characteristics across national, regional, and provincial scales, respectively. We found that: (1) China’s light pollution expanded significantly in provincial capital cities over the past 21 years and hot-spots of light pollution were located in the eastern coastal region. The Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta, and Beijing–Tianjin–Hebei regions have formed light pollution stretch areas; (2) China’s light pollution was mainly focused in areas of north China (NC) and east China (EC), which, together, accounted for over 50% of the light pollution for the whole country. The fastest growth of light pollution was observed in northwest China (NWC), followed by southwest China (SWC). The growth rates of east China (EC), central China (CC), and northeast China (NEC) were stable, while those of north China (NC) and south China (SC) declined; (3) Light pollution at the provincial scale was mainly located in the Shandong, Guangdong, and Hebei provinces, whereas the fastest growth of light pollution was in Tibet and Hainan. However, light pollution levels in the developed provinces (Hong Kong, Macao, Shanghai, and Tianjin) were higher than those of the undeveloped provinces. Similarly, the light pollution heterogeneities of Taiwan, Beijing, and Shanghai were higher than those of undeveloped western provinces.
The Populist Persuasion: An American History.

This text gives an account of populism in American politics from the Revolutionary War to the present day. The roots of populism are found in the left, voicing the dreams and demands of exploited workers, the poor and the dispossessed. More recently, the populist tradition has been harnessed by the right, fuelled by the anti-Communist rhetoric of the Cold War, and the ascendancy of the Christian right. This development is traced through the presidential campaigns of George Wallace, to the forthright populism of Ronald Reagan.
Are Married Men Healthier than Single Women? A Gender Comparison of the Health Effects of Marriage and Marital Satisfaction in East Asia

Background Although Asian societies are remarkably different from Western societies in terms of sociocultural characteristics, little is known about the gender differences in the health effects of marriage and marital satisfaction in Asian countries. Methodology/Principal Findings Using a randomly sampled dataset from the 2006 East Asian Social Survey comprising 8528 individuals from China, Japan, Taiwan, and South Korea, this study performs analyses using a multivariate logistic regression model to predict the probability for a man or a woman to report poor health. Our results differ quite significantly from those of most studies focusing on Western countries. Considering marital satisfaction, there may be no health benefits from marriage for a specific gender in a given country, because the health loss associated with a dissatisfied marriage usually supersedes the health benefits from marriage. Moreover, women may reap greater health benefits from marriage than men. Additionally, those most likely to report poor health are found to be married and dissatisfied men or women, rather than never-married individuals. Conclusion/Significance The present study argues the need to design and carry out a gender- and country-specific social health policy approach to target individuals suffering from poor health, thereby reducing the gender differences in health status.
Lay psychology of globalization and its social impact.

As a first step to establish social psychology of globalization as a new area of investigation, we carried out two cross-regional studies to examine lay people's perception of globalization and its related concepts, as well as lay people's appraisal of the social impacts of globalization. The participants were undergraduates from regions with markedly different experiences with globalization (the United States, Mainland China, Taiwan, and Hong Kong). Despite regional differences in experiences with globalization, cross-regional similarities were found in the way globalization-related issues were classified and how their social impacts were evaluated. Participants in all four regions (1) perceived globalization to be related to but not synonymous with modernization, Westernization, and Americanization; (2) used international trade versus technology, and globalization of consumption versus global consequences as the dimensions to categorize globalization-related issues; and (3) perceived globalization to have stronger positive effects on people's competence than on their warmth.