87value/wos11967 huggingface dataset:
Previous communication studies have focused on how media content influences human aggression. Few studies, however, have been conducted regarding the influence of situational variables on human aggression. Regarding online gaming, the present study examines how game users' aggression is influenced by two idiosyncratic situational variables: degree of control (playing vs. watching) and degree of interaction (alone vs. together). The feeling of presence is also examined as a mediator to explicate the mechanism through which these situational variables influence the game users' levels of aggression. The results demonstrate that degree of control significantly affects users' aggression. Aggression is increased when players actively participate in the game versus simply watching; situational factors that are associated with the way people engage in interactive media cause short-term shifts in players' aggression. Implications and future research directions are discussed.
Urinary system disorders may be prevented by achieving a good body hydration level (BHL). This paper investigated a measurement platform set-up for detecting the shade of the (yellow) colour of urine and its integration with the IoT principles for providing ubiquitous services to the users (citizens). We propose a smart IoT-based holistic system that consists of a urine colour measurement component to be fitted in urinals. Based on RGB colour theory, the system was implemented using a myRio board, which interacts with a mobile application. Bio-samples (urine) gathered from volunteers were tested using this board and with a hand-held refractometer. The results showed that it is possible to infer the BHL by analysing the blue values of RGB colour and by comparison with the recommended urine colour chart. We believe that the proposed system promotes sustainable healthy lifestyle through its ubiquitous on-the-go self-test solution and raises BHL awareness in a greener and more personal way.
Based on quantitative analysis of a nationally representative sample of 1,589 self-reported eligible blood donors in the United States, this paper investigates how religion influences giving the gift of life. I find significant positive effects for both organizational and subjective dimensions of religion. The reasons these dimensions promote this generous act vary, however. Religious service attendance works entirely through religious ties. These ties, in turn, influence various established channels of donation, including solicitation to donate, which not only has a direct effect on giving, but also indirect effects through moral norms and willingness to donate. In addition to its impact on these ties, religious group involvement encourages blood donation through exposure to messages about helping others. Finally, the impact of religious salience operates through the belief that it is better to give than to receive as well as religious ties. The implications of these findings for both the literature on blood donation and the larger scholarship on religion and generosity are discussed.
Background: Despite claims that the Millennium Development Goals (MDG) targets on access to safe drinking water have been met, many 100 s of millions of people still have no access. The challenge remains how to provide these people and especially young children with safe drinking water. Method: We report a longitudinal study designed to assess the effectiveness of an intervention based on provided treated drinking water in containers on self-reported diarrhoea in children. The intervention was 1001 fontaines pour demain (1001 F) is a non-governmental not for profit organization (created in 2004 and based in Caluire, France) that helps local entrepreneurs treat package, and sell safe drinking water. Cases and controls were chosen at village and household level by propensity score matching Participants were visited twice a month over six months and asked to complete a diarrhoea health diary. Results: In total 4275 follow-up visits were completed on 376 participants from 309 homes. Diarrhoea was reported in 20.4% of children on each visit, equating to an incidence rate estimate of 5.32 episodes per child per year (95% confidence interval = 4.97 to 5.69). Compared to those drinking 1001 F water, children drinking surface water were 33% (95% CI -1 to 17%), those drinking protected ground water were 62% (95% CI 19 to 120%) and those drinking other bottled water 57% (95% CI 15 to 114%) more likely to report diarrhoea. Children drinking harvested rainwater had similar rates of diarrhoea to Children drinking 1001 F water. Conclusion: Our study suggests that 1001 F water provides a safer alternative to groundwater or surface water. Furthermore, our study raises serious concerns about the validity of assuming protected groundwater to be safe water for the purposes of assessing the MDG targets. By contrast our study provides addition evidence of the relative safety of rainwater harvesting.
The Eight Communities of the Chianti area, Tuscany, Italy, receives an average annual rainfall of 700-800 mm, mainly between September and December. Nevertheless, the storage capacity of the soil is not sufficient to fulfill agricultural requirements, resulting in a shortage of water from May to September almost every year. Runoff harvesting structures like farm ponds can be used to augment water supplies in agricultural areas. The suitability of a site for a farm pond requires a careful assessment of spatially varying parameters like runoff potential, slope, and land-cover. Therefore, a spatial analysis and a continuous runoff potential accounting procedure, based on the Soil Conservation Service Curve Number (SCS-CN), was used to evaluate the potential water harvesting. Model evaluation was performed based on daily runoff events recorded at 11 stations between 1996 and 2010. The statistical indices for the evaluation of the model calibration and validation were, respectively, mean percent error, -2.2% and 1.1%; mean absolute percent error, 25.2% and 23.8%; and Nash-Sutcliffe coefficient, 0.80 and 0.81. The analysis indicated that the model was able to estimate the observed runoff reasonably well. The sites suggested by the model were investigated for suitability in the field, and showed an 83% accuracy of the model. Given the increasing demand for water requirements in agriculture, this methodology could be effective in other agricultural areas with similar requirements to the Eight Communities of the Chianti area. (C) 2014 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
The atomistic quantum-dot cellular automata (QCA) based implementations of the reversible circuits have got tremendous exposures in the last few days, due to room-temperature workability of the QCA. The researchers are in serious need of a methodology that can realize the area-efficient QCA counterparts of reversible benchmark circuits. In this work, a novel methodology named majoritylayered T hybridization is proposed to synthesize the reversible circuits using QCA. Firstly the reversible library consisting of CNTS Gates have been generated to validate the usability of the proposed methodology. Then, an elementary QCA module of 3x3 Toffoli Gate have been proposed and extended in the realization of 4x4, 5x5 and 6x6 Toffoli Gates (multi-control Toffoli Gates). The proper mathematical modelling of the several QCA design metrics like effective area, delay and O-cost has been established. The QCA counterpart of 3x3 Toffoli Gate reports 18.61% less effective area and 8.33% less O-cost compared to the previous Toffoli Gate designs. Moreover, the QCA layout of rd-32 reversible benchmark using multi-control Toffoli Gate has been employed to verify the scalability and reproducibility of the proposed methodology. The QCA layouts are generated, tested and simulated by renowned computer aided design tool QCADesigner 2.0.3.
Aldehyde oxidase (AOX) is a metabolic enzyme catalyzing the oxidation of aldehyde and aza-aromatic compounds and the hydrolysis of amides, moieties frequently shared by the majority of drugs. Despite its key role in human metabolism, to date only fragmentary information about the chemical features responsible for AOX susceptibility are reported and only very local structure-metabolism relationships based on a small number of similar compounds have been developed. This study reports a more comprehensive coverage of the chemical space of structures with a high risk of AOX phase I metabolism in humans. More than 270 compounds were studied to identify the site of metabolism and themetabolite(s). Both electronic [supported by density functional theory (DFT) calculations] and exposure effects were considered when rationalizing the structure-metabolism relationship.
A herringbone water-sediment separation structure (hereinafter referred to as herringbone structure) has been shown to be effective in separating coarse inorganic debris; however, less is known regarding the large wood (LW) filtration effect in this structure. This paper presents preliminary research on the wood filtration effect of the herringbone structure based on physical model tests. The results show that the herringbone structure exhibited effective performance in large wood size segregation, with a 100% component filtration rate for LW that diameter (D) larger than ribbed beam opening width (a). The total filtration rate also exceeded 80% when the Fraud number (Fr) is larger than 2.64 and increased with the increase of Fr. After exceeding Fr (max), total filtration rate would be decreased due to overflow. Beside flow condition, structure parameters influence significantly on LW filtration rate. We attempt to explain the filtration process via particle contact trajectory and particle movement trajectory. The inclined angle of ribbed beam (gamma) contributed the most variation to the filtration rate via influencing the coincidence with particle contact trajectory and particle movement trajectory. The high sensitivity coefficient of ribbed beam (theta) under relatively low Fr conditions implies remarkable influences on LW filtration effects by causing clogging problem. The ribbed beam opening width (a) together with LW diameter (D) influenced the size segregation performance.
In the last quarter century, the epidemic of overweight and obese Americans has increased strikingly. This, in turn, has caused a substantial rise in the risk of cardiovascular diseases, cholesterol, hypertension, osteoarthritis, stroke, type II diabetes, specific forms of cancer, and other diseases. The main purpose of this research was to investigate the influence of gardening activities on activity levels, body mass index (BMI), allergies, and reported overall health of gardeners and nongardeners. The sample population was drawn from two sources: an online survey and an identical paper-pencil formatted survey, which was distributed to church, garden, and community service groups within Texas and parts of the mid-western United States. A total of 1015 people participated in the study. Results from this study indicated nongardeners were less physically active when compared with gardeners. However, frequency of gardening did not have a statistically significant impact on gardeners' BMI. There was also no difference in BMI between gardeners and nongardeners. Gardeners indicated having more frequently reoccurring symptoms for ear infection/ear ache,'' high cholesterol,'' kidney stone,'' gallstones,'' and arthritis,'' indicating gardening may be being used as a distraction therapy, helping gardeners to cope with pain and remain active when other forms of exercise may not be an option. There was no statistically significant difference in incidence of allergies between gardeners and nongardeners.
The present paper is principally concerned with the disclosure of historical cultural potential of waterfront areas in modern architectural & landscape planning. Moreover, the attitude to water bodies of landscape has changed in recent years: not only as objects of nature, but also as an integral part of the spiritual heritage of the nation. The historic cultural field of actions is a significant part of general, complex program for ecoresponsible design of urban waterfront territories along with other blocks, such as engineering & hydro-technological measures; functional planning actions; landscape spatial composition; informative steps and digital control. The author's algorithm of historical cultural potential's disclosure of waterfront territories is shown in the paper. Today such territories need the efficient ecologically responsible architectural-landscape organization due to necessary protection of the environment from one side and accelerated urbanization process from the other with necessary creating comfortable living conditions in the general trend of climate change and the highly rapid development of smart technologies in modern world.
This paper presents the results of a centrifuge study performed to investigate the time-dependent behavior of geotextile-reinforced soil walls. To this effect, reduced-scale centrifuge models were built using nonwoven fabrics as reinforcement elements and Monterey no. 30 sand as backfill. Digital image analysis techniques were used to quantify the internal displacements within the reinforced zone, where sand markers had been placed along the reinforcement layers. A sigmoid function was found to provide adequate fit to raw displacement data, allowing estimation of the strain distribution along the reinforcement layers. This investigation includes an initial series of centrifuge models designated as Short-term tests, which were loaded to failure by continuously increasing the acceleration imparted to them. In addition, a series of models designated as Long-term tests were conducted by subjecting them to constant accelerations corresponding to 25%, 40%, 60% and 80% of the g-level at failure obtained from the Short-term tests. The results revealed that walls subjected to constant acceleration showed a time dependent behavior that adversely affected their stability. Considerable time-dependent deformations were observed to occur during the Long-term tests. That is, time-dependent deformations in the reinforcements, quantified using geosynthetic samples tested in isolation, were found to also develop under confinement in the centrifuge models. In particular, creep failure was observed in the Long-term models subjected to comparatively high levels of constant acceleration. The time-dependent deformations from confined geotextiles tested in the centrifuge testing program were compared against the results from unconfined geotextiles tested in a conventional creep testing program. The time to failure defined using data from centrifuge tests was found to be consistent with that obtained from conventional creep tests. The soil used in the centrifuge models in this study, frequently considered as having negligible creep, was ultimately found not to prevent the development of time-dependent deformations. (C) 2015 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Canada faces environmental problems that threaten our stock of natural capital our endowment of natural resources such as water, forests, land, and atmosphere and the flow of goods and services that natural capital generates, known as ecosystem services. Much of the literature focuses on climate change and greenhouse gas emissions, but many other challenges persist, including air and water pollution, risks from oil and gas extraction, water scarcity, flooding, loss of natural areas, threatened species, and toxic spills. While regulatory responses exist, their effectiveness is questionable with relatively little use of market-based instruments. We focus on the challenges associated with measuring and developing policy to sustain natural capital and ecosystem services. We highlight problems and identify policy options and big ideas that may help us both to improve our understanding of the linkages between natural capital, ecosystem services, and human well-being and to achieve a more sustainable future.
This paper presents the experience of Mercy Corps' Community Based Initiatives for Water Demand Management project, a five year project (2006-2011), in terms of community-based initiatives for water management. This project was designed to build the capacity of local community-based organizations (CBOs) to raise the awareness level around water demand management (WDM) and engage community members in water management measures. It showed how local solutions decrease the reliance on public water systems and ultimately help in facing the water shortage on a national level. This paper also showed that on-site rainwater harvesting Cisterns funded through this project have been able to harvest 88,335 m(3) annually. The paper found that rainwater harvesting at household level was able to save an average of 24% in potable water per year. (C) 2013 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Purpose of Review This review shows that a more or less constant rate of tip-to-base vessel widening across species, together with the assumption that wider vessels are more vulnerable to embolism, suggests how climate should limit maximum vegetation height; together, these two factors predict a maximum mean vessel diameter permitted by temperature and water availability at a site and thus maximum plant height. Recent Findings Empirical work makes it increasingly clear that the main driver of variation in mean vessel diameter is plant size, specifically the length of the conductive stream. Anatomical evidence, together with hydraulic optimality models, suggests that this vessel diameter-stem length relationship is the result of natural selection favoring the maintenance of constant hydraulic resistance over size increases. From their very narrow termini, vessels widen predictably from the stem tip to the base, following approximately a power law, i. e., with very rapid widening toward the tips and nearly constant diameter toward the base. This size dependence must be taken into account when studying the hydraulics-climate relationship. Summary This review discusses outstanding predictions that require testing, including the following: variation in the vessel diameter-stem length relationship should involve factors such as vessel length distributions, pit characteristics, leaf area, and wood density; leaves higher in trees should have higher terminal leaf vein-petiole base vessel widening rates; species without disposable units (e. g., columnar cacti) might have different widening rates; and within-plant widening rate should vary as plants approach their height limits. Finally, we emphasize the need to standardize for size in making comparisons of vessel diameter variation.
The combination of wind turbines with fuel cells (FC) and electrolyzers (ELY) is an option for balancing fluctuating grid power injections from renewable energy sources. The conversion of electricity to hydrogen via ELY is often called power to gas, while transforming hydrogen to electricity via FC is referred to as re-electrification. The application of these technologies currently faces high costs and finding a positive business case is challenging. This study quantifies the economic potential of marketing FC/ELY systems' flexibility. Their potential to reduce wind farm forecast errors as well as the system's ability to provide secondary control reserve (SCR) in Germany is investigated. For this purpose, data for the year 2013 is used. Different root mean squared errors and a probability density function (PDF) for forecast errors are considered. SCR dispatch power in high temporal resolution is approximated and different bidding strategies (SCR market) are taken into account. Results show that both applications can be economically viable, also when being combined. However, profitability is highly dependent on the system's configuration as well as its operating strategy. (C) 2016 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.
Introduction: Polysubstance use disorder is prevalent in treatment-seeking patients with substance use disorder (SUD), with a higher risk of developing comorbid psychiatric symptoms, more pervasive deficits in cognitive functions, and inferior treatment results. The present study investigates if individuals with polysubstance use disorder who achieve at least one year of abstinence show greater improvements in satisfaction with life, executive functions, and psychological distress, compared to relapsers and controls. The prospective recovery from polysubstance use disorder assessed with broad output indicators remains understudied. A better understanding of the pattern of recovery of the chosen output indicators could shed light on the recovery process for this group of patients. Material and methods: We investigated changes in satisfaction with life, executive functions and psychological distress over a period of 12 months in patients who remained abstinent and in those who relapsed. Subjects with polysubstance use disorder (N = 115) were recruited from outpatient and residential treatment facilities; healthy controls (N = 34) were recruited by posters exhibited at social welfare and GP offices. Executive functions were assessed by the Behaviour Rating Inventory of Executive Function-Adult self-report version (BRIEF A), psychological distress by the Symptom Checklist-90-R (SCL-90-R), and satisfaction with life by the Satisfaction With Life Scale (SWLS). Substance use was assessed by self-reports on the Alcohol Use Disorders Identification Test (AUDIT) and the Drug Use Disorders Identification Test (DUDIT). Participants were categorized as relapsers if they had AUDIT score >= 8 or DUDIT score >= 2 for women and >= 6 for men. Results: Results indicated that the abstinent group had the greatest improvement on all the indicators compared with relapsers and controls. Participants who successfully quit substance use for one year showed improved satisfaction with life, executive functions, and psychological distress compared to participants who relapsed and controls. Conclusions: Our study provides support for the view that there is a clinically and statistically significant recovery of satisfaction with life, executive functions, and psychological distress for SUD patients following one-year of abstinence. This knowledge highlights the importance of time and continued abstinence. Our findings suggest that a gradual and careful step-up of learning requirement should be adopted, and SUD treatment should initially focus on stabilizing the patient and achieving abstinence, while interventions for co-morbid problems and more cognitively demanding treatment components are more likely to succeed later in the treatment sequence. (C) 2017 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc.
The article describes some of the features of the servo amplifier, developed in the NRU MPEI for use in multi-axis high-precision materials processing. Simplified structure of servo amplifier and some of the key components of servo drive digital control system are presented. Two ways of multi-axes control are compared: using the RS-232 interface and digital inputs/outputs, and using the CANopen standard based digital CAN protocol. The benefits of multi-axis control with the CANopen protocol are high-speed exchanges, reliability of data transmission, standardization and simple communication topology.