Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Personal digital archiving: influencing factors and challenges to practices

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to investigate the associations of personal archiving behaviors to factors and challenges that have been assumed to affect personal digital archiving strategies. Design/methodology/approach This study created an online survey to understand general patterns of personal digital archiving practices and related phenomena. The survey was employed to investigate to what extent people show a certain behavior or feel certain factors and challenge when archiving personal digital content. Findings Some of the findings of this study regarding specific personal digital archiving practices were in accordance with existing studies. However, the associations between digital archiving challenges and archiving practices were not observed statistically significantly as assumed in previous studies. General technology efficacy and the awareness of the importance of personal records appeared to influence personal archiving practices. Research limitations/implications This study used Amazon’s Mechanical Turk. As this is not a commonly used internet service, the workers here could have higher than average levels of internet efficacy. This possibility may have affected the demographics, and the survey responses may be biased in this respect. Practical implications As the study results suggest that technology efficacy and personal heritage awareness are the influencing factors of personal digital archiving, these are the areas where information professionals can involve in assisting users for future cultural heritage. Originality/value This is the first study that develops measures for personal digital archiving related practices and perceptions that the previous qualitative studies have identified. With these measures, it examines the general status of individuals’ archiving strategies and the overall associations of digital archiving challenges as well as looking into other technological and personal factors.
DEVELOPMENT OF STIRRED AIR-FLOW TEST (SAFT) FOR IMPROVED HMAC PLANT BINDER AGING SIMULATION AND STUDIES OF ASPHALT AIR BLOWING

In this work asphalt air blowing has been studied from two perspectives. First, the process itself was investigated in terms of the effect of air-blowing conditions on the properties of the asphalts obtained. It was found that according to the Superpave specification, very good grade asphalts can be produced by air blowing, and the blowing temperature does not seriously impact the grade span. Asphalt composition has a significant effect on the grade span. The materials with a higher concentration of asphaltenes and saturates have a higher performance grade span. In this work it is shown that the subsequent 88 deg C hardening and oxidation rates are higher for materials blown at higher temperature, and this is not detected by Superpave specifications. Blowing fluxes with a high saturate content may result in a higher grade but can cause subsequent susceptibility to oxidative hardening. The mechanism by which air blowing can affect the 88 deg C hardening rate is related to oxidation kinetics and the tendency of oxidation products to form asphaltenes, causing hardening. For some materials air blown at higher temperatures, the subsequent accelerated hardening rate results from an increase in the oxidation rate, while the hardening susceptibility may decrease. The second part of this work deals with the development of a new procedure for simulation of asphalt short-term aging that occurs at a hot mix asphalt cement plant. The standard tests for simulation of asphalt hot-mix aging are the RTFOT (ASTM D 2872) and the TFOT (ASTM D 1754). They have a number of deficiencies when used for viscous or modified asphalts, such as uneven aging, film formation, and difficulty cleaning laboratory equipment. The Stirred Air-Flow Test (SAFT) employs a stirred, thermally controlled vessel with an attached condenser. The proposed test eliminates the shortcomings of standard methods. It provides the same aging in a shorter amount of time at lower equipment cost with simplified handling.
Why Is Bigger Not Always Better in Primary Health Care Practices? The Role of Mediating Organizational Factors

Size of primary health care (PHC) practices is often used as a proxy for various organizational characteristics related to provision of care. The objective of this article is to identify some of these organizational characteristics and to determine the extent to which they mediate the relationship between size of PHC practice and patients’ experience of care, preventive services, and unmet needs. In 2010, we conducted population and organization surveys in 2 regions of the province of Quebec. We carried out multilevel linear and logistic regression analyses, adjusting for respondents’ individual characteristics. Size of PHC practice was associated with organizational characteristics and resources, patients’ experience of care, unmet needs, and preventive services. Overall, the larger the size of a practice, the higher the accessibility, but the lower the continuity. However, these associations faded away when organizational variables were introduced in the analysis model. This result supports the hypothesized mediating effect of organizational characteristics on relationships between practice size and patients’ experience of care, preventive services, and unmet needs. Our results indicate that size does not add much information to organizational characteristics. Using size as a proxy for organizational characteristics can even be misleading because its relationships with different outcomes are highly variable.
Dominantly inherited tubular aggregate myopathy

We report an unusual familial myopathy characterized morphologically by the presence of large tubular aggregates in all fibre types. Two patients, a father and daughter, presented with slowly progressive proximal weakness, limitation of eye movement, and Achilles tendon contractures. Serum creatine kinase was 5–10 times normal. Light microscopy revealed type I fibre predominance. Basophilic accumulations, which stained intensely with the NADH‐TR reaction, were present in both fibre types. Electron microscopy revealed that these consisted of tightly packed parallel tubular arrays. These varied somewhat in their ultrastructural appearance and were classified accordingly as type I, II, and III tubular structures. The tubular aggregates appear to be derived from the sarcoplasmic reticulum. This report further supports the evidence of a distinct clinico‐pathological entity of genetic origin.
Are Intensified Physical Education Sessions Able to Elicit Heart Rate at a Sufficient Level to Promote Aerobic Fitness in Adolescents?

Abstract The purpose of this study was to determine the effects of intensified physical education sessions on adolescents ages 11–16 years. They were divided into two experimental groups—high-intensity running group (HIRG) and high-intensity jumping group (HIJG)—and a control group (C). During the sessions, heart rate (HR) was monitored. There was no significant difference between mean HR for HIRG and HIJG, while the mean HR was significantly lower for C (p < .001). For both HIRG and HIJG, the mean HR was significantly higher for girls than for boys (p < .001). Our results suggested that these intensified physical education lessons require a high percentage of maximal HR in adolescents and can be used to improve aerobic fitness.
The Life Attitudes Schedule Short Form: an abbreviated measure of life-enhancing and life-threatening behaviors in adolescents.

An abbreviated version of the Life Attitudes Schedule (LAS) was developed, consisting of 24 items, each representing one cell of the original LAS theoretical matrix (4 content categories x 2 behavior types x 2 valence). Items were retained on the basis of high correlations with LAS total score and low correlations with gender. Psychometric properties of the LAS Short Form were robust and the Short Form total score correlated . 93 with the original LAS total score. As with the original LAS, boys reported more injury-related behaviors than girls. Future research and clinical directions are suggested.
Strawberry‐like Core–Shell Ag@Polydopamine@BaTiO3 Hybrid Nanoparticles for High‐k Polymer Nanocomposites with High Energy Density and Low Dielectric Loss

Flexible nanocomposites comprising of polymer and high‐dielectric‐constant (high‐k) ceramic nanoparticles are becoming increasingly attractive for dielectric and energy storage applications in modern electronic and electric industry. However, a huge challenge still remains. Namely, the increase of dielectric constant usually at the cost of significant decrease of breakdown strength of the nanocomposites because of the electric field distortion and concentration induced by the high‐k filler. To address this long‐standing problem, by using nano‐Ag decorated core–shell polydopamine (PDA) coated BaTiO3 (BT) hybrid nanoparticles, a new strategy is developed to prepare high‐k polymer nanocomposites with high breakdown strength. The strawberry‐like BT‐PDA‐Ag based ferroelectric polymer [i.e., poly(vinylideneflyoride‐co‐hexafluroro propylene), P(VDF‐HFP)] nanocomposites exhibit greatly enhanced energy density and significantly suppressed dielectric loss as well as leakage current density in comparison with the nanocomposites with the core–shell structured BT‐PDA. Coulomb‐blockade effect of super‐small nano‐Ag is used to explain the observed performance enhancement of the nanocomposites. The simplicity and scalability of the described approach provide a promising route to polymer nanocomposites for dielectric and energy storage applications.
Urinary ATP May Be a Dynamic Biomarker of Detrusor Overactivity in Women with Overactive Bladder Syndrome

Background Nowadays, there is a considerable bulk of evidence showing that ATP has a prominent role in the regulation of human urinary bladder function and in the pathophysiology of detrusor overactivity. ATP mediates nonadrenergic-noncholinergic detrusor contractions in overactive bladders. In vitro studies have demonstrated that uroepithelial cells and cholinergic nerves from overactive human bladder samples (OAB) release more ATP than controls. Here, we compared the urinary ATP concentration in samples collected non-invasively from OAB women with detrusor overactivity and age-matched controls. Methods Patients with neurologic diseases, history of malignancy, urinary tract infections or renal impairment (creatinine clearance <70 ml/min) were excluded. All patients completed a 3-day voiding diary, a 24 h urine collection and blood sampling to evaluate creatinine clearance. Urine samples collected during voluntary voids were immediately freeze-preserved for ATP determination by the luciferin-luciferase bioluminescence assay; for comparison purposes, samples were also tested for urinary nerve growth factor (NGF) by ELISA. Results The urinary content of ATP, but not of NGF, normalized to patients’ urine creatinine levels (ATP/Cr) or urinary volume (ATP.Vol) were significantly (P<0.05) higher in OAB women with detrusor overactivity (n = 34) than in healthy controls (n = 30). Significant differences between the two groups were still observed by boosting urinary ATP/Cr content after water intake, but these were not detected for NGF/Cr. In OAB patients, urinary ATP/Cr levels correlated inversely with mean voided volumes determined in a 3-day voiding diary. Conclusion A high area under the receiver operator characteristics (ROC) curve (0.741; 95% CI 0.62–0.86; P<0.001) is consistent with urinary ATP/Cr being a highly sensitive dynamic biomarker for assessing detrusor overactivity in women with OAB syndrome.
Mammographic screening attendance among immigrant and minority women: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Background Groups of immigrant and minority women are more often diagnosed with advanced stage breast cancer than other women. Mammographic screening aims to reduce mortality from breast cancer through early detection in asymptomatic women. Purpose To compare mammographic screening attendance among immigrant and minority women to that of other women. Material and Methods A literature search of PubMed, Embase, Google Scholar, and Cochrane identified 1369 papers published between January 1995 and March 2016. In the review, we included 33 studies investigating mammographic screening attendance among immigrant and/or minority women. In a meta-analysis, we included 19 of the studies that compared attendance among immigrant and/or minority women with that among other women, using a random effects model. Results The review included studies from Europe, North America, and Oceania, with 42,666,093 observations of opportunities for mammographic screening. Attendance was generally lower among immigrant and minority women compared to other women (46.2% vs. 55.0%; odds ratio = 0.64, 95% confidence interval = 0.56–0.73; P < 0.05, I2 = 99.9%). Non-Western immigrants had lower attendance rates than other immigrants. Conclusion Immigrant and minority women had lower mammographic screening attendance than other women, which could potentially put them at increased risk for more advanced breast cancer. This review emphasizes the importance of continued efforts to engage with the preventative health needs of diverse populations in attempts to achieve equality in access to, and use of, care.
Spatial Features Based No Reference Image Quality Assessment for JPEG2000

Perceptual image quality evaluation has become an important issue due to increasing transmission of multimedia contents over the Internet and 3G mobile networks. Most of the no reference perceptual image quality evaluations traditionally attempted to quantify the predefined artifacts of the coded images. Under the assumption that human visual perception is very sensitive to edge information of an image and any kinds of artifacts create pixel distortion, we propose a new philosophy for designing a no reference image quality evaluation model for JPEG2000 images, which uses pixel distortions and edge information. Subjective experiment results on the images are used to train and test the model, which achieve good quality prediction performance.
Learning to be a depth camera for close-range human capture and interaction

We present a machine learning technique for estimating absolute, per-pixel depth using any conventional monocular 2D camera, with minor hardware modifications. Our approach targets close-range human capture and interaction where dense 3D estimation of hands and faces is desired. We use hybrid classification-regression forests to learn how to map from near infrared intensity images to absolute, metric depth in real-time. We demonstrate a variety of human-computer interaction and capture scenarios. Experiments show an accuracy that outperforms a conventional light fall-off baseline, and is comparable to high-quality consumer depth cameras, but with a dramatically reduced cost, power consumption, and form-factor.
Bayesian Estimation of Bid Sequences in Internet Auctions Using a Generalized Record Breaking Model

The motivation for this research is derived from a currently active research topic in both marketing and economics, Internet auctions. A sequence of bids in this market mechanism can be viewed as record breaking events with participants (bidders) having dynamically changing valuations for the auctioned item, but the latent number of bidders “competing” in those events are unseen. Our approach to addressing this problem is through data augmentation in which we stochastically draw the number of unsuccessful attempts, and then model the observed bid amounts and bid submission times conditional on the non-events. In addition, as our research is one of the ﬁrst attempts to take a descriptive and exploratory modeling approach to auction data by allowing for dynamically changing (bid-by-bid) bidder valuations, we provide a model that has predictive use and one that is suggestive for those doing theoretical and/or theoretically grounded empirical work in this area.
Calcifying odontogenic cyst: clinicopathological features and immunohistochemical profile of 10 cases.

BACKGROUND Calcifying odontogenic cyst (COC) is an uncommon odontogenic lesion with few studies describing its immunohistochemical profile and proliferative activity reported in the literature. METHODS Clinical and histological features and immunohistochemical expression of cytokeratins, Mel-CAM (CD146), bcl-2, PCNA and ki-67, in 10 cases of COC were studied. RESULTS All 10 cases affected the maxilla, eight intraosseous and two peripheral. Five central cases were cystic and three were cystic associated with odontoma, and the two extraosseous showed solid histological pattern; immunohistochemistry was positive for cytokeratins 8, 14, 19, AE1/AE3 and 34betaE12 and bcl-2 in all cases, and Mel-CAM in six cases. Proliferative activity was greater in the epithelium of central cystic COC in relation to COC associated with odontoma and peripheral lesions. CONCLUSION Calcifying odontogenic cysts showed odontogenic cytokeratin profile and bcl-2 and Mel-CAM expression indicate that these proteins may be involved in the development of COC. There were no recurrences after surgery, irrespective of their proliferative activity.
THE CIRCULATING PLATELET IN ACUTE MALARIA INFECTION

Professor Essien suggests in his hypothesis on thrombocytopenia associated with malaria (Essien, 1989) that release of ADP from damaged red cells plays a key role in platelet activation and subsequent removal from the circulation. Thus, one would expect that those patients with the most marked haemolysis would be the most likely to exhibit thrombocytopenia
Tensile Properties of Carbon Fiber Triaxial Woven Fabric Composites

Triaxial woven fabrics are attractive for industrial applications as a rein forcement of composite materials. In this article, tensile properties and fracture behaviors of carbon fiber triaxial woven fabric composites were discussed by comparing with biaxial woven fabric composites. Moreover, the effect of weave structure on the tensile properties of the triaxial woven fabric composites was investigated. Triaxial woven fabric composites were isotropic in modulus, and anisotropic in strength. Tensile properties of basic woven fabric composites were superior compared to the Bi-Plain and biaxial woven fabric com posites. The fracture mechanisms of triaxial woven fabric composites varied with fiber ori entation. This was observed from experimental data of AE (acoustic emission) mea surement and numerical analysis.
Successful treatment of cerebral aspergillosis with a novel triazole (voriconazole) in a patient with acute leukaemia

Invasive aspergillosis is an increasing problem in patients with acute leukaemia, bone marrow transplantation, immunosuppression after solid organ transplantation, or acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. Despite available antifungal treatment, the mortality approaches 100% in patients with dissemination of the infection into the central nervous system (CNS). Using a novel triazole, voriconazole, we successfully treated an Aspergillus brain abscess in a patient with acute leukaemia. Drug levels above the minimal fungicidal concentration for Aspergillus species were detected in cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) specimens, and the treatment achieved an objective response.
Beneficial Effect on Cardiac Function by Intravenous Immunoglobulin Treatment in Patients with Dilated Cardiomyopathy is not due to Neutralization of Anti-receptor Autoantibody

Anti-β1-adrenoceptor (β1AR) autoantibodies have been shown to be pathophysiologically important in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Treatment with intravenous immunoglobulin (IVIG) has shown beneficial effects in both DCM and ischemic cardiomyopathy. However, the underlying mechanism has not been clarified. In the present study, we therefore examined whether the improvement of cardiac function was due to neutralization of functional β1AR autoantibodies by anti-idiotypic antibodies. Autoantibodies against the β1AR was analysed in sera from patients with DCM (n=16) and coronary artery disease (CAD) (n=21) treated with IVIG or placebo before, 6 and 12 months. Six month after treatment, DCM patients showed increase in β1AR autoantibodies, mostly in IgG1 and IgG2, whereas in CAD patients mostly in IgG2. No changes in β1AR autoantibodies after 12 months were detected. In summary, our results indicate that improvement of cardiac function by IVIG is not due to neutralization of β1AR autoantibodies.
A Modified Haze Removal Algorithm Using Dark Channel Prior

In this paper, we propose a new algorithm to remove haze from a single input image. Based on the Dark Channel Prior proposed by He [1], we exploit the Gauss Bilateral Filter and the min operation to obtain an edge-preserving dark channel image, which is non-iterative, requires less time. We further utilize this dark channel image to extract the estimation of medium transmission, and finally recover a haze-free image from that. Furthermore, we use a self-adaptive algorithm to set the haze parameters to solve the color shift problem for large sky region. Experiments demonstrate our algorithm can effectively remove haze from a foggy image while keep edges sharp.
Two LysM receptor molecules, CEBiP and OsCERK1, cooperatively regulate chitin elicitor signaling in rice

Chitin is a major molecular pattern for various fungi, and its fragments, chitin oligosaccharides, are known to induce various defense responses in plant cells. A plasma membrane glycoprotein, CEBiP (chitin elicitor binding protein) and a receptor kinase, CERK1 (chitin elicitor receptor kinase) (also known as LysM-RLK1), were identified as critical components for chitin signaling in rice and Arabidopsis, respectively. However, it is not known whether each plant species requires both of these two types of molecules for chitin signaling, nor the relationships between these molecules in membrane signaling. We report here that rice cells require a LysM receptor-like kinase, OsCERK1, in addition to CEBiP, for chitin signaling. Knockdown of OsCERK1 resulted in marked suppression of the defense responses induced by chitin oligosaccharides, indicating that OsCERK1 is essential for chitin signaling in rice. The results of a yeast two-hybrid assay indicated that both CEBiP and OsCERK1 have the potential to form hetero- or homo-oligomers. Immunoprecipitation using a membrane preparation from rice cells treated with chitin oligosaccharides suggested the ligand-induced formation of a receptor complex containing both CEBiP and OsCERK1. Blue native PAGE and chemical cross-linking experiments also suggested that a major portion of CEBiP exists as homo-oligomers even in the absence of chitin oligosaccharides.