Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Aerobiology and Its Role in the Transmission of Infectious Diseases

Aerobiology plays a fundamental role in the transmission of infectious diseases. As infectious disease and infection control practitioners continue employing contemporary techniques (e.g., computational fluid dynamics to study particle flow, polymerase chain reaction methodologies to quantify particle concentrations in various settings, and epidemiology to track the spread of disease), the central variables affecting the airborne transmission of pathogens are becoming better known. This paper reviews many of these aerobiological variables (e.g., particle size, particle type, the duration that particles can remain airborne, the distance that particles can travel, and meteorological and environmental factors), as well as the common origins of these infectious particles. We then review several real-world settings with known difficulties controlling the airborne transmission of infectious particles (e.g., office buildings, healthcare facilities, and commercial airplanes), while detailing the respective measures each of these industries is undertaking in its effort to ameliorate the transmission of airborne infectious diseases.
Listwise Collaborative Filtering

Recently, ranking-oriented collaborative filtering (CF) algorithms have achieved great success in recommender systems. They obtained state-of-the-art performances by estimating a preference ranking of items for each user rather than estimating the absolute ratings on unrated items (as conventional rating-oriented CF algorithms do). In this paper, we propose a new ranking-oriented CF algorithm, called ListCF. Following the memory-based CF framework, ListCF directly predicts a total order of items for each user based on similar users' probability distributions over permutations of the items, and thus differs from previous ranking-oriented memory-based CF algorithms that focus on predicting the pairwise preferences between items. One important advantage of ListCF lies in its ability of reducing the computational complexity of the training and prediction procedures while achieving the same or better ranking performances as compared to previous ranking-oriented memory-based CF algorithms. Extensive experiments on three benchmark datasets against several state-of-the-art baselines demonstrate the effectiveness of our proposal.
Collection of a Simultaneous Translation Corpus for Comparative Analysis

This paper describes the collection of an English-Japanese/Japanese-English simultaneous interpretation corpus. There are two main features of the corpus. The first is that professional simultaneous interpreters with different amounts of experience cooperated with the collection. By comparing data from simultaneous interpretation of each interpreter, it is possible to compare better interpretations to those that are not as good. The second is that for part of our corpus there are already translation data available. This makes it possible to compare translation data with simultaneous interpretation data. We recorded the interpretations of lectures and news, and created time-aligned transcriptions. A total of 387k words of transcribed data were collected. The corpus will be helpful to analyze differences in interpretations styles and to construct simultaneous interpretation systems.
Critical Role of Methylglyoxal and AGE in Mycobacteria-Induced Macrophage Apoptosis and Activation

Apoptosis and activation of macrophages play an important role in the host response to mycobacterial infection involving TNF-α as a critical autocrine mediator. The underlying mechanisms are still ill-defined. Here, we demonstrate elevated levels of methylglyoxal (MG), a small and reactive molecule that is usually a physiological product of various metabolic pathways, and advanced glycation end products (AGE) during mycobacterial infection of macrophages, leading to apoptosis and activation of macrophages. Moreover, we demonstrate abundant AGE in pulmonary lesions of tuberculosis (TB) patients. Global gene expression profiling of MG-treated macrophages revealed a diverse spectrum of functions induced by MG, including apoptosis and immune response. Our results not only provide first evidence for the involvement of MG and AGE in TB, but also form a basis for novel intervention strategies against infectious diseases in which MG and AGE play critical roles.
Searching for the Optimal Sampling Design for Measuring LAI in an Upland Rainforest

Leaf Area Index (LAI) and vegetation cover are important metrics for deriving structural information of forest ecosystems across multiple scales. Ground-based measurements of LAI are necessary for up-scaling to coarse resolution satellite products as well as for calibrating and validating such products derived from airborne and satellite remote sensing datasets, which are increasingly being used for forestry and ecosystem health applications across the globe. A crucial consideration when gathering field measurements is determining a suitable sampling design, which ensures the collection of representative measurements. In this study, we address this question by obtaining LAI measurements across the Terrestrial Ecosystem Research Network (TERN) 25ha Robson Creek Supersite, which is representative of upland rainforests in Far North Queensland. The Robson Creek supersite contains over 200 species of woody vegetation and has one of the highest levels of biomass found in forest ecosystems globally. A variety of ad hoc and established sampling designs such as the State wide Land cover and Trees Survey (SLATS) and the Validation of Land European Remote Sensing Instruments (VALERI) cross elementary sampling unit protocol were applied across the site. Measurements obtained from the ground-based sampling designs were then compared to measurements derived from satellite imagery (i.e., Landsat). Preliminary results indicate the measurements obtained from between-plot sampling designs were highly correlated and comparable. On the other hand, there was disagreement between the ground-based measurements and values estimated from the Foliage Projective Cover (FPC) satellite product. The study suggests that at least in dense canopy forests, different sampling designs will yield similar results. Consequently, the sampling strategy should ultimately be driven according to the desired spatial resolution of the final product.
Influences of Green Outdoors versus Indoors Environmental Settings on Psychological and Social Outcomes of Controlled Exercise

This study addressed a methodological gap by comparing psychological and social outcomes of exercise in green outdoors versus built indoors settings, whilst rigorously controlling exercise mode and intensity. The hypotheses were that greater improvements or more desirable values for directed attention, mood, perceived exertion, social interaction time, intention for future exercise behaviour and enjoyment would be associated with outdoors compared to indoors exercise. Following a baseline session, paired participants completed two conditions of 15 min of cycling on an ergometer placed outside in a natural environment and inside in a laboratory setting in a randomized, counter-balanced order. At pre- and post-exercise, directed attention was measured with the digit span backwards task, and mood was assessed with the Profile of Mood States. During the exercise session, visual and verbal interactions were recorded by means of experimenter observations. After each exercise session, participants provided self-reports of their enjoyment of the exercise, perceived exertion and intention for future exercise in the same environment. Social interaction time was significantly greater during outdoors exercise versus indoors; on average, participants engaged in three minutes more social interaction during exercise outdoors compared to indoors. Social interaction time significantly predicted intention for future exercise in the outdoors condition, but did not in the indoor condition. There was a significant time by condition interaction for directed attention. Scores worsened in the indoors condition, but improved in the outdoors condition. There was no statistically-significant time by condition interaction for mood and no significant difference between conditions for either perceived exertion or intention. Taken together, these findings show that exercise in a natural environment may promote directed attention and social interactions, which may positively influence future exercise intentions.
Perceived fairness of web‐based applicant screening procedures: Weighing the rules of justice and the role of individual differences

Four previously established characteristics of procedural justice (consistency, opportunity to perform, reconsideration opportunity, and feedback timeliness) and one additional characteristic (automated versus human decision agent) were manipulated in a policy-capturing design to examine their relative importance in predicting fairness perceptions in a Web-based applicant-screening context. Results showed that all five justice characteristics influenced fairness perceptions and that a hierarchy of importance among the characteristics existed, with consistency weighted most heavily, followed by opportunity to perform. Gender, conscientiousness, and job application experience moderated the effects of several of these characteristics in predicting fairness perceptions. Implications and future research directions are discussed. © 2004 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Haunted by somatic tendencies: Spirit infestation as psychogenic illness

It has been suggested that haunting and poltergeist episodes are akin to outbreaks of contagious psychogenic illness. Therefore, it might be expected that hypochondriacal and somatic tendencies would significantly predict self-reported experiences of 'spirit infestation' and other paranormal ideations. This prediction was tested on a sample of 314 undergraduate students who completed the Anomalous Experiences Inventory, the Transliminality Scale and three standard questionnaires about hypochondriasis, somatic complaints, and cognitions about body and health. Results from correlational and regression analyses supported predictions, although we found that the type of bodily cognition varied with the specificity of the paranormal experience. For example, indices of spirit infestation coincided with autonomic sensations, perceived paranormal ability was related to catastrophizing cognitions, and general paranormal experiences correlated with somatization traits. Transliminality and paranormal belief contributed positively to nearly all of these associations. These findings are consistent with the idea that some paranormal experiences are partly misattributions of internal experience to external (paranormal) sources - a process that could initiate an episode of contagious (mass) psychogenic illness by encouraging the collective perception of similar 'symptoms' in a group of people due to suggestion and demand characteristics.
Ultraviolet, Optical, and Infrared Constraints on Models of Stellar Populations and Dust Attenuation

The color of galaxies is a fundamental property, easily measured, that constrains models of galaxies and their evolution. Dust attenuation and star formation history (SFH) are the dominant factors affecting the color of galaxies. Here we explore the empirical relation between SFH, attenuation, and color for a wide range of galaxies, including early types. These galaxies have been observed by GALEX, SDSS, and Spitzer, allowing the construction of measures of dust attenuation from the ratio of infrared (IR) to ultraviolet (UV) flux and measures of SFH from the strength of the 4000 Å break. The empirical relation between these three quantities is compared to models that separately predict the effects of dust and SFH on color. This comparison demonstrates the quantitative consistency of these simple models with the data and hints at the power of multiwavelength data for constraining these models. The UV color is a strong constraint; we find that a Milky Way extinction curve is disfavored, and that the UV emission of galaxies with large 4000 Å break strengths is likely to arise from evolved populations. We perform fits to the relation between SFH, attenuation, and color. This relation links the production of starlight and its absorption by dust to the subsequent reemission of the absorbed light in the IR. Galaxy models that self-consistently treat dust absorption and emission as well as stellar populations will need to reproduce these fitted relations in the low-redshift universe.
Using a Technology-Enriched Environment to Improve Higher-Order Thinking Skills

Abstract This study examined the effect of a technology-enriched classroom on student development of higher-order thinking skills and student attitudes toward computers. A sample of 80 sixth-grade and 86 fifth-grade students was tested using the Ross Test of Higher Cognitive Processes and surveyed using the Computer Attitude Questionnaire. The creation of a technology-enriched classroom environment appears to have had a positive effect on student acquisition of higher-order thinking skills. This study identified several implications related to classroom design to enhance the development of higher-order thinking skills. Teachers reported that the technology-enriched classroom differed from the traditional classroom in several significant ways.
Topological organization of the “small-world” visual attention network in children with attention deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD)

Background: Attention-deficit/hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) is the most commonly diagnosed childhood psychiatric disorder. Disrupted sustained attention is one of the most significant behavioral impairments in this disorder. We mapped systems-level topological properties of the neural network responsible for sustained attention during a visual sustained task, on the premise that strong associations between anomalies in network features and clinical measures of ADHD would emerge. Methods: Graph theoretic techniques (GTT) and bivariate network-based statistics (NBS) were applied to fMRI data from 22 children with ADHD combined-type and 22 age-matched neurotypicals, to evaluate the topological and nodal-pairing features in the functional brain networks. Correlation testing for relationships between network properties and clinical measures were then performed. Results: The visual attention network showed significantly reduced local-efficiency and nodal-efficiency in frontal and occipital regions in ADHD. Measures of degree and between-centrality pointed to hyper-functioning in anterior cingulate cortex and hypo-functioning in orbito-frontal, middle-occipital, superior-temporal, supra-central, and supra-marginal gyri in ADHD. NBS demonstrated significantly reduced pair-wise connectivity in an inner-network, encompassing right parietal and temporal lobes and left occipital lobe, in the ADHD group. Conclusions: These data suggest that atypical topological features of the visual attention network contribute to classic ADHD symptomatology, and may underlie the inattentiveness and hyperactivity/impulsivity that are characteristics of this syndrome.
European Productivity Gaps: Is R&D the solution?

In an ATAPI device and method for interfacing a digital video disk signal processor with a data processor, a digital video disk ROM interfacing apparatus controls data transmission from the digital video disk signal processor to the ATAPI interfacing apparatus such that a plurality of bytes of data are transmitted for each data transmission request. In the digital video disk ROM interfacing apparatus, a byte designator stores a number of designated units which is the number of data units which are to be transmitted once. A counter up-counts when a data unit is transmitted and outputs a number of transmitted units. A comparator compares the number of designated units output by the byte designation means with the number of transmission units output by the counter. A data request signal generator requests data transmission to the digital video disk signal processor according to a comparison result from the comparator.
Benzodiazepine receptor antagonists reverse the effect of diazepam on plasma corticosterone in stressed rats

The aim of this work has been to investigate the mechanism by which diazepam counteracts the plasma corticosterone rise induced by stress in rats. This effect is reversed by pretreatment with RO151788 and CGS8216. This observation suggests that the effect is mediated by benzodiazepine‐specific receptors in brain.
A Comparative Study of Web-pages Classification Methods using Fuzzy Operators Applied to Arabic Web-pages

In this study, a fuzzy similarity approach for Arabic web pages classification is presented. The approach uses a fuzzy term-category relation by manipulating membership degree for the training data and the degree value for a test web page. Six measures are used and compared in this study. These measures include: Einstein, Algebraic, Hamacher, MinMax, Special case fuzzy and Bounded Difference approaches. These measures are applied and compared using 50 different Arabic web-pages. Einstein measure was gave best performance among the other measures. An analysis of these measures and concluding remarks are drawn in this study. Keywords— Text classification, HTML, Web pages, Machine learning, Fuzzy logic, Arabic Web pages.
Dazzled by the Mirage of Influence?

Andrew Webster proposes that science and technology studies (STS) align itself more thoroughly with practical policy contexts, actors and issues, so as to become more useful, and thus more a regular actor in such worlds. This commentary raises some questions about this approach. First, I note that manifest influence in science or policy or both should not become-by default, or deliberately-a criterion of intellectual quality for STS research work. I distinguish between (1) reflective historical work, which delineates the contingent ways in which existing policy and technoscientific cultures have become entrenched as such inscribed and perhaps dysfunctional institutional habit; and (2), work of the kind that Webster's three case studies exemplify, that is, geared to influence policy-decision outcomes. I suggest that many of the important issues facing STS-and "policy"-are not explicit "policy-decision issues" as such, but implicit "policy syndromes" that need naming, diagnosing and open, if enforced, institutional reflection.
Addressing the Effects of Reciprocal Teaching on the Receptive and Expressive Vocabulary of 1st-Grade Students

This study evaluated the effects of Adapted Reciprocal Teaching (ART) on the receptive and expressive flight-word vocabulary of 1st-grade students. During ART, classroom interactions produced narrative contexts within which students assumed responsibility for applying new flight words in personally meaningful ways. Students in the control group also received interactive storybook instruction, but classroom interactions were led primarily by the teacher and focused only on the meanings of unfamiliar flight words. Students were assessed using the Receptive Flight Word Vocabulary Test (RFVT) and the Expressive Flight Word Vocabulary Test (EFVT). The data demonstrated that after the instructional intervention, the students in the ART group acquired significantly more target words (as measured by performance on the RFVT and the EFVT) than students in the control group. Results are interpreted in light of generative learning theory, and practical implications for introducing vocabulary in the early school years are addressed.
Exploring the subconcepts of the Wittmann-Price theory of emancipated decision-making in women's health care.

PURPOSE To explore the subconcepts of the Wittmann-Price Theory of Emancipated Decision-Making (EDM); which is proposed as a new theoretical model for the nursing care of women to increase women's satisfaction with decision-making about healthcare issues. Infant feeding method was used as the clinical exemplar. DESIGN AND METHOD A descriptive correlational design was used to test the five identified subconcepts of EDM (empowerment, flexible environment, personal knowledge, reflection, and social norms) in women's healthcare. The relationship of emancipated decision-making and satisfaction were explored with the Subject Demographic Questionnaire (SDQ), the Wittmann-Price Theory of Emancipated Decision-making Scale (EDMS), and the Satisfaction with Decision (SWD) scale. The research design was retrospective, without random sampling of subjects. Four research questions were posed for this investigation. Women who had uncomplicated deliveries and met the selected criteria were enrolled (N=97). FINDINGS All five subconcepts of EDM were scored on subscales on the EDMS; flexible environment and personal knowledge had the highest mean scores. Pearson correlations showed that all five subscales were significantly related to each other except reflection with personal knowledge and reflection with social norms. A significant relationship was found between the EDM and satisfaction with the decision. Personal knowledge and flexible environment were the best predictors of satisfaction with the decision. CONCLUSIONS The Wittmann-Price Theory of EDM is a theoretical model with implications for nursing care of women who are involved in a healthcare decision, such as choice of infant feeding. Further studies are needed to determine the importance of each of the subconcepts in relation to emancipated decision-making.
Regulated expression of a 16‐kd galectin‐like protein in activated rat macrophages

We investigated the presence of a galectin‐like protein in rat mononuclear cells using a polyclonal antibody raised against a soluble lactose‐binding lectin purified from adult chicken liver that immunoreacted strongly with a broad protein band of about 16 kd in Western blot assays. Immunochemical studies revealed a constitutive expression of this protein in mononuclear cells mainly in the macrophage (Mφ) population. Subcellular localization was assessed by Western blot assays of the cytosolic and membrane fractions of different cell populations studied: (1) spleen mononuclear cells, (2) T cell‐enriched, (3) B cell‐ and Mφ‐enriched populations, and (4) peritoneal cells, processed in the presence of lactose. In broad agreement with immunocytochemical studies of nonpermeabilized and permeabilized cells, Western blot assays suggest that this protein is localized mainly in the cytoplasmic compartment but also associated with the cell surface. By flow cytometric analyses we detected about a 14% of ED1 double‐positive cells corresponding to Mφs that constitutively express this galectin‐like protein associated with their cell surface. The cytosolic fraction obtained from the Mφ‐enriched cell population showed hemagglutinating activity specifically inhibited by β‐galactoside–related sugars. Moreover, this galectin‐like protein was retained in a lactosyl‐Sepharose matrix and specifically eluted with lactose. In this work, evidence is also provided to show that different stimuli are able to modulate the expression of the galectin‐like protein. Expression was upregulated in inflammatory and activated Mφs, revealing a significant increase in phorbol ester– and formylmethionine oligopeptide–treated cells. Both stimuli involving protein kinase C activation pathway have been able not only to up‐regulate the total expression of this protein but also to modulate its subcellular localization.