Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Serum ferritin concentration in gestational diabetes mellitus and risk of subsequent development of early postpartum diabetes mellitus

Purpose To compare the serum ferritin concentrations of normal pregnant women with those having gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) and to determine the possible role of ferritin in predicting pregnancy outcome and early development of postpartum glucose intolerance and diabetes mellitus. Method This case-control study consisted of 128 pregnant women (64 women with GDM and 64 age-matched healthy pregnant women) seen at a university hospital in Zanjan, Iran. Anthropometric measurements were determined, and serum ferritin, C-reactive protein, insulin, glycosylated hemoglobin (HbA1c), and hemoglobin levels were measured. Pregnancy outcomes were recorded in all subjects. In the women with GDM, a diagnostic oral glucose tolerance test was performed eight weeks after delivery. Results Women with GDM had a higher concentration of serum ferritin (112 ± 28.4 pmol/L in GDM versus 65 ± 16.9 pmol/L in controls, P < 0.001). A positive correlation was found between serum ferritin level and mid-pregnancy fasting plasma glucose and HbAlc levels. Although women in the highest quartile of serum ferritin had a greater than two-fold increased risk of GDM, no significant correlation was found between ferritin levels and early postpartum oral glucose tolerance test results. Conclusions Elevated serum ferritin concentrations in mid-pregnancy are associated with an increased risk of GDM independent of C-reactive protein and body mass index. Ferritin levels in GDM cannot be used as an indicator to predict subsequent glucose concentration in early postpartum oral glucose tolerance test.
A student's scientific mind: a confirmatory factor analysis

Purpose – The research aimed to examine the construct validity of a scientific-mind measurement model for secondary school students in Bangkok and the factor loading values of scientific-mind indicators. Methodology – Stratified random sampling was used to select a sample of 500 Grade 8 students studying in a Bangkok school district during the 2016 academic year. Testing of scientificmind measurement was used as the research instrument and construct validity testing of the scientific-mind measurement model utilized second-order confirmatory factor analysis (CFA) was carried out with SPSS AMOS software Version 23.Findings - The testing of the scientific-mind measurement model for secondary school students in Bangkok was consistent with the empirical data. The scientific-mind factors consisted of two indicators, including scientific attitudes and attitudes towards science.Scientific attitudes were comprised of nine indicators. The indicator with the highest factor loading value was creatively working with other people. Attitudes towards science contained four indicators. The indicator with the highest factor loading value was science value awareness. Significance – The results revealed that teachers and educational administrators have the potential to use the study’s scientificmind factors in their approaches to course development, as well as in designing a manual for learning management. The study’s model can also help in measurement and evaluation of secondary school students’ progress in developing a better scientific mind.
Se p 20 06 A new formula for the Chen-Tian energy functionals E k and its applications

for any Kähler potential φ(t), where r is the average value of the scalar curvature r = [c1(M)][̇ω] n−1 [ω] . It is well-known that the behavior of the K energy plays a central role on the existence of Kähler Einstein metrics and constant scalar curvature metrics. In [1], Bando-Mabuchi proved that the K energy is bounded from below on a Kähler Einstein manifold. It has been shown by G. Tian in [16][17] that M admits a Kähler Einstein metric if and only if the K energy is proper. Recently, Chen-Tian in [7] extended these results to extremal Kähler metrics, and Cao-Tian-Zhu in [2][18] proved similar results on Kähler Ricci solitons. So a natural question is how the energy functionals Ek are related to these extremal metrics. Following a question posed by Chen in [3], Song and Weinkove recently proved [14] that Ek have a lower bound on the space of Kähler metrics with nonnegative Ricci curvature for Kähler Einstein manifolds. Moreover, they also showed that modulo holomorphic vector fields, E1 is proper if and only if there exists a Kähler Einstein metric. Shortly afterwards, N. Pali [13] gave a formula between E1 and the K energy E0, which implies E1 has a lower bound if the K energy is bounded from below. Tosatti [19] proved under some curvature assumptions, the critical point of Ek is a Kähler Einstein metric. Pali’s theorem says that the E1 energy is always bigger than the K energy. However, we proved that the converse is also true in [4]. Following suggestion of X.X. Chen, we set out to investigate the relations between these energy functionals for the general case; in particular, the relations about lower bound of these functionals.
Syntactic complexity across proficiency and languages: L2 and L1 writing in Dutch, Italian and Spanish

This study explores to what extent syntactic complexity as assessed by four types of complexity measures may vary in written, argumentative texts of L2 learners (A2‐B1) and native writers of Dutch, Italian and Spanish. All texts were assessed by calculating both overall complexity measures and more fine‐grained measures that focus on the type and number of coordinate and subordinate structures, and the use of post‐modifiers within the NP. The results of the study indicate that there is variation in the process of gradual complexification in written L2 production across proficiency levels, across languages, and between L2 and L1. In line with findings from earlier research, this study shows the importance of employing both general and more specific complexity measures for assessing syntactic growth in L2.
A Multinomial Error Model for Tests with Polytomous Items ∗

This paper introduces a multinomial error model, which models the raw scores from polytomously scored items. The multinomial error model is implemented in this paper for estimating conditional standard errors of measurement and reliability for both raw and scale scores. A simulation study is presented, which suggests that the multinomial conditional standard errors of measurement for the raw and scale scores are stable estimates. A compound multinomial error model is also presented when the items are stratified according to content categories and/or prespecified numbers of score categories. The applicability of the multinomial and compound multinomial models is illustrated by two real data examples. The first example considers test scores obtained from polytomous items only, and the second example contains test scores from a mixture of dichotomous and polytomous items.
Efficient prioritized congestion management for social network based live sharing

In this paper, we explicitly consider the scenario of supporting applications with high-bandwidth and low-latency requirements in mobile social networks (MSNs), by leveraging the existing social network sites. Our solution does not assume any centralized server who coordinates the data storage, access, and group management. We address the fundamental challenge supporting such applications, namely: the limited bandwidth availability and intense bandwidth requirement that may hinder the deployment of these applications. We propose a link-based congestion management (LCM) mechanism to adjust the source rate of each stream, and a prioritized flow management mechanism composed of a novel concept of “stress weight” and its associated utility function. Extensive simulation results show that our proposal achieves 50% less rate reduction under the severe congestions, and the achievable source rate of the proposed LCM scheme is over one order of magnitude higher than the alternative approach.
An Experimental Investigation on a Bio-inspired Corrugated Airfoil

An experimental study was conducted to investigate the aerodynamic characteristics of a bio-inspired corrugated airfoil compared with a streamlined airfoil and a flat plate at the chord Reynolds number of Re= 58,000 ~ 125,000 to explore the potential applications of such bio-inspired corrugated airfoils for micro air vehicle (MAV) designs. In addition to measuring the aerodynamic lift and drag forces acting on the tested airfoils, a digital particle image velocimetry system was used to conduct detailed flowfield measurements to quantify the transient behavior of vortex and turbulent flow structures around the airfoils. The measurement result revealed clearly that the corrugated airfoil has better performance over the streamlined airfoil and the flat plate in providing higher lift and preventing large-scale flow separation and airfoil stall at low Reynolds numbers. The detailed flow field measurements were correlated with the aerodynamic force measurement data to elucidate underlying physics to improve our understanding about how and why the corrugation feature found in the dragonfly wings holds aerodynamic advantages for low Reynolds number flight applications.
Mutations Found in embCAB, embR, and ubiA Genes of Ethambutol-Sensitive and -Resistant Mycobacterium tuberculosis Clinical Isolates from China

To better understand the molecular mechanisms of Ethambutol (EMB) resistance, the mutant hot spot region of five genes (embB, embA, embC, embR, and ubiA) was amplified and sequenced in 109 EMB-resistant and 153 EMB-susceptible clinical isolates from China. Twenty-seven EMB-susceptible isolates were found to have nonsynonym mutations, 23 of which were in embB. The mutations occurred most frequently in embB (85.3%, 93) and were seldom in embC (2.8%, 3), embA (3.7%, 4), embR (3.7%, 4), and ubiA (8.3%, 9) in EMB-resistant isolates. For the embB gene, 63 isolates showed mutations at embB306, 20 at embB406, nine at embB497, and five at embB354 in EMB-resistant isolates. In addition, the particular mutants at embB406 and embB497 indicated both high levels of EMB resistance (MICs > 5 μg/mL) and broad anti-TB drug resistance spectrums. Our data supported the facts that embB306 could be used as a marker for EMB resistance with a sensitivity of 57.8% and a specificity of 78.8%.
Detection of superhumps in XTE J1118+480 approaching quiescence

We present the results of our monitoring of the halo black hole soft X-ray transient (SXT) XTE J1118+480 during its decline to quiescence. The system has decayed 0.5 mag from 2000 December to its present near-quiescent level at R ≃ 18.65 (2001 June). The ellipsoidal light curve is distorted by an additional modulation that we interpret as a superhump of P s h = 0.17049(1)d i.e. 0.3 per cent longer than the orbital period. This implies a disc precession period P p r e c ∼ 52 d. After correcting the average phase-folded light curve for veiling, the amplitude difference between the minima suggests that the binary inclination angle lies in the range i = 71-82°. However, we urge caution in the interpretation of these values because of residual systematic contamination of the ellipsoidal light curve by the complex form of the superhump modulation. The orbital-mean Ha profiles exhibit clear velocity variations with ∼500 km s - 1 amplitude. We interpret this as the first spectroscopic evidence of an eccentric precessing disc.
Robot motion planning, weights of cohomology classes, and cohomology operations

The complexity of algorithms solving the motion planning problem is measured by a homotopy invariant TC(X) of the configuration space X of the system. Previously known lower bounds for TC(X) use the structure of the cohomology algebra of X. In this paper we show how cohomology operations can be used to sharpen these lower bounds for TC(X). As an application of this technique we calculate explicitly the topological complexity of various lens spaces. The results of the paper were inspired by the work of E. Fadell and S. Husseini on weights of cohomology classes appearing in the classical lower bounds for the Lusternik - Schnirelmann category. In the appendix to this paper we give a very short proof of a generalized version of their result.
Student Effort, Consistency, and Online Performance

This paper examines how student effort, consistency, motivation, and marginal learning, influence student grades in an online course. We use data from eleven Microeconomics courses taught online for a total of 212 students. Our findings show that consistency, or less time variation, is a statistically significant explanatory variable, whereas effort, or total minutes spent online, is not. Other independent variables include GPA and the difference between a pre-test and a post-test. The GPA is used as a measure of motivation, and the difference between a posttest and pre-test as marginal learning. As expected, the level of motivation is found statistically significant at a 99% confidence level, and marginal learning is also significant at a 95% level.
Business On-Line? An Empirical Study of Factors Leading to the Adoption of Internet Technologies by Australian SMEs

E-commerce technologies such as a Web site, email and the use of Web browsers enable access to large amounts of information, facilitate communication and provide niche companies with an effective mechanism for competing with larger organisations world-wide. However, recent literature has shown Australian SMEs have been slow in the uptake of these technologies. The aim of this research was to determine which factors were important in impacting on small firms’ decision making in respect of information technology and e-commerce adoption. Findings indicate that generally, the more a firm was concerned about its competitive position, so such a firm was likely to develop a Web site. Moreover, the ‘Industry and Skill Demands’ dimension suggested that as the formal education of the owner/manager increased, coupled with the likelihood that the firm was in the transport and storage or communication services industries, and realising the cost of IT adoption was in effect an investment, then such a firm would be inclined to develop a Web site. Firms that were presented with relatively geographically dispersed markets, and realising it was necessary to go through the time consuming process of adopting various IT to reach these markets, were more likely to adopt Web sites. Lastly, owners/managers who reported their knowledge of business uses of computers was poor and who were likely to ask for support in installing and utilizing IT were also more likely to use Web sites than those who did not share these characteristics.
. for the Protein Folding Problem : Comparing Encodings and Search Modes

Suppose you are given a string q ∈ {H,P} and you have to put each letter of q in a vertex of a given lattice L. Consecutive letters in q must be placed in adjacent vertices in the lattice, and each vertex must not contain more than one letter. In addition you have a scoring function, which adds -1 for each “contact” between two H letters lying adjacent in the lattice that are not consecutive in q. The objective is to find the organization (“embedding”) of the string q in L of minimum score (or maximum contacts). Figure 1 shows strings embedded in the square and the triangular lattices, with HH contacts highlighted with dotted lines. The conformation in Figure 1a has a score of -4 (four contacts) and the conformation in Figure 1b has a score of -6 (six contacts).
Callous-unemotional traits and the emotional processing of distress cues in detained boys: Testing the moderating role of aggression, exposure to community violence, and histories of abuse

Abstract Callous-unemotional (CU) traits in antisocial youth have been associated with deficits in the processing of emotionally distressing stimuli in a number of past studies. In the current study, we investigated moderators of this association in a sample of 88 ethnically diverse detained boys (mean age = 15.57, SD = 1.28). Overall, emotional processing of distressing stimuli using a dot-probe task was not related to CU traits and there was no moderating effect of ethnicity. However, CU traits were related to deficits in emotional processing in youth high on aggression and youth high on exposure to community violence. Further, youth high on CU traits but with enhanced orienting to distressing stimuli had stronger histories of abuse, supporting the possibility that there may be environmentally influenced pathways in the development of these traits.
Three essays in wage differentials: Inequality growth, education standards, and immigration

This dissertation consists of three essays focusing on wage inequality and education policy. Essay 1 considers growth in the variance of wages. Prior work has documented that the college premium plays a major role in explaining wage variance growth. This essay examines the extent to which this role can be attributed to an increase in the dispersion of occupation-specific returns to post-secondary education. Using the variance components approach and CPS data between 1979-1981 and 2003-2005, the essay shows that the variation in the college premium across occupations has increased over time, and this variation expansion explains about five percent of the growth in wage variance across the two periods. By dividing the sample workforce into professional and nonprofessional groups, the results suggest that the increased variation in the return to post-secondary education particularly caused the wage gap between the professional and non-professional workers to increase. Essay 2 applies quantile regression methodology to the study of the determinants of the wage distribution among natives and immigrants in the U.S., using PUMS from 1990 and 2000, and ACS from 2006. Among other findings, the immigrant/native wage gap is concentrated at the lower end to the median of the wage distribution, and the primary source of the wage gap is the relative lack of labor market skills among immigrants. A cross-time comparison shows that the recent immigrant/native wage gap after controlling for skill variables first decreased from 1990 to 2000 and then expanded from 2000 to 2006. The growth is concentrated at the two ends of the wage distribution, and the reason for growth is that the recent immigrants in 2006 are younger and thus have less market experience than their counterparts of 1990. Essay 3 is coauthored with Dr. Blankenau. We analyze the impact of changes in college admission standards on the skilled labor distribution, skilled firm distribution, and the match of skilled labor with skilled firms. We propose a model of schooling with heterogeneous labor and firms, in which firms’ decisions in creating skilled jobs are conditioned on the supply of skilled labor. The model shows that lowering standards without providing incentives to acquire skills does not necessarily motivate accumulation of human capital or expansion of skilled industry. Lower standards tend to create a mismatch of educated labor with unskilled positions. In some specifications, lower standards can lower firms’ willingness to create skilled positions, leaving more skilled workers underemployed. THREE ESSAYS IN WAGE DIFFERENTIALS: INEQUALITY GROWTH, EDUCATION STANDARDS, AND IMMIGRATION
Implementing Technology Acceptance Model to measure ICT usage by smallholder farmers

In the era of industry 4.0, especially in the agricultural sector, using ICT as a communication and information-gathering medium for farmers is crucial. However, the ICT adoption level by smallholder farmers varies greatly. This study investigates the elements influencing the ICT adoption level and utilization and explores the application of the TAM to smallholder farmers. Using descriptive quantitative methodology on three villages in Ngawi regency, East Java (N=53), this study indicated that smartphone usage in the research location was extremely high at 90.5%. A Spearman correlation value of 0.24 indicates a relationship between the PU and the education level of farmers. T-Test Two Means Independent was used to compare respondents' perception of ICT utilization through Perceived Use (PU) and Perceived Ease of Use (PEU); PU's average value of 17.5 was greater than PEU's average value of 13.9. It was determined that ICT perceived usefulness was felt more important than perceived ease of use by the respondents in their daily activities. Additionally, this study recommends that agriculture services development necessitates strategies to create ICT usefulness through smartphones. Such strategies will help increase the ICT effective adoption, reducing information gaps and raising the wealth of smallholder farmers.
Is the DeVries-Rose to Weber Transition Empirically Possible with Sine-Wave Gratings?

Visual functioning at various retinal illuminance levels is usually measured either by determining grating acuity as a function of light level or by determining how sensitivity to sine-wave gratings changes with retinal illuminance. The former line of research has shown that grating acuity follows a two-branch relationship with retinal illuminance, with the point of discontinuity occurring at the transition from scotopic to photopic vision. Results of the latter line of research have summarily been described as a transition from the DeVries-Rose law to Weber's law, according to which log sensitivity increases linearly with log illuminance with a slope of 0.5 over a range of low illuminances (the DeVries-Rose range) and then levels off and does not increase with further increases of illuminance (the Weber range). This paper aims at determining the compatibility of the results of these two lines of research. We consider empirical constraints from data bearing on the shape of the surface describing contrast sensitivity to sine-wave gratings as a function of spatial frequency and illuminance simultaneously, in order to determine whether they are consistent with a summary description in terms of DeVries-Rose and Weber's laws. Our analysis indicates that, with sine-wave gratings, the DeVries-Rose law can only hold empirically at low spatial frequencies. Con frecuencia se ha medido la función visual a distintos niveles de iluminancia, bien determinando la agudeza visual para enrejados sinusoidales en función del nivel luminoso o bien determinando la forma en que la sensibilidad a enrejados sinusoidales cambia con la iluminancia. La primera vía de acercamiento ha revelado que la agudeza varía con la iluminancia de acuerdo con una función de dos ramas y un punto de discontinuidad en la transicion de visión escotópica a visión fotópica. Los resultados obtenidos a través de la segunda vía se han resumido aludiendo a una transición de la ley de DeVries-Rose a la de Weber, según la cual el logaritmo de la sensibilidad aumenta linealmente con pendiente 0.5 a medida que aumenta la iluminancia (para niveles bajos de iluminancia que comprenden el llamado rango de DeVries-Rose) pero luego permanece constante e invariante ante sucesivos incrementos de iluminancia (dentro del llamado rango de Weber). Aquí se evalúa la compatibilidad de los resultados obtenidos en estas dos líneas de investigación. Se parte de las restricciones empíricas impuestas por datos que revelan la forma de la superficie de sensibilidad a enrejados sinusoidales en función de la frecuencia espacial y la iluminancia, y se determina si esas restricciones son compatibles con la descripción que ofrecen las leyes de DeVries–Rose y Weber. El análisis muestra que la ley de DeVries-Rose sólo es posible empíricamente para enrejados sinusoidales de baja frecuencia.