Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Applicability evaluation of Okumura, Ericsson 9999 and winner propagation models for coverage planning in 3.5 GHZ WiMAX systems

Within areas lacking appropriate or having no wire infrastructure at all, fixed WiMAX is recognized as a viable business solution for delivering broadband services to the end users. While in developing countries (like Bosnia and Herzegovina), such areas are widespread among suburban and rural topography, it is of great interest to provide preconditions for planning of these networks. In order to create preconditions for WiMAX planning, the most important problem that must be solved is its coverage prediction. The problem becomes more important considering the fact that, up to date, no globally verified tool for WiMAX coverage prediction is developed. With that in mind, within our research, some of existing empirical propagation models for WiMAX coverage planning are tested with respect to real measurement results conducted all over the world. Similar analysis, with proposed novel metric for models evaluation, is presented in authors' previous work [1], considering some of the most popular empirical propagation models, so far developed. However, in order to improve results obtained in [1], within this paper, additional set of empirical propagation model is tested, providing more general conclusion about the most appropriate empirical propagation model for 3.5 GHz WiMAX coverage planning.
Design Principles for Children ’ s Technology

Designers of children’s technology and software face distinctive challenges. Many design principles used for adult interfaces cannot be applied to children’s products because the needs, skills, and expectations of this user population are drastically different than those of adults. In recent years, designers have started developing design principles for children, but this work has not been collected in one place. This paper takes a first step towards this goal: based on an analysis of a wide range of research into children’s technology, we present a catalogue of design principles for children’s technology that are oriented towards the needs of designers .
An IR-drop guided test pattern generation technique

The high switching activity during at-speed scan testing has been known to cause yield loss because the incurred IR-drop can result in excessive performance degradation and cause a good device to fail. In this work, we propose an IR-drop guided test pattern generation technique that tunes the switching activity distribution to match the user-specified one. Simulation results show significant improvement (96% cost reduction in average) in matching IR-drop profiles with minor test inflation.
That is what my grandmother told my mother: The story of Nigerian and South African women subordinate position

Abstract This paper presents the narrative voice of Nigerian and South African women religious (including men) in expressing that societal socialization processes produce gender-based discrimination which position women as subordinate. As a result, women become navigators of their own gender subordination. Therefore, this paper using thematic analysis through Foucault discursive lens presents gender dilemmas of identity construction based on a qualitative doctoral research design and postdoctoral findings which aimed at exploring identity construction of Nigerian Catholic religious sisters. These identity dilemmas emerged as a result of the complexity involved in unlearning lifelong socialization processes which continually ascribe conflicting gender positions to men and women. Accordingly, this paper presents the participants’ dominant discursive claim that gender subordinate position is: What their grandmothers told their mothers, and their mothers in turn taught them; that to be a woman means to accept a responsible caring position for others, particularly for men. Consequently, this paper recommends that women who are salient stakeholders in family, Church and school socialization ought to act as counter-force in challenging gender discriminating discourse which position girls as second to boys and vice versa. In addition, this paper recommends further research towards exploring women’s contribution to their own victimization of gender discrimination.
A REGRESSION METHOD FOR OBTAINING REAL-TIME TEMPERATURE AND GEOPOTENTIAL HEIGHT PROFILES FROM SATELLITE SPECTROMETER MEASUREMENTS AND ITS APPLICATION TO NIMBUS 3 “SIRS” OBSERVATIONS

Abstract A least squares regression method is formulated for obtaining global temperature and geopotential height profiles from satellite radiation measurements, particularly those obtained by the Sate1lite Infra-Red Spectrometer (SIRS) aboard the Nimbus 3 satellite launched Apr. 14, 1969. Regression equations relating temperature and geopotential height to spectral radiance observations are derived. A method accounting for the influence of clouds, mountains, and hot terrain on the solutions is described. Results obtained from Nimbus 3 radiance data are presented. The procedure described herein has been successfully applied to Nimbus 3 SIRS observations on a real-time basis. The temperature and geopotential heights obtained are being used operationally by the National Meteorological Center in their objective constant pressure analyses. Numerous meteorological results are given to demonstrate the usefulness of this new sounding tool.
The Moderating Role of Narcissism on the Reciprocal Relationship Between Self-Efficacy and Performance

We examined the possible moderating role of narcissism—a personality variable associated with overconfidence—upon the reciprocal relationship between self-efficacy and performance. Participants (N = 87) completed ten experimental trials on a driving simulator where performance and self-efficacy beliefs were recorded across trials. Hierarchical linear modeling demonstrated that previous performance had a positive relationship with subsequent self-efficacy (supporting much of self-efficacy research). However, narcissism moderated this relationship in that when narcissism was high, performance had no relationship with subsequent self-efficacy. Conversely, self-efficacy had a significant negative relationship with subsequent performance. However, narcissism had no moderating effect upon this relationship. A secondary purpose of the study was to examine the potential moderating role narcissism played in the relationship between self-efficacy and effort, and between effort and performance. Narcissism moderated the relationship between self-efficacy and self-reported effort and between self-reported effort and performance. Further, the moderating role of narcissism was non-significant for a psychophysiological measure of effort.
Surgical compared with nonoperative treatment for lumbar degenerative spondylolisthesis. four-year results in the Spine Patient Outcomes Research Trial (SPORT) randomized and observational cohorts.

BACKGROUND The management of degenerative spondylolisthesis associated with spinal stenosis remains controversial. Surgery is widely used and has recently been shown to be more effective than nonoperative treatment when the results were followed over two years. Questions remain regarding the long-term effects of surgical treatment compared with those of nonoperative treatment. METHODS Surgical candidates from thirteen centers with symptoms of at least twelve weeks' duration as well as confirmatory imaging showing degenerative spondylolisthesis with spinal stenosis were offered enrollment in a randomized cohort or observational cohort. Treatment consisted of standard decompressive laminectomy (with or without fusion) or usual nonoperative care. Primary outcome measures were the Short Form-36 (SF-36) bodily pain and physical function scores and the modified Oswestry Disability Index at six weeks, three months, six months, and yearly up to four years. RESULTS In the randomized cohort (304 patients enrolled), 66% of those randomized to receive surgery received it by four years whereas 54% of those randomized to receive nonoperative care received surgery by four years. In the observational cohort (303 patients enrolled), 97% of those who chose surgery received it whereas 33% of those who chose nonoperative care eventually received surgery. The intent-to-treat analysis of the randomized cohort, which was limited by nonadherence to the assigned treatment, showed no significant differences in treatment outcomes between the operative and nonoperative groups at three or four years. An as-treated analysis combining the randomized and observational cohorts that adjusted for potential confounders demonstrated that the clinically relevant advantages of surgery that had been previously reported through two years were maintained at four years, with treatment effects of 15.3 (95% confidence interval, 11 to 19.7) for bodily pain, 18.9 (95% confidence interval, 14.8 to 23) for physical function, and -14.3 (95% confidence interval, -17.5 to -11.1) for the Oswestry Disability Index. Early advantages (at two years) of surgical treatment in terms of the secondary measures of bothersomeness of back and leg symptoms, overall satisfaction with current symptoms, and self-rated progress were also maintained at four years. CONCLUSIONS Compared with patients who are treated nonoperatively, patients in whom degenerative spondylolisthesis and associated spinal stenosis are treated surgically maintain substantially greater pain relief and improvement in function for four years.
The Luminosity-Metallicity Relation, Effective Yields, and Metal Loss in Spiral and Irregular Galaxies

I present results on the correlation between galaxy mass, luminosity, and metallicity for a sample of spiral and irregular galaxies having well-measured abundance profiles, distances, and rotation speeds. Additional data for low surface brightness galaxies from the literature are also included for comparison. These data are combined to study the metallicity-luminosity and metallicity-rotation speed correlations for spiral and irregular galaxies. The metallicity-luminosity correlation shows its familiar form for these galaxies, a roughly uniform change in the average present-day O/H abundance of about a factor of 100 over 11 mag in B luminosity. However, the O/H-Vrot relation shows a change in slope at a rotation speed of about 125 km s-1. At faster Vrot, there appears to be no relation between average metallicity and rotation speed. At lower Vrot, the metallicity correlates with rotation speed. This change in behavior could be the result of increasing loss of metals from the smaller galaxies in supernova-driven winds. This idea is tested by looking at the variation in effective yield, derived from observed abundances and gas fractions assuming closed box chemical evolution. The effective yields derived for spiral and irregular galaxies increase by a factor of 10-20 from Vrot ≈ 5 to 300 km s-1, asymptotically increasing to approximately constant yeff for Vrot ≳ 150 km s-1. The trend suggests that galaxies with Vrot ≲ 100-150 km s-1 may lose a large fraction of their supernova ejecta, while galaxies above this value tend to retain metals.
Effects of a Teacher Professional Development Intervention on Peer Relationships in Secondary Classrooms

We investigated the effects of My Teaching Partner—Secondary (MTP-S), a teacher professional development intervention, on students’ peer relationships in middle and high school classrooms. MTP-S targets increasing teachers' positive interactions with students and sensitive instructional practices and has demonstrated improvements in students' academic achievement and motivation. The current study tested the prediction from systems theory that effects of MTP-S on students would extend beyond the academic domain—that is, the ecology of teachers' behaviors towards students should also influence the ecology of students' behaviors towards one another. Participants were 88 teachers (43 randomly assigned to MTP-S and 45 assigned to a control group that received the regular professional development offerings in their school) and 1423 students in their classrooms. Observations and student self-report of classroom peer interactions were collected at the start and at the end of the course. Results indicated that in MTP-S classrooms, students were observed to show improvement in positive peer interactions, although this pattern was not found in self-report data. However, moderation analyses suggested that for students with high disruptive behavior at the start of the course, teacher participation in MTP-S mitigated a typical decline towards poorer self-reported peer relationships. The relevance of findings for the social ecology of classrooms is discussed.
Predicting Virtual Learning Environment Adoption: A Case Study

This study investigates the significance of Rogers’ Diffusion of Innovations (DOI) theory with regard to the use of a Virtual Learning Environment (VLE) at the Royal University of Bhutan (RUB). The focus is on different adoption types and characteristics of users. Rogers’ DOI theory is applied to investigate the influence of five predictors (relative advantage, complexity, compatibility, trialability and observability) and their significance in the perception of academic staff at the RUB in relation to the probability of VLE adoption. These predictors are attributes of the VLE that determine the rate of adoption by various adopter group memberships (Innovators, Early Adopters, Early Majority, Late Majority, Laggards). Descriptive statistics and regression analysis were deployed to analyse adopter group memberships and predictor significance in VLE adoption and use. The results revealed varying attitudes towards VLE adoption by academic staff at RUB. Few predictors were consistent with previous research on VLE adoption. There were also significant differences from previous research on predictors such as the deviation in adopter frequency from that predicted by Rogers DOI theory. Therefore, it can be concluded that it is misleading to rely on the DOI theory in the way it is currently operationalised for predicting VLE use.
Individual differences and day-to-day fluctuations in perceived self-regulation associated with daily adherence in late adolescents with type 1 diabetes.

OBJECTIVE To examine whether individual differences and intraindividual (within-person day-to-day) fluctuations in late adolescents' self-regulation were associated with daily adherence to the type 1 diabetes regimen. METHODS 110 school seniors (M age = 17.78 years) and their mothers assessed adolescents' skills underlying self-regulation (executive function, attention, self-control, behavioral inhibition and activation, emotion regulation) and adherence, with glycosylated hemoglobin from medical records. Teens completed daily diaries reporting self-regulation failures surrounding monitoring blood glucose, adherence, and number of blood glucose checks each day for 14 days. RESULTS Hierarchical Linear Models indicated that better daily adherence was associated with teen and mother reports of better self-regulation skills and teens' reports of fewer daily self-regulation failures. Daily adherence was unrelated to temperamental differences in behavioral inhibition and activation. CONCLUSIONS Results indicate that both individual and intraindividual differences in self-regulation contribute to daily adherence highlighting the importance of daily self-regulatory challenges to adherence.
Poster: hybrid parallelization of a realistic heart model

Heart failure is a major health problem, not only for the number of people affected (about five million in Europe alone) but also because of the direct and indirect costs for its treatment. A thorough understanding of the complex electrical activation system that triggers the mechanical contraction is a prerequisite for developing effective treatment strategies. Full-heart simulations are an indispensable tool to study the effect of molecular-level or tissue-level changes on clinical measurements [2]. Cardiac electrical activity originates in the millions of ion channels and pumps that are located in the outer membrane of each cardiac muscle cell. We denote the macroscopic ionic current density by Iion.
Dignity and the challenge of dying in nursing homes: the residents' view.

BACKGROUND human dignity is discussed in almost all public debates on the care of the dying, as well as in international policies for health and social care of older people. Because nursing homes are gaining importance as places where residents live out their lives in modern western societies and since there is evidence that end-of-life care in nursing homes lacks quality, there is a growing discussion on introducing improved end-of-life care in these institutions. In order to accomplish this, the view of those who are most affected is of utmost importance. OBJECTIVE to explore the meaning of dignity with regard to end-of-life issues from the perspective of older nursing home residents in western Germany. METHODS this qualitative study is based on the Grounded Theory Approach, and the design included three steps of data generation; narrative interviews with residents of nursing homes constitute the main data pool (n = 20) of the results presented in this paper. Theoretical sampling was aimed at maximising the variety of organisational as well as residents' characteristics. Analysis of the transcripts was supported by Atlas/ti program and followed several different coding procedures and aimed at generating a concept of dignity. RESULTS dignity was differentiated into intrapersonal dignity and relational dignity, socially constructed by the act of recognition. Social relations and encounters are a prerequisite for relational dignity, which underlines the vulnerability of nursing home residents' who increasingly lack social networks. A broad spectrum of attitudes and behaviour, which aimed at recognising dignity, was bundled under the category 'not being a burden'. In this light, dignity was challenged most by the threat of illness and having care needs. This was fostered by the perception of insufficient care in the nursing homes. In the light of this concept, death with dignity meant 'death at the right time', though the residents in the sample did not want to comment on the time of death, other than aspects like (i) being active to the very last, (ii) respecting one's will and being allowed to die, (iii) not being in pain, (iv) being amongst persons close to one (valediction and showing respect). CONCLUSION the study emphasizes the high vulnerability of nursing home residents with regard to dignity. They place their dignity under the constraints of the need for help and care into question. This appears alarming, if one does not manage to, with the help of different ethics, obtain a new perspective on these phases of life. It is evident that the understanding of dignity is not solely individualistic and personal, but rather has a close relationship to social ideas of value, which ultimately influence the basic requirements of institutions in which 'frail old people' live.
Chronic Porphyromonas gingivalis infection accelerates the occurrence of age-related granules in ApoE– / – mice brains

ABSTRACT This study explored the origin of age-related granules in the apolipoprotein E gene knockout (ApoE−/−) B6 background mice brains following chronic gingival infection with Porphyromonas gingivalis for 24 weeks. Intracerebral localization of P. gingivalis was detected by fluorescence in situ hybridization (FISH) and its protease by immunohistochemistry. The age-related granules were observed by periodic acid–Schiff (PAS), silver impregnation, and immunostaining. FISH showed intracerebral dissemination of P. gingivalis cells (p = 0.001). PAS and silver impregnation demonstrated the presence of larger inclusions restricted to the CA1, CA2, and dentate gyrus sectors of the hippocampus. A specific monoclonal antibody to bacterial peptidoglycan detected clusters of granules with variable sizes in mice brains infected with P. gingivalis (p = 0.004), and also highlighted areas of diffuse punctate staining equating to physical tissue damage. Mouse immunoglobulin G was observed in the capillaries of the cerebral parenchyma of all P. gingivalis–infected brains (p = 0.001), and on pyramidal neurons in some severely affected mice, compared with the sham-infected mice. Gingipains was also observed in microvessels of the hippocampus in the infected mice. This study supports the possibility of early appearance of age-related granules in ApoE−/− mice following inflammation-mediated tissue injury, accompanied by loss of cerebral blood-brain barrier integrity.
Capital Market Imperfections and the Sensitivity of Investment to Stock Prices

Abstract Prior studies argue that investment by undervalued firms that require external equity is particularly sensitive to stock prices in irrational capital markets. We present a model in which investment can appear to be more sensitive to stock prices when capital markets are rational, but subject to imperfections such as debt overhang, information asymmetries, and financial distress costs. Our empirical tests support the rational (but imperfect) capital markets view. Specifically, investment–stock price sensitivity is related to firm leverage, financial slack, and probability of financial distress, but is not related to proxies for firm undervaluation. Because, in our model, stock prices reflect the net present values (NPVs) of investment opportunities, our results are consistent with rational capital markets improving the allocation of capital by channeling more funds to firms with positive NPV projects.
High Diversity of Magnetotactic Deltaproteobacteria in a Freshwater Niche

ABSTRACT Knowledge of the diversity of magnetotactic bacteria in natural environments is crucial for understanding their contribution to various biological and geological processes. Here we report a high diversity of magnetotactic bacteria in a freshwater site. Ten out of 18 operational taxonomic units (OTUs) were affiliated with the Deltaproteobacteria. Some rod-shaped bacteria simultaneously synthesized greigite and magnetite magnetosomes.
Code-Switching Functions in Modern Hebrew Teaching and Learning

ABSTRACT The teaching and learning of Modern Hebrew outside of Israel is essential to Jewish education and identity. One of the most contested issues in Modern Hebrew pedagogy is the use of code-switching between Modern Hebrew and learners’ first language. Moreover, this is one of the longest running disputes in the broader field of second language research and education. Based on recent conceptualizations of bi/multilingualism together with findings from an empirical investigation of beginner students at an Australian university, this article argues that strategic use of code-switching serves the needs of both learners and teachers working within a bi/multilingual educational environment.