Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Design for safety in construction in sub-Saharan Africa: a study of architects in Ghana

Abstract Design for safety (DfS) is an important mechanism for addressing accidents in construction. In the main, DfS studies have largely focussed on various regions of the world other than sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). Through a questionnaire survey, this study investigated the DfS awareness and practice among architects in the Ghanaian construction sector. Data analysis revealed that there is a low engagement in DfS practice despite a high level of awareness of DfS among architects. There is a high interest in DfS training juxtaposed against a low engagement in DfS training. DfS practice is not associated with: awareness of the concept of DfS; engagement in DfS professional development training; receipt of DfS education; membership of professional body; years of experience in role and the company size. Concerted efforts by industry stakeholders, including clients, educational institutions and design professional bodies would be required to encourage the application of DfS among architects and other design professionals within the Ghanaian construction environment. Furthermore, more studies on DfS within the SSA context are required in order to profile DfS awareness and practice among design practitioners and other industry stakeholders within the region.
The diagnostic validity of the criteria for binge eating disorder.

OBJECTIVE This paper considers whether the criteria currently used to classify the diagnosis of binge eating disorder (BED) are valid and appropriate. METHOD We review evidence that reflects on the validity of the current criteria for binge eating episodes and BED, using literature retrieved through major psychology and psychiatry search engines (e.g., PsycInfo, PubMed). RESULTS Evidence from experimental research points to the relative importance of episode frequency, the amount of food consumed at episodes, the subjective sense of loss of control over eating, and several additional criteria associated with binge episodes in BED. Evidence on the differences in psychopathology between BED and bulimia nervosa and between BED and obesity without binge eating, as related to diagnostic criteria, is reviewed. CONCLUSION Although evidence concerning the diagnostic criteria of BED is mixed, broadening certain diagnostic criteria for binge eating episodes and BED might more accurately reflect the research literature and increase the number of individuals eligible for inclusion in treatment programs.
The effectiveness of therapies for dual language children with developmental language disorder: a systematic review of interventional studies

ABSTRACT Purpose: This study aims to understand the effect of therapies on dual language children with developmental language disorder (DLD) on a range of bilingual language outcomes, compare with second-language-only therapy and determine whether there is any cross-linguistic transfer. Methods: A systematic review of English articles in 10 electronic databases was conducted. Screening, reviewing and appraising were performed independently by two reviewers. Quality was appraised and findings synthesised in accordance with the research questions. Results: Nine reports were identified. Five studies were found to be low in bias and therefore high in quality. Two were medium bias and two were high. Key findings were that instruction in the first language is required to support its continued acquisition and that bilingual instruction does not limit second-language growth. Conclusions: There is no identified evidence to suggest that second-language-only is better than bilingual therapy for dual language children with DLD for the development of the second language. There is evidence to suggest that bilingual therapy is equally effective for second-language development, and also supports development of the first language. Further work is required to understand the efficacious doses of both languages in order to develop cost effective therapies and achieve optimal outcomes.
Fall-Behind Parents? The Influential Factors on Digital Parenting Self-Efficacy in Disadvantaged Communities

As the Internet penetration in the United States increases, many digital divide researchers have delved into the parent–child dynamics regarding family digital access and use. However, little attention has been paid to digital parenting in terms of monitoring, guiding, and regulating children’s digital lives, especially in the context of disadvantaged communities. As an initial step to fill the critical gaps in related literature, this study casts light on factors that affect the self-efficacy of digital parenting in disadvantaged urban communities. Using a census survey of public housing households in one of the largest public housing authorities in the United States, we found that single motherhood and home Internet access significantly accounted for low–socioeconomic status parents’ digital parenting self-efficacy. We also found that parental engagement in children’s school activities strongly affected their digital parenting self-efficacy. By contrast, we found that other sociodemographic and socioeconomic factors (i.e., gender, education, race/ethnicity), mobile Internet access, parents’ homework help, and educational expectation fail to be contributing factors.
User adoption of wisdom of crowd: usage and performance of prediction market system

Prediction markets have been adopted to forecast events (trends) and manage risks related to the events in different projects. This paper scrutinises the first prediction market system (PMS) established in Taiwan, which shows favourable accuracy of the PMS in predicting infectious diseases comparing with expected value of historical data for the same period. It further analyses the incentive structure as well as system quality of PMS to attract initial as well as continuous participation. The paper concludes that public welfare and hedonic motivations are the most significant factors driving members' initial participation in the PMS. And prize motivation influenced the trading performance in this prediction system. Finally, based upon theory of planned behaviour (TPB), this paper finds that satisfaction and perceived behaviour control of participants in the PMS have positive influences on continuance intention and actual participation, while peer influence has little positive impact.
Blind marginalized particle filtering detector for the systems with IQ imbalance and carrier frequency offset

Recently, marginalized particle filter (MPF) has been applied to blind symbol detection problems over selective fading channels. By marginalizing out the state appearing linearity and Gaussianity in the dynamics, the MPF can reduce the computational complexity, which is one of the main drawbacks of the standard particle filters. In this paper, we consider application of the MPF to the problem of blind detection in the presence of the In-phase/Quadrature-phase (IQ) imbalance and carrier frequency offset (CFO) which are inevitable performance degradation factors caused by the imperfection of analog front-end in wireless transceivers. Due to the existence of such impairments, the resulting state-space model of the problem is non-linear and non-Gaussian and the computationally efficient MPF is not applicable. To cope with this, we employ the auxiliary variable resampling technique to estimate IQ imbalance and CFO parameters. Simulations are provided that demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed MPF detector.
New-onset left bundle branch block after transcatheter aortic valve replacement is associated with adverse long-term clinical outcomes in intermediate-risk patients: an analysis from the PARTNER II trial.

AIMS Transcatheter aortic valve replacement (TAVR) is now an established therapy for intermediate-risk surgical candidates with symptomatic, severe aortic stenosis. The clinical impact of new-onset left bundle branch block (LBBB) after TAVR remains controversial and has not been studied in intermediate-risk patients. We therefore sought to analyse outcomes associated with new LBBB in a large cohort of intermediate-risk patients treated with TAVR. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 2043 patients underwent TAVR in the PARTNER II trial and S3 intermediate-risk registry and survived to hospital discharge. Patients were excluded from the current analysis due to baseline conduction disturbances, pre-existing permanent pacemaker (PPM), and new PPM during the index hospitalization. Clinical outcomes at 2 years were compared between patients with and without persistent, new-onset LBBB at hospital discharge, and multivariable analysis was performed to identify predictors of mortality. Among 1179 intermediate-risk patients, new-onset LBBB at discharge occurred in 179 patients (15.2%). Patients with new LBBB were similar to those without except for more frequent diabetes and more frequent treatment with SAPIEN 3 vs. SAPIEN XT. At 2 years, new LBBB was associated with increased rates of all-cause mortality (19.3% vs. 10.8%, P = 0.002), cardiovascular mortality (16.2% vs. 6.5%, P < 0.001), rehospitalization, and new PPM implantation. By multivariable analysis, new LBBB remained an independent predictor of 2-year all-cause [hazard ratio (HR) 1.98, 95% confidence interval (95% CI) 1.33, 2.96; P < 0.001] and cardiovascular (HR 2.66 95% CI 1.67, 4.24; P < 0.001) mortality. New LBBB was also associated with worse left ventricular systolic function at 1 and 2-year follow-up. CONCLUSIONS In a large cohort of intermediate-risk patients from the PARTNER II trial and registry, persistent, new-onset LBBB occurred in 15.2% of patients without baseline conduction disturbances or pacemaker. New LBBB was associated with adverse clinical outcomes at 2 years, including all-cause and cardiovascular mortality, rehospitalization, new pacemaker implantation, and worsened left ventricular systolic function. CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION ClinicalTrials.gov #NCT01314313 and NCT03222128.
Expression of E-cadherin and uPA and their association with the prognosis of pancreatic cancer.

OBJECTIVE E-cadherin (ECD) and urokinase plasminogen activator (uPA) have been noted as markers for tumor metastasis and prognosis in several tumors. We thus investigated the relationship between the expression of ECD and uPA and the clinicopathological characteristics in pancreatic cancer. METHODS The expression of ECD and uPA was evaluated in pancreatic cancer tissues from 53 patients. RESULTS Among 53 tumor tissues, those from 29 (54.7%) patients showed positive ECD expression and those from 22 (41.5%) patients showed positive expression of uPA. There were four subgroups of ECD/uPA expression: ECD-positive/uPA-negative, ECD-negative/uPA-negative, ECD-positive/uPA-positive and ECD-negative/uPA-positive. These patterns were found in 14 (26.4%), 11 (20.8%), nine (17%) and 19 (35.8%) patients, respectively. The tumor tissues with ECD-negative and uPA-positive expression were associated with larger tumor, distant metastasis and an increased clinical stage. There was a difference in the median survival time between the patients with ECD-positive/uPA-negative pancreatic tissues (median: 18.7 months) and the patients with ECD-negative/uPA-positive pancreatic tissues (median: 7.5 months, P < 0.05), and there was a statistically significant difference in survival curves between these two groups. CONCLUSION The combined analysis concerning uPA and E-cadherin expression may be a useful predictor of metastasis in pancreatic cancer.
Rectified Linear Units Improve Restricted Boltzmann Machines

Restricted Boltzmann machines were developed using binary stochastic hidden units. These can be generalized by replacing each binary unit by an infinite number of copies that all have the same weights but have progressively more negative biases. The learning and inference rules for these "Stepped Sigmoid Units" are unchanged. They can be approximated efficiently by noisy, rectified linear units. Compared with binary units, these units learn features that are better for object recognition on the NORB dataset and face verification on the Labeled Faces in the Wild dataset. Unlike binary units, rectified linear units preserve information about relative intensities as information travels through multiple layers of feature detectors.
Sphingosine-1-Phosphate Reduces CD4+ T-Cell Activation in Type 1 Diabetes Through Regulation of Hypoxia-Inducible Factor Short Isoform I.1 and CD69

OBJECTIVES—Non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice develop spontaneous type 1 diabetes. We have shown that sphingosine-1-phosphate (S1P) reduces activation of NOD diabetic endothelium via the S1P1 receptor. In the current study, we tested the hypothesis that S1P could inhibit CD4+ T-cell activation, further reducing inflammatory events associated with diabetes. RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS—CD4+ T-cells were isolated from diabetic and nondiabetic NOD mouse splenocytes and treated in the absence or presence of S1P or the S1P1 receptor-specific agonist, SEW2871. Lymphocyte activation was examined using flow cytometry, cytokine bead assays, and a lymphocyte:endothelial adhesion assay. RESULTS—Diabetic T-cells secreted twofold more γ-interferon (IFN-γ) and interleukin-17 than nondiabetic lymphocytes. Pretreatment with either S1P or SEW2871 significantly reduced cytokine secretion by ∼50%. Flow cytometry analysis showed increased expression of CD69, a marker of lymphocyte activation, on diabetic T-cells. Both S1P and SEW2871 prevented upregulation of CD69 on CD4+ cells. Quantitative RT-PCR showed that lymphocytes from diabetic NOD mice had 2.5-fold lower hypoxia-inducible factor (HIF)-1α short isoform I.1 (HIF1αI.1) mRNA levels than control. HIF1αI.1 is a negative regulator of lymphocyte activation. S1P significantly increased HIF1α I.1 mRNA levels in both control and diabetic groups. IFN-γ production and surface CD69 expression was significantly increased in lymphocytes of HIF1αI.1-deficient mice. S1P did not reduce either CD69 or IFN-γ expression in lymphocytes from HIF1αI.1-deficient mice. CONCLUSIONS—S1P acts through the S1P1 receptor and HIF1α I.1 to negatively regulate T-cell activation, providing a potential therapeutic target for prevention of diabetes and its vascular complications.
Insulin-Like Growth Factor Receptor I (IGF-IR) and Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor Receptor 2 (VEGFR-2) Are Expressed on the Circulating Epithelial Tumor Cells of Breast Cancer Patients

Background Circulating epithelial tumor cell (CETC) analysis is a promising diagnostic field for estimating the risk for metastatic relapse and progression in patients with malignant disease. CETCs characterization can be used as a liquid biopsy for prognostic and predictive purposes in breast and other cancers. IGF-IR and VEGFR-2 play an important role in tumor growth and the progression of cancer disease. The purpose of the current study was therefore to investigate their expression on CETCs. Methods CETCs were determined from the blood of 50 patients suffering from breast cancer. The number of vital CETCs and the expression of IGF-IR and VEGFR-2 were investigated using the maintrac® method. Results IGF-IR and VEGFR-2 expression on the surface of CETCs were detected in 84% of patients. A statistically high correlation was found between IGF-IR and VEGFR-2 (r = 0.745 and p<0.001) on the CETCs. The co-expression of both receptors was confirmed in some experiments and ranged between 70% and 100%. Statistically significant correlations were observed between the number of CETCs and IGF-IR (r = 0.315 and p<0.05) and VEGFR-2 (r = 0.310 and p<0.05) expression. The presence of CETCs and the level of IGF-IR and VEGFR-2 expression were not associated with tumor stage, hormone receptor status or nodal/distant metastasis. Summary In this study, a parallel and co-expression of IGF-IR and VEGFR-2 was examined on the surface of CETCs in breast cancer patients for the first time. Characterization of CETCs may be a promising approach for the rational design of targeted anticancer therapies.
Improving Evaluation of Document-level Machine Translation Quality Estimation

Meaningful conclusions about the relative performance of NLP systems are only possible if the gold standard employed in a given evaluation is both valid and reliable. In this paper, we explore the validity of human annotations currently employed in the evaluation of document-level quality estimation for machine translation (MT). We demonstrate the degree to which MT system rankings are dependent on weights employed in the construction of the gold standard, before proposing direct human assessment as a valid alternative. Experiments show direct assessment (DA) scores for documents to be highly reliable, achieving a correlation of above 0.9 in a self-replication experiment, in addition to a substantial estimated cost reduction through quality controlled crowd-sourcing. The original gold standard based on post-edits incurs a 10–20 times greater cost than DA.
Direct measurements of kinesin torsional properties reveal flexible domains and occasional stalk reversals during stepping

Kinesin is a homodimeric motor with two catalytic heads joined to a stalk via short neck linkers (NLs). We measured the torsional properties of single recombinant molecules by tracking the thermal angular motions of fluorescently labeled beads bound to the C terminus of the stalk. When kinesin heads were immobilized on microtubules (MTs) under varied nucleotide conditions, we observed bounded or unbounded angular diffusion, depending on whether one or both heads were attached to the MT. Free rotation implies that NLs act as swivels. From data on constrained diffusion, we conclude that the coiled-coil stalk domains are ≈30-fold stiffer than its flexible “hinge” regions. Surprisingly, while tracking processive kinesin motion at low ATP concentrations, we observed occasional abrupt reversals in the directional orientations of the stalk. Our results impose constraints on kinesin walking models and suggest a role for rotational freedom in cargo transport.
Armed, but too dangerous? Factors associated with citizen support for the militarization of the police

Abstract Images of police officers riding in armored vehicles and carrying military-grade weapons have become part of the public consciousness following the events in Ferguson, Missouri and several other high-profile police–citizen encounters. Although a great deal of research has investigated how and why US citizens perceive the police in various ways, almost no empirical work has asked how citizens perceive the militarization of the police. The current study analyzes data from a survey of 1005 US citizens to identify characteristics that are related to support for the use of military weapons and vehicles by local police departments. The results indicate that several demographic factors and perceptions of crime and the police are significantly related with citizen support for the militarization of the police. The implications of this research are discussed.
Investigation of the effectiveness of common representational formats in online learner-paced software training materials

ABSTRACT The popularity of online learning has made web-based software training materials the primary learning resources adopted by computer users. Thus, this study aimed to investigate the effectiveness of various common representational formats of web-based instructions. The formats included static (textual manual with screenshots) and dynamic (animated demonstration, AD) instructions. The findings suggested that in learner-paced learning with sufficient learning time (a) both narrated and captioned AD formats tended to increase transfer performance; (b) the segmenting principle likely became less important for the static format; and (c) the modality principle likely became less important for the AD format. Implications for determining optimal AD segment length for student engagement and suggestions for possible factors to be included in future research are offered accordingly.
A Fast T&H Overcurrent Detector for a Spinning Hall Current Sensor With Ping-Pong and Chopping Techniques

This paper presents a fast spinning-current Hall sensor with 568 ns overall delay for sub-microsecond overcurrent detection (OCD) in a magnetic current sensor. By combining the continuous-time chopping techniques and discrete-time dynamic offset cancellation techniques, the spinning frequency of 250 kHz does not limit the sensor speed. The proposed track-and-hold (T&H) ping-pong comparators extend the usage of auto-zeroing techniques for sensor interface applications. The design achieves a magnetic residual offset of <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$85~\mu \text{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (mean) and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$79~\mu \text{T}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\sigma$ </tex-math></inline-formula>), while the offset drifts only <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.68~\mu \text{T}/^{\circ }\text{C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (mean) and <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$0.27~\mu \text{T}/^{\circ }\text{C}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> (<inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$1\sigma$ </tex-math></inline-formula>) from −40 °C to 150 °C. In addition, a background switched-capacitor filter breaks the limitation of high-frequency errors on conventional correlated double sampling techniques. The design thus reduces the input-referred noise to <inline-formula> <tex-math notation="LaTeX">$136~\mu \text{T}_{\mathrm {rms}}$ </tex-math></inline-formula> with a bandwidth of 1.7 MHz, while consuming at least 30% less power than the other state-of-the-art designs. Moreover, the analog stress compensation with temperature coefficient (TC) correction guarantees an overall threshold error within ±4% over package stress and temperature.
ADVANCES IN MICRO SCALE MODELING OF FAILURE MECHANISMS IN CERAMICS AND FIBER COMPOSITES

The present work is concerned with recent developments in computational modeling of advanced materials, such as ceramic materials and fiber reinforced composites. Numerical techniques of augmented finite element methods are provided for the analysis of dynamic behavior of materials subjected to wave propagation. Models that describe various mechanisms of dynamic failures at microscales are presented in some detail. Cohesive micro models for capturing dynamic fragmentation of ceramic microstructures and crack propagations in fiber composites materials are also presented. The cohesive laws are incorporated in interfaces and grain boundaries to capture crack nucleation, propagation, coalescence, interaction, and branching. Grain level micromechanical models are investigated while considering stochasticity of microstructures and sliding friction between bodies. Also discussed are numerical analyses utilizing the proposed models. Simulation results are contrasted with experimental observations.
Fabrication of Polypyrrole/Graphene Oxide Composite Nanosheets and Their Applications for Cr(VI) Removal in Aqueous Solution

In this paper, we report on the simple, reliable synthesis of polypyrrole (PPy)/graphene oxide (GO) composite nanosheets by using sacrificial-template polymerization method. Herein, MnO2 nanoslices were chosen as a sacrificial-template to deposit PPy, which served as the oxidant as well. During the polymerization of pyrrole on surface of GO nanosheets, MnO2 component was consumed incessantly. As a result, the PPy growing on the surface of GO nanosheets has the morphology just like the MnO2 nanoslices. This method can provide the fabrication of PPy nanostructures more easily than conventional route due to its independence of removing template, which usually is a complex and tedious experimental process. The as-prepared PPy/GO composite nanosheets exhibited an enhanced properties for Cr(VI) ions removal in aqueous solution based on the synergy effect. The adsorption capacity of the PPy/GO composite nanosheets is about two times as large as that of conventional PPy nanoparticles. We believe that our findings can open a new and effective avenue to improve the adsorption performance in removing heavy metal ions from waste water.