Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Anisotropic Diffusion in Vector Field Visualization on Euclidean Domains and Surfaces

Vector field visualization is an important topic in scientific visualization. Its aim is to graphically represent field data on two and three-dimensional domains and on surfaces in an intuitively understandable way. Here, a new approach based on anisotropic nonlinear diffusion is introduced. It enables an easy perception of vector field data and serves as an appropriate scale space method for the visualization of complicated flow pattern. The approach is closely related to nonlinear diffusion methods in image analysis where images are smoothed while still retaining and enhancing edges. Here, an initial noisy image intensity is smoothed along integral lines, whereas the image is sharpened in the orthogonal direction. The method is based on a continuous model and requires the solution of a parabolic PDE problem. It is discretized only in the final implementational step. Therefore, many important qualitative aspects can already be discussed on a continuous level. Applications are shown for flow fields in 2D and 3D, as well as for principal directions of curvature on general triangulated surfaces. Furthermore, the provisions for flow segmentation are outlined.
Bifurcations in one-dimensional piecewise smooth maps-theory and applications in switching circuits

Recent investigations on the bifurcation behavior of power electronic DC-DC converters have revealed that most of the observed bifurcations do not belong to generic classes such as saddle-node, period doubling, or Hopf bifurcations. Since these systems yield piecewise smooth maps under stroboscopic sampling, a new class of bifurcations occur in such systems when a fixed point crosses the border between the smooth regions in the state space. In this paper we present a systematic analysis of such bifurcations through a normal form: the piecewise linear approximation in the neighborhood of the border. We show that there can be many qualitatively different types of border collision bifurcations, depending on the parameters of the normal form. We present a partitioning of the parameter space of the normal form showing the regions where different types of bifurcations occur. We then use this theoretical framework to explain the bifurcation behavior of the current programmed boost converter.
Binding in vitro of multiple cellular proteins to immunoglobulin heavy-chain enhancer DNA

Seven protein-binding sites on the immunoglobulin heavy-chain (IgH) enhancer element have been identified by exonuclease III protection and gel retardation assays. It appears that the seven sites bind a minimum of four separate proteins. Three of these proteins also bind to other enhancers or promoters, but one protein seems to recognize exclusively IgH enhancer sequences. A complex of four binding sites, recognized by different proteins, is located within one 80-base-pair region of IgH enhancer DNA. Close juxtaposition of enhancer proteins may allow protein-protein interactions or be part of a mechanism for modulating enhancer protein activity. All IgH enhancer-binding proteins identified in this study were found in extracts from nonlymphoid as well as lymphoid cells. These data provide the first direct evidence that multiple proteins bind to enhancer elements and that while some of these proteins recognize common elements of many enhancers, others have more limited specificities.
Risk as feelings or risk and feelings? A cross‐lagged panel analysis

This article focuses on affective and cognitive processes underlying the perception of risk. A limitation with most process models of affect/cognition is that they include only concurrent emotions. By following a group (n = 129) of military sailors prospectively during an international operation, we explored longitudinal relations between perceived risk and related feelings. The risk‐relevant variables were embedded in a larger questionnaire aimed at studying mental readiness during international military operations at sea. Longitudinal cross‐lagged path models were estimated to explore the relationships between perceived risk, worry, and emotional distress. Results gave support to earlier studies by showing that cross‐sectional measures of risk and worry were weakly related. Across time, worry and emotional distress were reciprocally related. Perceived risk had impact on worry but not on emotional distress. Neither worry nor emotional distress influenced perceived risk. The risk‐as‐feelings hypothesis postulates a direct effect of feelings onto behavioural choice, and a reciprocal relation between cognitive evaluations and feelings. Our findings do not support a reciprocal relation between judgements of risk and feelings, but an impact from risk on to worry. Between various measures of feelings reciprocity seems to exist. Further replications, including also behavioural measures, are needed.
EAST-WEST DIFFERENCES IN ATTITUDES ABOUT EMPLOYMENT AND FAMILY IN GERMANY

This article examines East-West differences in attitudes toward the traditional gender division of labor among German women and men, using data from the 1991 German Social Survey (ALLBUS). We test hypotheses about the effects of region and gender, and the interaction of both, in shaping gender-role attitudes. The results indicate that the combination of region and gender produces (1) a similar gender gap in attitudes in both regions, with women in East and West voicing stronger opposition to traditional gender roles than their male counterparts and (2) regional differences in attitudes, with East Germans more likely than West Germans to oppose a gender-based division of labor. Thus, this study shows that although state socialism was successful in fostering more progressive attitudes among East Germans, especially women, it did not eliminate the gender gap in attitudes about gender, work, and family. The recent unification of Germany provides an excellent setting for observing the extent to which the socialist and capitalist economies may shape attitudes about gender roles. One political and cultural unit before World War II, Germany was later significantly modified by a free-market economy in the capitalist West and a planned socialist economy in the East. Although the sexes have been officially declared equal by the constitutions of the German Democratic Republic (GDR) and the Federal Republic of Germany (FRG) since 1949, the development of two radically different political economies has fostered regional variations in attitudes and policies about women's work and family roles. West German policies have generally justified traditional attitudes by emphasizing women's family work, while East German policies have encouraged more progressive attitudes that accept the integration of women's productive and reproductive labor. Thus, reunified Germany, characterized by its recent history of dual political economies yet having a similar cultural base, provides an opportunity to assess regional differences in women's and men's attitudes toward a gender-based
Simultaneous Facial Landmark Detection, Pose and Deformation Estimation Under Facial Occlusion

Facial landmark detection, head pose estimation, and facial deformation analysis are typical facial behavior analysis tasks in computer vision. The existing methods usually perform each task independently and sequentially, ignoring their interactions. To tackle this problem, we propose a unified framework for simultaneous facial landmark detection, head pose estimation, and facial deformation analysis, and the proposed model is robust to facial occlusion. Following a cascade procedure augmented with model-based head pose estimation, we iteratively update the facial landmark locations, facial occlusion, head pose and facial deformation until convergence. The experimental results on benchmark databases demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed method for simultaneous facial landmark detection, head pose and facial deformation estimation, even if the images are under facial occlusion.
Target Markets for Grain and Cotton Marketing Consultants and Market Information Systems

This paper examines the use of market consultants and market information systems by grain and cotton producers. A model of producer demand for marketing information and consultants is proposed that decomposes price received into exogenous and endogenous components. The analysis is based on a survey of over 1,600 producers. The results suggest that expenditures on market information systems and market consultants are not independent and, more specifically, expenditures on marketing consultants substitute for expenditures on market information systems.
'Partying hard', 'partying sometimes' or 'shopping': Young workers' socializing patterns and sexual, alcohol and illicit drug risk taking

This paper explores a neglected aspect of the context of illicit drug, alcohol and sexual risk taking practices in young workers' social lives. While personality-based theories for the links between risk practices have been developed, more sociological explanations, such as socializing patterns, have been neglected. Surveys were completed by 393 young people (aged 15-25) who are in the non-professional workforce in Melbourne, Australia. Three socializing patterns were identified using cluster analysis. The 'party hards' often socialized at a range of venues, the 'party sometimes' socialized less often at fewer venues and the 'shoppers' socialised mainly at shopping centres and cafés. These socializing patterns were significantly correlated with alcohol and illicit drug consumption and sexual health practices. The party hards engaged in risky practices at higher levels than their counterparts in the party sometimes and shoppers groups. The paper argues that socializing patterns are useful for understanding young people's health risks and for identifying new locations for health promotion.
Consumers’ Intent: In the Organic Food Market

ABSTRACT This paper examines the determinants that influence consumers' intention to purchase organic products. Ajzen's theory of planned behaviour (TPB) provides the conceptual framework of the research and the appropriateness of the theory is tested. A survey of 144 consumers was used to determine the beliefs which determine consumers’ intent to purchase organic food. Furthermore, attitudes, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control were examined to determine whether they affect consumers’ intention to make organic products purchases. The findings offer considerable support for the robustness of the TPB in explaining intention in the sample. In addition, empirical evidence suggest that price, availability of organic products, product information and the subjective opinions of others are important determinants of consumers intent to buy organic products. The results are consistent with previous research.
Delaying defibrillation to give basic cardiopulmonary resuscitation to patients with out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation: a randomized trial.

CONTEXT Defibrillation as soon as possible is standard treatment for patients with ventricular fibrillation. A nonrandomized study indicates that after a few minutes of ventricular fibrillation, delaying defibrillation to give cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) first might improve the outcome. OBJECTIVE To determine the effects of CPR before defibrillation on outcome in patients with ventricular fibrillation and with response times either up to or longer than 5 minutes. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS Randomized trial of 200 patients with out-of-hospital ventricular fibrillation in Oslo, Norway, between June 1998 and May 2001. Patients received either standard care with immediate defibrillation (n = 96) or CPR first with 3 minutes of basic CPR by ambulance personnel prior to defibrillation (n = 104). If initial defibrillation was unsuccessful, the standard group received 1 minute of CPR before additional defibrillation attempts compared with 3 minutes in the CPR first group. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Primary end point was survival to hospital discharge. Secondary end points were hospital admission with return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC), 1-year survival, and neurological outcome. A prespecified analysis examined subgroups with response times either up to or longer than 5 minutes. RESULTS In the standard group, 14 (15%) of 96 patients survived to hospital discharge vs 23 (22%) of 104 in the CPR first group (P =.17). There were no differences in ROSC rates between the standard group (56% [58/104]) and the CPR first group (46% [44/96]; P =.16); or in 1-year survival (20% [21/104] and 15% [14/96], respectively; P =.30). In subgroup analysis for patients with ambulance response times of either up to 5 minutes or shorter, there were no differences in any outcome variables between the CPR first group (n = 40) and the standard group (n = 41). For patients with response intervals of longer than 5 minutes, more patients achieved ROSC in the CPR first group (58% [37/64]) compared with the standard group (38% [21/55]; odds ratio [OR], 2.22; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.06-4.63; P =.04); survival to hospital discharge (22% [14/64] vs 4% [2/55]; OR, 7.42; 95% CI, 1.61-34.3; P =.006); and 1-year survival (20% [13/64] vs 4% [2/55]; OR, 6.76; 95% CI, 1.42-31.4; P =.01). Thirty-three (89%) of 37 patients who survived to hospital discharge had no or minor reductions in neurological status with no difference between the groups. CONCLUSIONS Compared with standard care for ventricular fibrillation, CPR first prior to defibrillation offered no advantage in improving outcomes for this entire study population or for patients with ambulance response times shorter than 5 minutes. However, the patients with ventricular fibrillation and ambulance response intervals longer than 5 minutes had better outcomes with CPR first before defibrillation was attempted. These results require confirmation in additional randomized trials.
When birth comes early: Effects on nephrogenesis

Preterm birth (birth prior to 37 completed weeks of gestation) may occur at a time when the infant kidney is very immature and nephrogenesis is often ongoing. In autopsied preterm human kidneys and in a baboon model of preterm birth it has been shown that nephrogenesis continues after preterm birth, with a significant increase in the number of glomerular generations and number of nephrons formed within the kidney after birth. Of concern, however, morphologically abnormal glomeruli (with a cystic Bowman's space) are often observed; the abnormal glomeruli are only located in the outer renal cortex, suggesting that it is the recently formed glomeruli (perhaps those formed in the extra‐uterine environment) that are affected. The proportion of abnormal glomeruli within the renal cortex differs between infants with some kidneys appearing normal whereas others are severely affected. This suggests that it may be haemodynamic factors and/or factors in the neonatal care of the infant that lead to the glomerular abnormalities. Indeed, the haemodynamic transition at birth where there is a marked increase in systemic blood pressure and renal blood flow are likely to lead to injury of glomerular capillaries, although further studies are required to elucidate this. In order to optimize renal health at the beginning of life in the preterm infant, it is imperative in future studies to gain an understanding of the causes of the glomerular abnormalities in the preterm neonate.
A Systematic Review Investigating the Presence of Inflammatory Synovitis in Hip and Knee Joint Replacement Surgery

Synovial tissue can display an inflammatory response in the presence of OA. There is increasing interest to better understand the role of inflammation in OA, particularly with regard to those who require joint replacement. A systematic review of inflammatory synovitis in OA of literature databases was undertaken from their inception until October 14, 2014. Independent critical appraisal of each study was undertaken using the CASP appraisal tool. From a total of sixty-six identified citations, twenty-three studies were deemed eligible for review. The studies presented moderate to strong methodological quality. Strong correlation was identified between histological and imaging synovitis severity. Correlation was weaker between clinical symptoms and imaging and/or histological synovitis severity. There was little consensus, with regard to expressed cytokines and chemokines at the different stages of OA disease progression. Few studies investigated the influence of inflammatory synovitis on the outcome of major joint replacement. Research into inflammatory synovitis in OA is an emerging field. Longitudinal studies applying proven imaging modalities, histological analysis, and longer follow-up are required in order to further define our understanding of the role of synovitis in the pathogenesis of OA and its effects on outcomes following major joint replacement.
Devising Simulink Optical Encoder Pulse Manipulation and its Evaluation

Incremental optical encoder is a versatile digital transducer, employed for angular displacement and velocity estimation. It has been observed that both frequency and period counting methods employed for angular velocity estimation, from incremental optical encoder pulses are prone to quantization error. A modified Simulink based period counting method is proposed, to reduce the quantization error inherent in the ordinary one. This was accomplished by time period multiplication of encoder pulses. The algorithm was tested and evaluated using a Simulink model of the physical optical encoder. Percentage error for different ranges of angular velocity is studied, for both normal and period counting method.
EFL Learners' Self-regulation, Critical Thinking and Language Achievement

The study reflected in the present paper investigated the relationship between Iranian EFL learners' self-regulation, critical thinking ability and their language achievement. The researchers of the present study set out to investigate this association based on theoretical contention in the literature postulating a dynamic interplay between self-regulatory skills and critical thinking ability as well as empirical studies demonstrating the association of each of these constructs with academic achievement. To the researchers' best knowledge, there is hardly any documented study exploring the relationship between these constructs among EFL learners. To attain the purpose of the study, 82 EFL university learners were selected according to a convenience sampling from different universities in Mashhad, a city in the north-east of Iran. They were requested to complete the "Watson-Glaser's Critical Thinking Appraisal" and the "Self-Regulation Trait Questionnaire". They were also asked to indicate the grade point average of their previous term. The data supported the theoretical expectation of a linkage between self-regulation and critical thinking. Subsequent data analyses indicated that among the components of self-regulation, self-monitoring and self-efficacy have the highest correlations and are the positive predictors of critical thinking. In addition, the results demonstrated that EFL learners' self-regulation can predict about 53 % of their language achievement while their critical thinking ability tends to predict about 28% of achievement. The conclusions and recommendations derived from the present study should encourage educators to take advantage of these relationships by developing effective paths for developing EFL university students' self-regulation and critical thinking.
Early‐Stage Capital Cost Estimation of Biorefinery Processes: A Comparative Study of Heuristic Techniques

Abstract Biorefineries offer a promising alternative to fossil‐based processing industries and have undergone rapid development in recent years. Limited financial resources and stringent company budgets necessitate quick capital estimation of pioneering biorefinery projects at the early stages of their conception to screen process alternatives, decide on project viability, and allocate resources to the most promising cases. Biorefineries are capital‐intensive projects that involve state‐of‐the‐art technologies for which there is no prior experience or sufficient historical data. This work reviews existing rapid cost estimation practices, which can be used by researchers with no previous cost estimating experience. It also comprises a comparative study of six cost methods on three well‐documented biorefinery processes to evaluate their accuracy and precision. The results illustrate discrepancies among the methods because their extrapolation on biorefinery data often violates inherent assumptions. This study recommends the most appropriate rapid cost methods and urges the development of an improved early‐stage capital cost estimation tool suitable for biorefinery processes.
Predictors of candidaemia caused by non-albicans Candida species: results of a population-based surveillance in Barcelona, Spain.

Although Candida albicans (CA) is the most common cause of Candida bloodstream infections (BSIs), recent studies have observed an increasing percentage of candidaemias caused by non-albicans Candida species (NAC). In the present study, we attempted to identify the predictors of candidaemia due to NAC compared to CA. We analyzed data from an active population-based surveillance in Barcelona (Spain) from January 2002 to December 2003. Factors associated with NAC fungaemia were determined by multivariate analysis. A total of 339 episodes of Candida BSI, in 336 patients (median age 63 years, interquartile range: 41-72 years), were included. CA was the most commonly isolated (52%), followed by Candida parapsilosis (23%), Candida tropicalis (10%), Candida glabrata (8.6%), Candida krusei (3.4%) and other NAC spp. (3%). Overall, 48% of cases were due to NAC spp. Multivariate logistic regression analysis identified factors associated with a risk of BSI due to NAC spp. : having received a haematologic transplant (OR 10.8; 95% CI 1.31-90.01; p 0.027), previous fluconazole exposure (OR 4.47; 95% CI 2.12-9.43; p <0.001) and neonatal age (OR 4.42; 95% CI 1.63-12.04; p 0.004). Conversely, previous CA colonization (OR 0.33; 95% CI 0.19-0.57; p 0.001) and previous antibiotic use (OR 0.42; 95% CI 0.21-0.85; p 0.017) were associated with CA fungaemia compared to NAC. In conclusion, NAC candidaemia comprised 48% of cases in our series. Predictors of NAC include having received a haematologic transplant, neonatal age and previous fluconazole use.