Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prosecutors’ perceptions of how to improve the quality of evidence in domestic violence cases

Limited evidence in domestic violence prosecutions is a persistent problem. Focus groups with 13 prosecutors from across Australia and New Zealand were used to explore how to improve the quality of evidence collected and presented in these cases. A thematic analysis identified three main strategies: improving the quality of investigations by initial police responders, supporting the complainant and tailoring the trial process to the domestic violence context. The most discussed strategy within these categories has previously received little attention– police video recording the complainant's initial account and using that video as the basis for the complainant's courtroom testimony.
Posture and Activity Recognition and Energy Expenditure Estimation in a Wearable Platform

The use of wearable sensors coupled with the processing power of mobile phones may be an attractive way to provide real-time feedback about physical activity and energy expenditure (EE). Here, we describe the use of a shoe-based wearable sensor system (SmartShoe) with a mobile phone for real-time recognition of various postures/physical activities and the resulting EE. To deal with processing power and memory limitations of the phone, we compare the use of support vector machines (SVM), multinomial logistic discrimination (MLD), and multilayer perceptrons (MLP) for posture and activity classification followed by activity-branched EE estimation. The algorithms were validated using data from 15 subjects who performed up to 15 different activities of daily living during a 4-h stay in a room calorimeter. MLD and MLP demonstrated activity classification accuracy virtually identical to SVM (~ 95%) while reducing the running time and the memory requirements by a factor of >103. Comparison of per-minute EE estimation using activity-branched models resulted in accurate EE prediction (RMSE = 0.78 kcal/min for SVM and MLD activity classification, 0.77 kcal/min for MLP versus RMSE of 0.75 kcal/min for manual annotation). These results suggest that low-power computational algorithms can be successfully used for real-time physical activity monitoring and EE estimation on a wearable platform.
Household Need for Liquidity and the Credit Card Debt Puzzle

In the 2001 U.S. Survey of Consumer Finances (SCF), 27% of households report simultaneously revolving significant credit card debt and holding sizeable amounts of liquid assets. These consumers report paying, on average, a 14% interest rate on their debt, while earning only 1 or 2% on their liquid deposit accounts. This phenomenon is known in the literature as the “credit card debt puzzle. ” In this paper, I pose and quantitatively evaluate the following explanation for this puzzle: households that accumulate credit card debt may not pay it off using their money in the bank, because they expect to use that money for goods for which credit cards cannot be used. Using both aggregate and survey data (SCF and CEX), I document that liquid assets are a substantial part of households’ portfolios and that consumption in goods requiring liquid payments may have a sizeable unpredictable component. This would warrant holding precautionary balances in liquid accounts. I develop a dynamic heterogeneous-agent model of household portfolio choice, where households are subject to uninsurable income and preference uncertainty, and consumer credit and liquidity coexist as means of consumption and saving/borrowing. The calibration of the model parameters is based on the simulated method of moments. The calibrated model accounts for 73% of the households in the data who hold consumer debt and liquidity simultaneously, and for at least 55 cents of every dollar held by a median household in the puzzle group. I argue that these results are a lower bound, and that the liquidity-need hypothesis is thus successful in rendering most of the puzzle a rational phenomenon.
The Cyclic AMP Receptor Protein Is Dependent on GcvA for Regulation of the gcv Operon

ABSTRACT The Escherichia coli gcv operon is transcriptionally regulated by the GcvA, GcvR, Lrp, and PurR proteins. In this study, the cyclic AMP (cAMP) receptor protein (CRP) is shown to be involved in positive regulation of the gcv operon. A crpdeletion reduced expression of a gcvT-lacZ fusion almost fourfold in glucose minimal (GM) medium. The phenotype was complemented by both the wild-type crp gene and four crpalleles that encode proteins with amino acid substitutions in known activating regions of CRP. A cyaA deletion also resulted in a fourfold decrease in gcvT-lacZ expression, and wild-type expression was restored by the addition of cAMP to the growth medium. AcyaA crp double deletion resulted in levels ofgcvT-lacZ expression identical to those observed with either single mutation, showing that CRP and cAMP regulate through the same mechanism. Growth in GM medium plus cAMP or glycerol minimal medium did not result in a significant increase ingcvT-lacZ expression. Thus, the level of cAMP present in GM medium appears to be sufficient for regulation by CRP. DNase I footprint analysis showed that CRP binds and protects two sites centered at bp −313 (site 1) and bp −140 (site 2) relative to the transcription initiation site, but a mutational analysis demonstrated that only site 1 is required for CRP-mediated regulation ofgcvT-lacZ expression. Expression of thegcvT-lacZ fusion in a crp gcvA double mutant suggested that CRP’s role is dependent on the GcvA protein.
Magnetic Resonance Imaging as a Predictor of Submucous Cleft Palate Severity and Guide for Surgical Intervention

BackgroundDiagnosis of submucous cleft palate (SMCP) is frequently delayed, adversely affecting speech outcomes. Previous studies show that MRI reliably identifies structural abnormalities in velopharyngeal musculature. This information has potential to assist with diagnosis and treatment decisions. AimsThe objectives of this study were to (1) develop a clinician-friendly MRI grading scale of SMCP anatomy, (2) identify correlations between radiographic cleft severity and clinical severity using Pittsburgh Weighted Speech Scores (PWSS), and (3) determine if MRI is a predictor of surgical efficacy in improving PWSS. DesignThirty patients presenting to our Cleft Palate-Craniofacial Clinic for evaluation of velopharyngeal insufficiency (VPI) and suspected SMCP were reviewed. VPI severity was clinically graded using PWSS. All patients underwent MRI to grade palatal abnormalities, using a novel MRI grading scale. PWSS and cleft severity on MRI were compared. A subgroup of patients (n = 19) underwent palatoplasty. Preoperative and postoperative PWSS were compared. Degree of PWSS improvement was then correlated with the preoperative MRI grade. ResultsTwenty-nine out of 30 MRIs demonstrated abnormal palate anatomy. Of the 30 patients evaluated, 5 clinically improved with speech therapy alone. In this subgroup, MRI severity did not correlate with PWSS (P = 0.06–0.6). Nineteen patients underwent palatoplasty. Of these, 14 demonstrated improved postoperative PWSS. There were no significant correlations between severity of cleft on imaging and preoperative PWSS or score improvement (P = 0.056–0.65). ConclusionWhile MRI accurately identifies structural abnormalities of the soft palate, these abnormalities do not reliably correspond to clinical severity. Clinical examination including speech scores and dynamic speech testing, rather than static MRI, should guide treatment decisions and surgical indications.
Body fat distribution, in particular visceral fat, is associated with cardiometabolic risk factors in obese women

Background Body fat distribution is, next to overall obesity, an important risk factor for cardiometabolic outcomes in the general population. In particular, visceral adipose tissue (VAT) is strongly associated with cardiometabolic risk factors. Since it is unclear whether body fat distribution is also important in men and women with obesity we investigated the associations between measures of body fat distribution and cardiometabolic risk factors in men and women with obesity. Methods In this cross-sectional analysis of obese men and women (BMI≥30 kg/m2) included in the Netherlands Epidemiology of Obesity Study, waist:hip ratio(WHR), waist circumference, and MRI-based abdominal subcutaneous adipose tissue (aSAT) and VAT were determined. Associations between measures of body fat distribution and presence of ≥1 risk factor, such as hypertension or hypertriglyceridemia, were examined using logistic regression analyses; stratified by sex and adjusted for age, ethnicity, education, tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, physical activity and depending on the association additionally for total body fat or VAT. Results We included 2,983 obese individuals (57% women) with a mean age of 56 and standard deviation (SD) of 6 and mean BMI of 34.0 kg/m2 (4.0), after exclusion of individuals with missing values of cardiometabolic risk factors (n = 33). 241 individuals were obese without other cardiometabolic risk factors. In obese women, all measures of body fat distribution except aSAT (OR per SD:0.76, 95%CI: 0.53, 1.10) were associated with having ≥1 cardiometabolic risk factor, of which VAT most strongly associated (5.77; 3.02, 11.01). In obese men, associations of body fat distribution and the presence of cardiometabolic risk factors were attenuated. (e.g. VAT:1.42; 0.84, 2.41). Conclusions In obese women, but less so in men, measures of body fat distribution, of which VAT most strongly, are associated with cardiometabolic risk factors.
College Student Persistence to Degree: The Burden of Debt

Data collected from two major universities (one in the Midwest and one in the Southeast) in the United States were used to analyze student persistence behavior and perceptions of debt. Results from four separate logistic regression analyses suggested that financial factors play a significant role in student persistence behavior as well as in student perceptions of debt. Controlling for demographic characteristics, as well as a number of key student factors, student loan debt, credit card use behavior, and the presence of other debts, had a significant impact on whether students reported ever reducing credit hours for financial reasons, whether students ever dropped out for financial reasons, and the extent to which students reported difficulty persisting due to the psychological burden of student loan debt and consumer debt. Findings suggest that some persistence issues may be alleviated through targeted education programs.
Clinical Safety and Anticoagulation Efficacy of Low-Molecular-Weight Heparins in Chronic Hemodialysis Patients: A Single Medical Center Experience

Background: In many countries low-molecular-weight heparins (LMWHs) are increasingly used for hemodialysis (HD). Low-range activated clotting time (ACT-LR) values and anti-Xa activity had been used to monitor the degree of anticoagulation caused by LMWH. However, the facilities are not easily available at most hospitals. Such data are limited in Taiwan. Methods: A total of 76 patients receiving maintenance HD were prospectively enrolled. The HD patients were randomized to receive either nadroparin or enoxaparin and checked the ACT-LR values and anti-Xa activity. We aimed to analyze ACT-LR values and anti-Xa activity along with the clotting of the dialyzer or bleeding events associated with two LMWHs after they were administered. We also aimed to determine the dose necessary to reach maximum safety and efficacy. Results: We found no significant differences in LMWH dosage, ACT-LR values, and anti-Xa activity between the two groups. There were no significant differences in bleeding/adverse events and extracorporeal circuit thrombosis between the two groups. Most of the bleeding and adverse events were subcutaneous minor bleeding. No major bleeding or mortality was found. We found significant differences in mean dosage, cost, bleeding/adverse effect, and extracorporeal circuit thrombosis between excessive and reduced nadroparin dosage groups. Conclusion: LMWH is not still routinely used due to its high cost in Taiwan. In our clinical experience, nadroparin and enoxaparin exhibited high levels of safety and efficacy in chronic HD patients. Reduced LMWHs dosage could promote patient’s safety and decreased HD cost in HD patients with excessive dosage of LMWHs. Feng-Rong Chuang and Te-Chuan Chen contributed equally to the article.
Object-Based Inhibition of Return: Evidence from Overlapping Objects

Inhibition of return (IOR) refers to the delayed response to a location or an object that has recently been cued. Previous studies showing object-based IOR in either dynamic or static displays have used spatially separate stimuli that unavoidably involved spatial representation. It thus remains unclear whether the object-based IOR is a special case limited to the condition in which objects are separated in a 2-dimensional space. To rule out confounding with location-based IOR, we used two overlapping triangles constituting a ”Star of David” in this study to examine whether and under what conditions object-based IOR can be observed. An object cuing paradigm was used in which one of the two triangles was brightened as the cued object. The target was a luminance change in one of the three disks connected to the vertexes of the cued or the uncued triangle. The participants judged whether the target brightened or dimmed. Results show that object-based IOR can occur for spatially overlapping object under two necessary conditions: A long enough cue-to-target SOA and the existence of an attractor that is presented after the cue and before the target.
Jurnal Teknologi Constructing an Adoption Model for e-Government Services

The frequent use of e-Government services and the ability of the government to successfully implement eGovernment to match the needs of the citizens remain to be understood. The purpose of this study is to construct an adoption model for the e-Government services by considering renowned technology adoption models. This model considered trustworthiness in shaping the adoption model. To test the model, questionnaire was designed, adapted from previous studies which were distributed to employees of public organizations in Esfahan, Iran. The proposed model was thoroughly analyzed using Structured Equation Modeling (SEM). The new adoption model modified and the final model consist of ten constructs including intention to use, trustworthiness, perceived usefulness, perceived ease of use, compatibility, social influence, job relevant, output quality, and image. The results affirmed that relationships between the model variables suggested good model fit. The fitted model of this study may be applied to other e-Government services of other countries.
Helping College Students Cope: Identifying Predictors of Active Coping in Different Stressful Situations

College students may encounter stressful situations related to relationships, work, and academia. The tendency to actively cope (active coping) plays a significant role in the process of adapting to stressful situations. This study explored predictors of active coping in three situations. Participants were 219 Taiwanese college students (192 females and 27 males). The most effective predictor of active coping in relationship-related situations and work-related situations were resilience ( = .38) and secure attachment ( β β = .50), respectively. No effective predictor of active coping was identified in the academic-related stressful situations. The article ends by offering implications of this study’s findings.
An Empirical Study of Bugs in Machine Learning Systems

Many machine learning systems that include various data mining, information retrieval, and natural language processing code and libraries are used in real world applications. Search engines, internet advertising systems, product recommendation systems are sample users of these algorithm-intensive code and libraries. Machine learning code and toolkits have also been used in many recent studies on software mining and analytics that aim to automate various software engineering tasks. With the increasing number of important applications of machine learning systems, the reliability of such systems is also becoming increasingly important. A necessary step for ensuring reliability of such systems is to understand the features and characteristics of bugs occurred in the systems. A number of studies have investigated bugs and fixes in various software systems, but none focuses on machine learning systems. Machine learning systems are unique due to their algorithm-intensive nature and applications to potentially large-scale data, and thus deserve a special consideration. In this study, we fill the research gap by performing an empirical study on the bugs in machine learning systems. We analyze three systems, Apache Mahout, Lucene, and OpenNLP, which are data mining, information retrieval, and natural language processing tools respectively. We look into their bug databases and code repositories, analyze a sample set of bugs and corresponding fixes, and label the bugs into various categories. Our study finds that 22.6% of the bugs belong to the algorithm/method category, 15.6% of the bugs belong to the non-functional category, and 13% of the bugs belong to the assignment/initialization category. We also report the relationship between bug categories and bug severities, the time and effort needed to fix the bugs, and bug impacts. We highlight several bug categories that deserve attention in future research.
Significance of non‐lymphoid (‘accessory’) cells in malignant lymphomas and pseudolymphomas of the skin

We investigated the co‐distribution of lymphocyte subpopulations and non‐lymphoid ‘accessory’ cells in 35 cases of cutaneous lymphoproliferative diseases (T‐cell lymphoma, 10 cases; B‐cell lymphoma, 17 cases; pseudolymphoma, 8 cases) using immunohistochemical methods. T‐zone histiocytes and particularly Langerhans cells were abundant in all cutaneous T‐cell lymphomas, but were also found in B‐cell lymphomas. T‐zone histiocytes were associated with T‐lymphocytes, especially T‐helper cells, but not with T‐suppressor cells. Dendritic reticulum cells were essentially confined to well differentiated germinal centres. Macrophages occurred in both lymphomas and pseudolymphomas without definite relationship with either B‐ or T ‐cells. In malignant lymphomas of high grade malignancy, macrophages represented the only non‐lymphoid cell type.
Mixing Qualitative and Quantitative Methods: Triangulation in Action.

December 1979, volume 24 There is a distinct tradition in the literature on social science research methods that advocates the use of multiple methods. This form of research strategy is usually described as one of convergent methodology, multimethod/multitrait (Campbell and Fiske, 1959), convergent validation or, what has been called "triangulation" (Webb et al., 1 966). These various notions share the conception that qualitative and quantitative methods should be viewed as complementary rather than as rival camps. In fact, most textbooks underscore the desirability of mixing methods given the strengths and weaknesses found in single method designs.
MOTIVATIONAL TRAITS AND WORK MOTIVATION: MEDIATING ROLE OF SELF-EFFICACY

The relations between approach and avoidance motivational traits and work motivation, with considering the mediating role of self-efficacy, were investigated. Approach motivation was divided into 2 traits: personal mastery (i.e., desire to achieve) and competitive excellence (i.e., desire to perform better than others). Avoidance motivation, which reflects one's sensitivity to negative stimuli and the desire to escape such stimuli, was conceptualized as motivation anxiety. Data were collected from 562 employees in an industrial company in Ahvaz, Iran. The Structural Equation Modeling (SEM) through AMOS-16 and SPSS-16 software packages was used for data analysis. The results showed that personal mastery and competitive excellence have positive and indirect effects (through self-efficacy) on work motivation. The mediating effect of self-efficacy in motivation anxiety-work motivation relation was not supported. Discussion and implications of the results are presented in the study.
Assessment of the Power Balance at a Copper Cathode Submitted to an Electric Arc by Surface Temperature Measurements and Numerical Modelling

The aim of this work is to improve the understanding of the heating of copper cathodes under the action of a nonstationary electric arc in air. An experimental method is proposed for the measurement of the surface temperature distribution just after a very fast arc-controlled arc extinction. The arc current intensity is about 60-70 A, and the arc duration is in the range of 2.5-5 ms. Different kinds of surface temperature distributions have been observed depending on the arc root behavior. The measurement of the temperature decrease after the arc extinction was used to estimate the cathode surface temperature just at the moment of arc extinction. Two-dimensional thermal modeling taking into account phase changes is used to estimate the power balance at the cathode surface and to propose a second estimation of the surface temperature at the point of arc extinction. The comparisons between experimental results and thermal modeling lead in the present experimental conditions to a volt equivalent at the cathode in the range 6.7-10.7 V, to a surface power density in the range0.6 × 109 - 2.5 × 109 W/m2 and to a maximum surface temperature in the range 850°C-1300 °C .
Phosphorus Availability Alters the Effects of Silver Nanoparticles on Periphyton Growth and Stoichiometry

Exposure to silver nanoparticles (AgNPs) may alter the structure and function of freshwater ecosystems. However, there remains a paucity of studies investigating the effects of AgNP exposure on freshwater communities in the natural environment where interactions with the ambient environment may modify AgNP toxicity. We used nutrient diffusing substrates to determine the interactive effects of AgNP exposure and phosphorus (P) enrichment on natural assemblages of periphyton in three Canadian Shield lakes. The lakes were all phosphorus poor and spanned a gradient of dissolved organic carbon availability. Ag slowly accumulated in the exposed periphyton, which decreased periphyton carbon and chlorophyll a content and increased periphyton C:P and N:P in the carbon rich lakes. We found significant interactions between AgNP and P treatments on periphyton carbon, autotroph standing crop and periphyton stoichiometry in the carbon poor lake such that P enhanced the negative effects of AgNPs on chlorophyll a and lessened the impact of AgNP exposure on periphyton stoichiometry. Our results contrast with those of other studies demonstrating that P addition decreases metal toxicity for phytoplankton, suggesting that benthic and pelagic primary producers may react differently to AgNP exposure and highlighting the importance of in situ assays when assessing potential effects of AgNPs in fresh waters.