Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Characteristics of a Positive Experience for Women Who Have Unmedicated Childbirth

This qualitative descriptive study determined characteristics that women deem positive in their unmedicated childbirth experience. Seventeen women were interviewed and themes were identified. All of the women reported satisfying births, adding accompanying feelings of empowerment and well-being. An overriding theme in each woman’s birth story that made the birth experience positive was the ability to control her body during labor and the ability to influence the environment in which she labored and gave birth. Being able to move and change positions freely were both key factors in determining a positive birth experience. Additionally, the women expressed comfort from the presence of a spouse or trusted individual. They found the help of an experienced woman or doula important. Many were willing to change care providers to gain support for their desire for an unmedicated birth.
Slope-based fault-proneness thresholds for software engineering measures

Background. Practical use of a measure X for an internal attribute (e.g., size, structural complexity, cohesion, coupling) of a software module often requires setting a threshold on X, to make decisions as to which software modules may be estimated to be potentially faulty. To keep quality under control, practitioners may want to set a threshold on X to identify "early symptoms" of possible faultiness of a module, which should be closely monitored and possibly modified. Objective. We propose and evaluate an approach to setting a threshold on X to identify "early symptoms" of possible faultiness of software modules. Method. Our proposal is based on the existence of a statistically significant model that relates X to fault-proneness, defined as the probability that a module contains at least one fault. The curve representing a fault-proneness model is usually fairly "flat" for relatively small values of X and becomes steeper and steeper for larger values of X. We define two ways in which values of X can be used as "early symptoms" of possible faultiness. First, we use the value of X where the fault-proneness model curve changes direction the most, i.e., has maximum convexity. Second, we use the value in which the slope of the curve reaches a proportion (e.g., one half) of the maximum slope that is relevant for the developers. Results. First, we provide the theoretical underpinnings for our approach. Second, we show the empirical results obtained by applying our approach to data from the PROMISE repository by using fault-proneness models built via Binary Logistic and Probit regressions. Our results show that the proposed thresholds are actually effective in showing "early symptoms" of possible faultiness of a module, while achieving a level of accuracy in classifying faulty modules that is fairly close to other typical fault-proneness thresholds. Conclusions. Our method can be practically used for setting "early symptom" thresholds based on evidence captured by statistically significant models. In particular, the threshold based on the maximum convexity depends on characteristics of the models alone, so software project managers do not need to devise the thresholds themselves. If they choose to use the other kind of slope-based threshold, software project managers can choose a different proportion based on the level of risk-aversion they need when recognizing early symptoms of faultiness.
Nonlinear Equations with a Retarded Argument in Discrete-Continuous Systems

The paper deals with dynamic problems of discrete-continuous systems with local nonlinearities, the analysis of which is reduced to solving nonlinear differential equations with a retarded argument. This concerns the discrete-continuous systems subject to torsional, longitudinal, or shear deformations, where the equations of motion for elastic elements are classical wave equations. It is assumed that the characteristics of local nonlinearities are of a soft-type and in the paper they are described by four nonlinear functions. After a short general description of the approach used, the detailed considerations and numerical results are presented for a multimass discrete-continuous system with a local nonlinearity having the characteristics of a soft-type subject to shear deformations.
Influencing factors of residual drifts of precast segmental bridge columns with energy dissipation bars

The energy dissipation bar has been proven to be an effective way to improve the lateral strength and the seismic capacity of the precast segmental bridge column. To date, however, investigations on how the main design parameters affect the residual drift of such bridge columns are quite limited. Focusing on this research gap, a novel numerical simulation method was proposed in this article to investigate the influencing factors of residual drift of precast segmental bridge columns with energy dissipation bars. First, the refined fiber element model was developed based on the OpenSees software package, considering the bond slip phenomenon at the column end and the boundary condition at the interface between the two adjacent segments. Then, the proposed numerical model was validated by comparing the simulated hysteretic behavior of the precast segmental bridge columns with available experimental data. After that, cyclic analyses were performed on 288 precast segmental bridge column models with different design parameters. Four important influencing factors were investigated, including the post-tensioning force, gravity load, energy dissipation bar ratio, and shear span ratio. According to the analysis results, some suggestions were provided for the practical design procedure of the energy dissipation bar reinforced precast segmental bridge columns.
Chemical composition of expeller-extracted and cold-pressed rapeseed cake

Chemical composition of locally produced expeller extracted and cold-pressed rapeseed cake was evaluated. Cold-pressed rapeseed cake was produced at 60 °C and the temperature during processing of expeller extracted cake varied between 98–112 °C. It was concluded that cold-pressed rapeseed cake contained less crude protein (30.6 vs. 36.1%), N-free extractives (28.2 and 30.7%, resp.) and crude fibre (11.2 and 12.4%, resp.) but more crude fat (17.8 and 11.6%, resp.) and had higher metabolizable energy content (14.5 and 14.2 MJ/kg). Higher energy content in coldpressed cake is directly related to its high oil content. There were no big differences in crude ash, calcium and phosphorus content in different cake types. Chemical composition of rapeseed cake is influenced by pressing technology and conditions that are used in particular oil plant. Pressing conditions influence the effectiveness of oil removal and thereby also the nutrient content and nutritional value of produced rapeseed cake.
Dirac operator on the standard Podles quantum sphere

Using principles of quantum symmetries we derive the algebraic part of the real spectral triple data for the standard Podleś quantum sphere: equivariant representation, chiral grading γ, reality structure J and the Dirac operator D, which has bounded commutators with the elements of the algebra and satisfies the first order condition. Mathematics Subject Classification: Primary 58B34; Secondary 17B37.
Mechanisms of elongation in embryogenesis

Here, I discuss selected examples of elongation in embryogenesis to identify common and unique mechanisms, useful questions for further work, and new systems that offer opportunities for answering these questions. Fiber-wound, hydraulic mechanisms of elongation highlight the importance of biomechanical linkages of otherwise unrelated cellular behaviors during elongation. Little-studied examples of elongation by cell intercalation offer opportunities to study new aspects of this mode of elongation. Elongation by oriented cell division highlights the problem of mitotic spindle orientation and the maintenance of cell-packing patterns in anisotropic force environments. The balance of internal cell-adhesion and external traction forces emerges as a key issue in the formation of elongate structures from compact ones by directed migration.
Finished herbal product as an alternative treatment for menopausal symptoms in climacteric women.

BACKGROUND There is a paucity of scientific evidence supporting the efficacy of herbal medicines in treating menopausal symptoms. OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to evaluate safety and efficacy of the finished herbal product TMN-1 in the treatment of menopausal symptoms in climacteric women. DESIGN AND SETTING A multicenter, prospective, observational follow-up study was conducted from July 2003 to December 2004 in four hospitals in Taiwan. PARTICIPANTS Initially, 126 women were included who were between 45 and 55 years of age, were experiencing hot flashes, and were without hormone replacement therapy. Women were excluded if they had any signs of active cancer. Of the participants, 82% completed the study. The reasons for withdrawal included adverse effects (n = 7), failed to return (n = 7), lack of efficacy (n = 6), and from protocol deviation (n = 3). INTERVENTION Every participant received TMN-1 treatment 4 g, 3 times per day, for 12 weeks. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURE Primary measures were change in frequency of hot flashes and severity of menopausal symptoms measured by Kupperman Index (KI). Secondary outcomes included changes in quality of life and adverse events. RESULTS Significant improvement in scores of hot flashes and KI were found at weeks 4 and 12 in the 50 peri- and 53 postmenopausal women who completed this study (p < 0.001). Logistic regression analyses showed that perimenopausal women with hot flashes had sevenfold (95% confidence interval [CI], 1.8-28.0) odds of improvement in favor of treatment, whereas that of the postmenopausal group was 1.5 (95% CI, 0.5 to 4.2). Further analyses showed that TMN-1 produced superior benefit in women with moderate and severe menopausal symptoms (KI > or = 21), compared to those with mild symptoms. It also improved symptoms of insomnia, nervousness, melancholia, and palpitation in perimenopausal women. Five (5) adverse drug reactions were detected: three single events of nausea, abdominal pain, and abdominal fullness; and two events of diarrhea. CONCLUSIONS This study provides evidence that 12 weeks of TMN-1 therapy is a viable alternative treatment to consider in perimenopausal women with hot flashes, particularly in those with palpitations, emotional disturbance, and insomnia.
Breeding for abiotic stresses for sustainable agriculture

Using cereal crops as examples, we review the breeding for tolerance to the abiotic stresses of low nitrogen, drought, salinity and aluminium toxicity. All are already important abiotic stress factors that cause large and widespread yield reductions. Drought will increase in importance with climate change, the area of irrigated land that is salinized continues to increase, and the cost of inorganic N is set to rise. There is good potential for directly breeding for adaptation to low N while retaining an ability to respond to high N conditions. Breeding for drought and salinity tolerance have proven to be difficult, and the complex mechanisms of tolerance are reviewed. Marker-assisted selection for component traits of drought in rice and pearl millet and salinity tolerance in wheat has produced some positive results and the pyramiding of stable quantitative trait locuses controlling component traits may provide a solution. New genomic technologies promise to make progress for breeding tolerance to these two stresses through a more fundamental understanding of underlying processes and identification of the genes responsible. In wheat, there is a great potential of breeding genetic resistance for salinity and aluminium tolerance through the contributions of wild relatives.
Trade-off between Automation and Accuracy in Mobile Photo Recognition Food Logging

Food logging can help users understand their food choices and encourage healthier eating habits. However, current apps still pose many usability challenges, including tedious manual text entry of food names. Recently, advances in computer vision and deep learning are enabling automatic food recognition for instant and convenient logging. However, as a nascent technology, this suffers from inaccuracy, which may lead to poor adoption or misuse. We investigated the trade-off between accuracy and convenience of automatic photo recognition in comparison to manual search logging. Specifically, we have developed a mobile app prototype that integrates both photo recognition and search logging capabilities, and conducted formative investigations on the usability and usage of automatic photo recognition in food logging in a series of studies: online requirements survey, usability lab study, and 1-week field trial in an Asian country. Participants were interested in convenient, automatic photo logging, but dominantly used manual search logging due to a lack of data coverage and accuracy. We identified reasons for poor accuracy and highlight complications in using inaccurate automatic photo logging. We further discuss opportunities for design and technology to address these challenges.
Innate immune recognition of double-stranded RNA triggers increased expression of NKG2D ligands after virus infection

Self/non-self-discrimination by the innate immune system relies on germline-encoded, non-rearranging receptors expressed by innate immune cells recognizing conserved pathogen-associated molecular patterns. The natural killer group 2D (NKG2D) receptor is a potent immune-activating receptor that binds human genome-encoded ligands, whose expression is negligible in normal tissues, but increased in stress and disease conditions for reasons that are incompletely understood. Here it is not clear how the immune system reconciles receptor binding of self-proteins with self/non-self-discrimination to avoid autoreactivity. We now report that increased expression of NKG2D ligands after virus infection depends on interferon response factors activated by the detection of viral double-stranded RNA by pattern-recognition receptors (RIG-I/MDA-5) and that NKG2D ligand up-regulation can be blocked by the expression of viral dsRNA-binding proteins. Thus, innate immunity-mediated recognition of viral nucleic acids triggers the infected cell to release interferon for NK cell recruitment and to express NKG2D ligands to become more visible to the immune system. Finally, the observation that NKG2D-ligand induction is a consequence of signaling by pattern-recognition receptors that have been selected over evolutionary time to be highly pathogen-specific explains how the risks of autoreactivity in this system are minimized.
Bayesian inference in the space of topological maps

While probabilistic techniques have previously been investigated extensively for performing inference over the space of metric maps, no corresponding general-purpose methods exist for topological maps. We present the concept of probabilistic topological maps (PTMs), a sample-based representation that approximates the posterior distribution over topologies, given available sensor measurements. We show that the space of topologies is equivalent to the intractably large space of set partitions on the set of available measurements. The combinatorial nature of the problem is overcome by computing an approximate, sample-based representation of the posterior. The PTM is obtained by performing Bayesian inference over the space of all possible topologies, and provides a systematic solution to the problem of perceptual aliasing in the domain of topological mapping. In this paper, we describe a general framework for modeling measurements, and the use of a Markov-chain Monte Carlo algorithm that uses specific instances of these models for odometry and appearance measurements to estimate the posterior distribution. We present experimental results that validate our technique and generate good maps when using odometry and appearance, derived from panoramic images, as sensor measurements.
Lewy Body Pathology in Normal Elderly Subjects

Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites are the hallmark neuropathologic findings in Parkinson disease, Parkinson disease with dementia, dementia with Lewy bodies, and other &agr;-synucleinopathies. They have also been described in the brains of normal older individuals and referred to as incidental Lewy body disease. The purpose of this study was to determine the prevalence of Lewy bodies and Lewy neurites (Lewy body pathology [LBP]) in 139 autopsies from our normal volunteer control group of the University of Kentucky Alzheimer's Disease Center. All subjects were followed longitudinally and were cognitively normal and without any type of movement disorder, neuropsychiatric features, or other CNS findings. The brains of 33 of 139 normal subjects contained LBP in various regions. The most common regions involved were the medulla (26%), amygdala (24%), pons (20%), and midbrain (20%). No mean statistical differences were found between those with and without LBP on any demographic or cognitive variable, Braak stage, or neurofibrillary tangle and neuritic plaque quantitation. An explanation for the high prevalence of LBP in our elderly, well-educated study group is not clear, although it does not seem to be related to aging or the presence of Alzheimer disease pathology. Overall, our findings support the concept that incidental Lewy body disease most likely represents preclinical or presymptomatic Parkinson disease, Parkinson disease with dementia, or dementia with Lewy bodies.
Early Problem Behavior Among Children From Low-Income, Mother-Headed Families: A Multiple Risk Perspective

Examined proximal and contextual factors most strongly related to externalizing behavior among young children growing up in low-income, mother-headed families. Participants were 50 low-income single mothers and their preschool-age children who were visited twice in the home setting. Measures of proximal (low levels of supportive parenting, high levels of punitive disciplinary practices, low levels of maternal emotional well-being) and contextual (low maternal support, high levels of family stress) risk were assessed in relation to maternal reports of child externalizing behavior and an index of negative child behavior during a clean-up task. Child defiance during the clean-up task was highly associated with punitive maternal control in the same situation but had no other direct correlates. However, multiple risk factors representing both proximal and contextual variables were associated with variations in children's behavior problem scores. Mothers of children with high behavior problem scores reported lower feelings of self-efficacy in handling child care and emotional stressors, more frequent use of punitive child disciplinary practices, and lower feelings of satisfaction with the quality of their supportive resources than others. Maternal self-evaluations of coping efficacy mediated the relation between perceived support and child behavior problems, suggesting that constructs of personal control are important to represent in future studies of highly stressed parents.
Ultrasonic Presence Sensors with Wide Range and High Local Resolution

Ultrasonic presence sensors based on the impulse-echo method are being used in industrial automation for detecting the pres- ence of objects (e.g., workpieces) and for monitoring their position. By defining time windows, i.e., time intervals with respect to the instant of emission of the ultrasound, one or more distance intervals can be pre- set as selected detection ranges, within which the sensor responds. The logical combination of different time windows can be used for improv- ing the significance of the sensor output, for distinguishing between objects of different size, for monitoring the direction of their motion, etc. A selected detection range is laterally confined by the high direc- tivity of the ultrasonic transducers used. These are planar piezocer- amic devices of special design with a rugged quarter-wave matching layer. They are made for different frequencies in the range of 26-400 kHz and have low insertion losses (36 dB) and a small radiation ange of 5", formed by an aperture of 12-15 wavelengths. With a 200-kHz transducer of our "RU"-series, a presence sensor for the range of 0.2- 1 m, divided into eight detection ranges, has been developed and suc- cessfully applied in industrial automation. Recent developments com- prise a modular system of presence sensors with different operating frequencies, achieving different ranges: 80 kHz for 0.8-6 m, 200 kHz for 0.2-1 m and 400 kHz for 6-30 cm. Time windows with variable width can also monitor the actual distance to an object. The adjustable sensing bead, which can also be mounted separately, provides addi- tional flexibility.
Microsatellite instability is a favorable prognostic indicator in patients with colorectal cancer receiving chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND & AIMS Adjuvant 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)-based chemotherapy is standard treatment for stage C colorectal cancer (CRC). Approximately 12% of CRCs are characterized by microsatellite instability (MSI), a hallmark of a DNA mismatch repair defect. We investigated the safety of adjuvant 5-FU-based chemotherapy for MSI(+) CRC and compared the prognosis of MSI(+) and MSI(-) CRC patients receiving adjuvant therapy. METHODS Previously, a prospective series consisting of 1044 consecutive CRCs has been collected and the MSI status of each sample determined. Patients with stage C cancer who had received adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 95) were followed up for 7-63 months (median, 31 months) after surgery. RESULTS No unexpected or serious adverse effects were observed when 5-FU-based chemotherapy was used as adjuvant treatment for MSI(+) CRC. Three- year recurrence-free survival was 90% and 43% in the MSI(+) (n = 11) and MSI(-) (n = 84) groups, respectively (P = 0.020). CONCLUSIONS Adjuvant 5-FU-based chemotherapy is feasible for both MSI(+) and MSI(-) CRCs, and patients with MSI(+) CRC who receive adjuvant therapy have an excellent prognosis.
Successful software project and products: An empirical investigation

The circumstances surrounding the success and failure of software projects have been a topic of discussion among both practitioners and researchers for many years. A classical definition of project success is one that is within budget and on time. Some of the most common factors identified in the literature as leading to software project success are user involvement, management support and realistic requirements. Studies have indicated that managers have different perceptions from software practitioners when it comes to defining a successful software project. The observation of this difference of opinions has led us to the question: Could there be different perceptions about what effect various factors have on software project success among different industries? This paper presents an empirical study. Firstly, it begins with a detailed investigation of software product and project success factors. Secondly, it examines success factors for software projects and products across a selection of different industries, based on data collected from companies in Sweden and Australia. Thirdly, it studies how practitioners in industry define success factors for software projects and products.