Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Food insecurity and depressive symptoms of older adults living alone in South Korea

ABSTRACT In South Korea, the number of older adults living alone is rapidly increasing with the growth of the ageing population. Although there is some evidence of a link between financial strain and depression in this population, there is limited empirical evidence on the relationship between food insecurity and depression in older adults living alone despite the fact that they have a high prevalence of food insecurity and tend to seek food assistance. This study aims to investigate whether food insecurity explains depressive symptoms in Korean older adults living alone. We employed data from the Korea Welfare Panel Study collected from a large-scale national sample in South Korea. Our sample consisted of 815 older adults aged 65 or older who lived alone. Conducting ordinary least square regression analyses, we tested the main effect of food insecurity on depression and the interaction effect of food insecurity and low income. We found that the relationship between food insecurity and depressive symptoms differed by low-income status (b = 6.27, p = 0.047). The association was significant only in the low-income group (b = 1.37, p = 0.04). These findings suggest that protecting access to food may be a promising strategy to lessen depressive symptoms associated with financial strain among older adults living alone.
Performance Analysis of High Efficiency Video Coding ( HEVC ) Relative to H . 264 AVC

According to recent forecast, mobile video will generate over 69 percent of global mobile data traffic by 2018. Due to this the liability on video service providers to match the video quality expectations of the end user has increased. The goal of video coding is to ensure good video quality within the provision of transmission and storage. Bit rates, distortion and complexity are factors that reflect success of a video coding scheme. These factors are usually measured by bits per pixel, Peak Signal-to-Noise Ratio (PSNR) and computational time respectively. With the ever increasing demand for high efficiency video, several different video coding standards have been developed. H.264/MPEG-4 part 10 AVC is the most widely used video coding standard for streaming videos, mobile/handheld applications, HDTV broadcasting etc. High Efficiency Video Coding (HEVC) is the newest video coding standard. It provides higher coding performance than previous state–of-the-art video coding standard H.264/AVC. This paper provides an overview of video quality measurement techniques and various video coding standards. Analysis of the HEVC has been carried out by using objective video quality metrics like PSNR, SSIM, and MS-SSIM for QCIF and CIF resolution videos. The compression performance improved in HEVC relative to existing H.264 AVC standard is around 46% in terms of bit-rate reduction for nearly equivalent objective video quality.
Symmetric Indefinite Preconditioners for Saddle Point Problems with Applications to PDE-Constrained Optimization Problems

We consider large scale sparse linear systems in saddle point form. A natural property of such indefinite 2-by-2 block systems is the positivity of the (1,1) block on the kernel of the (2,1) block. Many solution methods, however, require that the positivity of the (1,1) block is satisfied everywhere. To enforce the positivity everywhere, an augmented Lagrangian approach is usually chosen. However, the adjustment of the involved parameters is a critical issue. We will present a different approach that is not based on such an explicit augmentation technique. For the considered class of symmetric and indefinite preconditioners, assumptions are presented that lead to symmetric and positive definite problems with respect to a particular scalar product. Therefore, conjugate gradient acceleration can be used. An important class of applications are optimal control problems. It is typical for such problems that the cost functional contains an extra regularization parameter. For control problems with elliptic state equations and distributed control, a special indefinite preconditioner for the discretized problem is constructed, which leads to convergence rates of the preconditioned conjugate gradient method that are not only independent of the mesh size but also independent of the regularization parameter. Numerical experiments are presented for illustrating the theoretical results.
Two-dimensional speckle tracking of the left ventricle in patients with systemic sclerosis for an early detection of myocardial involvement.

AIMS Myocardial involvement is associated with poor prognosis in patients with systemic sclerosis (SSc). Two-dimensional speckle-tracking echocardiography (STE) is a powerful novel modality for the assessment of subclinical cardiac left ventricular (LV) dysfunction that, so far, has not been investigated in SSc patients. The aim of this study was to evaluate deformation analyses derived from STE for early detection of LV systolic dysfunction in patients with SSc having preserved left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). METHODS AND RESULTS Twenty-two patients with SSc (57.1 ± 13.3 years, LVEF 64 ± 3.1%, mean time of 5.4 ± 4.6 years from diagnosis) and 22 gender- and age-matched healthy subjects (57.4 ± 14.0 years, LVEF 65 ± 2.7%) underwent echocardiography with STE to assess global and regional LV function. The global longitudinal 2D peak systolic strain (PSS) of the left ventricle was significantly lower in the SSc group compared with controls: -19.0 ± 2.4 vs. -21.1 ± 2.5% (P = 0.008). This was mainly driven by a reduced strain in the basal segments. Strain in the medial segments and in the apex did not differ significantly. In addition, there was a significant difference between both groups regarding the global longitudinal PSS rate of the left ventricle (-1.19 ± 0.18 vs. -1.43 ± 0.26 s(-1), P = 0.001). CONCLUSION LV deformation analysis by STE is a sensitive method to detect early LV systolic impairment primarily in the basal segments in patients with SSc having preserved LVEF.
Estimation of Pine Forest Height and Underlying DEM Using Multi-Baseline P-Band PolInSAR Data

On the basis of the Gaussian vertical backscatter (GVB) model, this paper proposes a new method for extracting pine forest height and forest underlying digital elevation model (FUDEM) from multi-baseline (MB) P-band polarimetric-interferometric radar (PolInSAR) data. Considering the linear ground-to-volume relationship, the GVB is linked to the interferometric coherences of different polarizations. Subsequently, an inversion algorithm, weighted complex least squares adjustment (WCLSA), is formulated, including the mathematical model, the stochastic model and the parameter estimation method. The WCLSA method can take full advantage of the redundant observations, adjust the contributions of different observations and avoid null ground-to-volume ratio (GVR) assumption. The simulated experiment demonstrates that the WCLSA method is feasible to estimate the pure ground and volume scattering contributions. Finally, the WCLSA method is applied to E-SAR P-band data acquired over Krycklan Catchment covered with mixed pine forest. It is shown that the FUDEM highly agrees with those derived by LiDAR, with a root mean square error (RMSE) of 3.45 m, improved by 23.0% in comparison to the three-stage method. The difference between the extracted forest height and LiDAR forest height is assessed with a RMSE of 1.45 m, improved by 37.5% and 26.0%, respectively, for model and inversion aspects in comparison to three-stage inversion based on random volume over ground (RVoG) model.
Effects of Light Curing Method and Exposure Time on Mechanical Properties of Resin Based Dental Materials

Objectives The aim of this study was to investigate microhardness and compressive strength of composite resin (Tetric-Ceram, Ivoclar Vivadent), compomer (Compoglass, Ivoclar, Vivadent), and resin modified glass ionomer cement (Fuji II LC, GC Corp) polymerized using halogen light (Optilux 501, Demetron, Kerr) and LED (Bluephase C5, Ivoclar Vivadent) for different curing times. Methods Samples were placed in disc shaped plastic molds with uniform size of 5 mm diameter and 2 mm in thickness for surface microhardness test and placed in a diameter of 4 mm and a length of 2 mm teflon cylinders for compressive strength test. For each subgroup, 20 samples for microhardness (n=180) and 5 samples for compressive strength were prepared (n=45). In group 1, samples were polymerized using halogen light source for 40 seconds; in group 2 and 3 samples were polymerized using LED light source for 20 seconds and 40 seconds respectively. All data were analyzed by two way analysis of ANOVA and Tukey’s post-hoc tests. Results Same exposure time of 40 seconds with a low intensity LED was found similar or more efficient than a high intensity halogen light unit (P>.05), however application of LED for 20 seconds was found less efficient than 40 seconds curing time (P=.03). Conclusions It is important to increase the light curing time and use appropriate light curing devices to polymerize resin composite in deep cavities to maximize the hardness and compressive strength of restorative materials.
Local and Landscape Factors Determining Occurrence of Phyllostomid Bats in Tropical Secondary Forests

Neotropical forests are being increasingly replaced by a mosaic of patches of different successional stages, agricultural fields and pasture lands. Consequently, the identification of factors shaping the performance of taxa in anthropogenic landscapes is gaining importance, especially for taxa playing critical roles in ecosystem functioning. As phyllostomid bats provide important ecological services through seed dispersal, pollination and control of animal populations, in this study we assessed the relationships between phyllostomid occurrence and the variation in local and landscape level habitat attributes caused by disturbance. We mist-netted phyllostomids in 12 sites representing 4 successional stages of a tropical dry forest (initial, early, intermediate and late). We also quantitatively characterized the habitat attributes at the local (vegetation structure complexity) and the landscape level (forest cover, area and diversity of patches). Two focal scales were considered for landscape characterization: 500 and 1000 m. During 142 sampling nights, we captured 606 individuals representing 15 species and 4 broad guilds. Variation in phyllostomid assemblages, ensembles and populations was associated with variation in local and landscape habitat attributes, and this association was scale-dependent. Specifically, we found a marked guild-specific response, where the abundance of nectarivores tended to be negatively associated with the mean area of dry forest patches, while the abundance of frugivores was positively associated with the percentage of riparian forest. These results are explained by the prevalence of chiropterophilic species in the dry forest and of chiropterochorous species in the riparian forest. Our results indicate that different vegetation classes, as well as a multi-spatial scale approach must be considered for evaluating bat response to variation in landscape attributes. Moreover, for the long-term conservation of phyllostomids in anthropogenic landscapes, we must realize that the management of the habitat at the landscape level is as important as the conservation of particular forest fragments.
Examining psychological flexibility at the individual, team, and leadership levels in crisis resolution teams

Little is known about the relationship of individual factors to wellbeing in mental health staff. The systematic review conducted for this thesis found evidence of associations between individual factors and wellbeing outcomes in this population, and suggests that a mindfulness-based construct, psychological flexibility, is of particular interest. Three studies were conducted to examine psychological flexibility in staff of Crisis Resolution Teams (CRTs). Staff in 25 CRTs (n=723) completed questionnaires including measures of psychological flexibility and wellbeing at two time points 12 months apart. Service user satisfaction and service use data was collected for each team. The resulting data has been used to investigate: 1) the extent to which psychological flexibility predicts wellbeing in individual CRT staff; 2) associations between managers’ levels of psychological flexibility and staff wellbeing and psychological flexibility; and 3) associations between team-level psychological flexibility and service user satisfaction and service use. The results provide evidence that, in line with previous research in other populations, psychological flexibility predicts better wellbeing at the individual level in CRT staff (Coeff. -0.36, 95% CI -9.38 to -0.94, p<0.01). In a novel contribution to the field, manager psychological flexibility was also found to be positively associated with better staff wellbeing (Coeff. -0.31, 95% CI -0.60 to -0.03, p=0.03). An unexpected result was that average team-level psychological flexibility was associated with lower service user satisfaction (this may be due to methodological factors) (Coeff. -0.55, 95% CI -1.08 to -0.02, p=0.04), and was not associated with service use. The results contribute evidence about psychological flexibility in a group not previously studied. They demonstrate the benefits of multi-level research, and suggest further research is warranted to investigate the use of interventions to increase psychological flexibility at the individual and management levels in mental health contexts, and thus improve wellbeing in this important group of staff.
The aerosol-climate model ECHAM5-HAM

The aerosol-climate modelling system ECHAM5-HAM is introduced. It is based on a flexible microphysical approach and, as the number of externally imposed parameters is minimised, allows the application in a wide range of climate regimes. ECHAM5-HAM predicts the evolution of an ensemble of microphysically interacting internally- and externally-mixed aerosol populations as well as their size-distribution and composition. The size-distribution is represented by a superposition of log-normal modes. In the current setup, the major global aerosol compounds sulfate (SU), black carbon (BC), particulate organic matter (POM), sea salt (SS), and mineral dust (DU) are included. The simulated global annual mean aerosol burdens (lifetimes) for the year 2000 are for SO4: 0.80 Tg(S) (3.9 days), for BC: 0.11 Tg (5.4 days), for POM: 0.99 Tg (5.4 days), for SS: 10.5 Tg (0.8 days), and for DU: 8.28 Tg (4.6 days). An extensive evaluation with in-situ and remote sensing measurements underscores that the model results are generally in good agreement with observations of the global aerosol system. The simulated global annual mean aerosol optical depth (AOD) is with 0.14 in excellent agreement with an estimate derived from AERONET measurements (0.14) and a composite derived from MODIS-MISR satellite retrievals (0.16). Regionally, the deviations are not negligible. However, the main patterns of AOD attributable to anthropogenic activity are reproduced.
Delay and Energy Constrained Random Access Transport Capacity

In this paper, we consider a delay and energy constrained wireless ad hoc network with node density of λ<sub>n</sub>, where a packet should be delivered to the destination within D(λ<sub>n</sub>) seconds using at most E(λ<sub>n</sub>) energy in joules while satisfying the target outage probability. The performance metric for analyzing the network is the delay and energy constrained random access transport capacity (DE-RATC), i.e., $C<sub>ϵ</sub>(D(λ<sub>n</sub>), E(λ<sub>n</sub>), which quantifies the maximum end-to-end distance weighted rate per unit area of a delay and energy constrained network using a random access protocol. It is shown that a slotted ALOHA protocol is order-optimal under any delay and energy constraints if equipped with additional features such as power control, multi-hop control, interference control, and rate control, and the delay and energy constraints can be divided into three regions according to the relation between the physical quantities due to the constraints and those due to the node density and network size. The three regions are the non-constrained (NC) region, where the DE-RATC is given by Θ(√λ<sub>n</sub>/logλ<sub>n</sub>); the delay-constrained (DC) region, where the DE-RATC depends only on the delay constraint as Θ(D(λ<sub>n</sub>); and the non-achievable (NA) region where a packet delivery under the given constraints is impossible. Also, it is shown that an arbitrary tradeoff between the rate of each source node and the number of source nodes can be achieved while keeping the optimal capacity scaling as long as λ<sub>s</sub>=Ω√λ<sub>n</sub>/logλ<sub>n</sub>, Dλ<sub>n</sub>))).
Attachment style and perceived discrimination: Associations with depression among young lesbian, gay, and bisexual Romanian adults

Purpose: This study aims to evaluate the importance of individual determinants (gender, age), attachment style, and perceived discrimination on depression among young lesbian, gay, and bisexual (LGB) Romanians. Method: Participants comprised 374 young adults (172 men and 202 women; mean age = 25.75, SD = 7.78; 216 LGB and 158 heterosexuals). They completed the Adult Attachment Scale, the Beck Depression Inventory, and underwent a structured interview, designed to classify clinical depression, and measure the perceived discrimination in relation to their sexuality. Differences between groups were evaluated using the χ2 test (for the distribution of depressed individuals), the Mann–Whitney test (to compare the depression scores), a hierarchical linear regression analysis (to identify the predictors of depression), the F-test (to compare perceived discrimination in the LGB subgroups), and a moderation analysis (to test the interaction effects of attachment and sexual identity). Results: In the LGB group, the depression scores were higher (U = 12.99, Z = −4.14, p < .0001) and the insecure attachment was more prevalent, χ2(2) = 25.66, p < . 0001, than in heterosexuals. Perceived discrimination inside this group was skewed toward higher scores (mean = 5.68, SD = 2.58). Attachment style played the highest predictive role for depression (β = .352, p < .0001), followed by age (β = −.120, p < .012). The predictive effect of attachment on depression was not mediated by sexual orientation. Conclusion: Our study points out insecure attachment style and age as being important in the onset of depression in LGB individuals. This result can have implications for how depression is handled in these patients and the development of efficient care standards.
THE INFLUENCE OF INSPIRATIONAL MOTIVATION AND INTELLECTUAL STIMULATION ON ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT IN COMMERCIAL BANKS IN KENYA

Purpose : The purpose of this study was to establish the influence of inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation on organizational commitment in commercial banks in Kenya. Methodology : The study adopted the positivist research philosophy and descriptive correlational design. A sample of 150 was drawn from a population of 240 senior managers of the 40 commercial banks of Kenya using stratified random sampling technique. The tool used to collect data was questionnaire. Out of 150 questionnaires that were administered, 139 responses were received from the senior managers, giving a 93% response rate. Data was analyzed using inferential statistics such as Pearson correlations, Chi Square, ANOVA and multiple linear regression. Results : The multiple regression results (R2=.722, F (1,139) =34.184, p<. 05, ( β = .249, t (139) = 3.758, p < . 05) indicated that inspirational motivation significantly predicted organizational commitment. Based on the results the null hypothesis was rejected. Further, the multiple regression results (R2=.734, F (1,139) =34.184, p<. 05, ( β = .366, t (139) = 4.585, p < . 05) indicated that Intellectual Stimulation significantly predicted organizational commitment. Based on the results the null hypothesis was rejected. Organizational culture showed a significant influence on the relationship between transformational leadership and organizational commitment as showed by the coefficients ( β = .229, t = 2.211, p < .05). The moderating variable organizational culture was also strongly correlated to organizational commitment, r (138) = . 718, p < . 05. Unique contribution to theory, practice and policy: The study provides a unique contribution to the theory and practice of transformational leadership by extending its application in a new context in terms how inspirational motivation and intellectual stimulation affect organizational commitment in commercial banks in Kenya. The study also provides unique contribution in terms of recommendations for policy development initiatives aimed at improving employee commitment and performance in the banking industry in Kenya.
Prevalence of Adverse Drug Reactions in CAD STEMI Patients Treated in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit at the Public Hospital in Bandung, Indonesia

Adverse drug reactions (ADRs) are associated with morbidity, mortality, and can contribute to increased healthcare costs. This study was conducted to identify the occurence, types, and management of ADRs, as well as analyze the causal relationship, severity, and preventability of ADRs. The study was observational analysis with concurrent data collection from patients with Coronary Artery Disease-ST segment Elevation Myocardial Infarction (CAD-STEMI) treated in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit (CICU) at a hospital in Bandung Indonesia, during the period of December 2013 to March 2014. The occurence of identified ADRs was assessed using the probability scale of Naranjo, while the severity by the scale of Hartwig and their preventability was evaluated using the scale of Schumock-Thornton. 49 ADRs were identified in 29 patients. Organ systems most affected by the ADRs were the cardiovascular and body electrolyte, each accounting for 20.41%. The hematology and gastrointestinal systems each contributed 18.37% to ADR occurrences. The causal relationship was mostly classified as “probable,” accounting for 69.39%. With regard to severity, most ADRs were classified as “moderate” at level 3, contributing to 53.06% of the occurence. In terms of preventability, most of the ADRs fell into the “non-preventable” category (79.59%). The most widely applied ADRs management was administration of an antidote or other treatments (40.82%). Further analysis revealed that the average number of drug types and duration of hospitalization significantly affected the presence of ADRs. Taken together, most patients with CAD STEMI treated in the CICU of the studied hospital experienced non-preventable ADRs and were treated with antidote or other treatments.
Models of human-centered automation in a debridement task

In robot-assisted surgery, manipulation tasks can be achieved through collaboration among robotic and human agents. Collaboration models can potentially include multiple agents working towards a shared objective - a scenario referred to as multilateral manipulation. In this work, we examine multilateral manipulation in the task of debridement: removing dead tissue or damaged tissue fragments to allow remaining healthy tissue to heal. We extended our previously developed multilateral manipulation software framework to the task of debridement and implemented four different collaboration models: (1) fully autonomous debridement, (2) shared control between a human and robotic agent, (3) supervised control where the operator identifies foreign bodies to be excised, and (4) teleoperation. We demonstrate these collaboration models with the RAVEN-II robot, an open-architecture surgical robot with two cable-driven 7-DOF arms. Each collaboration model included methods to remove foreign bodies from the field of view of a stereoscopic camera setup. Results indicate tradeoffs in experiment duration, hardware requirements, and safety implications among the four collaboration models.