Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Information and Communication Technology (ICT) among agri-based entrepreneurs in Malaysia.

This paper focuses on the status of ICT usage among agri-based entrepreneurs in Malaysia. The objectives of the study: 1) to know the purpose of using ICT among agri-based entrepreneurs; 2) to know the level of ICT usage among agri-based entrepreneurs; 3)to determine the contribution of ICT toward agri-based entrepreneur’s productivity; 4) to identify the obstacles for usage of ICT and 5) to identify the ICT networks and support services among agri-based entrepreneurs. A total of 450 respondents were involved in the study representing four fields of agri-based industry namely plantation, animal rearing, fisheries and food processing. Respondents were chosen based on the list of agri-based entrepreneurs provided by Department of Agriculture (DOA) Farmers Organization Authority and Agriculture Bank of Malaysia. A survey using a questionnaire developed for the study was used to collect data. From the study it was found that the most used ICT tools are phone, mobile phone, television and radio. The most used internet application is surfing websites in which 32.2% said that they have surfed websites. Only a small number of the respondents have their own websites. A total of 47.6% of the respondents knew that the DOA website existed and 30% of the respondents have visited the website, this makes this website as the most visited website. A total of 39.6% of the respondents agreed that ICT has contributed towards their productivity especially for the purpose of getting the information about ICT, getting the information about agriculture land and searching for advices on agriculture practices. Among the obstacles faced by agri-based entrepreneurs to use ICT are that they do not know the benefits of using ICT, they do not have skills in using ICT and lack of time to use the ICT. The respondents mentioned that they sought assistance from development agencies for website development and private companies to repair their ICT tools.
Depressive Symptoms, Self-Esteem and Perceived Parent–Child Relationship in Early Adolescence

Aims: Early adolescence represents a critical developmental period both from a psychological and a psychopathological point of view. During this period, one of the most common disorders that frequently arise is represented by depression, that tends to become chronic and may produce many subsequent psychosocial impairments. The present study aimed to analyze characteristics of depressive symptoms in an Italian sample of early adolescents, and to explore their connections with self-esteem levels and perceived maternal and paternal emotional availability. Methods: 594 adolescents (50% females) with a mean age of 12.11 years (SD = 0.98) were administered the Children’s Depression Inventory, the Rosenberg Self-Esteem Scale, and the maternal and the paternal forms of the Lum Emotional Availability of Parents. Results: Findings highlighted a slightly higher, though not statistically significant, level of depressive symptoms in girls than in boys. Regression analysis showed that, as far as predictors of depression, self-esteem was the most relevant one, followed by maternal and paternal emotional availability. Conclusion: Our results strongly suggested to plan intervention programs aimed at monitoring early adolescents’ self-esteem and supporting relationship with both parents, in order to prevent the emergence of depressive symptoms.
Safety and efficacy of cryolipolysis for non‐invasive reduction of submental fat

Cryolipolysis has previously received FDA clearance for fat reduction in the abdomen, flanks, and thighs. There is also interest in small volume fat reduction for areas such as the chin, knees, and axilla. This article reports the results of a cryolipolysis pivotal IDE study for reduction of submental fullness.
Social Distance in the United States

Homophily, the tendency for similar actors to be connected at a higher rate than dissimilar actors, is a pervasive social fact. In this article, we examine changes over a 20-year period in two types of homophily—the actual level of contact between people in different social categories and the level of contact relative to chance. We use data from the 1985 and 2004 General Social Surveys to ask whether the strengths of five social distinctions—sex, race/ethnicity, religious affiliation, age, and education—changed over the past two decades in core discussion networks. Changes in the actual level of homophily are driven by the demographic composition of the United States. As the nation has become more diverse, cross-category contacts in race/ethnicity and religion have increased. After describing the raw homophily rates, we develop a case-control model to assess homophily relative to chance mixing. We find decreasing rates of homophily for gender but stability for race and age, although the young are increasingly isolated from older cohorts outside of the family. We also find some weak evidence for increasing educational and religious homophily. These relational trends may be explained by changes in demographic heterogeneity, institutional segregation, economic inequality, and symbolic boundaries.
Distortions to agricultural incentives in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan

This chapter compares the distortions to agricultural incentives in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan. Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic are dealt with in separate chapters, but will be frequently mentioned here as points of comparison. Although shared history and culture make the five Central Asian countries a natural group for comparison, they differ substantially in size and income levels, as well as in the composition of their agricultural sectors and other resource endowments. The significantly higher gross domestic product (GDP) of Kazakhstan and Turkmenistan reflects their abundant oil and gas. In all five countries the rural economy is important, and in four of them the majority of the population is rural. The first section of this chapter examines in greater detail the five countries' national polices as they affect agriculture. The next two sections deal with the two dominant crops, cotton and wheat, emphasizing the divide between the dirigiste regimes of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan, which rely on rents from agriculture to bolster public revenues and which favor grains relative to cotton in order to increase food self-sufficiency, and the less interventionist regimes of Kazakhstan and the Kyrgyz Republic. The following section examines the livestock sector, before estimates of the size of the transfers from agriculture in the regulated economies of Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan are presented. An assessment of the distortions faced by farmers in Tajikistan, Turkmenistan and Uzbekistan is presented, before the final section provides a summary and conclusions.
Dendritic Versus Tumor Cell Presentation of Autologous Tumor Antigens for Active Specific Immunotherapy in Metastatic Melanoma: Impact on Long-Term Survival by Extent of Disease at the Time of Treatment

Abstract In patients with metastatic melanoma, sequential single-arm and randomized phase II trials with a therapeutic vaccine consisting of autologous dendritic cells (DCs) loaded with antigens from self-renewing, proliferating, irradiated autologous tumor cells (DC-TC) showed superior survival compared with similar patients immunized with irradiated tumor cells (TC). We wished to determine whether this difference was evident in cohorts who at the time of treatment had (1) no evidence of disease (NED) or (2) had detectable disease. Eligibility criteria and treatment schedules were the same for all three trials. Pooled data confirmed that overall survival (OS) was longer in 72 patients treated with DC-TC compared with 71 patients treated with TC (median OS 60 versus 22 months; 5-year OS 51% versus 32%, p=0.004). Treatment with DC-TC was associated with longer OS in both cohorts. Among 70 patients who were NED at the time that treatment was started, OS was better for DC-TC: 5-year OS 73% versus 43% (p=0.015). Among 73 patients who had detectable metastases, OS was better for DC-TC: median 38.8 months versus 14.7 months, 5-year OS 33% versus 20% (p=0.025). This approach is promising as an adjunct to other therapies in patients who have had metastatic melanoma.
The Effects of Florfenicol on the Values of Serum Tumor Necrosis Factor-α and Other Biochemical Markers in Lipopolysaccharide-Induced Endotoxemia in Brown Trout

The aim of the present study was to determine the effects of florfenicol on the expected changes in sTNF-α, damage markers of the liver and kidney, and the lipid metabolism parameters in endotoxemic brown trout. Ninety-six brown trout were included in this study. After six of the fish were reserved as the control group, the remaining 90 fish were divided equally into 3 groups as follows: LPS (2 mg/kg, IP), LPS (2 mg/kg, IP) + florfenicol (40 mg/kg, IM), and florfenicol (40 mg/kg, IM). Blood samples were obtained from the tail of the fish at 1.5, 3, 6, 10, and 24 hours. The levels of sTNF-α were determined by ELISA and biochemical markers were evaluated with an autoanalyzer. A significant increase was observed in the values of sTNF-α in the LPS and LPS + florfenicol groups (P < 0.05). Significant increases were found in the kidney and liver damage determinants in the LPS and LPS + florfenicol groups (P < 0.05). Irregular changes in the lipid metabolism parameters were observed in all the subgroups. In conclusion, florfenicol does not affect the increases of sTNF-α caused by LPS and does not prevent liver or kidney damage; at least, it can be said that florfenicol does not have any evident positive effects on the acute endotoxemia of fish.
Antiviral Therapy in Chronic Hepatitis B With Mild Acute Exacerbation

Background The aim of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of peginterferon α-2a (pegIFN) and nucleos(t)ide analogues (NA) treatments in patients with hepatitis B envelope antigen (HBeAg)-positive chronic hepatitis B (CHB) with mild acute exacerbation (AE). Methods Treatment-naive HBeAg-positive CHB patients with AE who received pegIFN or NA (entecavir (ETV) or telbivudine (LDT)) therapies were retrospectively selected. The HBeAg seroconversion rate, hepatitis B surface antigen (HBsAg) loss rate and the cost-effectiveness of different treatments were compared. Results A total of 63 patients with pegIFN therapy and 78 with NA (38 with ETV and 40 with LDT) therapy were included. The HBsAg loss rate was significantly higher in the pegIFN group when compared with the NA group (on week 96: 9/63 (14.29%) vs. 1/78 (1.28%), P = 0.005). No significant difference in hepatitis B virus (HBV) DNA negativity or the HBeAg/HBsAg seroconversion rate was found between ETV and LDT group. One year of pegIFN therapy resulted in 18.56 quality-adjusted life years (QALYs) per patient, and the incremental cost per additional QALY gained was $3,709. Conclusions PegIFN therapy is safe in HBeAg-positive CHB patients with mild AE, as it results in a higher HBsAg loss rate and longer QALYs than NA therapy.
Translational Initiation at a Non-AUG Start Codon for Human and Mouse Negative Elongation Factor-B

Negative elongation factor (NELF), a four-subunit protein complex in metazoan, plays an important role in regulating promoter-proximal pausing of RNA polymerase II (RNAPII). Genetic studies demonstrate that the B subunit of mouse NELF (NELF-B) is critical for embryonic development and homeostasis in adult tissue. We report here that both human and mouse NELF-B proteins are translated from a non-AUG codon upstream of the annotated AUG. This non-AUG codon sequence is conserved in mammalian NELF-B but not NELF-B orthologs of lower metazoan. The full-length and a truncated NELF-B that starts at the first AUG codon both interact with the other three NELF subunits. Furthermore, these two forms of NELF-B have a similar impact on the transcriptomics and proliferation of mouse embryonic fibroblasts. These results strongly suggest that additional amino acid sequence upstream of the annotated AUG is dispensable for the essential NELF function in supporting cell growth in vitro. The majority of mouse adult tissues surveyed express the full-length NELF-B protein, and some contain a truncated NELF-B protein with the same apparent size as the AUG-initiated version. This result raises the distinct possibility that translational initiation of mouse NELF-B is regulated in a tissue-dependent manner.
Standardized Assessment of Concussion in football players

Article abstract-The recent formulation of guidelines for the management of concussion in sports adopted by the American Academy of Neurology specifically calls for the development of a standardized, systematic sideline evaluation for the immediate assessment of concussion in athletes. The present study involved the preliminary investigation of the feasibility and clinical validity of a standardized version of a brief sideline examination complied in accordance with these guidelines. This examination, intended for use by athletic trainers, was administered by three trainers to 141 nonconcussed high school football players at three separate schools. All players suspected of suffering a concussion (N = 6) during the fall 1995 season were also tested immediately following their injury. The examination was easily administered and scored. The concussed players as a group scored significantly below the nonconcussed controls and below their own baseline (pre-injury) performance, despite their all having been considered by the trainers to have suffered mild, grade 1 concussions. Although preliminary, these data suggest that a standardized sideline examination of this type can be useful in detecting concussion and determining fitness to return to play. NEUROLOGY 1997;48: 586-588
Prediction of Consciousness Recovery in Coma after Traumatic Brain Injury by Disorder of Consciousness Scale (DOCS).

OBJECTIVE To determine the prediction value of disorder of consciousness scale (DOCS) for consciousness recovery after traumatic brain injury (TBI) leading to coma. METHODS This is a descriptive-cross-sectional study of the correlation between the level of patients' consciousness in the first and second weeks and the first 2 months after traumatic brain injury, using DOCS scale. RESULTS The findings of the present study showed that the sensitivity and specificity of DOCS in determining individual's consciousness after first week and two months after injury are 66% and 41% respectively, and regarding DOCSU2 the corresponding values were 94% and 50% (p=0.001). CONCLUSION Passage of time is one of the most significant factors in predicting the resumption of consciousness in patients with brain injury, and more accurate results are expected following the acute phase. However, the application of disorder of consciousness scale could be of a great help to patients' families and rehabilitation staff in regard to providing a better services to meet the patients" future needs.
Zinc supplement use and contribution to zinc intake in Australian children

Abstract Objective The aims of the present study were to examine the Zn intake and characteristics of Zn supplement users and non-users and to survey Zn supplements that are commercially available. Design Cross-sectional national nutrition survey (2007 Australian Children’s Nutrition and Physical Activity Survey) and a review of commercially available Zn supplements. Setting Australia. Subjects Children (n 4834) aged 2–16 years. Results Zn supplement use was associated with younger age, being female, having a lower BMI and consuming a vegetarian or modified diet. Supplement users had significantly higher intakes of Zn than non-users in all age and gender subgroups. Adolescent boys aged 14–16 years who did not use Zn supplements were at highest risk of inadequate Zn intake (15 % compared with 1 % of users). Conversely, children aged 2–3 years were at highest risk of exceeding the recommended upper limit of Zn intake (86–87 % of users and 64–71 % of non-users), followed by children aged 4–8 years (9–29 % of users and 3–12 % of non-users). The most common sources of Zn supplements consumed by children were multi-vitamin and mineral preparations (92 %), followed by Zn-only supplements (5 %) and Zn-containing cold and flu, or cold sore supplements (3 %). A survey of commercially available Zn supplements revealed that the median elemental Zn content was 2 and 25 mg for multi-vitamin and mineral preparations and Zn-only supplements, respectively. Conclusions Based on these data, widespread Zn supplement use among young children is unlikely to be warranted. The impact of exceeding the upper limit of Zn intake on biomarkers of Zn toxicity requires further investigation.
Effect of Timing on Teacher Education Follow-Up Survey Results.

The potential effect of survey timing on information about teaching employment rates for teacher education program graduates was studied. It is possible that the low rates found by some surveys are more a result of the time of the survey than of low response rate. A secondary purpose was to obtain information about the hiring practices of school systems with regard to when prospective teachers are first offered employment and when graduates prefer to be surveyed. Questionnaires were sent in the spring to 280 students who completed initial teacher preparation programs at the University of Tennessee and became eligible for employment in 1993. Questionnaires were returned by 182 of these graduates (65%). All but 35 of these graduates had returned an earlier survey in the fall. Of the 182 respondents, 121 taught the entire year, 35 did not teach at all during the year, and 26 taught for some portion of the school year. March was the month in which the highest number was employed in teaching. Results of the two surveys show that graduates are more likely to be employed in the spring, but that they are easier to locate in the fall after graduation. Identification of those not yet teaching may be a benefit if faculty and staff know who is still available as vacancies occur. Graduates preferred the fall survey. An appendix contains the cover letter and data collection forms. (Contains 3 tables and 13 references.) (SLD) ******************************************************************************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. ******************************************************************************** Effect of Timing on Teacher Education Follow-up Survey Results PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE AND DISSEMINATE THIS MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED BY ,5u,SLA--4A tSe ( TO THE EDUCATIONAL RESOURCES INFORMATION CENTER (ERIC)
Creep on the Rodgers Creek fault, northern San Francisco Bay area from a 10 year PS‐InSAR dataset

Deformation in the northern San Francisco Bay area is dominated by a series of sub‐parallel strike‐slip faults. Existing GPS observations provide some constraint on the slip rates of these faults, however these have only limited resolution for resolving shallow fault behavior, such as brittle creep. We use a 30 image Permanent Scatterer InSAR (PS‐InSAR) dataset spanning the time interval 1992–2001 to dramatically increase the density of surface deformation observations. We find a discontinuity in observed surface velocities across the Rodgers Creek fault, around Santa Rosa and further north, consistent with shallow creep at rates of up to 6 mm/yr. The creeping segments are located in areas of local transtension, suggesting that lowered normal stresses may play a role in the distribution of creep. The existence of creep could significantly reduce expected moment release in future earthquakes on the Rodgers Creek fault, and thus has implications for seismic hazard assessment.
Robust image classification using multi-level neural networks

Image classification problem is one of the most challenges of computer vision. In this paper, a robust image classification approach using multilevel neural networks is proposed. In this approach, each image is fixedly divided into five regions each equal to half of the original image. Then these regions are classified by the multilevel neural classifier into five categories, i.e., “Sky”, “Water”, “Grass”, “Soil” and “Urban”. Both color moments and multilevel wavelets decomposition technique are used to extract features from the regions. Such features have been experimentally proved to be computationally efficient and effective in representing image contents. Experimental results clarify that the proposed approach performs better than other state-of-the-art classification approaches.
Stochastic generation of annual, monthly and daily climate data: A review

Abstract. The generation of rainfall and other climate data needs a range of models depending on the time and spatial scales involved. Most of the models used previously do not take into account year to year variations in the model parameters. Long periods of wet and dry years were observed in the past but were not taken into account. Recently, Thyer and Kuczera (1999) developed a hidden state Markov model to account for the wet and dry spells explicitly in annual rainfall. This review looks firstly at traditional time series models and then at the more complex models which take account of the pseudo-cycles in the data. Monthly rainfall data have been generated successfully by using the method of fragments. The main criticism of this approach is the repetitions of the same yearly pattern when only a limited number of years of historical data are available. This deficiency has been overcome by using synthetic fragments but this brings an additional problem of generating the right number of months with zero rainfall. Disaggregation schemes are effective in obtaining monthly data but the main problem is the large number of parameters to be estimated when dealing with many sites. Several simplifications have been proposed to overcome this problem. Models for generating daily rainfall are well developed. The transition probability matrix method preserves most of the characteristics of daily, monthly and annual characteristics and is shown to be the best performing model. The two-part model has been shown by many researchers to perform well across a range of climates at the daily level but has not been tested adequately at monthly or annual levels. A shortcoming of the existing models is the consistent underestimation of the variances of the simulated monthly and annual totals. As an alternative, conditioning model parameters on monthly amounts or perturbing the model parameters with the Southern Oscillation Index (SOI) result in better agreement between the variance of the simulated and observed annual rainfall and these approaches should be investigated further. As climate data are less variable than rainfall, but are correlated among themselves and with rainfall, multisite-type models have been used successfully to generate annual data. The monthly climate data can be obtained by disaggregating these annual data. On a daily time step at a site, climate data have been generated using a multisite type model conditional on the state of the present and previous days. The generation of daily climate data at a number of sites remains a challenging problem. If daily rainfall can be modelled successfully by a censored power of normal distribution then the model can be extended easily to generate daily climate data at several sites simultaneously. Most of the early work on the impacts of climate change used historical data adjusted for the climate change. In recent studies, stochastic daily weather generation models are used to compute climate data by adjusting the parameters appropriately for the future climates assumed.