Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Optimizing the Length, Width, and Balance of a Personality Scale: How Do Internal Characteristics Affect External Validity?

How well can scores on a personality scale predict criteria such as behaviors and life outcomes? This question concerns external validity, which is a core aspect of personality assessment. The present research was conducted to examine how external validity is influenced by a trait scale’s internal characteristics, such as its length (number of items), width (breadth of content), and balance (between positively and negatively keyed items). Participants completed the Big Five Inventory–2 (BFI-2), and were also assessed on a set of self-reported and peer-reported validity criteria. We used the BFI-2 item pool to construct multiple versions, or iterations, of each Big Five trait scale that varied in terms of length, width, and balance. We then identified systematic effects of these internal scale characteristics on external validity associations. Regarding length, we find that longer trait scales tend to have greater validity, with a scale length “sweet spot” of approximately 6 to 9 items. Regarding width, we find that broad trait scales tend to have slightly stronger, and much more consistent, associations with external validity criteria than do narrow scales; broad scales thus represent relatively safe bets for personality assessment, whereas narrow scales carry greater risks but offer potentially greater rewards. Regarding balance, we find that associations between imbalanced trait and criterion scales can be substantially inflated or suppressed by acquiescent responding; trait scales that include an equal number of positively and negatively keyed items can minimize such acquiescence bias. We conclude by translating these findings into practical advice regarding psychological assessment.
The effect of loneliness on depression: A meta-analysis

Background: Negative emotions, which have a common, chronic and recurrent structure, play a vital role in the development and maintenance of psychopathology. In this study, loneliness as a negative emotion was considered to be a predisposing factor in depression. Aim: The aim of this meta-analysis is to determine the effect of loneliness on depression. Method: Initially, a literature scan was performed and all related literature was pooled together (n = 531). Based on scales determined by the researchers, it was decided to include 88 studies in the analysis. This study obtained a sampling group of 40,068 individuals. Results: The results of using a random effects model for analysis showed that loneliness had a moderately significant effect on depression. None of the variables of study sampling group, type of publication and publication year were found to be moderator variables. Conclusion: According to the results of the research, loneliness may be said to be a significant variable affecting depression. The findings obtained are discussed in light of the literature.
Incidence and Cost of Hypoglycemia Among Patients with Type 2 Diabetes in the United States: Analysis of a Health Insurance Database

Objective:� Toevaluatetheincidenceandeconomic� impactofhypoglycemiainacohortofpatientswith� type�2�diabetesmellitus�(T2DM). •� Methods:� Patients� >� 18� yearsdiagnosedduringthe� period� 2003� to� 2008� wereselectedfromtheThom- son Reuters MarketScandatabasesandfollowed� fromtheirfirstdiabetesdiagnosisinthestudyperiod� untiltheendofcontinuouscoverageor�31�Dec�2008,� whichevercamefirst. �Allhypoglycemiaeventsidenti- fiedbyaclaim�(ICD-9-CM�250.3,�250.8,�251.0,�251.1,� 251.2)� onauniquedatewerecounted. � Incidence� rateswerecalculatedoverallandbytreatmentsetting� anddiabetesdrugregimen. � Directcostswerecom- putedperhypoglycemiaevent. � ypoglycemia is a common complication of diabetes treatment. While well documented in insulin-treated type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM), it has not been as extensively studied in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM), par- ticularly with regard to oral antidiabetic drugs. A retrospective study of patients attending an outpatient specialty diabetes clinic in the United States found that the prevalence of hypoglycemic symptoms for patients with T2DM varied from 12% to 30%, depending on the treatment received. In this study, 0.5% of patients treated with insulin alone or in combination with oral medications experienced severe hypoglycemia, defined as a loss of consciousness or other significant change in mental status requiring assistance or treatment (1). A study in Scotland of hypoglycemia requiring emergency treatment found that 7.3% of patients with T2DM treated with insulin had at least 1 episode of se- vere hypoglycemia, corresponding with an incidence of 11.8 per 100 patient-years. Incidence rates for patients with T2DM treated with sulfonylureas and metformin or diet were 0.9 and 0.05 per 100 patient-years, respec- tively (2). Most of the available studies have focused on comparing hypoglycemia incidence in specific treatments rather than the population with T2DM as a whole (3-6). Differences in study design and data col- lection methodologies across studies make it difficult to compare findings across studies and often result in a wide range of possible outcomes.
Effect of hormones, culture media and oocyte quality on in vitro maturation of Egyptian Sheep oocytes

Objective: � Thepresentstudywascarriedouttoinvestigatetheroleofaddinghormonecombinations� (PMSG+hCG+E2)�alonewithorwithoutfetalbovineserum�(FBS)�totheculturemedia�(TCM�199�orRPMI� 1640)�ontheinvitromaturation�(IVM)�ofsheepoocytes. �Theeffectsoftypeofculturemediaandoocyte� qualitywerealsoinvestigated. �� Methodology and results: � Sheepovarieswerecollectedformlocalslaughterhouse. � Cumulusoocyte� complexesCOCsandcumulusdenudedoocytes� (CDOs)� wererecoveredfromvisibleantralfollicles� (2� 6mm)�byaspirationmethod. �Thecollectedoocyteswerematuredinculturemediafor�26�29hat�39 5%�CO 2�inairand�95%�humidity. �TheresultsindicatedthattheadditionofhormonescombinedwithFBSto� thebasicmedium�(TCM�199)�significantly�(P<0.05)�improvedtheIVMofCOCsascomparedtothecontrol�
Improving subject-verb agreement in SMT

Ensuring agreement between the subject and the main verb is crucial for the correctness of the information that a sentence conveys. While generating correct subject-verb agreement is relatively straightforward in rule-based approaches to Machine Translation (RBMT), today’s leading statistical Machine Translation (SMT) systems often fail to generate correct subject-verb agreements, especially when the target language is morphologically richer than the source language. The main problem is that one surface verb form in the source language corresponds to many surface verb forms in the target language. To deal with subject-verb agreement we built a hybrid SMT system that augments source verbs with extra linguistic information drawn from their source-language context. This information, in the form of labels attached to verbs that indicate person and number, creates a closer association between a verb from the source and a verb in the target language. We used our preprocessing approach on English as source language and built an SMT system for translation to French. In a range of experiments, the results show improvements in translation quality for our augmented SMT system over a Moses baseline engine, on both automatic and manual evaluations, for the majority of cases where the subject-verb agreement was previously incorrectly translated.
Syntactic Ambiguity Resolution of Cantonese-English Bilinguals: Evidence from Prepositional Phrase and Adverb

Syntactic ambiguity resolution is influenced by multiple constraints. A sentence-picture matching task tested the attachment of prepositional phrase (PP) such as on the chair within an utterance like Mary ate the apple on the chair. PP attaching to NP2 (the apple) is called low attachment (LA), while PP attaching to V (ate) is called high attachment (HA). A comprehension task tested the attachment of adverb such as quickly within an utterance like the story Mary was reading quickly put her little sister into sleep. The checked adverbs attaching to the verb of the embedded clause (VEC) and to the verb of the main clause (VMC) were analyzed. Cantonese-English bilinguals were grouped according to their L2 proficiency. Results reflected that 1) both groups showed preference to HA for PP, 2) LP group showed preference to VMC for adverb attachment; 3) there is a large gap in LA between LP and HP, suggesting that syntactic ambiguity resolution involves interaction of all the information available. The relationship between language proficiency and parsing is not so definitely supported by the results.
Global-Locally Self-Attentive Encoder for Dialogue State Tracking

Dialogue state tracking, which estimates user goals and requests given the dialogue context, is an essential part of task-oriented dialogue systems. In this paper, we propose the Global-Locally Self-Attentive Dialogue State Tracker (GLAD), which learns representations of the user utterance and previous system actions with global-local modules. Our model uses global modules to shares parameters between estimators for different types (called slots) of dialogue states, and uses local modules to learn slot-specific features. We show that this significantly improves tracking of rare states. GLAD obtains 88.3% joint goal accuracy and 96.4% request accuracy on the WoZ state tracking task, outperforming prior work by 3.9% and 4.8%. On the DSTC2 task, our model obtains 74.7% joint goal accuracy and 97.3% request accuracy, outperforming prior work by 1.3% and 0.8%
On Nontrivial Covers and Partitions of Graphs by Convex Sets

complexes, their homologies and applications Cataranciuc Sergiu, Soltan Petru State University of Moldova Buletinul Academiei de Ştiinţe a Moldovei. Matematica Nr. 2(63) / 2010 / ISSN 1024-7696 Disponibil online 6 December, 2013. Descarcări-1. Vizualizări-451 -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
A forbidden topic at the end of life: “What about you after I'm gone?”

Many cancer patients with a life expectancy of less than 6 months continue to seek answers to existential questions. Although patients worry about the future of their family members, especially their spouses, end‐of‐life discussions often remain practical in nature—pain relief, funeral arrangements, and distributing personal belongings. Couples at this stage often struggle with relational distress and can benefit from couples interventions. However, discussing the surviving partner's romantic future—whether the surviving partner will stay single or find a new partner—is often avoided as it might be seen as a “forbidden topic. ” Although the topic of future dating and remarriage should never be forcefully introduced, psycho‐oncologists may encourage couples to see if such a topic can help them find meaning in their life journey before death. In this article, we stress the importance of such conversations, as avoidance could be detrimental. When a surviving spouse seeks a new intimate partner after the death of their loved one, they often feel guilty, restrained, and confused. Also, it is not rare that adult children and extended family discourage widows/widowers from seeking a new partner. They often consider such choices as disloyal to the previous partner. In some cases, due to concerns about decreased likelihood of future asset distributions (eg, inheritance), family members may resist and react negatively to a new partner. Therefore, a prior discussion about post‐death intimate relationships enables couples and families to explorewhat is best for all concerned. Having the agreement or permission of a dying patient could lessen possible negative consequences associated with a new romantic relationship if pursed. Such conversationmay lessen existential distress, increase peace of mind, andmove the dying patient to a state of a relief. Literature suggests an increase in existential distress for cancer patients nearing the end of life. In a qualitative interview of cancer
Gambling, Risk Appetite and Asset Pricing

A measure of the propensity to gamble in casinos constructed without any asset price data provides relevant information for asset pricing. This measure of risk appetite improves the fit of conditional asset pricing models such as the conditional CAPM, explains cross-sectional differences in future returns for portfolios sorted on various characteristics, and helps forecast market and portfolio excess returns out of sample. The relationship between risk appetite and asset prices appears to be mainly explained by simultaneous changes in risk and risk premia.
Effects of Biochar on Phosphorus Sorption and Desorption in Acidic and Calcareous Soils

Awareness of Phosphorus (P) fates when applying biochar to soil is required. Because, P retention and releasing mechanisms provide vital indication for the effective management of P to boost crop production and sustain soil. This study was conducted to evaluate the effects of coffee husk biochar (CHB) produced at two temperatures (350 and 500 0 C) and applied at a rates of (0, 5, 10 and 15t/ha) on phosphorus sorption and desorption in two soils with different P sorption capacities Fe and Al dominated strongly acid (pH=5.08) and Ca dominated alkaline calcareous soil (pH=7.85). Composite air dried, ground and sieved (2mm) soil samples were mixed with biochar and a 2 months incubation experiment was conducted at ambient temperature. In addition, P sorption characteristics of soils amended with biochar and in combination with and without mineral KH 2 PO 4 fertilizer were determined. The results showed significant effects (p<0.05) on selected soil chemical properties by increasing soil pH and reduced exchangeable acidity, exchangeable aluminum, and exchangeable iron in a way that increased the availability of P from 4.52 to 23.21mg/kg (83%) in acidic soil after 2months of incubation and when CHB500 0 C was applied at a rate of 15t/ha and from 8.2 to 27.4mg/kg (70%) in calcareous soil when CHB350 0 C was applied at a rate of 15t/ha. Application of highly alkaline biochars to calcareous soil significantly increased the sorption of P and decreased the availability of P by higher biochar application rates. We concluded that CHB500 0 C and applied at 15t/ha is promising to potentially increase soil P availability in acidic soil and decreased in calcareous soil but, increased in calcareous soil when CHB350 and applied at 15t/ha. Moreover, further researches at field scale are needed to evaluate the effect of biochar on availability and fates of phosphorous in acidic and calcareous soil. Keywords : desorption, sorption, acidic soil, calcareous soil
Where can switchgrass production be more profitable than corn and soybean? An integrated subfield assessment in Iowa, USA

Perennial bioenergy crops are considered an important feedstock for a growing bioeconomy. However, in the USA, production of biofuel from these dedicated, nonfood crops is lagging behind federal mandates and markets have yet to develop. Most studies on the economic potential of perennial biofuel crops have concluded that even high‐yielding bioenergy grasses are unprofitable compared to corn/soybeans, the prevailing crops in the United States Corn Belt. However, they did not account for opportunities precision agriculture presents to integrate perennials into agronomically and economically underperforming parts of corn/soybean fields. Using publicly available subfield data and market projections, we identified an upper bound to the areas in Iowa, United States, where the conversion from corn/soybean cropland to an herbaceous bioenergy crop, switchgrass, could be economically viable under different price, land tenancy, and yield scenarios. Assuming owned land, medium crop prices, and a biomass price of US$ 55 Mg−1, we showed that 4.3% of corn/soybean cropland could break even when converted to switchgrass yielding up to 10.08 Mg ha−1. The annualized change in net present value on each converted subfield patch ranged from just above US$ 0 ha−1 to 692 ha−1. In the three counties of highest economic opportunity, total annualized producer benefits from converting corn/soybean to switchgrass summed to US$ 2.6 million, 3.4 million, and 7.6 million, respectively. This is the first study to quantify an upper bound to the potential private economic benefits from targeted conversion of unfavorable corn/soybean cropland to switchgrass, leaving arable land already under perennial cover unchanged. Broadly, we conclude that areas with high within‐field yield variation provide highest economic opportunities for switchgrass conversion. Our results are relevant for policy design intended to improve the sustainability of agricultural production. While focused on Iowa, this approach is applicable to other intensively farmed regions globally with similar data availability.
Maternal Mortality in the Obstetrics and Gynecology Service of Regional Hospital Center of Ouahigouya: Epidemiological, Etiological Aspects and Contributing Factors—About 151 Cases Collected in Three Years from 1st January 2013 to 31 December 2015

The objective of our study was to study the epidemiological, etiological and contributory factors of maternal deaths in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the regional hospital center (RHC) of Ouahigouya from 2013 to 2015. We carried out a descriptive and analytical study on maternal deaths in maternity of the RHC of Ouahigouya, including all patients who died in the obstetrics and gynecology department of the RHC of Ouahigouya from 1 January 2013 to 31 December 2015, which meets WHO’s definition of maternal death. We recorded 151 maternal deaths and 5481 live births, a maternal mortality ratio of 2755 per 100,000 live births. The most affected women were women aged 20 - 24 years (27.8%), multiparous (25.5%), married women (88.7%) and those without income-generating activities (85.4%). The main causes of death from direct obstetrical complications were hemorrhage (38.3%), infections (21.5%), abortions (16.8%) and complications of hypertension disorders (15.8%) and for indirect obstetrical complications, malaria (36.6%), anemia (29.5%), and HIV/AIDS (9.1%). Contributing factors to maternal deaths prior to admission were delay in referral (33.3%) and delay in transfer (31.5%) and delay in admission (32.8%) and delay in diagnosis (23.4). From our study, it appears elsewhere as well as that most maternal deaths are preventable, hence the need for coordinated actions to effectively fight against maternal mortality.
Extension of the IEEE 802.11ah ns-3 simulation module

IEEE 802.11ah, marketed as Wi-Fi HaLow, is a new Wi-Fi standard for sub-1Ghz communications, aiming to address the major challenges of the Internet of Things (IoT), namely connectivity among a large number of densely deployed power-constrained stations. The standard was only published in May 2017 and hardware supporting Wi-Fi HaLow is not available on the market yet. As such, research on 802.11ah has been mostly based on mathematical and simulation models. Mathematical models generally introduce several simplifications and assumptions, which do not faithfully reflect real network conditions. As a solution, we previously developed an IEEE 802.11ah module for ns-3, publicly released in 2016. This initial release consisted of physical layer models for sub-1GHz communications and an implementation of the fast association and Restricted Access Window (RAW) channel access method. In this paper, we present an extension to our IEEE 802.11ah simulator. It contains several new features: an online RAW configuration interface, an energy state model, adaptive Modulation and Coding Scheme (MCS), and Traffic Indication Map (TIM) segmentation. This paper presents the details of our implementation, along with experimental results to validate each new feature. The extended Wi-Fi HaLow module can now support different scenarios with both uplink and downlink heterogeneous traffic, together with real-time RAW optimization, sleep management for energy conservation and adaptive MCS.
Long-Term Benefits of Adapted Physical Activity on Upper Limb Performance and Quality of Life in Breast Cancer Survivors

Current evidence suggests that physical activity interventions can improve quality of life, fitness, and strength, reducing depression and fatigue in breast cancer survivors. However, in the long-term many survivors are insufficiently active. Here, the possible long-term benefits of a specific adapted physical activity (APA) intervention on upper limb functional performance and quality of life in breast cancer survivors were investigated. For this purpose, fifteen survivors were assessed by fitness tests (shoulder-arm mobility, range of motion, back flexibility) at the baseline and at eight weeks post-APA intervention. Quality of life and surgical shoulder and back pain intensity were evaluated by Short Form-12 and numerical rating scale questionnaires, respectively. Five participants, who continued to follow the APA protocol over time, were again evaluated after two years and compared to either five women who were inactive or five others who practiced general physical activity after ending the eight-week APA protocol. Shoulder-arm mobility and self-reported questionnaire data revealed the maintenance and/or improvement of the achieved benefits two years after the APA intervention. Our findings suggest that the long-term practice of APA tailored to individual characteristics should be recommended to breast cancer survivors in order to preserve quality of life and fitness.
Design and test results of a wideband sige detector and on-chip slot antenna for W-band sensing applications

This paper presents the circuit designs and results of a wideband power detector and an on-chip slot antenna fabricated in a 0.25 μm SiGe BiCMOS process. The W-band SiGe detector has close to 20 GHz of operational bandwidth (s11≤-10 dB at 75-92 GHz) and a responsivity of 3-5kV/W (NEP = 10-16 pW/Hz1/2) at 83-94 GHz. The SiGe on-chip slot antenna design covers a wide bandwidth (70-110 GHz) with 2 dBi of simulated gain at 94 GHz. The realised wideband SiGe BiCMOS power detector and on-chip antenna are targeting highly integrated single-chip RF front-ends for broadband sensing applications up to 110GHz.
Cell Phone Alters Oxidative Status and Impairs Testicular Function of Male Wistar Rats

Mobile phone has become a necessity rather than a communication tool. In fact, it has been integrated into everyday life. However, exposure of humans to radiofrequency electromagnetic radiation (RF-EMR) from mobile phone has raised public concerns because of the adverse effects of RF-EMR emitted from this communication device. The current study was designed to investigate the effects of RF-EMR from mobile phone on the testes. Adult male Wistar rats weighing 180 g – 200 g were randomly allotted to control (switched off mode exposure), 1 h exposure group (1H-exposure), 2 h exposure group (2H-exposure) and 3 h exposure group (3H-exposure). The Animals were exposed to RF-EMR of Nokia 105 for a period of 28 days. Histomorphometry and biochemical investigations were carried out. The microscopic examination of spermatozoa showed low sperm count, altered sperm morphology and progressivity in the experimental groups. Also, histomorphometric parameters showed altered cross section, lumen and germinal epithelia diameter in all the experimental groups, and sera levels of malondialdehyde and superoxide dismutase, which are markers of reactive oxygen species significantly increased and decreased respectively in all the experimental groups compared to control group. In addition, sera levels of male sex hormones (follicle stimulating hormone, luteinizing hormone and testosterone) significantly decreased (p<0.05) in 1H- and 2H- exposure groups compared to the control group. The study demonstrates that chronic exposure to RFEMR from cell phone causes oxidative stress and impairs testicular function that is accompanied by decreased sex hormone profile.