Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Water Losses and Assessment of Initiatives Aimed at Their Reduction in Selected Water Supply Systems

This paper presents the analysis and assessment of water losses in water distribution systems of three water supply companies operating water supply networks in the area of effect of underground mining. The analysis of water losses was conducted based on numerous indices allowing for obtaining objective information on the condition of the water supply system. The method of the analysis of percentage water loss index was extended by the methods of determination of losses according to the International Water Association. The results of the analysis lead to the conclusion that with regular actions, the companies have reduced water losses in recent years to a level considered to be good compared to national data and average compared to international standards. The value of the failure intensity index for all companies in 2011 was over 1.0 while currently it is about 0.5. The decrease in Non-Revenue Water basic loss index (NRWB) from more than 20% for all analysed companies in 2008 to a few percent in 2017 and the decrease in Infrastructure Leakage Index (ILI) for companies A and C to less than 2.0 are evidence of the good condition of the network. This is also confirmed by the unit water loss index per capita, with its value in 2017 being 9.1 dm3/(inhabitant day) for company A, 11 dm3/(inhabitant·day) for B and 7.4 dm3/(inhabitant·day) for C. The several years of analysis and evaluation of numerous indices of water loss presented in the paper reveals the effectiveness of the adopted strategies of reducing leakages in the distribution system. It should be emphasized that the analysed companies have been involved in comprehensive initiatives aimed at reducing water leakages, resulting in a substantial reduction in water losses. GIS monitoring systems and databases are particularly helpful in reducing water losses. The basis of the activities is monitoring of flow and pressure in water supply networks and active leakage control. Network zoning with simultaneous observation of minimum night-time flows allows for preliminary location of the failure. Equipping companies with special leakage detection devices such as geophones, stethophones or correlators enables quick detection of leakages. The next step is to replace water meters with more and more accurate ones and to implement radio reading of water meters. All analysed companies perform systematic replacement of old steel and cast iron pipes which cause a large number of leakages that are often difficult to identify, thus leading to water losses.
Analysis of Cooperative Bus Priority at Traffic Signals

Transit signal priority (TSP) is an effective strategy to control bus schedule adherence, increase ride comfort, and, in turn, reduce fuel consumption. However, its provision may cause negative externalities on general traffic. In this paper, we demonstrate how coordinated in-vehicle driver advisory systems (DASs) can partly reduce the signal priority control requests. Such cooperative solution, enabled by the connectivity between vehicles and the signal control system, allows combining signal adjustments with dwelling and speed advisories. We show that combining in-vehicle advisory with signal priority can reduce stops at signals, decrease trip time when compared with TSP used alone and, in some case, achieve the same performance without resorting to TSP. In addition, we demonstrate that DASs used alone have marginal impact on trip times, hence can be applied unconditionally. A simulation-based analysis indicates that the effectiveness of a control strategy—or a combination of different strategies—depends on the bus stop placement. When it comes to reduction of stop frequency at traffic signals, speed and dwell time advisories used together deliver similar performance to an unconditional TSP with green signal extensions and recalls lasting up to 10 s.
The Spillover Effect of SEC Comment Letters through Audit Firms: Evidence from Subjective Accounting Areas

This study examines the spillover effect of SEC comment letters on an auditor’s other clientele. We focus our examination on goodwill, a frequent comment letter topic that garners significant auditor attention. We find that when companies receive an SEC comment letter with goodwill-related comments, their auditors are more likely to increase their scrutiny of this audit area among their other clientele in the same office as evidenced by an increased likelihood of recording impairment charges among their clients that exhibit goodwill impairment risk. Cross sectional analyses suggest that the spillover effect is more pronounced when the comment letter recipient subsequently recognized a goodwill impairment. We observe a similar spillover effect among an auditor’s clientele in the same industry and with changes to companies’ goodwill footnote disclosures. We corroborate these findings using another frequent comment letter topic – revenue recognition – and the likelihood of revenue-recognition related changes in accounting estimates.
Geographic Identity and Attitudes toward Undocumented Immigrants

This article examines the extent to which economic attitudes, political predispositions, neighborhood context, and socio-demographic factors influence views toward adult, undocumented immigrants living and working in the United States. We specifically examine how these factors differ for respondents living in various types of American urban, suburban, and rural areas. Arguably, in the aftermath of the 2016 Presidential election, public opinion toward often racialized immigration policy proposals is incomplete without an understanding of the role of place and geographic identity. In the 2016 general election, 62 percent of rural voters cast a ballot for Trump, as compared with 50 percent of suburban voters, and 35 percent of urban voters. However, we know little about how their views toward undocumented immigration, a persistent hot-button issue, varied by geographic type. Our findings suggest that views toward undocumented immigrants currently living and working in the United States are conditioned by factors related to a respondent’s geographic type. We find that attitudes toward immigrants vary considerably across place. These findings provide support to our argument about the development of a geographic-based identity that has considerable impact on important public opinion attitudes, even after controlling for more traditional explanatory factors.
PENGARUH LINGKUNGAN KERJA DAN KEPUASAN KERJA TERHADAP KUALITAS PELAYANAN

Penelitian ini bertujuan untuk mengetahuipengaruh lingkungan kerja dan kepuasan kerja terhadap kualitas pelayanan pada RSUD Kabupaten Ciamis. Metode yang dilakukan adalah metode deskriptif kuantitatif. Hasil penelitian menunjukan bahwa : Indikator hubungan antar bawahan dengan pimpinan sangat besar pengaruhnya terhadap variabel lingkungan kerja. Berdasarkan uji statistik bahwa lingkungan kerja berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kualitas pelayanan. Jika lingkungan kerja ditingkatkan maka kualitas pelayanan akan meningkat. Dengan demikian maka hipotesis pertama teruji kebenarannya. indikatorpegawai merasa puas jika komponen watak/genetik dapat dianalisis sangat besar pengaruhnya terhadap variabel kepuasan kerja. Berdasarkan uji statistik bahwa kepuasan kerja berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kualitas pelayanan. Jika kepuasan kerja ditingkatkan maka kualitas pelayanan akan meningkat. Dengan demikian maka hipotesis kedua teruji kebenarannya.indikator memberikan perhatian yang tulus dan bersifat individual atau pribadi (Empathy) besar pengaruhnya terhadap variabel kepuasan kerja. Berdasarkan uji statistik bahwa lingkungan kerja dan kepuasan kerja berpengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kualitas pelayanan. Jika lingkungan kerja dan kepuasan kerja ditingkatkan maka kualitas pelayanan akan meningkat. Dengan demikian maka hipotesis ketiga teruji kebenarannya.
Joint Radar-Communications Co-Use Waveform Design Using Optimized Phase Perturbation

Joint radar-communications dual function has drawn lots of attention since it can make a better use of the scarce wireless frequency resources and expensive hardware platforms. In case of joint radar-communications signal co-use, many communication sequences have poor range sidelobes and thus are not very suitable for the radar function. In this paper, we present a single carrier joint radar-communications method operating in the pulsed radar mode. Digital communication sequences are first partitioned into blocks which are then mapped to digital phase-coded sequences, like binary phase-shift keying (BPSK) and quadrature phase-shift keying (QPSK) sequences. The phases of the digital sequences are perturbed a bit such that certain degrees of freedom are available to optimize for lower range sidelobes. Insignificant phase perturbation will be deemed as phase noise by a communication receiver and then phase codes can be correctly decoded; in radar-processing channels, range compression are performed with known and optimized phase perturbation such that low-range sidelobes are obtained. An implementation scheme is presented. Numerical results with BPSK and QPSK sequences indicate that little phase perturbation can significantly drop the range sidelobe level but will insignificantly rise the bit error rate.
GENERALIZATIONS OF A COTANGENT SUM ASSOCIATED TO THE ESTERMANN ZETA FUNCTION

Cotangent sums are associated to the zeros of the Estermann zeta function. They have also proven to be of importance in the Nyman–Beurling criterion for the Riemann Hypothesis. The main result of the paper is the proof of the existence of a unique positive measure μ on ℝ, with respect to which certain normalized cotangent sums are equidistributed. Improvements as well as further generalizations of asymptotic formulas regarding the relevant cotangent sums are obtained. We also prove an asymptotic formula for a more general cotangent sum as well as asymptotic results for the moments of the cotangent sums under consideration. We also give an estimate for the rate of growth of the moments of order 2k, as a function of k.
Sleep quality perception in youth population

Evaluar los habitos y la percepcion de la calidad de sueno en una muestra de jovenes colombianos y mexicanos. Materiales y metodos: utilizando la metodologia de diario de sueno se evalua inmediatamente al despertar la calidad de sueno percibida con un cuestionario constituido por veintisiete reactivos categoricos y cuantitativos. Resultados: se evaluaron 317 estudiantes de bachillerato/preparatoria (n= 189) y de primeros semestres universitarios (n= 128) en Bogota (n= 197) y en Ciudad de Mexico (n= 120). De ellos 147 fueron mujeres (46,4%) y 170 fueron hombres (53,6%). El promedio de edad fue 18,6 ± 2,81 anos, con una mediana y una moda de 17 anos. El alfa de Cronbach obtenido de 135 mediciones en el periodo de estudio fue 0,86 y 0,57 con los valores promedio de veintisiete reactivos. Hubo una correlacion inversa entre las horas de sueno nocturno y las siestas (r= -0,12; p= 0,029). Un 38% de los participantes no hizo siestas y durmio en promedio 7,6 horas nocturnas o mas (X2= 2,78; p= 0,047). Los hombres hicieron mas siestas con un 76,5%, frente a un 55,6% de las mujeres; X2= 15,26; p= 0,000). Una reduccion de las horas de sueno nocturno y la necesidad de tomar siestas estuvo significativamente asociada con el genero de los participantes. El promedio y la mediana de horas de sueno nocturno (7,2 horas) se uso para clasificar la poblacion en grupo de sueno (+) con 7,3 o mas y grupo de sueno (-) con 7,2 o menos. Estos grupos fueron comparados. Conclusion: la poblacion juvenil evaluada mostro una reduccion en las horas de sueno nocturno, asociado con la frecuencia de siestas y el genero de los participantes.
The Outcome of STOP-Hypertension-2 in Relation to the 1999 WHO/ISH Hypertension Guidelines

The 1999 hypertension management guidelines issued by the World Health Organization and the International Society of Hypertension emphasize the importance of blood pressure reduction in the prevention of cardiovascular events. Furthermore, they conclude that the benefits of treatment are due to blood pressure lowering per se, rather than to any specific antihypertensive therapy. The results of the second Swedish Trial in Old Patients with Hypertension (STOP-Hypertension-2) are consistent with these recommendations, since in this trial angiotensin converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitors and calcium antagonists reduced blood pressure to the same extent as conventional therapy with beta-blockers and diuretics in elderly hypertensive patients, and the three treatments produced similar reductions in the risk of cardiovascular events. Furthermore, a first subgroup analysis of cardiovascular mortality showed that the three treatments seemed equally effective in diabetic patients. The STOP-Hypertension-2 data, therefore, are fully consistent with the 1999 hypertension management guidelines, and underline the advantages offered by both older and newer antihypertensive therapies.
Clinical Manual of Sexual Disorders

This 3-part manual on sexual disorders is edited by 2 psychiatrists who have been engaged for more than 20 years in the clinical treatment of patients with sexual problems. Drs Balon and Segraves bring their rich experience to this field. Patients who have sexual disorders need extra time to present their questions of doubt, confusion, misunderstanding, and perhaps guilt and shame. They also need clarification and understanding—and possible answers and reassurance.
A CMOS-compatible compact display

The proliferation of portable electronic systems has created demand for high-resolution displays which are compact and highly energy-efficient. We have designed and built a proof-of-concept for a display that meets these design constraints. Our display uses a standard digital CMOS integrated circuit to produce a lowbrightness image, and an image intensifier to increase brightness to a visible level. Since a only very low light level needs to be generated from the CMOS chip the power efficiency is primarily determined by the intensifier which typically exhibit high efficiency. Moreover, exploiting high level of integration achieved by the CMOS IC, low power techniques such as pixel memory and data compression can be implemented further lowring the system power consumption. A display using our design should produce a daylight-visible image using approximately half a watt of power.
Prevalence and Pharmacologic Treatment of Breathlessness in Severe Chronic Obstructive Pulmonary Disease

AbstractBackgroundChronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) is a leading cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide. Chronic breathlessness is a feared and distressing symptom with significant impact on daily life. Little is known of the prevalence of breathlessness at the end of life in severe COPD. International guidelines support the use of opioids to treat breathlessness, but it is unknown how commonly opioids are prescribed for the indication of breathlessness. Supplemental oxygen therapy is commonly prescribed, but data is conflicting on its efficacy in treating breathlessness. Knowledge of physician ability to identify chronic breathlessness and readiness to treat breathlessness with opioids is limited.Aims• To evaluate the prevalence of symptoms and their management at the end of life in patients with oxygen-dependent COPD in Sweden, compared to those with cancer (Study I). • To quantify the reported indications for opioid prescriptions in oxygen-dependent COPD in Sweden (Study II). • To investigate the efficacy of supplemental oxygen therapy for breathlessness in COPD patients with no or mild hypoxemia (Study III). • To assess potential recognition and treatment of chronic breathlessness as compared to chronic pain by physicians in Sweden, using a case-based survey (Study IV). Study DesignNationwide register-based cohort study of patients with oxygen-dependent COPD recorded in the Swedevox register linked with the Swedish Register of Palliative Care (Study I) and with the Swedish Prescribed Drug Register (Study II). Cochrane systematic review and meta-analysis of the efficacy of supplemental oxygen therapy for breathlessness (Study III). Randomized, controlled, double-blind, parallel-group, web-based trial of Swedish physicians treating a hypothetical patient with COPD and severe breathlessness versus a patient with severe pain (Study IV). Results and conclusionsAt the end of life, breathlessness was three times more common in patients with COPD than in those with cancer (Study I). Opioids were commonly prescribed for pain in oxygen-dependent COPD patients but rarely to treat breathlessness, which represented 2% of the stated indications (Study II). Supplemental oxygen therapy modestly reduced breathlessness during exercise in COPD with no or mild hypoxemia, but there was no evidence of an effect in daily life or on quality of life (Study III). In a case presentation of a COPD patient, severe chronic breathlessness was less likely to be identified by physicians as requiring symptomatic treatment and also less likely to be treated with opioids as compared to a patient with chronic pain (Study IV). (Less)
Shifting States, Altered Fates: Divergent Fuel Moisture Responses after High Frequency Wildfire in an Obligate Seeder Eucalypt Forest

High frequency wildfires can shift the structure and composition of obligate seeder forests and initiate replacement with alternative vegetation states. In some forests, the alternative stable state is drier and more easily burned by subsequent fires, driving a positive feedback that promotes further wildfire and perpetuates alternative stable states. Mountain Ash (Eucalyptus regnans (F.Muell.)) forests are highly valued for their biodiversity, water, timber and carbon. Fires are a natural part of the lifecycle of these forests, but too frequent fires can eliminate Mountain Ash and trigger a transition to lower stature, non-eucalypt forests which are dominated by understorey species. This study sought to better understand the fuel moisture dynamics of alternative stable states resulting from high frequency wildfires. A vegetation mosaic in the Central Highlands, Victoria created a unique opportunity to measure fuel moisture in adjacent forest stands that differed in overstorey species composition and time since fire. Specifically, we measured fuel moisture and microclimate at two eucalypt sites (9 and 79 years old) and three non-eucalypt sites (two 9 year old and one 79 year old). Fuel availability, defined here as the number of days surface fuels were below 16% and dry enough to ignite and sustain fire, was calculated to estimate flammability. Fuel availability differed between sites, particularly as a function of time since fire, with recently burnt sites available to burn more often (4–17 versus 0–3 days). There were differences in fuel availability between non-eucalypt sites of the same age, suggesting that high frequency fire does not always lead to the same vegetation condition or outcome for fuel availability. This indicates there is potential for both positive and negative flammability feedbacks following state transition depending on the composition of the non-eucalypt state. This is the first study to provide empirical insight into the fuel moisture dynamics of alternative stable states in Mountain Ash forests.
EFFECT OF CUTANEOUS LEISHMANIASIS ON SOME HAEMATOLOGICAL AND IMMUNOLOGICAL PARAMETERS IN PATIENTS FROM AREAS OF NORTH BAGHDAD / IRAQ

The current study was conducted to determine the effect of cutaneous leishmaniasis on some haematological and immunological parameters. 80 samples are examined from patients in areas of north Baghdad - Iraq. Patients are (40 males and 40 females), and 40 samples from healthy persons (20 males and 20 females) as a control group from December 2016 to August 2017. Results of the haematological parameters showed a significant increase in the number of red blood cells (RBC) of infected females compared to non-infected, while there is no significant difference between infected and non-infected males. Significant decrease in packed cell volume (PCV) is found in infected males, while there is no difference in infected females compared to non- infected. There is also significant decrease in haemoglobin (Hb) concentration in the infected females and males compared when compare with the control group. There was a significant decrease in the white blood cell count (WBC) in infected females, while there is no difference in males. There is a significant increase in lymphocyte and monocyte in both males and females compared to control, while there is a significant increase in neutrophil for males, and there is no difference in females. The results of immunological parameters showed that there were 62 positive for IgG cases and 18 for positive IgM cases, thus indicating 62 positive cases and 18 negative anti-nucleic antibody (ANA) cases. There was no significant difference according to the different ages, for both sexes with the result obtained for ANA. Regarding interleukin (IL-10) level there is significant difference between the ages in female and males’ groups, there is no significant difference between the sexes and the type of infections. There is a significant difference in concentration of interleukin depending on the duration of the infection
Social Support, Coping Strategies and Quality of Life in Attempted Suicide: A Hospital Based Study

Background: There is a major concern all over the world regarding the rise in attempting suicide in certain population especially among the young. Wide variations have been found in suicidal attempt among different cultures, societies and countries. The rate of attempted suicide is 8-10 times more than the completed suicide. Coping is most often conceptualized as a response to the demands of specific stressful situations. Though deliberate self‑harm encompasses a wide variety of medical and social disciplines some of the important psychosocial variable such as social support, coping strategies, and quality of life has not yet been explored in depth in India. Aims: The aim was to analyze and compare the coping strategies, social support, and quality of life of suicide attempters versus matched normal controls, and to identify the risk factors leading to suicide. Settings and Design: The study was conducted in the Department of Psychiatry, Agartala Govt. Medical College & GBP Hospital, Agartala, Tripura. The samples for the study were recruited from different outpatient & indoor facilities of the GBP Hospital after application of the inclusion and exclusion criteria (n = 100) cases of suicide attempters and healthy controls (n = 100) were included in the study. Materials and Methods : A total of 100 consecutive suicide attempters were compared with same number of age, sex, and marital status matched healthy controls using Social Support Questionnaire, Bengali version of ways of coping Quissionare (Susan Folkman and Richard S. Lazarus) and WHO QOL‑Bref. Statistical analysis was done by using SPSS - 20. Results : Attempters experienced significantly less Social support. Most common Coping strategies used by the suicide attempters were confronting coping (72.5%) followed by distancing (60%) and predominant coping strategies used by the control groups were seeking social support (60%), accepting responsibility (52) and self-controlling (45%). Positive coping, and of QOL were significantly lower in attempters. Among all risk factors good education and good social support were protective against suicide. Conclusion : Suicide attempters were differentiated from healthy controls basedon lower social support, less healthy coping, and poor QOL. However, it is difficult to pinpoint a single factor responsible for suicidal behavior. It is the complex interplay of various interrelated factors and the resultant buffering effect, which is protecting the individual against deliberate self‑harm. Key words : Coping strategies, deliberate self-harm, quality of life, social support.