Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Less is More: Learning More with Concurrent Transmissions for Energy-Efficient Flooding

Concurrent transmissions, a novel communication paradigm, has been shown to effectively accomplish a reliable and energy-efficient flooding in wireless networks. With multiple nodes exploiting a receive-and-forward scheme in the network, this technique inevitably introduces communication redundancy and consequently raises the energy consumption of the nodes. In this paper, we propose LiM, an energy-efficient flooding protocol for wireless sensor networks. LiM builds on concurrent transmissions, exploiting constructive interference and the capture effect to achieve high reliability and low latency. Moreover, LiM equips itself with a machine learning capability to progressively reduce redundancy while maintaining high reliability. As a result, LiM is able to significantly reduce the radio-on time and therefore the energy consumption. We compare LiM with our baseline protocol Glossy by extensive experiments in the 30-node testbed FlockLab. Experimental results show that LiM highly reduces the broadcast redundancy in flooding. It outperforms the baseline protocol in terms of radio-on time, while attaining a high reliability of over 99.50%, and an average end-to-end latency around 2 ms in all experimental scenarios.
Spatial Domains of Progenitor‐Like Cells and Functional Complexity of a Stem Cell Niche in the Neonatal Rat Spinal Cord

During spinal cord development, progenitors in the neural tube are arranged within spatial domains that generate specific cell types. The ependyma of the postnatal spinal cord seems to retain cells with properties of the primitive neural stem cells, some of which are able to react to injury with active proliferation. However, the functional complexity and organization of this stem cell niche in mammals remains poorly understood. Here, we combined immunohistochemistry for cell‐specific markers with patch‐clamp recordings to test the hypothesis that the ependyma of the neonatal rat spinal cord contains progenitor‐like cells functionally segregated within specific domains. Cells on the lateral aspects of the ependyma combined morphological and molecular traits of ependymocytes and radial glia (RG) expressing S100β and vimentin, displayed passive membrane properties and were electrically coupled via Cx43. Cells contacting the ventral and dorsal poles expressed the neural stem cell markers nestin and/or vimentin, had the typical morphology of RG, and appeared uncoupled displaying various combinations of K+ and Ca2+ voltage‐gated currents. Although progenitor‐like cells were mitotically active around the entire ependyma, the proliferative capacity seemed higher on lateral domains. Our findings represent the first evidence that the ependyma of the rat harbors progenitor‐like cells with heterogeneous electrophysiological phenotypes organized in spatial domains. The manipulation of specific functional properties in the heterogeneous population of progenitor‐like cells contacting the ependyma may in future help to regulate their behavior and lineage potential, providing the cell types required for the endogenous repair of the injured spinal cord. Stem Cells2012;30:2020–2031
Structural Content in Paintings II: Artists Commissioned to Reproduce a Specific Image Over-Regularize Orientation Biases in Their Paintings

Measurements of psychophysical performance show that the visual system is biased in ways that counteract statistical regularities of natural scenes thereby allowing efficient coding. Here we consider the perceptual effects of these encoding biases in a “holistic” way by measuring characteristics of the paintings produced by artists making perceptual matches to a natural scene image; 10 artists were asked to produce an exact copy of a single outdoor landscape scene. The structural content of the paintings produced and the “ground truth” image were compared in the frequency domain. The artists were found to over-regularize the orientation content in the paintings: The anisotropy existing only at the lowest spatial scales in the natural scene image was produced across all spatial scales in these commissioned paintings. These results were compared to those from two other methods of comparing paintings and natural scenes reported previously in a companion paper and all three methodologies indicate very similar over-regularization. We suggest that artists may have a general canonical representation of structural relations of scenes that they apply broadly within their creations.
A novel ladder antenna for dual circular polarization

A ladder antenna, shown in Fig. 1(a), has been investigated for use as a dual polarization element [1]. The antenna radiates a circularly polarized (CP) wave of either rotational sense by changing the feed points of F<inf>R</inf> and F<inf>L</inf>. Note that the CP radiation is obtained by virtue of a stub of length Δℓ as shown in Fig. 1(b).
Loved Ones Obtain Various Information About the Progression of the Patient’s Cancer Disease Which is Important for Their Understanding and Preparation

Being diagnosed with an incurable cancer disease encompasses the transition from the presumption of having a long and healthy life to an earlier than expected death. It is well known that during the last phase of the patients disease both the patient and the loved ones have a great need for information concerning physical, psychological, social, and existential matters. This is in line with the World Health Organization (WHO) definition of palliative care, which emphasizes the importance of providing the best possible quality of life during the progression of the illness and the process of grieving for the patient and the loved ones. Research shows that during the progress of the disease, it is important for the loved ones to have the opportunity to prepare and realize that the patient is in fact going to die, and there will be consequences in their own future life. 6-8 Previous studies have shown that psychological preparation during the disease process is crucial for how the loved ones cope with the grief following their loss. In addition, the level of preparation also influences the form of social support the loved ones may need during the period of bereavement after the patient has died. Various kinds of information are required in order to support the loved ones in their preparation, both regarding understanding what to expect at the time and in the future. However, knowledge is still lacking about how the loved ones actually obtain information about the disease process. This knowledge can guide health care staff regarding the best time and manner for information to be provided during the disease process, so that the loved ones can better understand that death will occur in the near future. ‘‘Loved ones’’ is an expression denoting those who are close to the patient, whether they are spouses, significant others, relatives, adult children, or friends. The aim of the study was to examine how and what kind of information the loved ones obtained about the disease, which supported their understanding, realization, and preparation of the patient’s approaching death. The study is part of a larger study that explores understanding, strategy, and need for support among the loved ones within palliative care. Methods
Chapter 8 Hearing and Ear Abnormalities in Fanconi Anemia

In 1927, Guido Fanconi, MD, noticed an association between ear anomalies and FA. In a 1993 review of 370 patients with FA, hearing loss was documented in 11.3% of cases and ear malformations in 14.9%. 1 However, detailed ear manifestations in FA have not been well described in the literature. This chapter will describe normal anatomy and function of the ear, types and degree of hearing loss, the common physical and audiologic findings among the patients with FA, and potential rehabilitation and treatment options for their hearing loss.
Lipid Profiles Levels of Type One Diabetics Compared to Controls in Gaza Strip

Background: Type 1 diabetes mellitus (T1DM) is a group of metabolic diseases characterized by hyperglycemia resulting from autoimmune destructions of β cells lead to lack or sever reduction in insulin secretion. Coronary heart disease (CHD) is more prevalent among DM patients than other population. Higher risk of CHD is seen in DM patients who are smokers, have lipid abnormalities, obese, and hypertension. Objective: The overall aim of this study is to evaluate serum lipid profiles of patients with T1DM in comparison with age matched controls in Gaza Strip, Palestine. Materials and Methods: This study was a case control started in Jan, 2014 and finished in Sept, 2014. A total of 50 T1DM patients as a cases group and 100 age-matched healthy individuals as a controls group, aged between 3-18 years. Personal & demographic data, and clinical data situation of the study population were taken by interview questionnaire. Anthropometric and biochemical evaluation were carried out. Collected data and biochemical analysis were analyzed using SPSS version 18. Results: There was no statistically differences among the study subjects with respect to age (P=0.729). Regarding to gender, there was a statistically difference among the study subjects with respect to gender (P=0.014). Concerning the body mass index (BMI), the results reported that there was no statistically difference among the study subjects with respect to BMI (P=0.146). Regarding lipid profiles, this research found that the percentage of high serum triglycerides (TGs) levels was significantly higher among diabetic patients than in controls (p=0.001), However both of them have normal TGs levels, generally. Moreover, despite of both of T1DM and controls in generally, have a normal levels of serum total cholesterol (TC), high-density lipoprotein cholesterol (HDL-C), and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol (LDL-C), there were no statistically significant differences among both of them according to these biochemical parameters (p>0.05). On the other hand, there was no relationship between the lipid profiles in T1DM patients and the gender, family history and duration of DM, and BMI, except that, elevation of TGs levels was significantly higher in diabetic males as compared to diabetic females (p=0.011). Conclusions: T1DM patients group and control group were appeared with little or no progressing towards the emergence atherosclerosis and coronary risk factors; because, mostly, they were having normal serum TC, LDL-C &, TGs with low or normal BMI.
Analysis of surface charging effects in passivated AlGaN-GaN FETs using a MOS test electrode

Passivated AlGaN-GaN high electron mobility transistor (HEMT) structures are modified by adding a MOS test gate placed between gate and drain to identify surface charge phenomena by stress experiments. A new method is described to identify the vertical position of the charge centroid of charge injected from the gate. In the case investigated, this is within the passivation layer.
Examining Service Quality and Customer Satisfaction in the Retail Banking Sector in Vietnam

The present study focused on examining the interrelationship between service quality dimensions (tangibility, reliability, responsiveness, assurance, and empathy) and investigated the correlation between perceived service quality and customer satisfaction in the retail banking sector in Vietnam. The predictor variables (independent variables) for this research were the aforementioned service quality dimensions. The outcome variable (dependent variable) was overall customer satisfaction. This study can help bank leaders evaluate and improve the service quality of retail banking in the context of financial liberalization and globalization.
Bridging the Gap: a study of general nurses’ perceptions of patient advocacy in Ireland

Advocacy has become an accepted and integral attribute of nursing practice. Despite this adoption of advocacy, confusion remains about the precise nature of the concept and how it should be enacted in practice. The aim of this study was to investigate general nurses’ perceptions of being patient advocates in Ireland and how they enact this role. These perceptions were compared with existing theory and research on advocacy in order to contribute to the knowledge base on the subject. An inductive, qualitative approach was used for this study. Three focus group interviews with a total of 20 practising nurses were conducted with a sample representing different grades in a general hospital setting. Data analysis was carried out using elements of Strauss and Corbins’ approach to concept development. The findings indicate that the principal role of the nurse advocate is to act as an intermediary between the patient and the health care environment. The results highlight that advocacy did, however, result in nurses becoming involved in conflict and confrontation with others and that it could be detrimental to nurses both professionally and personally. It was also clear that when enacting advocacy, nurses distinguished between ‘clinical advocacy’ (acting directly for patients in the clinical environment) and organizational advocacy (acting on an organizational level for one or more patients).
Probiotic in Quail Nutrition: A Review

The digestive tract must supply the factors necessary for the existence of any micro-organism that finally becomes established. These factors include a favorable temperature, a constant supply of nutrients and essential fluids: In this situation the micro-organisms benefit from the environment and the animal benefits by maintaining a microflora that does not cause any disease state. There are generally two different types of bacterial populations which can become established in the digestive tract. The first is that which exists in close association with the gut epithelium and the second is that which occurs free in the gut lumen. The ideal situation throughout the life of any animal would be to maintain specific numbers of beneficia l bacteria in the digestive tract. This would ensure that at all times the animal would have the proper microbial balance. The term "probiotic" has been used to indicate substances or micro-organisms which contribute to an ideal microbial balance. Today probiotics are considered as those viable microorganisms that when administered to man and animal, beneficially affects the host by improving the properties of the indigenous microflora. To maintain the intestinal microflora balance in animals it is important to prevent diseases by controlling the overgrowth of potentially pathogenic bacteria. Although known since a long time, only in the last two decades probiotics have started to receive major attention from researchers, and several studies have been carried out on the effects of probiotics microorganisms, using different formulae and with numerous purposes of preventing or treating diseases.
Sentencing Matters Does Imprisonment Deter ?

Sentencing Advisory Council Level 4, 436 Lonsdale Street Melbourne Victoria 3000 Australia Telephone 03 9603 9047 Facsimile 03 9603 9030 contact@sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au www.sentencingcouncil.vic.gov.au Deterrence can be described as the prevention of crime through the fear of a threatened – or the experience of an actual – criminal sanction. General deterrence is aimed at reducing crime by directing the threat of that sanction at all potential offenders. Specific deterrence is aimed at reducing crime by applying a criminal sanction to a specific offender, in order to dissuade him or her from reoffending.
Effectiveness of a mass immunization campaign against serogroup C meningococcal disease in Quebec.

CONTEXT An outbreak of meningococcal disease in Quebec province prompted a mass immunization program. The impact of this campaign on the epidemiology of meningococcal disease has not been studied. OBJECTIVES To study the impact of a mass immunization campaign using polysaccharide vaccine on the epidemiology of meningococcal disease (MCD) and to assess serogroup C vaccine effectiveness (VE). DESIGN, SETTING, AND SUBJECTS Analysis of MCD cases reported in Quebec from 1990 to 1998, before and after the mass immunization campaign was conducted during the winter of 1992-1993, when 84% of residents aged 6 months to 20 years (the target population, approximately 1.9 million individuals) were vaccinated. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Incidence of MCD in 1990-1998; incidence of culture-proven serogroup C MCD between April 1, 1993, and March 31, 1998, compared among vaccinated and unvaccinated persons in the target population. RESULTS The incidence of serogroup C disease decreased after the mass immunization campaign, from 1.4 per 100 000 in 1990-1992 to 0.3 per 100 000 in 1993-1998, and the overall incidence of other serogroups remained stable at 0.7 per 100 000, with a small increase in the proportion of cases caused by serogroup Y (P =.009). Protection from serogroup C MCD was indicated in the first 2 years after vaccine administration (VE, 65%; 95% confidence interval [CI], 20%-84%), but not in the next 3 years (VE, 0%; 95% CI, -5% to 65%). Vaccine effectiveness was strongly related to age at vaccination: 83% (95% CI, 39%-96%) for ages 15 through 20 years, 75% (95% CI, - 17% to 93%) for ages 10 through 14 years, and 41% (95% CI, -106% to 79%) for ages 2 through 9 years. There was no evidence of protection in children younger than 2 years; all 8 MCD cases in this age group occurred in vaccinees. CONCLUSIONS Serogroup C polysaccharide vaccine is effective for controlling outbreaks in teenaged individuals but should not be used in children younger than 2 years. The mass campaign did not induce significant serogroup switching.
Clinical performance measures: the changing status of peritoneal dialysis.

BACKGROUND The Peritoneal Dialysis-Clinical Performance Measures Project (PD-CPM) characterizes peritoneal dialysis within the U.S. Current survey results are reported and compared to those of previous years. METHODS Prevalence data from random national samples of adult peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients participating in the United States End-Stage Renal Disease (ESRD) program have been collected annually since 1995. RESULTS In 1995, 79% of the respondents used continuous ambulatory peritoneal dialysis (CAPD) rather than automated peritoneal dialysis (APD). The mean hematocrit (Hct) of PD patients was 32% and only 66% of individuals had a measurement of dialysis adequacy reported. The mean weekly Kt/Vurea (wKt/V) and weekly creatinine clearance (wCCr) reported for CAPD patients in 1995 were 1.9 and 67 L/1.73 m2/week, respectively. In 2000 the median age of PD patients was 55 years and 63% were white. The leading cause of ESRD was diabetes mellitus (34%) and 54% of adult PD patients performed some form of APD rather than CAPD. Age, sex, size, hematocrit, peritoneal permeability, dialysis adequacy, residual renal function and nutritional indices did not differ between APD and CAPD patients. The mean hemoglobin (Hb) for the 2000 PD-CPM population was 11.6 +/- 1.4 g/dL (mean +/- 1 SD) and 11% of patients had an average Hb below 10 g/dL. The average serum albumin was 3.5 +/- 0.5 g/dL by the bromcresol green method and 56% of subjects had an average serum albumin equal to or above 3.5 g/dL (or 3.2 g/dL by bromcresol purple). In 2000 85% of patients had a dialysis adequacy measurement reported and the mean calculated wKt/V and wCCr were 2.3 +/- 0.6 and 72.7 +/- 24.9 liters/1.73 m2/week for CAPD patients and 2.3 +/- 0.6 and 71.6 +/- 25.1 L/1.73 m2/week for APD patients. PD subjects had a mean body weight of 76 +/- 19 kg and body mass index (BMI) of 27.5 +/- 6.4 kg/m2. The protein equivalent of nitrogen appearance (nPNA) of these patients was 0.95 +/- 0.31 g/kg/day, their normalized creatinine appearance rate (nCAR) equaled 17 +/- 6.5 mg/kg/day, resulting in a percent lean body mass (%LBM) of 64 +/- 17% of actual body weight. Serum albumin correlated in a positive fashion with BMI, nPNA, nCAR and %LBM, but not with wCCr. CONCLUSIONS The majority of indicator variables monitored by the PD-CPM have improved since 1995. PD patients have higher hemoglobins and a greater proportion of patients meet the criteria for adequate dialysis. Serum albumin values, however, remain marginal and unchanged over the five-year project. Furthermore, serum albumin values fail to correlate with the intensity of renal replacement therapy and are not strongly correlated with alternative estimates of nutritional status.
THE ROLE OF MONEY IN FEDERAL RESERVE POLICY

This paper shows that money is a relevant macroeconomic indicator for the description of US monetary policy with simple rules. Empirical analysis based on novel real-time data reveals the economically and statistically significant effect of money on the federal funds rate during the Volcker–Greenspan era, highlighting an interest rate rule that better explains historical policy. The findings suggest that the bias against including money in mainstream macroeconomic models may be due to relying on an incorrect measure of money. A gradual deviation from this rule explains loose monetary policy prior to the Great Recession. Including money aggregates in rule-based policy presents a suitable framework to evaluate and guide Federal Reserve policy.
Mental model organization.

Previous research (Radvansky & Zacks, 1991) has shown that the fan effect is mediated not by the number of nominal associations paired with a concept but by the number of mental models into which related concepts are organized. Specifically, newly learned "facts" about different objects in one location are integrated into a single mental model and no fan effect is produced, whereas facts about one object in different locations are not integrated and a fan effect is produced. In 6 experiments we investigated several factors' influence on location-based organization preferences. We found no impact of either article type (definite or indefinite) or object transportability. However, animate sentence subjects (people) reduced preference for location-based organizations. A clear person-based organization emerged by using locations that typically contain only a single person (e.g., phone booth) to make location-based situations less plausible.
S velocity variations beneath North America

[1] We investigate S velocity variation in the upper mantle beneath North American to better understand the effects of data heterogeneity, model parameterization, and regularization. To this end, we analyzed and fit regional S and Rayleigh wave trains generated by earthquakes around North America that occurred between the years 2000 through 2006, including waveforms from the Transportable Array stations of EarthScope's USArray. These new data were combined with constraints used for the 3-D S velocity model NA04 in order to create a new model, NA07. Another model, , was created from a suite of good-fit models to provide a useful guide for model velocities and uncertainties by estimating ranges of probable velocity variations throughout the upper mantle. We find that the southern and eastern edges of the North American craton appear to be defined by Paleozoic orogens rather than Proterozoic ones. On average, the Archean portion of the craton is ∼200 km thick, while the Paleozoic part averages ∼175 km thick with an ∼80 m/s lower S velocity. The horizontal gradients in velocity are over ∼1.0%/100 km at the western margin of the craton, ∼0.5%/100 km in the south, and ∼1%/100 km at the eastern margin.