Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
An Economic Analysis of Proposed Changes to the Conformity Assessment of Medical Devices Summary Report

The Centre for Health Program Evaluation (CHPE) is a research and teaching organisation established in 1990 to: • undertake a cademic and applied research into health programs, health systems and current policy issues; • develop appropriate evaluation methodologies; and • promote the teaching of health economics and health program evaluation, in order to increase the supply of traine d specialists and to improve the level of understanding of these disciplines within the health community. The Centre comprises two independent research units, the Health Economics Unit (HEU) which is part of the Faculty of Business and Economics at Monash University, and the Program Evaluation Unit (PEU) which is part of the Department of Public Health at The University of Melbourne. The two units undertake their own individual work programs as well as collaborative research and teaching activities.
Planning for your future

Establish a power of attorney. At some time, you may want or need someone you trust to deal with PBGC on your behalf. A regular (not durable) power of attorney authorizes another person to act as your agent to do specific things, such as apply for pension benefits, update your address, or respond to PBGC’s request for information or documents. A durable power of attorney, on the other hand, is a legal document giving one or more people the authority to handle finances or other personal matters if you become mentally or physically incapacitated. For more information, click the Online Pensions Transactions (MyPBA) link in the Workers & Retirees page of our website.
Risk factors for ankle sprain in volleyball players: A preliminary analysis

Injuries in volleyball are sport specific and occur around the net during spiking and blocking. The most common acute injury in volleyball is ankle sprain. There are limited data about the intrinsic risk factors for the ankle sprains in volleyball players. We investigated the influence of muscle strength, postural balance and active range of motion on the ankle sprain occurrence in volleyball players. In 38 professional volleyball players we have tested the strength of plantar and dorsal flexors using isokinetic dynamometer. Dynamic postural balance was measured using Biodex Balance System and active range of motion was tested by the means of universal goniometry. Following the testing players were prospectively followed up over a season, with injuries and exposure rates registered by the team coaches. Binary logistic regression was used to evaluate the role of individual risk factors. The main findings of our study indicate that higher strength of plantar flexors (odds ratio 1.22, 95% C.I. 1.04-1.43, p< 0.05) and decreasing range of motion in dorsiflexion (odds ratio 0.63, 95% C.I. 0.41-0.97) are significant risk factors for the ankle sprain. The results are suggesting that both risk factors are limiting the ability to land safely from a jump, and that plyometric exercises, proper landing technique and gastrocnemius stretching should be emphasized in the preventive training programs in volleyball players.
Scale for environmental attitude in physical activities in natural environments.

Engaging in physical-sport activities in nature should lead to an attitude of respect for the environment among participants. The objective of this article is to design and validate an instrument to assess the environmental attitude generated in this kind of practice within the sphere of training. The questionnaire has 16 items with 5 response choices (1, totally disagree to 5, totally agree). To validate the scale, a sample was used of 162 university students in degrees related to physical activity and sport (Bachelor’s or Master’s in Physical Activity and Sport Sciences) who were taking a course related to physical activities in nature. The reliability obtained with the Cronbach’s α was 0.75. The results show that the scale of attitudes towards the environment in the practice of physical-sport activities in nature is a valid, reliable instrument from an ecological model. After its construction, the conclusions extracted indicate the advisability of checking whether physical activities in nature are carried out from a sustainable perspective so that if they are not, the strategies needed to transform them can be applied.
Properties of Some Commercial Honeys Available in Mexican Market: Effect of Overheating on Quality of the Packaged Honey

Background: Honey is a natural product, but it can be adulterated or heat-treated, both of which damage the properties of the original product. This research was focused on the evaluation of quality parameters of some commercial honeys produced in México. Methods: Fifteen samples of commercial honeys available in Mexican market were collected. Some physicochemical parameters were determined, including pH, moisture, water activity, electric conductivity, color, sugar content (fructose and glucose), and hydroxymethylfurfural (HMF) contents. Results: The results showed that the physicochemical parameters were found within acceptable ranges according to international regulations, with exception of the HMF content in 8 out of 15 honey samples which presented an unacceptable value (>40 mg/kg). The HMF content of the samples ranged from 14.56 to 224.08 mg/kg. Also, all samples of commercial honeys were classified as dark honey according to the L* values determined less than 50 with range from 14.35 to 35.45. Conclusion: Some commercial honeys from Guadalajara, Mexico had HMF levels above the acceptable limit because of overheating during the packaging process. All evaluated commercial honeys were classified as dark according to the L* values which could be due to formation of browning pigments, in particular HMF, during the overheating. The producers of packaged honey should be encouraged to establish more moderate thermal treatments in order to avoid adverse changes, which affect the quality of the product.
Rapid Assessment of Flood Inundation and Damaged Rice Area in Red River Delta from Sentinel 1A Imagery

The Red River Delta (RRD), including 11 provinces, is one of the four largest rice-growing areas in Vietnam. Tropical storms often occur and cause serious flooding from May to October annually in the RRD, which strongly affects the productivity of the summer–autumn rice, one of two main rice crops. Therefore, the rapid assessment of damaged rice area by flooding inundation is critical for farmers and the government. In this study, we proposed a methodology for quick estimation of rice areas damaged by flooding using Sentinel 1A (S1A) imagery. Firstly, the latest rice map was produced. Then, a Near Real-Time (NRT) flood map, which is estimated from S1A images at the closest time to a flooding event, was generated by excluding the yearly permanent map from the temporal water map. Our experiment was conducted for the assessment of damaged rice area by flooding from the tropical storm named Son-Tinh, which happened on 19–21 July 2018. A Support Vector Machine (SVM) classifier was applied on time-series of S1A VV with VH data (VVVH) to obtain a rice map for the winter-spring season of 2018 with 90.5% Overall Accuracy (OA) and 2.37% difference (12,544 ha) from the General Statistics Office (GSO) of Vietnam’s reports for the whole region. Then, the Otsu thresholding method was applied for permanent water surface extraction and NRT flood mapping. The estimated damaged area was compared to available provincial and communal statistics for validation and further analysis. Right after the Son-Tinh storm, the estimation of inundated rice was approximately 50% of the total rice area in the RRD (271,092 ha). As a result, rice damage level strongly corresponds to the inundation period. In addition, the rice-flooding frequency map over the RRD was estimated to show rice fields suffering a high risk of flooding during the rainy season in the RRD. Our experiment’s results highlight the potential of using Synthetic-Aperture Radar (SAR) imagery for fast monitoring and assessment of paddy rice areas affected by flooding at a large scale in the RRD region.
Prevalence and associated factors of domestic violence against married rural women of Gurugram, Haryana

Background: The global health burden from domestic violence against women in reproductive age group is about 9.5 million disability adjusted life years (DALYs). Women suffering from violence have more chances of suffering from physical, emotional, and mental problems such as anxiety, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder. The objectives of the present study are to find the prevalence and awareness of domestic violence in an urban slum of Gurugram and to elicit associated risk factors and the reasons for tolerance of domestic violence.Methods: A community based, cross sectional study was conducted among married women (18-45 years) using a semi structured questionnaire in a rural area of Gurugram by systematic random sampling. Sample size collected was 900. Study population was enquired about the awareness regarding domestic violence, self-experience about domestic violence and about the form of violence experienced and the reasons for their tolerance. Data was entered and analyzed using Epi Info ver 7.Results: Total 980 subjects were enquired about their awareness and self-experience of domestic violence. Overall prevalence of domestic violence in the study population was 28%. Prevalence of domestic violence was statistically significantly associated with education, employment, duration of marriage (p value <0.05). The prevalence was highest of emotional violence (40.5%), followed by physical (33.4%), economic (21.4%) and sexual violence (4.7%). Conclusions: Public health professionals should emphasis on measures to raise public awareness so that women can talk freely about domestic violence and its consequences and help in mitigating this medico-social problem.
Willingness to Join Community-Based Health Insurance and Factors Affect It Among Households of Selected Districts of West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia: A Community Based Cross Sectional Study

Back ground : CBHI is a kind of insurance for informal sectors through which the members contribute some amount of money to protect themselves against the high costs of seeking medical care and treatment for illness. The catastrophic nature of health care financing mechanism for the poor and often rural population has been a source of concern in the low and middle income countries . The aim of this study was to assess the household's willingness to join CBHI and factors affecting households to join community based health insurance. Methodology : A community based cross sectional study was conducted in randomly selected districts of West Shoa Zone from January 25 to February 20, 2016. A sample of 292 head of the house holds were selected using simple random sampling technique from which data were collected by trained data collectors using a pre-tested structured questionnaire. The collected data were entered into SPSS version 20 for analysis . Descriptive statistics and bivariate and multiple logistic regression analyses were performed. Result: All of the 292 sampled head of the households participated in the study making the response rate of 100 %. About 71% of the respondents were willing to join the scheme. In multivariate logistic regression analyses, age of the head of the house holds , head of the household, the household's family size and having a person age 65 and above in the family, presence of chronic illness among the house holds , households concern for covering the health care cost and means of getting money for health care payment were found to be the predictors of the households' WTJ the CBHIs . Conclusion: In the study the households willingness to join community based health insurance was considered to be high. Therefore, scaling the scheme will be beneficial in the study areas. Keywords: Community based health insurance, Willingness to join, West Shoa Zone, Ethiopia DOI : 10.7176/JHMN/65-03 Publication date : August 31 st 2019
Exploring the Impact of Trust on Safe Sex for Women in Long-term Stable Relationships in a Rural Eastern Cape Setting

People in stable relationships are at a greater risk of HIV I AIDS infection, because they tend to use condoms lessfrequently as they become more committed to one another. This study seeks to understand how trust affects safe sex for women in long-term stable relationships living in a rural area in Soutlz Africa. A qualitative research design was adopted. Data was obtained from a sample of nine male and twelve female participants aged between 18 and 60 years as well as eight focus group discussions. All participants were self-identified as being in long-term stable relationships. Thematic content a1zalysis was conducted on all the data, using a sex script theoretical framework. It was found that trust was underpinned by a number of factors such as duration of the relationship, commitment, and the difficulty of negotiating condom use. How people spoke about trust allowed for the creation of a number of sexual scripts or norms that they used to justifij not using condoms in their relationships. These scripts included the sex shows love and commitment script, a trusted partner is a safe partner script; and the marriage script. These legitimise people's sexual actions and help them to rationalise what might be considered as irrational, risky, sexual behaviours.
Methane Emissions from a Hydro Power Reservoir in India

Since the last two decades, a large number of scientific studies have shown that hydropower reservoirs are the sources of anthropogenic methane (CH4) emission, especially in the tropical ecoregion [1]. Therefore, the present study aims to find out the detailed nature and extent of CH4 emissions from a hydropower reservoir (Tehri) in India. Our results show that all the sampling locations at the reservoir surface and downstream of reservoir were the sources of CH4 emissions to the atmosphere. At the reservoir surface, average CH4 fluxes and bubbling emissions were 16.01 ± 6.1 mg m d and 4.7 ± 7.9 mg m d respectively, whereas downstream emissions in the form of degassing and diffusive fluxes were 7.1 ± 5.5 Mg d and 23.01 ± 4.6 mg m d respectively. Similarly, diffusive fluxes at the drawdown area were in the range of -5.2 to 78 mg m d. These results are comparable to other reservoirs in the tropical ecoregion. Overall, the total emissions vary seasonally with 60% of diffusive fluxes and downstream emissions occurring during 3 to 4 months of summer season. This study also indicates spatiotemporal variation as measured fluxes were different from one location to another due to variability in depth, organic carbon present in the water column and the varying hydrological conditions among different parts of the reservoir. A major portion of total emissions was contributed by degassing at the downstream (70.24%) while only 16.52% of diffusive and 4.4% of bubbling fluxes came from reservoir surface. The tentative annual calculation indicates that Tehri reservoir is a source of CH4 with an annual CH4 emission of about 1.20 Gg yr. The results revealed that the CH4 emissions from Tehri hydropower system were lower than the other tropical hydropower systems, partly due to the higher depth and lower allochthonous organic carbon input from the reservoir
Exploring associations between soundscape assessment, perceived safety and well-being: a pilot field study in Granary Square, London

The number of soundscape studies is growing steadily over time and the discipline as a whole is going through a process of methodological standardization. Yet, more empirical evidence is needed about the benefits of experiencing positive soundscapes for health, well-being and quality of life. In this study, a pilot questionnaire was distributed to 50 users of a public open space in London (Granary Square), which consisted of a standardized protocol for collecting soundscape data (ISO 12913-2:2018, Method A), the World Health Organisation-Five Well-Being questionnaire (WHO-5) and a short protocol to assess perceived safety. Results show that associations between negative soundscape dimensions and lower well-being scores exist at a statistically significant level (p < .05) and other further insights into the relationships between sound perception and perceived safety. By making a stronger case for policy makers and planners, these findings contribute to the discourse of approaching the management of the urban acoustic environments in a proactive rather than reactive way, to promote healthy and supportive urban spaces.
An Overview of wood in rivers

Wood can be used to rehabilitate degraded water bodies (lakes and rivers). However wood has historically been removed from river systems to improve flood protection, inland navigation and drink water quality. These actions reduced and degraded the aquatic habitat of the effected river systems. Rijkswaterstaat is interested in reintroducing wood to rehabilitate the aquatic (and terrestrial) habitat of river systems. In order to successfully reintroduce wood in river systems it is necessary to identify where the wood comes from? How is it transported? How does it accumulate? And what are the effects on stream ecology and geomorphology? This knowledge can be used to determine if already naturally occurring wood in river systems can be managed to achieve the goal of river rehabilitation. If no or too little wood is present in the river system, an engineered solution can be used. This engineered solution is known as Engineered Log Jam (ELJ). These structures use wood as construction material to rehabilitate rivers. The stability, design and implementation of ELJs in rivers is a complex process. This report provides an overview on the identification, classification, importance and management of wood in river systems. Secondly the gives an overview of studies done on the stability of wood in rivers, the design (process) of ELJs and the geomorphological impact of ELJs on river systems. From the studies reviewed in this report it is clear that wood plays an important role in river systems. Wood directly effect river ecology and geomorphology by forming log jams. Proper management of wood is therefore required if one wishes to retain a healthy river system. Where one wishes to (re)introduce wood in a river system using ELJ structures the design process is vital. The first step is to identify the characteristics and properties of the river section. The second step is designing the correct ELJs for the desired goals. The last step is constructing and monitoring the ELJs. Evaluation is important to obtain points of improvement.
Is Selection Necessary for Evolution? A Dynamics of Coastal Population of India

Abstract Nature provides a good opportunity to understand the dynamics of evolution. The country has a huge coastline, which experiences socio-cultural and natural vulnerability. The aim of the paper has been to describe the pattern of selection intensity among the east and west coastal populations of India. Differential fertility and mortality were collected from 2,099 females (mothers) of the western coasts of India, and secondary data were collected from the eastern coast of India for comparison purposes. Selection potential was computed using Crow’s index and Johnston & Kensinger’s index. The data involved a total of 7,512 pregnancies during their reproductive lifespan and the successful outcomes (live births) were 7,073. The total index (It) for eastern coast varied from 0.221 to 1.078. For the west coast, it varied from 0.262 to 0.617. Among the eastern coastal population groups, the mortality component of selection is comparatively higher than its fertility component, while it is just the reverse among the western coastal population groups.
Estimation of the Maturity Date of Soybean Breeding Lines Using UAV-Based Multispectral Imagery

Physiological maturity date is a critical parameter for the selection of breeding lines in soybean breeding programs. The conventional method to estimate the maturity dates of breeding lines uses visual ratings based on pod senescence by experts, which is subjective by human estimation, labor-intensive and time-consuming. Unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV)-based phenotyping systems provide a high-throughput and powerful tool of capturing crop traits using remote sensing, image processing and machine learning technologies. The goal of this study was to investigate the potential of predicting maturity dates of soybean breeding lines using UAV-based multispectral imagery. Maturity dates of 326 soybean breeding lines were taken using visual ratings from the beginning maturity stage (R7) to full maturity stage (R8), and the aerial multispectral images were taken during this period on 27 August, 14 September and 27 September, 2018. One hundred and thirty features were extracted from the five-band multispectral images. The maturity dates of the soybean lines were predicted and evaluated using partial least square regression (PLSR) models with 10-fold cross-validation. Twenty image features with importance to the estimation were selected and their changing rates between each two of the data collection days were calculated. The best prediction (R2 = 0.81, RMSE = 1.4 days) was made by the PLSR model using image features taken on 14 September and their changing rates between 14 September and 27 September with five components, leading to the conclusion that the UAV-based multispectral imagery is promising and practical in estimating maturity dates of soybean breeding lines.
Synthetic Aperture Radar Polarimetry

Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) polarimetry, an important tool in Earth system monitoring, is a relatively new development in the ﬁ eld of remote sensing providing information about physical parameters and geometric properties of the Earth’s surface. Polarimetric SAR provides return measurements in multiple po-larizations/frequencies allowing for the identiﬁ cation of different scattering mechanisms on the Earth’s surface. The polarization information contained in the backscattered wave is directly related to the scatterer´s geometrical structure, its orientation and its geophysical properties (i.e., surface roughness and soil moisture). The correlation of polarimetric SAR to these dialectic properties enable this data to be used in a vast variety of studies including: hydrology, landcover and land use, weathering erosion, and geological mapping. The authors, Van Zyl and Kim, communicate their expertise in this subject mat-ter based on their experience working with this data at the National Aeronautic Space Administration (NASA) Jet Propulsion Laboratory (JPL) in California, USA. In this book a subset of the knowledge was compiled into a reference that is useful to both the newcomer and the expert in radar polarimetry. Synthetic Aperture Radar Polarimetry provides a concise description of the mathematical fundamentals speciﬁ c to this data and is illustrated with examples /case studies of Earth remote sensing.