Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Differences between sapwood and heartwood of thermally modified Norway spruce (Picea abies) and Scots pine (Pinus sylvestris) under water and decay exposure

Thermal modification methods have been developed to increase the biological durability and dimensional stability of wood. The aim of this research was to study the differences between sapwood and heartwood of thermally modified Scots pine (Pinus sylvestis) and Norway spruce (Picea abies) under water and decay exposure. The effects of the modification temperature and wood coating were also examined. Several tests were carried out in the laboratory and field with three different complementary research materials. The main research material consisted of sapwood and heartwood of Scots pine and Norway spruce thermally modified at temperatures of 170oC, 190oC, 210oC and 230oC. The reference materials were untreated sapwood and heartwood of pine and spruce, larch, bangkirai, Western red cedar, merbau and pressure-treated wood materials, depending on the test. Thermal modification decreased the water absorption of sapwood and heartwood of spruce in relation to the modification temperature in a floating test. The water absorption of sapwood and heartwood of pine either decreased or increased, however, depending on the modification temperature. Pine sapwood absorbed more water, and very quickly, than the other wood materials, whilst pine heartwood was the most water-repellent material in the test. In general, the wettability of the thermally modified wood materials measured as contact angles only decreased with samples that had been modified at a very high modification temperature (230oC) compared with the untreated reference wood materials. The decay resistance of thermally modified wood materials was studied in a laboratory brown-rot test with two fungi (Coniophora puteana and Poria placenta) and two incubation times (6 and 10 weeks), and in a soft-rot test with unsterile soil for 32 weeks. The fungal durability was also evaluated after 1, 2 and 9 years of exposure in the lap-joint field test. In general, the thermal modifi-
Knowledge‐Based Information to Improve the Quality of Patient Care

Abstract: Healthcare organizations strive to improve the quality of patient care. Numerous measures, such as Evidence‐Based Practice, Evidence‐Based Management, Magnet Status, Shared Governance, and Patient Safety, rely on current, reliable, and authoritative information to support clinical decision‐making. This article discusses the importance of Knowledge‐Based Information and the role of the qualified librarian in the provision of resources as it relates to these important quality measures.
Survey of hearing disorders in an urban population in Rondonia, Northern Brazil.

OBJECTIVE To identify the prevalence of hearing loss for the population in the urban area. METHODS A cross-sectional household survey based on the World Health Organization Ear and Hearing Disorders Survey Protocol was conducted in 298 households in the urban area of Monte Negro, Rondonia, Northern Brazil, from 2005 to 2007. Ear examinations, behavioral audiometry and pure tone audiometry were conducted on 577 individuals. RESULTS The results showed that 3.8% (95%CI 2.17;5.45) of population were classified in the disabling hearing impairment category. The prevalence of moderate hearing impairment was 3.4%; severe impairment was 0.4%; and profound hearing impairment was not found. CONCLUSIONS The impairing hearing loss prevalence found in this study is within of the international prevalence for this level of hearing loss and smaller than observed in a previous study in the South region of Brazil.
Diastolic Pressure Difference to Classify Pulmonary Hypertension in the Assessment of Heart Transplant Candidates

Background: The diastolic pressure difference (DPD) is recommended to differentiate between isolated postcapillary and combined pre-/postcapillary pulmonary hypertension (Cpc-PH) in left heart disease (PH-LHD). However, in usual practice, negative DPD values are commonly calculated, potentially related to the use of mean pulmonary artery wedge pressure (PAWP). We used the ECG to gate late-diastolic PAWP measurements. We examined the method’s impact on calculated DPD, PH-LHD subclassification, hemodynamic profiles, and mortality. Methods and Results: We studied patients with advanced heart failure undergoing right heart catheterization to assess cardiac transplantation candidacy (N=141). Pressure tracings were analyzed offline over 8 to 10 beat intervals. Diastolic pulmonary artery pressure and mean PAWP were measured to calculate the DPD as per usual practice (diastolic pulmonary artery pressure–mean PAWP). Within the same intervals, PAWP was measured gated to the ECG QRS complex to calculate the QRS-gated DPD (diastolic pulmonary artery pressure–QRS-gated PAWP). Outcomes occurring within 1 year were collected retrospectively from chart review. Overall, 72 of 141 cases demonstrated PH-LHD. Within PH-LHD, the QRS-gated DPD yielded higher calculated DPD values (3 [−1 to 6] versus 0 [−4 to 3] mm Hg; P<0.01) and a greater proportion of Cpc-PH (24% versus 8%; P<0.01) versus the usual practice DPD. Cases reclassified as Cpc-PH based on QRS-gated DPD demonstrated higher pulmonary arterial pressures versus isolated postcapillary pulmonary hypertension (P<0.05). One-year mortality was similar between PH-LHD groups. Conclusions: The DPD calculated in usual practice is underestimated in PH-LHD, which may classify Cpc-PH patients as isolated postcapillary pulmonary hypertension. The QRS-gated DPD reclassifies a subset of PH-LHD patients from isolated postcapillary pulmonary hypertension to Cpc-PH, which is characterized by an adverse hemodynamic profile.
A software architecture for generic human activity recognition from smartphone sensor data

In these last few years, several recent studies have demonstrated the possibility to perform Human Activity Recognition (HAR) by smartphone sensor data, enabling in this way a new generation of context-aware mobile applications. Smartphone-based HAR systems can exploit the full set of embedded sensors beside the accelerometer in order to increase the accuracy of the detection process. At the same time, the practical deployment of such systems can result highly challenging since it must cope with the limited computational resources and the battery constraints of the mobile devices. In this paper, we address such issues by proposing a novel, generic HAR architecture for Android devices. The system design takes into account the energy constraints by: (i) limiting the number of sensors/features used for the recognition process, while still guaranteeing satisfactory performance in terms of activity detection; (ii) allocating the most CPU intensive tasks, like the training and data processing phases, on an external server. At the same time, the system operations automatize the full learning process, simply notifying the user when a new classification model has been installed on the client. We validate the proposed HAR systems on two use-cases, i.e. transportation mode detection and walking mode detection, and we describe an application for indoor floor detection. Measurements show that the overall accuracy of the activity recognition process can be up to 90% for both the use-cases.
Primordial non-Gaussianity in the bispectrum of the halo density field

The bispectrum vanishes for linear Gaussian fields and is thus a sensitive probe of non-linearities and non-Gaussianities in the cosmic density field. Hence, a detection of the bispectrum in the halo density field would enable tight constraints on non-Gaussian processes in the early Universe and allow inference of the dynamics driving inflation. We present a tree level derivation of the halo bispectrum arising from non-linear clustering, non-linear biasing and primordial non-Gaussianity. A diagrammatic description is developed to provide an intuitive understanding of the contributing terms and their dependence on scale, shape and the non-Gaussianity parameter fNL. We compute the terms based on a multivariate bias expansion and the peak-background split method and show that non-Gaussian modifications to the bias parameters lead to amplifications of the tree level bispectrum that were ignored in previous studies. Our results are in a good agreement with published simulation measurements of the halo bispectrum. Finally, we estimate the expected signal to noise on fNL and show that the constraint obtainable from the bispectrum analysis significantly exceeds the one obtainable from the power spectrum analysis.
Macronutrient Intake, Eating Habits, and Exercise as Moderators of Menstrual Distress in Healthy Women

The present investigation studied the relationship between symptoms of menstrual distress and macronutrient intake, eating behavior, and exercise in healthy women.Twenty-six normally menstruating women with no complaints of menstrual distress completed a disguised questionnaire on menstrual symptoms and monitored the type and amount of food consumed as well as the type and duration of exercise during a full menstrual cycle. Menstrual cycle phases were determined by the presence of menses, ovarian hormonal assays, and basal temperature monitoring. Reports of pain, water retention, negative affect, behavior change, and arousal were significantly higher (p <.05 or better) in the perimenstruum when compared to the follicular and luteal phases. During the perimenstruum, a higher energy intake of carbohydrate was associated with higher ratings of negative affect (p <.01) and impaired performance/decreased activity (p <.05). Lower energy intake of protein was associated with higher ratings of well being (p <.05). Overeating and dieting behavior were related to greater water retention (p <.01), autonomic reactions (p <.05), and appetite (p <.05). The amount of aerobic exercise in contrast to the intensity was related to lower water retention (p <.01), autonomic reactions (p <.05), and appetite (p <.01). Carbohydrate consumption, eating behavior, and regular exercise are reliably associated with menstrual distress and deserving of experimental evaluation as treatment interventions for menstrual distress.
Teaching and Learning Vocabulary

The study reported here examines the English language knowledge and performance of bilingual school children of Middle School age in Britain, in particular their acquisition and use of vocabulary. One of the chief premises of the research is that pupils from bilingual minority ethnic backgrounds suffer a major disadvantage while learning from the National Curriculum because they lack the necessary richness of word knowledge, accompanied by the conceptual frameworks expected in learning subjects such as science and geography. Furthermore, it is believed that by raising awareness among teachers and by the adoption of appropriate methods of vocabulary teaching founded on research, the vocabulary learning of bilingual pupils can be greatly increased. The aim of the study is to identify, describe and evaluate methods of vocabulary instruction currently used and to provide recommendations for suitable methods to be introduced. By means of an action research methodology implemented in a middle school, and with the joint participation of some members of staff and some pupils, classroom data was collected over a two and a half year period from teachers of science, geography and English and their pupils, supplemented with semi-structured interviews with teachers and support staff and conversations with children. These data provided material for a detailed analysis of exactly how individual words develop from first introduction into the pupils’ active vocabulary.
Personality change predicts self-reported mental and physical health.

OBJECTIVE Personality dimensions are known to predict mortality and other health outcomes, but almost no research has assessed the effects of changes in personality traits on physical and mental health outcomes. In this article, we examined the effects of changes in the Big Five personality dimensions on health as assessed by the Short Form Health Survey (SF-36). METHOD Respondents were 11,105 Australian adults aged 20-79 years (52.7% female). Latent difference score modeling was used to examine whether personality change over a 4-year period was associated with mental and physical health, and whether these effects were moderated by birth cohort. RESULTS Increases in Conscientiousness and Extraversion were found to be associated with improved mental and physical health, whereas increased Neuroticism was linked with poorer health. The nature of these associations varied significantly by birth cohort. CONCLUSION The findings have implications for understanding how changes in personality traits over time are related to health, and could be used to aid the development of effective health promotion strategies targeted to specific personality traits and birth cohorts.
Identification of different kinds of plastics using laser-induced breakdown spectroscopy for waste management

Laser-Induced Breakdown Spectroscopy (LIBS) was applied for the identification of various kinds of plastics for management and recycling of plastic waste. In order to fingerprint these plastics, a laser-produced plasma emission was recorded for spectral analysis of various kinds of plastics. The plasma was generated by focusing a Nd:YAG laser radiation at wavelength = 1064 nm having laser energy = 40 mJ. The 6 main family of plastics tested are: Low Density Polyethylene (LDPE), High Density Polyethylene (HDPE), Polypropylenes (PP), Polystyrene (PS), Polyethylene Terephthalate (PET) and Polyvinyl chloride (PVC). The capability of this technique is demonstrated by the analysis of the major constituents carbon and hydrogen present in polymer matrices. The LIBS signal intensity measured for carbon and hydrogen was detrimental for the fingerprinting of various kinds of plastics. The C/H line intensity ratio was 1.68, 1.51, 1.42, 1.16, 1.01 and 0.91 for HDPE, LDPE, PS, PP, PET and PVC respectively. The detection limits of carbon and hydrogen were found to be approximately 6 μ g/g by applying 20 laser shots. The unique features of LIBS are: it is a simple, rapid, remote, real-time analysis without sampling requirements. The study demonstrated that LIBS could be applied as a best tool for sorting out different kinds plastics on a fast scale for waste management. The health hazards of different kinds of plastics are also described.
EXTRACTION OF SOLUBLE PHOSPHORUS FROM SWINE WASTEWATER

Manure phosphorus (P) in excess of the assimilative capacity of land available on farms is an environmental concern often associated with confined livestock production. A wastewater treatment process was developed for removal of phosphorus from livestock wastewater. It includes nitrification of wastewater to remove ammonia and carbonate buffers, and increasing the pH of the nitrified wastewater by adding an alkaline earth metal-containing compound to precipitate phosphorus. Since ammonia nitrogen has been mostly converted to nitrate, increased pH does not result in significant gaseous nitrogen loss. The amount of phosphorus removed, and consequently the N:P ratio of the effluent, can be adjusted in this process to match specific crop needs or remediate sprayfields. In addition to the phosphorus removal aspect, the high pH used in the process destroys pathogens in liquid swine manure. The final product is calcium phosphate, which has the potential to be reused as fertilizer or processed to produce phosphate concentrates.
Role of Gut Cryptopatches in Early Extrathymic Maturation of Intestinal Intraepithelial T Cells1

Lympho-hemopoietic progenitors residing in murine gut cryptopatches (CP) have been shown to generate intestinal intraepithelial T cells (IEL). To investigate the role of CP in progenitor maturation, we analyzed IEL in male mice with a truncated mutation of common cytokine receptor γ-chain (CRγ−/Y) in which CP were undetectable. IEL-expressing TCR-γδ (γδ-IEL) were absent, and a drastically reduced number of Thy-1highCD4+ and Thy-1highCD8αβ+ αβ-IEL were present in CRγ−/Y mice, whereas these αβ-IEL disappeared from athymic CRγ−/Y littermate mice. Athymic CRγ−/Y mice possessed a small TCR- and αEβ7 integrin-negative IEL population, characterized by the disappearance of the extrathymic CD8αα+ subset, that expressed pre-Tα, RAG-2, and TCR-Cβ but not CD3ε transcripts. These TCR− IEL from athymic CRγ−/Y mice did not undergo Dβ-Jβ and Vδ-Jδ joinings, despite normal rearrangements at the TCR-β and -δ loci in thymocytes from euthymic CRγ−/Y mice. In contrast, athymic severe combined immunodeficient mice in which CP developed normally possessed two major TCR−αEβ7+ CD8αα+ and CD8− IEL populations that expressed pre-Tα, RAG-2, TCR-Cβ, and CD3ε transcripts. These findings underscore the role of gut CP in the early extrathymic maturation of CD8αα+ IEL, including cell-surface expression of αEβ7 integrin, CD3ε gene transcription, and TCR gene rearrangements.
UvA-DARE ( Digital Academic Repository ) Intergenerational risk sharing within funded pension schemes

We study risk sharing between generations for a variety of realistic collective funded pension schemes, where pension benefits and contributions may depend on the funding ratio and the asset returns. The collective pension schemes organizing intergenerational risk sharing are optimized with respect to the generosity of pension benefits, the asset allocation and the risk allocation rules. We perform a welfare comparison between the collective plans with intergenerational risk sharing and the optimal individual benchmark. We show that well-structured intergenerational risk sharing can be welfare-enhancing vis-a-vis the benchmark. Furthermore, from an ex ante perspective the expected welfare gain of the current entry cohort is not at the cost of the older and future cohorts.
The Stability of the Cdc6 Protein Is Regulated by Cyclin-dependent Kinase/Cyclin B Complexes inSaccharomyces cerevisiae *

The Saccharomyces cerevisiae Cdc6 protein is necessary for the formation of prereplicative complexes that are a prerequisite for firing origins during DNA replication in the S phase. In budding yeast, the presence of Cdc6 protein is normally restricted to the G1 phase of the cell cycle, at least partly because of its proteolytic degradation in the late G1/early S phase. Here we show that a Cdc28-dependent mechanism targets p57 CDC6 for degradation in mitotic-arrested budding yeast cells. Consistent with this observation, Cdc6–7 and Cdc6–8 proteins, mutants lacking Cdc28 phosphorylation sites, are stabilized relative to wild-type Cdc6. Our data also suggest a correlation between the absence of Cdc28/Clb kinase activity and Cdc6 protein stabilization, because a drop in Cdc28/Clb-associated kinase activity allows mitotic-arrested cells to accumulate Cdc6 protein. Finally, we also show that cdc28temperature-sensitive G1 mutants accumulate Cdc6 protein because of a post-transcriptional mechanism. Our data suggest that budding yeast cells target Cdc6 for degradation through a Cdc28-dependent mechanism in each cell cycle.
Does antihypertensive therapy improve the function of the vascular endothelium?

Chronic treatment of genetically hypertensive rats with the angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitor cilazapril reduces the hypertrophic changes of the vasculature that accompany the progression of the disease 1 . Other antihypertensive agents such as the peripheral vasodilator hydralazine are less effective. In the accompanying article, Clozel et al 2 extend the investigation of the antihypertensive effects of angiotensin converting enzyme inhibitors to the function of the vascular endothelium in spontaneously hypertensive rats
Determinants of Bank selection : A study of undergraduate students in the University of Ghana

Purpose: The aim of this study is twofold: first, to investigate bank selection criteria among undergraduate students in the University of Ghana, and second, to relate this study with previous findings on the same phenomenon. Design/methodology/approach: Extant studies have adopted mainly quantitative approach. In order to bridge this gap and contribute to existing knowledge, qualitatively inspired research design was adopted, thus facilitating in-depth understanding of the determinants of bank selection. Findings: findings show that convenience, bank staff-customer relations and banking services/financial benefits are the first three most important determining factors. Furthermore, happiness, joyfulness, cheerfulness and delight are feelings derived after a banking service; whiles sadness, anger and deceit are avoided. Originality/value: studies on the bank selection criteria employed by undergraduates are scanty in West Africa, and this study makes a contribution in that direction. Future studies will continue from this one.
Low-Voltage and High-Speed Operations of 30-nm-Gate Pseudomorphic $\hbox{In}_{0.52}\hbox{Al}_{0.48}\hbox{As}/\hbox{In}_{0.7}\hbox{Ga}_{0.3} \hbox{As}$ HEMTs Under Cryogenic Conditions

In this letter, we fabricated 30-nm-gate pseudomorphic In0.52 Al0.48As/In0.7Ga0. 3As HEMTs with multilayer cap structures to reduce source and drain parasitic resistances; we measured their dc and radio-frequency characteristics at 300, 77, and 16 K under various bias conditions. The maximum cutoff frequency fT was 498 GHz at 300 K and 577 GHz at 77 K. The maximum fT exceeded 600 GHz at 16 K. Even at a drain-source voltage V ds of 0.4 V, we obtained an fT of 500 GHz at 16 K. This indicates that cryogenic HEMTs are favorable for low-voltage and high-speed operations. Furthermore, the present 30-nm-gate HEMTs at 300 K show almost the same fT values at the same dc-power dissipation as compared to 85-nm-gate InSb-channel HEMTs. The improvement of the maximum-oscillation-frequency f max values was also observed at 77 and 16 K.
The Effects of Combined Strength and Endurance Training on Running Performance the Following Day

This study examined running economy (RE) during a two-stage incremental protocol that was combined into an endurance training session 6 hours following a strength training session. In addition, this study investigated running performance which consisted of a two-stage RE protocol and time to exhaustion (TTE) the day after strength and endurance training sessions undertaken on the same day. Twelve trained and moderately trained male runners performed strength and endurance training sessions 6 hours apart with running performance tests conducted the following day. Cost of running (CR) and rate of perceived exertion (RPE) were collected during the endurance training session whereas CR, RPE and TTE were collected during the running performance test. Maximal voluntary contraction (MVC) tests were conducted prior to and following the strength and endurance training sessions and the running performance tests. The results showed that CR significantly increased during the second stage of the endurance training session (p<0.05). During the running performance test, significant increases were found for CR during the first and second stages and for RPE during the second and third stages (p<0.05). The MVC was significantly reduced immediately following the strength training sessions, pre-post the endurance training session, and running performance test (p<0.05). The findings in the current study show that RE is impaired 6 hours following a strength training session. Furthermore, combined strength and endurance training on the same day appears to cause an accumulation effect of fatigue which impairs running performance the following day.