Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of Internet-Based Learning in Public Health Training: An Exploratory Meta-Analysis.

Internet-based learning is increasingly applied in medical education, but its effect in the field of public health training is still unclear. This meta-analysis was undertaken to explore the impact of Internet-based learning on students/professionals’ knowledge of public health compared with no intervention and with traditional face-to-face (FTF) formats. Two reviewers independently searched Medline, Web of Science, ProQuest, Google scholar, ERIC and Elsevier databases for relevant studies between 1st January, 1990 and 30th December, 2016. Studies in English language providing information on educational outcomes after Internet-based training in public health courses compared with no-intervention or a pre-intervention assessment, or with FTF control group were retrieved, reviewed, and assessed according to the established inclusion/exclusion criteria in the current study. There were 16 eligible studies with 1183 participants in total. Heterogeneity in results was detected across studies. A random effects model was used to pool effect sizes for knowledge outcomes. The pooled effect size (standardized mean difference, SMD) in comparison to no intervention was 1.92 (95% CI: 1.05 to 2.78; P<0.0001), favoring Internet-based interventions. Compared with FTF formats, the pooled effect size was 0.39 (95% CI: -0.06 to 0.83; P=0.09). The study suggested that Internet-based learning was superior to no-intervention in improving students/professionals’ public health knowledge. Compared with traditional FTF formats, Internet-based learning showed a similar effect.
A Bottom-Up Approach to Linguistic Persuasion in Advertising: Predicting and explaining the effects of TV ads using automated text analysis

This paper presents a new, bottom-up approach to modeling the effects of television advertising on vote intention. Because ads are so numerous and varied, existing studies generally begin with a specific theory of persuasion, or must simplify the data down to a few latent dimensions or effective ads. Instead, this new approach first develops a one-at-a-time regression technique to estimate the effects of hundreds of different ads on vote intention during the 2004 presidential campaign. The aggregate effect of advertising is found to be significant, though many individual ads have small or backfiring effects. To explain these varying effects, new automated text analysis procedures are developed which can predict the effects of ads based only on their text, and reveal complex and asymmetric strategies that mix affect, policies, issue ownership, negativity, and targeting. This bottom-up procedure constitutes a new method for understanding persuasion in campaigns and politics more broadly. ∗Email: nb2389@columbia.edu; web: nickbeauchamp.com. For their helpful comments on this paper or a presentation of it, the author would like to thank: Jonathan Nagler, Michael Laver, Nathaniel Beck, Arthur Spirling, Gary King, Burt Monroe, Adam Bonica, Alex Herzog, the participants at the Saint Louis Area Methods Meeting, and the faculty and students at NYU.
INCREASED ENERGY YIELD OF 50% AT FLAT ROOF AND FIELD INSTALLATIONS WITH OPTIMIZED MODULE STRUCTURES

We normally choose a tilt angle greater than zero for photovoltaic modules at flat roof and field installations. This increases the energy yield and decreases the losses due to module dirtying compared to horizontal systems. If we set up the modules in several rows behind each other, there will be mutual shading between the modules when the sun is low. For this reason we can only use a part of the available area at flat roof and field installations. We need a minimum distance between the module rows. In this paper we estimate the losses for different row distances and tilt angles. In addition to that we discuss how to optimize module structures to decrease the losses due to mutual shading. If we use the optimized module structures, we can minimize these losses, we can reduce the distance between module rows and we can increase the energy yield per area up to 50 %. Keywords: PV Module - 1: Module Manufacturing - 2: Roofing Systems - 3
Experiments on human incremental parsing

Experiments have been conducted in which the subjects incrementally constructed dependency trees of Russian sentences. The subject was successively presented with growing initial segments of a sentence, and had to draw syntactic links between the last word of the segment and the previous words. The subject was also shown a limited right context – a fixed number of words following the last word of the segment. The results of the experiments show that the right context of 1 or 2 words is sufficient for confident incremental parsing of Russian narrative sentences.
Forging Ahead: How to Thrive at the Modern Workplace

Thriving at work is an emerging phenomenon in recent times, which is defined as a psychological state in which individuals experience both the senses of vitality and learning. Researchers and practitioners are looking for ways to enhance the employee’s thriving at work, because it is associated with behavioral outcomes. The objective of this study is to empirically investigate the impact of contextual factors including organizational support, fairness perception, supervisor support, and civility at workplace on the employee’s thriving at work. Furthermore, it also looks upon the impact of individual differences like proactive personality on the employee’s thriving. The empirical findings have been drawn through a survey questionnaire using purposive sampling technique from employees of different organizations. The study discusses the results and draws several insights on the employee’s thriving at the workplace. The study also provides implication for theory and practice. Limitations and future research directions have also been discussed.
CMAR_A_167708 4519..4528

Department of Urology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan Abstract: The prognosis of patients with unresectable or metastatic urothelial carcinoma (UC) is poor. Platinum-based chemotherapy has been the standard first-line treatment in these patients for the past decade; however, the 5-year overall survival (OS) rate is only 13–22%. Recent advances in cancer immunology research have highlighted the pivotal role of the immune system in cancer development and progression, and new immune checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs) have demonstrated efficacy in a large variety of tumors including UC. Currently, five ICIs, including two anti-PD-1 antibodies (pembrolizumab and nivolumab) and three anti-PD-L1 antibodies (atezolizumab, avelumab, and durvalumab), have been granted approval by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for patients with unresectable or metastatic UC who recurred or progressed after platinum-based chemotherapy. Among these agents, only pembrolizumab is supported by strong evidence from a large randomized Phase III trial (KEYNOTE-045). This trial demonstrated statistically significant improvements in OS for patients assigned to the pembrolizumab arm compared with the chemotherapy arm, both in the total population (HR 0.73; P=0.002) and in the population with high PD-L1 expression (HR 0.57; P=0.005). For patients with cisplatin-ineligible UC, pembrolizumab and atezolizumab were approved based on Phase II studies, with limitations on the use of these agents in patients with high tumor PD-L1 expression later imposed by the FDA. In conclusion, pembrolizumab may be a potential first-choice second-line therapy for unresectable or metastatic UC patients following platinum-based chemotherapy. Several Phase III trials are ongoing to evaluate the efficacy and toxicity of combination therapies of ICIs with chemotherapy, and ICIs with other ICIs with or without chemotherapy as firstline therapy. The results of these trials might redirect treatment strategies for patients with unresectable or metastatic UC.
A brief review on some medicinal plants of Uttarakhand

Uttarakhand State endowed with a rich diversity of medicinal plants as well as a rich heritage of traditional medicine system. Medicinal plants acquired a dominant role in agronomy production, pharmacy and exportation because of their increased use as a raw material for the pharmaceutical industry and in the everyday life. The present article aims at reviewing the most remarkable reports on pharmacology, phytochemistry and biological activities of some medicinal plant of Uttarakhand.
Schmiedeberg Evaluation of Cluster Policy : A Methodological Overview

Cluster policy is increasingly becoming part of many governments’ economic policy strategies. At the same time, evidence-based policy-making is gaining importance, bringing about a call for policy evaluation. Since the quality of the evaluation results depends highly on the method used, data, assumptions and techniques must be adequate for the specific evaluation question. This holds for cluster policy evaluation in particular, given the complexity and indirect nature of cluster policy interventions. This article provides an overview of evaluation methods suited to the ex-post analysis of cluster policy, covering both microand macroeconomic approaches.
The effect of Withania coagulans as a coagulant on the quality and sensorial properties of Tofu

Tofu is a nutritional, gel-like soy food. The present study was carried out to investigate the effects of Withania coagulans extract on the soymilk coagulation for producing tofu. For this purpose, soymilk was coagulated by W. coagulans extract, and the properties of the prepared tofu were analyzed. The results indicate that the extract of W. coagulans as a coagulant significantly (p<0.05) reduced yield and moisture content when compared with calcium sulfate tofu, but fat and protein contents of W. coagulans tofu and calcium sulfate tofu were the same. Results of sensory evaluation show that the sensorial properties of W. coagulans tofu are not different from that of calcium sulfate tofu. In this way, it was concluded that the extract of W. coagulans fruits could be used as a natural coagulant in coagulation processes of soymilk. Key words: Withania coagulans soymilk, tofu, coagulant, syneresis.
Response of Garlic (Allium sativum L.) Yield, Volatile Oil and Nitrate Content to Foliar and Soil Application of Potassium Fertilizer under Sandy Soil Conditions

The study was conducted on garlic under sandy soil conditions, during the two successive winter seasons of 2013/2014 and 2014/2015 at El-Kattara Experimental Farm, Faculty of Agriculture, Zagazig University, Sharkia Governorate, Egypt. It aims to evaluate the impact of six graded levels of potassium (0.0, 25, 50, 75, 100 and 125 kg K2O /fed.) as potassium sulphate applied to the soil with or without potassium foliar spray (0.0 and 0.5% K2O) on plant growth, bulbs yield as well as content of volatile oil and nitrate in garlic (Allium sativum L.) plants cv. Sids-40. Under the influence of the relatively high dose of potassium applied to the soil (100 kg K2O /fed.) + 0.0 % K2O foliar spray or the moderate rate (75 kg K2O /fed.) + 0.5% K2O foliar spray, the total yield of garlic plant was at its maximum values compared with the control and other interaction treatments. With increasing potassium rates added to the soil combined with K2O as foliar spray at 0.0 or 0.5%, the volatile oil content was increased, while nitrate content was significantly reduced compared to the control treatment. In addition, plant growth, TSS, Vitamin C content and potassium uptake was significantly enhanced due to the applications of higher levels of potassium fertilizer. Depending on the response curve and regression analysis it was found that the optimum rate of potassium was found to be 111 and 92 kg K2O/feddan for unsprayed and sprayed plants, respectively. It gave the maximum values of bulb yield being 9.76 and 9.99 ton /feddan in the case of absence and presence of potassium foliar spray, respectively.
A new approach for landslide-induced damage assessment

ABSTRACT The accurate evaluation of landslide-induced damage is a necessity for planning of proper and effective mitigation measures. It requires the implementation of field investigations to identify structural failures to more effectively trace landslide boundaries. Many methods have been proposed to classify landslide-induced damage of buildings. The existing methods demonstrate several advantages and drawbacks depending on the parameters considered, as lack of some important features and difficulties in applicability. A new classification approach of landslide-induced damage of facilities is proposed, which specifically focuses on assessing of damage degree and its relationship to the ground motion intensity and impact severity. The new approach is designed in two steps: a chart utilized during surveys to quantify cracks on structures and ground surface; an a posteriori ranking of structures performed using a cell-grid matrix. Furthermore, a damage recording scheme useful for field surveying is proposed. This approach considers several parameters derived from different existing methodologies by smoothing out drawbacks and homogenizing the considered features. The resulting approach provides a new procedure of landslide-induced damage assessment adoptable in case of private dwellings, as it does not require internal accessibility, and it is exploitable for different landslide events and for different kinds of structures and facilities.
Prevalence and associated risk factors for soil transmitted Helminth infections among Urban Dwellers, Amanuel Town, Northwest Ethiopia

Infection by soil transmitted helminthes has been increasingly recognized as an important public health problem in poor and developing countries. To initiate prevention and control measures for these neglected diseases, adequate information is required among high risk group. The objective of this study was to determine the prevalence and associated risk factors for soil transmitted helminth infections among urban dwellers in Amanuel, east Gojjam, Ethiopia. A cross-sectional study, involving 403 individuals, was carried out in Amanuel between November 2010 and January 2011. A structured questionnaire and observation for demographic and associated risk factors for soil transmitted helminthes (STHs) infections were used for data collection. Stool samples were collected in plastic containers from each participant and transported to Amanuel Health center for parasitological examination. Both direct wet smear and former-ether sedimentation concentration techniques were used to determine the presence of helminthes eggs. The overall prevalence of STH infections was 46.2% (186/403). Hookworm infection was the predominant soil transmitted helminth infections, which was detected in 77(19.1%) followed by A. lumbricoides which was infected 52(13%) of the study subjects. T. trichuria was the least prevalent geo-helminth infection, detected in only 23 (5.7%) of the study subjects. Majorities, 152(37.7%), had single infection. Double infection occurred in 25(6.2%) of the study subjects and only 9(2.2%) had multiple infection. The prevalence of soil transmitted helminthes was generally high in school age children and low in infants. The common predictors of STH infections in the study, among others, were poor personal hygienic conditions, less frequent wearing shoes habit, soil contacting occupation risk, and lack of hand washing habit after using toilet. On the basis of this result, it can be concluded that STH infection is an important problem among the community of Amanuel town. Therefore, it is recommended that education on personal and environmental hygiene should be taken into account to reduce the prevalence of STH infections. Moreover, school age children and other risk groups should receive regular treatment to control the transmissions of STH infections.
Exploring Predictors of Sense of Belonging in Trinidad and Tobago

Abstract:Over the past two decades, Trinidad and Tobago has promoted explosive expansion of tertiary education. As with many growing postsecondary education systems, this increase in tertiary enrollment has led to the development of student support services (Haddad & Altbach, 2009). The field of student services is growing throughout the Caribbean (Reynolds, 2008), but there is currently little research on the role of student services in fostering students’ sense of belonging specific to the Caribbean cultural context. Using data from over 900 students at the University of Trinidad and Tobago, we examined students’ sense of belonging in the context of T&T. Findings point to the key role that student services professionals play in promoting students’ sense of belonging, but the limited interactions that students are having with student services staff and key differences by students’ race, religion, program level, and major should be noted. We also identified the indirect role of cocurricular engagement in promoting sense of belonging and the main barriers that prevent students from participating in more cocurricular activities. These findings have important implications for the work of student services professionals in T&T and also expand our understanding of constructs, such as student engagement and sense of belonging, ideas that have been well-researched in the US to a very different tertiary education system.
Monitoring of the sediment dynamics along a sandy shoreline by means of airborne hyperspectral remote sensing and LIDAR: a case study in Belgium

Airborne hyperspectral data and airborne laserscan or LIDAR data were applied to analyse the sediment transport and the beach morphodynamics along the Belgian shoreline. Between 2000 and 2004, four airborne acquisitions were performed with both types of sensor. The hyperspectral data were classified into seven sand type classes following a supervised classification approach, in which feature selection served to reduce the number of bands in the hyperspectral data. The seven classes allowed us to analyse the spatial dynamics of specific sediment volumes. The technique made it possible to distinguish the sand used for berm replenishment works or for beach nourishments from the sand naturally found on the backshore and the foreshore. Subtracting sequential DTMs (digital terrain models) resulted in height difference maps indicating the erosion and accretion zones. The combination of both data types, hyperspectral data and LIDAR data, provides a powerful tool, suited to analyse the dynamics of sandy shorelines. The technique was demonstrated on three sites along the Belgian shoreline: Koksijde, located on the West Coast and characterized by wide accretional beaches, influenced by dry berm replenishment works and the construction of groins; Zeebrugge, on the Middle Coast, where a beach nourishment was executed one year before the acquisitions started and where the dams of the harbour of Zeebrugge are responsible for the formation of a large accretional beach, and Knokke‐Heist, located on the East Coast and characterized by narrow, locally reflective, beaches, heavily influenced by nourishment activities. The methodology applied allowed retrieval of the main sediment transport directions as well as the amount of sediment transported. It proved to be specifically suited to follow up the redistribution and the re‐sorting of the fill in beach nourishment areas. Copyright © 2007 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Bonus--malus systems with different claim types and varying deductibles

The paper deals with bonus-malus systems with different claim types and varying deductibles. The premium relativities are softened for the policyholders who are in the malus zone and these policyholders are subject to per claim deductibles depending on their levels in the bonus-malus scale and the types of the reported claims. We introduce such bonus-malus systems and study their basic properties. In particular, we investigate when it is possible to introduce varying deductibles, what restrictions we have and how we can do this. Moreover, we deal with the special case where varying deductibles are applied to the claims reported by policyholders occupying the highest level in the bonus-malus scale and consider two allocation principles for the deductibles. Finally, numerical illustrations are presented.
Answering Naturally: Factoid to Full length Answer Generation

In recent years, the task of Question Answering over passages, also pitched as a reading comprehension, has evolved into a very active research area. A reading comprehension system extracts a span of text, comprising of named entities, dates, small phrases, etc., which serve as the answer to a given question. However, these spans of text would result in an unnatural reading experience in a conversational system. Usually, dialogue systems solve this issue by using template-based language generation. These systems, though adequate for a domain specific task, are too restrictive and predefined for a domain independent system. In order to present the user with a more conversational experience, we propose a pointer generator based full-length answer generator which can be used with most QA systems. Our system generates a full length answer given a question and the extracted factoid/span answer without relying on the passage from where the answer was extracted. We also present a dataset of 315000 question, factoid answer and full length answer triples. We have evaluated our system using ROUGE-1,2,L and BLEU and achieved 74.05 BLEU score and 86.25 Rogue-L score.
Evaluation of Mutual Coupling in Four-Phase SR Motors

To evaluate the Switched Reluctance (SR) motor design and performance properly, an accurate magnetic model is required. However the SR motor has significant mutual inductances between adjacent phases, which are normally ignored in present design. In this paper the mutual coupling between phases especially of an off phase has been obtained from a 4-phase 8/6 SR motor. The coupling between phases of the 4-phase SR motor is examined by exciting only two phases from the power converter and observing the voltages on the terminals of the remaining two phases which are open circuited. The approach to the problem is initially experimental aimed at recording the mutually induced voltage waveform for a variety of torques and speeds. This is followed by a more theoretical consideration of mutual effects, to find a theoretical basis for the observed voltages.
Variation of commercially important characteristics among sampling sites for vicuña (Vicugna vicugna mensalis) fleeces.

The aim was to evaluate variations in important commercial characteristics of vicuna fibre, and to determine the best areas for sampling and classification of vicuna fleece. Fibre samples were taken from 30 vicuna (males = 15, females = 15; adults = 10, juveniles = 10, cria = 10) at 12 body sites: neck (N), forelimb (FL), hindlimb (HL), anterior saddle (AS1, AS2 and AS3), central saddle (CS1, CS2 and CS3) and posterior saddle (PS1, PS2 and PS3). Samples were taken during the annual capture of vicuna (chaku), at Saccsalla (4700 m above sea level), the Research Center of South American Camelids, at Lachocc (Huancavelica, Peru), and part of the National University Huancavelica (UNH). The fibre samples were examined with the Optical Fibre Diameter Analyzer (OFDA2000) at the UNH Laboratory of wools and fibres. Results indicate that the source of variation among regions is relatively high (> 30%) for the average fibre diameter (AFD), the coefficient of variation of fibre diameter (CVD), the spinning fineness (SF) and fibre curvature (FC). There was evidence that age, gender and sampling site affected these fibre characteristics. It was determined that the area CS3 (located 10 cm from the dorsal linear on the 10th rib, near the mid back) was the best site sampling for ADF and SF studies. This result differs from earlier reports on the best sampling site to evaluate fleeces of alpacas, sheep and Angora goats.