Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The use of risk-based discrete choice experiments to capture preferences over health states

Discrete choice experiments (DCEs) allow a number of characteristics to be tradedoff against one another. An overriding methodological challenge faced is how best to apply DCEs to questions involving those attributes commonly used in value elicitation exercises such as risk, time (Bansback et al. 2012) and numbers treated (Robinson et al, 2010). Flynn (2010) concluded that in developing the methods, it was important to understand more fully the preferences of individual respondents. The study reported here sets out to provide such insights by enhancing a DCE design with additional questions that allow utility values to be derived at the individual level also. The DCE presented respondents with eight pairwise risky choices to estimate aggregate utility values for three EQ-5D health states, ranging from mild to severe. The design allowed the elicitation of utility values for worse-than-dead states. Risk was represented using the stimulus used by EuroVaQ (http://research.ncl.ac.uk/eurovaq/). Three main devices were used to collect additional individual level data. Firstly we included six additional DCE questions that were not used to estimate the aggregate DCE model but allowed the utility value of one health state to be estimated at the level of the individual. These six questions provided more extensive tests of the internal consistency of the pairwise choices undertaken in the DCE. Secondly, respondents were asked three questions where the risk in one of the two treatments was fixed, and they set the risk of the other treatment (a modified SG question). These questions then allowed us to estimate utility values for all three health states. Finally, we collected respondents risk attitudes using Kuilen and Wakker’s 2011 measure. 3 We collected data on a convenient sample of 59 students studying Economics or Geography at the University of London and Exeter in 2011/12. Preliminary results show that 22 of the 59 respondents gave a series of DCE responses that were internally inconsistent. We report here the implications of the results for the inclusion of risk as an attribute in DCEs and for preference elicitation more broadly.
Evaluation of Trihalomethanes Formation Using Combined Process Coagulation/flocculation/membranes in Water Treatment

The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficiency of the combined process coagulation/flocculation followed by ultrafiltration and a chlorination step using natural coagulant Moringa oleifera Lam in replacement to conventional treatment on the THM formation. Assays were carried out using Pirapo River Basin raw water, low turbidity (50 NTU). Coagulation/flocculation assays were initially performed in Jar-test using saline solution (NaCl – 1M) from M. oleifera seeds (MO) as coagulant with dosages range from 10 to 60 mg.L-1 and polyaluminum chloride (PAC) as chemical coagulant with dosages range from 7 to 12 mg.L-1. In membrane filtration step, ultrafiltration polyethersulfone membrane was used with 1bar operation pressure. Chlorination step was performed with sodium hypochlorite (1.5 mg.L-1) during 30 min to 8 h. The parameters analyzed were color, turbidity, UV254nm, dissolved organic carbon (DOC), total trihalomethanes (TTHM) and free chlorine. TTHM produced was evaluated by gas chromatography. The optimal dosage for PAC and MO coagulants were 9.5 and 50 mg.L-1. After the chlorination step, TTHM residual increased lower using MO (9.3 μg.L-1) than PAC (32 μg.L-1), remaining in according to legislation (100 μg.L-1). The coagulation/flocculation pre-treatment for both coagulants minimized the fouling formation in UF process.
THE PREVALENCE AND RISK OF MUSCULOSKELETAL DISORDERS AMONG DENTAL TECHNICIANS IN SOUTH AFRICA. Student:

v TABLE OF CONTENTS . vii LIST OF TABLES . x LIST OF FIGURES . xi LIST OF ACRONYMS.xii DEFINITION OF TERMS . xiii APPENDICES.xiv CHAPTER 1 .
Examining the five-stage e-moderating model: designed and emergent practice in the learning technology profession

This paper highlights the need for learning technologists to establish their 'academic legitimacy' within the complexities of online learning and teaching practice. Frameworks such as the 'five stage e-moderating model' can be useful in developing the knowledge base but there are dangers in them becoming too reified within an increasingly commodified higher education (HE) environment. The paper calls for greater professional reflexivity and contestation within learning technology practice and concludes by inviting the ALT-J readership to engage in a critical debate with regard to these issues. DOI:10.1080/0968776030110106
WORKING PAPER SERIES No . 1 / 2010 ASYMMETRIC UNEMPLOYMENT RATE DYNAMICS IN AUSTRALIA

The unemployment rate in Australia is modelled as an asymmetric and nonlinear function of aggregate demand, productivity, real interest rates, the replacement ratio, and the real exchange rate. If changes in unemployment are big, the management of of demand, real interest rates and the replacement ratio will be good policy instruments to start bringing it down. The model is developed by exploiting recent developments in automated model-selection procedures.
Staff Nurses Perception Toward Organizational Culture and Its Relation to Innovative Work Behavior at Critical Care Units

Background: Health care organization culture can influenced by its ability to manage human resources and has a strong impact on its performance. Aim: the study aimed to assess staff nurses perception toward organizational culture and its relation to their innovative work behavior at critical care units. Setting: The study was conducted in critical care units at Benha University Hospital. Research design: descriptive correlation design was utilized to conduct this study. Sample: Convenience sample consisted of 76 nurses who worked at the previously mentioned setting. Tools: Two tools were used for data collection; (a) organizational culture assessment questionnaire and (b) Innovative work behavior scale. Results: the study showed that, the highest mean score of nurses perception regarding organizational culture was related to organizational learning (2.51±19.15), while the lowest mean score was related to creating change (12.10±3.26). Also, the highest mean score of innovative work behavior were related to idea championing and idea implementation (8.46±1.91 and 12.30±2.76). Conclusion: more than half of staff nurses had positive perception regarding organizational culture, half of staff nurses had high innovative work behavior and there is a significant correlation between staff nurses perception regard organization culture and their innovative work behavior. Recommendations: it recommended that, enhance nurses organizational learning through designated in-service educational programs, reduce staff nurses resistance to change through communication and support innovation as a job requirement.
Heterogeneity on Team Shared Values The Culturally Intelligent Team : The Impact of Team Cultural Intelligence and Cultural

This study examines how the cultural heterogeneity of work teams moderates the way in which team cultural intelligence (CQ) affects the development of team shared values. Utilizing the fourfactor model of CQ, we predict how each facet of CQ will impact the development of shared values in relatively early stages of team development differently for culturally homogeneous versus culturally heterogeneous work teams. We operationalize team shared values as the degree to which a broad set of cultural values are similarly endorsed by team members as guiding principles when working in their team. Results show that behavioral and metacognitive CQ had a positive effect on shared values in culturally heterogeneous teams; however, motivational and metacognitive CQ had a negative effect on shared values in culturally homogeneous teams. All effects were observed in the early stages of team development. Having uncovered positive and negative effects of CQ for shared values in work teams, we discuss implications for theory and practice around this form of cultural competence.
Social entrepreneurship: a measurement instrument

The study of social entrepreneurship has shown increased development recently particularly emphasising the conceptual and qualitative perspectives, resulting in literature that shows a gap in the lack of a measurement instrument to assess this phenomenon. This uncovers an opportunity to develop a scale to measure the main characteristic and challenge of social entrepreneurship, which is the management of the duality of objectives presented in meeting economic and social aims. The purpose of this study is to develop a scale that measures the social and economic orientations of entrepreneurship in the context of an emerging economy in Latin America.
Fertilizing capacity of transgenic and non-transgenic rabbit spermatozoa after heterospermic insemination

The aim of this study was to evaluate fertilizing capacity of transgenic and non-transgenic rabbits from 3 rabbit breeds (NZW, Californian and Marder) after heterospermic insemination using phenotypic (white, black and white, and blue) and genotypic (transgene – hFVIII gene) markers. Semen from males was used to make pools of 3 males (one of each breed) and to perform heterospermic insemination. Insemination was carried out in hormonally treated young females with about 10 million of spermatozoa per insemination dose (1.0 ml). Although each female was inseminated with approximately the same number of spermatozoa, sperm from one transgenic male (NZW) was dominant, significant difference was observed in the offspring among the males with similar semen quality (53% vs. 30-17%, P<0.01-0.001). Based on our results we can conclude that transgenesis had no effect on fertilizing capacity of transgenic spermatozoa during heterospermic insemination.
ON HOMOGENIZATION EFFECTS ON PHASE TRANSITION PROBLEMS

In uiduid phase transitions problems featuring small scale heterogeneity, we see that when the scale heterogeneity is su ciently small, the periodic potential function W (x, p) can be replaced with a homogenized potential function WH(p). This allows for a reduction to a problem already studied by Fonseca and Tartar [6]. In particular, we see an isotropic transition potential, in contrast with the case where the scales are roughly comensurate [4]. This note is intended as a prelude to a more complete analysis of the full range of scales.
Expression of Insulin-like Growth Factor-I in Skeletal Muscle of Transgenic Swine

Although growth hormone is considered the primary growth-promoting hormone in mammals, many of its effects are thought to be mediated by insulin-like growth factor-I (IGF-I), which is a potent mitogen that stimulates cell proliferation and synthesis of DNA and protein. The aim of this research was to determine whether directing expression of IGF-I specifically to striated muscle would enhance lean muscle growth in swine. Transgenic pigs were produced by microinjection of zygotes with a fusion gene consisting of the regulatory sequences of an avian skeletal α-actin gene and a cDNA encoding human IGF-I. All but one of 13 transgenic pigs expressed the IGF-I transgene. Muscle IGF-I concentrations varied from 20 to 1702 ng g21 muscle in transgenic pigs compared with less than 10 ng g21 muscle in control pigs. Muscle IGF-I concentrations were in general agreement with abundance of IGF-I mRNA on Northern blots. Serum IGF-I concentrations in transgenic pigs (160 ± 6.8 ng ml21) did not differ from that of littermate control pigs (143 ± 6.5 ng ml21). Daily weight gain from 20 to 60 kg body weight was similar for transgenic and littermate control pigs (865 ± 29.6 g vs. 876 ± 18.9 g day21). Body composition of eight transgenic and eight control pigs was estimated by X-ray absorptiometry (DXA) scanning at 60 kg body weight. The DXA results indicated transgenic female pigs had significantly less fat and more lean tissue than female littermate controls (P <0.05 for each). However, body composition of transgenic and control boars did not differ. Subsequently nine of ten founders transmitted their transgene to G1 progeny, which will be used for evaluation of growth rate, feed efficiency and carcass composition. Transgenic and control pigs did not differ in general appearance, and no gross abnormalities, pathologies or health-related problems were encountered. Based on these results we conclude that enhancing IGF-I specifically in skeletal muscle may have a positive effect on carcass composition of swine.
Protein and Mineral Compositions of Some Local Fishes of Tripura, India

In this study, eight fish species namely, A. mola, E. danricus, P. sophore, C. fasciata, L. bata, C. catla, L. rohita and C. mrigala from Tripura were analyzed for protein and mineral compositions in their dried form as limited study is available in this line. The specimens were collected live, processed and oven-dried before analysing them in triplicate using standard procedures. All fishes irrespective of major, medium and small indigenous species were found nutritive even in their dried state. Protein and mineral contents showed significant variations among the species. Protein content varied from 39.37% (C. lalia) to 75.43% (L. bata). Phosphorus content varied from 0.09% (P. sophore) to 0.54% (C. fasciata), potassium from 0.28% (C. fasciata) to 0.95% (P. sophore) and calcium from 0.06% (Labeo species) to 1.66% (C. fasciata). Copper content was found from 16.1 mg/kg (P. sophore) to 273.9 mg/kg (C. mrigala), zinc from 23.5 mg/kg (L. rohita) to 154.4 mg/kg (E. danricus), iron from 91.8 mg/kg (C. catla) to 997.7 mg/kg (C. fasciata) and manganese from 3.9 mg/kg (L. rohita) to 51.4 mg/kg (C. fasciata). Moisture content was the highest in C. fasciata (14.17%) whereas, L. bata and C. catla showed the least amount (11.17%).
Evidence that Castanea Dentata Persists on Xeric, Mid-Elevation Sites in the Southern Appalachians

Abstract: Castanea dentata (American chestnut) persists today in the southern Appalachian forests of North Carolina as sparsely occurring sprouting root systems. The introduction of two exotic fungal diseases into North America, root rot (Phytophthora cinnamomi) in the early 1800s and chestnut blight (Cryphonectria parasitica) in the early 1900s, eliminated C. dentata as a dominant canopy species. Identifying and understanding the characteristics of sites where C. dentata persists could offer insights for management and restoration. Using a regional forest inventory and analysis (FIA) database, I studied the ecology of C. dentata on 831 forested sample plots in 21 mountainous counties of western North Carolina. The purpose of my study was to determine if the presence of C. dentata was associated with common topographic variables and the co-occurrence of other tree species that could be used in a regression model for evaluation of sites for potential management activities. I found that C. dentata occurred.
Evidence for a high-energy tail associated with foreshock field-aligned beams

[1] The reduced particle distributions of field-aligned beams observed upstream of the bow shock are examined in detail using Cluster spacecraft. We find that the reduced parallel and perpendicular distribution forms can be strongly geometry-dependent. Above a certain critical value of the angle between the local shock normal and the direction of the magnetic field, qBn, the reduced distributions are remarkably well fit by Maxwellians. We have not found any significant changes to the spread in energies for beams at higher values of qBn. When the angle qBn decreases, leading to smaller beam velocities, a highenergy tail in the distribution appears. When the tail is present, the bulk of the distribution remains Maxwellian. The development of the high-energy tail is well correlated with decreases in the beam speed (or equivalently qBn). Moreover, detailed examination of the angular distributions indicates that particles in the tails of the distributions propagate at significant pitch angles with respect to the magnetic field (are not field-aligned, as are those within the bulk of the distribution) and that these pitch angles are energy-dependent. These new observations do not fit any production mechanism expected at the shock or result from known wave-particle interactions upstream of or within the shock layer.
Epidemiology of Achilles Tendon Ruptures in the United States: Athletic and Nonathletic Injuries From 2012 to 2016

Background: Achilles tendon (AT) ruptures are one of the most common tendon ruptures, but there have been no studies investigating these injuries in the United States (US) using data representative of the entire US population. Purpose/Hypothesis: The purpose of this study was to determine the incidence and risk factors for AT ruptures in the US. We hypothesized that male sex, older age, and sport participation would increase the risk for AT ruptures. Study Design: Descriptive epidemiology study. Methods: All patients presenting to an emergency department with ruptured AT in the US from 2012 through 2016 were selected from the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System (NEISS) database. Incidence was calculated for sex, race, and age. AT ruptures were characterized based on the mechanism of injury, with subanalyses performed on sport-related AT ruptures to examine sex-, race-, and age-related differences. Results: From 2012 to 2016, a significant increase in the incidence of AT ruptures was observed, from 1.8 per 100,000 person-years in 2012 to 2.5 per 100,000 person-years in 2016 (P < .01), for an overall incidence of 2.1 per 100,000 person-years. The majority of AT ruptures occurred in male compared with female patients, with an incidence rate ratio of 3.5 (P < .01). The largest overall incidence of AT ruptures occurred in those aged 20-39 years for male patients (5.6/100,000 person-years) and in those aged 40-59 years for female patients (1.2/100,000 person-years). The largest rise in the incidence of AT ruptures during the study period was observed in patients aged 40-59 years (78% increase). The most common injury mechanism was participation in a sport or recreational activity (81.9% of all injuries), with basketball being the most common overall cause of AT ruptures. Conclusion: While AT ruptures in the US most commonly occur in young male patients (20-39 years old), the largest rise in the incidence was observed in middle-aged patients (40-59 years old), with participation in recreational sports being the most likely mechanism. Recognizing high-risk patients can help physicians counsel them and recommend strategies for injury prevention.
Language Recognition Using Latent Dynamic Conditional Random Field Model with Phonological Features

Spoken language recognition (SLR) has been of increasing interest in multilingual speech recognition for identifying the languages of speech utterances. Most existing SLR approaches apply statistical modeling techniques with acoustic and phonotactic features. Among the popular approaches, the acoustic approach has become of greater interest than others because it does not require any prior language-specific knowledge. Previous research on the acoustic approach has shown less interest in applying linguistic knowledge; it was only used as supplementary features, while the current state-of-the-art system assumes independency among features. This paper proposes an SLR system based on the latent-dynamic conditional random field (LDCRF) model using phonological features (PFs). We use PFs to represent acoustic characteristics and linguistic knowledge. The LDCRF model was employed to capture the dynamics of the PFs sequences for language classification. Baseline systems were conducted to evaluate the features and methods including Gaussian mixture model (GMM) based systems using PFs, GMM using cepstral features, and the CRF model using PFs. Evaluated on the NIST LRE 2007 corpus, the proposed method showed an improvement over the baseline systems. Additionally, it showed comparable result with the acoustic system based on -vector. This research demonstrates that utilizing PFs can enhance the performance.
Total OH reactivity measurements using a new fast Gas Chromatographic Photo-Ionization Detector (GC-PID)

Abstract. The primary and most important oxidant in the atmosphere is the hydroxyl radical (OH). Currently OH sinks, particularly gas phase reactions, are poorly constrained. One way to characterize the overall sink of OH is to measure directly the ambient loss rate of OH, the total OH reactivity. To date, direct measurements of total OH reactivity have been either performed using a Laser-Induced Fluorescence (LIF) system ("pump-and-probe" or "flow reactor") or the Comparative Reactivity Method (CRM) with a Proton-Transfer-Reaction Mass Spectrometer (PTR-MS). Both techniques require large, complex and expensive detection systems. This study presents a feasibility assessment for CRM total OH reactivity measurements using a new detector, a Gas Chromatographic Photoionization Detector (GC-PID). Such a system is smaller, more portable, less power consuming and less expensive than other total OH reactivity measurement techniques. Total OH reactivity is measured by the CRM using a competitive reaction between a reagent (here pyrrole) with OH alone and in the presence of atmospheric reactive molecules. The new CRM method for total OH reactivity has been tested with parallel measurements of the GC-PID and the previously validated PTR-MS as detector for the reagent pyrrole during laboratory experiments, plant chamber and boreal field studies. Excellent agreement of both detectors was found when the GC-PID was operated under optimum conditions. Time resolution (60–70 s), sensitivity (LOD 3–6 s−1) and overall uncertainty (25% in optimum conditions) for total OH reactivity were similar to PTR-MS based total OH reactivity measurements. One drawback of the GC-PID system was the steady loss of sensitivity and accuracy during intensive measurements lasting several weeks, and a possible toluene interference. Generally, the GC-PID system has been shown to produce closely comparable results to the PTR-MS and thus in suitable environments (e.g. forests) it presents a viably economical alternative for groups interested in total OH reactivity observations.
Time-discretization and inertial manifolds

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Construction of Fractals based on Catalan Solids

The deterministic fractals play an important role in computer graphics and mathematical sciences. The understanding of construction of such fractals, especially an ability of fractals construction from various types of polytopes is of crucial importance in several problems related both to the pure mathematical issues as well as some issues of theoretical physics. In the present paper the possibility of construction of fractals based on the Catalan solids is presented and discussed. The method and algorithm of construction of polyhedral strictly deterministic fractals is presented. It is shown that the fractals can be constructed only from a limited number of the Catalan solids due to the specific geometric properties of these solids. The contraction ratios and fractal dimensions are presented for existing fractals with adjacent contractions constructed based on the Catalan solids.