Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Rowan Digital Works

Introduction: The dynamic range of cerebrospinal fluid (CSF) amyloid b (Ab1–42) measurement does not parallel to cognitive changes in Alzheimer’s disease (AD) and cognitively normal (CN) subjects across different studies. Therefore, identifying novel proteins to characterize symptomatic AD samples is important. Methods: Proteins were profiled using a multianalyte platform by Rules Based Medicine (MAPRBM). Due to underlying heterogeneity and unbalanced sample size, we combined subjects (344 AD and 325 CN) from three cohorts: Alzheimer’s Disease Neuroimaging Initiative, Penn Center for Neurodegenerative Disease Research of the University of Pennsylvania, and Knight Alzheimer’s Disease Research Center at Washington University in St. Louis. We focused on samples whose cognitive and amyloid status was consistent. We performed linear regression (accounted for age, gender, number of apolipoprotein E (APOE) e4 alleles, and cohort variable) to identify amyloid-related proteins for symptomatic AD subjects in this largest ever CSF–based MAP-RBM study. ANOVA and Tukey’s test were used to evaluate if these proteins were related to cognitive impairment changes as measured by mini-mental state examination (MMSE). Results: Seven proteins were significantly associated with Ab1–42 levels in the combined cohort (false discovery rate adjusted P , .05), of which lipoprotein a (Lp(a)), prolactin (PRL), resistin, and vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) have consistent direction of associations across every individual cohort. VEGF was strongly associated with MMSE scores, followed by pancreatic polypeptide and immunoglobulin A (IgA), suggesting they may be related to staging of AD. Discussion: Lp(a), PRL, IgA, and tissue factor/thromboplastin have never been reported for AD diagnosis in previous individual CSF–based MAP-RBM studies. Although some of our reported analytes are related to AD pathophysiology, other’s roles in symptomatic AD samples worth further explorations. 2015 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Inc. on behalf of the Alzheimer’s Association. This is an open access article under the CC BY license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Relationship between Household Socio-Economic Status and Under- Five Mortality in Rufiji DSS, TANZANIA.

Disparities in health outcomes between the poor and the better off are increasingly attracting attention from researchers and policy makers. However, policies aimed at reducing inequity need to be based on evidence of their nature, magnitude, and determinants. The study aims to investigate the relationship between household socio-economic status (SES) and under-five mortality, and to measure health inequality by comparing poorest/least poor quintile mortality rate ratio and the use of a mortality concentration index. It also aims to describe the risk factors associated with under-five mortality at Rufiji Demographic Surveillance Site (RDSS), Tanzania. This analytical cross sectional study included 11,189 children under-five residing in 7,298 households in RDSS in 2005. Principal component analysis was used to construct household SES. Kaplan-Meier survival incidence estimates were used for mortality rates. Health inequality was measured by calculating and comparing mortality rates between the poorest and least poor wealth quintile. We also computed a mortality concentration index. Risk factors of child mortality were assessed using Poisson regression taking into account potential confounders. Under-five mortality was 26.9 per 1,000 person-years [95% confidence interval (CI) (23.7-30.4)]. The poorest were 2.4 times more likely to die compared to the least poor. Our mortality concentration index [-0.16; 95% CI (-0.24, -0.08)] indicated considerable health inequality. Least poor households had a 52% reduced mortality risk [incidence rate ratio (IRR) = 0.48; 95% CI 0.30-0.80]. Furthermore, children with mothers who had attained secondary education had a 70% reduced risk of dying compared to mothers with no education [IRR = 0.30; 95% CI (0.22-0.88)]. Household socio-economic inequality and maternal education were associated with under-five mortality in the RDSS. Targeted interventions to address these factors may contribute towards accelerating the reduction of child mortality in rural Tanzania.
Seismic soundings of sediment thickness on Skeiðarársandur, SE-Iceland

Seismic soundings on Skeiðarársandur show clear reflections from bedrock and inter-sedimentary layers. Ten seismic profiles were collected at scattered locations in 1997 and 1999. They indicate a sediment thickness of 80–100 m near the terminus of Skeiðarárjökull, increasing to about 250 m at the coast. The soundings suggest that a 100 m deep valley is present in the bedrock south of Skaftafell, probably eroded by a Pleistocene ice stream. Three seismic units are detected in the sediments. The uppermost unit and the most voluminous consists of unconsolidated glaciofluvial sediments with a seismic velocity of 1.4–1.8 km s . A second unit with a slightly higher seismic velocity (1.9–2.2 km s ) is found inside the outermost moraines of Skeiðarárjökull and Svínafellsjökull. A comparison with studies on Breiðamerkursandur suggests that this unit may be glaciofluvial Holocene sediments compacted by loading of ice during the Little Ice Age and earlier Holocene advances. Alternatively, the higher velocities may be due to larger proportion of coarse-grained sediments in the vicinity of the glacier. A third unit, with seismic velocity of 2.5–2.7 km s , is found in the southern and central parts of the sandur, buried under 100–150 m of sediments. The velocity is consistent with consolidated sedimentary rock of Pleistocene age. The total volume of sediments on Skeiðarársandur is 100– 200 km . The majority of this material has not been subjected to compaction under glaciers and must therefore date from the Holocene. There may have been large variations in sedimentation rates over the Holocene, but the average growth of the sandur body over the last 10,000 years has been about 1 km /century.
Expansive Framing and Preparation for Future Learning in Middle-School Computer Science

: Educators aspire to transfer of learning as a goal of their teaching. Expansive Framing and Preparation for Future Learning (PFL) are new perspectives on how to foster and assess transfer. As computing education makes its way into K-12 schools, efforts are underway to introduce children to programming in block-based environments like Scratch and Alice. This paper reports on a design-based research in progress that employs ideas of Expansive Framing and PFL to pedagogy and assessments in a middle school introductory CS curriculum that uses Scratch, and includes designed measures for evaluating how well it prepares students for success in future computing experiences with text-based programming
Obesity, Metabolic Syndrome, and the Mediterranean Diet in a Sample of Lebanese University Students

Metabolic syndrome is a condition characterized by the clustering of central obesity, hyperglycemia, hypertension, and dyslipidemia. Each abnormality promotes atherosclerosis independently, but when clustered together, these metabolic disorders are increasingly atherogenic and enhance the risk of cardiovascular morbidity and mortality. The prevalence of metabolic syndrome is on the rise, especially in young people, and its onset may be early in life. Therefore, universities are unique settings for early monitoring and intervention of metabolic risk factors. A pilot study was conducted among 100 Lebanese university students (62 male students and 38 female students) aged 18 to 27 years studying at Notre Dame University, Lebanon, to assess the prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome and to examine students' eating habits in relation to the consumption of the Mediterranean diet. Parameters measured were weight, height, waist circumference, percentage body fat, blood pressure, and fasting blood glucose level. Metabolic syndrome was evaluated based on the third report of the National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel. Measurements of blood lipid levels, including triglyceride, total cholesterol, high-density lipoprotein, and low-density lipoprotein, were made for half of the students. Dietary intake was assessed by using a food frequency questionnaire tailored to Lebanese food. Study results indicated that 49% of male students were overweight and 7% were obese compared with 21% overweight and 3% obese female students. Only 4% of students, all men, had the full metabolic syndrome components. However, many students had 1 or more elements of it. Overall, a total of 56% of the students exhibited 1 or more components of metabolic syndrome: 22% of students had 1 component, 30% had 2 components of the syndrome and 4% had 3 components of metabolic syndrome. In comparison to the traditional Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, those students who had metabolic syndrome had higher consumption of red meat and sweets and a lower consumption of legumes. This considerable prevalence of obesity and metabolic syndrome among students is of concern and may warrant early screening for these disorders. Students' eating habits showed deviation from the traditional Mediterranean Diet Pyramid, so promotional campaigns focusing on the traditional Mediterranean diet may be helpful and necessary
Emergency Notification on Mobile Devices - A Trade-off between Protection Motivation and Privacy Concern

Worldwide, natural disasters are increasing. In 2016 alone there was over $175 billion in damages and 8900 lives lost. To mitigate the impact of these events on people, countries are turning to locationbased mobile emergency alert systems (MEAS) for their practical benefits and ability to deliver personalised emergency notifications to individuals. Most systems depend on persons choosing to use the service and share personal details. However concerns about data privacy have been raised. Focusing people’s desire to protect themselves from harm, this paper draws on Protection Motivation Theory and work on privacy concern to evaluate willingness to use MEAS, which require the disclosure of personal information to service providers. Results using data from 103 respondents are reported. The findings enhance understanding of MEAS use, and provide insights to service providers and government agencies for implementing MEAS.
Adoption of Technology Application Among Employees at Workplace: A Case of Property Development in Malaysia

Introduction. Many researchers have highlighted factors that affect people in adopting new applications at the office. Based on past studies, there is a questionable issue of what really effect employees when adopting a system in their daily work activities. The purpose of this research is to identify the behaviour intention among employees in adopting technology applications at work. The specific objective of the research is to identify the relationship between Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Enjoyment and Computer Self-Efficacy towards Behavioural Intention to adopt online technology applications among employees at the workplace. A quantitative research methodology is employed in this research and purposive sampling was used to collect data at the property developer premises. A total of 200 respondents were asked to rate questionnaire using a 5 point Likertscale instrument. The research findings show that Perceived Usefulness, Perceived Ease of Use, Enjoyment and Computer SelfEfficacy have a significant relationship towards the employees’ behavioural intention to use the online technology application at their workplace.
The construction of proficiency scales and of indices from the student context questionnaire

PROFICIENCY SCALES FOR READING, MATHEMATICS AND SCIENCE Proficiency scores in reading, mathematics and science are based on student responses to items that represent the assessment framework for each domain (see Chapter 2). While different students saw different questions, the test design, which ensured a significant overlap of items across different forms, made it possible to construct proficiency scales that are common to all students for each domain. In general, the PISA frameworks assume that a single continuous scale can be used to report overall proficiency in a domain; but this assumption is further verified during scaling (see below).
M-Eco Adaptive Tuning and Personalization (D5.3)

In this report, we present the final version of the Adaptive Tuning and Personalization (WP5) component of the M-Eco system. This component is focused on four main areas of interest to users of surveillance systems: presentation options for recommendation and adaptation, user and group models, user classification and modeling algorithms, and recommendation, adaptation and personalization strategies. In each of these areas, we propose improvements over those presented in the previous deliverable incorporating feedback from medical surveilance experts. The personalization component is enriched with several extensions. The multi-factor recommendation model is incremented with more factors, including time decay, tagging activity and location. Location is also improved with a method to predict event trajectories. Moreover, a new family of tensor-based recommenders is presented. The tag cloud model is improved with two new tags selection algorithms. We also introduce a propagation of the (ir)relevant terms obtained from tag clouds usage to WP3 and WP4 in order to improve their data collections algorithms. The evaluation part of the report summarizes the benefits and drawbacks of the models presented and describes possible directions for the future work. Keyword List social tagging, recommender system, tag cloud, group recommendation M-Eco:247829 Deliverable No:D5.1
Comparison of diversity and composition of macrofungal species between intensive mushroom harvesting and non-harvesting areas in Oaxaca, Mexico

Wild edible mushrooms have been collected and consumed by human groups for centuries, and today they represent a relevant source of food and income for many rural families worldwide. Preserving these non-timber forest products is of great interest, and there is concern about the damage caused by intensive mushroom harvesting on macromycete communities. The aim of this study was to evaluate variation in diversity and composition of macromycete species between areas regularly used for mushroom harvesting and non-harvested areas in the Mixteca region of Oaxaca, Mexico, as well as to assess the influence of microclimatic and environmental factors on this variation. We selected two harvested and two non-harvested sites within the study area. In each one, we established 10 permanent plots of 10 m × 10 m where we sampled all the observed fruit bodies weekly from June to October 2017. We recorded a total of 856 individuals corresponding to 138 species, and 23 of these were identified as edible. Overall macromycete diversity, edible species diversity and composition were similar in Sites 1 (non-harvested) and 3 (harvested), and in Sites 2 (non-harvested) and 4 (harvested). Variation of diversity and species composition along the studied area was mainly related to microclimatic variables, while most environmental variables and variables related to vegetation structure similarly affected macromycete species in the four sites. Our results indicate that intensive harvesting of wild edible mushrooms is not affecting the diversity and distribution of macromycete species in our study area. Knowledge on the sustainability of mushroom harvesting practices can help improve current regulations regarding the management of these valuable non-timber forest products.
Emergency Non-Operating Room Airway Management of The Morbidly Obese Patient: Trends and Complications

Obesity adversely affects respiratory mechanics. This is particularly true regarding its effect on oxygenation and ventilation. Spontaneously breathing obese patients have decreased chest wall compliance, leading to an increased use of muscles of respiration. Functional residual capacity (FRC) is decreased in this patient group, leading to higher rates of perioperative hypoxia and more rapid desaturation, particularly in the supine position. Increased oxygen consumption adds to these alterations. The FRC decreases proportionally with body mass index (BMI) following induction of anesthesia in the supine position. Increased intraabdominal pressure reduces FRC, as well as total lung capacity, inspiratory
The Relationship between Online Shopping Environments, Sales Promotions, Website Quality, and Impulsive Buying Behaviour: A Structural Equation Modelling Approach

There is a need to understand the factors influencing impulse buying in an online context due to the drastic increase in popularity of online shopping amongst consumers worldwide. The purpose of this study is to examine the relationship between online shopping environments, sales promotions, website quality and impulsive buying behaviour. A total of 548 valid and reliable questionnaires were collected from individuals in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia to empirically test the measurement and structural model applying a covariance-based structural equation modelling (CB-SEM) technique. The study sample includes experienced online consumers who shop for products and services via online retail platforms. Online impulse buying in the context of shopping environments, sales promotion, and website quality have not been profoundly explored in current literature, despite its important implication for academic scholars, business practitioners, and consumers alike. The results obtained imply that online shopping environments, sales promotion, and website quality have a positive significant influence on online impulse buying. These findings are expected to assist online retailers focus on developing better online shopping websites and more creative sales promotions programs.
Evaluation of Spaceborne GNSS-R Retrieved Ocean Surface Wind Speed with Multiple Datasets

Spaceborne Global Navigation Satellite Systems-Reflectometry (GNSS-R) can estimate the geophysical parameters by receiving Earth’s surface reflected signals. The CYclone Global Navigation Satellite System (CYGNSS) mission with eight microsatellites launched by NASA in December 2016, which provides an unprecedented opportunity to rapidly acquire ocean surface wind speed globally. In this paper, a refined spaceborne GNSS-R sea surface wind speed retrieval algorithm is presented and validated with the ground surface reference wind speed from numerical weather prediction (NWP) and cross-calibrated multi-platform ocean surface wind vector analysis product (CCMP), respectively. The results show that when the wind speed was less than 20 m/s, the RMS of the GNSS-R retrieved wind could achieve 1.84 m/s in the case where the NWP winds were used as the ground truth winds, while the result was better than the NWP-based retrieved wind speed with an RMS of 1.68 m/s when the CCMP winds were used. The two sets of inversion results were further evaluated by the buoy winds, and the uncertainties from the NWP-derived and CCMP-derived model prediction wind speed were 1.91 m/s and 1.87 m/s, respectively. The accuracy of inversed wind speeds for different GNSS pseudo-random noise (PRN) satellites and types was also analyzed and presented, which showed similar for different PRN satellites and different types of satellites.
Genetic Diversity in Jojoba (Simmondsia Chinensis L.) using Simple Sequence Repeats in Semi-Arid Areas of Kenya

Jojoba is a dioecious desert shrub which produces oil of high quality and is used mainly in the cosmetic and lubrication industry. There is limited work on genetic characterization of Jojoba globally, and there is only one known Kenyan plantation which is not yet characterized. An experiment was setup with the aim of molecular characterization of Jojoba in semi-arid areas of Kenya using SSR markers. The experimental design was a Latin Square Design with 8 treatments replicated 8 times. The experiment consisted of 8 blocks where 8 Jojoba bushes per block were sampled. Stratified random sampling was used to select 8 bushes, which consisted of 4 males and 4 females based on height and crown diameter. Six leaves were harvested per bush. CTAB was used for DNA extraction whereas gel electrophoresis was performed together with agarose gel for visualization of DNA. Ten SSR primers were used to amplify sample target sequence using PCR. PCR products were determined by comparison with a DNA ladder ranging 100-1000 base pairs. Diversity data analysis was carried out using XLSTAT software while binary code was used to designate band presence or absence. PIC distinguished the different genotypes whereas DARwin5 software was used in construction of dendrogram. The results showed that the Jojoba bushes had low genetic diversity shown by PIC of 0.2583-0.3748. Due to the low genetic diversity, it is recommended that superior genotypes be imported to increase genetic diversity of Jojoba in semi-arid areas of Kenya.
Genetics of System Patterns of the Human Organism

The frequency distribution analysis of biological data enables an insight into the regulatory state of the organism. In case of strong or permanent deviations from the balance of the vegetative nervous system abnormalities and/or diseases will result which are associated with a tendency to a chaos or to a rigidity. We examined in this way families over two or three generations. Similarities in their distribution histogram types are evaluated which confirm a genetic disposition and a heritability of system patterns. Risk profiles are resulting individually and concerning the descendants making possible a systemic prevention therapy or a modification of the life style. The analysis method may be adapted to a lot of medical examinations. Key-Words: System analysis, frequency distribution, biometric medicine, medical decision making, prevention therapy
Creating a Caring Atmosphere in an Intensive Stroke Care Unit: an Action Research Approach

This paper describes one cycle of an action research study that was carried out in an intensive stroke care unit at a hospital in Medan, Indonesia. The purpose of this study was to create a caring atmosphere in the unit in order to improve the quality of nursing care. Fifteen nurse participants were involved in this study. Individual in-depth interview, focus group discussion, participant observation, field note, and photo recording were used to collect data and to inform the actions. Gathered data was analyzed by using content analysis with Weft QDA program. The findings showed that the caring atmosphere in the unit had improved to some degree. The nurses had become used to establishing caring relationships with patient and family members by greeting them and often communicating with them. The nurses also had started to change their behaviors to be more caring.