Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Study of the formation of the Black Sea haline stratification from the numerical simulations

The excess of river runoff and precipitation over evaporation (positive freshwater balance) and the supply of the Marmara Sea highly saline waters through the Bosphorus is the cause of the sharp halocline in the 100-300 m layer and low vertical mixing in the permanent pycnocline layer, where the contribution salinity to the seawater density prevails compared to temperature. Such features of the Black Sea waters make the description of the process of formation of the haline stratification an actual and inexhausted problem. Investigating the patterns of the formation of the haline stratification in the Black Sea, a laboratory model of a rotating cylindrical cavity and a numerical model are proposed. Laboratory studies have shown that in a simple configuration, the buoyancy flux across the basin boundaries leads to the formation of a sharp pycnocline and the formation of a three-layer vertical structure of horizontal currents. Numerical experiments demonstrate that halocline is formed at a depth of 10-40 m. The haline stratification has been established with a pronounced halocline for about hundred years which later slowly evolved.
Prevalence and Associated Factors of Diabetic Retinopathy in a Russian Population. The Ural Eye and Medical Study

Aim To assess prevalence and associated factors of diabetic retinopathy (DR) in a Russian population. Methods Out of 7328 eligible individuals, the population-based cross-sectional Ural Eye and Medical Study included 5899 (80.5%) individuals aged 40+ years, who underwent a detailed medical and ophthalmological examination. Using ocular fundus photographs and optical coherence tomographic images, we assessed prevalence and degree of DR in 5105 participants. Results DR was present in 99/5105 individuals (1.9%; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.6, 2.3). Its prevalence increased from 6/657 (1.0%; 95% CI: 0.2, 1.6) in the age group of 45–50 years to 24/680 (3.5%; 95% CI: 2.1, 4.9) in the age group of 65–70 years, and decreased to 3/153 (2.0%; 95% CI: 0.00, 4.2) in the age group of 80+ years. DR prevalence within the 577 (11.4%; 95% CI: 10.5, 12.2) individuals with diabetes was 99/577 (17.2%; 95% CI: 14.1, 20.2). DR was the cause for moderate-to-severe vision impairment (best corrected visual acuity <6/18 but ≥3/60) in four individuals (4/5105; 0.07%). In multivariable analysis, higher DR prevalence was associated with higher serum glucose concentration (odds ratio [OR]: 1.30; 95% CI: 1.20, 141), longer diabetes duration (OR: 1.06; 95% CI: 1.02, 1.09), type of diabetes therapy (nil/diet/oral/insulin) (OR:4.19;95% CI:3.08, 5.70), lower educational level (OR:0.81;95% CI:0.67, 0.98), lower manual dynamometric force (OR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.94, 0.99), shorter ocular axial length (OR: 0.73; 95% CI: 0.56, 0.96), and higher diastolic blood pressure (OR: 1.04; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.06), or alternatively, higher estimated cerebrospinal fluid pressure (OR: 1.09; 95% CI: 1.01, 1.18). Conclusion In this urban and rural Russian population aged 40+ years, DR prevalence was relatively low (1.9%; 95% CI: 1.6, 2.3), showed an inverted U-shaped association with age, and in a cross-sectional study design it was associated with shorter axial length and higher estimated cerebrospinal fluid pressure.
The perceptions of pre and in-service teachers’ self-efficacy regarding inclusive practices: A systematised review

This study fundamental purpose is to explore pre and in-service teachers’ perceptions of self-efficacy regarding inclusive practices, as assessed through employing the TEIP (Teacher Efficacy for Inclusive Practices) scale. This study was conducted by means of a systematised review. As pre- and in-service teachers’ self-efficacy can influence the quality of inclusive education, the researcher investigated studies that have addressed this issue in-depth. Eight databases were searched during this study, and 24 peer reviewed articles in which the TEIP scale was used, from 2012 to 2018, were selected for inclusion. The perceptions of pre- and in-service teachers’ self- efficacy towards inclusive education were examined through using the TEIP scale’s three sub-dimensions. The results show that the perceptions of pre- and in-service teachers’ self-efficacy towards inclusive education are associated with teachers’ field experience, age of teacher, level currently teaching, length of training, knowledge of local legislation, confidence in teaching significant interaction with disabled students, gender, level of education, different countries’ perspectives, attitude and subject major.
Applicability of Fitted and Published Biomass Equations for Larix Species in Northeastern China

ABSTRACT This study reviewed published biomass equations for Larix species in the literature and developed additive biomass equations (by nonlinear seemingly unrelated regression known as NSUR) and independent equations, respectively, based on DBH-only and DBH-H variables with the biomass data of 150 trees sampled in northeastern China. The applicability of fitted and published equations was comprehensively assessed with respect to Larix species, their provinces and origins when applied in northeastern China. The results showed that equations derived from the local study area did not always perform better than the published biomass equations in the literature. Tree-level equations performed slightly broader than stand-level equations. Nonlinear regression could provide higher applicability due to correction factors in the linear regression. Adding tree height as the second variable improved the applicability of stem and aboveground published equations. The applicability of original published equations was better for northeastern China for sites of similar latitude. When using published biomass equations, care should be taken to assess the uncertainty and applicability of biomass equations, which is important for the sustainable management of forested resources. Published information on biomass equations is especially necessary for forestry organizations that do not have the opportunity to develop their own equations.
Meeting up with the worlds of exercise and rave at the start of the twenty-first century : a story about young people, body culture, health and identity in changing times

The relationship between young people, body culture, health and identity has received much attention in recent years. With a few notable exceptions, research has tended to focus on traditional practices such as sport and exercise. Nevertheless, the post-modern climate has given birth to a multitude of alternative body practices, many of which the young have played an active role in creating and developing. This project attempts to explore some of this post-modern landscape, focusing on exercise and comparing it with an alternative youth constructed phenomenon called `raving' or `clubbing, ' which emerged at the end of the 1980s, in what is regarded as a particularly influential juncture of post-industrial life and young adult alienation. The thesis is divided into two distinct research phases. The first was informed by positivistic epistemology and utilised a questionnaire format to `map' some of the cognitive and mental health indices of the respective body cultures. Some notable differences were highlighted. Enjoyment derived from exercise was found to be significantly predicted by general life (or dispositional) variables (contributing 23 of the 45% of explained variance). In dance, dispositional factors were not significant suggesting that this activity is relatively free from the rules and demands of general life. What is more, the social support derived from dance environments was found to exert a significant positive influence in predicting enjoyment (p<. 05). The second phase developed out of a critique of the first study. It was felt that positivistic epistemology wasn't adequate enough to comprehend exercising and clubbing as meaningful, embodied, living phenomena. As a rejoinder, the second phase adopted an ethnographic methodology and employed narrative forms of representation to investigate the worlds of exercise and rave. In more detail, the researcher's personal experiences and those of co-participants were explored and portrayed using a variety of narrative genres (e. g. auto-ethnography and ethnographic fiction), so as to create more embodied and dialogical research ̀ stories. ' Set against the backdrop of post-modern times, the implications of these cultural practices, in constructing contradictory bodies and identities within the young adult population are discussed.
Radicalization as cause and consequence of violence in genocides and mass killings

Major theories of participation in genocides and mass killings offer seemingly opposing explanatory logics for how and why individuals come to commit violence. The long-standing consensus on “perpetrator ordinariness” contrasts with explanations that continue to highlight the prior, intensely held negative attitudes and beliefs about the victim group. I propose a theoretical reconciliation. Radicalization would be better theorized not only as an antecedent to the act of violence but also as a consequence of it. Killing transforms individuals. A well-established point in social psychology, not only do attitudes drive behaviors, but behaviors also shape attitudes. Some perpetrators dehumanize their victims, internalize exclusionary ideologies, and otherwise develop negative sentiments toward their victims following their participation in the violence. Attitudinal shift becomes a form of dissonance-reduction. Perpetrators come to espouse radical beliefs in order to justify their actions. This revised theorization has implications for our understanding of (1) perpetrator heterogeneity: individuals must vary in their vulnerability to radicalization, and (2) non-instrumental violence: why we often observe the infliction of gratuitous pain and suffering on victims. I re-interpret testimony of perpetrators from Rwanda, the Holocaust, Bosnia-Herzegovina, and Cambodia to support the article’s central theoretical proposition.
Giant ultrafast optical nonlinearities of annealed Sb2Te3 layers

The optimization of thin Sb2Te3 films in order to obtain giant ultrafast optical nonlinearities is reported. The ultrafast nonlinearities of the thin film layers are studied by the Z-scan technique. Giant saturable absorption is obtained, which is the highest ever reported, by means of the Z-scan technique.
Importance of food literacy education for senior secondary school students: food system professionals’ opinions

Abstract Food literacy education at senior secondary school could provide immediate health benefits to adolescents. In the long term, this will help strengthen the relationship between citizens and the food system. The aim of this paper is to explore food system professionals’ opinions of the importance of senior secondary school food literacy education. A purposive sample of 34 food system professionals from different sub-sectors within the Australian food system were interviewed individually in late 2015 and early 2016. Interviews were analysed using the template analysis technique. Many participants indicated that food literacy education helps students establish healthier eating patterns. Some participants suggested that food literacy education helps students join in food-related career pathways and some believed that this education helps students understand and question the food system and related issues. Moreover, some participants mentioned that the senior secondary school years are when it is most appropriate to deliver some of the broad aspects of food literacy, while some pointed out the importance of starting food literacy education in primary school. Furthermore, participants indicated the importance of food literacy education in school, referring to low food and nutrition knowledge and skills among modern consumers and inadequate family support for students to develop healthier food patterns. In conclusion, senior secondary school food literacy education helps students develop healthy eating patterns, and prepare them to make wise decisions in relation to food. This highlights the importance of provision of comprehensive food literacy education for senior secondary school students.
Assessing stationarity in web analytics: A study of bounce rates

Evidence‐based methods for evaluating marketing interventions such as A/B testing have become standard practice. However, the pitfalls associated with the misuse of this decision‐making instrument are not well understood by managers and analytics professionals. In this study, we assess the impact of stationarity on the validity of samples from conditioned time series, which are abundant in web metrics. Such a prominent metric is the bounce rate, which is prevalent in assessing engagement with web content as well as the performance of marketing touchpoints. In this study, we show how to control for stationarity using an algorithmic transformation to calculate the optimum sampling period. This distance is based on a novel stationary ergodic process that considers that a stationary series presents reversible symmetric features and is calculated using a dynamic time warping algorithm in a self‐correlation procedure. This study contributes to the expert and intelligent systems literature by demonstrating a robust method for sub‐sampling time‐series data, which are critical in decision making.
Sustainable Masonry Made from Recycled Aggregates: LCA Case Study

For a sustainable building industry, reusable construction with a low demand for primary resources is needed. Moreover, if we want to reduce the amount of construction and demolition waste, construction with recycled aggregate should be considered. To investigate the environmental impacts of such concrete construction, life cycle assessment (LCA) was used to compare the following types of concrete construction: Reusable blocks with recycled brick aggregate, reusable blocks with recycled concrete, reusable blocks with natural aggregate, and regular concrete wall. Firstly, the properties of new concrete with recycled aggregate were measured, such as physical, mechanical, and thermal properties. Then, different constructions were designed and assessed using the method of Institute of Environmental Sciences (CML2001) and the method of National Institute for Public Health and the Environment (ReCiPe 2016) as characterization methods. Unsurprisingly, the regular concrete wall had a higher impact on most of the impact categories, e.g., 113 kg CO2 eq. (in the first scenario, using CML2001). In accordance with the circular principles, the reusability of blocks and recycling of aggregate are the main factors that affect the environmental impact of the constructions. Thus, the global warming potential (GWP) of construction with reusable recycled concrete blocks was only 53 kg CO2 eq. (in the second scenario). Moreover, we show differences in the results of CML2001 and ReCiPe 2016, e.g., in the Photochemical Oxidant Creation category.
DO THE WORDS MATTER? AN ANALYSIS OF THE LINGUISTIC SENTIMENT OF EARNINGS CONFERENCE CALLS AND ABNORMAL STOCK RETURNS IN BRAZILIAN COMPANIES

In finance and accounting literature, different aspects are presented as possible factors related to stock returns. More recently, studies have been dedicated to analyzing the potential influence of the tone and sentiment of corporate reports, newspaper articles, press releases, and investor message boards on stock prices. Thus, based on assumptions of Legitimacy Theory, we investigate whether cumulative abnormal returns (CAR) on the stocks of Brazilian listed companies are associated with the linguistic sentiment of quarterly earnings conference calls. Using a sample of 78 observations related to the conference calls of 24 companies listed in the Novo Mercado segment in 2016-2017, we measured CAR using the market model and the linguistic sentiment of earnings conference calls using IBM’s Watson Natural Language Understanding platform. An analysis of the results of statistical tests such as descriptive results, correlation matrix, and correspondence analysis enables it to be inferred that, in general, there is a positive association between cumulative abnormal returns and the optimism sentiment of quarterly conference calls. Thus, it is conjectured the possibility that the speeches made by managers in conference calls legitimize company performance in the market, by altering the perception of investors in the stock market and leading to implications for the value of the stocks traded.
A review of the mortality of wild fauna in Europe in the last century, the consequences of human activity

The exponential growth of the human population and their activity in the last decades have adverse effects on biodiversity. The main objective of this review was to present a compilation of works on causes of mortality of native wildlife in Europe, in the last decades linked to human activity. Here, a total of 130 peer-reviewed publications were reviewed for the period between 1942 to 2017 from thirty-eight countries. Sixty-five percent of the studies were focused on the bird’s species. Our results showed that the leading cause of mortality was due to traumatic origin, particularly collision with infrastructures and motor vehicles. Based on the papers analysed in the present study, it is possible to conclude that human development and its anthropogenic pressures have a negative effect on some species of wildlife, while the potential impact on the vast majority of other species is still unknown. This study provided an insight into the effects of the different anthropogenic pressures on the European fauna, giving valuable information on its main threats and raising important questions on rehabilitation management practices.
Changing the Paradigm: Using an Integrative Approach to Improve Understanding of Tuberculosis Control in Michigan.

xii CHAPTER 1. BACKGROUND . 1 1.1 Global Public Health Significance of Tuberculosis . 1 1.2 Natural history of Mycobacterium tuberculosis infection . 2 1.3 Diagnosis of MTB Infection and Disease . 4 1.4 Treatment of LTBI and Active TB . 6 1.5 Molecular Epidemiology of Tuberculosis . 8 1.6 Epidemiology of Tuberculosis in the United States . 12 1.6. 1 The History of TB in the U.S. . 12 1.6. 2 Modern-day TB in the U.S. . 13 1.6. 3 Social and Environmental Determinants of Tuberculosis . 14 1.7 Summary & Specific Aims . 16 CHAPTER 2. Why We Should Still Worry About Tuberculosis in the U.S.: Evidence of Health Disparities in Tuberculosis Incidence in Michigan, 2004-2012. 18 2.1 Abstract . 18
Role of Vitamin B12 Deficiency in Patients with Type 2 Diabetes Mellitus

Diabetes Mellitus is now affecting many in the workforce: it has major and deleterious impact on both individual and national productivity. Vitamin B12 deficiency results in the disruption of methylation process and accumulation of intracellular and serum homocysteine which is toxic to the neurones and vascular endothelium. The main objective of the present research is to assess and compare levels of serum vitamin B12 in patients with type 2 Diabetes Mellitus with the controls. A cross sectional study was conducted jointly by the Department of Biochemistry and Medicine, Govt. Medical College Jammu, involving 50 patients with diagnosed T2DM in the age group of 40-80 years of either gender attending the OPD of Medicine Department and 50 age and gender matched randomly selected healthy controls. Patients with T1DM, thyroid disorders, haemolytic anemia, hemoglobin variants, pregnancy, hepatic and infectious diseases were excluded from the study. Vitamin B12 was estimated in serum using Chemiluminiscent micro particle intrinsic factor technology, referred to as chemiflex. Glucose was measured by Hexokinase method. The mean of vitamin B12 in controls was in normal value, but significantly low in cases. Vitamin B12 deficiency was significantly associated with increasing age, increased duration of diabetes. Even the difference in the mean values of FPG and HbA1C in controls and study cases were significant. Vitamin B12 deficiency may lead to clinically significant complications, highlighting the importance of regular screening of B12 levels for a better diagnostic procedure and treatment of T2DM.
Effect of Tactile-Kinesthetic Stimulation in weight gaining of pre-term infants hospitalized in intensive care unit

Background: Many studies have demonstrated that pre-term neonates gained more weight over the 10 days stimulation period. This research has been conducted to determine the effects of five days Tactile- Kinesthetic stimulation (TKS) on weight gaining of pre-term infants hospitalized in Fatemiye neonatal intensive care unit. Methods: Fifty one babies who graduated from the NICU to the intermediate care nursery were randomly allocated into test and control groups ( 24 and 27 neonate respectively). TKS was provided for three 20 minute periods per day for five consecutive days to the test group, with the massages consisting of moderate pressure strokes in left and right lateral position and kinesthetic exercises consisting of flexion and extension of the limbs. They were observed for changes in physiologic parameters and weight gaining during five days stimulation in hospital. Results: Over the five days TKS an increase in weight was seen in the test group (p= 0.018 , 43.1 vs 5.4 ). Infants in both the test and control groups were matched for mean weight before study and days in which they received antibiotics and photo therapy. Mean temperature and O ² saturation had no meaningful difference, but an increase in respiratory rate (p= 0.047 , 32.9 vs 32.5 ) and heart rate (p <0.001 , 148 vs 145.7 ) (within physiologic range) was seen in the test group during stimulation, so that no one excluded from study. Conclusion: Tactile- Kinesthetic stimulation has no adverse effects on physiologic parameters, meanwhile has a beneficial effect on weight gaining in pre-term neonates, So touch and massage therapy which are both beneficial and cost effective could be placed in policy of care programs in nurseries in Iran. Abstract
The Effect of Intradiscal Electrothermal Therapy on Quality of Life and Satisfaction of Patients with Discogenic Low Back Pain

Objectives: Intradiscal electrothermal therapy (IDET) is an intervention option for discogenic low back pain treatment. The aim of this study was to research the pain level, quality of life, and satisfaction of patients who underwent IDET. Methods: This study was performed retrospectively with 50 patients treated with IDET for low back pain between April 1, 2014 and November 20, 2014. Age, weight, sex, body mass index, pain spread, location of intervention, 36-Item Short Form Survey (SF-36) score, visual analogue score (VAS), and satisfaction level of the patients were recorded from data in the files. The satisfaction level of the patients was 70% (40% “benefitted” and 30% “fully recovered”). Results: Of the 50 patients included in the analysis, the male/female ratio was 31/19, the mean age was 43.2±2 years, and the mean weight was 72.2±9 kg. There was a statistically significant difference in SF-36 physical function result, pain score, and VAS between mean pretreatment results and 3 months after treatment (p<0.05). Conclusion: There was a significant difference in VAS, the SF-36 subscale of physical function, and pain points before treatment and after treatment with IDET, and the post-treatment satisfaction level of the patients was high.