Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Study of Area and Personal Airborne Asbestos Samples during Abatement in a Crawl Space

Air sample data were collected during asbestos abate ment of two buildings using area and personal sampling methods. Abatement involved removal of pipe insula tion from crawl spaces. The two sampling methods were compared to determine if there was a relationship be tween them. A relationship was observed between area and personal airborne samples in building 2 as deter mined by correlation and regression but is most likely due to chance. One major outlier was detected for both area and personal measurement sample data sets in building 2. It was concluded that any relationship be tween area and personal sample measurements must be viewed with caution. Concentrations measured from personal sampling were statistically higher than those from area sampling. Also, the distributions of concentra tions in the samples were calculated to be nonnormal (logarithmic form). It is proposed that area sampling under-estimates worker exposure compared to personal measurements and is not applicable for exposure and hazard assessment. It is suggested that area and person al samples measure two different population concentra tions of airborne fibers. Use of area samples in lieu of personal measurements should only be employed with caution.
A Case of Monochorionic-Triamniotic Triplet Pregnancy with TRAP Sequence Successfully Treated with Radiofrequency Ablation with a Parallel Circuit Consisting of Anastomosed Blood Vessels between the Direct Pump Fetus and the Indirect Pump Fetus

Monochorionic-triamniotic triplet pregnancy with twin reversed arterial perfusion (TRAP) sequence is one of the rare complications of multiple pregnancy and has been reported by only a few. Here, we report a case of monochorionic-triamniotic triplet pregnancy with TRAP sequence successfully treated with radiofrequency ablation, which did not develop polyhydramnios and heart failure although the estimated weight of the acardiac fetus increased twice as much as that of the direct pump fetus. Interestingly, the anastomosed blood vessels between the direct and indirect pump fetuses comprised a parallel circuit, which provided blood flow to the acardiac fetus. We hypothesized that the burden on the pump fetus in monochorionic pregnancy with TRAP sequence would be different between triplet and twin pregnancies.
The Influence of Individual Factors on Web-based Developmental Education Course Success in a Two-year Technical College

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A study of the requirements for a heads-up display for use in motor transportation in the United States Marine Corps

This study investigates the requirements for a concept system known as an Automated Vehicle Avoidance Identification and Location System (AVAILS). The system is comprised of an integrated collision warning and collision avoidance system, both used in supporting low-speed docking and convoy operations. The system is designed to provide the driver with real-time information in order to avoid or mitigate the effects of a crash with another vehicle during convoy operations, and with another vehicle or the docking facilities during docking operations.
Simulation of an Air-Cooled Solar-Assisted Absorption Air Conditioning System

This paper investigates the technical feasibility of using a compact, air-cooled, solar-assisted, absorption air conditioning system in Puerto Rico and similar regions. Computer simulations were conducted to evaluate the system's performance when subjected to dynamic cooling loads. Within the computer model, heat and mass balances are conducted on each component of the system, including the solar collectors, thermal storage tank, the air-cooled condenser, and the air-cooled absorber. Guidance on component design and insight into the effects of such operating factors as ambient air temperature were gained from exercizing the simulation model. Comparisons are made with an absorption air conditioning system that uses a cooling tower instead of air-cooled components. The particular absorption system of study is one that uses lithium bromide and water as the absorbent and refrigerant, respectively. The heat input to the absorption system generator is provided by an array of flat plate collectors that are coupled to a thermal storage tank. Systems having nominal cooling capacities of 10.5, 14, and 17.5 kW were considered. Useful information about the number of collectors needed, storage tank volume, and efficiency of the overall system is presented.
Optically amplified free-space optical communication systems

This thesis investigates terrestrial atmospheric FSO communication systems operating under the influence of turbulence-induced scintillation, beam spreading, optical interchannel crosstalk, amplified spontaneous emission noise and pointing errors. On-off keying-non–return-to-zero (OOK-NRZ) and digital pulse position (DPPM) are the modulation schemes used for the calculations. The possibility of using sophisticated performance evaluation techniques such as moment generating function (MGF)-based Chernoff bound (CB), modified Chernoff bound (MCB) and saddlepoint approximation (SPA) for terrestrial DPPM and OOK-NRZ–based FSO communication systems employing optical amplification are investigated and compared with the conventional Gaussian approximation (GA) method. Relative to the other techniques, the MCB can be considered a safe estimation method for practical systems since it provides an upper bound upon the BER. The turbulent optically preamplified DPPM FSO receiver employing integration over a time slot and comparing the results to choose the largest slot, is seen to give better advantage (about 7 - 9 dB) compared to an equivalent employing OOK-NRZ signalling. The atmospheric turbulence-induced spreading of the beam, ASE noise, and pointing error are seen to combine in a problematic way resulting in high BERs, depending on the size of the receiver and the beam’s jitter standard deviation. Using FSO communication for the distribution links of a passive optical network-like wavelength division multiplexing access network is investigated in the presence of atmospheric turbulence, ASE noise and interchannel crosstalk. The results show that, for clear atmosphere, FSO distribution link length up to 2000 m can be reliably used (depending on turbulence strength) to achieve human eye safety and high capacity access networks. Also, error floors occur due to turbulence accentuated crosstalk effect for the cases of (i) signal turbulent, but crosstalk not and (ii) crosstalk turbulent, but signal not.
Strategies that reduce Stroop interference

A remarkable example of reducing Stroop interference is provided by the word blindness post-hypnotic suggestion (a suggestion to see words as meaningless during the Stroop task). This suggestion has been repeatedly demonstrated to halve Stroop interference when it is given to highly hypnotizable people. In order to explore how highly hypnotizable individuals manage to reduce Stroop interference when they respond to the word blindness suggestion, we tested four candidate strategies in two experiments outside of the hypnotic context. A strategy of looking away from the target words and a strategy of visual blurring demonstrated compelling evidence for substantially reducing Stroop interference in both experiments. However, the pattern of results produced by these strategies did not match those of the word blindness suggestion. Crucially, neither looking away nor visual blurring managed to speed up incongruent responses, suggesting that neither of these strategies is the likely underlying mechanism of the word blindness suggestion. Although the current results did not unravel the mystery of the word blindness suggestion, they showed that there are multiple voluntary ways through which participants can dramatically reduce Stroop interference.
Providing information communication technology-based support to distance education students: a case study of the University of Zambia

Student support is a major factor in distance education. This study was concerned with the use of ICT as a medium for providing student support at the University of Zambia. It was necessary to study the factors that would affect the application of ICT, in order to inform policy makers and managers of distance education which ICTs would be feasible within the context of the students of the University. A questionnaire was sent to 393 randomly selected students of the programme. The findings have shown that students had a positive attitude towards ICTs. However, access to the ICTs had an influence on the types that the students were willing to use for their studies. African Journal of Library, Archives and Information Science Vol. 18 (1) 2008 pp. 43-54
Stockout propagation and amplification in supply chain inventory systems

We investigate the existence and magnitude of stockout propagation and stockout amplification in the context of supply chain inventory systems. Stockout amplification is a stage-to-stage increase in overall stockout rates. Stockout propagation is the tendency for stockout at one node to instigate a stockout at a neighbouring node and is conceptually related to the idea of cascading failures in physical systems, such as electrical power grids. We study these concepts in both upstream (‘supply side’) and downstream (‘demand side’) directions in the context of normal operating conditions for an adaptive R, S (periodic, order-up-to) inventory policy. We build a simulation model of a 5-stage serial supply chain that experiences normally distributed customer demands and gamma distributed lead times. We find that stockout propagation exists, but contrary to conventional wisdom, it occurs in the upstream direction. There is little indication that stockout propagation is occurring to any significant degree in the downstream direction. We also find stockout amplification occurring in the upstream direction in scenarios where more aggressively adaptive inventory parameter updating is performed. We discuss implications of this work in the areas of supply chain inventory modelling, ordering decisions, safety stock determination, and the use of adaptive inventory policies.
A Wireless Vibration Control Technique for Gas Turbine Blades Using Piezoelectric Plates and Contactless Energy Transfer

Gas turbine blade vibrations can give rise to catastrophic failures, and cause a reduction of the blades’ life due to fatigue-related phenomena. Damping is often required to improve performance of bladed disks. Recently, the adoption of piezoelectric elements has received considerable attention by many researchers for potential applicability in different areas of mechanical, aerospace, aeronautical and civil engineering. Furthermore, studies of blades’ vibration-control via piezoelectric plates are beginning to appear. In previous contributions, the authors have proposed a model to control multimode beam vibrations using piezoelectric elements. Analytical results have been validated through comparison with the results of a multi-physics finite elements package (COMSOL), as well as with data available in the literature. Experimental investigations carried out by the authors using a cantilever beam support the proposed theory. The model defines the optimal position of the plates to damp the multimode vibrations. Different loading scenarios where different modes were excited with different percentages were considered [1]. This model has also been extended to a rotating beam, and a finite elements code has been used to obtain the optimal position of the piezo-plates at different rotating speeds ([4]). In this paper the authors report the first results of the experimental investigations performed using a rotating beam. An experimental apparatus has been designed and constructed, including a new wireless power transfer system to eliminate issues associated with the use of slip rings. A Matlab program has been developed to control the system and interpret the data. Also, a laser pointing system has been used to measure the vibrations of a single blade and, thus, the effectiveness of the system. The preliminary results obtained using the newly developed test rig are discussed after presenting the experimental setup and the acquisition system designed and implemented by the authors.Copyright © 2013 by ASME
Prevalence and Bacteriology of Symptomatic Urinary Tract Infection among Pregnant women at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital, South-western Uganda

Background: Urinary tract infections (UTIs) in pregnant women contribute about 25% of all infections and are among the most frequent clinical bacterial infections. Pregnancy changes in women that include anatomical, physiological and hormonal make them susceptible to develop UTI. Left untreated, UTI in pregnancy is associated with grave complications to the mother and fetus. These complications can be decreased by prompt and proper diagnosis and appropriate treatment that also reduces the emergency of drug resistance. Antimicrobial resistance is a major health problem in the treatment of UTI. We determined the prevalence, bacteriology and antimicrobial susceptibility of symptomatic urinary tract infection among pregnant women at Mbarara Regional Referral Hospital.Methods: We conducted a cross-sectional study from November 2019 to February 2020 involving 400 pregnant women with symptomatic UTI. Patient information was obtained using a structured questionnaire. We collected clean-catch midstream urine specimens for culture and performed antimicrobial susceptibility testing following Clinical and Laboratory Standards Institute standards. Data was entered into RED-cap Version 8.2 software and then exported to Stata Version 14.1 for analysis.Results: The proportion of culture-positive UTI was 140/400 (35%). Gram-negative bacteria were more prevalent (73%): Klebsiella pneumoniae 52(37.41%), Escherichia coli 40(28.78%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa and Proteus mirabilis 7(5.04% each), Citrobacter freundii 1(1%). Staphylococcus aureus 33(23.57%) was the only gram-positive isolate. All the isolates were resistant to ampicillin, amoxicillin, amoxicillin/clavulanic acid and ceftazidime/clavulanic acid (95.7%, 95.0%, 72.9% and 50.7% respectively). Prevalence of extended-spectrum beta-lactamases producing Enterobacteriaceae was 29.0% while that of methicillin-resistant Staphylococcus aureus was 33.3%. Multi-drug resistance (resistance in >2 drugs) was seen in 100% of the isolated bacteria. Majority of the bacterial isolates were sensitive to ciprofloxacin, ceftriaxone, nitrofurantoin, cefotaxime and gentamicin at 82.9%, 81.4%, 79.3%, 78.6%, 66.4% and 65.7% respectivelyConclusions: Klebsiella pneumoniae was the most prevalent isolate followed by E. coli. These two organisms were highly resistant to the commonly used antibiotics. Our study recorded a higher prevalence of culture-positive UTI in pregnancy than all the studies in Uganda. Empirical treatment of UTI should be minimized as sensitivity varies for each organism, for each drug and over time.
Relationship between Parenting Style, Interpersonal Conflict and Depression Symptom among University Students

Depression is a leading cause of morbidity worldwide and the prevalence of depression among university students is higher than general population. However, studies on parenting style, interpersonal conflict and depression symptom of university students are still lack in the context of Malaysia studies. Therefore, this study aimed to examine the relationship between parenting style, interpersonal conflict and depression symptom among university students. This study was conducted at the main campus of The National University of Malaysia (UKM) and the respondents consisted of 385 UKM undergraduate students. The survey method was conducted using questionnaires that included research instruments such as Parental Authority Questionnaire (PAQ), the adapted Interpersonal Conflict At Work Scale (ICAWS) and Beck Depression Inventory-II (BDI-II) through Google Form application. This study found that majority of UKM students had minimal level of depressive symptom. Besides, the result showed that there was a significant relationship between authoritative parenting style, authoritarian parenting style and interpersonal conflict with depression symptom among UKM students. Nevertheless, the result showed that there was no significant relationship between permissive parenting style and depression symptom among UKM students. Furthermore, this study showed that parenting style and interpersonal conflict have influence on depression symptom among UKM students. The findings of the study also showed that there were no significant differences in the level of students’ depression symptom according to gender. This study has provided an insight for a more profound future research on the issue of university students’ depression symptom with parenting style and interpersonal conflict.
Clinical characteristics of survivors and non-survivors, medical and non-medical staff members with 2019-nCoV pneumonia in Wuhan, China: a descriptive study

Objectives: In December 2019，the 2019 novel coronavirus ( 2019-nCoV ) emerged in Wuhan, China, leading to a cluster of severe pneumonia cases. Medical staff members on the front line were also infected. We compared the epidemiology, clinical characteristics, and treatment measures of survivors and non-survivors and the different clinical outcomes of medical staff members and non-medical members of the community infected with 2019-nCoV. Methods: We included 81 patients with adult 2019-nCoV in Hankou Hospital from mid-January to mid-February 2020 in this single-center retrospective study. Data were compared between survivors and non-survivors and between medical staff members and non-medical individuals. Results: All 38 medical staff members were infected by patients while working. Only 2 (2.5%) non-medical individuals had a clear history of exposure to 2019-nCoV patients. The median age was 49 years (interquartile range [IQR], 35-59; range, 23-89 years), and 42 (51.9%) were women. We found that the median age,comorbidity, and some laboratory outcomes(lymphocyte count, urea nitrogen, aspartate aminotransferase, lactate dehydrogenase, etc.)differed significantly between survivors and non-survivors. There were also significant differences in the time from onset to admission, disease classification, comorbidity, and prognosis between medical staff members and non-medical individuals. All medical staff members were cured, while 13 (30.2%) non-medical individuals died. Conclusions: Older males with comorbidities are more likely to be affected by 2019-nCoV. Significant changes in some laboratory markers may indicate a poor prognosis. Medical staff members may have had better prognoses due to fewer comorbidities and better medical compliance. Key words: 2019-nCoV; Clinical characteristics; Mortality; comorbidity; Survivors; Non-survivors; Medical Staff
Clinical Characteristics of COVID-19 Patients in a Regional Population With Diabetes Mellitus: The ACCREDIT Study

Objective To identify clinical and biochemical characteristics associated with 7- & 30-day mortality and intensive care admission amongst diabetes patients admitted with COVID-19. Research Design and Methods We conducted a cohort study collecting data from medical notes of hospitalised people with diabetes and COVID-19 in 7 hospitals within the Mersey-Cheshire region from 1 January to 30 June 2020. We also explored the impact on inpatient diabetes team resources. Univariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were performed and optimised by splitting the dataset into a training, test, and validation sets, developing a robust predictive model for the primary outcome. Results We analyzed data from 1004 diabetes patients (mean age 74.1 (± 12.6) years, predominantly men 60.7%). 45% belonged to the most deprived population quintile in the UK. Median BMI was 27.6 (IQR 23.9-32.4) kg/m2. The primary outcome (7-day mortality) occurred in 24%, increasing to 33% by day 30. Approximately one in ten patients required insulin infusion (9.8%). In univariate analyses, patients with type 2 diabetes had a higher risk of 7-day mortality [p < 0.05, OR 2.52 (1.06, 5.98)]. Patients requiring insulin infusion had a lower risk of death [p = 0.02, OR 0.5 (0.28, 0.9)]. CKD in younger patients (<70 years) had a greater risk of death [OR 2.74 (1.31-5.76)]. BMI, microvascular and macrovascular complications, HbA1c, and random non-fasting blood glucose on admission were not associated with mortality. On multivariate analysis, CRP and age remained associated with the primary outcome [OR 3.44 (2.17, 5.44)] allowing for a validated predictive model for death by day 7. Conclusions Higher CRP and advanced age were associated with and predictive of death by day 7. However, BMI, presence of diabetes complications, and glycaemic control were not. A high proportion of these patients required insulin infusion warranting increased input from the inpatient diabetes teams.
Analysis of Resilient Modulus of Dense- and Open-Graded Aggregates

The results of analyses of laboratory resilient modulus testing conducted on dense-graded and open-graded aggregates are presented. The testing program included three different aggregate materials (crushed limestone, natural stone, and slag), five different gradation specifications, and three different moisture conditions (dry, moist, and saturated). In addition to the five aggregate specifications, test specimens were prepared so that they would satisfy the lower, central, and upper bounds for the gradations. Resilient modulus tests were conducted as closely as possible according to Strategic Highway Research Program Protocol P-46 (AASHTO T 294-92 I). The test results were analyzed using log-linear regression analysis with two-parameter (bulk stress) and three-parameter (bulk stress and octahedral shear stress) expressions for resilient modulus. The results of the testing indicate that the resilient modulus of aggregates and regression constants vary significantly depending on the type of material and vary less significantly depending on material gradation and moisture condition. The natural stone aggregates had the higher moduli and the slag aggregate had the lowest moduli. The resilient modulus does not vary significantly as the moisture content increases unless the aggregate becomes saturated. The R2 values are consistently higher using a three-parameter expression than a two-parameter expression.
Limiting aspect ratio for suction caisson installation in clay

Suction caissons have emerged as an increasingly popular option for anchoring systems. To date, suction caissons have been limited to relatively low aspect ratios. However, as new offshore fields are developed in deeper water, higher aspect ratio caissons are needed in order to provide higher capacity, particularly in situations where a large upward component of load has to be withstood. Theory suggests that a limiting aspect ratio exists beyond which complete caisson installation cannot be achieved due to upheaval of the internal soil plug. This paper presents the data from a series of laboratory tests, aimed at establishing relationships between caisson penetration, installation pressures and volume of evacuated fluid and comparing results with the theoretical behaviour. Model caissons of various aspect ratios were installed in both normally consolidated and overconsolidated kaolin clay. The data exhibited excellent consistency but indicated limiting aspect ratios before plug failure that were somewhat lower than simple theory suggests.