Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Evaluating Dynamic Modulus for Indiana Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide Practice

After the implementation of the Mechanistic-Empirical Pavement Design Guide (MEPDG) in Indiana, an overall evaluation of the stiffness characteristics of local AC mixtures and the ability of level III MEPDG predictive equations to estimate dynamic modulus (E*) with local mixtures was required. Therefore, the primary objectives of this study were to identify significant differences among Indiana asphalt mixtures, to evaluate the performance of commonly used E* predictive models, and to assess the influence of level III E* input on the pavement design life of typical pavement structures. It was found that Indiana mixtures do not show extensive variability among mixtures having the same nominal maximum aggregate size. When conducting a statistical analysis to group asphalt mixtures having similar characteristics, few mixtures were left out of the groups. In general, it was observed that mixtures having Ndes equal to 75, showed the lowest E* values along the entire frequency range. The Witczak 1-37A showed the most accurate and less biased E* predictions for Indiana mixtures. It showed the highest R2, and the least deviation from the measured E* values. However, predicted E* input values produced higher levels of pavement distress compared with measured E* values, indicating general overprediction. Besides, using level III (predictive) rather than level I (measured) E* input values can influence the pavement thickness design due to the functional performance (i.e., the International Roughness Index (IRI)). When a structural performance (i.e., bottom-up cracking) was taken into consideration, no influence of the E* input type on the design AC layer thickness was observed.
MULTIFACETED ANALYSIS OF TRANSIT STATION ACCESSIBILITY CHARACTERISTICS BASED ON FIRST MILE LAST MILE

The First Mile Last Mile (FMLM) challenge garners significant attention as a means to assess the accessibility of the first leg to public transit and the last leg from transit. As a critical barrier to public transit accessibility, the challenge provides many opportunities to closely analyze conditions from the level of the transit station upwards to the level of the system-wide network. Its usefulness in contributing to the body of knowledge on barriers to transit access provides planners and researchers important information with implications towards increasing ridership, transit efficiency, multimodal travel options, and mobility. Salt Lake City area is experiencing a rapid growth in transit infrastructure. The ambitious program of transit construction spans across light rail, Bus Rapid Transit (BRT), streetcars and commuter rail simultaneously. This transit expansion program, led by Utah Transit Authority (UTA), strives to provide a multimodal system that can meet the daily transportation needs of the residents. FMLM strategy evaluations find strategy appropriateness and relevancy in many different contexts, but may still retain unique challenges imposed by such things as weather conditions, population characteristics, and cultural norms. This study proposes a methodological framework for analyzing the FMLM problems in the State of Utah. It utilizes microscopic and macroscopic data collection and analysis techniques, as well as network modeling, in an effort to quantify and understand the FMLM challenges facing each fixed transit station. The research aims to construct a set of station categories based on access mode
Racial/Ethnic Disparities in Diabetes Care and Impact of Vendor-Based Disease Management Programs

OBJECTIVE We examined the existence of disparities in receipt of appropriate diabetes care among California ’ s fee-for-service Medicaid bene ﬁ ciaries and the effectiveness of a telephone-based disease management program delivered by a disease management vendor on the reduction of racial/ethnic disparities in diabetes care. We conducted an intervention-control cohort study to test the effectiveness of a 3-year-long disease management program delivered to Medicaid fee-for-service bene ﬁ ciaries aged 22 to 75 with a diagnosis of diabetes in Los Angeles and Alameda counties. The outcome measures were the receipt of at least one hemoglobin A 1c (HbA 1c ) test, LDL-cholesterol test, and retinal examination each year. We used generalized estimating equations models with logit link to analyze the claims data fora cohort ofbene ﬁ ciaries intwo intervention counties ( n = 2,933) and eight control counties ( n = 2,988) from September 2005 through August 2010. Racial/ethnic disparities existed in the receipt of all three types of testing in the intervention counties before the program. African Americans (0.66; 95% CI 0.62 – 0.70) and Latinos (0.77; 95% CI 0.74 – 0.80) had lower rates of receipt for HbA 1c testing than whites (0.83; 95% CI 0.81 – 0.85) in the intervention counties. After the intervention, the disparity among African Americans and Latinos compared with whites persisted in the intervention counties. For Asian Americans and Paci ﬁ c Islanders, the disparity in testing rates decreased. We did not ﬁ nd similar disparities in the control counties.
A Smart Monitoring System for Automatic Welding Defect Detection

This paper introduces an intelligent system able to perform quality control assessment in an industrial production line. Deep learning techniques are employed and proved successful in a real application for the inspection of welding defects on an assembly line of fuel injectors. Starting from state-of-the-art deep architectures and using the transfer learning technique, it is possible to train a network with about 7 million parameters using a reduced number of injector's images, obtaining an accuracy of 97.22%. The system is also configured in order to exploit new data, collected during operation, to extend the existing dataset and to improve further its performance. The developed system shows that deep neural networks can successfully perform quality inspection tasks that are usually demanded to humans.
The moderating effects of perceived intentionality: exploring the The moderating effects of perceived intentionality: exploring the relationships between ideas of reference, paranoia, and social relationships between ideas of reference, paranoia, and social anxiety in schizotypy anxiety in schizotyp

Ideas of reference (IOR), paranoia, and social anxiety are three common symptoms of schizophrenia-spectrum disorders, which appear to be conceptually related. However, the precise nature of these relationships is unclear. A new measure that assesses perceived intentionality (PI), a social-cognitive bias for perceiving the actions of others during unpleasant social situations as being directed at oneself in an intentionally malicious manner, has provided preliminary evidence for a link between PI and paranoia. The primary aim of this study was to examine the moderating role of PI on the relationships between IOR and paranoia, and between IOR and social anxiety amongst individuals with psychometrically-defined schizotypy. As we expected, the schizotypy group exhibited significantly higher levels of IOR, paranoia, and social anxiety compared to controls. Correlational analyses within the schizotypy group found that paranoia was positively related to IOR and social anxiety. However, social anxiety was not related to IOR. Consistent with what we expected, the results revealed that PI moderated the relationship between IOR and paranoia such that higher PI predicted higher levels of paranoia as IOR increased. However, our results did not support our hypothesis that PI would moderate the relationship between IOR and social anxiety such that lower PI would predict higher levels of social anxiety as IOR increased. Instead the present study found that PI moderated the relationship between IOR and social anxiety such that higher PI predicted lower levels of social anxiety as IOR increased. Theoretical and practical implications are discussed.
Maximum likelihood aggregation and misspecified generalized linear models

We study a natural extension of the pure aggregation problem to handle more general distributions for the response in a regression setup with random or deterministic design. While this extension bears strong connections with generalized linear models, it does not require identifiability of the parameter or even that the model is true. It is shown that this problem can be solved by constrained likelihood maximization and we derive sharp oracle inequalities that hold both in expectation and with high probability. A new proof technique is employed and yields error bounds that are accurate already for small sample sizes and provide guidelines to choose the geometry of the constraint. To illustrate the main results, we derive generalization error bounds for the LogitBoost algorithm in binary classification with a natural convex loss function. Mathematics Subject Classifications: Primary 62G08, Secondary 62J12, 62H30, 62G07.
BONE MARROW MORPHOLOGY AND CYTOCHEMICAL STAINING IN DIAGNOSIS AND CLASSIFICATION OF ACUTE LEUKEMIA

S Background: Acute leukemia (AL) is serious heterogeneous neoplastic haemopoietic disease. Therefore, parameters are needed to classify this disease into subtypes. The aim of present study is to determine the frequency of various subtypes of acute leukemia using French-American-British (FAB) criteria in our population, and to study the clinical and hematological presentations of acute leukemia. Materials and Methods: This is descriptive study conducted at two Aden governmental hospitals from January 2011 to September 2012. The total numbers of subjects were 53 patients that included both adults and children. History and physical examination, complete blood count, bone marrow aspiration and cytochemistry stains were done for all patients. Results: Fifty three patients were studied (males= 37, females= 16), with male to female ratio 2.3:1. The age ranged between 18 months to 76 years with a mean age of 22 years.Acute Lymphoblast leukemia (ALL) was 58.5%, acute myeloid leukemia (AML) 37.7% and undifferentiated leukemia 3.8%. The predominant subtype of ALL was L1 (51.6%) followed by L2 (45.2%). In AML; M2 (40%) was the predominant subtype followed by M4 (25%) and M5 (20%). of ALL cases. Conclusions : The most common type of acute leukemia observed in our study was acute lymphoblast leukemia (ALL) (58.5%), followed by AML 37.7% and undifferentiated leukemia in 3.8% . The AML subtype most common one was myeloblastic leukemia with maturation (M2) (40%).
Should Students with AP Credit Repeat Coursework in College? A Multilevel Analysis

Research on the Advanced Placement (AP) program generally shows that students scoring 4s and 5s on AP exams outperform their non-AP peers in subsequent college courses. However, faculty and academic advisors often suggest that students with AP credit should repeat prerequisite courses in college before attempting advanced coursework. We compared grades of 20,409 students in 42 subsequent courses across three groups: students who used AP credit as a prerequisite, students who earned AP credit but repeated the prerequisite courses in college, and students without AP credit. Results with two-level cross-sectional multilevel modeling showed that AP students performed similarly in subsequent courses whether they chose to repeat prerequisites or not; both groups outperformed non-AP students with similar academic backgrounds.
Psychopathy Assessment and Impression Management 1 Are You Telling The Truth? Psychopathy Assessment and Impression Management in a Community Sample Psychopathy Assessment and Impression Management 2

Objectives: Researchers have suggested that approximately 1% of individuals within the community have psychopathic tendencies (Neumann and Hare, 2008), although confirmatory evidence is scant. Design: The current study aimed to extend previous research beyond university student samples to explore the effect of impression management and self-deception on the identification of psychopathic traits. Methods: A non-incarcerated community sample comprising of 300 adults completed the Self-Reported Psychopathy scale – version 3 (SRP-III; Paulhus, Hemphill & Hare, in press) as well as the Paulhus Deception Scales (PDS; Paulhus, 1998). Results: Results indicated that at least 1% of the current community sample had clear psychopathic tendencies, and that such tendencies were found in younger males who misused alcohol. Conclusions: Importantly, individuals with psychopathic traits did not present with an inflated propensity to distort assessment responses, which provides support for future research endeavours that aim to conduct larger-scale psychopathy assessments within the community. This paper further outlines the study implications in regards to the practical assessment of psychopathy.
Histoplasma capsulatum Fungistatic/Fungicidal Activity against Phagosome Acidification to Mediate Human Macrophages Do Not Require

Histoplasma capsulatum (Hc) is a facultative intracellular fungus that modulates the intraphagosomal environment to survive within macrophages (M (cid:1) ). In the present study, we sought to quantify the intraphagosomal pH under conditions in which Hc yeasts replicated or were killed. Human M (cid:1) that had ingested both viable and heat-killed or ﬁxed yeasts maintained an intraphagosomal pH of (cid:1) 6.4–6.5 over a period of several hours. These results were obtained using a ﬂuorescent ratio technique and by electron microscopy using the 3-(2,4-dinitroanilo)-3 (cid:1) -amino- N -methyldipropylamine reagent. M (cid:1) that had ingested Saccharomyces cerevisae , a nonpathogenic yeast that is rapidly killed and degraded by M (cid:1) , also maintained an intraphagosomal pH of (cid:1) 6.5 over a period of several hours. Stimulation of human M (cid:1) fungicidal activity by coculture with chloroquine or by adherence to type 1 collagen matrices was not reversed by baﬁlomycin, an inhibitor of the vacuolar ATPase. Human M (cid:1) cultured in the presence of baﬁlomycin also completely degraded heat-killed Hc yeasts, whereas mouse peritoneal M (cid:1) digestion of yeasts was completely reversed in the presence of baﬁlomycin. However, baﬁlomycin did not inhibit mouse M (cid:1) fungistatic activity induced by IFN- (cid:2) . Thus, human M (cid:1) do not require phagosomal acidiﬁcation to kill and degrade Hc yeasts, whereas mouse M (cid:1) do require acidiﬁcation for fungicidal but not fungistatic activity.
Numerical Investigation of Statistical Turbulence Effects on Beam Propagation through 2-D Shear Mixing Layer

Abstract : A methodology is developed for determining the validity of making a statistical turbulent approach using Kolmogorov theory to an aero-optical turbulent flow. Kolmogorov theory provides a stochastic method that has a greatly simplified and robust method for calculating atmospheric turbulence effects on optical beam propagation, which could simplify similar approaches to chaotic aero-optical flows. A 2-D laminar Navier-Stokes CFD Solver (AVUS) is run over a splitter plate type geometry to create an aero-optical like shear mixing layer turbulence field. A Matlab algorithm is developed to import the flow data and calculates the structure functions, structure constant, and Fried Parameter (ro) and compares them to expected Kolmogorov distributions assuming an r^2/3 power law. The range of Cn^2's developed from the structure functions are not constant with separation distance, and ranged between 10-12-10-10. There is a consistent range of data overlap within the Cn^2's derived from various methods for separation distances within the range 0.01m-0.02m. Within this range ro is found to be approximately 0.05m which is a reasonable value. This particular 2-D shear mixing layer was found to be non-Kolmogorov, but further grid refinement and data sampling may provide a more Kolmogorov-like distribution.
Loss Functions for Binary Class Probability Estimation

• Calibration loss: [2] Suppose we estimate k different probabilities pj for j = 1, . , k. Let nj be the number of predictions with value pj and rj the fraction of corresponding y’s that are 1. (formally rj = n−1 j ∑ i:pi=pj yi) LossC = n−1 ∑k j=1 nj(rj − pj) • Refinement loss: [2] LossR = n−1 ∑k j=1 nj rj(1− rj) • Separation Theorem: [2] LossBS = LossC + LossR • Lift charts: [3] Sort probabilities in decreasing order: ps1 ≥ ps2 ≥ . ≥ psn Apply that sorting to the y values.
Effects of Egg Size on Fertilization and Embryonic Development of Sibling Tropical Sea Urchins (Genus, Echinometra )

A BSTRACT : Egg size has the ability to influence fertilization success and embryonic development in free-spawning marine invertebrates. The effects of egg size on fertilization and embryonic development were compared among three sibling species of Echinometra sp. B, Echinometra sp. C, and Echinometra sp. D. Gamete size of Echinometra sp. D is larger than Echinometra sp. B and Echinometra sp. C. Larger eggs of Echinometra sp. D might provide a larger target for sperm and thus, were fertilized at higher rate than smaller Echinometra sp. B and Echinometra sp. C eggs under moderate and limiting sperm concentrations. Developmental time from fertilization to prism stage (embryonic development) in Echinometra sp. B and Echinometra sp. C were comparatively longer than Echinometra sp. D, suggesting that increased allocation of energy reserve in the cytoplasm in larger Echinometra sp. D eggs reduced the developmental period. As Echinometra sp. B, Echinometra sp. C and Echinometra sp. D have diverged from their ancestral species, the differences of the above traits related to egg sizes transcended species differences among them.
Stereotactic Body Radiotherapy for Patients with Lung Oligometastatic Disease: A Five-Year Review

Simple Summary: Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) is currently used to treat lung metastasis, particularly in the setting of oligometastatic disease. Objective of this treatment is lesion’s ablation. However, its techniques, efﬁcacy, and safety remain to be evaluated. Several teams have published their experiences with different radiotherapy schedules. The aim of this review was to analyze these topics in regard to the last ﬁve years of publications. For this purpose, we carried out a systematic review of the literature using the PRISMA method. This review can help oncologists involved in lung oligometastasis to clarify their knowledge through the wealth of published data and may lead to improved management. Abstract: For several years, oligometastatic disease has represented an intermediate state between localized disease accessible to local treatment and multimetastatic disease requiring systemic therapy. The lung represents one of the most common metastatic locations. Stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) appears to be the treatment of choice for these patients. There are few data deﬁning the place of radiotherapy and reporting outcome after SBRT in lung metastases. This 5-year review aimed to determine areas of SBRT usefulness and methods for the management of pulmonary metastasis in oligometastatic patients. A search for articles on PubMed allowed selection of the most relevant studies. Eighteen articles were selected according to pre-established criteria for this purpose. The analysis concludes that SBRT is an effective and safe treatment in selected patients when the disease remains localized from one to three organs.
Effects of convection instability due to incompatibility between ocean dynamics and surface forcings

The study demonstrates that an incompatibility between a surface temperature climatology and a given ocean model, into which the climatology is assimilated via Haney restoration, can cause model ocean climate drift and interdecadal oscillations when the ocean is switched to a weaker restoration. This is made using an idealized Atlantic Ocean model driven by thermal and wind forcing only. Initially, the temperature climatology is forcefully assimilated into the model, and an implied heat ̄ux ®eld is diagnosed. During this stage any incompatibility is suppressed. The restoring boundary condition is then switched to a new forcing consisting of a part of the diagnosed ̄ux and a part of the restoring forcing in such a way that at the moment of the switching the heat ̄ux is identical to that prior to the switching. Under this new forcing condition, the incompatibility becomes manifest, causing changes in convection patterns, and producing drift and interdecadal oscillations. The mechanisms are described.
Audit Reports and Value Relevance of Accounting Information: Evidence from Commercial Banks in Nigeria

This study examined audit reports and value relevance of accounting information in Nigeria quoted commercial banks. Data was sourced from financial statement of Commercial Banks. Two multiple regressions were formulated to investigate the effect of audit reports and audit characteristics on stock prices of the commercial banks. The data analysis technique employed is the multiple regression model based on Statistical Package for Social Sciences version (22.0). The Durbin-Watson statistics show the presence of multiple serial autocorrelation. The result shows collinearity that corresponds with the Eigen value condition index and variance constants are less than the required number, while the variance inflation factors indicate the absence of auto-correlation . The result from model I found that all the audit report variables have positive impact on value relevance while model II found that audit compensation, audit familiarity and corporate governance have positive effect and audit independence, joint audit and audit size have negative effect on stock prices. The study concludes that the independent variables have significant relationship value relevance of accounting information of Nigeria quoted commercial banks. We recommend that auditing should principle of corporate management beyond the present statue.
RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN SECONDARY SCHOOL STUDENTS’ SELF-ESTEEM AND THEIR ATTITUDE TOWARDS EXAMINATION MALPRACTICE IN IMO STATE

This study investigated the relationship between secondary school students’ self-esteem and their attitude towards examination malpractice in Imo State. Two research questions were answered, and one null hypothesis was tested at 0.05 level of significance to guide the study. Correlation research design was adopted for this study. The population for this study consisted of 33,922 senior secondary school (SS2) students. Research sample consisted of 3,520 students selected through multi-stage sampling technique. The instruments used for the study were Hare Self-esteem Scale (HSS) and Examination Malpractice Attitude Scale (EMAS). Descriptive statistics and Pearson Product Moment Correlation were used for data analysis. Results obtained from the study indicated that majority of the students in Imo state have high self-esteem. The result also showed that most of the students in Imo state have negative attitude towards examination malpractice. More so, the result revealed high positive significant relationship between secondary school students’ self-esteem and their attitude towards examination malpractice. The study recommended, among others that Counsellors, teachers and researchers should strengthen their efforts in creating programmes that will help boost students’ self-esteem, so that they would feel worthy and able to face examination without any need to indulge in any form of malpractice.