Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Micro‐Econometric Store Choice Model Incorporating Multi‐ and Omni‐Channel Shopping: The Case of Furniture Retailing in Germany

Online retailing and multi- /omni- channel shopping are gaining in importance. However, there is a significant lack of research focused on incorporating online shopping into models of spatial shopping behavior. The present study aims (1) to construct a store choice model which includes both physical and online stores as well as the opportunity for omni-channel shopping, and (2) to identify the main drivers of spatial shopping behavior given the availability of both channels. Based on a representative survey, this study employs a revealed- preference approach toward store choice and expenditures in furniture retailing. The statistical analysis is performed using a hurdle model approach, with the expenditures of individual consumers at (online or physical) furniture stores serving as the dependent variable. Results show that channel choice (online vs. offline) is mainly influenced by psychographic characteristics, place of residence, and age of the consumers. Store choice and expenditures are primarily explained by store features such as assortment size, omni- channel integration, and accessibility. This study demonstrates that e- shopping can be integrated into a store choice model and that both the modeling approach and the subsequent findings are of significance for retail companies and spatial planning.
Impacts of Wood Fuel Uses on Forest Cover: The Case of Semiarid Areas in Northern Tanzania

Satellite images for the years 1987, 1997, 2002 and 2017, and questionnaire surveys were used to assess energy sources and demands as well as the impacts of wood fuel use to forest cover changes in Meru and Mwanga Districts. The major energy sources identified in the study areas include cow dung cake, firewood, charcoal, biogas, and liquefied petroleum gas. The total energy demands from these sources were 1400, 6289, 724 and 21 kg per day, respectively. Analysis from Landsat images showed variations in forest cover. The areas covered with forests in Meru District were found to be 1510, 1723, 1612 and 1327 ha for 1987, 1997, 2002 and 2017, respectively. The changes observed in Mwanga District were 31705, 31988, 17939 and 30960 ha for 1987, 1997, 2002 and 2017, respectively. From the findings it was observed that, the ongoing use of wood fuel in semi-arid areas of Meru and Mwanga Districts could deplete forests completely. The study concludes that charcoal and firewood consumptions are real threats to the long-term persistence of forests in Tanzania and proposes the use of renewable energy such as biogas for alleviating forest losses. Keywords: Biogas, energy sources, Satellite images
Examining Predictors of Myocardial Infarction

Cardiovascular diseases are the leading cause of death in the United States. This study analyzed predictors of myocardial infarction (MI) for those aged 35 and older based on demographic, socioeconomic, geographic, behavioral, and risk factors, as well as access to healthcare variables using the Center for Disease (CDC) Control Behavioral Risk Factor Surveillance System (BRFSS) survey for the year 2019. Multiple quasibinomial models were generated on an 80% training set hierarchically and then used to forecast the 20% test set. The final training model proved somewhat capable of prediction with a weighted F1-Score = 0.898. A complete model based on statistically significant variables using the entirety of the dataset was compared to the same model built on the training set. Models demonstrated coefficient stability. Similar to previous studies, age, gender, marital status, veteran status, income, home ownership, employment status, and education level were important demographic and socioeconomic predictors. The only geographic variable that remained in the model was associated with the West North Central Census Division (in-creased risk). Statistically important behavioral and risk factors as well as comorbidities included health status, smoking, alcohol consumption frequency, cholesterol, blood pressure, diabetes, stroke, chronic obstructive pulmonary disorder (COPD), kidney disease, and arthritis. Three access to healthcare variables proved statistically significant: lack of a primary care provider (Odds Ratio, OR = 0.853, p < 0.001), cost considerations prevented some care (OR = 1.232, p < 0.001), and lack of an annual checkup (OR = 0.807, p < 0.001). The directionality of these odds ratios is congruent with a marginal effects model and implies that those without MI are more likely not to have a primary provider or annual checkup, but those with MI are more likely to have missed care due to the cost of that care. Cost of healthcare for MI patients is associated with not receiving care after accounting for all other variables.
When inefficient speech-motor control affects speech comprehension: atypical electrophysiological correlates of language prediction in stuttering

It is well attested that people predict forthcoming information during language comprehension. The literature presents different proposals on how this ability could be implemented. Here, we tested the hypothesis according to which language production mechanisms have a role in such predictive processing. To this aim, we studied two electroencephalographic correlates of predictability during speech comprehension ‒ pretarget alpha‒beta (8-30 Hz) power decrease and the post-target N400 event-related potential (ERP) effect, ‒ in a population with impaired speech-motor control, i.e., adults who stutter (AWS), compared to typically fluent adults (TFA). Participants listened to sentences that could either constrain towards a target word or not, allowing or not to make predictions. We analyzed time-frequency modulations in a silent interval preceding the target and ERPs at the presentation of the target. Results showed that, compared to TFA, AWS display: i) a widespread and bilateral reduced power decrease in posterior temporal and parietal regions, and a power increase in anterior regions, especially in the left hemisphere (high vs. low constraining) and ii) a reduced N400 effect (non-predictable vs. predictable). The results suggest a reduced efficiency in generating predictions in AWS with respect to TFA. Additionally, the magnitude of the N400 effect in AWS is correlated with alpha power change in the right pre-motor and supplementary motor cortex, a key node in the dysfunctional network in stuttering. Overall, the results support the idea that processes and neural structures prominently devoted to speech planning and execution support prediction during language comprehension. Significance Statement The study contributes to the developing enterprise of investigating language production and comprehension not as separate systems, but as sets of processes which may be partly shared. We showed that a population with impaired speech-motor control, i.e., adults who stutter, are characterized by atypical electrophysiological patterns associated with prediction in speech comprehension. The results highlight that an underlying atypical function of neural structures supporting speech production also affects processes deployed during auditory comprehension. The implications are twofold: on the theoretical side, the study supports the need for a more integrated view of language comprehension and production as human capabilities, while on the applied and clinical side, these results might open new venues for efficient treatments of developmental stuttering.
Presence and activities of clinical research coordinators at Italian Health Care Institutions: A national cross-sectional survey

Abstract Background: Clinical Research Coordinators (CRCs) are key members of research teams who ensure rigorous conduction of clinical studies and quality standard compliance. Yet, their roles and responsibilities are still not well defined, and formal recognition of their professional profile is lacking in Italy. This survey of Italian healthcare institutions collected data on centers’ research activities number of CRCs and tasks they performed and explored factors associated with CRC employment. Methods: Cross-sectional study using a brief questionnaire. Data were analyzed by means of graphical representations, histogram, scatter, and polar plots. Multivariable linear regression was specified to test the association between the number of CRCs and a subset of factors. Results: Data collection took place from February to December 2020. 62/143 institutions (43.4%) responded. Median number of ongoing studies reported by centers was 65 (IQR 29–205); of these, median of sponsored and interventional studies was 32 and 35, respectively. Median number of CRCs employed at each center was 6 (IQR 2–9). The frequency with which activities were reported to be performed by CRCs overlapped with those of Data Managers. Linear multivariable regression analysis revealed a statistically significant association between the number of employed CRCs and the number of sponsored studies (P = 0.01), but not with the total number of studies, geographical location, or institution type. Conclusions: The association between industry funding and the number of CRCs observed in this study should be further explored to understand the direction of this relationship and to verify whether this may influence compliance with quality standards.
Relaxor-Ferroelectric Films for Dielectric Tunable Applications: Effect of Film Thickness and Applied Electric Field

The dielectric properties, tunability and figure-of-merit (FOM) of relaxor Pb0.9La0. 1(Zr0.52Ti0.48)O3 (PLZT) films have been investigated. Dielectric measurements indicated that the dielectric constant (at zero-bias field), tunability and FOM are enhanced as the film thickness increases, which are mainly attributed to the presence of an interfacial layer near the film-electrode interface. Experimental results illustrated that a slight reduction is observed in both dielectric constant and tunability (−2%) in a wide-frequency range (10 kHz–1 MHz); meanwhile, the FOM value decreases significantly (−17%) with increasing frequency, arising from the higher dielectric loss value. The 1000-nm PLZT film shows the largest tunability of 94.6% at a maximum electric-field of 1450 kV/cm, while the highest FOM factor is 37.6 at 1000 kV/cm, due to the combination of medium tunability (88.7%) and low dielectric loss (0.0236). All these excellent results indicated that the relaxor PLZT films are promising candidates for specific applications in microwave devices.
Social Media Reveals Urban-Rural Differences in Stress across China

Modeling differential stress expressions in urban and rural regions in China can provide a better understanding of the effects of urbanization on psychological well-being in a country that has rapidly grown economically in the last two decades. This paper studies linguistic differences in the experiences and expressions of stress in urban-rural China from Weibo posts from over 65,000 users across 329 counties using hierarchical mixed-effects models. We analyzed phrases, topical themes, and psycho-linguistic word choices in Weibo posts mentioning stress to better understand appraisal differences surrounding psychological stress in urban and rural communities in China; we then compared them with large-scale polls from Gallup. After controlling for socioeconomic and gender differences, we found that rural communities tend to express stress in emotional and personal themes such as relationships, health, and opportunity while users in urban areas express stress using relative, temporal, and external themes such as work, politics, and economics. These differences exist beyond controlling for GDP and urbanization, indicating a fundamentally different lifestyle between rural and urban residents in very specific environments, arguably having different sources of stress. We found corroborative trends in physical, financial, and social wellness with urbanization in Gallup polls.
Towards Validating the Effectiveness of Obstructive Sleep Apnea Classification from Electronic Health Records Using Machine Learning

Obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is a common, chronic, sleep-related breathing disorder characterized by partial or complete airway obstruction in sleep. The gold standard diagnosis method is polysomnography, which estimates disease severity through the Apnea-Hypopnea Index (AHI). However, this is expensive and not widely accessible to the public. For effective screening, this work implements machine learning algorithms for classification of OSA. The model is trained with routinely acquired clinical data of 1479 records from the Wisconsin Sleep Cohort dataset. Extracted features from the electronic health records include patient demographics, laboratory blood reports, physical measurements, habitual sleep history, comorbidities, and general health questionnaire scores. For distinguishing between OSA and non-OSA patients, feature selection methods reveal the primary important predictors as waist-to-height ratio, waist circumference, neck circumference, body-mass index, lipid accumulation product, excessive daytime sleepiness, daily snoring frequency and snoring volume. Optimal hyperparameters were selected using a hybrid tuning method consisting of Bayesian Optimization and Genetic Algorithms through a five-fold cross-validation strategy. Support vector machines achieved the highest evaluation scores with accuracy: 68.06%, sensitivity: 88.76%, specificity: 40.74%, F1-score: 75.96%, PPV: 66.36% and NPV: 73.33%. We conclude that routine clinical data can be useful in prioritization of patient referral for further sleep studies.
Adjoint-based sensitivity and ignition threshold mapping in a turbulent mixing layer

Successful ignition in non-premixed turbulent flows remains a fundamental challenge in combustion systems. Current design strategies typically rely on iterative testing to map the spatial distribution of ignition probability. We propose to accelerate this by formulating the adjoint of the perturbed and linearised governing equations in such a way that sensitivity of an ignition indicator can be obtained with a cost comparable to the flow solution. A space–time discrete adjoint method for multi-component chemically reacting flows is developed, and the gradient formed via the corresponding adjoint solution is used to identify regions favourable to ignition in a direct numerical simulation of non-premixed turbulent free shear flow. This approach requires a specific definition of an ignition metric, although this can be problematic because ignition either succeeds or fails after some period and thus gradients for some metrics become ill-defined near the ignition threshold. To this end, a quantity of interest is designed to provide short-time sensitivity in conjunction with an indicator function over a long-time period that informs whether successful ignition occurred. The gradients are used in a line-search algorithm to map the ignition boundary under specific constraints. Finally, parametric sensitivity is evaluated at different flow realisations to analyse factors governing local sensitivity in unsteady chemically reacting flows.
An exploratory study of the experiences and challenges faced by advanced life support paramedics in the milieu of neonatal transfers

Background The safe transfer of critically ill neonates is important for their survival. This calls for greater preparedness on the part of paramedics to effect these transfers safely. Aim To understand the experiences and the challenges faced by advanced life support (ALS) paramedics during neonatal transfers. Setting The study setting consisted of advanced life support paramedics from urban and rural areas in KwaZulu-Natal. It comprised of a network of district hospitals as well air and ground transfer facilities, both public and private. Method Using a qualitative research approach, the study sought the views of ALS paramedics who were involved in neonatal transfers in KwaZulu-Natal. A purposive sample of n = 8 ALS paramedics was selected. Data were collected using in-depth semi-structured interviews. The data were analysed through the process of thematic analysis. Results The study found that paramedics faced multiple complex challenges related to neonatal transfers. Poor pre-transfer preparation of the neonate, equipment related challenges, lack of clinical support available during transfers and pressure to effect inappropriate transfers were some of the challenges they faced. These challenges coupled with insufficient education and the lack of sub-speciality programmes to capacitate, rendered them unprepared to deal with neonatal transfers effectively. Conclusion Emergency medicine needs to provide greater attention towards preparing all stakeholders for successful neonatal transfers. Contribution The findings provide recommendations for a programme that will limit risks involved with, and support the inter-healthcare facility transfer of critically ill neonates in South Africa.
Systemic, Mucosal, and Memory Immune Responses following Cholera

Vibrio cholerae O1, the major causative agent of cholera, remains a significant public health threat. Although there are available vaccines for cholera, the protection provided by killed whole-cell cholera vaccines in young children is poor. An obstacle to the development of improved cholera vaccines is the need for a better understanding of the primary mechanisms of cholera immunity and identification of improved correlates of protection. Considerable progress has been made over the last decade in understanding the adaptive and innate immune responses to cholera disease as well as V. cholerae infection. This review will assess what is currently known about the systemic, mucosal, memory, and innate immune responses to clinical cholera, as well as recent advances in our understanding of the mechanisms and correlates of protection against V. cholerae O1 infection.
Non-destructive and distributed measurement of optical fiber diameter with nanometer resolution based on coherent forward stimulated Brillouin scattering

Precise control and measurement of the optical fiber diameter are vital for a range of fields, such as ultra-high sensitivity sensing and high-speed optical communication. Nowadays, the measurement of fiber diameter relies on point measurement schemes such as microscopes, which suffer from a tradeoff between the resolution and field of view. Handling the fiber can irreversibly damage the fiber samples, especially when multi-point measurements are required. To overcome these problems, we have explored a novel technique in which the mechanical properties of fibers are reflected by forward stimulated Brillouin scattering (FSBS), from which the diameters can be demodulated via the acoustic dispersion relation. The distributed FSBS spectra with narrow linewidths were recorded via the optimized optomechanical time-domain analysis system using coherent FSBS, thereby achieving a spatial resolution of 1 m over a fiber length of tens of meters. We successfully obtained the diameter distribution of unjacketed test fibers with diameters of 125 μm and 80 μm. The diameter accuracy was verified by high-quality scanning electron microscope images. We achieved a diameter resolution of 3.9 nm, virtually independent of the diameter range. To the best of our knowledge, this is the first demonstration of non-destructive and distributed fiber diameter monitoring with nanometer resolution.
Consumidores y consumo de productos agroecológicos en los Integrantes de la Red de Mercados Agroecológicos de Bogotá, Región – RMABR

Los indicadores de sostenibilidad más deficientes en la Red de Mercados Agroecológicos de Bogotá, Región, para 2016 y 2017, fueron el número de consumidores y las ventas. Por lo anterior, esta investigación buscó caracterizar los consumidores y el consumo en la RMABR, para, luego, generar estrategias asertivas de comunicación, educación y de mercadeo. Se realizó una investigación descriptiva, de enfoque mixto, para la cual se aplicó una encuesta con veinte seis preguntas a través de un formulario de Google, entre el 16 de abril y el 17 de mayo de 2018. La muestra total fue de 149 consumidores (80 % confiabilidad, 5 % de error). El análisis de los resultados se efectuó mediante estadística descriptiva y comparación con otros estudios. La principal motivación de compra identificada es la salud, mientras la de no compra es el precio, aunque hay una disposición a pagar sobreprecio del 10 %. Los productos favoritos son cereales, frutas y verduras, las frecuencias preferidas de compra son semanal y quincenal, directamente a productores y en ferias, con un rango mayoritario de menos de 100 mil a 300 mil pesos. Estos estudios no son comunes en agroecología, se identificaron 16 estudios similares para productos ecológicos, pero uno solo para agroecológicos.
Familism and Parenting Stress in Latinx Caregivers of Young Children with Developmental Delays

Several studies have documented the difficult experience of raising a child with a developmental delay (DD; DeGrace et al., 2014) but the majority of research has focused on non-Latinx White families and their experiences in childrearing and interacting with service providers (Hayes & Watson, 2013; Blanche et al., 2015). Additionally, stigma associated with mental illness and DD disproportionally affects Latinx communities (Burke et al., 2019). Familism plays a unique role among families of Latinx backgrounds (Moore, 1970; Coohey, 2001) and may act as a buffer to caregiver mental health. The current study aims to (1) determine the association between affiliate stigma and parenting stress among Latinx parents of young children with DD and (2) test whether familism moderates the relationship between affiliate stigma and parenting stress. Results revealed that the relationship between affiliate stigma and parenting stress was strongest in caregivers who reported low levels of familism, suggesting that familism may act as a buffer. More research is needed to further unpack the protective factors of familism on caregiver mental health.
Motivation From a Self-Regulated Learning Perspective: Application to School Psychology

Self-regulation of learning involves developing metacognitive awareness (planning, monitoring, and evaluating) of (a) cognition—motivational beliefs, (b) behaviors—persistence, effort, engagement, and (c) affect—enjoyment, interest, and other emotions. Metacognitive awareness creates opportunities to exert metacognitive control as needed, which may involve sustaining or manipulating motivational cognition, behavior, and affect. By adopting a self-regulation perspective, this paper discusses the ways motivation develops within and across academic tasks and situations, as well as the ways learners can be supported to take control of their motivation in those contexts. Applying self-regulation principles in the practice of School Psychology means to consider the role of situation, context, and learners’ socio-historical experiences while empowering learners to focus attention on things they can control.