Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Knowledge, attitudes, and practices of Anopheles mosquito control through insecticide treated nets and community-based health programs to prevent malaria in East Sumba Island, Indonesia

With an estimated 241 million human cases and 627,000 deaths in 2020, malaria remains a significant and ongoing global health challenge. This study employs a qualitative approach to investigate knowledge, attitudes, and practices surrounding mosquito control and prevention methods in East Sumba Regency, Indonesia. While malaria is under control in much of Indonesia, transmission in Sumba Island remains high, with incidence as high as 500 per 1000 population in some areas. A qualitative study was undertaken to explore use of insecticide treated nets, (ITNs), traditional Sumbanese mosquito control methods, and the role of women, integrated health service posts, (posyandu) and community-based health workers (kaders) in combatting malaria and controlling mosquitoes. Focus group discussions (n = 7) were conducted in East Sumba Island stratified by urban/rural location and level of malaria transmission. Key informant interviews (n = 14) were conducted with religious leaders, health workers, and women’s group leaders. Results indicate that environmental conditions, such as high temperatures, were common deterrents to regular ITN use. Furthermore, our results suggest that community embedded health workers, kaders, and health service posts, posyandu, play an important role in information dissemination related to mosquitoes and mosquito-borne diseases as well as the distribution and use of ITNs in East Sumba Island. The role of the posyandu and kaders could be expanded to improve malaria prevention by integration with educational campaigns, aiding ITN distributions, and malaria diagnosis and treatment. This study is the first to examine mosquito-borne disease-related knowledge, attitudes, and practices in East Sumba Island, Indonesia. Results could improve mosquito control and malaria prevention by providing insights into local knowledge of Anopheles mosquitoes and malaria as well. Tailoring mosquito control and malaria prevention strategies around local knowledge and perceptions is likely to be more acceptable and sustainable.
Model-based Methods for Robust Finite Population Inference in the Presence of External Information.

This dissertation develops new model-based approaches for analysis of sample survey data. The main focus of the thesis is to incorporate information available from external sources to improve estimation and inference for finite population quantities. If such information is utilized properly, it can improve point estimates and inferences. The dissertation addresses two general scenarios: survey data from unequal probability designs and surveys with nonresponse. The first part of the dissertation studies robust Bayesian methods for finite population inference in probability proportional to size (PPS) sampling. First, I study Bayesian inference of the population total from a heteroscedastic probability proportional to size sample. In this dissertation, I extend the methodology of Zheng and Little (2003) and propose a Bayesian penalized spline model for inference on the finite population mean, which simultaneously models non-constant error variance, by including an additional parameter for modeling heteroscedasticity. This proves to be an important modeling feature in the PPS setting, and further improves the flexibility of the proposed method. Design-based estimators such as the HorvitzThompson estimator do not require the sizes of non-sampled units, and this information is rarely included in public use data files. To incorporate unavailable sizes of non-sampled units in the spline model, I develop a modification of the Bayesian bootstrap model of Little and Zheng (2007) by better incorporating summary infor-
Alleviating Data Sparsity Problems in Estimated Time of Arrival via Auxiliary Metric Learning

With millions of people using ride-hailing platforms for daily travel, estimated time of arrival (ETA) has become a significant problem in intelligent transportation systems and attracted considerable attention recently. Deep learning-based ETA methods have achieved promising results using massive spatial-temporal data. However, we find that the prediction accuracy is not satisfactory in practical applications due to the prevalent data sparsity problems. Instead of focusing on the average prediction performance as many other methods, this study aims to alleviate the data sparsity problems in ETA to enhance user experience. In general, the data sparsity problems arise from two aspects. The first is the road network, where many links are only traversed by few floating cars. The second aspect is drivers, where many drivers’ trajectories are too scarce (e.g., with only 3 trip records). To alleviate the sparsity in road network, we propose a Road Network Metric Learning framework for ETA (RNML-ETA), where an auxiliary metric learning task is used to improve the link-embedding, especially for links with insufficient data. A novel triangle loss is proposed to improve metric learning effectiveness for links. Experiments on massive real-world data show that RNML-ETA outperforms competing methods by promoting the cold links with limited data. Furthermore, we propose a novel unified framework to Alleviate Data Sparsity problems in ETA (ADS-ETA) by extending RNML-ETA with an additional auxiliary task for driver ID embedding. Results with extensive experiments demonstrate that ADS-ETA can effectively alleviate the data sparsity problems caused by road network and driver sparsity.
Predictions of the SOFIA telescope seeing in flight

The results of detailed predictions are presented for the wavelength dependence of the blur circle of the proposed Stratospheric Observatory for Infrared Astronomy (SOFIA), which will have a 2.5 m diameter telescope in an open cavity aft of the wing on a Boeing 747SP aircraft. The analysis uses wind tunnel measurements of the turbulent shear layer (Rose Engineering and Research, 1996), computer calculations of the telescope cavity shear layer organized air density fluctuations (Atwood, 1993) and extrapolation of the cavity optical effects of the Kuiper Airborne Observatory (KAO) (Sutton, 1992) based on the expected SOFIA cavity noise (Rose Engineering and Research, 1996). The results indicate a visible wavelength blur circle diameter of many arc seconds, which then raised the issue of the use of the visible spectrum for natural guide stars to obtain the long term pointing accuracy of 0.14 arcsec. Detailed calculations of SNR indicate there are a sufficient number of stars having adequate visible brightness to achieve this objective. Optical tests in a quiet transonic wind tunnel and independent calculations of the air density fluctuations in the telescope cavity would confirm this result.
Targeted transcript analysis in muscles from patients with genetically diverse congenital myopathies

Abstract Congenital myopathies are a group of early onset muscle diseases of variable severity often with characteristic muscle biopsy findings and involvement of specific muscle types. The clinical diagnosis of patients typically relies on histopathological findings and is confirmed by genetic analysis. The most commonly mutated genes encode proteins involved in skeletal muscle excitation–contraction coupling, calcium regulation, sarcomeric proteins and thin–thick filament interaction. However, mutations in genes encoding proteins involved in other physiological functions (for example mutations in SELENON and MTM1, which encode for ubiquitously expressed proteins of low tissue specificity) have also been identified. This intriguing observation indicates that the presence of a genetic mutation impacts the expression of other genes whose product is important for skeletal muscle function. The aim of the present investigation was to verify if there are common changes in transcript and microRNA expression in muscles from patients with genetically heterogeneous congenital myopathies, focusing on genes encoding proteins involved in excitation–contraction coupling and calcium homeostasis, sarcomeric proteins, transcription factors and epigenetic enzymes. Our results identify RYR1, ATPB2B and miRNA-22 as common transcripts whose expression is decreased in muscles from congenital myopathy patients. The resulting protein deficiency may contribute to the muscle weakness observed in these patients. This study also provides information regarding potential biomarkers for monitoring disease progression and response to pharmacological treatments in patients with congenital myopathies.
Prevalence and Levels of Information Seeking Anxiety among Business Students

This research assessed the prevalence and levels of information seeking anxiety among business students at Lahore School of Economics, Lahore, Pakistan so that remedial measures could be taken to reduce anxiety. The data were collected from 283 students using a survey questionnaire, containing an Information Seeking Anxiety Scale along with certain demographic and academic variables, and analyzed using descriptive and inferential statistics. The results indicated the prevalence of information seeking anxiety among these students across different dimensions and overall scale at mild to moderate levels. There was no significant relationship between nature of MBA program, gender, school background, geographical origin, ICT skills, English language competency, and information seeking anxiety. However, gender appeared to predict the dimension of search anxiety as female students were more anxious than males when searching for information. The results are very useful to inform policy and practice for development of information capabilities in the digital information landscape. These findings could be used as a guide for developing and designing information literacy programs aimed to reduce information seeking anxiety resulting in the improvement of students’ academic performance. This study has made a reasonable contribution to the existing literature on information seeking anxiety as a limited number of studies appeared focusing specifically on information seeking anxiety.
Pre-­‐race strategies to maintain and enhance the physiological effects of a warm-­‐up in 100m freestyle performance

This study investigated the effects of a plyometric protocol and passive heat maintenance strategy on 100m freestyle performance. Twelve subjects (age 15.5 ± 2.4 years; bodyweight 63.4 ± 9.2kg; height 162 ± 9.1cm) (6 males and 6 females) volunteered and provided written consent, which was approved by the university ethics committee. Subjects completed two familiarisation sessions, one involving a plyometric protocol with countermovement jumps taken at baseline and immediately, 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 minutes post to determine individualised recovery time. Subjects completed four different trials in a counterbalanced design, each consisted of a 15-minute pool warm up with a 10-minute recovery period before entering a simulated call room. Subjects completed the following trials prior to a 100m time trial; plyometric protocol at individualised times (PLYO), plyometric protocol at individualised times with the use of a blizzard heat jacket (PHEAT), the use of a blizzard heat jacket (HEAT) and a control trial (CONTROL). Subject core body temperatures (T Core ) were taken at baseline, post pool warm up and pre time trial. The plyometric protocol involved performing 2 sets of pogos (5 reps), alternate leg bounding (10m), single leg hops (5 each leg) and depth jump from 12-inch box (3 reps). Repeated measures ANOVA found PHEAT (56.33 ± 2.86s) significantly faster than CONTROL (57.48 ± 2.57s) ( p = 0.009) and HEAT (57.26 ± 3.09s) ( p = 0.038). Spearman’s correlation tests discovered negative correlations between T Core and 100m times in all trials (PHEAT, P = 0.894; PLYO, P = 0.734; HEAT, P = 0.023; CONTROL, P = 0.493). In summary, completing a plyometric protocol along with the use of a blizzard heat jacket pre race may enhance subsequent 100m freestyle performance.
GEN Y CONSUMER’S SOCIAL MEDIA COMMUNICATION, BRAND LOYALTY AND PURCHASING INTENTION IN MALAYSIA: INVESTIGATING THE MODERATING ROLE OF BRAND TRUST

This research investigates the associations between social media communication (SMC), brand loyalty (BL) and brand trust (BT) and its influence on purchase intention (PI) of the Gen Y Consumers in Kuala Lumpur Malaysia. The study looked into the role of brand trust in moderating the relationship between social media communication, brand loyalty, and purchasing intention. The study adopted the quantitative research method. The population of the study consisted of Gen Y consumers, living in Malaysia. A sample size of 361 responses were collected by using the convenience sampling procedure. A structured survey approach was applied and the responses were collected by online mode through google forms. The statistical package for social science (SPSS) 23 was utilised for the analysis of the data. The results revealed that the SMC influence among the Gen Y consumers had a positive effect on PI. In addition, the association between BL, BT and PI was not significant. Equally, BT moderated the association between SMCand PI. The results can help marketers to grows effective promotion stratagems to improve SMC, build BL and trust particularly in the fast-food business in Malaysia.
Effects of Eight-Week Circuit Training with Core Exercises on Performance in Adult Male Soccer Players

Core exercises have been widely promoted in the last 25 years. However, the scientific debate about its efficacy for improving individual and team sports performance is still open. Thus, the present study aims to investigate the effects of circuit training with a core exercise program on physical performance in competitive amateur soccer players. The training was conducted during the off-season period, two times per week for 8 weeks. Pre- and post-evaluations were conducted using the following tests: Y-Balance Test (YB), standing long jump (SLJ), medicine ball chest press (MBC), curl-up (CU), and Illinois Agility Test (IAT). A total of 19 adults were divided into an experimental group (EG, n = 11, age 22 years, weight 71.2 ± 4.8 kg, height 174 ± 5.8 cm) and a control group (CG, n = 8, age 22 years, weight 73.2 ± 4.1 Kg, height 176 ± 6.3 cm). The EG showed significant improvements in lower and upper body strength, core endurance and balance, whereas the CG did not report significant changes in the pre- and post-test comparison. Despite study limitations, our positive results show that circuit training with core exercises appears to be a good strategy for performance improvement in adult soccer players.
A Hardware-Friendly Low-Bit Power-of-Two Quantization Method for CNNs and Its FPGA Implementation

To address the problems of convolutional neural networks (CNNs) consuming more hardware resources (such as DSPs and RAMs on FPGAs) and their accuracy, efficiency, and resources being difficult to balance, meaning they cannot meet the requirements of industrial applications, we proposed an innovative low-bit power-of-two quantization method: the global sign-based network quantization (GSNQ). This method involves designing different quantization ranges according to the sign of the weights, which can provide a larger quantization-value range. Combined with the fine-grained and multi-scale global retraining method proposed in this paper, the accuracy loss of low-bit quantization can be effectively reduced. We also proposed a novel convolutional algorithm using shift operations to replace multiplication to help to deploy the GSNQ quantized models on FPGAs. Quantization comparison experiments performed on LeNet-5, AlexNet, VGG-Net, ResNet, and GoogLeNet showed that GSNQ has higher accuracy than most existing methods and achieves “lossless” quantization (i.e., the accuracy of the quantized CNN model is higher than the baseline) at low-bit quantization in most cases. FPGA comparison experiments showed that our convolutional algorithm does not occupy on-chip DSPs, and it also has a low comprehensive occupancy in terms of on-chip LUTs and FFs, which can effectively improve the computational parallelism, and this proves that GSNQ has good hardware-adaptation capability. This study provides theoretical and experimental support for the industrial application of CNNs.
Hemp-Derived Nanovesicles Protect Leaky Gut and Liver Injury in Dextran Sodium Sulfate-Induced Colitis

Hemp (Cannabis sativa L.) is used for medicinal purposes owing to its anti-inflammatory and antioxidant activities. We evaluated the protective effect of nanovesicles isolated from hemp plant parts (root, seed, hemp sprout, and leaf) in dextran sulfate sodium (DSS)-induced colitis in mice. The particle sizes of root-derived nanovesicles (RNVs), seed-derived nanovesicles (SNVs), hemp sprout-derived nanovesicles (HSNVs), and leaf-derived nanovesicles (LNVs) were within the range of 100–200 nm as measured by nanoparticle tracking analysis. Acute colitis was induced in C57BL/N mice by 5% DSS in water provided for 7 days. RNVs were administered orally once a day, leading to the recovery of both the small intestine and colon lengths. RNVs, SNVs, and HSNVs restored the tight (ZO-1, claudin-4, occludin) and adherent junctions (E-cadherin and α-tubulin) in DSS-induced small intestine and colon injury. Additionally, RNVs markedly reduced NF-κB activation and oxidative stress proteins in DSS-induced small intestine and colon injury. Tight junction protein expression and epithelial cell permeability were elevated in RNV-, SNV-, and HSNV-treated T84 colon cells exposed to 2% DSS. Interestedly, RNVs, SNVs, HSNVs, and LNVs reduced ALT activity and liver regeneration marker proteins in DSS-induced liver injury. These results showed for the first time that hemp-derived nanovesicles (HNVs) exhibited a protective effect on DSS-induced gut leaky and liver injury through the gut–liver axis by inhibiting oxidative stress marker proteins.
Osteoblast Secretome Modulated by Abiraterone Treatment Affects Castration Resistant Prostate Cancer Cell Proliferation

Abiraterone is a selective inhibitor of androgen biosynthesis approved for the treatment of metastatic patients affected by castration-resistant or castration-sensitive prostate cancer. Intriguingly, clinical data revealed that abiraterone also delayed disease progression in bone improving bone-related endpoints. Our group has previously demonstrated in vitro a direct effect of abiraterone on osteoclast and osteoblast function suggesting its ability to modulate bone microenvironment. Here, we performed an extensive proteomic analysis to investigate how abiraterone influences osteoblast cell secretome and, consequently, osteoblast/prostate cancer cells interaction. A panel of 507 soluble molecules were analyzed in osteoblast conditioned media (OCM) obtained from osteoblast treated or not with abiraterone. Subsequently, OCM was added to prostate cancer cells to investigate its potential effect on prostate cancer cell proliferation and androgen receptor (AR) activation status. Out of 507 screened molecules, 39 of them were differentially expressed in OCM from osteoblasts treated with abiraterone (OCM ABI) compared to OCM obtained from untreated OBs (OCM CTRL). Pathway enrichment analysis revealed that abiraterone down-modulated the release of specific osteoblast soluble factors, positively associated with cell proliferation pathways (false discovery rate adjusted p-value = 0.0019). In vitro validation data showed that OCM ABI treatment significantly reduced cancer proliferation in C4-2B cells (p = 0.022), but not in AR- negative PC-3 cells. Moreover, we also found a reduction in AR activation in C4-2B cells (p = 0.017) confirming the “indirect” anti-tumor AR-dependent effect of abiraterone mediated by osteoblasts. This study provides the first evidence of an additional antitumor effect of abiraterone through the modulation of multiple osteoblast proliferative signals.
ATTENUATION OF GROUND VIBRATIONS FROM PILE DRIVING

IT IS COMMONLY ARGUED THAT PRACTICAL ESTIMATES OF THE REDUCTION IN GROUND VIBRATION AMPLITUDE WITH DISTANCE IN PILED GROUND CAN BE LARGELY INDEPENDENT OF THE GEOTECHNICAL NATURE OF THE GROUND. THIS REPORT PRESENTS A NUMBER OF VIBRATION MEASUREMENTS MADE IN THE VICINITY OF DRIVEN PILING AND VIBRO-PENETRATION OPERATIONS. THE RESULTS, WHICH COVER A RANGE OF PENETRATION CONFIGURATIONS, ENERGY INPUTS AND GROUND CONDITIONS, CONFIRM THE EXISTENCE OF AN ATTENUATION RELATION, WITH SURFACE VELOCITY AMPLITUDE DECREASING DIRECTLY WITH DISTANCE AND INVERSELY AS THE SQUARE ROOT OF THE INPUT ENERGY AT SOURCE. A CONSERVATIVE CONSTANT OF PROPORTIONALITY IS 1.5 TO PROVIDE A PRACTICAL PREDICTION VIBRATION EQUATION. /TRRL/
The Evolution of Balmer Absorption-Line Strengths in E/S0 Galaxies from z=0 to z=0.83

We present new results from a systematic study of absorption-line strengths of galaxies in clusters approaching redshifts of unity. In this Letter, we specifically compare the strengths of the high-order Balmer absorption features of Hγ and Hδ in E/S0 galaxies in the four clusters Abell 2256 (z = 0.06), Cl 1358+62 (z = 0.33), MS 2053-04 (z = 0.58), and MS 1054-03 (z = 0.83). By comparing the correlation of the Balmer line strengths with the velocity dispersions for E/S0 galaxies in the four clusters, we find moderate evolution in the zero point of the (HδA + HγA)-σ relation with redshift. The trend is consistent with the passive evolution of old stellar populations. Under the assumption that the samples can be compared directly, we use single-burst stellar population synthesis models to constrain the last major occurrences of star formation in the observed E/S0 galaxies to be zf > 2.5 (95% confidence). We have compared the evolution of the Balmer absorption with the evolution of the B-band fundamental plane and find that simple stellar population models agree very well with the data. While the best agreement occurs with a low value for Ωm, the data provide strong confirmation of the time evolution in recent stellar population models.