Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of School Environment in Physical Activity among Brazilian Adolescents

Objective To analyze the association of physical activity facilities and extracurricular sports activities in schools with physical activity among adolescents. Methodology/Principal Findings We used data collected for the National Survey of School Health in 2012. The national representative sample comprised 109,104 Brazilian students from 2,842 schools. We calculated the prevalence of participation in physical education classes, leisure-time physical activity, and total physical activity level. We also evaluated the following physical activity facilities: sports courts, running/athletics tracks, schoolyard with teacher-directed physical activities, swimming pools, locker rooms; and the offer of extracurricular sports activities. Schools with at least one physical activity facility had increased odds of participation in physical education (OR 1.59; 95% CI 1.20 to 2.10). However, in order to increase leisure-time physical activity (OR1.14; 95% CI 1.03 to 1.26) and total physical activity level (OR 1.15; 95% CI 1.06 to 1.24) at least four and two facilities, respectively, were necessary. Extracurricular sports activities in schools were positively associated with leisure-time physical activity and physical activity level. The number of sports courts and swimming pool in a school were associated with participation in physical education classes. Availability of sports courts, running/athletics tracks, and swimming pool in schools were associated with leisure-time physical activity. Total physical activity was associated with schools with sports courts, schoolyard with teacher-directed physical activities, and swimming pool. Conclusions School-level characteristics have important potential to increase the possibility of engagement in physical activity in and out of school, and therefore have a fundamental role in promoting these practices.
Electron Damage Effects on Carbon Nanotube Thin Films

Abstract : This research investigated the effects of electron damage on single walled carbon nanotube (CNT) thin films. CNT thin films were irradiated by electrons with energies of 500 keV and 1 MeV to determine what damage was created in the CNT thin film structure, how it affected conductivity, and what changes were evident in the Raman spectra.
Ferrite-based material as a permanent magnet for components of electrical generators

A permanent magnet based on ferrite for use as components of electrical generators has been fabricated by two different methods: solid–solid mixing and cooprecipitation. The conventional solid–solid mixing method uses Fe 2 O 3 and BaCO 3 as starting materials with mole ratio n=BaO:Fe 2 O 3=1: 6. The mixture is calcinated at 1100 °C and two crystal structures, BaOFe 2 O 3 and BaFe 12 O 19, were obtained with particle size of about 0.5–1.5 μm. Sintering at 1100 °C was followed by a magnetization process. Measurements give the following physical parameter values: remanence, Br=0.0792 T; magnetic saturation, Bs=1.21 T; coersivity, Hc=44.7 kA m -1; density 3.43 g cm -3 and porosity 9.16%. On the other hand, the cooprecipitation method uses FeCl 3 and BaCl 2 solution with mole ratio n=BaCl 2:FeCl 3=1:6. After the calcination at 900 °C and higher temperatures a single crystal structure of BaO·6Fe 2 O 3 is formed with particle size of about 30–60 nm. The optimum sintering temperature for the formation of this single phase crystal structure is 1050 °C. The physical parameters of the final product have the following values: Br=0.2673 T; Bs=1.42 T; Hc=89.4 kA m -1; density 4.34 g cm -3 and porosity 3.36%.
Ready for eHealth. Older Swedes’ Perceptions of eHealth Services: Using the PIADS Scale as a Predictor for Readiness

Introduction: Relevant determinants of adoption of eHealth are needed in order to understand future usage. Aim: To investigate the anticipated psychosocial impact of present and future eHealth services and discuss how psychosocial factors can impact the readiness for eHealth services among older Swedes and reflect upon instruments for measuring eHealth acceptance. Method: The Psychosocial Impact of Assistive Device Scale (PIADS) measured the psychosocial impact of eHealth services as illustrated in pictures of a set of events of eHealth services that may reasonably occur in the present and the future. The PIADS scale and the scenarios were administered via a randomly selected sample from the Swedish population aged 55–105. Results and Discussion: Older Swedes have, from a psychosocial perspective, positive expectations regarding eHealth services. The PIADS scale could be a useful supplement to acceptance measurements in the context of eHealth. Using animated illustrations to depict eHealth services, together with the PIADS scale, can generate findings that are generalizable across technologies. The dimensions adaptability, competence and self-esteem could be relevant determinants of adoption of eHealth.
Stability and instability of a two-station queueing network

This article proves that the stability region of a two-station, five-class reentrant queueing network, operating under a nonpreemptive static buffer priority service policy, depends on the distributions of the interarrival and service times. In particular, our result shows that conditions on the mean interarrival and service times are not enough to determine the stability of a queueing network under a particular policy. We prove that when all distributions are exponential, the network is unstable in the sense that, with probability 1, the total number of jobs in the network goes to infinity with time. We show that the same network with all interarrival and service times being deterministic is stable. When all distributions are uniform with a given range, our simulation studies show that the stability of the network depends on the width of the uniform distribution. Finally, we show that the same network, with deterministic interarrival and service times, is unstable when it is operated under the preemptive version of the static buffer priority service policy. Thus, our examples also demonstrate that the stability region depends on the preemption mechanism used.
BnB-ADOPT: an asynchronous branch-and-bound DCOP algorithm

Distributed constraint optimization (DCOP) problems are a popular way of formulating and solving agent-coordination problems. It is often desirable to solve DCOP problems optimally with memory-bounded and asynchronous algorithms. We introduce Branch-and-Bound ADOPT (BnB-ADOPT), a memory-bounded asynchronous DCOP algorithm that uses the message passing and communication framework of ADOPT, a well known memory-bounded asynchronous DCOP algorithm, but changes the search strategy of ADOPT from best-first search to depth-first branch-and-bound search. Our experimental results show that BnB-ADOPT is up to one order of magnitude faster than ADOPT on a variety of large DCOP problems and faster than NCBB, a memory-bounded synchronous DCOP algorithm, on most of these DCOP problems.
Absorbed Doses at CT of the Kidneys and at Urography

Radiation doses to the skin, ovaries and testes were measured at urography and CT examinations of the kidneys and adrenals. The absorbed dose to the breasts and bone marrow at CT was estimated as well as the mean bone marrow dose at urography. The results were compared with previous measurements of absorbed doses and energy imparted at abdominal angiography including nephroangiography. CT of the kidneys involves a considerably lower risk for late biologic effects to the patient than urography and, in particular, angiography.
Ranking Experts with Discriminative Probabilistic Models

In the realistic settings of expert finding, the evidence for expertise often comes from heterogeneous knowledge sources. As some sources tend to be more reliable and indicative than the others, different data sources need to receive different weights to reflect their degrees of importance. However, most previous studies in expert finding did not differentiate data sources, which may lead to unsatisfactory performance in the settings where the heterogeneity of data sources is present. In this paper, we investigate how to merge and weight heterogeneous knowledge sources in the context of expert finding. A relevance-based supervised learning framework is presented to learn the combination weights from training data. Beyond just learning a fixed combination strategy for all the queries and experts, we propose a series of probabilistic models which have increasing capability to associate the combination weights with specific experts and queries. In the last (and also the most sophisticated) proposed model, the combination weights depend on both expert classes and query topics, and these classes and topics are derived from expert and query features. Compared with expert and query independent combination methods, the proposed combination strategy can better adjust to different types of experts and queries. In consequence, the model yields much flexibility of combining data sources when dealing with a broad range of expertise areas and a large variation in experts. Empirical studies on a real world faculty expertise testbed demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed learning based models.
Face-to-face interactions in self-organizing distributed teams.

We explore the role of face-to-face meetings in the life of distributed teams using data from Free/Libre Open Source Software (FLOSS) development teams. Such distributed teams are part of many organizations’ new vision of management in the 21st century. Practitioner research has suggested the need for face-to-face meetings when a team is formed, but few studies have considered the role of face-to-face meetings during a team’s life. Based on a qualitative inductive analysis of data from interviews and observations at FLOSS conferences, we identify a variety of settings in which FLOSS developers meet face-to-face, activities performed in these settings and benefits obtained. Contrary to prior research, we find that FLOSS developers generally do not meet until the project is well under way. We also find that an additional benefit of face-to-face meetings is time away from a regular job. We conclude by noting limitations in our data collection due to a focus on core developers in large projects and with directions for further research.
An investigation on the step-size bound of the partitioned frequency-domain block LMS (PFBLMS) algorithm

In this paper, we present an analysis on the step-size bound that guarantees the stability of the partitioned frequency-domain block LMS (PFBLMS). Frequency domain adaptive filters are attractive in applications requiring a large number of coefficients such as acoustic echo cancellation (AEC). However, the very restrictive convergence bound for BLMS has limited its usefulness. Since PFBLMS belongs to the BLMS family, it may suffer the very restrictive step-size bound too. Derivations on step-size bounds for the PFBLMS have been reported recently, but are not consistent with each other. In this paper, we analyse the step-size bound of PFBLMS, and derive a bound which is N times larger than that of the BLMS. This finding makes PFBLMS much more practical in the application of AEC. Extensive simulation results are provided to support our analysis.
Grounding of overhead transmission lines for improved lightning protection

Improved grounding can be a cost-effective method to improve power quality by reducing the number of lightning flashovers on shielded overhead transmission lines. Improvements can be valued against benchmark values of cost per avoided customer momentary dip. Effectiveness of improvements can vary widely because the local soil resistivity varies with a wide statistical distribution. A portable impulse Zed-Meter00AE; can be used to measure the local transient response of transmission tower ground electrodes.
Long-term effects of amyloid enhancing factor: clinical and experimental implications.

OBJECTIVE To study the long-term effects of amyloid enhancing factor (AEF). METHODS AEF, prepared from pre-amyloidotic mouse spleens, was injected intravenously into Swiss and ICR mice. This was followed by 3 daily subcutaneous injections of AgNO3, given at increasing time intervals from the administration of AEF. The mice were sacrificed on day 6 from the first AgNO3 injection, and the mean grade of amyloid deposition in the spleens was estimated using the crush and smear technique. RESULTS AEF was found to have a prolonged enhancing effect, retaining its activity for more than 3 months after its administration in both mouse strains. CONCLUSIONS Experimental animals may develop amyloidosis long time after exposure to AEF. This finding may underlie the acute reoccurrence of amyloidosis sometimes observed in patients and mice long after its resolution.
Model and Heuristics for the Shortest Road Layout Problem

The road layout problem consists of finding a valid road layout between two locations described by their azimut and tridi-mensional coordinates in a topographical map. Valid layouts should comply with certain road design regulations that normally depend on design parameters such as road speed and type (e.g. highway, or conventional road). The paper presents a discrete state space for this problem that approximates real layouts, and discusses heuristic estimates that allow searching for the shortest approximation in such space using the A* heuristic search algorithm. These ideas have been implemented and tested in a road layout editor.
Feature Extraction of ECG Signal Using HHT Algorithm

This paper describe the features extraction algorithm for electrocardiogram (ECG) signal using Huang Hilbert Transform and Wavelet Transform. ECG signal for an individual human being is different due to unique heart structure. The purpose of feature extraction of ECG signal would allow successful abnormality detection and efficient prognosis due to heart disorder. Some major important features will be extracted from ECG signals such as amplitude, duration, pre-gradient, post-gradient and so on. Therefore, we need a strong mathematical model to extract such useful parameter. Here an adaptive mathematical analysis model is Hilbert-Huang transform (HHT). This new approach, the Hilbert-Huang transform, is implemented to analyze the non-linear and nonstationary data. It is unique and different from the existing methods of data analysis and does not require an a priori functional basis. The effectiveness of the proposed scheme is verified through the simulation.
A Simulation Model of a Tandem Coordinated Supply Chain

This paper presents a study of a coordinated production inventory-system. In the proposed model, any echelon considers its successors as part of its inventory system and generates the replenishment order on the basis of operational information of its partners. We show that the coordinated decision making allows elimination of information distortion along the chain. Furthermore, we show how the bottom-up transmission of inefficiencies, typical of traditional supply chains, is avoided.
Simple and specific enzyme immunoassay using monoclonal antibodies for serotyping human rotaviruses

An enzyme immunoassay for serotyping human rotaviruses in stools and in cell culture was developed. Hyperimmune rabbit antisera to rotaviruses were used as capture antibodies, and rotavirus-neutralizing mouse monoclonal antibodies specific for serotypes 1, 2, 3, and 4 were used as detection reagents. Partial purification of monoclonal antibodies and inclusion of skim milk powder in antibody diluents contributed to assay specificity. The sensitivity of this assay was greater than that of a direct enzyme immunoassay in which rotaviruses of the appropriate serotype were adsorbed directly to the solid phase. When fecal extracts were concentrated threefold, this serotyping enzyme immunoassay was of equal specificity and approached the sensitivity of electron microscopy for rotavirus detection. This assay is simple and rapid and is suitable for serotyping the large numbers of isolates obtained from epidemiological studies and vaccine trials.
Fast counting of medium-sized rooted subgraphs

We prove that counting copies of any graph $F$ in another graph $G$ can be achieved using basic matrix operations on the adjacency matrix of $G$. Moreover, the resulting algorithm is competitive for medium-sized $F$: our algorithm recovers the best known complexity for rooted 6-clique counting and improves on the best known for 9-cycle counting. Underpinning our proofs is the new result that, for a general class of graph operators, matrix operations are homomorphisms for operations on rooted graphs.
The Hard of Hearing Club : A Social Framework for Audiologic Rehabilitation for Seniors with Severe Hearing Difficulties

Due to the nature of auditory aging, communication challenges in the elderly may not be adequately addressed by amplification, and require the use of additional audiologic rehabilitation, including behavioural communication strategies practiced in a meaningful context. Seniors with severe hearing loss are often unable to communicate effectively and participate in social activities. The challenges and frustrations presented by attempts to participate socially result in exclusion, avoidance and withdrawal. Exacerbated by other physical and cognitive changes associated with aging, the resulting social isolation often leads to loneliness and depression, and can have a significant impact on quality of life. The Hard of Hearing Club at Baycrest, a centre for geriatric care in Toronto, offers a different approach to audiologic rehabilitation for these clients who are at risk due to social isolation. The Club employs a social framework where supportive communication strategies are presented in the context of meaningful social interaction. The goals, components and outcomes of the Club are described, and reasons for the group’s success are proposed and discussed.
The Autoimmune Ecology

Autoimmune diseases (ADs) represent a heterogeneous group of disorders that affect specific target organs or multiple organ systems. These conditions share common immunopathogenic mechanisms (i.e., the autoimmune tautology), which explain the clinical similarities they have among them as well as their familial clustering (i.e., coaggregation). As part of the autoimmune tautology, the influence of environmental exposure on the risk of developing ADs is paramount (i.e., the autoimmune ecology). In fact, environment, more than genetics, shapes immune system. Autoimmune ecology is akin to exposome, that is all the exposures – internal and external – across the lifespan, interacting with hereditary factors (both genetics and epigenetics) to favor or protect against autoimmunity and its outcomes. Herein, we provide an overview of the autoimmune ecology, focusing on the immune response to environmental agents in general, and microbiota, cigarette smoking, alcohol and coffee consumption, socioeconomic status (SES), gender and sex hormones, vitamin D, organic solvents, and vaccines in particular. Inclusion of the autoimmune ecology in disease etiology and health will improve the way personalized medicine is currently conceived and applied.
On the intrinsic locality properties of Web reference streams

There has been considerable work done in the study of Web reference streams: sequences of requests for Web objects. In particular, many studies have looked at the locality properties of such streams, because of the impact of locality on the design and performance of caching and prefetching systems. However, a general framework for understanding why reference streams exhibit given locality properties has not yet emerged. In this paper we take a first step in this direction. We propose a framework for describing how reference streams are transformed as they pass through the Internet, based on three operations: aggregation, disaggregation, and filtering. We also propose metrics to capture the temporal locality of reference streams in this framework. We argue that these metrics (marginal entropy and interreference coefficient of variation) are more natural and more useful than previously proposed metrics for temporal locality; and we show that these metrics provide insight into the nature of reference stream transformations in the Web.
Service Life Prediction for Concrete Structures by Time-Depth Dependent Chloride Diffusion Coefficient

This paper uses the time-depth dependent chloride diffusion coefficient obtained from the analytical solution of the nonlinear chloride diffusion equation at nonsteady state to propose a new life prediction model of concrete structures exposed to a chloride environment. The proposed theoretical model treats the chloride diffusion coefficient as a variable dependent on time, depth, and chloride content of concrete rather than a constant as normally assumed. Detailed step-by-step guides to the practical application with this model are provided. Based on the illustrated example, the comparison of the service life prediction calculated by this model and the well-known LightCon model is addressed. However, the proposed model should remain to be verified by using long term field data for the potential failure impacts in the durability design of concrete structures.
Relating materials properties to structure : handbook and software for polymer calculations and materials properties

Relating Materials Properties to Structure: Handbook and Software for Polymer Calculations and Materials Properties lays the foundation for an understanding of the basic structure of materials and the significant distinguishing features between major classes. It provides a method of comparison between the structure of different classes of materials and their attendant properties. The structural differences between individual polymers and the resultant properties are a primary focus, since this is the only class of materials where data and techniques allow properties to be estimated. This book and CD-ROM software package provides an easy, straight-forward technique for estimating polymer properties via simple software. The software permits the user to see the effects of changing a structure, and to estimate the properties of a polymer that might be unavailable or very time-consuming to find. The ability of the software to estimate the miscibility of various polymer blends is one of its most valuable aspects. While most methods that are extremely easy make simplifying assumptions that adversely affect accuracy, in this case, the inaccuracies introduced do not obviate the usefulness of the software or techniques.
A Generative Perspective on Verb Alternations

Verb alternations have been researched extensively in linguistics, but they have not yet received a systematic treatment in natural language generation systems; consequently, generators cannot make informed choices among alternatives. As a step towards overcoming this discrepancy, we review some linguistic work on several prominent alternations, revise and extend it, and suggest a set of rules that allow the series of alternated forms to be produced from a single base form of the verb, the lexical entry. The framework has been implemented in the MOOSE sentence generator, which can thus choose a particular verb alternation in order to accomplish generation goals such as placing emphasis on the most important element of the sentence.