Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effects of Adults' Participation Motives for Lifelong learning, and their Satisfaction and Learning Outcomes on Social Capital Formation

This study examined the effects of adults' participation motives for lifelong learning, and satisfaction and learning outcomes on social capital formation. The subjects were 354 adult learners, who were over 20 years of age. They had a lifelong learning experience in various lifelong education institutes and facilities located in the D provincial areas. The statistical methods of this study were correlation analysis, multiple regression analysis and path analysis. The results showed that the adults' participation motives for lifelong learning had positive effects on the social capital formation, and it had effects on the satisfaction and learning outcomes. Adult learners' satisfaction and learning outcomes had positive effects on the social capital formation. In addition, there were mediating effects between adult learners' participation motives and social capital formation. This study is meaningful for the development of lifelong learning by providing theoretical and practical implications.
[Application experience of endoscopic treating sinus bone fibrous dysplasia under navigation guidance].

OBJECTIVE Research for surgical methods and experience of sinus fibrous dysplasia treatment by auxiliary nasal endoscopy image navigation. METHOD Retrospective analysis of the records of 4 patients from March 2006 to December 2011 who were diagnosed as fibrous dysplasia of nasal sinuses, 2 male and 2 female, aged from 19 yrs to 55 yrs and average age was 38 yrs; 3 of them were destroyed of sinus floor, the other who had the bone fiber of sphenoidal sinus. By using 16 multi slice spiral CT and 3D reconstruction, the 4 cases were all treated by drill grinding abnormal fibrous tissue in the nasal sinus cavities with auxiliary nasal endoscopy image navigation, to achieve contour in the bone fiber cavities. RESULT Lesions of 4 cases were accurately found and grinded under auxiliary nasal endoscopy image navigation. For 3 patients, headache, nasal congestion, facial discomfort and other symptoms have gradually disappeared after operation. However, one patient with sinus floor destroyed suffered facial swelling and pain 3 month after operation, with ineffective conservation treatment outcomes. After CT re-scan, it showed that there were a large number of bone residue in maxillary sinus during the re-operation. The reason was that the surgical cavity was not rinsed off which leaded to maxillary sinus congestion. With the methods of expansion of the maxillary sinus, flushing the cavity, and postoperative nasal and maxillary sinus rinse, symptoms disappeared 1 month later without recurrence. CONCLUSION Patients with fibrous dysplasia of nasal sinuses are treated thoroughly, securely, and effectually, by drill grinding abnormal fibrous tissue in the nasal sinus cavities with auxiliary nasal endoscopy image navigation, to achieve contour in the bone fiber cavities.
Hybrid Sliding-Mode-Based Control of Underactuated Systems With Dry Friction

In this paper, hybrid control synthesis is proposed for a class of 2-degrees-of-freedom (DOF) underactuated mechanical systems with Coulomb friction in the joints. The control objective is to regulate both actuated and unactuated joints to desired positions. The proposed synthesis combines second-order sliding-mode (SOSM) control methods and a pure technical solution of imposing a relatively stronger dry friction on the unactuated joint as compared to that of the actuated joint. This design feature allows us to decouple the hybrid synthesis procedure into two steps. At the first step, a SOSM control algorithm is utilized to drive the unactuated link to the desired position in finite time. Once this task is achieved, the control input is switched to another SOSM algorithm which drives the actuated link to its desired position. As the amplitude of the controller used at the second step is smaller than the Coulomb friction level in the unactuated link, but it is greater than that in the actuated link, the unactuated link remains at rest, whereas the actuated link is regulated to the endpoint of interest. Performance issues of the developed synthesis, including robustness features of the closed-loop system, are illustrated in an experimental study made for a laboratory horizontal 2-DOF pendulum.
Microarrays and microneedle arrays for delivery of peptides, proteins, vaccines and other applications

Introduction: Peptide and protein microarray and microneedle array technology provides direct information on protein function and potential drug targets in drug discovery and delivery. Because of this unique ability, these arrays are well suited for protein profiling, drug target identification/validation and studies of protein interaction, biochemical activity, immune responses, clinical prognosis and diagnosis and for gene, protein and drug delivery. Areas covered: The aim of this review is to describe and summarize past and recent developments of microarrays in their construction, characterization and production and applications of microneedles in drug delivery. The scope and limitations of various technologies in this respect are discussed. Expert opinion: This article offers a review of microarray/microneedle technologies and possible future directions in targeting and in the delivery of pharmacologically active compounds for unmet needs in biopharmaceutical research. A better understanding of the production and use of microarrays and microneedles for delivery of peptides, proteins and vaccines is needed.
Does Early Cash-Based Interventions in a Food crisis Enhance Resilience? Evidence from Niger

This study examined how households’ responded in the Tillabery region, Niger given early cash transfer intervention and the impact on household food access and ability to cope and recover from a food crisis. Data was also collected from households that did not benefit from the cash transfer program for comparative purposes. Food access indicators are linked to the cash transfer program and structural characteristics of households and the relationships estimated using a propensity weighted econometric model. Results indicate that early cash transfer intervention had a positive impact on staving off short term food deficiency and reducing vulnerability but limited in contributing to longer lasting impact. The results also demonstrate that certain social-structural characteristics of a household, namely, more economically active adults, male head of a household and concerted decision making, are important for improved food access status. Focusing safety net programs based on these household characteristics could benefit efforts to better target those most vulnerable.
Source Camera Identification for Heavily JPEG Compressed Low Resolution Still Images *

Abstract: In this research, we examined whether fixed pattern noise or more specifically Photo Response Non‐Uniformity (PRNU) can be used to identify the source camera of heavily JPEG compressed digital photographs of resolution 640 × 480 pixels. We extracted PRNU patterns from both reference and questioned images using a two‐dimensional Gaussian filter and compared these patterns by calculating the correlation coefficient between them. Both the closed and open‐set problems were addressed, leading the problems in the closed set to high accuracies for 83% for single images and 100% for around 20 simultaneously identified questioned images. The correct source camera was chosen from a set of 38 cameras of four different types. For the open‐set problem, decision levels were obtained for several numbers of simultaneously identified questioned images. The corresponding false rejection rates were unsatisfactory for single images but improved for simultaneous identification of multiple images.
Entrepreneurial Intentions and Behaviour of Students Attending Danish Universities

The research field of entrepreneurship gets more and more important in Denmark. The Global Entrepreneurship Monitor (GEM) and recently the Global University Entrepreneurial Spirit Students’ Survey (GUESSS) were carried out to gain more insights about entrepreneurial intentions and activities in Denmark. The origins of GUESSS go back to 2003 when researchers at the Swiss Research Institute of Small Business and Entrepreneurship at the University of St. Gallen (KMU-HSG) started the survey. The study is conducted every two years to explore the entrepreneurial intent and activity of students as well as the entrepreneurship training and education provided by universities in 34 countries around the world. In the sixth data collection wave Demark participated for the first time in 2013. The results for the Danish sample are presented in this report. The main findings are that Danish students have a rather low entrepreneurial intention. Their career intentions seem to follow the international pattern of first being an employee and then later becoming a founder. The report suggest to improve entrepreneurial intention among Danish students by stimulating entrepreneurial education at universities considering specific offers and activities for the different groups of entrepreneurial students as well as for students who not have considered becoming a founder yet.
Signaling Equilibrium, Intergenerational Social Mobility and Long Run Growth

This paper provides a model of intergenerational social mobility and economic growth, in which innate ability of workers, and the type of their education and jobs determine the rate of technological progress and social mobility. The innate ability and hence productivity level of an individual is private knowledge. Education not only increases productivity level, more so for the higher ability individuals, it also acts as a signaling device for one's innate productive ability for the purpose of job matching in the labor market. It is shown that in economies with one-time non-renegotiable wage contracts, there are generally multiple signaling equilibria, all being far away from generating the maximum attainable rate of social mobility and economic growth. There are no natural economic grounds that can guide to select a particular equilibrium. Various labor market practices such as quit, layoffs and promotions based on worker's or employer's subjective assessment of on-the-job realized productivity, or explicit wage contracts contingent on some publicly observed noisy measurement of realized productivity, can improve some of the inefficiencies, and hence increase the rate of economic growth and social mobility. The remaining inefficiencies, however, can only be removed by intervening in the education system. The paper analyzes briefly a few education systems, and within the dual private-public education system, the paper examines the role of school vouchers or subsidies to the children of poorer family backgrounds in improving the rate of economic growth and social mobility.
Development and preliminary testing of a novel wheelchair integrated exercise/ rehabilitation system

The people with spinal cord injuries (SCI) or post stroke hemiplegia are easily exposed to secondary problems due to limited mobility. A new wheelchair integrated lower limb exercise/rehabilitation system is proposed to help their daily living and rehabilitation. The system consists of three main modules: 1) an electric wheelchair, 2) a lifter which raises and supports the subject's body weight, and 3) a lower limb exoskeleton. This paper describes the concept of the entire system and configurations of the prototype. In the design of the lower limb exoskeleton, the ergonomic joint mechanisms are introduced to assist the natural daily motions based on the biomechanics of each hip, knee and ankle joint.
Endophyte‐infected tall fescue diet alters gene expression in heifer luteal tissue as revealed by interspecies microarray analysis

Cattle consuming endophyte‐infected tall fescue grass have an associated reduction in circulating progesterone and reduced reproductive rates. In this study, commercially available rat microarrays were used to analyze the gene expression in luteal tissues from heifers fed endophyte‐free fescue, endophyte‐infected fescue, or endophyte‐infected fescue supplemented with the dopamine (DA) antagonist, domperidone. The number of hybridized spots represented approximately 40% of the total 10,000 rat genes/ESTs evaluated. Each luteal sample was analyzed in triplicate, resulting in within treatment correlation coefficients of ≥0.98. Median values of mRNA abundance from luteal tissue taken from the endophyte‐infected fed heifers revealed 598 genes and ESTs that were down regulated and 56 genes and ESTs that were upregulated compared with luteal mRNA values from the endophyte‐free treatment. There were fewer comparative differences between median values from luteal mRNA from the endophyte‐free versus feeding endophyte‐infected plus domperidone treated heifers. Only 19 genes and ESTs were upregulated and two were down‐regulated. Mol. Reprod. Dev. 67:154–161, 2004. © 2004 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Creating more effective health plan quality reports for consumers: lessons from a synthesis of qualitative testing.

OBJECTIVE Social marketing techniques such as consumer testing have only recently been applied to develop effective consumer health insurance information. This article discusses lessons learned from consumer testing to create consumer plan choice materials. DATA SOURCES/STUDY SETTING Data were collected from 268 publicly and privately insured consumers in three studies between 1994 and 1999. STUDY DESIGN Iterative testing and revisions were conducted to design seven booklets to help Medicaid, Medicare, and employed consumers choose a health plan. DATA COLLECTION METHODS Standardized protocols were used in 11 focus groups and 182 interviews to examine the content, comprehension, navigation, and utility of the booklets. PRINCIPAL FINDINGS A method is suggested to help consumers narrow their plan choices by breaking down the process into smaller decisions using a set of guided worksheets. CONCLUSION Implementing these lessons is challenging and not often done well. This article gives examples of evidence-based approaches to address cognitive barriers that designers of consumer health insurance information can adapt to their needs.
ESTIMATION OF EXPORT SPECIALIZATION: LITHUANIAN CASE

This paper investigates the nature and pattern of export specialization in Lithuania. The aim of this paper is to estimate the nature and pattern of Lithuanian export specialization under the existing conditions. Seeking to define the nature and pattern of export specialization, the basic methods of export specialization measurement and the nature and pattern of export specialization in trade between Lithuania and the EU are determined. For measurement of the pattern of export specialization in Lithuania two approaches are adopted. The index of export specialization is used to determine the pattern of comparative advantage. Secondly, trade dissimilarity index is used to predict structural changes in Lithuanian exports. Using these methods of measurement and standard international trade classification (SITC), the nature and pattern of Lithuanian export specialization was determined. It was found that the biggest flows from Lithuania to the EU are in the following groups: food, drink and tobacco; raw materials; mineral fuels, lubricants and related materials. These calculation results show the main directions of nature and pattern of export specialization. This research could be useful for preparing and forecasting the possibilities of Lithuanian export development.
Comparative Analysis on the Influence of the Economic Crisis on Education in some European Countries

Purpose – This study intends to present some influences developed during the economic crisis related to the education area in some European countries. The study wants to present a comparative analysis among these European countries. Design/Methodology/Approach – This study is based on the Eurostat data series and is designed due to the statistical data processing. Findings – The study revealed some information and ideas about certain aspects as: changes of population structure by educational attainment level, evolutions of the shares with first and second stage of tertiary education, investments in education and training, age distributions for teachers and trainers, participation rates in education. Research Limitations/Implications – This research is based on Eurostat data series considered relevant by the authors and on some other related analyses or research studies. The paper describes case studies from most of European countries but focuses only on few of them. Practical Implications – This study clarifies the influences of the economic crisis on education in some European countries in order to present a real image related to the evolution of education among Europe. Originality/Value – Even though different studies in the education field were developed, this subject was not analyzed in the manner carried out in this paper.
A comparison on multiple level features for fusion of hyperspectral and LiDAR data

Remote sensed images contain a wealth of information. Next to diverse sensor technologies that allow us to measure different aspects of objects on the Earth (spectral characteristics in hyperspectral (HS) images, height in Light Detection And Ranging (LiDAR) data), we also have advanced image processing algorithms that have been developed to mine relevant information from multisensor remote sensing data for Earth observation. However, automatic interpretation of remote sensed images is still very difficult. In this paper, we compare multiple level features for fusion of HS and LiDAR data for urban area classification. Experimental results on fusion of HS and LiDAR data from the 2013 IEEE GRSS Data Fusion Contest demonstrate that middle-level morphological attribute features outperform high-level deep learning features. Compared to the methods using raw data fusion and deep learning fusion, with the graph-based fusion method [4], overall classification accuracies were improved by 8%.
Towards Addressing the Patch Overfitting Problem

Current automatic program repair techniques often produce overfitting patches. Such a patch passes the test suite but does not actually repair the bug. In this paper, we propose two techniques to address the patch overfitting problem. First, we propose an automatic repair technique that performs syntactic code search to leverage bug-related code from a code database to produce patches that are likely to be correct. Due to the weak and incomplete program specification encoded in the test suite, a patch is still possible to be overfitting. We next propose a patch testing technique which generates test inputs uncovering the semantic differences between a patch and its original faulty program, tests if the patch is overfitting, and if so, generates test cases. Such overfitting-indicative test cases could be added to the test suite to make it stronger.
Improving Analog Switching in HfOx-Based Resistive Memory With a Thermal Enhanced Layer

Analog RRAM with hundreds of resistance levels is an attractive device for neuromorphic computing. However, it is still very challenging to realize good analog behavior in filamentary RRAM cells. In this letter, we developed a novel methodology to improve the analog switching in filamentary RRAM. The impact of local temperature on analog switching behavior is elucidated. The transition from abrupt switching to analog switching is found at higher temperature. Based on this result, a thermal enhanced layer (TEL) is proposed to confine heat in switching layer for realizing analog RRAM. The HfOx/TEL RRAM shows analog switching characteristics with more than ten times window using 50-ns pulses. Finally, a 1-kb analog RRAM array is demonstrated with uniform analog switching, fast speed, excellent resistance window, and excellent retention properties.
Turnaround management strategies in public systems: the impact on group-level organizational citizenship behavior

The use of Turnaround Management Strategies (TMS) in public administration has received growing interest among both researchers and practitioners who deal with public performance. However, our theoretical and empirical knowledge about TMS suffers from significant lacunae. This research presents results from a unique empirical survey that tests the effect of TMS on group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior. One hundred and twenty-six senior leaders of English local authorities participated in the study. The findings show that local authorities that implemented repositioning and reorganization at the organizational level to a high extent experienced high levels of group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior, while high implementation of reorganization at the personnel level was linked to low group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior. Group-level Organizational Citizenship Behavior was indifferent to retrenchment strategies. Implications and suggestions for future studies are discussed. Points for practitioners Modern public administrations face repeated ups and downs. This being so, public managers are expected to pursue far-reaching organizational changes to achieve goals ranging from maintaining excellence to recovering from poor performance. This study explores the effect of Turnaround Management Strategies (TMS) on organizational behavior. The findings offer two useful lessons for practitioners. First, repositioning and reorganization at the organizational level may be used as a foundation for improving the organizational culture, work relations, morale and cooperation. Second, introducing major personnel changes is likely to produce mixed or even undesired outcomes.
Whiplash Around the World

The term “whiplash” was first used in 1928 by the American orthopedist Crowe, although the earliest use that I can find published was in 1945 by the American orthopedist Davis. Although widely used by the medical profession and public, many physicians find the term objectionable. However, when used appropriately to refer only to the mechanism of injury in a motor vehicle accident, the term can be worthwhile. In any case, “whiplash” is well‐entrenched in usage and is here to stay. But what term is used in other languages? Is there a term similar to “whiplash? ” To determine terms for whiplash injuries in other languages, members of the American Academy of Neurology living in non‐English‐speaking countries were contacted by mail. Terms used in 11 other languages are listed. Some comments about whiplash injuries by respondents are excerpted. Further cross‐cultural studies may be helpful in studying the influence of physician and popular attitudes, as well as litigation on persistent neck complaints and headaches after motor vehicle accidents.