Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spiritual needs assessments and measurements

Purpose of reviewThis review discusses the developments in spiritual needs assessments and measurements in end-of-life care. The review considers spiritual needs assessments from the perspective of palliative care patients, their families and caregivers, and healthcare professionals. Recent findingsSpiritual needs assessments vary significantly along the dimensions of content and domains. These needs assessments have the potential to deepen our insight and to identify those who are most at risk for spiritual distress, but few are practical and simple enough to use in everyday clinical practice, and for the research, few are cross-culturally validated. Spirituality is a complex construct, although ‘relatedness’ was recognized as a core dimension of spirituality in addition to existential beliefs and values related to meaning and purpose. Little is known about the spiritual needs in elderly patients, in the cognitively impaired, and during the dying process. The spiritual needs of family caregivers need more support and attention. SummarySpirituality is considered to be one of the patient's vital signs and should be routinely screened and assessed. Research in spiritual care should be ongoing for all palliative care patients as well as for those with specific needs such as mental, neurological, or cognitive impairment. There is also a knowledge gap concerning how spiritual needs change during the progression of the disease trajectory. More work must be done on the spiritual concerns of family caregivers.
Extended speech intelligibility index for the prediction of the speech reception threshold in fluctuating noise.

The extension to the speech intelligibility index (SII; ANSI S3.5-1997 (1997)) proposed by Rhebergen and Versfeld [Rhebergen, K.S. , and Versfeld, N.J. (2005). J. Acoust. Soc. Am. 117(4), 2181-2192] is able to predict for normal-hearing listeners the speech intelligibility in both stationary and fluctuating noise maskers with reasonable accuracy. The extended SII model was validated with speech reception threshold (SRT) data from the literature. However, further validation is required and the present paper describes SRT experiments with nonstationary noise conditions that are critical to the extended model. From these data, it can be concluded that the extended SII model is able to predict the SRTs for the majority of conditions, but that predictions are better when the extended SII model includes a function to account for forward masking.
Differential Polarization of C-Terminal Src Kinase between Naive and Antigen-Experienced CD8+ T Cells

In CD8+ T cells, engagement of the TCR with agonist peptide:MHC molecules causes dynamic redistribution of surface molecules including the CD8 coreceptor to the immunological synapse. CD8 associates with the Src-family kinase (SFK) Lck, which, in turn, initiates the rapid tyrosine phosphorylation events that drive cellular activation. Compared with naive T cells, Ag-experienced CD8+ T cells make shorter contacts with APC, are less dependent on costimulation, and are triggered by lower concentrations of Ag, yet the molecular basis of this more efficient response of memory T cells is not fully understood. In this article, we show differences between naive and Ag-experienced CD8+ T cells in colocalization of the SFKs and their negative regulator, C-terminal Src kinase (Csk). In naive CD8+ T cells, there was pronounced colocalization of SFKs and Csk at the site of TCR triggering, whereas in Ag-experienced cells, Csk displayed a bipolar distribution with a proportion of the molecules sequestered within a cytosolic area in the distal pole of the cell. The data show that there is differential redistribution of a key negative regulator away from the site of TCR engagement in Ag-experienced CD8+ T cells, which might be associated with the more efficient responses of these cells on re-exposure to Ag.
A Two-stage Approach for Energy Efficiency Analysis in European Union Countries

Abstract This paper evaluates the energy efficiency of EU countries over the period 20002010. At the first stage, data envelopment analysis (DEA) is used, combining multiple energy consumption data and economic outputs. The efficiency estimates obtained from the analysis are evaluated in a second stage through a multiple criteria decision aiding methodology (MCDA). The proposed non-parametric approach combining DEA with MCDA enables modeling of the problem in an integrated manner, not only providing energy efficiency estimates but also supporting the analysis of the main contributing factors, as well as the development of a benchmarking model for energy efficiency evaluation at the country level.
A Dialogue-Management Evaluation Study

We present a highly portable and cooperative dialogue-manager component of a developing, Slovenian and Croatian spoken dialogue system for weather-information retrieval. In order to evaluate the performance of this component, two Wizard-of-Oz experiments were performed. The only difference between both experiment settings was in the dialogue-management manner, i.e., while in the first experiment dialogue management was performed by a human, the wizard, in the second experiment it was performed by the newly-implemented dialogue-manager component. The data from both Wizard-of-Oz experiments was evaluated with the PARADISE evaluation framework, a potential general methodology for evaluating and comparing different versions of spoken-language dialogue systems. The study ascertains remarkable differences in the performance functions when taking different satisfaction-measure sums or even individual scores as the target to be predicted, it demonstrates the need for the introduced dialogue costs em database parameters, and it confirms the dialogue manager's cooperativity subject to the incorporated knowledge representation.
Investigating the Lived Experience of Teacher Decision-Making: A Phenomenological Approach

The purpose of this phenomenological study was to understand and describe third-grade teachers’ experiences of instructional decision-making. Three third-grade teachers participated in a series of in-depth interviews designed to reveal what it is like to make instructional decisions in the complex environment of public elementary schools. Previous studies have examined a number of different factors involved in classroom instruction. The teachers in this study not only spoke about the factors that were common in the literature such as: curriculum, testing and teachers’ beliefs, but also the way they responded to the tension created by those competing factors in their instructional decision-making. The study revealed four themes across teacher interviews: accountability to curriculum, pacing guides and tests; stress over meeting expectations; concern for students’ learning and well-being; and support from others to take risks in decision-making. Teachers’ responses to the decision-making factors added a phenomenological description of the experience of instructional decision-making that are broader than the existing factors in the literature. Teachers’ words revealed how the factors are lived out in their classrooms as they described the tensions of instructional decision-making in today’s high-stakes teaching environments. The experience of making instructional decisions is inexorably linked to the experiences of teaching, the study of which can improve teaching and learning.
Imitation Costs and Patents: An Empirical Study

It has long been recognised that the costs of imitating new products have an important effect on the incentives for innovation in a market economy. ' As Arrow (I962) and others have pointed out, if firms can imitate an innovation at a cost that is substantially below the cost to the innovator of developing the innovation, there may be little or no incentive for the innovator to carry out the innovation. In their discussions of the innovation process, economists frequently have called attention to the major role played by the costs of imitation, but there has been little or no attempt to measure these costs, to test various hypotheses concerning the factors influencing them, or to estimate their effects. In this paper, we report some findings of what seems to be the first study of this topic. In addition, we present data regarding the effects of patents on imitation costs and on the rate of innovation.
Different Effects of PLGA and Chitosan Scaffolds on Human Cartilage Tissue Engineering

Clinical application of the cartilage formed by tissue engineering is not practical due to the failure to maintain long-term tissue structural integrity. One of the important factors for maintaining integrity is the biomaterial for a scaffold. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the difference between poly-lactic glycolic acid (PLGA) and chitosan as scaffolds. Human auricular chondrocytes were used. Chondrocyte-scaffold complexes were implanted in nude mice and analyzed at 4, 8, 12, 16, and 24 weeks after implantation. The volume of chondrocyte-PLGA complexes decreased rapidly. The volume of chondrocyte-chitosan complexes was well maintained with a slow decrease rate. In histological findings, mature cartilage was formed by 4 weeks in the PLGA group. However, cartilage structure was hardly found after 16 weeks. In the chitosan group, mature cartilage was detected at 8 weeks and cartilage formation became more marked with time. The expression of type II collagen protein and mRNA became weaker with time in the PLGA group. However, the expression in the chitosan group was strong for the whole period. These results suggest that chitosan is a superior scaffold for cartilage tissue engineering in terms of the maintenance of structural integrity. It is expected that after some modification for more rapid chondrogenesis, chitosan scaffolds may become one of the most useful scaffolds for cartilage tissue engineering.
Development of simple sequence repeat markers for Japanese isolates of Magnaporthe grisea

We developed nine simple sequence repeat (SSR) markers useful for differentiating Japanese isolates of Magnaporthe grisea through a bioinformatic approach. Repeat sequences in the genome of M. grisea were identified by a Tandem Repeat Finding program. Length polymorphisms at 28 loci were examined, nine of which were selected on the basis of detected polymorphisms. These nine SSR markers showed a Nei's gene diversity ranging from 0.23 to 0.91 among 48 field isolates of two natural populations. These SSR markers are well suited for M. grisea epidemiology and population genetics.
Forecasting Taiwan stock price with corrected error term

Abstract The study is designed to demonstrate how the forecasting models with corrected error term can be effectively used to high performance forecasts for stock price applications. Another purpose of this study is to compare the forecasts generated by the error correction model (ECM), the autoregressive conditional heteroscedastic (ARCH) model, the regression with ARMA error model (Reg-ARMA) and the autoregressive error model (Autoreg). The accuracy of these forecasting models is measured by using the forecasting errors in a post-sample period. The results show that the forecasting performance of the ECM is the best, and the next best in Autoreg model while the worst is Reg-ARMA model.
Demand systems for agricultural products in OECD countries

This study concerned with the estimation of demand systems for agricultural products in OECD countries. Three representatives demand systems with their extensions, namely the Rotterdam Model, An Almost Ideal Demand System (AIDS), and CBS model are used. These models are estimated by Seemingly Unrelated Regression (SUR) method. The procedures to estimate demand systems suggest significant empirical regularities for agricultural products in OECD countries. The study also applies a procedure for model selection. This procedure implies the superiority of AIDS and CBS models over the Rotterdam model. The main contribution of this study is to model demand for agricultural products over a wide array of items and across large number of countries.
Agricultural growth and industrial performance in India

The report examines the linkages between agriculture and industry in India and the closeness of the ties between agricultural performance and industrial growth. Agriculture influences industry through three types of linkages -- production, demand, and savings and investment. These are incorporated in a macro-economic model to study the effects on industry of a given rate of agricultural growth. Historical data for (1961-72) with appropriate lag structures are used. Total industrial output, is separated into consumption goods and basic and capital goods. Agricultural output is treated as an exogenous variable, whereas the terms of trade between agriculture and industry are treated as endogenous. The values simulated by the model are tested against the actual values. The model captures fluctuations in industrial production but there are wide differences in the values for year-to-year growth of basic and capital goods. The basic simulation (1), is deterministic, but the model is also simulated stochastically. Simulation 2 shows the effects of a one-time increase in agricultural output. Simulation 3 traces the effect of a change in one variable, food grain terms of trade. Simulation 4 attempts to determine what would have happened if agricultural output had increased steadily during the period. Finally, Simulation 5 studies the influences of a 1% increase in the agricultural growth rate. The results of Simulations 2 and 5 indicate that a 1% growth in agricultural output increases industrial production by about 0.5% and thus national income by a little more than 0.7%
A hybrid method in combining treatment effects from matched and unmatched studies

The most common data structures in the biomedical studies have been matched or unmatched designs. Data structures resulting from a hybrid of the two may create challenges for statistical inferences. The question may arise whether to use parametric or nonparametric methods on the hybrid data structure. The Early Treatment for Retinopathy of Prematurity study was a multicenter clinical trial sponsored by the National Eye Institute. The design produced data requiring a statistical method of a hybrid nature. An infant in this multicenter randomized clinical trial had high‐risk prethreshold retinopathy of prematurity that was eligible for treatment in one or both eyes at entry into the trial. During follow‐up, recognition visual acuity was accessed for both eyes. Data from both eyes (matched) and from only one eye (unmatched) were eligible to be used in the trial. The new hybrid nonparametric method is a meta‐analysis based on combining the Hodges–Lehmann estimates of treatment effects from the Wilcoxon signed rank and rank sum tests. To compare the new method, we used the classic meta‐analysis with the t‐test method to combine estimates of treatment effects from the paired and two sample t‐tests. We used simulations to calculate the empirical size and power of the test statistics, as well as the bias, mean square and confidence interval width of the corresponding estimators. The proposed method provides an effective tool to evaluate data from clinical trials and similar comparative studies. Copyright © 2013 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
A One Year Trial of Methylphenidate in the Treatment of ADHD

Objective: To determine the effects of long-term methylphenidate treatment on symptom severity and social adjustment in adult ADHD. Method: Adults (n = 116) meeting operational diagnostic criteria for ADHD (the “Utah Criteria”) entered a randomized double-blind crossover trial of methylphenidate and placebo. Participants who improved on immediate-release methylphenidate entered a 12-month, open-label trial. Outcomes were assessed using the Wender-Reimherr Adult Attention Deficit Disorder Scale (WRAADDS), Clinical Global Impression—Improvement (CGI-I), global assessment of functioning (GAF), and the Weissman Social Adjustment Scale (WSAS). Results: In the double-blind trial more patients improved (50% reduction of symptoms) receiving methylphenidate (74%) than placebo (21%, p = .001). During the open-label trial, symptom severity decreased 80% from baseline, and the WSAS decreased >50% in all subscales. The average GAF improved significantly (p < .0001). Conclusion: ADHD adults, who responded to methylphenidate in a short-tem, placebo-controlled trial, responded to long-term treatment with marked improvements in ADHD symptoms and psychosocial functioning.
Political Reform in Tanzania: The Struggle for Associational Autonomy

The concepts of democratic reversal and the erosion of liberties make little sense in electoral democracies like Tanzania that have never attained democratic liberties in the first place. As critical as elections are to democratization, a more important locus of the struggle for political reform in Africa has been associations that seek to establish and maintain their autonomy from the state. In Tanzania, where the democratization process was stalled after multiparty elections and the government showed little inclination to deepen the democratization process, critical social struggles continued in such areas as women's organizations, the media, and nongovernmental organizations over issues pertaining to political and civil liberties.
An Introduction to Statistical Modeling of Extreme Values

1. Introduction. - 2. Basics of Statistical Modeling. - 3. Classical Extreme Value Theory and Models. - 4. Threshold Models. - 5. Extremes of Dependent Sequences. - 6. Extremes of Non-Stationary Sequences. - 7. A Point Process Characterization of Extremes. - 8. Multivariate Extremes. - 9. Further Topics. - Appendix A: Computational Aspects. - Index.
Molecular Detection of Foodborne Pathogens: A Rapid and Accurate Answer to Food Safety

Food safety is a global health concern. For the prevention and recognition of problems related to health and safety, detection of foodborne pathogen is of utmost importance at all levels of food production chain. For several decades, a lot of research has been targeted at the development of rapid methodology as reducing the time needed to complete pathogen detection tests has been the primary goal of food microbiologists. With the result, food microbiology laboratories now have a wide array of detection methods and automated technologies such as enzyme immunoassay, polymerase chain reaction, and microarrays, which can cut test times considerably. Nucleic acid amplification strategies and advances in amplicon detection methodologies have been the key factors in the progress of molecular microbiology. A comprehensive literature survey has been carried out to give an overview in the field of foodborne pathogen detection. In this paper, we describe the conventional methods, as well as recent developments in food pathogen detection, identification, and quantification, with a major emphasis on molecular detection methods.
Hidden carbon in Earth’s inner core revealed by shear softening in dense Fe7C3

Significance Seismic studies revealed that shear wave (S wave) travels through the inner core at an anomalously low speed, thus challenging the notion of its solidity. Here we show that for the candidate inner core component Fe7C3, shear softening associated with a pressure-induced spin-pairing transition leads to exceptionally low S-wave velocity (vS) in its low-spin and nonmagnetic phase. An Fe7C3-dominant inner core would match seismic observations and imply a major carbon reservoir in Earth’s deepest interior. Earth’s inner core is known to consist of crystalline iron alloyed with a small amount of nickel and lighter elements, but the shear wave (S wave) travels through the inner core at about half the speed expected for most iron-rich alloys under relevant pressures. The anomalously low S-wave velocity (vS) has been attributed to the presence of liquid, hence questioning the solidity of the inner core. Here we report new experimental data up to core pressures on iron carbide Fe7C3, a candidate component of the inner core, showing that its sound velocities dropped significantly near the end of a pressure-induced spin-pairing transition, which took place gradually between 10 GPa and 53 GPa. Following the transition, the sound velocities increased with density at an exceptionally low rate. Extrapolating the data to the inner core pressure and accounting for the temperature effect, we found that low-spin Fe7C3 can reproduce the observed vS of the inner core, thus eliminating the need to invoke partial melting or a postulated large temperature effect. The model of a carbon-rich inner core may be consistent with existing constraints on the Earth's carbon budget and would imply that as much as two thirds of the planet's carbon is hidden in its center sphere.
Boundary effects on allophonic creaky voice: A case study of Mandarin lexical tones

The present study investigates the effects of prosodic boundary on the acoustic realization of allophonic Mandarin lexical tone creak. Speech of twenty speakers from Mandarin Call Home corpus was analyzed. Results show that stronger creaky voice occurs more often at the end of an utterance than the end of an intermediary phrase, and is least likely to occur phrase medially. The observed creak is stronger at boundaries with higher BI levels, regardless of the intrinsic pitch target of lexical tones. Tonal category also appears to be worse at predicting the phonetics of creak. Therefore, compared to lexical tone, prosodic boundary has stronger effects on the acoustic realization of creaky voice. The interaction between prosodic boundary and lexical tone on the acoustics of creaky voice also has implication on the interaction between lexical tone and intonation.
A Modified Distance Regularized Level Set Evolution for Masseter Segmentation

Segmentation of the masseter muscle is one of the most important bases for diagnosis and treatment, but automatical segmentation of masseter is very difficult as the masseter and its adjacent tissues have very similar gray levels. In this paper, a novel method is presented to segment the masseter in MRI images, which modifies the distance regularized level set evolution (DRLSE) with a new adaptive edge indicator function. The presented method introduces the phase congruency into the edge indicator function and combines the image gradient with phase information together to solve the segmentation problem. The method is tested by 50 MR images of masseter muscle, and the results show it is an effective approach can be used to produce clinically acceptable results to this challenging work.
Competition and Relationship Lending: Friends or Foes?

Recent empirical findings by Elsas (2005) and Degryse and Ongena (2007) document a U-shaped effect of market concentration on relationship lending which cannot be easily accommodated by the investment and strategic theories of relationship lending. In this paper, we suggest that this non-monotonicity can be explained by looking at the organizational structure of local credit markets. We provide evidence that marginal increases in interbank competition are detrimental to relationship lending in markets where large and out-of-market banks are predominant. On the contrary, where relational-based lending technologies are al-ready widely in use in the market by a large group of small mutual banks, an increase in competition may drive banks to further cultivate their extensive ties with customers.