Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of micronutrient supplementation on the growth of preschool children in China.

OBJECTIVE To study the relationship between micronutrient supplementation and children growth. METHODS A double-blind, placebo-controlled trial was conducted in 156 growth retarded preschool children. They were randomly assigned to five groups: supplemental control (S-control, n = 28), zinc supplementation (+Zn, 3.5 mg Zn/day, n = 34), zinc and calcium supplementation (+ZnCa, 3.5 mg Zn + 250 mg Ca/day, n = 37), zinc and calcium and vitamin A supplementation (+ZnCaVA, 3.5 mg Zn + 250 mg Ca + 200 g VA/day, n = 28), Calcium, and vitamin A supplementation (+CaVA, 250 mg Ca + 200 g VA/day, n = 29). Another 34 children with normal height were selected as normal control (N-control). Supplementation continued for twelve months. RESULTS The height gain in +Zn group (7.84 cm per year) and +ZnCa group (7.70 cm per year) was significantly higher than that in S-control group (6.74 cm per year, P < 0.05); The weight gain in +ZnCaVA group (2.55 kg per year) and +CaVA group (2.57 kg per year) was also significantly higher than that in S-control group (2.19 kg per year, P < 0.05); The average days of illness in each supplementation group were lower than that in S-control (13 days per year compared with 23 days per year). No significant difference was observed on bone age. CONCLUSION Zinc and Zinc + Calcium supplementation can improve the height gain, and vitamin A can improve weight gain in growth retarded preschool children, but do not affect the maturity of bone. Micronutrient supplementation can lower the morbidity of these children.
Discovering Malicious Domains through Alias-Canonical Graph

Malicious domains play a vital component in various cyber crimes. Most of the prior works depend on DNS A (address) records to detect the malicious domains, which are directly resolved to IP addresses. In this paper, we propose a malicious domain detection method focusing on the domains that are not resolved to IP addresses directly but only appear in DNS CNAME (canonical name) records. This kind of domains occupy 18.39% of the total domains in our 1530-days-long DNS traffic dataset collected from 217 DNS servers. In addition, the real-world dataset shows that domains connected with malicious ones through DNS CNAME records tend to be malicious too. Based on this observation, our proposal can identify the illegal domains by computing their maliciousness probabilities. The experiments demonstrate the high detection performance of our solution. It achieves the accuracy, on average, over 97.25% true positive rate with less than 0.027% false positive rate. Moreover, the proposal performs near real time detections. Our work can help network attack defenders to build a more robust domain monitoring system.
Challenges of Using ICT in assessing and Developing Students’ affective Domain in Education

ICT is becoming an inevitable tool in education nowadays. For any academic activities to be effective, the use of ICT is imperative. There are also a lot of benefits and improvement that ICT has brought to the field of education. These benefits and development cut across all spheres of education, such as the aspect of content, instruction and evaluation. In area of evaluation, the cognitive and psychomotor aspects of evaluation are mostly developed, based on the fact that both can be easily accessed through ICT. However, in the aspect of affective domain, the level of assessment is low and not absolutely reliable because it deals with the feelings, interest and values that learner attached to the subject matter. Hence, this study aimed at finding an effective way that ICT can be used to assess students’ affective domain in the process of evaluation. In order to get in-depth understanding of the subject matter, the study employs qualitative design by using semi-structured interview to elicit information from specialists in the field of communication technology. Findings from the study indicate that the use of ICT to evaluate student affective domain requires an illustrious, diligent, and enthusiastic ICT literate teacher. Equally, there is a need to develop software that will focus more on the evaluation of students’ affective domain. Meanwhile, this area that will develop students’ soft skills is greatly needed to produce good citizens, employees, and government of their individual community.
Venture Capital Communities

Although venture capitalists (VCs) can choose from thousands of potential syndicate partners, many co-syndicate with small groups of preferred partners. We term these groups “VC communities. ” We apply computational methods from the physical sciences to 3 decades of syndication data to identify these communities. We find that communities comprise VCs that are similar in age, connectedness, and functional style but undifferentiated in spatial location. Machine-learning tools classify communities into 3 groups roughly ordered by their age and reach. Community VC financing is associated with faster maturation and greater innovation, especially for early-stage firms without an innovation history.
Tensor Field guidance for time-based waypoint arrival of UAVs by 4D trajectory generation

This paper looks at incorporating time information into a waypoint trajectory-generation technique known as Vector Field Guidance to give a 4D trajectory generator henceforth known as Tensor Field Guidance. The time-based information is local in that it is relative from waypoint to waypoint. We envisage that a higher-level controller or an Air Traffic Management system automates the waypoint generation, while our approach optimizes the travel time between waypoints. We present results from simulations, showing an increase in accuracy of “Distance to go” estimates over traditional “as-the-crowflies” yielding less error in time-based arrivals.
The epidemiology of tuberculosis diagnosed after death in San Francisco, 1986-1995.

SETTING San Francisco, California. OBJECTIVES To identify the characteristics of persons in whom tuberculosis was diagnosed after death, and determine whether secondary cases of tuberculosis resulted from them. DESIGN Retrospective review of all cases of tuberculosis reported in San Francisco from 1986 through 1995, combined with a prospective evaluation of the molecular epidemiology of tuberculosis. RESULTS Four per cent of the reported 3102 tuberculosis cases were diagnosed after death. The rate of tuberculosis cases diagnosed after death was 1.63 per 100000 population. Age 43 years or older, male sex, white race, and birth in the United States were characteristics independently associated with a diagnosis of tuberculosis after death. During 1993-1995, injecting drug use was also independently associated with a diagnosis of tuberculosis after death (odds ratio 9.24, 95% confidence interval 1.77-39.38). Cases of tuberculosis diagnosed after death do not appear to be significant sources of undetected tuberculosis transmission causing new secondary tuberculosis cases in the community. CONCLUSIONS Health care providers in San Francisco, and probably other urban areas, should maintain a high index of suspicion for tuberculosis in ageing, white, US-born males, and injecting drug users.
Comparison of ropivacaine and lidocaine with epinephrine for infiltration anesthesia in dentistry. A randomized study.

PURPOSE To compare the efficacy of maxillary infiltration anesthesia with 0.5% plain ropivacaine or 2% lidocaine with epinephrine 1:100,000. METHODS 60 volunteers received 1.8 ml of the anesthetic for infiltration anesthesia of maxillary central and lateral incisors and canine teeth. The onset time and duration of pulp anesthesia were assessed with an electric pulp tester. The duration time of numbness of the upper lip was also monitored. Blood pressure and heart rate were measured before and after administration of the solution. RESULTS The efficacy of anesthesia of the lateral and central incisors was 100% for both anesthetics. There were small insignificant differences in effectiveness of canine pulp anesthesia. The mean onset time was significantly shorter for ropivacaine--2.2 minutes vs. 5.1 for lidocaine. Ropivacaine also had a significantly longer duration of action--mean time 79.2 minutes. Ropivacaine caused statistically significant increases in blood pressure and heart rate.
An Effective Project Management-Based Application Model for Sustainable Urban Renewal in Hong Kong

In this paper, we describe how a project management-based application model was designed to implement sustainable urban renewal projects in Hong Kong. The model was based on project organizational structure, team structure, attributes of team members, stakeholder management, communication, and information technology enablers. We conducted studies of other local and international urban renewal cases to verify and fine-tune the project management model identified in this paper. From our study, we conclude that the model used in Hong Kong can improve the efficiency and effectiveness of urban renewal project implementation. Our findings e also provide a foundation for applying the model at other locations, after taking into account the respective environments of these other locations.
Floral trait evolution associated with shifts between insect and wind pollination in the dioecious genus Leucadendron (Proteaceae)

Transitions between animal and wind pollination have occurred in many lineages and have been linked to various floral modifications, but these have seldom been assessed in a phylogenetic framework. In the dioecious genus Leucadendron (Proteaceae), transitions from insect to wind pollination have occurred at least four times. Using analyses that controlled for relatedness among Leucadendron species, we investigated how these transitions shaped the evolution of floral structural and signaling traits, including the degree of sexual dimorphism in these traits. Pollen grains of wind‐pollinated species were found to be smaller, more numerous, and dispersed more efficiently in wind than were those of insect‐pollinated species. Wind‐pollinated species also exhibited a reduction in spectral contrast between showy subtending leaves and background foliage, reduced volatile emissions, and a greater degree of sexual dimorphism in color and scent. Uniovulate flowers and inflorescence condensation are conserved ancestral features in Leucadendron and likely served as exaptations in shifts to wind pollination. These results offer insights into the key modifications of male and female floral traits involved in transitions between insect and wind pollination.
Colonic preparation correlates with fasting breath hydrogen in patients undergoing colonoscopy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS Fasting breath hydrogen has been reported to be low after fasting and polyethylene glycol ingestion. However, the relationship between fasting breath hydrogen and colonic preparation for colonoscopy has not been studied before. We evaluated fasting breath hydrogen in patients undergoing colonoscopy and correlated it with the quality of colonic preparation. METHODOLOGY One day before colonoscopy, the patients ingested clear liquid diet and starting in the afternoon the day before colonoscopy they drank polyethylene glycol 8oz every 10 minutes for 3 hours. They fasted overnight. Fasting breath hydrogen was measured using an EC 60 gastrolyzer. Colonic preparation was rated as excellent, fair or poor. The colonoscopic findings were noted. RESULTS There were 69 male patients. 89% had excellent or fair colonic preparation (Group A) 11% had poor preparation (Group B). Fasting breath hydrogen in Group B patients 14.5 +/- 1.5 ppm was significantly higher compared to that in Group A patients 2.2 +/- 0.2 ppm (p < 0.005 t-test). In other respects the two groups were similar. CONCLUSIONS Patients undergoing colonoscopy after polyethylene glycol ingestion who have poor colonic preparation have higher fasting breath hydrogen compared to those who have excellent/fair colonic preparation. The clinical implication of this observation is discussed.
Risk of non‐Hodgkin lymphoma in association with germline variation in complement genes

Germline mutations in complement genes have been associated with susceptibility to infections and autoimmune diseases, conditions that are associated with non‐Hodgkin lymphoma (NHL) risk. To test the hypothesis that common genetic variation in complement genes affect risk of NHL, we genotyped 167 single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNPs) from 31 genes in 441 NHL cases and 475 controls. Principal components (PC) and haplotype analyses were used for gene‐level tests of NHL risk, while individual SNPs were modelled as having a log‐additive effect. In gene level PC analyses, C2 (P = 0·023), C5 (P = 0·0032) and C9 (P = 0·020) were associated with NHL risk; haplotype analyses showed similar results, as well as a haplotype association for C7 (P = 0·046). When all four genes were considered simultaneously, only C5 and C9 remained significant (P < 0·05). In SNP level results from these genes, 10 SNPs had a P < 0·05. However, after correcting for multiple testing, only the C5 SNPs rs7026551 (q = 0·015; OR = 1·54, 95% CI 1·21–1·95) and rs2416810 (q = 0·015; OR = 1·57; 95% CI 1·22–2·01), and the C9 SNP rs187875 (q = 0·015; OR = 0·68; 95% 0·56–0·84) remained noteworthy. Associations were similar for the common NHL subtypes. In summary, we provide evidence for a role of genetic variation in complement genes, particularly C5 and C9, and NHL risk.
Efficient Keyword Extraction and Text Summarization for Reading Articles on Smart Phone

These days, we can connect to the internet from almost anywhere, allowing us to access web content, including newspapers, magazines, blogs and websites, using mobile devices such as a smart phone. However, people sometimes struggle to read and use the contents due to the nature of these devices such as a small display, low display resolution and limited computing resources (low CPU speed and little memory). This paper aims to develop a convenient interface that provides keyword extraction, summary generation and search engine to users. We apply the proposed summarization method to Korean and English news articles and evaluate it using several experiments on single and multiple news article test collections and user-receptiveness tests. Since the proposed method shows a good performance on these experiments and tests, we think that this interface can help users more efficiently to read the news articles on various mobile devices.
Automated tuning of RFI identification and flagging algorithms

It is known that Radio Frequency Interference affects a significant fraction of data from radio telescopes. These bad data must be carefully identified and eliminated before further processing. Current approaches require manual labor for tuning the parameters of auto flag algorithms or even marking individual regions of the data on a visual display. This paper presents a technique that can help automate the process of tuning auto flag parameters using an approach based on Artificial Intelligence, specifically on Evolutionary Computing. We describe a Genetic Algorithm that simulates the tuning of parameters throughout several generations, where no input is necessary and it produces a set of parameters that can be used in conjunction with the existing algorithms to flag the data. Experiment results demonstrate that we were able to successfully tune two auto flag algorithms for some low-frequency VLA (Very Large Array) datasets containing types of RFI that would otherwise have required manual tuning.
The Role of Age on Cochlear Implant Performance, Use, and Health Utility: A Multicenter Clinical Trial

Objective To use data obtained in a multicenter clinical trial to evaluate factors affecting performance with an implant, with special emphasis on the effect of age on performance. Study design and setting Post hoc analyses of data collected during a multicenter prospective study to evaluate performance with a recently introduced cochlear implant (CI) system conducted at 13 academic centers in the United States. Subjects participated in speech recognition testing in quiet and noise and completed questionnaires regarding health utility and processor use. Patients Thirty-eight adults with moderate to profound hearing loss who ranged in age from 18 to 89 years. Subjects were divided into younger (<65 yr, n = 20) and older (≥65 yr, n = 18) groups for the analyses. Intervention All subjects received a multichannel CI system. Preimplant to postimplant change in speech recognition was evaluated for each group, and the performance of the two groups was compared. Postimplant performance of older subjects who scored greater than 40% preimplant on HINT (Hearing in Noise Test) sentences was also evaluated. Linear regression was used to further evaluate the effects of variables on outcomes. Results Both younger and older subjects demonstrated significant improvement in speech recognition and hearing health utility after receiving a CI, and differences between groups were insignificant. Older subjects who scored greater than 40% preoperatively on HINT sentences demonstrated a significant improvement in speech recognition. Conclusion Both older and younger patients can receive significant improvement in speech recognition and health utility after receiving a CI.
Australian securitised property funds: Tracking error analysis and investment styles

In broad terms, the main aim of a securitised property fund is to replicate the essence of a particular property index. The success of constructing such a fund depends less on the absolute returns it produces, but rather, how closely the returns match those of the benchmark (e.g. S&P/ASX A-REIT 300 index). Based on tracking error analysis, this research identified a range of passive, structured and active investment styles in the selected 16 wholesale securitised property funds. Interestingly, over the 2000-2007 period, the tracking errors rankings of the securitised property funds appeared unrelated to other key investment performance measures. In part, this could be due to the poor performance of the active and some structured securitised property funds during times of major market downturns. This is evident in comparing cumulative downside returns with and without outliers. This research illustrates how tracking error can categorise a fund's investment style. Placed alongside the information ratio and other key investment measures, funds can be identified which consistently outperform the benchmark index. Further research is recommended as to the impact of different market conditions on investment performance measures, however these techniques are valuable decision making tools for an investment in securitised property funds.
Compact Model for Short-Channel Junctionless Accumulation Mode Double Gate MOSFETs

A 2-D closed form, analytical compact model for long- and short-channel junctionless accumulation mode double gate MOSFETs is presented. The physics-based 2-D model for the potential is derived with the help of Poisson's equation and the conformal mapping technique by Schwarz-Christoffel. From this closed-form solution, we derive simple equations for the calculation of the threshold voltage VT and subthreshold slope S. Using Lambert's W-function and a smoothing function for the transition between the depletion and accumulation regions, a unified charge model valid for all operating regimes is developed. Dependencies between the physical device parameters and their impact on the device performance are worked out. A comparison of our 2-D physics-based compact model is done versus 2-D technology computer-aided design (TCAD) Sentaurus simulation data.
INSTITUTIONAL OPTIONS FOR VMT DATA AND FEE COLLECTION CENTERS

The objective of this report is an analysis of public vs. private data and fee collection centers for vehicle miles traveled (VMT) fees. This includes the identification and evaluation of issues that will affect the relative desirability of the two forms of ownership and operation. These issues include cost, enforcement, debt collection, flexibility, and public perception. The report reviews the literature on these topics and tries to identify differences across possible institutional arrangements with respect to these topics.
Signal Integrity and Interconnections Test on Technical Fabrics

The use of textile yarns as data transmission media enables the design of non-obtrusive well-fitting garments as wearable systems. However, textile conductive yarns show impedances higher than those presented by common metal conductors and these values can change with the textile condition and level of stretching, affecting the integrity of the transmitted signal. This work proposes a built-in self-test methodology to test textile yarn interconnections for conventional stuck-at, open and short faults, as well as to verify signal integrity. The test procedure being proposed relies on sampling to generate a digital signal that results from comparing the received signal with pre-defined voltage levels. The obtained signature allows to verify signal integrity parameters: VLmax, VHmin and rise and fall times. Simulation results confirm the validity of the methodology being proposed.
Using Craft Tourism to Maximize Revenue of Rural Hospitality Businesses

Craft tourism is a new and very popular form of tourism under which the participants travel to seminars and craft schools often in the remote rural areas. In North America the interests in the craft tourism is presently very high. The paper discerns two types of the craft tourists: (1) people who want to participate in the remote school and/or seminar which offer the classes on certain skills and trades, (2) the craft store owners which require seminars on extending their craft skills as well as the classes on types and uses of the new products. The main idea of the paper is combining rural and craft tourism in the same place. Urban crafters visiting the rural areas become not only a source of revenue but also a source of advertising. The number of rural businesses and their small size do not allow them to generate the effective advertisement to the urban crafters. We show that craft tourism can maximize the revenue of the rural hospitality businesses in two different ways: (1) by providing the revenue stream in the off-peak season and (2) by attracting both craft tourists and their spouses in the peak-season thus maximizing hotel revenue stream. We assert that craft tourists may be both source of revenue and advertising vehicle for the rural destinations as they are often parts of craft guilds and collectives. The combination of rural and craft tourism can create a true symbiotic relationship between the rural businesses and the craft guilds.