Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Mycobacterium Avium Subspecies Paratuberculosis

Objective: This systematic review assesses the causal relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis (MAP) and Crohn’s disease (CD). Methods: A systematic review and meat-analysis of some impressive PCR based studies is provided aimed to answer among other questions the following question. Is there a cause effect relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Crohn’s disease? The method of the conditio per quam relationship was used to proof the hypothesis whether the presence of Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis guarantees the presence of Crohn’s disease. In other words, if Crohn’s disease is present, then Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is present too. The mathematical formula of the causal relationship k was used to proof the hypothesis, whether there is a cause effect relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Crohn’s disease. Significance was indicated by a p-value of less than 0.05. Result: The studies analyzed (number of cases and controls N=1076) were able to provide evidence that Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is a necessary condition (a conditio sine qua non) and sufficicent conditions of Crohn’s disease. Furthermore, the studies analyzed provide impressive evidence of a cause-effect relationship between Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis and Crohn’s disease. Conclusion: Mycobacterium avium subspecies paratuberculosis is the cause of Crohn’s disease (k=+0,377468824, p value < 0.0001).
Trace-Level Analysis of Hexavalent Chromium in Lake Sediment Samples Using Ion Chromatography Tandem Mass Spectrometry

The analysis of hexavalent chromium, Cr(VI), in soil and sediment samples has been predominantly carried out in materials containing elevated levels. Reliable analysis of trace-level of Cr(VI) in sediment samples remains challenging. Cr(VI) analyses with multipoint calibration and speciated isotope dilution (SID) adapted from U.S. EPA method 6800 were used to measure lower-level Cr(VI) on an ion chromatograph coupled with a tandem mass spectrometer (IC-MS/MS). Lake sediment samples were collected from various locations in Northern Ontario and Cr(VI) was extracted using both alkaline digestion and ethylene diaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) extraction. Certified reference materials were extracted and analyzed by IC-MS/MS and UV-VIS detection. The SID-MS approach allowed for the quantification of Cr(VI) in samples with concentration levels below 0.5 μg. g-1 wet weight.
The Mediterranean Diet and Cardiovascular Epidemiology

The Mediterranean diet was first considered to be a low-saturated fat diet that conveyed protection against coronary heart disease by lowering plasma total cholesterol levels. Later, the emphasis shifted away from the low-saturated-fat content of this diet toward its high content of olive oil and its overall constellation of characteristics. Moreover, there is now evidence that the Mediterranean diet benefits not only the risk for coronary heart disease but also cancer occurrence, total mortality, and longevity.
Improved estimation of the left ventricular ejection fraction using a combination of independent automated segmentation results in cardiovascular magnetic resonance imaging

—This work aimed at combining different segmenta-tion approaches to produce a robust and accurate segmentation result. Three to five segmentation results of the left ventricle were combined using the STAPLE algorithm and the reliability of the resulting segmentation was evaluated in comparison with the result of each individual segmentation method. This comparison was performed using a supervised approach based on a reference method. Then, we used an unsupervised statistical evaluation, the extended Regression Without Truth (eRWT) that ranks different methods according to their accuracy in estimating a specific biomarker in a population. The segmentation accuracy was evaluated by focusing on the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) estimate resulting from the LV contour delineation using a public cardiac cine MRI database. Eight different segmentation methods, including three expert delineations, were studied, and sixteen combinations of the five automated methods were investigated. The supervised and unsupervised evaluations demonstrated that in most cases, STAPLE results provided better estimates of the LVEF than individual automated segmentation methods. In addition, LVEF obtained with STAPLE were within inter-expert variability. Overall, combining different automated segmentation methods improved the reliability of the segmenta-tion result compared to that obtained using an individual method
The Shortest Path Problem with Crossing Costs

We introduce the shortest path problem with crossing costs (SPPCC), a shortest path problem in a directed graph, in which the objective function is the sum of arc weights and crossing costs. The former are independently paid for each arc used by the path, the latter need to be paid every time the path intersects certain sets of arcs, which we call regions. The SPPCC generalizes not only the classical shortest path problem but also variants such as the resource constrained shortest path problem and the minimum label path problem. We use the SPPCC to model the flight trajectory optimization problem with overflight costs. In this paper, we provide a comprehensive analysis of the problem. In particular, we identify efficient exact and approximation algorithms for the cases that are most relevant in practice.
New slow-control FPGA IP for GBT based system and status update of the GBT-FPGA project

The GBT-FPGA, part of the GBT (GigaBit Transceiver) project framework, is a VHDL-based core designed to offer a back-end counterpart to the GBTx ASIC, a radiation tolerant 4.8 Gb/s optical transceiver. The GBT-SCA (Slow Control Adapter) radiation tolerant ASIC is also part of the GBT chipset and is used for the slow control in the High Energy Physics experiments. In this context, a new VHDL core named GBT-SC has been designed and released to handle the slow control fields hosted in the serial GBT frame for the GBTx and GBT-SCA. This paper presents the architecture and performance of this new GBT-SC module as well as an outline of recent GBT-FPGA core releases and future plans.
LES Investigation of Wake Development in a Transonic Fan Stage for Aeroacoustic Analysis

The development of the fan wake in a transonic fan stage (NASA R4 fan stage) was investigated in detail with the Unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (URANS) approach and a Large Eddy Simulation (LES). The primary focus is to compare simulation results from the two approaches with the available experimental data so that some guidance can be developed for future applications to aeroacoustic studies of the fan flow field. Many previous studies on fan noise have indicated that the generation of noise in the fan stage changes with the fan RPM, fan tip clearance, fan loading, and the configuration of the fan stage geometry. Also, it has been reported that the development of the fan wake is significantly different among different designs under similar operating conditions. Therefore, an accurate measurement and/or numerical simulation of the fan stage flow field are required to understand the generation of noise in a particular fan stage. For numerical simulation, URANS has been applied for many previous studies. Although some studies of fan noise generation based on URANS flow simulations have shown promising results, higher fidelity CFD tools, such as LES, are pursued for a reliable physics-based assessment of fan noise generation. The present study indicates that the major difference in the simulated flow fields from URANS and LES is how the small eddies are calculated in the fan stage. When the small eddies play an important role in the generation of fan noise, a higher-fidelity CFD tool, like LES, gives a much more accurate and realistic flow field for noise generation assessment.
Estimations of the magnetic field strength in the torus of IC 5063 using near-infrared polarimetry

An optically and geometrically thick torus obscures the central engine of Active Galactic Nuclei (AGN) from some lines of sight. From a magnetohydrodynamical framework, the torus can be considered to be a particular region of clouds surrounding the central engine where the clouds are dusty and optically thick. In this framework, the magnetic eld plays an important role in the creation, morphology and evolution of the torus. If the dust grains within the clouds are assumed to be aligned by paramagnetic alignment, then the ratio of the intrinsic polarisation and visual extinction, P(%)/Av, is a function of the magnetic
Causality and Complementarity in Kant, Hermann, and Bohr

Kant's doctrine of transcendental idealism, as put forth in the first Critique, is best understood as a conceptual or epistemic doctrine. However critics of the conceptual understanding of transcendental idealism argue that it amounts to an arbitrary stipulation and that it does not do justice to the real ontological distinctions that mattered for Kant. Some stipulations are better than others, however. In this paper I argue that Kant's doctrine, though it should be understood `merely epistemically', is nevertheless full of significance and is motivated through his long-running pre-critical struggle to discover first principles for metaphysical cognition. I further argue that an epistemic understanding of the doctrine of transcendental idealism provides a Kantian with a natural way of understanding the novel epistemic situation presented to us by modern physics and in particular by quantum mechanics. And I argue that considering Kant's philosophy in the light of the challenges posed by quantum mechanics illuminates, in return, several elements of his philosophical framework, notably the principle of causality, the doctrine of synthetic a priori principles in general, and most generally: the conceptual understanding of transcendental idealism itself. I illustrate this via an analysis of the views of the physicist Niels Bohr as well the views of the (neo-)Kantian philosopher Grete Hermann.
Epistemological Perspectives on Multi-Methodological Electronic Government Research

Conducting eGovernment research, multi-national and multi-disciplinary collaboration becomes more and more important. Researchers from different (national) research communities and/or academic disciplines often use different research methods for approaching a certain research question. The resulting paradigmatic and methodological pluralism can be seen as one of the core issues of eGovernment research management, because in this case, studying the same phenomenon of interest – electronic Government – does not necessarily mean that mutual understanding prevails. Especially within this multi-national and multi-disciplinary context, the epistemological assumptions made by different researchers may vary fundamentally. But these assumptions have a great impact on the validity, the reliability and also the “quality” of research results. The extensive publication of epistemological assumptions is thus, in effect, almost mandatory. While eGovernment researchers from different (national) research communities and different academic disciplines often address distinct epistemological aspects appearing most relevant in their discourse context, the aim of this paper is to structurize and systematize the epistemological discussion by providing an episte-mological framework. The framework comprises four epistemological questions and selected answers to these questions most relevant in the context of IS and eGovernment research. As a conclusion, the consequences of epistemological assumptions for future eGovernment research will be discussed.
PHOTOIONIZED FEATURES IN THE X-RAY SPECTRUM OF EX HYDRAE

We present the first results from a long (496 ks) Chandra High Energy Transmission Grating observation of the intermediate polar EX Hydrae (EX Hya). In addition to the narrow emission lines from the cooling post-shock gas, for the first time we have detected a broad component in some of the X-ray emission lines, namely, O viii λ18. 97, Mg xii λ8. 42, Si xiv λ6. 18, and Fe xvii λ16. 78. The broad and narrow components have widths of and , respectively. We propose a scenario where the broad component is formed in the pre-shock accretion flow, photoionized by radiation from the post-shock flow. Because the photoionized region has to be close to the radiation source in order to produce strong photoionized emission lines from ions such as O viii, Fe xvii, Mg xii, and Si xiv, our photoionization model constrains the height of the standing shock above the white dwarf surface. Thus, the X-ray spectrum from EX Hya manifests features of both magnetic and non-magnetic cataclysmic variables.
Factors Influencing Treatment of Nitrate Contaminated Water using Batch Electrocoagulation Process

Electrocoagulation process involves applying an electrical current to sacrificial electrodes inside a reactor where the current generates coagulant agent “in situ” and gas. Electrocoagulation is currently experiencing both increasing popularity and considerable technical improvements. Nitrate contamination of water resources has become an increasing problem globally; nitrate levels in water are limited due to health concern. A laboratory batch electrocoagulation reactor was designed to investigate the influence of different operating parameters on the removal efficiency of nitrate from wastewater. The studied parameters was cell current density (6-14 mA/cm 2 ), initial pH (7-11), and initial nitrate concentration (100-500 mg/l), also a comparison between aluminum and iron electrodes was investigated. The results showed that electrocoagulation effectively removed nitrate from wastewater, cell current density and initial pH play important roles. The best removal efficiency of nitrate was achieved at pH=9, also the results showed that aluminum electrodes were slightly more efficient than iron electrodes.
Comparative Study of Backpropagation Algorithms in Forecasting Volatility of Crude Oil Price in Nigeria

This paper explores the application of artificial neural network in volatility forecasting. A recurrent neural network has been integrated in to GARCH model to form the hybrid model called GARCH-Neural model. The emphasis of the research is to investigate the performance of the variants of Backpropagation algorithms in training the proposed GARCH-neural model. In the first place, EGARCH (3, 3) was identified in this paper most preferred model describing crude oil price volatility in Nigeria. Similarly, Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) training algorithms were found to be fastest in convergence and also provide most accurate predictions of the volatility when to other training techniques.
Optimal Looping of Pipelines in Gas Networks

In this paper, we compare several approaches for the problem of gas network expansions using loops, that is, to build new pipelines in parallel to existing ones. We present different model formulations for the problem of continuous loop expansions as well as discrete loop expansions. We then analyze problem properties, such as the structure and convexity of the underlying feasible regions. The paper concludes with a computational study comparing the continuous and the discrete formulations.
Mapping of Soil Physical Properties for Predicting Preferential Flow at the Field Scale Case Study: The Pesticide Leaching Monitoring Field at Silstrup, Denmark

The risk of groundwater contamination by pesticides, nutrients, trace metals, and pathogens has been known to occur not only in the areas where the hydraulic conductivity is elevated, such as coarse-grained sandy soils with a low organic matter content, but also in structured soils where preferential flow may be a governing factor. To protect groundwater resources it is necessary to have a risk assessment map of the areas which are a highly prone to contamination. This study aims to develop a tool combining prediction (by pedo-transfer functions) and mapping to identify areas within a single field scale that are highly susceptible to the development of macropore flow. In this study, different approaches such as texture analysis, air transport parameters, water transport soils parameters and leaching experiment using tritium as a tracer were employed These methods linked by simple correlation or pedotransfer-functions (PTFs), combined with smart field-scale mapping of the parameters can become a new, valuable tool for assessment of chemical leaching risks. The combined mapping and PTF tool is suggested as a part of a decision platform for management of pesticides application on the field.
The Orientation Model for Frequency Assignment Problems

Mobile telecommunication systems establish a large number of communication links with a limited number of available frequencies; reuse of the same or adjacent frequencies on neighboring links causes interference. The task to find an assignment of frequencies to channels with minimal interference is the frequency assignment problem. The frequency assignment problem is usually treated as a graph coloring problem where the number of colors is minimized, but this approach does not model interference minimization correctly. We give in this paper a new integer programming formulation of the frequency assignment problem, the orientation model, and develop a heuristic two-stage method to solve it. The algorithm iteratively solves an outer and an inner optimization problem. The outer problem decides for each pair of communication links which link gets the higher frequency and leads to an acyclic subdigraph problem with additional longest path restrictions. The inner problem to find an optimal assignment respecting an orientation leads to a min-cost flow problem.
EVALUATING THE EFFECT MATURITY ON THE INTAKE AND DIGESTIBILITY OF SWITCHGRASS HAY CONSUMED BY BEEF STEERS

OF THESIS EVALUATING THE EFFECT OF MATURITY ON INTAKE AND DIGESTIBLITY OF SWITCHGRASS HAY CONSUMED BY BEEF STEERS There has been increased interest in utilizing switchgrass (Panicum virgatum) as biomass. There are several challenges to developing this industry, and these have led to the potential use of switchgrass as hay for feeding beef cattle in Kentucky. The effect of increasing maturity on crude protein (CP), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), acid detergent fiber (ADF) and nutritive values of switchgrass hay has been well documented, but few in vivo intake and digestibility trials have been conducted to assess this effect on animal performance when feeding beef cattle. Two in vivo intake and digestibility trials were conducted in 2011 in which Angus x Hereford beef steers (200-265 kg) were fed Alamo and Cave-in-Rock switchgrass harvested as late vegetative, boot, and early flowering hay. The objectives of these trials was to evaluate the effect of increasing maturity on apparent dry matter intake (DMI), digestible dry matter intake (DDMI), and dry matter digestibility (DMD); and to discuss potential challenges that producers might face if incorporating switchgrass hay into their forage program for feeding beef cattle. Observed decreases in nutritive value, DMI, DDMI, and DMD indicate that producers should harvest Alamo and Cavein-Rock switchgrass before it reaches the boot stage of maturity.
Underlying Dimensions of Knowledge Assessment: Factor Analysis of the Knowledge Assessment Methodology Data

The Knowledge Assessment Methodology (KAM) database measures variables that may be used to assess the readiness of countries for the knowledge economy and has many policy uses. Formal analysis using KAM data is faced with the problem of which variables to choose and why. Rather than make these decisions in an ad hoc manner, the authors recommend factor-analytic methods to distill the information contained in the many KAM variables into a smaller set of"factors. "Their main objective is to quantify the factors for each country, and to do so in a way that allows comparisons of the factor scores over time. The authors investigate both principal components as well as true factor analytic methods, and emphasize simple structures that help provide a clear political-economic meaning of the factors, but also allow comparisons over time.
A Bottom-Up Approach Based on Semantics for the Interpretation of the Main Camera Stream in Soccer Games

Automatic interpretation of sports games is a major challenge, especially when these sports feature complex players organizations and game phases. This paper describes a bottom-up approach based on the extraction of semantic features from the video stream of the main camera in the particular case of soccer using scene-specific techniques. In our approach, all the features, ranging from the pixel level to the game event level, have a semantic meaning. First, we design our own scene-specific deep learning semantic segmentation network and hue histogram analysis to extract pixel-level semantics for the field, players, and lines. These pixel-level semantics are then processed to compute interpretative semantic features which represent characteristics of the game in the video stream that are exploited to interpret soccer. For example, they correspond to how players are distributed in the image or the part of the field that is filmed. Finally, we show how these interpretative semantic features can be used to set up and train a semantic-based decision tree classifier for major game events with a restricted amount of training data. The main advantages of our semantic approach are that it only requires the video feed of the main camera to extract the semantic features, with no need for camera calibration, field homography, player tracking, or ball position estimation. While the automatic interpretation of sports games remains challenging, our approach allows us to achieve promising results for the semantic feature extraction and for the classification between major soccer game events such as attack, goal or goal opportunity, defense, and middle game.
Smartphone Addiction and Empathy among Nursing Students

This study was conducted to identify influencing factors on smartphone addiction in nursing students. Results shows that, influencing factors on the nursing students' smartphone addiction were reading quantity, the number of friends, the number of groups involved, academic achievement, average daily hours of smartphone use, and personal distress among the empathy, and the explanatory power of these variables was 17.4%. The findings of this study suggest that in order to guide nursing students' right use of smartphone, it is necessary to assess their empathy level and use the results as basic data and to regulate particularly the level of personal distress of empathy.