Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Are There Inequalities in the Receipt of Help Among People With Dementia or Cognitive Impairment? Results From the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing

Background: In addition to inequalities related to gender, age and socio-economic background, poor cognitive function may affect receipt of help and impair quality of life. We investigate whether people with dementia or low cognition with a disadvantaged background, experience more unmet need and/or more unrequired help than older people with similar levels of functional limitation, and associations with quality of life. Methods: We studied people aged 50+ in the English Longitudinal Study of Ageing. Cognitive status was divided into three groups: dementia (by physician diagnosis and/or proxy questionnaire, n=405); low cognition but no dementia (lowest quartile in the mean of z-scores of orientation, immediate recall and delayed recall, n=4,520); and intact cognition (n=10,264). Counts of unmet need (not receiving help for the need) and unrequired help (receipt of help without the respective need) were used as outcomes in two-part regressions. Quality of life (CASP-19) was a continuous outcome in a linear regression. Socio-demographic factors (gender, age, having partner/child and socioeconomic status), functional limitation, and their interaction with cognitive status were included in the models. Results: People with dementia or low cognition at lower levels of functional limitation had more unmet need and received more unrequired help. At higher levels of functional limitation, unmet needs were more frequent among the cognitively intact while unrequired help did not differ by cognitive status. Women, younger individuals, and those with a partner had fewer unmet needs but received more unrequired help, mostly among the cognitively intact. Higher socioeconomic status was associated with fewer unmet needs and unrequired help regardless of cognitive status. Both unmet need and unrequired help were associated with poorer quality of life independent of cognitive status. Conclusions: Unmet need may be a particular challenge in early dementia. Unrequired help that may decrease autonomy is a problem at all levels of cognition. Lower socioeconomic status undermines the receipt of sufficient help. Our results highlight the importance of a good-quality timely diagnosis of dementia, comprehensive and accurate needs assessment, and person-centred care planning to identify those with unmet need and receiving unrequired help in order to improve their quality of life.
Study on electromagnetic field in the end region of large generator by FEM

The attractive model of analyzing a hydraulic generator's end region field is proposed. The stator core's end packets are included, the anisotropic and nonlinear stator core are considered. A new method to treat the boundary conditions is presented. Compared with the existing models, the model can calculate the field in the end packets of the stator core more accurately. The calculated results check closely with those obtained from measurement. The result has been applied to analyze the influence of structure and some recommendations in order to avoid local over-heating are proposed.
A systematic narrative review of quality improvement models in health care

Authors' conclusions Health care organisations share a range of generic characteristics that make them particularly challenging for quality improvement programmes: complex care processes; multiple stakeholders; long-standing interand intraprofessional ‘turf wars’; an emphasis on individual proficiency rather than team-working; a history of challenging relationships between managers and health professionals; varying standards of data and infrastructure support for data collection/analysis; and a long history of successive top-down reorganisations and change programmes. These characteristics need to be borne in mind when considering which approaches to quality improvement will have greatest application in health services. Importing quality improvement techniques from outside health care may have the benefit that the tools and approaches have been tested to some degree, but the complexity of health care and the contingencies of the particular local and organisational circumstances can combine to overwhelm these potential advantages. Nonetheless, the accumulated knowledge from more than two decades of research, evaluation and experience has highlighted that, whatever quality improvement methods or approaches are used, there are core conditions that need to be met. Health care organisations need to: • Apply methods consistently over a sufficiently long timescale with demonstrated sustained organisational commitment and support • Involve doctors and other health professionals in a wide team effort while providing adequate training and development • Seek active involvement of middle and senior managers, the board (including nonexecutive directors) and, most obviously and visibly, the chief executive • Integrate quality improvement into the organisation’s other activities (so that it is part of the organisation’s strategic plans and priorities, targets etc) • Tailor the selected methods to local circumstances • Create robust IT systems that enable the measurement of processes and impacts, iteratively refining the approaches used
Testing for Nonlinear Autoregression

This article considers consistent testing the null hypothesis that the conditional mean of an economic time series is linear in past values. Two specific tests are discussed, the Cramér–von Mises and the Kolmogorov–Smirnov tests. The particular feature of the proposed tests is that the bootstrap is used to estimate the nonstandard asymptotic distributions of the test statistics considered. The tests are justified theoretically by asymptotics, and their finite-sample behaviors are studied by means of Monte Carlo experiments. The tests are applied to five U.S. monthly series, and evidence of nonlinearity is found for the first difference of the logarithm of the personal income and for the first difference of the unemployment rate. No evidence of nonlinearity is found for the first difference of the logarithm of the U.S. dollar/Japanese Yen exchange rate, for the first difference of the 3-month T-bill interest rate and for the first difference of the logarithm of the M2 money stock. Contrary to typically used tests, the proposed testing procedures are robust to the presence of conditional heteroscedasticity. This may explain the results for the exchange rate and the interest rate.
Researchers and scholarly communications: an evolving interdependency

Scholarly communication is not just about communication. It is not the final stage of the publication process, solely a means of providing the ‘minutes of science’. Rather, it is a vital part of the research process itself, inspiring researchers along new avenues of discovery and enabling the creation of connections between concepts and people. The ways in which researchers disseminate their research have changed and developed over the four centuries since the launch of the first scientific journals. But it can be argued that scholarly communication has in turn affected the way in which researchers behave. This chapter explores some of the interaction and interdependencies between researchers and scholarly communication. It also describes how the move to online, electronic publishing might further influence the research process.
A completely packaged strictly nonblocking 8/spl times/8 optical matrix switch on InP/InGaAsP

We report the fabrication of a completely packaged (including electronic drivers) strictly nonblocking transparent optical 8/spl times/8 matrix switch for routing applications at wavelength 1.55 /spl mu/m. The matrix is realized in a hybrid way from eight identical submodules each containing a single InP/InGaAsP chip with two 1/spl times/8 switches in parallel. The average values for fiber-matrix-fiber insertion loss and cross talk suppression are 20 and 28 dB, respectively. The usable wavelength range is 1450-1600 nm. The results indicate that large InP/InGaAsP switching matrices may be realized.
Adaptive nonlinear control for autonomous ground vehicles

Black, William S. M.S.M.E. , Purdue University, December 2013. Adaptive Nonlinear Control for Autonomous Ground Vehicles. Major Professor: Kartik B. Ariyur, School of Mechanical Engineering. We present the background and motivation for ground vehicle autonomy, and focus on uses for space-exploration. Using a simple design example of an autonomous ground vehicle we derive the equations of motion. After providing the mathematical background for nonlinear systems and control we present two common methods for exactly linearizing nonlinear systems, feedback linearization and backstepping. We use these in combination with three adaptive control methods: model reference adaptive control, adaptive sliding mode control, and extremum-seeking model reference adaptive control. We show the performances of each combination through several simulation results. We then consider disturbances in the system, and design nonlinear disturbance observers for both single-input-single-output and multi-input-multioutput systems. Finally, we show the performance of these observers with simulation results.
ANLISE DOS PREOS DA CANA-DE-AUCAR SOB REGIME SHIFT

Este trabalho teve como objetivo principal investigar, empiricamente, os efeitos da implantacao do Plano Real no comportamento de longo prazo dos precos da cana-de-acucar praticados nos estados de Sao Paulo e Parana. Utilizou-se na analise testes de raiz unitaria e de co-integracao na presenca de quebra estrutural (regime shift) desenvolvido por VOGELSANG (1997, 1999) e GREGORY e HANSEN (1996). --------------------The objective of paper is analyzing the effect of the Real Plan in the behavior of long stated period of the prices of the sugarcane. The prices are of the states of Sao Paulo and Parana. We use the unit root test and of co-integration with structural breaking (regime shift) developed by VOGELSANG (1997, 1999) and GREGORY and HANSEN (1996).
MOMENT-REDUCING HINGE DETAILS FOR THE BASES OF BRIDGE COLUMNS. FINAL REPORT

Bridge foundations in seismic regions are usually designed to withstand the plastic hinge moments that develop at the bases of the columns. Various hinge details have been proposed to reduce or even eliminate the moments transferred to the foundations, and thereby reduce the sizes and costs of the foundations. This study experimentally investigated the behavior of column specimens incorporating different moment-reducing hinge details. Tests were performed on reinforced concrete column specimens subjected to increasing inelastic lateral displacements under constant axial load. The study investigated effects on hinge performance of several parameters, including vertical discontinuity in the hinge detail, level of axial load, low-cycle fatigue characteristics, column aspect ratio, and different amounts of longitudinal and transverse reinforcement. The test results of this investigation showed that hinge details can be incorporated into columns to significantly reduce the moment capacity at the bases of the columns. However, the moments are not negligible, as is sometimes assumed for design with the moment-reducing hinge details. Providing vertical discontinuity in the hinge resulted in reduced distress in the longitudinal reinforcement and improved the performance of the hinge. Preliminary design recommendations were proposed for the comprehensive design of moment-reducing hinge details at the bases of the bridge columns.
Virtual Environments for Medical Training

For more than 2,500 years, surgical teaching has been based on the so called “see one, do one, teach one” paradigm, in which the surgical trainee learns by operating on patients under close supervision of peers and superiors. However, higher demands on the quality of patient care and rising malpractice costs have made it increasingly risky to train on patients. Minimally invasive surgery, in particular, has made it more difficult for an instructor to demonstrate the required manual skills. It has been recognized that, similar to flight simulators for pilots, virtual reality (VR) based surgical simulators promise a safer and more comprehensive way to train manual skills of medical personnel in general and surgeons in particular. One of the major challenges in the development of VR-based surgical trainers is the real-time and realistic simulation of interactions between surgical instruments and biological tissues. It involves multi-disciplinary research areas including soft tissue mechanical behavior, tool-tissue contact mechanics, computer haptics, computer graphics and robotics integrated into VR-based training systems. The research described in this paper addresses the problem of characterizing soft tissue properties for medical virtual environments. A system to measure in vivo mechanical properties of soft tissues was designed, and eleven sets of animal experiments were performed to measure in vivo and in vitro biomechanical properties of porcine intra-abdominal organs. Viscoelastic tissue parameters were then extracted by matching finite element model predictions with the empirical data. Finally, the tissue parameters were combined with geometric organ models segmented from the Visible Human Dataset and integrated into a minimally invasive surgical simulation system consisting of haptic interface devices and a graphic display.
Determination of the Effective Optical Width of Screen-Printed and Aerosol-Printed and Plated Fingers

One main efficiency loss in industrial solar cells is the shading of the cell due to the metal front side contacts. With the aerosol printing technique followed by a light induced plating (LIP) step, not only the geometrical contact is narrowed compared to screen-printed contacts but also the geometry of the finger changes. In this work the optical behaviour of different finger types is analysed with two different measurement methods. The analysis of the finger was carried out with both encapsulated fingers (module) and not encapsulated fingers (cell). The essential parameter for characterising the finger is the effective width which can be reduced drastically compared to the geometrical width due to total internal reflection at the glass-air layer and the direct reflection from the roundish edges of the contact fingers into the cell. This parameter was determined with different methods. The measured values are compared to a theoretical model for an aerosol-printed and plated finger and are in good agreement.
Virtual Reality Experience In Long Term Care Resident Older Adults With Dementia: A Case Series 

BACKGROUND: Behavioural and Psychological Symptoms of Dementia (BPSD) worsens as dementia progresses, intensifies caregiver distress and consequent institutionalization. We wanted to evaluate feasibility of Virtual Reality (VR) as non-pharmacologic intervention for BPSD in a long-term care home. METHODS: A single site (Henley Place at London, Ontario) case series with a convenience sample (24 older adult residents with moderate to severe dementia). Intervention was 30 minutes of VR experience with Broomx©, five days a week for two weeks. RESULTS: Implementing VR experience was possible at Henley Place (recruitment rate=40%, the adherence rate=21%, and the attrition=0%) and participants could tolerate it. No adverse events and one-to-one staff use were recorded during the intervention period. CONCLUSION: VR experience can be implemented in a care home. TRIAL REGISTRATION: The study was not registered as clinical trial. We obtained ethics approval from ADVARRA Canada Ethics Board before recruiting participants for the study.
Inventory Inaccuracies In Supply Chains: How Can RFID Improve The Performance?

Inventory inaccuracy occurs when the information system (IS) inventory, that is, what, according to the IS, is available, does not match the physical inventory, that is, what is actually available. The IS inventory, contrary to popular belief and assumptions in most academic papers and in spite of the considerable amounts invested in information technology, is often inaccurate. In this article, we first describe the major factors generating inventory inaccuracy. Then, we present main solutions that allow tackling the inaccuracy issue. We also provide a framework that permits modeling the inventory inaccuracy issue and focus on the impact of an advanced identification system such as radio-frequency identification (RFID) technology in improving the performance of a supply chain subject to inventory inaccuracies. Keywords: RFID technology; inventory inaccuracy; inaccuracy modeling; error distribution; inaccuracy sources
Strategy of Deception

This volume offers a denunciation of the Kosovo war which unites theory with a study of the conflict. Tearing aside the veil of hypocrisy in which the US and its allies wrapped the war, the author demonstrates that the nature of the bombing was set by strategic rather than ethical considerations. Beneath the humanitarian rhetoric, the author sees a sinister innovation in the methods of waging war: territorial space is being replaced by orbital space in which a system of global telesurveillance is linked to the destructive power of bombers and missiles. Governments, the military and the media are becoming part of a seamless and self-justifying process linked by new information and arms technologies. This book offers an examination not only of the war in Yugoslavia but also what the author calls our "fin-de-siecle infantilization" in which the reality of battle is reduced to flickering images on a screen.
Freeway Traffic Flow Modeling with RBF Neural Network

Urban freeway traffic modeling was researched.Based on the analysis,for the dynamic environ- ment and time- dependentsystem,a modified speediness RBF neural network was proposed to model the ki- netic freeway traffic flow.The method overcomes the traditional mathematical modeling's shortcoming, thatis ,one model validated in one area or one time may be inaccurate in anotherarea and/ or anothertime. This method used an APC- single path clustering algorithm to determine the parameters of RBF neural network,and a new speediness RBF neural network algotithm was given.Applied in the traffic flow model- ing of freeway,this neural network's fastlearning ability is very importantto realize on- line modeling and control of traffic flow.Computer simulations were used to demonstrate the effectiveness of the use of RBF neural network to model traffic flow.
Heterogeneous environmental regulation and industrial structure transformation and upgrading: Evidence from China

There are obvious differences between different types of environmental regulations, which are manifested in different environmental protection tendencies and goals, and there are also significant differences in policy implementation. Therefore, it is an urgent empirical problem to quantitatively evaluate the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure. Based on this, this paper empirically tests the impact of heterogeneous environmental regulations on the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure on the basis of measuring the level of industrial structure transformation and upgrading. The results show that the transformation and upgrading level of China's industrial structure increased year by year from 2000 to 2017. The three types of environmental regulatory measures have effectively promoted the transformation and upgrading of the industrial structure, and the market incentive environmental regulation (MER) has a significantly higher role in the advancement of the industrial structure than the command-controlled environmental regulation (CER) and the voluntary public participation environmental regulation (VER). The three types of environmental regulations have gradually highlighted the role of environmental regulations in promoting the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure with the improvement of the level of regional economic development. In the mechanism test, it is found that technological innovation has partial mediating effect in the process of CER affecting the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure, MER and public VER have complete mediating effect, while FDI has only partial mediating effect in the process of three types of environmental regulation affecting the transformation and upgrading of industrial structure.
Rainfall intensity-duration-frequency curves developed from (not by) computer output

Thirty-two years of maxima observed at Tucson International Airport from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration's recording raingage are used to prepare a sheet of intensity-duration-frequency curves commonly used in the design of storm drainage for small urban areas. The example is employed to stress the need for examining computer printouts of mathematical statistical analysis of the rains and their logarithms by plotting data on four types of probability paper. Stress is laid on dangers of blindly extrapolating a mathematical distribution that does not fit recorded amounts for the long return periods in which engineers are usually interested. Misapplication of scales involving a logarithmic transformation are discussed. The fact that longer durations may require a different type of frequency paper than do shorter durations is illustrated and rationalized on the basis of the physical process. Internal compatibility of results for 2-, 5-, 10-, 50-, and 100-year estimates of 5-, 10-, 20-, 30-, 45-, 60-, 120-, and 180-min rainfalls is preserved when examining a tabular array of as many as five frequency analyses on one of these 48 cells. /Author/