Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Position statement: Testing physical condition in a population – how good are the methods?

Abstract A poor physical condition – expressed as physical inactivity and poor physical fitness – is associated with the development of chronic diseases and premature death. Our aim was to evaluate the methods currently available for measuring physical activity and physical fitness in the general population. Physical activity is determined by duration, frequency, and intensity and derives from many different domains, making it difficult to assess over long periods and no feasible general criterion measure exists. Both objective and subjective methods are available. Of the objective methods, accelerometry is the most attractive technology, and is well enough developed for general use in large populations. The advantage of accelerometry is that it is not dependent on the memory of the individual, but its main disadvantage is that it grossly underestimates energy expenditure, due to the lack of registration of certain activities. This may be overcome to a certain extent by combining accelerometry with heart rate monitoring, although this still does not measure activity in different domains. Of the subjective methods, self-report questionnaires are inexpensive and easy to administer. Many questionnaires have been developed, but we require (1) consensus on which measures to use for validation and (2) further development of internationally standardized questionnaires for use in different settings and to address different scientific questions. Many questionnaires correlate well with biological markers and development of chronic diseases, but subjective measurement will always entail a certain degree of misclassification. Furthermore, unstructured physical activity such as housework and gardening may be subject to recall bias. No method appears better to any other, and the choice of instrument will depend on the research question being asked. Future research should combine information from both objective and subjective methods. Physical fitness comprises several components, including cardiorespiratory endurance and muscle strength and endurance. Direct measurement of oxygen consumption is the criterion measure for cardiorespiratory endurance. As regards muscle strength and endurance, only test–retest reliability is available. Hand-held dynamometers greatly facilitate field testing for maximal isometric muscle strength assessment, while force plate measurements can be used for the lower extremities. For endurance, simple tests such as push-ups and sit-ups are reliable.
Implementation of Clustering Techniques For Brain Tumor Detection

The article played roles with the implementation of simple mechanism for detection of range, area of tumor in brain MRI pictures. Tumor is an uncontrolled growth of tissues in any part of the human body and are of different types with varying characteristics and treatments. Diagnosis is the most significant aspect of any ailment. As it is known, brain tumor is inherently serious and life-threatening because of its character in limited spaced intracranial cavity. Most researches in developed countries manifest that number of people who have brain tumor died due to inaccurate diagnosis. Generally, CT scan or MRI directed into intracranial cavity produces a complete image of brain. However, this image is visually examined by the physician for diagnosis, which has subjective results.To avoid that, this paper aims at using computer aided method for detection of brain tumor with the help of K-means, Fuzzy C-means and Adaptive K-means algorithms. These methods have their own pros and cons pertaining to accuracy and complexity; and are run over an exhaustive dataset for automatic tumor area extraction.
The value of the participation in Solidarity Purchasing Groups (SPGs): an empirical analysis in Piedmont

Solidarity purchasing groups (SPGs) are common Alternative Food Networks in many towns in Italy. They are set up by groups of citizens who cooperate in order to buy food and other commonly used goods collectively and directly from producers, at a price that is fair to both parties. Within the group, the choice of the products and the farmers usually follow some guidelines related to the respect for the environment and the solidarity between the members of the group and the producers. Though still a small niche, SPGs are quite numerous and represent an interesting alternative to traditional setting of the food chain. The main motivation of members for participating in SPGs is arguably not a monetary one, i.e., it is not lower prices. Ethical motivations and environmental concerns are typically proposed among the goals of the groups. Nevertheless, the budget constraint is always operating, and it is of interest to measure how much the ethical and environmental motivations are able to overcome the budget constraint. This is tantamount to measure the value members attach to their participation to the SPG. Hence, the aim of this study was to estimate the value the group members attach to their participation. A stated preferences methodology was employed on a first sample of members of SPGs in Torino (Italy) and other neighbouring towns to estimate the value consumers buying in such groups attach to this particular channel, in comparison to the conventional supermarkets. Preliminary results show that SPG members do state a preference for buying with their organization rather than at a supermarket’s even when the prospected prices are substantially higher for the purchase through the SPG.
Assessment the relationship between Testis Cancer incidence and mortality rate with human development index in the European countries in 2012

Testis Cancer (TC) is the most common cancer in 15-39 year-old men and with the white Caucasian race. This cancer consists of 0.7 percent of men’s cancer all over the world. The aim of this study is to investigate the relationship between the Age-Standardised Incidence Rates (ASIR) and Age-Standardised Mortality Rates (ASMR) of TC with Human Development Index (HDI) and its components at the European countries in 2012. This study was an ecologic study in European countries for assessment the correlation between ASIR and ASMR with HDI and its details including: Life expectancy at birth, Mean years of schooling and Gross National Income (GNI) per capita. We use correlation bivariate method for assessment the correlation between SIR and SMR with HDI and its components. Data of study was analyzed by SPSS15statistical analysis software; the significance level of the tests was considered PE0.05. The results of the data investigation showed that the maximum ASIR of TC was observed respectively in the countries of Norway, Switzerland, and Denmark. Moreover findings showed the highest ASMR was in the countries of Hungary, Bulgaria and FYR Macedonia. The ASIR was positively correlated with HDI equal to 0.623(p≤0.001), with Life expectancy at birth equal to 0.602(p≤0.001), with the average years of schooling equal to 0.339(p=0.032) and with country’s Gross National Income (GNI) per capita equal to 0.466(p=0.002). The ASMR was negatively correlated with HDI equal to 0.537(p≤0.001), life expectancy at birth equal to 0.598(p≤0.001),average years of schooling equal to 0.107(p=0.510) and with counter’s GNI per capita equal to 0.521(p≤0.001). Data from this study shows importance of using HDI and its components as relative factor on the ASIR and ASMR of TC.
African American College Students’ Experience of Racial Discrimination and the Role of College Hassles

The current study examines the relationship between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms. In particular, it investigated whether college hassles moderated or mediated the relationship. Participants included 194 African American students from a large, Midwestern, state university. Participants provided self-report of their experience of daily hassles related to racial discrimination and college life in addition to depressive symptoms and demographic information. Results indicated that the relationship between racial discrimination and depressive symptoms was mediated by college hassles. The results suggest that by decreasing the experience of generic college hassles, the indirect relationship between discrimination and depressive symptoms might be minimized.
Learning for Tower Detection of Power Line Inspection

Power line inspection is very important for electric company to keep good maintenance of power line infrastructure and ensure reliable electric power distribution. Research efforts focus on automating the inspection process by looking for strategies to satisfy all kinds of requirements. Following this direction, this paper proposes a learning approach for tower detecting problem where aggregate channel features are used to train the boost classifier. Adopting the sliding window paradigm, the electric tower can be located very fast. The main advantages of this approach are its efficiency and accuracy for processing huge quantity of image data. Obtaining highly encouraging results shows that it is really a promising technique.
ANALYSIS OF BALANCED COMPOSITE RIGHT/LEFT HANDED STRUCTURE BASED ON DIFFERENT DIMENSIONS OF COMPLEMENTARY SPLIT RING RESONATORS

In this paper, rectangular shape complementary split ring resonators (CSRRs) with different dimensions are introduced to realize balanced composite right/left handed (CRLH) structure. As the dimensions of CSRRs is altered, the required series capacitance should also be modified and the propagation characteristics will be changed, which gives the facility of designing microwave/RF components using the balanced CRLH structure. The propagation characteristics of proposed structures are demonstrated by simulated and measured results, which are in good agreement.
Sensitivity to Exogeneity Assumptions in Program Evaluation

In many empirical studies of the effect of social programs researchers assume that, conditional on a set of observed covariates, assignment to the treatment is exogenous or unconfounded (aka selection on observables). Often this assumption is not realistic, and researchers are concerned about the robustness of their results to departures from it. One approach (e.g., Charles Manski, 1990) is to entirely drop the exogeneity assumption and investigate what can be learned about treatment effects without it. With unbounded outcomes, and in the absence of alternative identifying assumptions, there are no restrictions on the set of possible values for average treatment effects. This does not mean, however, that all evaluations are equally sensitive to departures from the exogeneity assumption. In this paper I explore an alternative approach, developed by Paul Rosenbaum and Donald Rubin (1983), where the assumption of exogeneity is explicitly relaxed by allowing for a limited amount of correlation between treatment and unobserved components of the outcomes. The starting point of the sensitivity analysis is the assumption that the exogeneity assumption is satisfied only conditional on an additional unobserved covariate. Making assumptions about the effect of the unobserved covariate on the outcome and its correlation with the treatment, I trace out the set of possible values for the treatment effect of interest. By considering a sufficiently large set of possible correlations with outcomes and treatment, one can recover the bounds on the treatment effect derived by Manski (1990). The approach here, in the spirit of Rosenbaum and Rubin (1983) and Rosenbaum (1995), is to allow only a limited amount of correlation and to judge the sensitivity of average treatment-effect estimates to such correlations. There are two novel features of the proposed analysis. First, rather than formulate the sensitivity in terms of coefficients on the unobserved covariate, the sensitivity results are presented in terms of partial R values, which may be easier to interpret. Second, the partial R values of the unobserved covariates are compared to those for the observed covariates in order to facilitate judgments regarding the plausibility of values necessary to substantially change results obtained under exogeneity. The proposed sensitivity analysis is conceptually related to the practice of assessing sensitivity of estimates by comparisons with results obtained by discarding one or more observed covariates (James Heckman and V. Joseph Hotz, 1989; Rajeev Dehejia and Sadek Wahba, 1999; Jeffrey Smith and Petra Todd, 2001). The attraction of the sensitivity analysis is that it is more directly relevant: one is not interested in what would have happened in the absence of covariates actually observed, but in biases that are the result from not observing all relevant covariates.
Do You See What I Mean? Computer-Mediated Discourse Analysis

This chapter explores a sociolinguistic approach to computer-mediated communication (CMC), by examining how higher education teachers use digital media to manage interpersonal interaction in their online courses, form impressions, shape and maintain relationships with their students. Previous studies have often focused on the differences between online and offline interactions, though contemporary research is moving towards the view that CMC should be studied as an embedded linguistic form in everyday life. The study of language in these contexts is typically based on text-based forms of CMC, (often referred to as computer-mediated discourse analysis). Within this, focus in the chapter is on the devising and implementation of pragmatic linguistics of online interactions; at a high level this refers to meaning-making, shared belief systems and intercultural differences; at a specific level this includes issues such as turn-taking and the sequential analysis and organisation of virtual
Evaluative Studies on the Impact of an Extruded Soy-Cocoa Based Complementary Diet on Growth of the Undernourished Child

Undernutrition among children under five remains widespread culminating predominantly in linear growth deficits (? -2SD Units) with its attendant setbacks. Food-based interventions aimed at completely reversing this phenomenon have not had significant impact. Exploring novel dietary interventions has therefore become necessary. A standard centrally processed food (soyflour + cocoa + corn starch) was subjected to efficacy trial. Using a pretest-posttest controlled experimental design, the impact of the diet was determined on 30 (randomly selected) undernourished children (aged 6-24 months) at the Nutrition Rehabilitation Clinic, Oni Memorial children’s Hospital, Ibadan, Nigeria. Anthropometric, Biochemical and haematological measurements were conducted over a two month duration including follow-up observations according to standard methods. Results of mean values (cm/month) of linear growth velocity observed for intervention (2.59 ± 2.2) was higher and significantly different from control (0.94 ± 0.08) (p ? 0.05). Elimination of linear growth deficits (? - 2SD units) was successful in 75% and 30% of test subjects aged 6-12 months and 12-24 months respectively using WHO (2006) child growth standard as reference. These outcomes were at variance from the control (p ? 0.05) where deficits persisted. Serum Albumin normalized, having risen by 21.8% in the intervention from 35.5 g/L but contrasted sharply with control’s 4.4% rise from 33.9g/L. Haemoglobin values attained 6.96 mmol/L (Intervention) and 6.14 mmol/L (control) following a similar trend. The impact of an extruded soy-cocoa based complementary diet has been evaluated and found to be effective in reducing linear growth deficits in children under age two especially those between 6-12 months. Its use for Nutrition rehabilitation is recommended.
Efficiency, Distortions and Factor Utilization during the Interwar Period

In this paper, we analyze the International Great Depression in the US and Western Europe using the business cycle accounting method a la Chari, Kehoe and McGrattan (CKM 2007). We extend the business cycle accounting model by incorporating endogenous factor utilization which turns out to be an important transmission mechanism of the disturbances in the economy. Our main findings are that in the US labor wedges account for roughly half of the drop in output while efficiency and investment wedges each account for a quarter of it during the 1929-1933 period while in Western Europe labor wedges account for more than one-third of the output drop and efficiency, government and investment wedges are responsible for the remaining during the 1929-1932 period. Our findings are consistent with several strands of existing descriptive and empirical literature on the International Great Depression.
LAND-USE AND LANDCOVER DYNAMICS MONITORED BY NDVI MULTITEMPORAL ANALYSIS IN A SELECTED SOUTHERN AMAZONIAN AREA ( BRAZIL ) FOR THE LAST THREE DECADES

This study aims to analyse the dynamics of land-use and land-cover (LULC) in a selected southern Amazonian area (Brazil), monitoring and distinguishing trajectories in NDVI (Normalized Difference Vegetation Index) variations for the last three decades. The area, with a total of 17336 km2, has been subject to significant LULC changes associated with deforestation progress and use of fire. Considering available Landsat time series, it was selected an image per year from 1984 to 2013 (path/row -231/66), at a particular period of year, atmospherically corrected using LEDAPS tools. NDVIs values were generated for each selected image. Furthermore, the images of 1984 and 2010 still underwent a classification of LULC differentiate five categories: water, forest, secondary/degraded forest, savannah/pasture and crop/bare soil. The trajectories in NDVI variation values were analysed by R software, considering intersections of classified categories. The pixels identified as forests on the images of 1984 and 2010 displayed stable trajectories of NDVI values, with average value 0.824 and coefficient of variation 3.9%. While the pixels of savannah/pasture, which was periodically affected by fire, had an average NDVI value 0.585 and coefficient of variation 15,1%. The main regressive trajectory was the transition “forest to crop/bare soil", identifying 1999 as the starting point in the drop in NDVI values, associated with an increase of the deforested areas. Therefore, the results show distinct trajectories associated with NDVIs and LULC changes that assist in better understanding the dynamics of ecological processes and the human impacts operating in the area.
SUPPLIER DEVELOPMENT AND EXPORT PERFORMANCE OF OIL-SEED AGRO-PROCESSING FIRMS IN UGANDA

The study sought to examine the relationship between supplier development and export performance of oil-seed agro processing firms in Uganda. Specific objectives were to examine the structure of supplier development activities, to establish the relationship between supplier development activities and export performance, the relationship between supplier development and opportunism, and the relationship between opportunism and export performance of agro-processing firms in Uganda. A cross sectional quantitative survey approach was adopted to undertake the study. A field study using proportionate stratified approach was used, involving a sample size of 50. Analysis of data involved the use of statistical package for social sciences (SPSS). The findings of the study revealed a significant and positive relationship between supplier development and export performance. The findings revealed no significant relationship between supplier development activities and opportunism and it revealed that opportunism is significantly and negatively related to export performance.
Venture Capital and Executive Incentives in China

This paper examines the effect that venture capital (VC) has on the pay-performance relationship in listed Chinese firms. We find that VC has a significantly positive effect on CEO compensation and the pay-performance relationship, such effect particularly stronger in firms needing more managerial efforts and discretions (higher growth opportunity or higher levels of capital expenditure). In addition, we show that VC-backed firms with more managerial discretions are more likely to use stock options. The evidence suggests that venture capital investors use more sensitive compensation contract for top executives in Chinese when the need for managerial discretion is greater. Such compensation schemes by VCs enhance firm performance subsequently.
Relating Word-of-Mouth to Corporate Reputation

This paper explores the relationship between customer-generated word-of-mouth and corporate reputation. After a concise literature review, we present several insights from a multiple case study of 3 organizations. Our main finding is that customer dissatisfaction and negative word-of-mouth (NWOM) are thought to have strong downside consequences for corporate reputation. Positive WOM does not appear to have equivalent upside significance for corporate reputation. NWOM often occurs as customers express dissatisfaction because of substandard customer service. However, it is when these issues or other negatively connoted stories find their way into the public domain that reputation suffers. Fear of reputational damage causes great anxiety to the organisations' senior management. Reputations are shown to be fragile. Damage limitation strategies are implemented in all three organisations.
A Precise Distance to the Host Galaxy of the Binary Neutron Star Merger GW170817 Using Surface Brightness Fluctuations

The joint detection of gravitational waves (GWs) and electromagnetic radiation from the binary neutron star (BNS) merger GW170817 has provided unprecedented insight into a wide range of physical processes: heavy element synthesis via the r-process; the production of relativistic ejecta; the equation of state of neutron stars and the nature of the merger remnant; the binary coalescence timescale; and a measurement of the Hubble constant via the “standard siren” technique. In detail, all of these results depend on the distance to the host galaxy of the merger event, NGC 4993. In this Letter we measure the surface brightness fluctuation (SBF) distance to NGC 4993 in the F110W and F160W passbands of the Wide Field Camera 3 Infrared Channel (WFC3/IR) on the Hubble Space Telescope (HST). For the preferred F110W passband we derive a distance modulus of ( m − M ) = 33.05 ± 0.08 ± 0.10 mag, or a linear distance d = 40.7 ± 1.4 ± 1.9 Mpc (random and systematic errors, respectively); a virtually identical result is obtained from the F160W data. This is the most precise distance to NGC 4993 available to date. Combining our distance measurement with the corrected recession velocity of NGC 4993 implies a Hubble constant H0 = 71.9 ± 7.1 km s−1 Mpc−1. A comparison of our result to the GW-inferred value of H0 indicates a binary orbital inclination of i ≳ 137°. The SBF technique can be applied to early-type host galaxies of BNS mergers to ∼100 Mpc with HST and possibly as far as ∼300 Mpc with the James Webb Space Telescope, thereby helping to break the inherent distance-inclination degeneracy of the GW data at distances where many future BNS mergers are likely to be detected.