Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A systematic review of the methods and themes of health-related research on the Iranian diaspora: massive needs and opportunities

There is an increasing Middle Eastern diaspora, of which Iranian migrants are a major group. They are dispersed within the general population in the destination countries; this, together with the fact that many are political migrants, makes conducting population-based studies on this minority group challenging. UK policy mandates that we provide equal access to health and healthcare for them. The research evidence on which to base healthcare planning and provision decisions for the Iranian diaspora is, however, very limited. This study aimed systematically to review methods used in population-based health research on Iranians to learn lessons to apply to future planned epidemiological research. Nine databases were systematically searched and the references of relevant articles were scrutinised. Researchers known to have particular expertise of working with Iranians were contacted to help locate additional unpublished work and research in progress. Quantitative and qualitative studies on Iranians living abroad, but not in institutions, published in English or Persian, that reported recruitment strategy, sampling and data-gathering technique were eligible for inclusion. From 30 potentially eligible articles, 13 unique studies satisfied our inclusion criteria. There was considerable diversity in the questions posed, methodologies used and findings of these included articles. The topics included dental health, cardiovascular risk factors, sex roles, cultural identity and research methods. The study sample sizes ranged from 10 to 413 participants. Participation rate with snowball sampling ranged from 19% (postal questionnaires) to 99% (telephone interview); with convenience sampling from 33% to 57%; and using random sampling from 21% to 68%. Responders tended to be of higher socio-economic status than non-responders.Commonly, information on translation and cross-cultural validity of questionnaires was not reported. This is the first systematic review of methods in health studies of Iranians living abroad. We found only a few studies and considerable heterogeneity in the methods and findings of these included studies. Although there is a growing population of Iranians abroad and study of determinants of health in this ethnic minority group is vital, this review shows huge gaps in the evidence base.
The CoLing Lab system for Sentiment Polarity Classification of tweets

SUMMARY. This paper describes the CoLing Lab system for the EVALITA 2014 SENTIment POLarity Classification SENTIPOLC) task. Our system is based on a SVM classifier trained on the rich set of lexical, global and twitter-specific features described in these pages. Over all, our system reached a 0.63 weighted F-score on the test set provided by the task organizers. RIASSUNTO. Questo contributo descrive il sistema CoLing Lab sviluppato per il task di SENTIment POLarity Classification (SENTIPOL C) organizzato nel contesto della campagna EVALITA 2014. Il nostro sistema e basato su un classificatore SVM addestrato sulle feature lessicali, globali e specifiche del canale twitter descritte in queste pagine. Il nostro sistema raggiunge uno score di circa 0.63 nel test set fornito dagli organizzatori del task.
The Unit of Analysis, the Nature of Policy Spaces and the Model Approach

The evaluation of formal models generates questions about the unit of analysis, the nature of the policy space and the kind of criteria to be applied for comparative testing. Do we study decision-making at the proposal level or do we explore the policy space of a set of proposals across multiple sectors? Can we reduce the policy space of the unit of analysis and if so, how do we reduce it? And how do we test formal theories - should we use point predictions offering multiple criteria or do we have proceedings which control for robustness and the level of assumptions?
A Comparison Of Mental Health Status During Menopause And Post-Menopause Middle-Aged Working Women

The aim of the present work was to compare the mental health status of middle aged (45-55 yrs) working women who were under menopause period with those in post-menopause period. The number of subjects selected for study was 50. An interview schedule with General Health Questionnaire and Psycho Social Stress Scale questionnaire was simultaneously administered to the selected subjects. The observed mean scores of post-menopausal group were comparatively higher than those for during menopausal group however, the study resulted not statistically significant difference between the groups on various scores.
Simulation of Dynamic Delamination and Mode I Energy Dissipation

Delamination initiation and propagation of aeronautic composites is an active field of research. In this paper we present a methodology for critical energy release rate correlation of numerical simulation and experimental data. Experiments of mode I critical energy release rate were carried out at quasi static and pseudo dynamic loading rates. Cohesive finite elements are used to predict the propagation of delamination in a carbon fiber and epoxy resin composite material. A bilinear material model is implemented via user defined cohesive material subroutine in LS-DYNA. The influence of mode I energy release rate in mixed mode loading, due to a low velocity impact, is also investigate.
Multichannel Integration for Small and Medium Retailers

Since the development of the internet as a retail channel, marketing literature has acquired new insight in the research field of multichannel retailing for large and small firms. Multichannel consumers are said to be more profitable (Kumar and Venkatesan, 2004) and more loyal than single-channel ones (DoubleClick’s, 2005). For this reason, in literature the development of carefully integrated online and offline retail channels has been considered strategic. Researchers have concentrated their works on retail chains and large infrastructures which have more possibilities of recovering IT investments, thanks to a consistent territorial presence which is defined by the number of outlets owned. Retailers with just one or a few physical stores seem to be limited in developing an integrated multichannel strategy because they lack a physical presence on the territory. Contrary to these statements, multichannel integration can be modulated on different levels or strategies according to the retailers’ characteristics, type of products and market environment. The fundamental research questions of this study are:
Removal of Endocrine Disrupting Compounds Using Membrane Bioreactor

The presence of endocrine disrupting compounds (EDCs) and pharmaceutically active compounds (PhAC) such as pesticides, personal care products, antibiotics and pharmaceutical compounds, in sewage, industrial, and domestic waters has extensively become the major concern for health and environmental organizations. These compounds have the ability to interact with mammalian endocrine system and disrupting their functions. The traditional activated sludge processes are designed to degrade solids, organic carbon and nitrogen loading. Although several treatment steps in a wastewater treatment plant can contribute to partial removal of EDCs, effective removal has been a challenge due to their resistant chemical and biological degradation and extreme low concentrations. Membrane bioreactor (MBR) used in this study is novella better water reclamation technology that shows several advantages including stable operation conditions due to long solid retention time (SRT); concentrated mixed liquor suspended solids (MLSS); and low F/M ration in comparison with conventional wastewater treatment. This research will utilize these advanced membrane technologies to develop wastewater treatment processes for removal of EDCs in order to recover and reuse wastewater to augment drinking water supplies. A set of model EDCs including acetaminophen, amoxicillin, atrazine, estrone, and triclosan were selected to study the removal by membrane bioreactor. Those compounds were chosen based on their concentrations present in Oklahoma and Arkansas wastewater and to represent each group of compounds. Optimized HPLC method was used for detection of these model compounds. A Lab-scale MBR operated with real wastewater was tested under different operating conditions, such as retention time and volatile suspended solids concentrations to remove the spiked EDCs. The module MBR can reach desired chemical oxygen demand COD (< 30 ppm), Total nitrogen <10 ppm, and Nitrate nitrogen < 5 ppm in different retention times. MBR have shown removal of amoxicillin, acetaminophen, triclosan with the efficiency can reach 100% while (50-55) % removal of atrazine can be achieved. Estrone disappearance was also more than 90%.
Forestogram: A visualization framework for hierarchical biclustering

: Many biological datasets such as microarrays, metabolomics, and proteomics involve observations (or subjects) in rows, and attributes (or genes, metabolites, proteins) in columns. Often simultaneous grouping of rows and columns, i.e. biclustering, is desired. Each bicluster consists of a group of observations highly correlated in a group of attributes. Despite great eﬀorts on developing biclustering algorithms, a proper visualization seems to be lacking in the literature. A visualization tool helps practitioners to understand how biclusters evolve. Here we provide this tool using forestogram . Forestogram combines rows or columns iteratively towards constructing a forest over a collection of dendrograms with a common root. We develop a simple strategy for extracting natural biclusters by cutting the forest using a simple information criterion. The eﬀectiveness of our technique is tested on simulated data, and on real data.
Smoothness of Metropolis-Hastings algorithm and application to entropy estimation

The transition kernel of the well-known Metropolis-Hastings (MH) algorithm has a point mass at the chain’s current position, which prevent direct smoothness properties to be derived for the successive densities of marginals issued from this algorithm. We show here that under mild smoothness assumption on the MH algorithm “input” densities (the initial, proposal and target distributions), propagation of a Lipschitz condition for the iterative densities can be proved. This allows us to build a consistent nonparametric estimate of the entropy for these iterative densities. This theoretical study can be viewed as a building block for a more general MCMC evaluation tool grounded on such estimates.
Adaptive procedures for nested processes: application to equal employment

Typically, equal employment cases concern the fairness of an employer’s hiring, promotion or layoff decisions. Sometimes both the hiring and promotion practices are under scrutiny. An unappreciated issue in the analysis of promotion data is that Fisher’s exact test may have low power for detecting a legally meaningful disparity in promotion rates when the number of minorities previously hired was small due to unfair hiring. The two employment processes are nested. Thus, before promotion data is analyzed, one should first check whether the hiring was fair. The choice of an appropriate test for fairness in promotions should depend on the result of the test on hiring. Two adaptive procedures are presented in this paper. One uses the Breslow-Day test as the preliminary procedure for choosing between a test having a mixture χ null distribution and a test assuming a common odds ratio between the success rates of minority and majority members in both hiring and promotion. The second adaptive procedure was motivated by a court’s suggestion that when the fairness of both the hiring and promotion practices are under review, rather than applying Fisher’s exact test to data of promotions made from those hired, the promotions should be viewed as a random sample from the applicants for the lower level position. The statistical properties of the test procedures are presented and the tests are applied to data from four actual cases. Because the choice of the test at the second stage depends on the results of the first stage analysis, in cases concerning promotion, courts should give plaintiffs access to data concerning hiring in the feeder positions. Thus, the courts should take a broad view of potentially relevant data at the discovery stage.
Detection of Explosives Using a Micro-cantilever Array Nano-Calorimeter System

Detection of Explosives Using a Micro-Cantilever Array Nano-Calorimeter System. (April 2011) Matthew R. Lane Department of English Texas A&M University Research Advisor: Dr. Debjyoti Banerjee Department of Mechanical Engineering Over the past few decades, the likeliness of an attack from explosives has increased dramatically. Hence, the need to find a reliable device with the ability to detect explosives has increased even more. Sensing schemes based on micro-cantilever beams and their bending responses to specific explosives are considered to be an effective technique for explosives detection. In this study the bending responses of an array of micro-cantilever beams integrated with micro-heaters are recorded when they are exposed to various combustible materials. The results show that the micro-cantilever beams display a distinct response when exposed to different combustible materials. In the experiments it was observed that typically the deflection of the micro-cantilever beam in response to the thermal bi-metallic actuation was greater when exposed to acetone vapors than that for alcohol and air. Also, the deflection of the beam was greater for experiments using iso-propyl alcohol than that for air. These results are consistent with prior reports in the literature.
Optimization of turning parameters of Aluminum 6351 T6 using Taguchi decision making technique

Article history: Received: October 1, 2017 Received in revised format: November 16, 2017 Accepted: June 4, 2018 Available online: June 4, 2018 Turning is the utmost elementary process among several CNC machine tool operations which is a versatile, efficient and widely used in industries including mechanical, aerospace and automotive sectors. Most frequently the manufacturing industries face the problem of cutting down the production cost without any oblation in the quality of products. Selection of process parameter is essential for assuring a quality product. Convenient choice of the cutting conditions, parameters and tools for the maximum Material removal rate (MRR) and surface finish needs a sophisticated approach adopting mathematical and statistical models as well as experimental method. Taguchi’s method is a very compelling tool to optimize the process variables. The intention of the present study is to determine surface roughness (Ra) and MRR which are key responses to justify the quality of turning operation. Four process parameters have been selected viz. Nose radius (NR), depth of cut (DOC), feed rate (FR) and spindle speed or cutting speed (CS) that influences these responses. During machining operations, the influence of the process parameters and their interaction have been analyzed using a statistical tool ANOVA. Aluminum alloy is widely acceptable by industries owing to its good strength to weight ratio, high resistance to corrosion, malleability and excellent resistance during elevated temperatures. © 2017 by the authors; licensee Growing Science, Canada.
Customer Centricity and Adoption of Environmental Management Practices

Environmental management practices are recognized to be critical for establishing a competitive edge. Such innovations are driven by the strategic orientation of the firm, in particular the extent to which the firm focuses on customers. However, the impact of customer centricity in firms’ decision to adopt these practices has received little empirical attention. This study investigates the effect of three customer centricity components, namely customer information processing, responsiveness and values and norms, on a firm’s decision to adopt environmental practices. Consistent with the strategy and marketing literature, we also examine the moderating effect of marketplace ch aracteristics. Based on a large-scale survey of firms across industries, the results indicate that customer information processing and values and norms contribute directly to the adoption of environmental management practices. The results also show that th e effects of customer information processing on environmental management practices are contingent on the levels of market competition.
Driver Behavior on Combination of Vertical and Horizontal Curves of Mountainous Freeways

The study of driver behavior is of great importance to the traffic safety of mountainous freeways. In order to study the characteristics of driver behavior on combination of vertical and horizontal curves (CVHCs) of mountainous freeways in free flow conditions, designated speed measurement tests of two typical segments of the upgrade direction of Xi’an-Hanzhong freeway were carried out. After data processing, vehicles in free flow were screened out and classified into two groups by K-means clustering method, and then the driver behavior with different lanes, different size vehicles, and different CVHCs was analyzed, respectively. Finally, a vehicle distribution prediction model and a speed prediction model were built which were applied to CVHCs, and a verification test was made to test the accuracy of the models. Research results show that the driver behavior is mainly different among vehicle size, longitudinal slopes, and horizontal curves, and the characteristics of speed control and lane distribution on CVHCs vary according to lanes and combination of road alignment. Also, the prediction results of the models are highly consistent with the measured test results.
A Reconfiguration Trial on the Platform of Allied Information for Wireless Converged Networks

Platform of Allied Information (PAI) promotes persistent innovation and application of the wireless technologies among different institutes, based on an open, safe and controllable network architecture. The platform architecture, unified interface, security mechanism, and reconfiguration are designed to achieve the convergence of various wireless experimental resources. In this paper, the reconfiguration mechanism is designed and a reconfiguration trial is implemented based on the Platform of Allied Information, to verify the ability of integrating experimental resources in the related units. Keywords-wireless communication; reconfiguration; convergence; PAI.
Early stages of pollen embryogenesis in barley anther cultures induced by pre-treatment with mannitol

Embryogenic development of male gametophyte can be induced by anther culture via androgenesis applying different stress pre-treatments. In barley (Hordeum vulgare L.) it was found that the most effective treatment to induce such androgenesis is the incubation of the anthers with mannitol. We describe here cellular changes in barley microspores during the early stages of androgenesis by using mannitol induction. This is the first time that the results of cytological analysis of androgenic embryos originated by this method have been reported. The main difference brought about by this method of inducing androgenesis is a disorganisation in the distribution of microspores within the anther, which may account for its greater success compared to other methods of inducing androgenesis.
Single-atom spectroscopy of phosphorus dopants implanted into graphene

One of the keys behind the success of modern semiconductor technology has been the ion implantation of silicon, which allows its electronic properties to be tailored. For similar purposes, heteroatoms have been introduced into carbon nanomaterials both during growth and using post-growth methods. However, due to the nature of the samples, it has been challenging to determine whether the heteroatoms have been incorporated into the lattice as intended. Direct observations have so far been limited to N and B dopants, and incidental Si impurities. Furthermore, ion implantation of these materials is challenging due to the requirement of very low ion energies and atomically clean surfaces. Here, we provide the first atomic-resolution imaging and electron energy loss spectroscopy (EELS) evidence of phosphorus atoms in the graphene lattice, implanted by low-energy ion irradiation. The measured P L2,3-edge shows excellent agreement with an ab initio spectrum simulation, conclusively identifying the P in a buckled substitutional configuration. While advancing the use of EELS for single-atom spectroscopy, our results demonstrate the viability of phosphorus as a lattice dopant in sp2-bonded carbon structures and provide its unmistakable fingerprint for further studies.
An Islamic approach to the theory of the firm : the views of Malaysian managers

The conventional approach to the theory of the firm has not been adequate to respond to external, internal, and human dynamism. The market-based theory of the firm emphasises on the industrial organizational perspective only of the firm, which is lack of dynamism. The evolutionary approach into resource-based and knowledge-based of theory of the firm is also unable to provide a satisfactory theory of the firm due to lacks of spirituality foundation to sustain intellectual contribution from knowledge workers. Thus, this study explores an Islamic approach, which is based on Tawhidic paradigm to the theory of the firm as a mean to achieve organizational sustainable innovation and competitive advantage. The study obtained views through personal interview with 10 managers from companies that practice Islamic management system. The informants argued that the current practice emphasized on profit maximization and competitive advantage at the cost of human spirituality development.
Host-specific Genetic Markers of Fecal Bacteria for Fecal Source Tracking in Food and Water

Fecal pollution in food and water is the major cause of disease outbreaks, so accurate identification of this fecal pollution in these locations is critical to prevent such outbreaks. Fecal source tracking (FST) is an effective tool to identify the sources (human vs. animal) of any particular instance of fecal pollution. Many FST technologies were developed over the past two decades and used mainly to monitor and manage water quality, but their applications have recently attracted more attention in food systems. With the great advances of technologies in DNA sequencing and related bioinformatic tools, a significant number of novel genetic markers of fecal indicator bacteria (FIB) have been identified to be associated with particular host species, and thus, suitable for FST. The host-specific genetic markers were originally limited to 16S rDNA sequences of FIB, which are relatively conserved. Novel genetic markers include genes of the host-bacterium interaction and intervening sequences within the 16S- and 23S-rDNA of fecal bacteria. However, most of the genetic markers were only evaluated in laboratory settings, and their compete values in the monitoring and management of food and water safety need further assessments in the field.
Nature, race, and parks: past research and future directions for geographic research

Geographic research on parks has been wide-ranging but has seldom examined how and why people use parks, leaving these questions to leisure science, which privileges socio-demographic variables over urban socio-spatial explanations (eg, historical, political-economic, and location factors). This article examines recent geographic perspectives on park use, drawing upon environmental justice, cultural landscape, and political ecology paradigms to redirect our attention from park users to a more critical appreciation of the historical, socio-ecological, and political-economic processes that operate through, and in turn shape, park spaces and park-going behaviors. We challenge partial, user-orientated approaches and suggest new directions for geographic research on parks.