Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Case for Retaining a Focus on “Masculinities” in Men’s Health Research

Within the health research literature there is increasing attention focussed on how the concept of “masculinities” can be employed to understand health and illness and used to inform health care practice and policy. At the same time, valuable critiques of masculinities frameworks have emphasised that there is often, within the published literature, a lack of rigour in defining and using these ideas, a tendency towards rigid and essentialist notions about men and gender but also recognition that some approaches specify masculinities as the “cause” of poor health outcomes for men, women and children. We consider and respond to these important questions and, using examples from empirical studies, make the case that it is important to advance the use of masculinities in men’s health research both as a means to describing the challenges to men’s health and the strengths men draw upon to promote their health and remedy illness. We argue, first, that masculinities be operationalised as “configurations of social practice” and understood as part of the dynamic processes involved within the “gender order. ” Second, configurations of social practice are diverse, dynamic and hierarchical in terms of the material and representational benefits they bring to men. Third, configurations of social practice are relational and negotiated within institutions and other structures wherein the doing of masculinities and health and illness can be co-constructed, contested and/or constrained. Finally, we suggest some practice implications and applications for further conceptualising masculinities to the field of men’s health.
Research note: a study of direct selling perceptions in Australia

Direct selling as a type of non‐store retailing continues to increase internationally and in Australia in its use and popularity. One non‐store retailing method, multilevel marketing or network marketing, has recently incurred a degree of consumer suspicion and negative perceptions. A study was developed to investigate consumer perceptions and concerns in New South Wales and Victoria. Consumers were surveyed to determine their perception of direct selling and its relationship to consumer purchasing decisions. Responses indicate consumers had a negative perception towards network marketing, while holding a low positive view of direct selling. There appears to be no influence of network marketing on consumer purchase decisions.
Visual Utility: A Framework for Focusing Computer Vision Algorithms

The real world is a rich environment, fraught with complexity. To be robust in this complex environment, computer Vision algorithms that operate in Unstructured Environments (VUE) tend to use large amounts of data or complex modeling. Unfortunately, these algorithms also require significant computational resources. In this thesis, we examine a visual utility framework that we show is used regularly in an ad hoc manner. This framework uses visual utility estimators to speed up VUE algorithms with minimal performance degradation by focusing those higher level algorithms on the most relevant imagery. We formally define this framework, show that it has a submodular structure and discover under what conditions using it is valuable in practice. We find that visual utility approaches are most effective when using fast, task specific visual utility estimators and the VUE task is computationally expensive, We also introduce SCATAT, a cascade building algorithm. SCATAT takes advantage of the submodular structure of the visual utility framework in order to build a near optimal cascade that trades off task performance and processing requirements explicitly. We then validate this algorithm in an experimental case study on object detection. Finally, in theoretical case studies, we prove that two seminal cascade algorithms are special cases of our visual utility framework. We show they optimize a submodular visual utility function, explaining their high observed performance in practice.
Chaos Control and Synchronization of a New Chaotic System

This paper introduces a new chaotic system. Some basic dynamical properties are studied, such as the equilibria, the Lyapunov exponents and the fractal dimension. Based on these properties, effective feedback controllers are proposed for stabilizing chaos to unstable equilibria. In addition, based on Lyapunov stability theory, sufficient condition for the synchronization has been analyzed theoretically for two different response systems, and compare the speed of synchronization between the drive system and two different response systems. Numerical simulations are given to show the effectiveness of these methods.
A double-data rate (DDR) processing-in-memory (PIM) device with wideword floating-point capability

The data-intensive architecture (DIVA) system incorporates processing-in-memory (PIM) chips as smart-memory coprocessors to a microprocessor. This architecture exploits inherent memory bandwidth both on chip and across the system to target several classes of bandwidth-limited applications. A recently developed PIM chip in TSMC 0.18mum technology incorporates a DDR SDRAM interface for its inclusion in commodity systems, such as the HP zx6000 workstation used on this project. Each PIM chip includes eight single-precision floating-point units (FPU) in the wideword pipeline, enabling significant speedups in the target system. This paper focuses on the integration of new subcomponents into the PIM chip design, system integration, and measured system results, demonstrating the significant GFLOP/W feature offered by PIM computing
Infant Feeding Practices of Grandparents

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Assessment of S-NPP VIIRS On-Orbit Radiometric Calibration and Performance

The VIIRS instrument on board the S-NPP spacecraft has successfully operated for more than four years since its launch in October, 2011. Many VIIRS environmental data records (EDR) have been continuously generated from its sensor data records (SDR) with improved quality, enabling a wide range of applications in support of users in both the operational and research communities. This paper provides a brief review of sensor on-orbit calibration methodologies for both the reflective solar bands (RSB) and the thermal emissive bands (TEB) and an overall assessment of their on-orbit radiometric performance using measurements from instrument on-board calibrators (OBC) as well as regularly scheduled lunar observations. It describes and illustrates changes made and to be made for calibration and data quality improvements. Throughout the mission, all of the OBC have continued to operate and function normally, allowing critical calibration parameters used in the data production systems to be derived and updated. The temperatures of the on-board blackbody (BB) and the cold focal plane assemblies are controlled with excellent stability. Despite large optical throughput degradation discovered shortly after launch in several near and short-wave infrared spectral bands and strong wavelength dependent solar diffuser degradation, the VIIRS overall performance has continued to meet its design requirements. Also discussed in this paper are challenging issues identified and efforts to be made to further enhance the sensor calibration and characterization, thereby maintaining or improving data quality.
Clinical evaluation of patients with inflammatory connective tissue diseases complicated by cytomegalovirus antigenemia

We evaluated the occurrence of cytomegalovirus (CMV) infection and the background characteristics in twenty-three hospitalized patients with inflammatory connective tissue diseases including systemic lupus erythematosus, polymyositis/dermatomyositis, rheumatoid vasculitis, microscopic polyangitis, and Takayasu’s arteritis. Cytomegalovirus antigenemia was demonstrated in 10 of 23 evaluable patients. Five of ten patients with CMV antigenemia developed symptomatic CMV disease (all cases of fever, two cases of liver involvement, two cases of interstitial pneumonia, and one case of unknown organ involvement), whereas the remaining five patients were asymptomatic. Most of CMV antigenemia-positive patients had been administered intravenous steroid pulse, or in combination with immunosuppressive agents intravenously or orally because of refractory disease activity. Particularly, in patients who received intravenous methylprednisolone pulse in combination with additional intravenous cyclophosphamide pulse, the incidence of CMV antigenemia was markedly higher (four out of four). Four of ten CMV antigenemia-positive patients simultaneously showed detection of Pneumocystis jiroveci in induced sputum by PCR, increase in level of serum β-d-glucan and the finding of geographical ground-glass opacities on chest computed tomography. These findings suggested that patients with connective tissue diseases under intensive immunosuppressive therapies (intravenous steroid pulse in combination with additional intravenous cyclophosphamide pulse in particular) are highly susceptible to CMV infection and disease, and that patients complicated by CMV antigenemia are susceptible to combined opportunistic infection such as Pneumocystis pneumonia.
Risk factors for cervical and trochanteric hip fracture during a fall on the hip

Objective - The aim of this study was to elucidate factors related to hip fracture in patients who fall on the hip in order to identify those patients who might benefit from the use of hip protectors. Design - The study was performed by comparing 146 persons who had fallen and sustained a soft tissue injury in the hip region with 146 cervical hip fracture and 146 trochanteric hip fracture patients matched for age, sex and place of residence. Patients - The fall group was drawn from a prospectively collected cohort of 1061 elderly people participating in an epidemiological survey on fall injuries; the fracture group was drawn from a prospectively recorded hip fracture database of the Oulu University Hospital (n = 1714). Outcome measures - Demographic data, place and mechanism of falling, walking ability, associated diseases, medication. Results - In a stepwise polychotomous conditional logistic regression analysis, the following significant and independent risk factors for both fracture types were seen: low weight, tall height, falling from standing height and respiratory disease. Falling indoors was a risk for only trochanteric fractures, while inability to walk alone outdoors was a risk for only cervical hip fractures. Conclusions - Elderly persons with low weight, tall height, respiratory disease, tendency to fall indoors and inability to walk alone outdoors should be candidates for the use of hip protectors.
Successful School Leadership: What It Is and How It Influences Pupil Learning

The views expressed in this report are the authors' and do not necessarily reflect those of the Department for Education and Skills. important perspective to this international review. 5 Rationale This is a wide-ranging review of theory and evidence about the nature, causes and consequences for schools and students of successful school leadership. We undertook the review for several purposes. One purpose was to provide a state-of-the-evidence description of what is already known about successful leadership. We anticipated that such a description would be of some immediate use and guidance to those already in leadership positions and those with responsibilities for the development of leaders. A second purpose for the review was to help frame the large-scale study of successful leadership now underway with the sponsorship of the DfES and the National College for School Leadership. The review helped us to clarify the most important questions for inquiry, offered conceptual lenses on key variables of interest to our study and was a source of information about promising research methods. Third, we believe that, given widespread dissemination, the review will help build a demand and audience for the results of our large-scale study as they become available. Finally, the review may spark an interest in leadership on the part of those who have not, to this point, given it much thought. Evidence included in the review is of two types. One type of evidence was original empirical research undertaken using a wide variety of methods. While an extensive body of such evidence is included in the review, we did not attempt to be exhaustive; that would clearly have been unrealistic in a paper of this length. Rather we gave special weight to work reported in the past decade, as well as to work of higher quality judged by conventional standards. We also made use of recent comprehensive reviews of research published in peer-review sources. The use of this type of evidence allowed us to reflect work reported over a relatively long period of time and to be more comprehensive in our coverage than would have been possible had we limited ourselves to individual studies alone. Use of the reviews also allowed us to judge, more 6 accurately, emerging conclusions warranted by significant amounts of evidence. We provide more detail about our sources of evidence in the concluding section of Chapter One.
A visual interface for multi-person exploration of personal databases

The Personal Digital Historian (PDH) is an ongoing research project aimed at allowing small groups of people co-present to casually browse, embellish, and explore large collections of their personal data, such as pictures, video, or more business-related items such as spreadsheets or PowerPoint slides. In this interactive poster, we demonstrate our initial prototype system which is designed for a tabletop display. The interface allows people to organize their images along the four questions essential to storytelling: who? , when? , where? , and what? Users are provided with a wide variety of flexible interaction methods, including region of interest query specification with in-place freeform stroke input, image-based book marking, suggestion generation via automatic query relaxation, and output summarization. With this interface, the users can enjoy their conversation while having the photos at their fingertips, rather than being distracted by the effort of formulating queries.
Role of Anaerobic Bacteria in Sinusitis and its Complications

Anaerobic bacteria comprise a major portion of the pathogenic bacteria in chronic sinus and ear infections, as well as the complications of these infections. Thus, therapy for frontal osteomyelitis, subdural abscess, orbital abscess, lateral sinus thrombosis, and brain abscess should include antibiotics that penetrate the central nervous system as well as cover anaerobic organisms. Penicillin, metronidazole, and chloramphenicol are three such agents.
Insidious incrementalism: The silent failure of the microcirculation with increasing peripheral vascular disease risk

This review summarizes material presented in “Adaptive Outcomes of Microvascular Networks to Obesity and Type II Diabetes/Insulin Resistance” on July 30, 2016, at the Joint Meeting of the American Physiological Society and the Physiological Society, in Dublin, Ireland. We discuss the poor predictive power of traditional markers of vascular dysfunction for functional outcomes of muscle fatigue‐resistance and active hyperemia within the setting of elevated peripheral vascular disease risk. Using the obese Zucker rat model of the metabolic syndrome, we describe how blood flow distribution at arteriolar bifurcations (γ) is altered with PVD risk reflecting increased spatial heterogeneity of distribution within networks. The ability of the microvasculature to compensate for increased heterogeneity is attenuated in OZR, creating a condition wherein the inability to match perfusion to local demand is entrenched and made more difficult to overcome. This appears to be an incremental process, as multiple models of increased PVD risk manifest incremental shifts to the spatial and temporal behavior of γ. These data suggest that γ, a superior predictor of functional outcomes for skeletal muscle, may represent a broadly applicable concept that can inform us about system behavior, with health and increased disease/disease risk, and with imposition of therapeutic regimens.
Sixteen weeks of exercise reduces C-reactive protein levels in young women.

PURPOSE Regular exercise has been shown to protect against breast cancer risk, and one possible mechanism is through a reduction in inflammation. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of 16 wk of aerobic exercise training on adipokines and inflammatory markers in healthy young women. METHODS Participants were 319 sedentary women aged 18-30 yr, with body mass index of 18-40 kg · m, randomized to an exercise intervention or no exercise for approximately 16 wk. Adiponectin, leptin, C-reactive protein (CRP), and amyloid A (AA) were measured at baseline and after 16 wk. Adiponectin was measured by enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay, and AA, CRP, and leptin were measured by multiplex bead array assays. RESULTS Exercise significantly decreased CRP levels in the exercise group compared with the control group (-1.41 mg · L in exercisers vs -0.005 mg · L in controls, P = 0.040), and this effect was largely driven by changes in CRP that occurred in the obese exercisers. There was no effect of exercise on levels of SAA, adiponectin, or leptin. There was also no effect of exercise on stress and depression scores. Neither change in percent body fat nor change in fitness influenced the effects of exercise on these inflammatory markers. CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated that a 16-wk aerobic exercise program significantly decreased levels of CRP in young women, especially in those who were obese. There was no evidence that this effect was mediated by changes in perceived stress, percent body fat, or fitness. These findings suggest that adopting an exercise routine early in life may decrease future risk of breast cancer and other chronic diseases in obese women.
Gibson's Passion: a case study in media manipulation?

The question I have posed for myself Is this a case of media manipulation? is complicated by the fact that we are dealing here with two huge institutional nexuses, Hollywood and the Roman Catholic Church, that both have a longstanding and, one might say, radical commitment to managing any and all news about themselves. This means that, in each case, it is far from easy to establish the truth of what they are up to in order to determine the extent of the possible manipulation. Or, more charitably, one might say that both institutional nexuses are dedicated to the proposition that the truths of art and the truths of faith, respectively, may not always be best served by disclosing the truths about the people and institutions responsible for serving them up. This article is available in Journal of Religion & Film: https://digitalcommons.unomaha. edu/jrf/vol8/iss1/8
A xenogeneic‐free bioreactor system for the clinical‐scale expansion of human mesenchymal stem/stromal cells

The large cell doses (>1 × 106 cells/kg) used in clinical trials with mesenchymal stem/stromal cells (MSC) will require an efficient production process. Moreover, monitoring and control of MSC ex‐vivo expansion is critical to provide a safe and reliable cell product. Bioprocess engineering approaches, such as bioreactor technology, offer the adequate tools to develop and optimize a cost‐effective culture system for the rapid expansion of human MSC for cellular therapy. Herein, a xenogeneic (xeno)‐free microcarrier‐based culture system was successfully established for bone marrow (BM) MSC and adipose tissue‐derived stem/stromal cell (ASC) cultivation using a 1L‐scale controlled stirred‐tank bioreactor, allowing the production of (1.1 ± 0.1) × 108 and (4.5 ± 0.2) × 107 cells for BM MSC and ASC, respectively, after 7 days. Additionally, the effect of different percent air saturation values (%Airsat) and feeding regime on the proliferation and metabolism of BM MSC was evaluated. No significant differences in cell growth and metabolic patterns were observed under 20% and 9%Airsat. Also, the three different feeding regimes studied—(i) 25% daily medium renewal, (ii) 25% medium renewal every 2 days, and (iii) fed‐batch addition of concentrated nutrients and growth factors every 2 days—yielded similar cell numbers, and only slight metabolic differences were observed. Moreover, the immunophenotype (positive for CD73, CD90 and CD105 and negative for CD31, CD80 and HLA‐DR) and multilineage differentiative potential of expanded cells were not affected upon bioreactor culture. These results demonstrated the feasibility of expanding human MSC from different sources in a clinically relevant expansion configuration in a controlled microcarrier‐based stirred culture system under xeno‐free conditions. The further optimization of this bioreactor culture system will represent a crucial step towards an efficient GMP‐compliant clinical‐scale MSC production system. Biotechnol. Bioeng. 2014;111: 1116–1127. © 2014 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Cognitive Sociolinguistics meets loanword research: Measuring variation in the success of anglicisms in Dutch

: This paper introduces a new, concept-based method for measuring variation in the use and success of loanwords by presenting the results of a case-study on 149 English person reference nouns (i.e. common nouns used to designate people, such as manager ) in Dutch. With this paper, we introduce four methodological improvements to current quantitative corpus-based anglicism research, based on the general tenets of Cognitive Sociolinguistics (Geeraerts 2005; Kristiansen and Geeraerts 2007; Geeraerts 2010; Geeraerts et al. 2010): (1) replac-ing raw frequency as a success measure by a concept-based onomasiological approach; (2) relying on larger datasets and semi-automatic extraction techniques; (3) adding a multivariate perspective to the predominantly structuralist orienta-tion of current accounts; (4) using inferential statistical techniques to help explain variation. We illustrate our method by presenting a case-study on variation in the success of English person reference nouns in Dutch. Generally, this article aims to show how a Cognitive Sociolinguistic perspective on loanword research is beneficial for both paradigms. On the one hand, the concept-based approach provides new insights in the spread of loanwords. On the other hand, attention to contact linguistic phenomena offers a new expansion to the domain of cognitive linguistic studies taking a variationist approach.