Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Microbial biomass and activity in litter during the initial development of pure and mixed plantations of Eucalyptus grandis and Acacia mangium

Studies on microbial activity and biomass in forestry plantations often overlook the role of litter, typically focusing instead on soil nutrient contents to explain plant and microorganism development. However, since the litter is a significant source of recycled nutrients that affect nutrient dynamics in the soil, litter composition may be more strongly correlated with forest growth and development than soil nutrient contents. This study aimed to test this hypothesis by examining correlations between soil C, N, and P; litter C, N, P, lignin content, and polyphenol content; and microbial biomass and activity in pure and mixed second-rotation plantations of Eucalyptus grandis and Acacia mangium before and after senescent leaf drop. The numbers of cultivable fungi and bacteria were also estimated. All properties were correlated with litter C, N, P, lignin and polyphenols, and with soil C and N. We found higher microbial activity (CO2 evolution) in litter than in soil. In the E. grandis monoculture before senescent leaf drop, microbial biomass C was 46 % higher in litter than in soil. After leaf drop, this difference decreased to 16 %. In A. mangium plantations, however, microbial biomass C was lower in litter than in soil both before and after leaf drop. Microbial biomass N of litter was approximately 94 % greater than that of the soil in summer and winter in all plantations. The number of cultivable fungi and bacteria increased after leaf drop, especially so in the litter. Fungi were also more abundant in the E. grandis litter. In general, the A. mangium monoculture was associated with higher levels of litter lignin and N, especially after leaf drop. In contrast, the polyphenol and C levels in E. grandis monoculture litter were higher after leaf drop. These properties were negatively correlated with total soil C and N. Litter in the mixed stands had lower C:N and C:P ratios and higher N, P, and C levels in the microbial biomass. This suggests more effective nutrient cycling in mixed plantations in the long term, greater stimulation of microbial activity in litter and soil, and a more sustainable system in general.
Impulsivity traits and gambling cognitions associated with gambling preferences and clinical status

Abstract Impulsivity (and related traits reward/punishment sensitivity and tolerance to delayed rewards) and gambling cognitions have been linked to gambling. However, their independent associations with gambling preferences and clinical status have never been dissociated. The current study applied a data-driven strategy to identify gambling preferences, based on gambling frequency in several modalities. The two resulting factors were used to classify gambling disorder patients (GDPs) and non-problem recreational gamblers (RGs) into Type I (preferring cards, casino games and skill-based bets) and Type II (preferring slot machines, lotteries/pools and bingo). Participants were assessed in impulsivity, delay discounting, reward/punishment sensitivity, gambling-related cognitions, gambling severity, gambling frequency and average amount gambled per episode. GDPs scored higher than RGs in positive and negative urgency, delay discounting, reward sensitivity and intensity of gambling-related cognitions, but less in lack of perseverance. Additionally, Type II gamblers had greater difficulties delaying gratification, whereas Type I gamblers showed higher cognitive distortion and reward sensitivity levels. In practical terms, the finding that some characteristics are equally pervasive in disordered gamblers independently of their preferences (affect-driven impulsivity), whereas others (distorted cognitions, reward sensitivity, delay discounting) are more prominent in one type or the other, provides a basis to establish targets’ priority in therapy.
A Computationally-Efficient Probabilistic Approach to Model-Based Damage Diagnosis

This work presents a computationally-efficient, probabilistic approach to model-based damage diagnosis. Given measurement data, probability distributions of unknown damage parameters are estimated using Bayesian inference and Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) sampling. Substantial computational speedup is obtained by replacing a three-dimensional finite element (FE) model with an efficient surrogate model. While the formulation is general for arbitrary component geometry, damage type, and sensor data, it is applied to the problem of strain-based crack characterization and experimentally validated using full-field strain data from digital image correlation (DIC). Access to full-field DIC data facilitates the study of the effectiveness of strain-based diagnosis as the distance between the location of damage and strain measurements is varied. The ability of the framework to accurately estimate the crack parameters and effectively capture the uncertainty due to measurement proximity and experimental error is demonstrated. Furthermore, surrogate modeling is shown to enable diagnoses on the order of seconds and minutes rather than several days required with the FE model.
Review of Dual Sentiment Analysis

: With the vast growth of the social media content on the Internet in the past few years, people now express their opinion on almost anything in discussion. Finding the opinion sites and monitoring them on the web is difficult task . Thus there is a need for automatic opinion Sentiment Analysis is the area of study that analyzes customer feedback , opinions , sentiments, evaluations, attitudes, and from written language. It is one of the most useful research areas in Natural Language Processing and is also widely studied in data mining. The importance of sentiment analysis coincides with the growth of social media such as reviews, discussion forums, blogs, and social networks.
Design Considerations in Optimizing a Breast Tomosynthesis System

Breast tomosynthesis, also referred to as three-dimensional (3D) mammography, has been available for clinical use in numerous countries outside of the United States (U.S.) since 2009. In February 2011, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved the Hologic Selenia® Dimensions® 3D (breast tomosynthesis) system, making it the fi rst, and currently, the only commercially available breast tomosynthesis system in the U.S. As such, interest in the area of breast tomosynthesis has grown tremendously. Th e FDA based its approval on Hologic’s clinical studies, which showed that tomosynthesis imaging combined with conventional digital mammography results in superior system performance compared to 2D mammography alone.1 Th is paper looks at the physics of a breast tomosynthesis system and discusses the parameters that Hologic considered in designing the Selenia Dimensions 2D/3D system (Dimensions).
Short-Term Effects of Ovomet, Eggshell Membrane, in Joint Pain. A Double-Blind and Placebo Study

Dietary supplements are being extensively used for the treatment of diverse joints disorders. Ovomet®, eggshell membrane, a natural source of glycosaminoglycans such as chondroitin sulfate and hyaluronic acid among other ingredients, has led to the consideration of this product as a potential treatment for joint disorders. On this basis, the aim of the present study was to evaluate the short-term effectiveness of the intake of Ovomet® in volunteers suffering from joint disorders. The double-blind and placebo study consisted on the daily intake of a capsule containing 300 mg Ovomet® or a capsule containing placebo (microcrystalline cellulose) during 30 days. The Womac questionnaire (Western Ontario and McMasters Universities Osteoarthritis Index) was employed to assess joint pain and dysfunction at days 0, 1, 3, 5, 7 and 30. Results showed a gradual and significant decrease in pain and dysfunction since day 3 on while the participant’s intaking placebo did not show changes. Similarly, there was a significant pain improvement in volunteers intaking Ovomet® compared to the placebo subjects from day 3 onwards. The daily intake of 300 mg Ovomet® showed short-term effects within the first three days in reducing significantly joint pain and dysfunction. Moreover, a significant improvement in pain was demonstrated in the Ovomet® group when comparing with placebo treatment. Ovomet® is a viable, fast, effective and safe alternative for the treatment of joint pain associated with joint disorder.
Design and Validation of Beginning Level Tennessee 4-H Leadership Curriculum

Tennessee 4-H Youth Development (TN 4-H) is one of the largest youth development programs in the state, serving over 130,916 youth in 2016. Leadership is one of the 28 project areas included in the TN 4-H program. In 2016, TN 4-H began the process of restructuring and redesigning the way project areas were conceived. TN 4-H Leadership project outcomes and indicators were developed and approved for use by extension agents, regional program leaders, and state 4-H staff. These outcomes guided the development of the TN 4-H Beginning Leadership curriculum to replace older project materials published in 2002 and 2005. The objective of this study was to establish the validity of the new beginning level Leadership curriculum for the TN 4-H Program. The study was designed as a developmental evaluation that aimed to address three evaluation questions. Data was collected from multiple sources, including a focus group, statistical data from a pre-post test, work samples from students completing the curriculum, and expert reviews of both learning outcomes and the curriculum. Results indicate that key stakeholders indicated that the curriculum would be easy to implement in county programs and that they perceived that students would have an increase in knowledge and skills and changes in dispositions after completing the curriculum. Experts in the fields of youth development, adolescent education, and leadership indicated that the curriculum models best practices in education and youth development, and provides research-based education on leadership concepts. Statistical data indicated that the curriculum was effective at educating students on terms and skills related to leadership. Review of work samples supported these findings, but also showed that students had mastered concepts that were not reflected in statistical significance from the pre-post test. The evaluation resulted in the identification of portions of the
Lessons Learned About Food-Related Attitudes and Behaviors From an Italian Study Abroad Program

New York University offers a Study Abroad Program in Florence, Italy, where participants examine food and nutrition from historical, cultural, and culinary perspectives. Although the course was not originally designed to influence dietary practices, participants reported changes in attitudes and behaviors related to food shopping, cooking, eating, and dietetics practices after returning home. This report describes the Study Abroad Program and results from a pilot survey of participants’ behavioral changes 6 months after the experience. These findings highlight the potential value of encouraging the pleasures of meal planning, food shopping, cooking, and sharing meals at the dinner table to nurture lifelong healthy eating habits.
Apprentissage off-policy appliqué à un système de dialogue basé sur les PDMPO

L'apprentissage par renforcement (AR) fait maintenant partie de l'etat de l'art dans le domaine de l'optimisation de systeme de dialogues vocaux. La plupart des methodes appliquees aux systemes de dialogue basees sur l'AR, comme par exemple celles qui utilisent des processus gaussiens, requierent de tester des changements plus ou moins aleatoires dans la politique. Cette maniere de proceder est appelee apprentissage " onpolicy ". Neanmoins, celle-ci peut induire des comportements de la part du systeme incoherents aux yeux de l'utilisateur. Les algorithmes devraient idealement trouver la politique optimale d'apres l'observation d'interactions generees par une politique sous-optimale mais proposant un comportement coherent a l'utilisateur : c'est l'apprentissage " off-policy ". Dans cette contribution, un algorithme efficace sur les echantillons permettant l'apprentissage off-policy et en ligne la politique optimale est propose. Cet algorithme combine a une representation compacte, non-lineaire de la fonction de valeur (un perceptron multicouche) permet de gerer des systemes a grande echelle.
Checking the Data Cloud Consistency by Auditor Method

Cloud storage services can be regarded as a typical service in the cloud computing, which involves the delivery of the data storage including database like services and network attached storage. And the cloud storage services have become very popular due to their huge advantages. To provide everywhere always-on access, a cloud service provider (CSP) maintains multiple replicas for each piece of data on geographically distributed servers. A key problem of using the replication technique in clouds is that it is very expensive to achieve strong consistency on a worldwide scale. In this paper, we present a new consistency as a service (CaaS) model, which consists of a large data clouds and multiple small audit clouds. In the CaaS model, a data cloud is maintained by a CSP, and a group of users that constitute an audit cloud can verify whether the data cloud provides the promised level of consistency or not. We also proposed two-level auditing architecture, which only requires a loosely synchronized clock in the audit cloud. Then, it designed algorithms to quantify the severity of violations with two metrics: the commonality of violations, and the staleness of the value of a read. Finally, it devise a heuristic auditing strategy (HAS) to reveal as many violations as possible. Extensive experiments were performed using a combination of simulations and a real cloud deployment to validate HAS.
A Memory-Theory Perspective of Country-Image Formation

Traditional country-of-origin strategy in international marketing uses a country-image halo to cue beliefs about the country's products. With expansive trade globalization, domestic consumers are likely to have experience with foreign products but know little of the products’ origin country. Thus, equally important as traditional theory is the question of whether product beliefs can imbue country image, but little is known of this reverse influence. If product beliefs can generalize into a favorable country image, a chain effect will then enable traditional country-of-origin effects to benefit the country's other products. In this study, the results of three surveys across two countries show that product beliefs can indeed influence country image. However, the influence weakens with increasing country familiarity and exists only when the product and country are congruent. Furthermore, the influence can operate outside of conscious awareness. The authors draw on the associative network theory of memory to explain their findings. This research improves the theoretical understanding of country- and product-image halo and provides the grounds for product and brand managers to work with government and tourist organizations for increasing mutual effectiveness.
Community Engagement and Health Equity

The Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee (HEAT) is a diverse team of academic and community members interested in examining existing health disparities and in improving the health of those experiencing social or economic disadvantage. In 2010, HEAT designed a Heart Health study to examine the causes of high blood pressure and heart disease among African Americans living in Tallahassee, Florida. The study aimed to understand how the social environment, neighborhood conditions, social relationships, experience of stress, and the stress of racism impacts health. This paper discusses the community engagement plan used to involve Tallahassee residents in a dialogue and conversation about the HEAT Heart Health (HHH) Study. Using the example of HHH, we argue for a community engagement approach that involves community residents in all processes of a research study, including the reporting of findings.
A Framework to maintain Access Control Mechanism for Relation Database

: Now a days due to the prominent progress of internet and increase of web applications, number of transactions are happening. This in turn it affects the database too . So when the applications are designed to share and update the database of the relational database then accuracy becomes a huge matter of concern. As number of requesters including the hackers can keep asking for the data then it can become security threat for the data. So implementing a proper access control mechanism becomes the great need of the present need over the rational databases.
The relation between going-concern opinions and the auditor's loss function

In this study I explore whether auditor incentives influence the decision to issue a going-concern disclosure to a financially distressed client. Auditor incentives have been suggested as a "missing link" between the literatures on financial distress prediction and going-concern assessments. While previous research has focused primarily on client financial ratios, I model the auditor's going-concern as a function not only of the client's financial condition and prospects, but also of factors associated with the auditor's loss function, including prospective audit fees, the length of the auditor-client relationship, recent auditor litigation, client losses, and the existence of previously disclosed evidence of goingconcern difficulties.
Effect of a decision aid on knowledge and treatment decision making for breast cancer surgery: a randomized trial.

CONTEXT The long-term results of randomized trials have demonstrated equivalent survival rates for mastectomy and breast-conserving therapy for the treatment of early stage breast cancer. Consequently, the choice of treatment should be based on a patient's preferences. OBJECTIVE To evaluate the impact of a decision aid regarding the different surgical treatment options on patient decision making. DESIGN AND SETTING A cluster randomized trial for which general surgeons in the communities of central-west, and eastern Ontario, Canada, were randomly assigned to use the decision aid or not in the surgical consultation. Patients received the decision aid or not based on the surgeon seen. PARTICIPANTS Twenty surgeons participated in the study. Of the 208 eligible women with newly diagnosed clinical stage I or II breast cancer seen by study surgeons, 201 agreed to be evaluated: 94 were assigned to the decision board and 107 to usual practice. Patients were recruited from November 1999 to April 2002. INTERVENTION The decision board is a decision aid designed to help physicians inform their patients about different treatment options and to enable patients to express a preference for treatment. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES Patient knowledge about the surgical treatment of breast cancer; decisional conflict; satisfaction with decision making; and the treatment decision following the consultation. RESULTS Patients in the decision board group had higher knowledge scores about their treatment options (66.9 vs 58.7; P<.001), had less decisional conflict (1.40 vs 1.62, P =.02), and were more satisfied with decision making (4.50 vs 4.32, P =.05) following the consultation. Patients who used the decision board were more likely to choose BCT (94% vs 76%, P =.03). CONCLUSIONS The decision board was helpful in improving communication and enabling women to make a choice regarding treatment. Such instruments should be considered by surgeons when communicating the different surgical options to women with breast cancer.
Leadership and nursing work satisfaction : an integrative review

Escola de Enfermagem de Ribeirão Preto, Universidade de São Paulo, Ribeirão Preto, SP, Brazil. Escola Paulista de Enfermagem, Universidade Federal de São Paulo, São Paulo, SP, Brazil. Conflicts of interest: there are no conflicts of interest to declare. Abstract Objective: To identify and analyze knowledge about the relationship between leadership and nursing job satisfaction. Methods: An integrative review of the MEDLINE, CINAHL, EMBASE, PubMed, Web of Science, and LILACS databases to answer the guiding question: What knowledge was produced about the relationship between leadership and nursing job satisfaction in the period from 2011 to 2016? Searches were made to obtain articles, theses, dissertations, and reviews (systematic, narrative and integrative); opinion articles and editorials were excluded. The searches were carried out between October 2016 and January 2017, using the inclusion criteria: primary articles; full text available; written in English, Portuguese or Spanish; and published in the last six years (2011-2016). The extraction of study results was carried out by two reviewers, who defined four thematic categories, with the purpose of analyzing the data obtained in the articles and comparing them with the literature. Results: Out of a total of 582 articles, 15 were selected; four categories were established: the use of the theoretical reference of leadership in the construction of the articles; the use of instruments to measure leadership and job satisfaction, and the correlation between these variables; the predominance of nursing leadership in the hospital setting; and the direct and indirect relationship between leadership and job satisfaction. Conclusion: The results showed that nursing leadership has a positive and significant impact on job satisfaction, and the need to develop this competency in nursing professionals was demonstrated.
Efficient Resource Utilization through Sensor Virtualization

Wireless Sensor Networks (WSNs) are used in many application areas including health, agriculture and gaming. New advances in sensor technology make it pertinent to consider sharing a deployed WSN infrastructure by multiple applications, including applications which are designed after the WSN deployment. The state of the art technology can provide the opportunity to build an economic business model for application area such as smart home, health care etc. Currently building a smart home is a costly affair because of the involved infrastructure cost. In this paper we propose a VSN based business model for Smart home which supports efficient resource utilization through sensor virtualization and also minimizes the energy consumption through sensor scheduling.
Monoclonal Antibodies for the Treatment of Multiple Myeloma—A New Paradigm

Touch MEdical MEdia 115 Multiple myeloma (MM) is the second most common hematologic malignancy representing 1.6 % of all new cancer cases in the US. The rates for new MM cases have been rising on an average of 0.8 % each year over the last 10 years. While the survival of patients with MM has steadily improved over the last decade, nearly all patients with the disease relapse and eventually succumb to refractory disease. The 5-year survival is 46.6 % as per Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) analysis.