Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Using Qualitative Methods to Explore Lay Explanatory Models, Health-Seeking Behaviours and Self-Care Practices of Podoconiosis Patients in North-West Ethiopia

Background Podoconiosis (endemic non-filarial elephantiasis) is a chronic, non-infectious disease resulting from exposure of bare feet to red-clay soil in tropical highlands. This study examined lay beliefs about three under-researched aspects of podoconiosis patients’ care: explanatory models, health-seeking behaviours and self-care. Methods In-depth interviews and focus group discussions were undertaken with 34 participants (19 male, 15 female) between April-May 2015 at podoconiosis treatment centres across East and West Gojjam regions in north-west Ethiopia. Results Explanatory models for podoconiosis included contamination from blood, magic, soil or affected individuals. Belief in heredity or divine punishment often delayed clinic attendance. All participants had tried holy water treatment and some, holy soil. Herbal treatments were considered ineffectual, costly and appeared to promote fluid escape. Motivators for clinic attendance were failure of traditional treatments and severe or disabling symptoms. Patients did not report self-treatment with antibiotics. Self-care was hindered by water being unavailable or expensive and patient fatigue. Conclusion A pluralistic approach to podoconiosis self-treatment was discovered. Holy water is widely valued, though some patients prefer holy soil. Priests and traditional healers could help promote self-care and “signpost” patients to clinics. Change in behaviour and improving water access is key to self-care.
Thermal Model Parameter Estimation for HVAC Facility using Recursive Least Square Method

In this paper, the parameter estimation of thermal dynamic discrete-time system for heating, ventilating and air conditioning (HVAC) is studied using recursive least square method. Parameters are estimated by using recursive least square method. Thermodynamic model of indoor test bed is formulated by outdoor temperature, HVAC power consumption, and thermal noise and estimated thermal dynamic parameters show improved performance of thermodynamic model for day-ahead indoor temperature compared to original least square parameter estimation approach. In this research, the experiment is implemented to verify the performance of proposed approach in a laboratory environment.
What are implicit causality and consequentiality?

Much work in psycholinguistics and social psychology has investigated the notion of implicit causality associated with verbs. Crinean and Garnham (2006) relate implicit causality to another phenomenon, implicit consequentiality. We argue that they and other researchers have confused the meanings of events and the reasons for those events, so that particular thematic roles (e.g., Agent, Patient) are taken to be causes or consequences of those events by definition. In accord with Garvey and Caramazza (1974), we propose that implicit causality and consequentiality are probabilistic notions that are straightforwardly related to the explicit causes and consequences of events and are analogous to other biases investigated in psycholinguistics.
Learning a Transparent Orthography at Five Years Old: Reading Development of Children during Their First Year of Formal Reading Instruction in Wales.

This study compared the early reading development of five-year-old children who were learning to read either English (an opaque orthography) or Welsh (a shallow orthography). The children were being educated in Welsh and English-speaking primary schools in Wales during their first year of formal reading instruction. Teaching methods in both schools emphasised phonics. The reading, letter recognition and phonological awareness skills of the children were tested at three points in the year (November 1998, March 1999 and June 1999). By March, the children who were learning to read in Welsh were performing better than the English-speaking group at word recognition. The English-speaking children showed some improvement in their ability to read regular words across the three test phases, but no significant improvement in their ability to read irregular words. The children learning to read in Welsh also performed better on a phoneme counting task in March and June than the English-speaking children. Both groups performed similarly on tests of letter recognition throughout the year. The results suggest that a transparent orthography facilitates reading acquisition and phoneme awareness skills from the earliest stages of reading development onward.
Balancing paid work and studies: working (‐class) students in higher education

Engagement in paid work during term‐time amongst undergraduates in England has increased in recent years, reflecting changes in both higher education funding and labour market policy. This article draws on research with students in a post‐1992 university to explore undergraduate students’ accounts of combining work and study during term‐time and the various strategies they employ in their attempts to balance the two. Many of the students in this study may be described as ‘non traditional’ entrants, and attention is paid to the ways in which students’ accounts reflect issues of social class. It is argued that the transfer of responsibility for funding university study from the state to the individual student and their families, and the lack of attention paid to the demands of term‐time work in higher education and institutional policy, risks reinforcing and exacerbating inequalities.
Intrinsic ferromagnetism versus phase segregation in Mn-doped Ge

We report on a detailed study of structural, magnetic, and electronic properties of MnxGe1−x single crystals (0<x<0.1) prepared by the Bridgman’s crystal growth technique. The chemical distribution of Mn in a Ge matrix investigated by means of energy dispersive x-ray spectroscopy indicates a strong phase separation in the Ge/Mn system. Temperature-dependent magnetization [M(T)] measurements performed on the Mn-poor part containing 1%–3% of Mn reveal magnetic properties similar to those of a Mn11Ge8 reference sample as well as to those of the highly inhomogeneous Mn-rich parts of the sample. X-ray absorption spectroscopy (XAS) at the Mn L2,3 absorption edge shows that Mn ions in Mn-rich and Mn-poor parts are in the divalent high-spin state. Resonant valence-band photoelectron spectroscopy (ResPES) was performed at the Mn 2p3∕2 absorption edge for the Mn-poor part. The obtained Mn 3d PDOS shows a feature centered at 4.8 eV which is characteristic for the Mn5Ge3 phase. We identify the formation of ferromagne.
The Suprasentential and the Unstructured Interview

Suprasentential refers to an apparently extraneous vocal phenomenon such as “oh,” “ah,” “well,” “you know,” a mid-sentence speech hesitation or a seemingly unconnected comment which, while not a necessary part of a sentence, contributes when present to vocal interaction. Suprasententials may serve to retain control of the speech-end of the dialogue, play a role in emotional expression, solicit a response from the person spoken to, or otherwise sustain conversation. A classification including nine kinds of suprasentential is suggested. A method for eliciting sustained speech via picture-story items and open-ended discussion items in a dyadic situation is described.
Screens and the social landscape

The screen may be understood as a designed interface (e.g. television set, computers, information signage) and has a central place in representation and communication of the social landscape, and in the cultural and technological imagination, as well as having economic significance in the digital era of the 21st century. Traditional notions and functions of the screen are continuously shifting – a shift made all the more dramatic by the development of mobile and ubiquitous technologies. In this special issue of Visual Communication on ‘Screens and the social landscape’, we explore the ‘screen’ and related information technologies and ask what its implications might be for how people communicate and interact in public spaces as well as in their display and function in the urban environment, museums and galleries. We set out to explore this question by bringing together professionals and academics working in the broad disciplines of design, computer science, digital technology, linguistics, sociology and cultural studies to focus on the ‘screen’ as a common reference point.
Post-layout comparison of high performance 64b static adders in energy-delay space

Our objective was to determine the most energy efficient 64 b static CMOS adder architecture, for a range of high-performance delay targets. We examine extensively carry-lookahead (CLA) and carry-select adders with a wide range of tradeoffs in logic levels, fanouts and wiring complexity. We propose sparse CLA adder architectures based on buffering techniques to reduce logic redundancy and improve energy efficiency. All the designs were implemented using an energy-delay layout optimization flow with full RC extraction. Our new 64 b adder designs have a relative delay as low as 9.9 F04 (fanout-offour inverter) delays and promise better scaling for smaller technology nodes. They yield the best energy efficiency for a wide range of delay targets and are 30%, 15% and 7% more energy efficient than full Kogge-Stone, sparse-2 Kogge-Stone and Han-Carlson, respectively, at the fastest points. They consume only about 1/3 the energy of dynamic adders.
Extraction of Spectral Channels From Hyperspectral Images for Classification Purposes

This paper proposes a procedure to extract spectral channels of variable bandwidths and spectral positions from the hyperspectral image in such a way as to optimize the accuracy for a specific classification problem. In particular, each spectral channel ("s-band") is obtained by averaging a group of contiguous channels of the hyperspectral image ("h-bands"). Therefore, if one wants to define m s-bands, the problem can be formulated as the optimization of the related m starting and m ending h-bands. Toward this end, we propose to adopt, as an optimization criterion, an interclass distance computed on a training set and to generate a sequence of possible solutions by one of three possible search strategies. As the proposed formalization of the problem makes it analogous to a feature-selection problem, the proposed three strategies have been derived by modifying three feature-selection strategies, namely: 1) the "sequential forward selection", 2) the "steepest ascent," and 3) the "fast constrained search". Experimental results on a well-known hyperspectral data set confirm the effectiveness of the approach, which yields better results than other widely used methods. The importance of this kind of procedure lies in feature reduction for hyperspectral image classification or in the case-based design of the spectral bands of a programmable sensor. It represents a special case of feature extraction that is expected to be more powerful than feature selection. The kind of transformation used allows the interpretability of the new features (i.e., the spectral bands) to be saved
A compact, universal and cost-efficient antenna setup for mmW-radar applications

A compact antenna setup, that can be used for e.g. radar applications, will be presented in this paper. The antenna is formed by an antipodal Vivaldi design on a 50 μm thin liquid crystal polymer (LCP) substrate. The feeding line is designed as grounded coplanar waveguide (GCPW). In the direction of radiation, the antenna is followed by a dielectric cone of high-density polyethylene (HDPE), whereby the front of the cone terminates in a radial lens shape for beamforming purposes. The presented setup is designed and built for W-band (75 to 110 GHz) operation, the concept itself can also be used for any other frequency range. Performance measurements, as well as comparisons with previous simulation results will be presented.
Use of medications to enhance memory in a large community sample of 60–64 year olds

Background: There are no existing epidemiological data on use of medications to enhance memory. Method: A community survey was carried out in Canberra and Queanbeyan, Australia, of an electoral roll sample of 2551 adults aged 60–64 years. Data collected included self-reports of using medications to enhance memory, tests of memory and other cognitive functions, anxiety, depression, physical health and use of other medications. Results: 2.8% of the sample reported using medications to enhance memory, the main ones being gingko biloba, vitamin E, bacopa (brahmi), and folic acid/B vitamins. Users were more likely to be female, to have subjective memory problems and to use other psychotropic medications. However, they did not differ in memory performance, anxiety, depression or physical health. Discussion: Some older people are using complementary medications to improve their memory or prevent memory loss, despite the lack of strong evidence for their effectiveness. These people show no objective evidence of memory impairment
Cell Cycle-Dependent Binding of Yeast Heat Shock Factor to Nucleosomes

ABSTRACT In the nucleus, transcription factors must contend with the presence of chromatin in order to gain access to their cognate regulatory sequences. As most nuclear DNA is assembled into nucleosomes, activators must either invade a stable, preassembled nucleosome or preempt the formation of nucleosomes on newly replicated DNA, which is transiently free of histones. We have investigated the mechanism by which heat shock factor (HSF) binds to target nucleosomal heat shock elements (HSEs), using as our model a dinucleosomal heat shock promoter (hsp82-ΔHSE1). We find that activated HSF cannot bind a stable, sequence-positioned nucleosome in G1-arrested cells. It can do so readily, however, following release from G1 arrest or after the imposition of either an early S- or late G2-phase arrest. Surprisingly, despite the S-phase requirement, HSF nucleosomal binding activity is restored in the absence of hsp82 replication. These results contrast with the prevailing paradigm for activator-nucleosome interactions and implicate a nonreplicative, S-phase-specific event as a prerequisite for HSF binding to nucleosomal sites in vivo.
Approximation algorithms for geometric dispersion

The most basic form of the max-sum dispersion problem (MSD) is as follows: given n points in R^q and an integer k, select a set of k points such that the sum of the pairwise distances within the set is maximal. This is a prominent diversity problem, with wide applications in web search and information retrieval, where one needs to find a small and diverse representative subset of a large dataset. The problem has recently received a great deal of attention in the computational geometry and operations research communities; and since it is NP-hard, research has focused on efficient heuristics and approximation algorithms. Several classes of distance functions have been considered in the literature. Many of the most common distances used in applications are induced by a norm in a real vector space. The focus of this thesis is on MSD over these geometric instances. We provide for it simple and fast polynomial-time approximation schemes (PTASs), as well as improved constant-factor approximation algorithms. We pay special attention to the class of negative-type distances, a class that includes Euclidean and Manhattan distances, among many others. In order to exploit the properties of this class, we apply several techniques and results from the theory of isometric embeddings. We explore the following variations of the MSD problem: matroid and matroid-intersection constraints, knapsack constraints, and the mixed-objective problem that maximizes a combination of the sum of pairwise distances with a submodular monotone function. In addition to approximation algorithms, we present a core-set for geometric instances of low dimension, and we discuss the efficient implementation of some of our algorithms for massive datasets, using the streaming and distributed models of computation.
The mec‐7 beta‐tubulin gene of Caenorhabditis elegans is expressed primarily in the touch receptor neurons.

Mutants of the mec‐7 beta‐tubulin gene of Caenorhabditis elegans lack the large diameter 15‐protofilament microtubules normally found only in the set of six touch receptor neurons. Both a mec‐7‐lacZ reporter gene and affinity‐purified anti‐mec‐7 antibodies were used to show that mec‐7 is expressed primarily in the touch neurons. These data are consistent with a possible instructive role for the mec‐7 tubulin in determining microtubule protofilament number. The antibodies and the mec‐7‐lacZ transgene were also used to examine mec‐7 expression in mutants affecting the generation, differentiation or maintenance of the touch neurons. Decreased expression was observed in mutants of unc‐86 and mec‐3, genes that encode transcription factors essential for touch receptor neuron generation and differentiation, respectively.
A relationship-building model for the Web retail marketplace

Electronic commerce has existed in the business‐to‐business marketplace since the 1970s, in forms such as electronic data interchange (EDI) and electronic funds transfer (EFT). With the emergence of the Internet, and the World Wide Web in particular, electronic commerce entered a new era which opened the door for an electronic business‐to‐consumer marketplace. Although the retail side of electronic commerce is still in its infancy, the Web medium offers great potential for building the customer‐base, promoting sales, and improving after‐sales service. Examines the concept of relationship marketing, which has caused a paradigm shift in business‐to‐business marketing during recent years. Extends the concepts of network marketing to the Web retail marketplace, and develops a market process model for Web retailing that outlines the stages of the relationship building process.
Discriminative techniques for the recognition of complex-shaped objects

This thesis presents new techniques which enable the automatic recognition of everyday objects like chairs and ladders in images of highly cluttered scenes. Given an image, we extract information about the shape and texture properties present in small patches of the image and use that information to identify parts of the objects we are interested in. We then assemble those parts into overall hypotheses about what objects are present in the image, and where they are. Solving this problem in a general setting is one of the central problems in computer vision. The central theme of this work is that formulating object recognition as a discrimination problem can ease the burden of system design. In particular, we show that thinking of recognition in terms of discriminating between objects and clutter, rather than separately modeling the appearances of objects and clutter, can simplify the processes of extracting information from the image and identifying which parts of the image correspond with parts of objects. The bulk of this thesis is concerned with recognizing “wiry” objects in highly-cluttered images; an example problem is finding ladders in images of a messy warehouse space. Wiry objects are distinguished by a prevalence of very thin, elongated, stick-like components; examples include tables, chairs, bicycles, and desk lamps. They are difficult to recognize because they tend to lack distinctive color or texture characteristics and their appearance is not easy to describe succinctly in terms of rectangular patches of image pixels. Here, we present a set of algorithms which extends current capabilities to find wiry objects in highly cluttered images across changes in the clutter and object pose. The second part of the thesis presents a technique for extracting texture features from images in such a way that features from objects of interest are both well-clustered with each other and well-separated from the features from clutter. We present an optimization framework for automatically combining existing texture features into features that discriminate well, thus simplifying the process of tuning the parameters of the feature extraction process.
Mechanisms of Acupuncture–Electroacupuncture on Persistent Pain

In the last decade, preclinical investigations of electroacupuncture mechanisms on persistent tissue injury (inflammatory), nerve injury (neuropathic), cancer, and visceral pain have increased. These studies show that electroacupuncture activates the nervous system differently in health than in pain conditions, alleviates both sensory and affective inflammatory pain, and inhibits inflammatory and neuropathic pain more effectively at 2 to 10 Hz than at 100 Hz. Electroacupuncture blocks pain by activating a variety of bioactive chemicals through peripheral, spinal, and supraspinal mechanisms. These include opioids, which desensitize peripheral nociceptors and reduce proinflammatory cytokines peripherally and in the spinal cord, and serotonin and norepinephrine, which decrease spinal N-methyl-D-aspartate receptor subunit GluN1 phosphorylation. Additional studies suggest that electroacupuncture, when combined with low dosages of conventional analgesics, provides effective pain management which can forestall the side effects of often-debilitating pharmaceuticals.
Decomposition Kernels for Natural Language Processing

We propose a simple solution to the sequence labeling problem based on an extension of weighted decomposition kernels. We additionally introduce a multiinstance kernel approach for representing lexical word sense information. These new ideas have been preliminarily tested on named entity recognition and PP attachment disambiguation. We finally suggest how these techniques could be potentially merged using a declarative formalism that may provide a basis for the integration of multiple sources of information when using kernel-based learning in NLP.