Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
aids to help older people make health decisions

Background: Decision aids have been overall successful in improving the quality of health decision making. However, it is unclear whether the impact of the results of using decision aids also apply to older people (aged 65+). We sought to systematically review randomized controlled trials (RCTs) and clinical controlled trials (CCTs) evaluating the efficacy of decision aids as compared to usual care or alternative intervention(s) for older adults facing treatment, screening or care decisions. Methods: A systematic search of (1) a Cochrane review of decision aids and (2) MEDLINE, Embase, PsycINFO, Cochrane library central registry of studies and Cinahl. We included published RCTs/CCTs of interventions designed to improve shared decision making (SDM) by older adults (aged 65+) and RCTs/CCTs that analysed the effect of the intervention in a subgroup with a mean age of 65+. Based on the International Patient Decision aid Standards (IPDAS), the primary outcomes were attributes of the decision and the decision process. Other behavioral, health, and health system effects were considered as secondary outcomes. If data could be pooled, a meta-analysis was conducted. Data for which meta-analysis was not possible were synthesized qualitatively. Results: The search strategy yielded 11,034 references. After abstract and full text screening, 22 papers were included. Decision aids performed better than control resp. usual care interventions by increasing knowledge and accurate risk perception in older people (decision attributes). With regard to decision process attributes, decision aids resulted in lower decisional conflict and more patient participation. Conclusions: This review shows promising results on the effectiveness of decision aids for older adults. Decision aids improve older adults’ knowledge, increase their risk perception, decrease decisional conflict and seem to enhance participation in SDM. It must however be noted that the body of literature on the effectiveness of decision aids for older adults is still in its infancy. Only one decision aid was specifically developed for older adults, and the mean age in most studies was between 65 and 70, indicating that the oldest-old were not included. Future research should expand on the design, application and evaluation of decision aids for older, more vulnerable adults.
Stream Runoff Nodes and Their Derivation Based on DEM

This paper put forward the concept of "stream runoff node" firstly, which could be regarded as a critical development in recognizing and analyzing the hydrological and geographical characteristic of stream networks. The major characteristics of runoff nodes were investigated. Including how runoff nodes could effectively reflect drainages terrain and relief features, their dynamic variation and spatial distribution etc. Finally, a GIS based method of deriving runoff nodes from DEM were preliminarily discussed. 
A PRELIMINARY INVESTIGATION OF THE EFFECT OF HIGH-PASS FILTERING ON THE PERCEPTION OF VOCALIC NASALITY

This paper describes a preliminary investigation of some of the acou:. tic cues available for the perception of vocalic nasality in naturally produced speech. Specifically, it suggests and examines the hypothesis that acoustic cues at frequencies above 1,200 Hz are sufficient for discrimination between lexical items in a language, whose difference in production is as nearly as possible exclusively the coupling or non-coupling of the nasal tract during vowel production.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized online

This study explores motivations of visitors to the Imperial War Museum (North and South), United Kingdom, with a view to understanding why people visit museums associated with conflicts. Though museums are part of the education and leisure industry, the distinction between education and leisure is often blurred. There are a number of reasons why people visit museums. Motives of museum visitors can be grouped into intrinsic and extrinsic factors. This study analysed the extent to which museum visitors are motivated by extrinsic and intrinsic factors. Semi-structured interviews with visitors were conducted w at the Imperial Museum of War (North and South), United Kingdom. The findings do establish that extrinsic motivations are more dominant than the intrinsic ones for visiting the Imperial War Museum. The importance of extrinsic factors in motivating museum visitors would suggest that providing an opportunity for a good day out has more appeal to the visitors than the collections in the museum for the average visitors. The experiencing of museum in its totality is more important than the individual collections or the theme of the museum to the mainstream visitor. This work has made a contribution to understanding visitor motivations, which are multi-facetted, complex and not necessarily fully understood by the visitors themselves.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

This chapter presents some noteworthy works which show the links between Databases and Artificial Intelligence. More precisely, after an introduction, Sect. 2 presents the seminal work on “logic and databases” which opened a wide research field at the intersection of databases and artificial intelligence. The main results concern the use of logic for database modeling. Then, in Sect. 3, we present different problems raised by integrity constraints and the way logic contributed to formalizing and solving them. In Sect. 4, we sum up some works related to queries with preferences. Section 5 finally focuses on the problematic of database integration.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

Institutions of Higher Education have been continually threatened by the lack of direction and control from the perspective of information security in the context of information technology governance. The ISO/IEC 27014:2013 standard represents an opportunity to govern information security; however, it suffers from a clear alignment that allows it to articulate its activities with the IT governance and provide visibility to the organizational government. This exploratory and document-level study has carried out a harmonization
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

Over the last three decades, the research group on regional and urban economics at the Politecnico di Milano has carried out studies on theoretical and empirical issues concerning the structure, competitiveness and growth of cities. A broad critical synthesis of this line of research is presented in Camagni et al. (Urban Empire, Edward Elgar, Cheltenham, 2019). In what follows, we focus on two crucial issues that the group has tackled, i.e. optimal city size theory and the empirics of central place theory. Although other issues,
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

Let C be a set of n customers and F be a set of m facilities. An r-gather clustering of C is a partition of the points in clusters such that each cluster contains at least r points. The r-gather clustering problem asks to find an r-gather clustering which minimizes the maximum distance between any two points in a cluster. An r-gathering of C is an assignment of each customer to a facility such that each open facility has zero or at least r customers. The r-gathering problem asks to find an r-gathering that minimizes the maximum distance between a customer and its facility. In this work we consider the r-gather clustering and r-gathering problems when the customers and the facilities are lying on a “star”. We show that the r-gather clustering problem and the r-gathering problem with points on a star with d rays can be solved in and time respectively.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

It is essential for public monitoring and security to detect violent behavior in surveillance videos. However, it requires constant human observation and attention, which is a challenging task. Autonomous detection of violent activities is essential for continuous, uninterrupted video surveillance systems. This paper proposed a novel method to detect violent activities in videos, using fused spatial feature maps, based on Convolutional Neural Networks (CNN) and Long Short-Term Memory (LSTM) units. The spatial features are extracted through CNN, and multi-level spatial features fusion method is used to combine the spatial features maps from two equally spaced sequential input video frames to incorporate motion characteristics. The additional residual layer blocks are used to further learn these fused spatial features to increase the classification accuracy of the network. The combined spatial features of input frames are then fed to LSTM units to learn the global temporal information. The output of this network classifies the violent or non-violent category present in the input video frame. Experimental results on three different standard benchmark datasets: Hockey Fight, Crowd Violence and BEHAVE show that the proposed algorithm provides better ability to recognize violent actions in different scenarios and results in improved performance compared to the state-of-the-art methods.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

We introduce an abstract domain for information-flow analysis of software. The proposal combines variable dependency analysis with numerical abstractions, yielding to accuracy and efficiency improvements. We apply the full power of the proposal to the case of database query languages as well. Finally, we present an implementation of the analysis, called , as an instance of a generic static analyzer. Keeping the modular construction of the analysis, the tool allows one to tune the granularity of heap analysis and to choose the numerical domain involved in the reduced product. This way the user can tune the information leakage analysis at different levels of precision and efficiency.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

Many complex systems, both natural and artificial, may be represented by networks of interacting nodes. Nevertheless, it is often difficult to find meaningful correspondences between the dynamics expressed by these systems and the topological description of their networks. In contrast, many of these systems may be well described in terms of coordinated behavior of their dynamically relevant parts. In this paper we use the recently proposed Relevance Index approach, based on information-theoretic measures. Starting from the observation of the dynamical states of any system, the Relevance Index is able to provide information about its organization. Moreover, we show how the application of the proposed approach leads to novel and effective interpretations in the T helper network case study.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

Human segmentation in still images is a complex task due to the wide range of body poses and drastic changes in environmental conditions. Usually, human body segmentation is treated in a two-stage fashion. First, a human body part detection step is performed, and then, human part detections are used as prior knowledge to be optimized by segmentation strategies. In this paper, we present a two-stage scheme based on Multi-Scale Stacked Sequential Learning (MSSL). We define an extended feature set by stacking a multi-scale decomposition of body part likelihood maps. These likelihood maps are obtained in a first stage by means of a ECOC ensemble of soft body part detectors. In a second stage, contextual relations of part predictions are learnt by a binary classifier, obtaining an accurate body confidence map. The obtained confidence map is fed to a graph cut optimization procedure to obtain the final segmentation. Results show improved segmentation when MSSL is included in the human segmentation pipeline.
Metadata of the chapter that will be visualized in SpringerLink

Rapidly changing environments and customer demands force companies to transform their business models in ever shorter periods of time. However, existing approaches like the business model canvas and corresponding tools mainly focus on documentation on a strategic level and do not actively support the business model transformation process from a current state towards a target state. To address this problem, we derive requirements for a business model transformation tool. We translate these requirements into design principles and present a toolset for data-driven business model transformation. This toolset enables companies to extract status quo business models from existing operational information systems. Furthermore, it allows the representation of explicit relationships between the different value dimensions of a business model and enables quantifying the impact of changes. The result of this paper is a set of requirements, design principles as well as a tool instantiation, which can actively support the business model transformation process.
Response of biodiversity and productivity to simulated rainfall on an alpine Kobresia humilis meadow

Field controlled experment was used to examine response of biodiversity and productivity to simulated rainfall changes in an alpine Kobresia humilis meadow.The results indicated that 1) The diversity index (H) and evenness index (J) of plant community increased by 0.188 and 0.011? 0.735 and 0.076 respectively over the control plot in the 20% and 40% rainfall supply increased plots in the growing season of plants (June),The diversity index (H) and evenness index (J) of plant community increased by 0.409 and 0.07 over the control plot in the 20% rainfall supply increased plot in the growing season of plants (July). 2) Grasses:There is no significantly different (P0.05) between 20% rainfall supply increased plots and control plot of belowground biomasses,significantly different (P0.05) between 20% rainfall supply increased plots and control plot of aboveground biomasses,from this we can say that excessive precipitation would restrain growth of grasses.Forbs:50% rainfall supply decreased plots and control plots of aboveground biomasses show significantly different (P0.05),response of abovebiomasses to rainfall supply decreased is sensitive.Sedges:no significantly different of Sedges biomass to rainfall supply increased or decreased.3) The belowground biomass of 0~10 cm? 0~30 cm soil layer and total biomass were higher at 20% simulated rainfall supply increased.The proportion of belowground biomass and aboveground biomass was higher the ending growing season as well as total biomass,belowground biomass and aboveground biomass were higher than other treatment plots at 20% simulated rainfall supply in July? August? September. 
Postpartum Depression: Prevalence, Risk Factors, and Childbirth Experiences in Palestine

Background: Worldwide mothers are suffering from postpartum depression (PPD) which impairs mothers' well-being, children, and families, and lead to adverse outcomes for mother and their growing newborns. Low and middle-income countries have a higher prevalence of PPD and limited studies about it. This study will assess the prevalence of PPD among Palestinian women nationally, identify mothers at a higher risk of PPD, and study the correlation between PPD and mistreatment during childbirth. Methods: The study is based on a secondary data analysis from a cross-sectional study in the occupied Palestinian territory (oPt). 745 telephone-based interviews with mothers were done within 2-4 weeks post-childbirth. The Patient Health Questionnaire (PHQ-9) was used as a screening tool for PPD. The Statistical Package for Social Science (SPSS) was used. Results: PPD prevalence among Palestinian mothers is 12.6%, with a higher prevalence among mothers living in the Gaza strip, a politically and economically unstable region in Palestine. Older mothers are two times more likely to develop PPD compared to young mothers. And regarding the correlation between PPD and mistreatment of mothers during childbirth, mothers who experienced disrespectful behaviors (any abuse, negligence, abandonment, ineffective communication, or poor pain management) in childbirth settings are more likely to report PPD than those who were not exposed to any form of disrespect. Conclusion: A high prevalence of postpartum depression was found among Palestinian mothers, especially among mothers who experienced mistreatment in childbirth settings. It is essential to support healthcare providers to improve their practice and attitudes to eliminate mistreatment and abusive behaviors of mothers during childbirth.
Application of digital image processing technique to triaxial test in soil mechanics

A new means with digital image processing technique for deformation measuring of soil specimen in triaxial test is provided.Using this technique,the error of the deformation measurement,which occurs in traditional triaxial test,can be eliminated.The local deformation of any part of the soil specimen can be measured at will.The coming into being and development of shear bands of the specimen can also be determined.The influence of membrane penetration in the test can be analyzed quantitatively.Meanwhile,the deformation process of the soil specimen can also be tracked and recorded.Comparison of the results by digital image processing technique and by traditional method shows that the former is more accurate.It is indicated that for standard small specimen,measuring the middle 40mm part’s deformation can get rid of the influence of the end on the deformation.
Image Cropping by Patches Dissimilarities

Image cropping is a technique to help people improve their taken photos’ quality by discarding unnecessary parts of a photo. A novel method is presented for Image cropping by patches dissimilarities. In this paper, we propose a novel patches dissimilarities algorithm. Firstly, representing the image patches and reducing dimensionality. Then we extract the visual saliency map of these photos based on the patches dissimilarities. Finally, by the saliency map and face priors, we find a cropped region that can be best found. The experimental results demonstrate that our technique is applicable to a wide range of photos and produce more agreeable resulting photos.
Evolutionary Trace Analysis of Azoreductase at the Ligand Binding Site and Enhancing the Active Site through Site Directed Mutagenesis

The ease of synthesis and chemical stability of azo dyes possessing one or more azo groups helps them to be widely used in textile, printing, cosmetics, pharmaceutical, food and many other industries [1]. Azoreductase catalyses the reductive cleavage of the azo bond, and acts as the key enzyme expressed in all azo dye degrading bacteria [2]. Under anaerobic conditions, the reductive cleavage of azo dyes results in decolorization, which was suggested in many reports [3]. Many bacterial strains contain cytoplasmic enzymes, though unspecific, act as azoreductase and under anaerobic conditions; transfer the electrons to azo dyes via soluble flavins. Bacillus sp OY12 transforms azo dyes into colorless compounds, and this is mediated by azoreductase activity, in the presence of NADH [4]. Bacillus subtilis is considered to be a widely spread bacterium, commonly recovered from water, soil, air and decomposing plant residue. This bacterium produces an endospore, which allows it to overcome extreme conditions of heat and drying up in the environment. B. subtilis produces a variety of enzymes that will degrade a variety of natural substrates and contribute to nutrient cycling, and under most conditions but exists in the form of spore [5]. Site-directed mutagenesis is of potential interest for engineering the enzyme to become active so that it is more suitable for biotechnical applications [6]. In this protein (1NNI), four residues namely Asp (33), Tyr (74), His (75), and Lys (83) were identified as catalytic residues, where Tyr (74) and Lys (83) play a crucial role in azobenzene reductase extracted from Bacillus subtilis [7]. Olivier Lichtarge in 1996 developed the evolutionary trace (ET) analysis [8]. This method depends on both sequence and structural information in order to analyze functional sites of a protein or group of proteins. It determines the conserved amino acid residues in an alignment, and the information is mapped onto known 3D protein structures. This method gives importance to the residues which are important to the structure or function of a protein and tends to be conserved across species. This method gives ranking of the relative amino acids functional importance in a protein sequence, by correlating their variations during evolution, with divergences in the phylogenetic tree of that sequence family. The best-ranked residues are then clustered spatially in the protein structure and thereby reveal the location of functional sites [9]. Methodology
Identification and characterizationof novel Auxin-Cytokinin cross-talk components

The whole life cycle of plants as well as their responses to environmental stimuli is governed by a complex network of hormonal regulations. A number of studies have demonstrated an essential role of both auxin and cytokinin in the regulation of many aspects of plant growth and development including embryogenesis, postembryonic organogenic processes such as root, and shoot branching, root and shoot apical meristem activity and phyllotaxis. Over the last decades essential knowledge on the key molecular factors and pathways that spatio-temporally define auxin and cytokinin activities in the plant body has accumulated. However, how both hormonal pathways are interconnected by a complex network of interactions and feedback circuits that determines the final outcome of the individual hormone actions is still largely unknown. Root system architecture establishment and in particular formation of lateral organs is prime example of developmental process at whose regulation both auxin and cytokinin pathways converge. To dissect convergence points and pathways that tightly balance auxin - cytokinin antagonistic activities that determine the root branching pattern transcriptome profiling was applied. Genome wide expression analyses of the xylem pole pericycle, a tissue giving rise to lateral roots, led to identification of genes that are highly responsive to combinatorial auxin and cytokinin treatments and play an essential function in the auxin-cytokinin regulated root branching. SYNERGISTIC AUXIN CYTOKININ 1 (SYAC1) gene, which encodes for a protein of unknown function, was detected among the top candidate genes of which expression was synergistically up-regulated by simultaneous hormonal treatment. Plants with modulated SYAC1 activity exhibit severe defects in the root system establishment and attenuate developmental responses to both auxin and cytokinin. To explore the biological function of the SYAC1, we employed different strategies including expression pattern analysis, subcellular localization and phenotypic analyses of the syac1 loss-of-function and gain-of-function transgenic lines along with the identification of the SYAC1 interaction partners. Detailed functional characterization revealed that SYAC1 acts as a developmentally specific regulator of the secretory pathway to control deposition of cell wall components and thereby rapidly fine tune elongation growth.
Foreign-Owned Banks in the U.S.: Earning Market Share or Buying It?

Foreign-owned U.S. banks have been chronically unprofitable for more than a decade. We employ a profit efficiency model introduced by Berger, Hancock, and Humphrey (1993), modified to be less sensitive to variations in asset size, to estimate the relative profit efficiency of 62 foreign-owned and 240 U.S.-owned banks between 1985 and 1990. Our results indicate that foreign-owned banks were significantly less profit-efficient than were U.S.-owned banks, primarily due to foreign banks' reliance on expensive purchase funds. For foreign-owned banks, the results are consistent with a strategy of sacrificing profits in exchange for fast growth and increase market share during the 1980s.