Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Spatial and temporal variability of sound signals in shallow water with parameters varying in horizontal plane

In the oceanic waveguide with parameters varying in horizontal plane (for example bathymetry - in area of coastal wedge, slopes and canyons, or in area of varying water layer - in the presence of nonlinear internal waves or temperature fronts, or in presence of both these effects) there is significant horizontal refraction or redistribution of the sound field in horizontal plane. Due to waveguide dispersion (dependence of modal propagation constants on frequency) it is possible to observe different spatial and temporal variations of the sound signal. It can be manifested in non stationary interference pattern, arrival time variations, variations of spectra etc. These effects can be used to solve different inverse problems especially by using horizontal and vertical line arrays.
Neuro-Genetic Optimization of LDO-fired Rotary Furnace Parameters for the Production of Quality Castings

The rising demand for high quality homogenous castings necessitate that vast amount of manufacturing knowledge be incorporated in manufacturing systems. Rotary furnace involves several critical parameters like excess air, flame temperature, rotational speed of the furnace drum, melting time, preheat air temperature, fuel consumption and melting rate of the molten metal which should be controlled throughout the melting process. A complex relationship exists between these manufacturing parameters and hence there is a need to develop models which can capture this complex interrelationship and enable fast computation. In the present work, we propose a generic approach where the applicability and effectiveness of neural network in function approximation is used for rapid estimation of melting rate and they are integrated into the framework of genetic evolutionary algorithm to form a neuro-genetic optimization technique. A neural network model is trained with the experimental results. The results indicate that the heuristic converges to better solutions rapidly as it provides the values of various process parameters for optimizing the objective in a single run and thus assists for the improvement of quality in development of sound parts.
BinLin: A Simple Method of Dependency Tree Linearization

Surface Realization Shared Task 2018 is a workshop on generating sentences from lemmatized sets of dependency triples. This paper describes the results of our participation in the challenge. We develop a data-driven pipeline system which first orders the lemmas and then conjugates the words to finish the surface realization process. Our contribution is a novel sequential method of ordering lemmas, which, despite its simplicity, achieves promising results. We demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed approach, describe its limitations and outline ways to improve it.
ffect of nanoscale surface topography on low temperature direct wafer bonding rocess with UV activation

Low temperature direct wafer bonding is a promising technology for microelectromechanical systems (MEMS), sensors as well as silicon-on-insulator (SOI) materials. The bond quality is closely related to the wafer-bow, surface adhere energy and nanoscale surface topography. Effective surface activation and nanoscale surface topography evaluation is critical for the bonding process. For the low temperature silicon wafer direct bonding process with ultra violet (UV) light activation, surface nanoscale topography eywords: ow temperature wafer bonding anoscale surface roughness earing ratio oot-mean-square is modified and characterized before and after UV irradiation by the control of irradiation duration. The measured data of nanoscale topography by atomic force microscope (AFM) is evaluated by both bearing ratio and root-mean-square (RMS) approaches, from which the results are then correlated with the bond strength to understand the bonding process. It is shown that the bear ratio approach is more suitable for characterizing the surface roughness and optimizing the bonding process through the control of UV irradiation duration. The approach is also applicable to a wide variety of low temperature wafer bonding ughne V activation process where surface ro
Heavy Metals Contamination in Soils and Water in the Vicinity of Small Scale Gold Mines at Londoni and Sambaru, Singida Region, Tanzania

This study was carried out to determine the concentration of heavy metals in water and soils in the vicinity of mines and processing units in small scale mining areas at Londoni and Sambaru. Heavy metals concentrations ranging from 1.7 to 53.8 mg/kg dry soil weight (dw), 8.7 to 22.24 mg/kg dw, 0.42 to 2.61mg/kg dw and 3.19 to 29.42 mg/kg dw were detected for Hg, Pb, Zn and Cu, respectively. Concentration of the same metals detected in surface and groundwater samples ranged from 0.013 to 0.17mg/L. Concentrations of mercury detected in soil samples were above Tanzanian maximum limits of mercury contamination. Sources of the metals contaminations were envisaged to be amalgamation and burning activities, improper waste rocks and tailings disposal, discharge of mine water to the surroundings and leachates from waste rocks and tailings. The study concluded that immediate adverse effect may not be feasible but continuing contamination may lead to serious human health and environmental problems.
Utilization of RET , Bcl-2 and CR immunohistochemistry in the diagnosis of Hirschsprung disease and its allied disorders

Diagnosis of Hirschsprung disease (HSCR) is quite entirely based on the histopathological analysis of suction rectal biopsies. Identification of ganglion cells can be difficult sometimes, especially in Hirschsprung’s allied disease (HAD) and in newborns. In this study, we developed a protocol using Bcl-2, RET and calretinin (CR) immunostaining to diagnosis and differential diagnosis of HSCR and HAD. Sample from a total of 168 HSCR patients, 45 HAD patients and 20 age-matched normal samples from patients with colorectal trauma or undergoing anorectal colostomy were collected from 2011 to 2015 and full-thickness tissues were obtained for evaluation. Our results showed that only Bcl-2 has the positive immunoreactivity in the degenerative and immature ganglion cells, CR showed negative immunoreactivity in the degenerative ganglion cells of myenteric plexus in the intestinal. Besides, RET showed positive immunoreactivity in both immature and mature ganglion cells. Combined immunohistochemical detection of CR and RET facilitates can be used for diagnosis and differential diagnoses of HSCR and HAD. And the specific expression of Bc1-2 and CR play an essential role in diagnosis of HAD and newborn HSCR.
Public Integrity Auditing for Shared Dynamic Cloud Data with Group User Revocation

The development of cloud computing motivates enterprises and organizations to outsource their data to third-party cloud service providers (CSPs), which will improve the storage limitation of resource constrain local devices. The primitive of verifiable database with efficient updates is an important way to solve the problem of verifiable outsourcing of storage. We propose a scheme to realize efficient and secure data integrity auditing for share dynamic data with multi-user modification. The scheme vector commitment, Asymmetric Group Key Agreement (AGKA) and group signatures with user revocation are adopt to achieve the data integrity auditing of remote data. Beside the public data auditing, the combining of the three primitive enable our scheme to outsource ciphertext database to remote cloud and support secure group users revocation to shared dynamic data. We provide security analysis of our scheme, and it shows that our scheme provide data confidentiality for group users, and it is also secure against the collusion attack from the cloud storage server and revoked group users. Also, the performance analysis shows that, compared with its relevant schemes, our scheme is also efficient in different phases.
Rheumatic heart disease: all but forgotten in Australia except among Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples

Despite a stabilising of trends in the incidence of acute rheumatic fever in the Top End of the Northern Territory, the reported prevalence of chronic rheumatic heart disease continues to increase. In 2002, there were 17 cases per 1,000 Indigenous Australians, compared with nine per 1,000 in 1995. This increase is likely to be due to an improvement in reporting and case finding, and better awareness of the condition and its symptoms, rather than an actual rise in the number of cases.
An empirical analysis of international consumers’ associations with Bavarian food products by means of concept mapping

Purpose – Knowledge of consumers’ perception of foreign food products can be a key element for successful international marketing strategies, as operating on a regional or global level requires deep knowledge about international markets. Purchase decisions for most products are strongly linked to a person’s attitude towards these products, which are determined by beliefs and meanings associated with the product. In this context, the purpose of this paper is to analyze and compare the perception of Bavarian food products in an international context. Design/methodology/approach – The qualitative technique of concept mapping has been used to uncover and visualise consumers’ semantic networks regarding Bavarian food products. Two European countries – Bulgaria and Romania – as well as two Asian ones – China and South Korea – are exemplary selected for this study. Findings – The results clearly show that the two frequently mentioned associations across all four countries are the same while the other associations which were enumerated show a greater heterogeneity. Furthermore the study provides empirical evidence that the associations regarding Bavarian food products of the European countries are more similar to each other than the Asian ones. South Koreans have more indirect than direct associations with Bavarian food products and Chinese semantic networks regarding Bavarian food products are the least complex. These findings are underpinned by network analysis. Originality/value – This study adds to the existing literature on country image by exploring international consumer’s cognitive networks regarding Bavarian food products by means of concept mapping.
Examining Moderated Effects of Additional Adolescent Substance Use Treatment

This article considers the problem of examining causal effect moderation using observational, longitudinal data in which treatment, candidate moderators, and putative confounders are time-varying. Robins' (1994) structural nested mean model (SNMM) is used to specify the moderated time-varying causal effects of interest in a conditional mean model for a continuous response given time-varying treatments and candidate time-varying moderators. We present an easy-to-use estimator of the SNMM that combines an existing regression-with-residuals (RR) approach with an inverse-probability-of-treatment weighting (IPTW) strategy. The RR approach has been shown to identify the moderated time-varying causal effects if the candidate time-varying moderators of interest are the sole time-varying confounders. The proposed IPTW+RR approach identifies the moderated time-varying causal effects in the SNMM in the presence of an additional, auxiliary set of known and measured putative time-varying confounders, which are not candidate time-varying moderators of interest. A small simulation experiment is used to compare IPTW+RR vs the traditional regression approach, and to compare small and large sample properties of asymptotic versus bootstrap estimators of the standard errors for the IPTW+RR approach. This article clarifies the distinction between time-varying moderators and time-varying confounders. The methodology is illustrated in a case study examining the moderated time-varying effects of additional adolescent substance use treatment on future substance use, as a function of time-varying frequency of substance use. The Methodology Center Tech Report No. 12-121 SNMM: IPTW+RR 3
Amphibian predation on larval mosquitoes

Mosquitoes (Culex pipiens L., 1758) are important vectors for diseases of both wildlife and humans. Understanding how natural factors influence mosquito abundance may provide insights into the ecology of various diseases, as well as solutions to controlling disease vectors. One of the natural factors regulating mosquito distributions and population sizes is predation. A poorly understood source of natural mosquito predation is amphibians. We determined the mosquito consumption capability of two amphibians, adult Red-spotted Newts (Notophthalmus viridescens viridescens (Rafinesque, 1820)) and larval Mole Salamanders (Ambystoma talpoideum (Holbrook, 1838)). We also compared mosquito consumption of eastern mosquitofish (Gambusia holbrooki Girard, 1859), a known predator of mosquitoes, and A. talpoideum. Both salamander species were capable of consuming large numbers of mosquito larvae per day (least-square means ± 1 SE = 439 ± 20 and 316 ± 35 mosquitoes/day consumed by A. talpoideum and N. v. viridescens, re.
Endothelin Receptor Antagonists in Diabetic Nephropathy

Diabetic nephropathy (DN) is the leading cause of end-stage renal disease and affects an estimated 150 million people worldwide. Despite optimal treatment, including glycaemic control and antihypertensive therapy (e.g., renin–angiotensin–aldosterone system [RAS] blockade), the disease progresses. A ‘late escape’ phenomenon has been described, where proteinuria reappears despite continued RAS blockade. The endothelin (ET) system is strongly involved in the pathophysiology of the disease and contributes to vasoconstriction, inflammation and proliferation. ET antagonists are promising drugs that potently slow down disease progression in animal models and have beneficial effects on cardiac structure, mitochondrial damage and microvascular architecture. However, the available ET antagonists, at least in higher doses, may also inhibit tubular endothelin receptors subtype B, which promote sodium and water excretion. The three clinical trials with avosentan and atrasentan published so far show the unique nephroprotective effects of these drugs, with a reduction of up to 45 % in albuminuria. However, fluid retention, oedema and, in higher stages of chronic kidney disease, heart failure limit their use. The reason may be that we have been using too high doses of these ET antagonists so far and they are inhibiting tubular sodium and water excretion. Thus, we will need to learn more about the role of ET and its antagonists in the tubular and collecting duct system, and on how to use these potent drugs in DN. ET antagonists are among the most promising molecules for the treatment of nephropathies. We should definitely not abandon these drugs because of the initial drawbacks in the first clinical trials.
Implications of the Regular Education Initiative Debate for School Psychologists.

The paper examines critical issues involved in the debate over the Regular Education Initiative (REI) to merge special and regular education, with emphasis on implications for school psychologists. The arguments of proponents and opponents of the REI are summarized and the lack of involvement by school psychologists is noted. The REI is seen to effect school psychologists by a possibly drastic reduction in the demand for professional psychological services in the schools, and by the denial of valuable and necessary psychological services to many special needs students. Specific issues that psychologists need to address are: (1) pupil identification and classification; (2) pupil placement; and (3) changing roles and responsibilities. School psychologists are urged to become more involved in the debate because their expertise is needed, because they have a professional responsibility to contribute, and because REI could have a direct impact on their future employment possibilities. They are urged to become involved at the professional/organizational level and at the local school level. Includes 33 references. (DB) **************************************** ******** *********************** Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document. *************** ****** **************************************************
Dynamics and evolution of infectious diseases

HAL is a multi-disciplinary open access archive for the deposit and dissemination of scientific research documents, whether they are published or not. The documents may come from teaching and research institutions in France or abroad, or from public or private research centers. L’archive ouverte pluridisciplinaire HAL, est destinée au dépôt et à la diffusion de documents scientifiques de niveau recherche, publiés ou non, émanant des établissements d’enseignement et de recherche français ou étrangers, des laboratoires publics ou privés. Dynamics and evolution of infectious diseases Samuel Alizon
Extended Abstract : Interaction Techniques for Spatial Augmented Reality Setups

Spatial augmented reality is an emerging technology, which has the potential to change the way humans perceive objects in their real environment. For a perfect blend of three-dimensional virtual and real features, the features’ depth information has to be taken into account. However, projecting stereoscopic content on non-planar surfaces poses some challenges both in terms of potential perceptual effects and appropriate interaction techniques. The aim of the presented research project is to meet these challenges and to establish guidelines for future spatial augmented reality setups. Index Terms 3D projection mapping, Natural user interfaces, Spatial augmented reality
Evaluating the Protective Role of Ginseng against Histological and Biochemical Changes Induced by Aflatoxin B1 in the Renal Convoluted Tubules of Adult Male Albino Rats

Background: Aflatoxins are secondary metabolites of the fungi Aspergillus flavus and Aspergillus parasiticus. Chronic aflatoxin exposure is associated with damage to many body organs including the kidneys. Aim of the work: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of aflatoxin B1 on the renal convoluted tubules of adult male albino rats and to determine the possible protective role of ginseng. Materials and methods: Thirty six adult male albino rats were divided into three groups; group I: control group, group II (Aflatoxin B1 treated group): Aflatoxin B1 was administered 250 microgram/kg body weight/day, 5 days/ week for 4 weeks by oral gavages. Group III (Aflatoxin B1-Ginseng treated group): received the same dose of Aflatoxin B1 simultaneously with ginseng at a rate of 100 mg/kg body weight, by oral gavage. Blood urea nitrogen, serum creatinine and uric acid were measured. Renal cortex samples from, were processed for light and electron microscope examination. Results: Examination of Aflatoxin B1 treated group revealed deterioration of renal functions; various degrees of renal tubular affection in the form of vacuolated tubular cells and hyaline casts in the lumen of most tubules. Some tubular cells had small darkly stained nuclei while others had sloughed epithelial cells in their lumina. Weak positive cytoplasmic reaction of Bcl2 was detected in most renal tubular cells. These changes were markedly reduced with administration of ginseng in group III. Conclusion: Aflatoxin leads to alterations in the histological structure and functions of renal convoluted tubules of albino rats and ginseng supplementation could be protective from these changes.
The Epworth Sleepiness Scale: Validation of One-Dimensional Factor Structure in a Large Clinical Sample.

STUDY OBJECTIVES The Epworth Sleepiness Scale (ESS) is used by clinicians and researchers to determine level of daytime sleepiness. The number of factors included in the scale has been debated. Our study objective was to clarify the dimensionality of the ESS using a large clinical sample. METHODS A retrospective cohort study included all patients presenting for care in a tertiary care sleep disorders center who answered all items on the ESS from January 8, 2008 to September 28, 2012. Dimensionality was assessed using scree plot, eigenvalues, factor loadings, principal factor analysis, and confirmatory factor analysis. Multigroup confirmatory factor analysis (MGCFA) evaluated dimensionality within 10 subgroups of clinical interest. RESULTS The mean age of the 10,785 study participants was 50 (± 15) years with 49% female, and 81% white. The one-factor solution explained 63% of the variability in responses with high factor loadings (> .67 for all 8 items). The scree plot identified one factor with eigenvalue > 1. Results of confirmatory factor analysis demonstrated a one-factor solution had acceptable goodness of fit as assessed by root mean square error of approximation of . 094 (90% confidence interval: .089-.099). MGCFA confirmed measurement invariance within all 10 demographic and clinical subgroups. CONCLUSIONS Our study confirmed the unidimensionality of the ESS in a large diverse clinical population. Results from this study can be used to justify the interpretation of the ESS within clinical populations, and supports valid comparisons between groups based on the ESS. Future studies are warranted to further understand the items comprising the ESS and potentially eliminate redundant items for increased efficiency in clinical settings.
Quantifying cognitive dysfunction across the spectrum of end‐stage kidney disease: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Cognitive dysfunction is reportedly highly prevalent among chronic kidney disease (CKD) patients. A variety of screening tools and neuropsychiatric batteries are used to quantify the magnitude and nature of this dysfunction. Our objective is to summarize the neurocognitive testing used, and determine what degree cognitive dysfunction is reported in CKD patients. All study designs published in English that contained participants who were either pre‐dialysis patients, haemodialysis (HD) or peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients or renal transplant recipients were considered. Reported comparative non‐CKD control data was also collected. All study designs were included. The search period encompassed articles from 1980 to May 2018. This review is registered with PROSPERO (CRD42018096568). Of the 1711 articles screened, 148 articles were relevant and used in the meta‐analysis. Commonly used assessments were The Mini–Mental State Examination (MMSE), The Modified Mini–Mental State Examination, the Trails Making Tests (TMT) forms A and B and components of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale: Digit Span and Digit Symbol. Means for all assessments were adjusted using a random effects model to account for the differences in variance. Adjusted mean MMSE scores were significantly lower for both pre‐dialysis (26.08, n = 17 073) and HD (26.31, n = 3314) patients when compared to non‐CKD controls (28.21, n = 5226). PD (58.01 s, n = 859) and HD (56.04 s, n = 2344) patients also took significantly longer to complete the Trails Making Task A than non‐CKD controls (37.62 s, n = 4809). Patients with CKD, especially pre‐dialysis and those requiring dialysis, are likely to exhibit impairments in cognition that can be identified with specific screening neuropsychological assessments.