Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Validity and reliability of the Farsi version of the ECOS-16 questionnaire for females with osteoporosis PDF version

The purpose of this study was to develop a Persian version of ECOS-16 Questionnaire and assess its reliability and validity. Two hundred and twenty women with postmenopausal osteoporosis were included in the study. Patients who were diagnosed as secondary osteoporosis by clinical and laboratory examinations were excluded. For reliability, an internal consistency (Cronbach’s alpha coefficient) of ECOS-16 total score was calculated. The age of the study participants ranged from 50 to 75 years old (59.9 ± 7). Cronbach’s alpha of the Persian version of the ECOS-16 was 0.84. Therefore, the Persian version of the ECOS-16 is a reliable and valid questionnaire to be used in the evaluation of quality of life in women with postmenopausal osteoporosis. Validité et fiabilité de la version perse du questionnaire ECOS-16 chez les femmes souffrant d’ostéoporose
3D shape of Orion A from Gaia DR2

We use the Gaia DR2 distances of about 700 mid-infrared selected young stellar objects in the benchmark giant molecular cloud Orion A to infer its 3D shape and orientation. We find that Orion A is not the fairly straight filamentary cloud that we see in (2D) projection, but instead a cometary-like cloud oriented toward the Galactic plane, with two distinct components: a denser and enhanced star-forming (bent) Head, and a lower density and star-formation quieter ∼75 pc long Tail. The true extent of Orion A is not the projected ∼40 pc but ∼90 pc, making it by far the largest molecular cloud in the local neighborhood. Its aspect ratio (∼30:1) and high column-density fraction (∼45%) make it similar to large-scale Milky Way filaments (“bones”), despite its distance to the galactic mid-plane being an order of magnitude larger than typically found for these structures.
Physicochemical characterization of the yeast cells and the waste lignocellulosic particles in the immobilization process for ethanol production

Ethanol is one of the leading alternative fuels. Efforts have increased the development of technologies for producing ethanol efficiently and economically. The continuous fermentation using yeast cells immobilized in low‐cost materials is presented as an excellent alternative. We used four lignocellulosic wastes for the inmobilization process. The materials were characterized physicochemically. The composition was determined by the Van Soest method. Zeta potential was measured to establish the hydrophobic or hydrophilic character of the material surfaces. The contact angles measurements were used to confirm the hydrophobic or hydrophilic character and the free energies interaction was established. Images were obtained by scanning electron microscope, and determination of surface areas and volumes was performed by adsorption and desorption isotherms. It was established that cell surface properties are modified by the immobilization process to which they are subjected. It was evident that cell immobilization depended on the properties of the carrier, as well as cell surface properties. Thus, in order to improve the process of cell immobilization, it is essential to understand the type of carrier‐cell interactions that occur during the immobilization process, making necessary the knowledge of the main surface characteristics of both the media and of cells that can affect the process.
Public investment, the Stability Pact and the ‘golden rule’

The fiscal rules set in the Treaty of Maastricht and in the Stability and Growth Pact have sometimes been criticised as an excessively binding constraint for appropriate counter-cyclical action. The risk that the rules may permanently reduce the public sector’s contribution to capital accumulation has also been pointed out. In this framework, the adoption of a ‘golden rule’ has been suggested. Starting from the recent debate, this paper tackles two questions: (a) the implications of the Pact for public investment and (b) the pros and cons of introducing a golden rule in EMU’s fiscal framework, given the objectives of low public debts and adequate margins for a stabilising budgetary policy. The analysis suggests that the rules set in the Treaty and in the Pact may negatively influence public investment spending. However, the golden rule, although intuitively appealing, does not seem to be an appropriate solution to the problem.
Promoters and barriers in hospital team communication

Purpose: Poor teamwork and communication in healthcare teams have been correlated to adverse events and higher patient morbidity and mortality. However, detailed insight into the link between team communication and medical error is still lacking. The objective of this study is to identify the common characteristics of team communication among multiprofessional teams at four Danish acute care university hospitals. Method: Four focus group interviews with multiprofessional hospital teams ( N = 24). Results: Communication is particularly vulnerable during handover of patient information between shifts or units, when a team has to establish skills and roles during teamwork and when staff has to await and combine information from different chart systems. Established frameworks for communication, mutual knowledge, ease of speaking up, experience in getting the message through, and focus on teamwork and communication promote safe information exchange. Lack of standard assignments and procedures, a flat hierarchy that leaves responsibility unclear, different agendas for the treatment of the patient, interruptions, and multi-tasking, inhibit safe information exchange. Conclusion: Power distance, team structure, and hospital organization influence team communication and vary between settings and national cul-tures. These factors must be accounted for before developing or adapting team communication interventions to improve patient safety.
A review of imidacloprid toxicity in coccinellids

Insecticides are the pesticides that are used to deter pests as they affect their nervous system, respiration, growth and by harming their exoskeletons. Meanwhile, they are affecting the non-target natural enemies such as ladybirds that are frequently used in IPM as biological control agents. Insecticides were presumed to be ineffective for Coccinellids earlier, but research studies have shown that these insecticides severely effect physiological and behavioural patterns of natural predators leading them to death. A best-selling insecticide, Imidacloprid: a neurotoxin belonging to neonicotinoid affects the behaviour and performance of natural enemies by effecting their fecundity, egg hatching, developmental time, growth rate, locomotion, survival rate and causing mortality of various Coccinellids including: Hippodamia undecimnotata, Coccinella septempunctata, Harmonia axyridis, Coleomegilla maculata, Hippodamia convergens, Serangium japonicum, Hippodamia variegata, Coccinella novemnotata.
58 87 v 1 [ qu an tph ] 2 3 Ja n 20 14 Entanglement-assisted weak value amplification

Large weak values have been used to amplify the sensitivity of a linear response signal for detecting changes in a small parameter, which has also enabled a simple method for precise parameter estimation. However, producing a large weak value requires a low postselection probability for an ancilla degree of freedom, which limits the utility of the technique. We propose an improvement to this method that uses entanglement to increase the efficiency. We show that by entangling and postselecting n ancillas, the postselection probability can be increased by a factor of n while keeping the weak value fixed (compared to n uncorrelated attempts with one ancilla), which is the optimal scaling with n that is expected from quantum metrology. Furthermore, we show the surprising result that the quantum Fisher information about the detected parameter can be almost entirely preserved in the postselected state, which allows the sensitive estimation to approximately saturate the optimal quantum Cramér-Rao bound. To illustrate this protocol we provide simple quantum circuits that can be implemented using current experimental realizations of three entangled qubits.
Historical and current landscape‐scale ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forest structure in the Southern Sierra Nevada

Many managers today are tasked with restoring forests to mitigate the potential for uncharacteristically severe fire. One challenge to this mandate is the lack of large-scale reference information on forest structure prior to impacts from Euro-American settlement. We used a robust 1911 historical dataset that covers a large geographic extent (>10,000 ha) and has unbiased sampling locations to compare past and current forest conditions for ponderosa pine and mixed conifer forests in the southern Sierra Nevada. The 1911 dataset contained records from 18,052 trees in 378 sampled transects, totaling just over 300 ha in transect area. Forest structure was highly variable in 1911 and shrubs were found in 54% of transects. Total tree basal area ranged from 1 to 60 m2 ha−1 and tree density from 2 to 170 ha−1 (based on trees >30 cm dbh). K-means cluster analysis divided transects into four groups: mixed conifer-high basal area (MC High BA), mixed conifer-average basal area (MC Ave BA), mixed conifer-average basal .
The Teenage Brain

Relative to childhood, peer relationships take on a heightened importance during adolescence. Might adolescents be highly attuned to information that concerns when and how they are being evaluated and what their peers think of them? This review evaluates how continuing brain development—which influences brain function—partially explains and reflects adolescents’ attunement to social evaluation. Though preliminary, evidence is mounting to suggest that while processing information relevant to social evaluation and the internal states of other people, adolescents respond with heightened emotional intensity and corresponding nonlinear recruitment of socioaffective brain circuitry. This review highlights research findings that relate trajectories of brain development to social behavior and discusses promising avenues of future research that will inform how brain development might lead adolescents to be sensitized to social evaluation.
Africanized honey bees (Apis mellifera L.) are more efficient at removing worker brood artificially infested with the parasitic mite Varroa jacobsoni Oudemans than are Italian bees or Italian/Africanized hybrids

Africanized honey bees are more tolerant of infestations with the mite Varroa jacobsoni than are honey bees of European origin. The capacity of these bees to detect and react to brood infested with this mite could be one of the factors determining this tolerance. We tested colonies of Africanized bees headed by queens from swarms collected in Ribeirao Preto, Sao Paulo State. The Italian colonies had queens imported directly from the USA, or from the Brazilian Island of Fernando de Noronha, where varroa-infested Italian colonies have been maintained, untreated, since 1984. Recently sealed worker brood cells were artificially infested by opening the cell capping, inserting live adult female mites and resealing the cells. Control cells were treated in the same way, but without introducing mites. The ability of the Africanized honey bees to recognize and remove this artificially infested brood was compared with that of first generation Italian/Africanized hybrid bees, and with the two groups of "pure" Italian bees, in three separate experiments. Africanized colonies removed a mean of 51% of the infested brood, while Italian/Africanized hybrid colonies removed 25%. Africanized colonies also removed a significantly greater proportion of infested brood than did Italian colonies, headed by queens from the USA (59 vs. 31%, respectively). Similarly, when Africanized colonies were compared with colonies of Italian bees from Fernando de Noronha, the former were found to be significantly more efficient at removing infested brood (61 vs. 35%, respectively), even though the population of Italian bees on this island has been exposed to and survived varroa infestations (without treatment) for more than 12 years. Only the Africanized honey bees removed a significant proportion of varroa-infested brood, when the data was corrected for brood removal from control cells.
I “Speak Chinese, but ...”: code-switching and identity construction among Chinese-Filipino youth

The younger generations of Chinese-Filipinos have assimilated themselves in Philippine society, adapting to local customs and traditions, as well as speaking in English and Tagalog. While most of these Chinese-Filipinos have Hokkien as their first language, for some of the younger generations, English or Tagalog has become the first language acquired, supplanting Hokkien, thus the inability to converse in the Chinese dialect. However, what is distinct with these younger ethnic Chinese is the inclusion of Hokkien words and/or phrases when talking to their co-ethnics. These Chinese-Filipinos tend to shift from Hokkien to Tagalog to English. It is apparent that this code-switching is a conscious effort to maintain an ethnic identity and a sense of belongingness to the ethnic Chinese community, while being members of a larger Filipino community. This study looks at the occurrence of code-switching among the younger generation of Chinese-Filipinos, its factors and implications in the construction of an ethnic identity. It is also argued that this particular switch, while serving as an instrument for the maintenance of a distinct identity and a sense of belongingness to the Chinese community, also serves as a cultural and social capital for this group to establish their place in Philippine society.
Effective Scrappage Subsidies

It is a common practice for governments to offer scrappage subsidies in order to stimulate the early removal of used cars and modify the distribution of vehicle holdings. In this paper, we analyze the market implications of such subsidies when producers have market power and face competition from a secondary used car market. One key result is that, with market power, a subsidy can induce scrappage even if it pays less than the price of a used car in the absence of the subsidy. We provide a full characterization of the effects of scrappage subsidies on primary and secondary markets for the case of a monopoly, and show that the subsidy that maximizes aggregate welfare lowers prices in the used car market. Our results contrast with the predictions derived from a model with perfect competition.
Biogeochemical iron budgets of the Southern Ocean south of Australia: Decoupling of iron and nutrient cycles in the subantarctic zone by the summertime supply

Climate change is projected to significantly alter the delivery (stratification, boundary currents, aridification of landmasses, glacial melt) of iron to the Southern Ocean. We report the most comprehensive suite of biogeochemical iron budgets to date for three contrasting sites in subantarctic and polar frontal waters south of Australia. Distinct regional environments were responsible for differences in the mode and strength of iron supply mechanisms, with higher iron stocks and fluxes observed in surface northern subantarctic waters, where atmospheric iron fluxes were greater. Subsurface waters southeast of Tasmania were also enriched with particulate iron, manganese and aluminum, indicative of a strong advective source from shelf sediments. Subantarctic phytoplankton blooms are thus driven by both seasonal iron supply from southward advection of subtropical waters and by wind‐blown dust deposition, resulting in a strong decoupling of iron and nutrient cycles. We discuss the broader global significance our iron budgets for other ocean regions sensitive to climate‐driven changes in iron supply.
The Puzzle of Mistaken Millions : The MTA Surcharge and the Surge of Money onto MetroCards Meiping ( Aggie )

Since 1998, the New York City Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) system has used prepaid cards (MetroCards) to collect subway and bus fares. In 2013, the MTA imposed a $1 surcharge on new MetroCard purchases to motivate riders to refill and keep using their existing cards, thereby reducing litter. The Authority’s stated goal was accomplished as the number of new MetroCards sold dropped immediately and stayed low after the surcharge was imposed. Ridership of subways and buses did not change significantly after the surcharge. But, riders who purchased new MetroCards with the surcharge made larger deposits, especially on cards that had no subsequent refill activities. The response to the surcharge was greater in low-income neighborhoods and among riders who used cash or debit cards rather than credit cards. Also, larger changes in new card deposits have been recorded at vending machines than at manned booths (tellers). As a result, the net monthly outstanding balance from transit card deposits increased dramatically, which translates to riders lending an extra $150 million, on an annual basis, to the MTA. Moreover, some of the increased balances were never redeemed and escheated to the MTA after these MetroCards expired. Since the surcharge is a one-time fee, it should have no impact on deposit amounts. I document this puzzle in consumers’ behavior change after the surcharge by constructing a unique novel data set combining transaction-level MetroCard deposit and swipe information. These results suggest that 1) A small penalty may induce unexpected behavior change besides the planned goal. A policy change which meant to reduce waste, while effective in terms of achieving its stated goal, may sometimes lead consumers to make choices that are economically worse and result in more welfare loss. 2) shrouding add-on fees may sometimes lead consumers to make choices that are economically better. *Department of Economics, Columbia University (email: ms4196@columbia.edu). I would like to thank Brendan O’Flaherty, Pietro Ortoleva, and Suresh Naidu for invaluable guidance, assistance and advice. I thank Jushan Bai, Alessandra Casella, Donald Davis, Mark Dean, Francois Gerard, Wojciech Kopczuk, Jonah Rockoff, and Miikka Rokkanen for discussions and comments that shaped the content of this paper. I thank Laxman Gurung, Sun Kyoung Lee, Xuan Li, Janis Priede, Tuo Chen, and Danyan Zha for their help. I also thank the participants of seminars at Columbia University and George Washington University for their comments. I thank Tuo Chen for helping with Matlab Codes. I thank Sun Kyoung Lee for providing subway-census-tract data. I am particularly indebted to the staff at Metropolitan Transportation Authority (MTA) who have provided data for my research. All errors are my own.
Q A ] 1 1 O ct 2 01 8 Structure theory of Rack-Bialgebras

In this paper we focus on a certain self-distributive multiplication on coalgebras, which leads to so-called rack bialgebra. Inspired by semi-group theory (adapting the Suschkewitsch theorem), we do some structure theory for rack bialgebras and cocommutative Hopf dialgebras. We also construct canonical rack bialgebras (some kind of enveloping algebras) for any Leibniz algebra and compare to the existing constructions. We are motivated by a differential geometric procedure which we call the Serre functor: To a pointed differentible manifold with multiplication is associated its distribution space supported in the chosen point. For Lie groups, it is well-known that this leads to the universal enveloping algebra of the Lie algebra. For Lie racks, we get rack-bialgebras, for Lie digroups, we obtain cocommutative Hopf dialgebras.
Looking but not Seeing: Does Perceptual Depth Reduce Change Blindness?

Abstract : Recent studies have shown frequent failures in the visual detection of changes, even if changes are large and anticipated. Failures in the detection of changing information have implications for human-computer interface design. Operators monitoring computer displays in safety-critical environments such as air traffic control centres, nuclear plants or hospital emergency rooms, need to monitor and keep track of a large volume of information. The state of the processes can change rapidly, and need to be kept within given safety or operational limits. In those cases, missing changing information could have an immense human and economic cost. In this report, we review research documenting several types of perception-"blindness" known as change blindness, inattentional blindness, comparison blindness and repetition blindness. Understanding the perceptual and attentional factors that produce these "blindness" might inform the theory and practice of computer interface design in order to create visualizations that will enhance change detection in monitoring tasks. Based on an Emergent Themes Analysis approach, we identified 5 effects, or properties, common across the different forms of change blindness, and hence the likely effects that designers need to consider when designing visual interfaces to reduce it. These five effects are (1) the effect of rate of change, (2) the effect of eccentricity, (3) the effect of proximity, (4) the effect of significance, and (5) the effect of task relevance. Several highlighting techniques used to enhance visual search and stress important information in visual displays such as changes in colour, intensity, blinking; and boxing have not been fully successful. We propose using a new technology known as the Multi-Layered Display (MLD) to investigate perceptual depth as a cue to enhance change detection. Until now, perceptual depth as a cue for change detection tasks has not yet been investigated.
Fructose-1,6-diphosphate and vitamin C combination increases seizure threshold in chemical kindling models -

Background: Fructose-1,6-diphosphate (FDP), through its activity in glucose metabolism, has anticonvulsant efficacy whereas vitamin C acts as neuromodulator. Aims and Objectives: To assess the antiepileptic effects of FDP, vitamin C and their combination in intravenous pentylenetetrazole (PTZ) and intracranial carbachol kindling model. Materials and Methods: PTZ kindling was induced by intravenous infusion of PTZ (10 mg/ml; infusion rate: 1 ml/min) to rats. For carbachol kindling, intracranial administration of carbachol (1 μl; 5 μg/ml) was done at well-spaced intervals by introducing maximum three injections a day, and maximum nine administrations until stage 5 epileptic convulsions were produced. The treated group animals received FDP, vitamin C or both, 28 days before the kindling. During kindling, time latency to reach a seizure stage, electroencephalogram (EEG) recording, and frequency of stimulation were recorded. Brain homogenate parameters included measurement of levels of neurotransmitters, glutathione (GSH), and malondialdehyde (MDA). One-way ANOVA was used for determination of a significant difference between the groups. Results: Slowing of seizure progression, increase in seizure threshold and required number of stimuli to reach to stage 5 convulsion was highest with FDP and Vitamin C combination followed by FDP and Vitamin C alone treatment. EEG data during the PTZ infusion indicated ictal epileptiform in disease control group and not in treatment groups. The test drugs either alone or in combination did not alter glutamate and aspartate levels in brain but increased the γ-aminobutyric acid and GSH whereas reduced MDA levels. Conclusion: It can be concluded that both FDP and Vitamin C has beneficial effects in chemical induced kindling and their combination shows synergistic effects.