Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Perfluorooctanoic Acid (PFOA): Environmental Sources, Chemistry, Toxicology, and Potential Risks

ABSTRACT Attention regarding perfluoroalkyl and polyfluoroalkyl substances (PFAS) has increased in recent years, due to recognition of widespread environmental presence, recognition of a chemical structure that confers resistance to degradation, and reported health concerns. Historical common exposure sources include food, drinking water, occupational circumstances, and products in commerce (e.g., carpeting, clothing, paper products). Early-2000’s data showed perfluorooctanoic acid (PFOA) was present in blood samples from nearly all the U.S. general population (>99%). Alterations in industrial manufacturing processes, increased regulatory scrutiny, and advanced water treatment options have reduced the reported human body burden of PFAS in the U.S., including for PFOA. Human serum concentrations of PFOA, which do not identify the source(s) of exposure, have exhibited a substantial decrease (~63%) between the 1999–2000 and the 2013–2014 NHANES monitoring by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC). With respect to both noncancer and potential cancer effects that may be associated with reported serum levels of PFOA, conclusions regarding an absence of effects, or insufficient information to suggest adverse effects, prevent a consistent conclusion about the occurrence and magnitude of human health effects. In the last several years, a number of state and federal agencies have developed health advisories or guideline values for drinking water exposure that are in the sub-ppb range. In 2016, a USEPA Health Advisory of 0.07 ppb was released, which stands in contrast to 2016 Health-based Values from Health Canada ranging from 0.2 ppb (PFOA) to 30 ppb, and a few other U.S. states with values even less than that of USEPA (e.g., MN, NJ, VT). Further work is necessary to distinguish in transparent fashion between drinking water levels that intentionally are set on a conservative basis to protect human health vs exposure levels that may be associated with tangible adverse effects.
The Rational Clinical Examination: Evidence-Based Clinical Diagnosis

Simel DL, Rennie D, Keitz S, eds. 744 pages. New York: McGraw-Hill Companies; 2009. $59.95. ISBN 9780071590303. Order at www.mhprofessional. com. Field of medicine: Primary care and physical diagnosis. Audience: Clinical faculty who teach physical diagnosis, primary care physicians, medical students, and residents. Purpose: To provide careful, systematic methods to assess the accuracy of items from the patient's medical history and clinical examination. Content: This book is a concise, evidence-based review of useful and clinically relevant evidence regarding multiple common clinical conditions, collated from previous JAMA articles. The text clarifies how to use specific aspects of patient history and physical examination to evaluate a condition and reach a diagnosis. Highlights: An evidence-based review of selected history and physical examination findings is provided, along with a description of their importance to practicing physicians, including a bottom line paragraph and updates from earlier publications. This book is an excellent source of supported evidence that provides useful and clinically relevant information for the busy practitioner, student, resident, or educator who wants to hone skills of physical diagnosis. It provides a tool to improve patient care by using the history and physical examination items that have the most reliability and efficiency. It can be a useful reference for those in primary care, and subspecialists may find it helpful as well. Limitations: The text includes only about 50 selected findings and consequently is not a comprehensive compendium. Related reading: Textbooks, such as Bates, Mosby, and Novey, outline examination techniques and normal and abnormal findings, although the evidence supporting each item of the history or examination is not provided. The Merck Manuals provide in-depth information on diseases but do not focus on evidence for the history and physical examination items. Reviewers: Jon Allen, MD, and Joshua Wynne, MD, MBA, MPH, University of North Dakota School of Medicine and Health Sciences, Grand Forks, North Dakota.
Students’ Health Seeking Behaviour and its Rationale at Uganda Christian University

Uganda Christian University’s records of 2013-2014 show that approximately 30% of the 3,300 students in the Easter Semester did not register for and therefore could not use the University’s health services. This study analysed Uganda Christian University students’ health seeking behaviour in order to identify their preferred health care services and rationale for their choice, and the barriers to the University’s health system. A cross-sectional and mixed design was applied. Data was collected with a questionnaire administered to a sample of 424 Uganda Christian University students in April 2015. Quantitative data was analysed with SPSS 16. Qualitative data was analysed by content analysis. Most students came from urban (51%) or peri-urban (23.4%) homes and had parents or guardians with post-secondary school education (80%). Most of the students used the university’s Allan Galpin Health Centre (78%) when in need of health care but given choice, they would prefer other health facilities, especially those nearest. The most frequent reason for choice was convenience. The females perceived their state of health differently from the males (p-value 0.03) and they had more unmet health needs. Barriers include unavailability of needed services, long queues, poor customer care, lack of trust in the service, waiting to see if the health problem would resolve and lack of relevant information. The findings are similar to those from studies done in similar contexts. Key influencers of health seeking behaviour were convenience and gender. Unavailability of needed services and customer care issues were barriers to the University health services.
Analyzing the Relationship between Climatic Variability and Vegetables Yield: A Study in Syangja District, Nepal

Vegetable production is highly dependent on climatic variability. Several studies have concluded that Syangja district (latitude 28°4'60 North and lo ngitude 83°52'0 East) of Nepal is more vulnerable to climate change; thus, a changing climate should have a significant impact on vegetable crop yields. In this paper, the relationship between climate variation and vegetable output in Syangja district for the period 2005 to 2014 was analyzed. This work aims to explore the impact of climate change on major vegetable crop yields and to determine their relationships based on a regression model between historical climatic data and yield data for vegetable crops. Tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) was ranked as the most affected vegetable crop in the study area. An analytical analysis of the last 20 years of climatic data from meteorological stations of Syangja district was Original Research Article Regmi et al.; JSRR, 17(3): 1-9, 2017; Article no.JSRR. 36270 2 done. Microsoft excels and STATA12 have been used for the trend analysis and quantification of climatic data. Trend analysis of area under vegetable and productivity shows increasing trend over last 10 years in the study district. Both maximum and minimum temperature shows the increasing trends over the last 15years. The mean maximum temperature was increasing significantly (P<0.1) at the rate of 0.029°C per year, while the average m inimum temperature was increasing significantly (P<0.01) at the rate of 0.044°C per ye ar. Rainfall shows decreasing trend by 11 mm per year and relative humidity in the morning and evening shows increasing trend by 0.009 and 0.27% per year respectively. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the role of climatic variables in productivity of Vegetable crops. The logit regression analysis of vegetable production with climatic variables revealed a coefficient of determination of 0.94 indicating 94% of vegetable production variance is explained by climatic variables. Results showed positive significant relationship with area under vegetable cultivation (P<0.1) and negative significant relationship with average minimum temperature (P<0.5).
Quantum Proofs

Quantum information and computation provide a fascinating twist on the notion of proofs in computational complexity theory. For instance, one may consider a quantum computational analogue of the complexity class NP, known as QMA, in which a quantum state plays the role of a proof also called a certificate or witness, and is checked by a polynomial-time quantum computation. For some problems, the fact that a quantum proof state could be a superposition over exponentially many classical states appears to offer computational advantages over classical proof strings. In the interactive proof system setting, one may consider a verifier and one or more provers that exchange and process quantum information rather than classical information during an interaction for a given input string, giving rise to quantum complexity classes such as QIP, QSZK, and QMIP* that represent natural quantum analogues of IP, SZK, and MIP. While quantum interactive proof systems inherit some properties from their classical counterparts, they also possess distinct and uniquely quantum features that lead to an interesting landscape of complexity classes based on variants of this model.In this survey we provide an overview of many of the known results concerning quantum proofs, computational models based on this concept, and properties of the complexity classes they define. In particular, we discuss non-interactive proofs and the complexity class QMA, single-prover quantum interactive proof systems and the complexity class QIP, statistical zero-knowledge quantum interactive proof systems and the complexity class QSZK, and multiprover interactive proof systems and the complexity classes QMIP, QMIP*, and MIP*.
NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF THE PRODROME TO PSYCHOSIS IN THE NAPLS CONSORTIUM: RELATIONSHIP TO FAMILY HISTORY AND CONVERSION TO PSYCHOSIS


CONTEXT Early detection and prospective evaluation of clinical high-risk (CHR) individuals who may develop schizophrenia or other psychotic disorders is critical for predicting psychosis onset and for testing preventive interventions. OBJECTIVES To elucidate the neuropsychology of the CHR syndrome, to determine the association of neuropsychological function with conversion to psychosis and family history of psychosis, and to examine whether baseline neuropsychological functioning predicts subsequent psychosis. DESIGN Longitudinal study with 2(1/2) years of follow-up. SETTING Eight centers participating in the North American Prodrome Longitudinal Study. PARTICIPANTS Three hundred four prospectively identified CHR individuals meeting Structured Interview for Prodromal Syndromes criteria, 52 non-CHR persons with a family history of psychosis in first- or second-degree relatives (family high-risk group), and 193 normal controls with neither a family history of psychosis nor a CHR syndrome, all of whom underwent baseline neuropsychological evaluations. MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES A neurocognitive composite score, 8 individual neuropsychological measures, an IQ estimate, and high-risk status. RESULTS Global ("composite") neuropsychological functioning was comparably impaired in the CHR and family high-risk groups compared with controls, but profiles differed significantly between groups. Neuropsychological functioning in the CHR group was significantly lower in persons who progressed to psychosis than in those who did not and was worst in the subgroup with a family history of psychosis. Tests of processing speed and verbal learning and memory were most sensitive in discriminating CHR individuals from controls, although reductions were less severe than in established schizophrenia. Neuropsychological functioning did not contribute uniquely to the prediction of psychosis beyond clinical criteria, but worse verbal memory predicted more rapid conversion. CONCLUSIONS These findings document that CHR individuals have significant neuropsychological difficulties, particularly those who later develop psychosis. This dysfunction is generally of moderate severity but less than in first-episode schizophrenia, suggesting that further decline may occur after baseline CHR assessment.
Learning Difficulties and Use of Visual Technologies in Learning to Program

In recent years, programming has been seen as a promising career with great earning potential. Rapid growth and use of computer technology give further emphasis to programming. Therefore, faculties open programming courses ranging from introductory to advanced levels. Primary and secondary schools also started to include programming courses in their curriculum. However, in the literature, it has been widely accepted that learning to program is a challenging task for students. Studies conducted on programming education show that significant number of students fail the programming course or get low grades. Of the reasons why students have problems in programming, necessity to possess variety of knowledge while dealing with the programming exercises is mentioned most in the research. These are syntactic, conceptual and strategic knowledge. Other reasons involve lack of motivation, lack of skills required for the programming, lack of mathematical knowledge and unfamiliarity with the programming courses. This is a literature review study that discusses learning difficulties of students and visual technologies used in programming courses to overcome problems mentioned above. This study examines technologies such as Scratch, Alice, Blockly, Jeliot and Ville. The properties of these technologies, how they can be used in programming and results of research studying the effectiveness of these technologies are also discussed
ANALYSIS OF STUDENTSâ€™ COGNITIVE STRUCTURES USING FREE WORD-ASSOCIATION TEST IN CHEMISTRY LEARNING

This study aims to determine the cognitive structure of high school students of class XI with free word-association method in teaching chemistry at the material buffer solution. The research was conducted in the second semester with a sample of 37 students at SMAN 89 Jakarta. The method used is qualitative in interpretivism paradigm, focused on the analysis of cognitive structures using free word-association method in teaching chemistry. Data obtained by interview, documentation, observation and student assignments through free word-association. Instruments free word-association tests contain stimulus word of "buffer" to collect information about students' conceptual structure in the material buffer solution. The data were subject to content analysis and divided into categories through coding. Results of this study is there are five categories in the distribution of cognitive structures through free word-association test. These categories include the definition of a buffer solution, buffer solution properties, creation of buffer solution, pH buffer solution and calculate the buffer system in biological systems. The most dominant category is category nature buffer solution. The conclusion is that students have the cognitive structure of the most widely through recall or rote learning and there are learning difficulties experienced by students in learning material buffer solution.
Analyse de données sur les ventes lors d'une intervention axée sur un dépanneur santé de Toronto : le projet FRESH sur l'environnement de la vente d’aliments au détail comme déterminant de la santé

Correspondance : Leia M. Minaker, École de planification, Université de Waterloo; 200, av. University Ouest, Waterloo (Ontario) N2L 3G1; tél. : 519-888-4567, poste 35615; courriel : lminaker@uwaterloo.ca Analyse de données sur les ventes lors d'une intervention axée sur un dépanneur santé de Toronto : le projet FRESH sur l'environnement de la vente d’aliments au détail comme déterminant de la santé
A six‐microRNA risk score model predicts prognosis in esophageal squamous cell carcinoma

Esophageal cancer ranks the eighth most common cancer and the sixth most common cause of cancer death worldwide. MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are small noncoding RNAs that regulate a wide variety of cancer‐related cellular processes. In the current study, a series of previously published gene expression microarray data from Gene Expression Ominus and The Cancer Genome Atlas were downloaded and further divided into training, internal, and external validation sets. Least absolute shrinkage and selectionator operator Cox regression model along with 10‐fold cross‐validation was performed to select the miRNAs associated with the prognosis of esophageal squamous cell carcinoma (ESCC) and constructed a six‐miRNA signature. Then the prediction accuracy of this signature was assessed in validation and test set using Kaplan–Meier analysis, time‐dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves and dynamic area under the ROC curve. According to the result, the prediction accuracy of miRNA signature was much better than that of tumor–node–metastasis (TNM) stage in all the three sets. Stratified analysis also demonstrated that the predict ability of this signature was independent of TNM stage. Finally, function experiments including apoptosis and colony formation assay were performed to further reveal the regulatory role of miRNAs in ESCC. Our study demonstrated the promising potential application of this novel six‐miRNA signature as an independent biomarker for survival prediction of ESCC patients.
Limb-Sequencing Deficits After Left but not Right Hemisphere Damage

Abstract The performance of right and left hemisphere stroke patients was compared to normal control groups on a task where subjects alternately hit two targets which varied in size from 0.5 to 6.5 cm. The stroke patients used the arm ipsilateral to damage, and the control groups used the same arm as their respective stroke group. Lesion size and location were similar for the two stroke groups. No deficits were found for the right hemisphere stroke group. The left stroke group′s tapping speed was not slower at the smallest target, but became progressively slower relative to the control group′s as target size increased. Variability in tapping speed increased as target size increased for all except the left stroke group. While the entire left stroke group was as accurate as their controls, the apraxic, but not nonapraxic, patients made more errors on smaller targets only. Two explanations for these findings both emphasize the left hemisphere′s special role in motor programming; one focuses upon its dominance for movements which are independent of sensory feedback and the other emphasizes its specialization for processing rapid temporal information.
ISCAN: a System for Integrated Phonetic Analyses Across Speech Corpora

Speech corpora of many languages, styles, and formats exist in the world, representing significant potential for the phonetic sciences. However in practice there are significant practical and methodological barriers to conducting the “same study” across corpora, including necessary technical skills and non-comparability of results using non-standardized measures. We introduce an open-source software system for Integrated Speech Corpus ANalysis (ISCAN), which enables automated acoustic phonetic analysis across spoken corpora of diverse formats and sizes. A web-browser-based GUI and Python package allow for different user backgrounds. The system is a major update of core functionality for fully- automated speech corpus analysis (importing, enriching, querying) from a previous version, to meet new goals: different user configurations, working with restricted datasets, and interacting with data (visualization and correction). The system’s flexibility for different projects is shown in two use cases: large-scale automatic segmental analysis of spontaneous speech across English dialects, and smallerscale semi-automatic prosodic analysis.
Anticipated Income Shock and Labor Supply

We examine the impact of an anticipated income shock on Singaporean taxi labor supply. This income shock is due to a government provision allowing employees to withdraw part of their pension savings at the age of 55. The results show that salary income, number of trips, total hours worked, and active hours worked decrease after drivers reach age 55 by 3.5%, 3.2%, 1.6%, and 3.1%, respectively. The impact on labor supply is more marked right after drivers reach age 55, and the response is stronger among those with higher education or with lower salary income. Moreover, we find that the anticipated income shock decreases the extensive margin by 5.79%.
Arranjos de sensores orientados à missão para a geração automática de mapas temáticos em VANTs

The use of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAV) has become increasingly common, particularly in civilian applications. In the military scenario, the use of UAVs has focused the accomplishment of specific tasks in two broad categories: remote sensing and transport of military material. This work focuses the remote sensing category. It address the definition of a model and reference architecture for the development of smart sensors oriented to specific tasks. The main objective of these missions is to generate thematic maps. This work investigates processes and mechanisms that enable the automatic generation of thematic maps. In this sense, the concept of MOSA (Mission Oriented Sensor Array) is proposed and modeled. As case studies, we propose two automatic mapping systems for on-the-ground generated sound sources, one for the civilian case and one for the military case. These sounds may come from the noise generated by large animals (including humans), from internal combustion engine vehicles or from artillery activity (including hunters). The MOSAs modeled for this application integrate data from a thermal imaging sensor and an on-the-ground network of acoustic sensors. The fusion of position information, provided by the two sensors, into a single cartographic basis is one of the key aspects addressed in this work. The main contributions are the proposed MOSA systems, including concepts, models and architecture and the reference implementation comprised by the system for automatic mapping of sound sources.
Indicators of innovation : empirical insights into activities, challenges and strategies of Swiss energy sector start-ups

Entrepreneurial activity can be seen as a signal for opportunities opening up in a changing market. This working paper covers the progress to date in developing an understanding of the activities, challenges and strategies of start-ups in the Swiss energy sector. The study, has compiled a list of 77 active start-ups in the heat and electricity fields who are contributing to four distinct challenges relevant to the national Energy Strategy 2050 goals: increasing renewable energy production, reducing energy demand, decreasing system complexity, ensuring availability of energy. So far, 14 interviews were held with selected start-ups in order to cover all of the four areas and varying customer segments, from within the energy business to end users. These interviews were conducted to specifically qualify the value proposition and current activities of the firms, as well as internal and external challenges that they faced during their development. Nine distinct challenges were identified that are specifically relevant to the energy sector. These, e.g., refer to customer awareness, possible channels for acquisition, access to finance and building legitimacy as a new entrant. Furthermore, this working paper also presents ten strategies that helped these start-ups to overcome the stated challenges. The report concludes with a number of recommendations for future research on energy entrepreneurship and to promote entrepreneurial activities in the Swiss energy sector.