Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Alumina ceramic 3.6 in flotation spheres for 11 km ROV/AUV systems

Spherical flotation units of 99.9% Al/sub 2/O/sub 3/ ceramic have been successfully produced by Deepsea Power & Light for application to 11 km ROV/AUV systems. The 3.6-inch (91.45 mm) OD seamless hollow spheres with 034 weight/displacement ratio have routinely withstood proof testing to 30,000 psi (207 MPa), 1000 hour sustained pressurization to 25,000 psi, and 10,000 pressure cycles to 20,000 psi (138 MPa). Each of the spheres provides 0.6 lb (272 gr) of lift. When encased in a 0.2-inch thick buoyant elastomeric boot, they withstood impact on concrete from a 6 ft elevation. Together with syntactic foam, they will provide most of the required lift for the WHOI HROV system with 36,000 ft (11 km) depth capability. An extensive QA procedure has been developed for each sphere, which requires not only adherence to tight dimensional and thickness specifications but also acoustic emission criteria during pressure testing. Deepsea Power & Light is also in the process of developing a roto-molding process for casting of alumina ceramic spheres with larger diameter for the whole range of ocean depths from 10,000 ft (3000 m) to 36,000 ft (11,000 m). Spheres with 5-inch (127 mm) and 8-inch (203.2 mm) outside diameter have already been successfully cast. The casting of even larger spheres will proceed upon acquisition of a larger furnace.
Introduction: Temporary Uses as Alternative Practices

Cities are subject to continuous change and restructuring. There arises, inter alia, a fundamental tension between the rigidity of the urban built environment and the relative fluidity of the socio-economic processes that produce and are accommodated by it. The relations between the former and the latter affect urban development. Land and buildings must be adapted to meet new requirements. Such adjustment is achieved through various combinations of change of use, renovation, alteration, demolition, new construction and so on. However, physical, social, economic, political, institutional and cultural factors frequently cause a hiatus between the decline and obsolescence of land uses and buildings, on the one hand, and their redevelopment and/or reuse on the other. Thus, vacancy and dereliction are common stages in the urban development cycle. But the problem faced by many cities is that they have experienced a dramatic growth in vacant and derelict land and buildings. Two opposing trends have been identified as the cause of this. Bishop and Williams (2012) argue that European cities have gradually become more formalised and ‘permanent’. In medieval settlements, essential infrastructures, such as street systems and substantial administrative
Evaluation on service quality of kindergarten based on SERVQUAL

Service quality of kindergarten not only concerns the healthy growth of the children directly, but also the kindergarten's development. Based on the study of evaluation and management of service quality home and abroad, there were designed of SERVQUAL evaluation questionnaire and service quality gap model for kindergartens, by which a research was conducted on evaluation of service quality for 14 kindergartens belonged to the reputable preschool education A Group.
Income Smoothing Behavior at the Times of Political Crises

This study aimed to investigate the effect of political crises on income smoothing behavior in non-financial firms listed on Amman Stock Exchange (ASE) during the period 2006-2015. Chi-Square, Correlation and Logistic Regression tests indicated that income smoothing practice exists, and is more likely in the periods of political crises. Results also indicated no effects of the firm size, return on assets (ROA) and financial leverage on income smoothing behavior, but it could not reveal an ultimate result concerning the effect of the firm sector.
Prospective Clinical Comparison of Patient Outcomes Following Implantation of Trifocal or Bifocal Intraocular Lenses.

PURPOSE To compare the visual results and patient satisfaction after bilateral implantation between a bifocal and a trifocal intraocular lens (IOL). METHODS This study is a prospective, randomized, controlled study involving bilateral implantation of one of two multifocal IOLs. Patients were assessed for uncorrected and distance-corrected near (33 cm), intermediate (66 cm), and distance visual acuity. Distance contrast sensitivity under photopic (85 cd/m2) conditions with and without glare was also measured. Using a subjective questionnaire, patient satisfaction, spectacle independence, and the perception of glare and halo phenomena were evaluated at the final follow-up; a defocus curve analysis was conducted. RESULTS Fifteen patients (30 eyes) were implanted with the FineVision IOL (PhysIOL, Liége, Belgium) and 12 patients (24 eyes) received the Tecnis ZMB00 IOL (Abbott Medical Optics, Santa Ana, CA). The average follow-up was 6 months. The mean binocular uncorrected visual acuity was 0.02 ± 0.04 logMAR in the FineVision group and 0.04 ± 0.05 logMAR in the Tecnis group and the mean binocular uncorrected near visual acuity was 0.01 ± 0.00 logMAR in both groups. In the intermediate range of the defocus curve, there was a statistically significant difference between the two IOLs (P < .05). Contrast sensitivity was within normal limits under photopic conditions in both groups. CONCLUSIONS Both the Tecnis and FineVision IOLs provide a satisfactory range of vision, including a high level of uncorrected distance, intermediate, and near acuity and improved contrast sensitivity under photopic conditions.
Consequences of MRSA carriage in nursing home residents

A prospective cohort study with 1 year follow-up evaluated the relation between MRSA carriage and mortality, likelihood of hospitalization and functional status in residents of a nursing home for the elderly. Included were all 447 residents living in the home in early June 1994. From all patients, swabs were taken from nose, throat and perineum. Additional swabs (sputum, urine or wounds) were taken when indicated. The relative risk (RR) of dying within 6 months in MRSA carriers compared to non-carriers was 2·29 (95% CI=1·04–5·04). This RR remained stable (1·57–2·40) after adjustment for co-variables using Mantel–Haenszel stratified analysis. After 1 year, the RR was reduced to 1·30 (95% CI=0·65–2·58). Univariate survival analysis confirmed a difference in survival between carriers and non-carriers after 6 months (log-rank P=0·04) and no difference after 1 year. Cox regression analysis resulted in a hazard ratio for dying within 6 months of 1·73 (95% CI=0·72–4·17). No relation was found between carriage and either likelihood of hospitalization or indicators of functional status. These results are compatible with a possible relation between 6 months mortality and MRSA carriage in nursing home patients. It calls for a large scale, multicentre cohort study in order to either confirm or refute these findings.
The role of MRI in active surveillance of prostate cancer

Purpose of review The aim of active surveillance is to avoid radical treatment and its side-effects in men who have truly low risk prostate cancer, whilst offering radical treatment to those men who are at higher risk of local progression or metastatic disease. The traditional tools used to attribute these risk categories are prostate specific antigen, digital rectal examination, transrectal biopsy and their repeated application over time. MRI is emerging as a tool which may be able to more accurately determine the risk of significant disease at diagnosis and progression of disease over time. This review will examine the role of MRI in men on active surveillance. Recent findings The body of work on MRI as a tool for the detection of significant cancer is rapidly increasing, both in men undergoing initial assessment for prostate cancer risk, and in those who have low risk cancer on standard transrectal ultrasound guided biopsy. In addition, the use of MRI as a tool to detect change in prostate cancer is being explored by a small number of groups. Summary Multiparametric MRI is a useful tool in the initial assessment and surveillance of men who choose to avoid radical treatment when first diagnosed with localized prostate cancer.
Effect of nano-fillers distribution on the nonlinear conductivity and space charge behavior in SiC/PDMS composites

Flexible polymer based materials with excellent breakdown strength and weak space charge behavior have been widely used in the field of cable insulation and cable termination. The silicon carbide (SiC) is beneficial to homogenize the electric field distributions, suppress the space charge injection and enhance the dissipation in the polymer composite. In this work, the polydimethylsiloxane (PDMS) based composites filled with β-SiC nanoparticles were prepared by solution mixing and mechanical blending, respectively. Compared with the pure PDMS, the SiC/PDMS composites possess not only the increased nonlinear conductivity coefficient but also the largely enhanced capability of dissipation of space charge. Especially under high electric field environment, the impact caused by uneven distribution of the SiC fillers was significant. The results of the space charges measurement under high electric field revealed that the SiC nanoparticles could largely enhance the dissipation and accelerate the movement of space charge, which was due to less trap sites leading to the better dispersion of SiC nanoparticles.
Hepatocellular carcinoma.

BACKGROUND Hepatocellular carcinoma is one of the world's most common malignancies. The aims of the present paper are to review data on (1) epidemiology and screening programmes for the early detection of the tumour and (2) advances in the diagnostic imaging and management. METHODS Relevant English language articles, published between January 1985 and December 1997, were reviewed. Articles were identified through Medline search, using the key words 'hepatocellular carcinoma'. Articles cited in the bibliographies of these articles were searched manually. RESULTS Hepatocellular carcinoma has a heterogeneous geographical distribution. Although its risk factors have been identified, the efficacy of screening programmes remains uncertain. Imaging has improved substantially with the recent application of dual-phase helical computed tomography and magnetic resonance imaging employing specific contrast agents. The comparative efficacy of conservative therapy and surgical resection is uncertain, since well controlled trials are lacking. CONCLUSION Hepatocellular carcinoma is commonly a problem of two diseases, the malignancy itself and cirrhosis. This renders treatment rarely curative, even when surgical resection can be applied in a technically successful sense. Liver transplantation could be a definitive treatment but this is plagued by limited donor resources.
MONEY MARKET AND ECONOMIC GROWTH IN NIGERIA: A CAUSALITY ANALYSIS

This study is on the role of money market on economic development of Nigeria. The study sought to examine the relationship between different money market instruments and the economic development of Nigeria. Four money market instruments (treasury bills, treasury certificates, certificates of deposits, and bankers’ acceptances) were chosen to regress against the gross domestic product (representing economic growth), on the basis of which four research objectives and four hypotheses were formulated. Secondary data from 1990 to 2014 were obtained from Central Bank of Nigeria Statistical Bulletin. The methods of analysis included regression, unit root tests, co-integration tests, and parsimonious error correction. The results show that the money market has significant impact on the growth of the Nigerian economy. However, the impact was specifically significant with respect to bankers’ acceptances and certificates of deposits. Based on the findings, the study recommended among others, that, more instruments and innovations should be introduced into the money market to enlarge the scope of the market, and that the money market should be fragmented for expansion.
Ajax live regions: ReefChat using the fire vox screen reader as a case example

Web 2.0 enabled by the Ajax architecture has given rise to a new level of user interactivity through web browsers. Many new and extremely popular Web applications have been introduced such as Google Maps, Google Docs, Flickr, and so on. Ajax Toolkits such as Dojo allow web developers to build Web 2.0 applications quickly and with little effort. Unfortunately, the accessibility support in most toolkits and Ajax applications overall is lacking. WAI-ARIA markup for live regions presents a solution to making these applications accessible. To address this problem we developed an Accessible Ajax chat application called ReefChat and the Fire Vox screen reader. Features include, chat message notification through live regions to notify the AT. As well as keying up and down messages to navigate through chat messages, and keying left and right to filter messages from specific users. In this paper after briefly discussing the problem of Web 2.0, we describe our accessible chat application and screen reader.
GFR estimation using standardized cystatin C in kidney transplant recipients.

BACKGROUND The utility of serum cystatin C (SCysC) as a filtration marker in kidney transplantation is uncertain. We took advantage of the recent validation of a reference calibrator for SCysC and of newly developed CKD-EPI (Chronic Kidney Disease Epidemiology Collaboration) equations (2012) expressed for use with standardized SCysC level to reassess the performance of SCysC as a filtration marker in kidney transplant recipients. STUDY DESIGN Study of diagnostic test accuracy. SETTING & PARTICIPANTS 670 kidney transplant recipients from 3 centers undergoing glomerular filtration rate (GFR) measurements from December 2006 to November 2012. INDEX TEST Estimated GFR (eGFR) using the 2012 SCysC-based and serum creatinine (SCr)/SCysC-based CKD-EPI equations (eGFR(cys) and eGFR(cr-cys), respectively) and the 2009 SCr-based CKD-EPI equation (eGFR(cr)), with SCysC and SCr measured at a single laboratory between April 2011 and June 2011. REFERENCE TEST Measured GFR (mGFR) using urinary clearance of inulin. RESULTS Bias (the difference between mGFR and eGFR) was significantly smaller for eGFR(cys) and eGFR(cr-cys) versus eGFR(cr) (-2.82 and -0.54 vs +4.4 mL/min/1.73 m(2), respectively; P < 0.001). Precision (standard deviation of the mean bias) also was better for eGFR(cys) and eGFR(cr-cys) versus eGFR(cr) (12 and 11 vs 13 mL/min/1.73 m(2) [P < 0.001 for both comparisons]). Accuracy (percentage of GFR estimates within 30% of mGFR) was greater for eGFR(cys) and eGFR(cr-cys) versus eGFR(cr) (81% and 86% vs 75%, respectively [P = 0.004 and P < 0.001]). Net reclassification index with respect to mGFR of 30 mL/min/1.73 m(2) for eGFR(cr-cys) and eGFR(cys) versus eGFR(cr) was 18.8% [95% CI, 8.6%-28.9%] and 22.5% [95% CI, 10.2%-34.9%]. LIMITATIONS Patients were exclusively of European descent; association with transplant outcome was not evaluated. CONCLUSIONS Our data validate the use of both the newly developed SCysC-based and SCr/SCysC-based CKD-EPI equations (2012) in kidney transplant recipients. Both equations perform better than the SCr-based CKD-EPI equation (2009).
Extracellular Proteases of Staphylococcus spp.

Abstract Bacterial proteases secreted into an infected host may exhibit a wide range of pathogenic potentials. Staphylococci, in particular Staphylococcus aureus, are known to produce several extracellular proteases, including serine, cysteine and metalloenzymes. Their insensitivity to most human plasma protease inhibitors and, even more, the ability to inactivate some of these make the proteases potentially harmful. Indeed, several recent studies have shown that staphylococcal proteases are able to interact with the host defense mechanisms and tissue components as well as to modify other pathogenderived virulence factors. A tight, cell densitydependent control of proteolytic activity expression, similar to that of the welldefined virulence determinants, further suggests the role of staphylococcal proteases in the infection process. Consistently, alterations in coordinated expression of extracellular proteins markedly diminished the virulence. However, despite these data and the fact that a strain deficient in sspABC operon coding for serine (sspA) and cysteine (sspB) proteases was highly attenuated in virulence in the animal infection model, it was impossible to unambiguously demonstrate the importance of any particular protease as a virulence factor. Therefore, it can be assumed that the orchestrated expression and interaction of a variety of extracellular and cell surface proteins rather than any particular one is responsible for the staphylococcal pathogenicity and that the proteases apparently play an important role in this complex process. Such redundant mechanism is very well suited for promoting the survival of staphylococci under diverse environmental conditions encountered in the infected host.
Detecting biomarkers in habitable-zone earths transiting white dwarfs

The characterization of the atmospheres of habitable-zone Earth-mass exoplanets that transit across main-sequence stars, let alone the detection of bio-markers in their atmospheres, will be challenging even with future facilities. It has been noted that white dwarfs (WDs) have long-lived habitable zones and that a large fraction of WDs may host planets. We point out that during a transit of an Earth-mass planet across a WD, the planet’s atmospheric transmission spectrum obtains a much higher contrast over the stellar background compared to a main-sequence host, because of the small surface area of the WD. The most prominent bio-marker in the present-day terrestrial atmosphere, molecular oxygen, is readily detectable in a WD transit via its A-band absorption at � 0. 76µm. A potentially life-sustaining Earth-like planet transiting a WD can be found by assembling a suitable sample of � 500 WDs and then surveying them for transits using small telescopes. If and when a transiting case is found, the O2 absorption in the planetary atmospheric transmission spectrum would be detectable with the James Webb Space Telescope (JWST) in about 5 hours of total exposure time, integrated over 160 2-minute transits. Characterization of the planet atmosphere using other tracers such as water vapour and CO2 will be considerably easier. We demonstrate this future discovery space by simulating a possible transmission spectrum that would be obtained with JWST.
BrainyHand: a wearable computing device without HMD and it's interaction techniques

Existing wearable devices like an eyeglass-type head-mounted display(HMD) are very bulky and cannot be worn everyday. On the other hand, the earphone is popular wearable device, bacause it is small. However, the earphone cannot be used as an interaction device because of the lack of input and visual feedback components. In this paper, we propose BrainyHand - an enhanced earphone device for use in interaction systems. BrainyHand consists of a color camera and a laser projector. The camera recognizes the user's hand gestures for the input. For the visual feedback, the images projected on the user's hand or other nearby objects or surfaces using the projector. Since laser microprojector is becoming small, we expect this device configuration would eventwally a become as small as today earphones. We introduce several interaction methods based on hand gesture recognitions and object detections.
Defining the starting distance for the far field of antennas operating in any environment

The far field of an antenna is generally considered to be the region where the outgoing wavefront is planar and the antenna radiation pattern has a polar variation and is independent of the distance from the antenna. In this paper, the starting distance for the far field is defined for antennas operating in free space and over an imperfect ground plane. First, this paper intends to illustrate that 2D2 / λ formula, where D is the maximum dimension of the antenna and λ is the operating wavelength, is not universally valid, it is only valid for antennas where D >> λ. Second, this paper intends to compute a more specific constraint so instead of D >> λ we compute a threshold for D after which the 2D2 / λ formula applies. Third, this paper intends to properly interpret D in the formula 2D2 / λ when the antenna is operating over an imperfect ground plane. In this paper, we do not use 2D2 / λ for antennas operating over an imperfect ground instead we use a formula which depends on the transmitting and receiving antenna's heights over the air-Earth interface.
The patient with transient cerebral ischemia: a golden opportunity for stroke prevention

TRANSIENT ISCHEMIC ATTACK (TIA) provides a golden opportunity for stroke prevention. TIA should be treated as a medical emergency with prompt investigations to determine the mechanism of ischemia and subsequent preventive therapy. The risk of stroke after TIA is estimated to be 10%–20% in the first 90 days. The risk is time-dependent with 50% of the risk accruing in the first 48 hours. In this review, we describe the diagnosis and management of TIA, introduce new concepts in TIA and suggest that all patients with significant TIA should undergo rapid investigation and management to prevent stroke.
A phase II study of weekly paclitaxel and epirubicin in recurrent or refractory squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck.

OBJECTIVE The combination of taxanes and anthracyclines has been proved to be active for treatment of many cancers. We conducted a phase II study to determine the response and toxicity of paclitaxel and epirubicin (TE) in patients with incurable squamous cell carcinoma of the head and neck (SCCHN). METHODS Patients with metastatic or recurrent SCCHN and adequate hematologic, renal and hepatic function and a Karnofsky performance status >/=60% were enrolled. Prior chemotherapy and/or radiotherapy were permitted with 4-week interval. The regimen was paclitaxel 60 mg/m(2) and epirubicin 20 mg/m(2), on Days 1, 8 and 15, as an intravenous infusion, repeated every 28 days. Patients with disease progression or unacceptable toxicity were excluded from the study. RESULTS The current study was intended to treat 43 patients but closed at the planned interim analysis due to early evidence of insufficient efficacy than expectation. Fifteen patients with a median age of 52 years (range, 37-72 years) were accrued. Previously, most patients had received radiotherapy and chemotherapy, and a majority (87%) of patients had treatment-free interval of <6 months. Median Karnofsky performance status was 70% (range, 60-90%). There was one clinical response (7%) and another three (20%) had stable disease. Median overall survival time was 4.5 months. The most common major toxicity was infection (47%), which caused four treatment-related mortalities. Grade 3-4 neutropenia occurred in five patients, but other toxicities were mild and manageable. CONCLUSIONS In the population with majority of refractory disease of SCCHN, the response rate to TE was lower than expected. Such dose schedule is not recommended unless in chemotherapy naïve patients or in combination with newer agents.