Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sarcopenia, But Not Sarcopenic Obesity, is Associated with Clinically Significant Depressive Symptoms in Older Mexican Adults

Background: Sarcopenia and obesity have a high prevalence in Mexico. Evidence suggests that there is an association between these disorders and clinically significant depressive symptoms. Objective: The aim of the study is to provide the rate and association of depressive symptoms in subjects with sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity in elderly Mexican. Methods: This study is a cross-sectional analysis of data obtained from the FraDySMex study conducted in Mexico City (n=513). Depressive symptoms were assessed with the short version of the Center for Epidemiological Studies- Depression scale, and a cut-off point ≥ 5 indicated the presence of clinically significant depressive symptoms. A body mass index ≥ 30 defined obesity. Sarcopenia was assessed with the SARC-F questionnaire; a score ≥ 4 indicated the presence of sarcopenia. Sarcopenic obesity was defined as obesity along with sarcopenia. Two models were used to determine the association: one model assessed sarcopenia and depressive symptoms; the other one assessed them with sarcopenic obesity. Results: The analysis included 513 subjects, and the mean age of the subjects was 71.7 ± 9.4; 80.1% were female. The prevalence of CSDS, sarcopenia and sarcopenic obesity was 40.5%, 10% and 7.9%, respectively. Sarcopenia was associated with depressive symptoms (OR 2.64, 95% CI 1.35–5.14, p=0.004), but sarcopenic obesity was not associated with them (OR 1.86, 95% CI 0.89–3.89, p=0.09). Conclusion: Our study found that subjects with only sarcopenia were more likely to have depressive symptoms than subjects with sarcopenic obesity. However, properly prospective studies are needed to better understand this association.
The Use of Satellite Imagery for Monitoring Ice Break-up along the Mackenzie River, N.W.T.

The usefulness of satellite imagery for providing comprehensive information concerning break-up of river ice is discussed. For the years 1975-77, dates of break-up along the Mackenzie River derived from satellite images correlated well with the dates noted at six ground stations in the valley. It is suggested that satellite imagery could also be used to study ice break-up along rivers where little or no hydrometeorological data are regularly collected.
The Effect of Securities Litigation Reform and regulation Fair Disclosure on Forward- Looking Disclosures

In the late 1990s, both Congress and the Securities and Exchange Committee (SEC) sought to encourage more forward-looking disclosures. This led to three specific items of legislation/regulation: the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995 (PSLRA), the Securities Litigation Uniform Standards Act of 1998 (SLUSA), and Regulation Fair Disclosure (Reg.-FD) (2000). Although the specific purposes of each of these Acts were different, they each were founded on the desire of Congress and the Securities and Exchange Commission to improve the flow of information, particularly information about future operations from firms to investors. This paper looks at the effectiveness of these three Acts in increasing the number of forward-looking disclosures provided by companies in three disparate industries. Using a sample of 150 firms in the Consumer Staples, Consumer Durables, and Software industries, it was found that the number of forward-looking disclosures significantly increased following the passages of the SLUSA, and Reg. -FD, but not after the passage of the PSLRA.
International Terrorism, Domestic Political Instability, and the Escalation Effect

What are the main causes of international terrorism? Despite the meticulous examination of various candidate explanations, existing estimates still diverge in sign, size, and significance. This article puts forward a novel explanation and supporting evidence. We argue that domestic political instability provides the learning environment needed to successfully execute international terror attacks. Using a yearly panel of 123 countries over 1973–2003, we find that the occurrence of civil wars increases fatalities and the number of international terrorist acts by 45%. These results hold for alternative indicators of political instability, estimators, subsamples, subperiods, and accounting for competing explanations.
Time Series of Images to Improve Tree Species Classification

Abstract. Tree species classification provides valuable information to forest monitoring and management. The high floristic variation of the tree species appears as a challenging issue in the tree species classification because the vegetation characteristics changes according to the season. To help to monitor this complex environment, the imaging spectroscopy has been largely applied since the development of miniaturized sensors attached to Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAV). Considering the seasonal changes in forests and the higher spectral and spatial resolution acquired with sensors attached to UAV, we present the use of time series of images to classify four tree species. The study area is an Atlantic Forest area located in the western part of Sao Paulo State. Images were acquired in August 2015 and August 2016, generating three data sets of images: only with the image spectra of 2015; only with the image spectra of 2016; with the layer stacking of images from 2015 and 2016. Four tree species were classified using Spectral angle mapper (SAM), Spectral information divergence (SID) and Random Forest (RF). The results showed that SAM and SID caused an overfitting of the data whereas RF showed better results and the use of the layer stacking improved the classification achieving a kappa coefficient of 18.26 %.
The impact of suspended culture of the edible oyster Crassostrea madrasensis (Preston) on benthic faunal assemblages

The impact of suspended farming of the edible oyster, Crassostrea madrasensis (Preston) on the benthic faunal community structure was studied. The species composition of the faunal samples collected during January to September 2002 from an experimental farm which supported an oyster biomass of 27 to 288 kg in 25 m 2 area in Ashtamudi Lake, Kerala, were compared with that of a reference (non-farming) site. The faunal density was almost similar at the farm site, 1278 no. m -2 and at the reference site 1470 no. m -2. At the farm site, 22 species of annelids belonging to 16 genera and at the reference site 23 species under 19 genera were recorded. The Shannon Weiner function (H') was only slightly higher (2.64) at the reference site, than at the farm site (2.53). Almost similar Simpson (1- λ) dominance indices were also obtained. The Pielou's (J') evenness index was 0.79 at the reference site while at the farm site it was marginally lower (0.75). The Margalef (d) species richness index was higher (4.05) at the farm site than at the reference site (3.70). These differences in univariate diversity indices were not significant (P>0.05). The benthic faunal community structure at both sites were similar and there was no negative impact due to short-term farming of oysters.
Robustness of the spatial insurance effects of biodiversity to habitat loss

Definitions: Spatial insurance: Improvement of maintenance of species diversity and ecosystem functioning in heterogeneous environments because species can track their optimal environments by dispersing between habitat patches. Betweenness centrality: Value of an individual habitat patch in adding to the connectivity of the metacommunity by being a stepping-stone for dispersing individuals. Robustness: The proportion of patches that must be removed to change each response variable beyond a given threshold. Question: In fragmented landscapes, how do spatial patterns of habitat loss affect the robustness of the insurance effects on biodiversity? Does the underlying pattern of habitat connectivity in metacommunities play a role in maintaining biodiversity and ecosystem function in the face of habitat loss? Mathematical method: Using a spatially explicit version of a resource competition metacommunity model, we simulated habitat loss in metacommunity networks composed of habitat patches connected by links for dispersal. Key assumptions: Species differ in their environmental preferences. Local environmental conditions fluctuate asynchronously so that species must disperse in order to persist and maintain productivity. Habitat patches are lost sequentially, resulting in gradual fragmentation of the metacommunity. Results: Habitat loss reduces the amount of spatial insurance conferred by the habitat structure on biodiversity by preventing species from dispersing to environmentally suitable areas. The robustness of metacommunities to habitat loss decreases dramatically when the patches with high betweenness centrality are lost. Metacommunities are generally most robust when the pattern of habitat connectivity is random and when the habitat patches that are lost have low betweenness centrality.
Antioxidant potential and content of phenolic compounds in ethanolic extracts of selected parts of Andrographis paniculata

The present study investigated the antioxidant capacity and total content of phenolic compounds in an ethanolic extract of leaves, stems and fruits of Andrographis paniculata, a medicinal plant. The antioxidant activity of the samples was evaluated by the red cell hemolysis assay, free radical scavenging and superoxide dismutase activities. The Folin‐Ciocalteu reagent assay was used to estimate the phenolic content of extracts. Leaf extracts showed the highest antioxidant potential followed by stem and fruit extracts with the rabbit erythrocytes hemolysis and superoxide dismutase activity assays. However, A. paniculata fruit extracts exhibited the highest DPPH free radical scavenging activity compared to the other extracts. A positive correlation between free radical scavenging capacity and the content of phenolic compounds was found in the fruit, leaf and stem extracts of this plant.
Comparative study of courtship and copulation in five Oedothorax species

Oedothorax gibbosus (Blackwall, 1841) is a dwarf spider restricted to oligo- and mesotrophic alder carrs. This dwarf spider is distinguished from other Oedothorax species by its male dimorphism; gibbosus males are characterised by a hunch and a hairy groove on their carapace, tuberosus males do not have these features. The hairy groove is important during gustatorial courtship behaviour; this is the uptake of secretions by the female from a male body part during courtship. Another remarkable difference between O. gibbosus and its sister species is that courtship and copulation duration is much longer in this species. The rare O. gibbosus spiders also seem to be less active than common spiders of O. fuscus (Blackwall, 1834), O. retusus (Westring, 1851) and O. apicatus (Blackwall, 1850). In that way common spiders raise their chances of survival in the open field. A more active lifestyle seems to be related to a shorter, heavier courtship and copulation. It is also possible that the longer courtship and copulation time, useful for male competition and sperm competition, results from the male dimorphism in this species. The web has an important function in the reproduction of Oedothorax spiders : it is necessary during gustatorial courtship, other courtship activities and copulation, and it is also probably important for the distribution of contact pheromones. The copulation of Oedothorax species differs from that of Erigone : instead of two continuous insertions, we observed, in this case, a series of very short insertions, which can be linked to one other to make up longer periods.
Efficient edge detection using fuzzy heuristic particle swarm optimization / Noor Elaiza Abdul Khalid, Mazani Manaf and Mohd Ezane Aziz

This paper presents a hybridization of Particle Swarm Optimization (PSO) and Fuzzy edge detector. The edge detector is used as the initial population and as the objective function. The purpose of hybridizing the algorithm is to create an optimized edge detector. Classical Fuzzy Heuristics (CFH) detects thick edges. These thick edges need to be optimized to obtain a thin line. In this research the PSO is used to optimize the edge detection detected by the CFH algorithm and it is referred to as FHPSO. The test images are radiographs images of the metacarpal. These images have been used, because there is a need to detect strong and thin edges. Radiograph images are noisy in nature, which makes it difficult to measure the cortical thickness, the cortical outline of the inner cortical and outer cortical of the long tubular bone. The outer cortical edges are considered to be the strong edges due to high discontinuity values and the inner cortical edges are considered weak edges due to low their discontinuity values. The performance of FHPSO in detecting edges has been shown to be quite efficient.
Streaming Data Classification with the K-associated Graph

Graph-based methods consist in a powerful form for data representation and abstraction, such approach has been each time more considered to solve machine learning related problems. This work presents a graph-based algorithm suitable for streaming data classification problems with non-stationary distribution. The proposed algorithm is an extension of a static algorithm which relies on the following concepts, a graph structure called optimal K-associated graph, that represents the training set as a sparse graph separated into components; and the purity measure for each component, which uses the graph structure to determine local data mixture level in relation to their classes. Here we address classification problems that exhibit modification on the underlying data distribution. This problem qualifies concept drift and worsens any static classifier performance. Hence, in order to maintain accuracy performance, it is necessary for the classifier to keep learning during application phase, for example, by implementing incremental learning. Experimental results, suggest that our algorithm presents advantages over the tested algorithms on streaming classification tasks.
Vécu subjectif du recontact téléphonique après tentative de suicide Patient satisfaction regarding further telephone contact following attempted suicide

MOTS CLÉS Tentative de suicide ; Récidive suicidaire ; Recontact téléphonique ; Satisfaction Résumé La satisfaction des usagers des systèmes de soins est assez peu étudiée dans le domaine du suicide. Pourtant, dès 1976, certains auteurs retrouvaient un lien entre le risque suicidaire et un faible niveau de satisfaction envers les soins. À ce jour, seules deux études consacrées à la prise en charge des patients suicidants comportaient une évaluation de la satisfaction des patients (retrouvant d’ailleurs un lien fort entre insatisfaction et risque suicidaire). Au cours de l’étude SYSCALL mesurant l’impact d’un recontact téléphonique systématique sur la récidive dans les semaines suivant une tentative de suicide, nous avons voulu savoir si cette procédure ainsi que ses modalités avait été bien acceptée par les patients. Lors du dernier recontact programmé 13 mois après la tentative de suicide index, nous avons évalué le vécu des patients face à cette intervention et son impact sur leur devenir au moyen d’un questionnaire : 54 % des patients interrogés ont répondu, 78,9 % d’entre eux considéraient que le recontact leur avait été bénéfique et 40,4 % estimaient qu’il avait eu une influence sur leur vie voire pour 29,4 % qu’il leur avait évité une récidive suicidaire ; 94,5 % étaient satisfaits de son déroulement, mais 20,2 % auraient aimé être recontactés par un médecin connu. Enfin, la majorité des patients recontactés étaient satisfaits du moment choisi. Le recontact téléphonique, malgré sa nature intrusive et inhabituelle, a été bien accepté par les patients, ainsi que ses modalités. Nous pensons que le recueil de l’opinion des patients est aussi à développer en tant qu’outil thérapeutique dans la prise en charge des suicidants. © L’Encéphale, Paris, 2009.
QUALITY ISSUES FOR KOREAN MANUFACTURING INDUSTRY 1

Cost competition in price-sensitive segments is frequently unprofitable. Such strategies are always vulnerable to the next low labour cost nation, or to the next nation such as Malaysia or Thailand willing to subsidize construction of large, modern plants. Korean firms now invariably compete with cost-based strategies. They must upgrade their competitive advantages and learn to compete on differentiation, a process that may require decades. (Porter 1990: 688)
University students’ perceptions of their ‘ability selves’ and employability: a pilot study

ABSTRACT This study sets out to investigate the university students’ perceptions of their current and expected ‘ability selves’ and the contribution of such perceptions to students’ views of their own employability. The participants consisted of a group of male and female students (N = 104) who were asked to describe their present and anticipated abilities and to respond to a set of statements describing self-perceived employability. The students highlighted social aptness, extroversion and enterprise skills in particular as features related to ability selves in current discussions of working life. These interpretations were subsequently related to the optimism they had about their own employability. ‘Ability selves’ seem to play a role in the multifaceted process of subjective confidence formation regarding one’s employment prospects after graduation.
Reassembling the city through Instagram

How do people represent the city on social media? And how do these representations feed back into people's uses of the city? To answer these questions, we develop a relational approach that relies on a combination of qualitative methods and network analysis. Based on in-depth interviews and a dataset of over 400 000 geotagged Instagram posts from Amsterdam, we analyse how the city is reassembled on and through the platform. By selectively drawing on the city, users of the platform elevate exclusive and avant-garde establishments and events, which come to stand out as hot spots, while rendering mundane and low-status places invisible. We find that Instagram provides a space for the segmentation of users into subcultural groups that mobilise the city in varied ways. Social media practices, our findings suggest, feed on as well as perpetuate socio-spatial inequalities.
changes in bacterial community structure in seawater mesocosms differing in their nutrient status

Quantitative and qualitative changes in bacterial communities from the Mediterranean Sea were analysed under eutrophication conditions simulated in batch mesocosms (addition of inorganic nutrients or phytoplanktonic lysate). A wide variety of methods including traditional microbial ecology techniques, n~olecularb iology and flow cytometry were combined to determine abundances, production, cell size, activity, culturability, and genetic and taxonomic diversity. In all mesocosms, the increase in biomass was rapidly controlled by protozoan grazing. Morphologcal and physiological changes were observed during the growth phase of bacteria and under grazing pressure. The proportion of medium-size and culturable cells increased during the growth phase. Grazing eliminates preferentially active and medium-sized cells withln communities regulating bacterial productivity. Small and large cells were produced as a consequence of grazing pressure, and the large active cells contributed to the remaining productivity after grazing. Although grazing had an effect on the genetic diversity of bacterial communities by eliminating some populations, other species were preserved. It seems that some species such as Alterornonas macleodii may have developed defence strategies to escape predation. We hypothesize that such species may escape grazing by producing small andlor large cells during their growing phase.
Transcending Boundaries in Legal Education: A Vehicle for Teaching Students to Think Critically.

Legal education has traditionally been defined by many boundaries. Characterized by taxonomic structures and doctrinal categories, legal education is, for the most part, still seen as inextricably linked to a particular political geography and state normativity. The purpose of this paper is to demonstrate the pedagogical benefits of shattering established boundaries in legal education. It will assess how teaching from multiple perspectives in an integrated curriculum inculcates critical thinking skills in students, better enabling them to question assumptions, uncover hidden assumptions, and graduate as independent and innovative legal thinkers. Focusing on the transsystemic McGill Law Program, this paper will discuss the rewards of engaging students in an intellectually pluralistic and tradition-neutral legal curriculum, one that eschews silos and borders and focuses on creating agile and creative minds in future jurists who will be able to confront contemporary legal issues holistically and with a critical perspective.
Climate-Smart Agriculture in Nicaragua

The climate-smart agriculture (CSA) concept reflects an ambition to improve the integration of agriculture development and climate responsiveness. It aims to achieve food security and broader development goals under a changing climate and increasing food demand. CSA initiatives sustainably increase productivity, enhance resilience, and reduce/remove greenhouse gases (GHGs), and require planning to address tradeoffs and synergies between these three pillars: productivity, adaptation, and mitigation [1]. The priorities of different countries and stakeholders are reflected to achieve more efficient, effective, and equitable food systems that address challenges in environmental, social, and economic dimensions across productive landscapes. While the concept is new, and still evolving, many of the practices that make up CSA already exist worldwide and are used by farmers to cope with various production risks [2]. Mainstreaming CSA requires critical stocktaking of ongoing and promising practices for the future, and of institutional and financial enablers for CSA adoption. This country profile provides a snapshot of a developing baseline created to initiate discussion, both within countries and globally, about entry points for investing in CSA at scale. Changing temperature and precipitation patterns are shifting crop suitability patterns. Current coffee-producing regions may be more apt for cocoa production in the future. When communicated effectively, climate modeling and agrometeorological information can help farmers diversify or adapt.
Design of optimum gain pyramidal horn with improved formulas using particle swarm optimization

In this article, a new method to design an optimum gain horn antenna is presented. This method is based on improving existing design equations along with the use of particle swarm optimization technique. The obtained results are more accurate than those available in the literature since no path length error approximation is involved. Improved horn dimensions, for different 15 designs, are obtained which give the desired gain almost exactly. © 2007 Wiley Periodicals, Inc. Int J RF and Microwave CAE, 2007.