Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Being at the right place at the right time : Interpreting the annual life cycle of Afro-Siberian red knots

Het lijkt erop dat niet de ultralange trektocht van de kanoet de hoogste tol eist onder de populatie, zoals algemeen gedacht werd, maar dat de meeste sterfte pas optreedt na aankomst in het overwinteringsgebied, concludeert Jutta Leyrer. Zij bracht de gevaarlijke en voorspoedige momenten in de jaarlijkse levenscyclus van de steltloper in kaart. Leyrer deed onderzoek naar een van de zes ondersoorten van de kanoet, de Afro-SiberischeCalidris canutus canutus. Deze trekvogel vliegt jaarlijks zo’n 4000 tot 5000 kilometer van zijn broedgebied in Noord-Siberie naar zijn overwinteringsplek aan de kust van West-Afrika. En weer terug. Onderweg moet er bijgetankt worden en in het voorjaar is de Duitse Waddenzee bij Sleeswijk-Holstein daarvoor de belangrijkste pleisterplaats. Verondersteld wordt dat hier in het voorjaar, in de tweede helft van mei, de geheleC. canutus canutuspopulatie een tussenstop maakt om op te vetten. Een belangrijke periode in de jaarlijkse cyclus is de timing van aankomst in de broedgebieden op zodanige wijze dat het opgroeien van de kuikens samenvalt met de piek in de voedselvoorziening op de Siberische toendra. Teveel tegenwind kan de aankomst verlaten en bovendien extra sterfte onderweg veroorzaken. Leyrer ontdekte echter dat de vogels voor deze noodsituaties gebieden in hun reisschema inpassen waar zij extra kunnen foerageren. Ook aan te veel gevaar van roofvogels bieden de kanoeten flexibel het hoofd, door op een eerder moment dan gebruikelijk te vertrekken van een pleisterplaats. Dat juist de tropische, voedselrijke overwinteringsgebieden in West-Afrika niet zo comfortabel blijken voor de langeafstandstrekkers, is een verrassing. Leyrer zoekt de oorzaken in een samenspel van fysiologische en 'sociale' factoren: de vogels zijn verzwakt en sterk vermagerd door de trektocht, ze ruien na aankomst en moeten acclimatiseren in het warme en vochtige weer en ze moeten vechten om een goed foerageergebied.
Predictive Role of Grit and Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction on Subjective Well-Being for Young Adults.

In this research, it is aimed to investigate the predictive role of grit as a personality trait and basic psychological needs satisfaction on subjective well-being among young adults. Participants of this research are 348 voluntary young adults who are final year undergraduate students in the government universities of Istanbul city, Turkey as well as graduates who work. There are 200 (57.5%) females and 148 (42.5%) males. The average age is 23.01 (sd=2.52). Data collection tools used in this research are ‘Subjective Well-Being Scale’ (Tuzgol-Dost, 2015), ‘Revised Grit Scale’ (Duckworth and Quinn, 2009) and ‘Basic Psychological Needs Satisfaction Scale’ (Deci and Ryan, 1991). Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient, hierarchical regression analysis and independent group t tests are conducted. According to the findings, female participants have higher subjective well-being levels than males. Relatedness satisfaction sub-scale score from basic psychological needs satisfaction scale and total score of basic psychological needs satisfaction are found to show a significant difference in favor of females. Regression analysis concluded that grit, satisfaction of three basic psychological needs (autonomy, competence and relatedness) and gender are the meaningful predictors of subjective well-being for young adults. Satisfaction of three basic needs predicts subjective well-being stronger than grit and gender. Besides, a positive and statistically significant relationship between the satisfaction of three basic needs and grit tendency is concluded. Findings are discussed in the light of the related literature. Suggestions are made for further researches and for school counsellors and mental health professionals. Keywords: Grit, basic psychological needs satisfaction, self-determination theory, subjective well-being, young adults.
EFFECTS OF CELECOXIB AND LEFLUNOMIDE ON PREGNANT ALBINO RATS AND THEIR DELIVERED NEWBORNS: HISTOPATHOLOGICAL STUDY -

The main purpose of this study was to investigate the possible histological effects of two presently marketing antirheumatic drugs namely celecoxib and leflunomide on the liver and kidney of pregnant albino rats and their delivered newborns. Histological investigation of the maternal treated liver revealed massive hepatotoxicity including deformity, degeneration and hypertrophoid of hepatocytes, erosion of endothelial cells of blood vessels while, the newborn experimental rats displayed massive degeneration of hepatocytes associated with perivascular leucocytic infiltration. On the other side, the kidney of the treated mothers have a number of deformities as peritubular inflammatory cellular infiltration, degeneration of lining epithelial cells and swollen glomeruli, however, their offspring showed only the last two defects. The transmission electron microscopic examination on the same maternal organs confirmed the light microscopic investigation and revealed that experimental groups have a dramatic alteration of hepatic tissues in terms of heterochromatin accumulation, irregular nuclear membrane and marked deformity of cytoplasmic organelles as mitochondrial degeneration, endoplasmic reticulum fragmentation, and glycogen granules distribution. The kidney of the experimental pregnant mothers displayed a diverse number of histopathological abnormalities which included reduction or thickening in the glomeruli basement membrane, endoplasmic reticulum fragmentation, either mitochondrial swelling or atrophy, severe chromatin clumping and deformity of nuclear membrane. The degree of these histopathological effects depended on the applied drug. The results obtained from the study are discussed in the light of their counterparts from other related previous studies.
Language, Society and Education in Singapore: Issues and Trends

While changes in the demographic, economic, socio-political, linguistic and education aspects of life in Singapore in the last fifteen years have been fairly well documented by specialists in the separate fields, there is clearly a need for a state-of-the-art volume on the inter-relationship of developments in language, society and education. This book aims to fulfil that need. The book is distinguished by four characteristics: it deals not only with English but also with Chinese, Malay and Tamil, Singapore's other official languages; it draws upon empirical research carried out in the last decade in Singapore; it examines the subject from a range of perspectives, including that of classroom pedagogy; and it deals with the language needs of both the school-going population and working adults. This is a reissue of the second edition of this illuminating book.
The Supernatural in Gothic Fiction: Horror, Belief, and Literary Change

While the numinous and heavily psychological aspects of the Gothic have received serious attention, studies do not tend to examine the relation of the Gothic supernatural to the very different backgrounds of 18th-century and Victorian belief. This study examines the rise of the form, the artistic difficulties experienced by its early practitioners, and the transformation of the original problem-ridden Gothic works into the successful Victorian tales of unearthly terror. In doing so, this study makes a distinct contribution to our grasp of the Gothic and of the links between literature and religion.
Adaptive beamformer with recursively updated quadratic constraints

A novel adaptive beamformer employing recursively updated soft constraints for acoustic speech enhancement is proposed. The beamformer operates in a subband structure to allow time-frequency operation for each channel. As such, the processing can be viewed as a combination of weighted spatial and temporal filters. The major benefit of this recursive soft constrained beamformer is that it allows the possibility of using the spectral information of the desired source to modify the soft constraint. This has clear benefits on the speech distortion of the source of interest. The novel adaptive beamformer involves continuous modification of the soft constraint by feeding back the spectral content of the estimated output speech signal. Evaluations on real car data show that the proposed algorithm significantly improves the speech quality with noise suppression levels up to 17 dB.
The Role of the Hospital Environment in the Prevention of Healthcare-Associated Infections by Contact Transmission

OBJECTIVE: This article describes the role of the hospital environment in the spread of pathogens by direct and indirect contact. In addition, the prevention of transmission through interventions involving the built environment is discussed. BACKGROUND: The hospital environment can become contaminated with pathogenic microorganisms, some of which can persist for long periods of time. Although contamination is common, the contribution of the hospital environment to the development of healthcare-associated infections remains unclear. In part spurred by the development of newer technologies to enhance environmental cleaning or to prevent contamination, research into the role of the environment in causing healthcare-associated infections has accelerated. TOPICAL HEADINGS: A review of the recent literature finds an increasing body of evidence implicating contaminated surfaces in patient care areas in the transmission of pathogens and the development of infections. Single-patient rooms and optimally placed alcohol hand rub dispensers and other design features can mitigate infection risk. Enhanced environmental cleaning including touchless technologies and self-cleaning surfaces can reduce environmental contamination and may prevent infections. CONCLUSIONS: The hospital environment contributes to transmission of pathogens in hospitals and to the development of healthcare-associated infections. Newer technologies to prevent environmental contamination or to enhance cleaning are promising although additional studies with the endpoints of reduction of infections are needed before the role of these technologies is known.
Tuberculosis of the Prostate: Report of a Rare Case With Unusual Presentation

Tuberculosis of the prostate is considered to be a rare disease, and of all the cases of genitourinary tuberculosis, prostatic tuberculosis is much less common in comparison to renal, seminal, and epididymal tuberculoses. It is usually associated with nonspecific symptoms and is detected incidentally after transurethral resection. Sometimes, it may present like acute bacterial infection with high-grade fever and multiple abscesses that is usually seen only in cases of acquired immunodeficiency syndrome. However, the present case showed the previously mentioned features in a human immunodeficiency virusYnegative individual and thus creating the diagnostic dilemma. It highlights the facts that prostatic tuberculosis can have a varied presentation and prostatic biopsy with the demonstration of acid-fast bacilli is the criterion standard for diagnosis of this disease. (Infect Dis Clin Pract 2009;17: 399Y400) Tuberculosis is considered to be a major public health problem not only in developing countries but also worldwide, especially after the emergence of multidrug-resistant bacilli and a steady increase in patients with acquired immunodeficiency syndrome (AIDS). Tuberculosis of the prostate is considered to be very rare, and most of the cases are detected incidentally after transurethral resection. Although it is associated with nonspecific symptoms, it may rarely present with high-grade fever, enlarged tender prostate, and multiple abscesses. It has been reported that the previously mentioned presentation of tuberculous prostatic abscess is seen only in cases of AIDS. However, the present case of this rare disease in a human immunodeficiency virus (HIV)Ynegative individual and with the previously mentioned unusual presentation highlights the fact that prostatic tuberculosis has a varied presentation, and it is very difficult to distinguish these patients with or without HIV infection on the basis of clinical presentation. The prostatic biopsy, along with the demonstration of acid-fast bacilli (AFB), is the mainstay of the diagnosis of this disease.
Optimal Terminal Iterative Learning Control for the Automatic Train Stop System

The train stop control is a typical set‐point control task, where only the final state (i.e., the terminal train stop position) is of concern and specified. For such a control problem, an optimal terminal iterative learning control (TILC) approach is presented in this paper, where the stopping position and initial braking speed are chosen as the terminal system output and the control input, respectively. The controller design only depends on the measured input/output (I/O) data without requiring any modeling information of the train operation system, and the learning gain is updated by the system I/O data iteratively to accommodate the system uncertainties. The monotonic convergence of the terminal tracking error is guaranteed by rigorous mathematical analysis. Extensive simulation results are provided to show the applicability and effectiveness of the proposed approach.
Clinical Course Of Diarrhea In Pediatric Primary Health Care

The main purpose of this study was to observe the evolution of diarrheic disease, detect the incidence of chronic diarrhea, and identify some of the factors related to the protection against or worsening of the disease. For this purpose the methodology of the uncontrolled study of a cohort was employed. All cases of diarrhea which came to the out patient clinic for primary care in a low-income area, on the outskirts of Porto Alegre during the period of one year (from January, 2000 to January, 2001) were followed for two months. The data collection instrument was made up of six protocols including data which would help grasp the natural history of the disease and some factors which may be related such as: age, birth, weight, breast-feeding, degree of nutrition, family income, level of education of the persons responsible for the child, and length of stay with the mother. It was concluded that the population studied presented a high rate of chronicity (43%) and there was no association with the above prognostic factors
Optimization of cellular radio network

This paper deals with the cellular radio network optimization. It is based on the realized experiment focused on an optimizing the GSM900 network. Bounded area in a rural region with smooth terrain is considered. Dual-slope, two-ray model is used for radio signal propagation modelling. The assigning of radio cannels to base stations and their emitted radio power are optimized. The main contribution of the work lies in detailed analysis of the criterion of optimization. An interesting solution was created by a study of interference analysis and reduction for wireless systems, usable network capacity and of its overload capacity. Method of genetic algorithms is used for solving this problem. Experiment was made in the MatLab environment.
Microbiological and Minimum Inhibitory Concentration Study of Ventilator-associated Pneumonia Agents in Two University-associated Hospital Intensive Care Units in Mazandaran

Objectives: This study aimed to determine the antimicrobial susceptibility pattern of microorganisms causing VAP in the intensive care units (ICU) of two university associated hospitals in the province of Mazandaran in Iran from 2008 to 2010. Materials and Methods: This study was performed on VAP patients diagnosed with the clinical pulmonary infection score (CPIS) in ICU’s of two university hospitals. For each patient suspected of VAP, quantitative culture of endotracheal aspiration (QEA) was performed and minimum inhibitory concentration (MIC) was determined by a micro dilution test. Data was analyzed by the SPSS 17 software and a P < 0.05 was considered to be statistically significant. Results: In this study, the type and the frequency of the microbial agents causing VAP was as follows: coagulate negative staphylococci (23.3%), Escherichia coli (E. coli) (21.7%), Staphylococcus aureus (S. aureus) (18.3%), Pseudomonas aeruginosa (P. aeroginosa) (18.3%), Enterobacter spp (11.7%). and Klebsiella pneumoniae (K. pneumonia) (6.7%). 35.71% of coagulate negative staphylococci were sensitive to vancomycin. All of the isolated E. coli was resistant to ceftazidime, but 50% sensitive to gentamicin and meropenem. 54.54% of isolated S. aureus were resistant to vancomycin. All of the isolated P. aeroginosa cases were sensitive to imipenem while 50% were resistant to ceftazidime. Conclusions: In patients with VAP, carbapenems had good activity against P. aeroginosa. Increasing resistance of S. aureus to vancomycin requires more attention and further studies.
Methodological issues in eliciting blend mental models: The context of sound propagation

While constructing their understanding in various science areas, students go through transitional phases that may involve richly developed and consistently used mental models. These transitional models are unique and coherent cognitive structures composed of the elements of both scientifically accepted models and the commonly used initial alternative models. Such models have been previously referred to as hybrid models or blend models. We discuss the nature of model blending in the context of sound propagation and suggest several solutions to methodological issues that surface in their qualitative and quantitative eliciting, such as linking answer choices across multiple questions, which we called Linked Item Model Analysis, LIMA.
False alarm reduction in maritime anomaly detection with contextual verification

Automated vessel anomaly detection is immensely important for preventing and reducing illegal activities (e.g., drug dealing) and for effective emergency response and rescue in a country’s territorial waters. A major limitation of previously proposed vessel anomaly detection techniques is the high rate of false alarms as these methods mainly consider vessel kinematic information which is generally obtained from AIS data. In many cases, an anomalous vessel in terms of kinematic data can be completely normal and legitimate if the “context” at the location and time (e.g., weather and sea conditions) of the vessel is factored in. We propose a novel anomalous vessel detection framework that utilizes such contextual information to reduce false alarms through “contextual verification”. We evaluate our proposed framework for vessel anomaly detection using real-life AIS data sets obtained from U.S. Coast Guard.
Effect of Crude Glycerin on Fecal Shedding of Escherichia coli O157 in Growing and Finishing Cattle

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of crude glycerin feeding on E. coli O157 prevalence in feces of growing and finishing cattle. In study 1, crude glycerin was included at 0, 4 or 8% of dry matter in growing cattle diets comprised of 62.5% corn silage and 33, 28, or 24% wet corn gluten feed. Heifers (n = 368; initial body weight = 234 ± 3.2 kg) were housed in partially covered, concrete-surfaced pens with seven to eight animals per pen and 16 pens per treatment for the 90-day experiment. Study 2 was a finishing experiment with a 2 x 2 factorial treatment arrangement. Factor 1 consisted of the level of crude glycerin (0 or 2% of dry matter) and factor 2 was the presence or absence of a combination of 25% soybean hulls and 15% wet distiller’s grains (WDG) as grain substitutes. Heifers (n = 232; initial body weight = 427 ± 8.8 kg) were housed in concrete-surfaced pens with seven to eight animals per pen and eight pens per treatment. Fresh fecal samples were taken from growing and finishing animals via rectal palpation. One gram of feces was incubated for 6 hr at 40oC in Gram negative broth with cefixime (0.05 mg/L), cefsulodin (10 mg/L), and vancomycin (8 mg/L), and then subjected to immunomagnetic separation with E. coli O157 beads. Recovered beads were plated onto MacConkey agar with sorbitol, cefixime, and tellurite (CTSMAC), and non-sorbitol fermenting colonies were tested for indole production and O157 antigen agglutination. Positive colonies for both tests were confirmed as E. coli using the API 20E kit. Fecal prevalence rates of E. coli O157 were affected by sampling day in the growing study (P 0.1). Increasing levels of crude glycerin decreased incidence of E. coli O157 in growing cattle (linear effect, P 0.05) despite a strong tendency for a decrease in finishing cattle receiving corn-based diets (P = 0.059). There was no interaction between WDG inclusion and Effect of Crude Glycerin on Fecal Shedding of Escherichia coli O157 in Growing and Finishing Cattle
Disorganizing Organizational Culture: Comment on the Individual and Family Factors

Defining culture in relation to organizational culture has also focused on the operation level of culture. This latter as discussed by Maurice Thevenet (1993) concludes that culture is a collective phenomenon that concerns an enterprise as a human organization. By this collective point of assemblage, and in this measure, I intend to present the framework whereby entrepreneurial activities in collectivist cultures are constructed via two non-identical cultures: individual culture and family culture. I am concerned with questions like: What is the divergent line between the cultural beings and the organizational culture? How do individual and family cultures disorganize the organizational culture? What is their addition?
The Doha Round: "death-defying agenda" or "don't do it again"?

Almost eight years after the launch of the Doha Round, the WTO negotiations remain mired in a swamp of detail, with many participants unwilling or unable to make the hard decisions which would bring the Round to a conclusion. Meanwhile, the world has changed dramatically with the onset of a global economic crisis of proportions seldom, if ever, seen before. This has radically changed the context within which the Round is placed and may lead to fundamental rethinking of its future. This paper examines the origins of the Round and concludes that, at the time, its launch was well-founded. It traces the twists and turns in the negotiations since then and finds that, while progress has been incremental, it has also been painfully slow. Decisive action has been avoided. It addresses three issues: whether, in current economic circumstances and given the long but inconclusive history of the negotiations, it is important to complete the Doha Round and if so, how this could be achieved; whether there are alternative approaches to WTO negotiations that could be explored for the future; and what a future negotiating agenda might look like. It concludes with some reflections on the prospects for the WTO at the present juncture in its short history. ECIPE WorkIng PaPEr • no. 10/2009
Software para la propuesta de un modelo de evaluación técnica de la calidad de las herramientas para el desarrollo de aplicaciones en ambientes visuales (MECHDAV)

La herramienta MECHDAV es creada para sistematizar el modelo homónimo, con la finalidad de medir en forma práctica y real la calidad de los ambientes visuales. Está enfocada en dar un dictamen técnico sobre la calidad del uso del producto. Es muy útil para hacer comparaciones acerca de qué paquetes de software conviene usar o adquirir con base en la cuantificación de ciertos patrones de medida (métricas), dentro de una gama de herramientas de desarrollo para este tipo de plataforma, y cuál es el nivel de calidad que ostentan.
Why young women in southern Africa are going for riskier older men

In recent years scientists have noted high rates of HIV infection among young women in southern Africa that are well above those of young men of similar age. For the region as a whole young women between 15 and 24 years are on average three to six times more likely than their male counterparts to be HIV infected. The UNAIDS has conducted ethnographic research on social and cultural aspect of HIV in the region over several years. This article reviews and analyzes studies that focused on the topic of age mixing in sexual relationships between men and women in southern Africa.