Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
SUBSIDIZED HEALTH INSURANCE, PROXY MEANS TESTING AND THE DEMAND FOR HEALTH CARE AMONG THE POOR IN COLOMBIA

In the new Colombian system of universal health insurance (after the 1993 reform), a proxy-means targeting mechanism, the SISBEN, assigns individuals to either a contributory or a subsidized regime. We first seek to understand household take-up behavior in the latter regime. This paper has two objectives, first to understand household take-up or affiliation behavior to the subsidized regime and second, to analyze the effect of the previous step on use of health service -household out-of-pocket expenditures, medical visits, medicines and hospitalization –. Empirical results are based on the 1997 Encuesta Nacional de Calidad de Vida, a nationally representative multi-topic household survey of living conditions. Results show that take-up of the subsidized regime increases both on demand-side variables such as deteriorated health status and poverty risk-, and on supply-side variables related to municipal policy environment –such as pre-reform availability of health service and available information. After the reform, income seems to have ceased to be a constraint on access to health care for the poor and the subsidized regime does not stimulate inefficient (excessive ) use health care services. Accounting for potential endogeneity between take-up and health care seeking behaviors, we show that, only in urban areas, beneficiaries of the subsidized regime consult doctors more often but are less likely to face hospitalization than non-affiliated individuals. Rural households’ behavior is not affected. This should alleviate concerns that insurance may raise the poor demand for health care. On the other hand, in the event of illness households in the subsidized regime do face smaller financial burden in terms of lower expenditures for medical consultations and medicine. Inefficiencies in the cumbersome targeting mechanism, with relatively low take-up rates and inclusion of wealthier households, may nevertheless limit the overall impact of the system.
The Vest TM High-Frequency Chest Wall Oscillation System Compared with Manual Chest Wall Physiotherapy for Managing Airway Clearance in Patients with Complex Neurological Disorders : A UK-based Cost-Effectiveness Analysis

Weakness in the muscles used to breathe and swallow can lead to difficulties with airway clearance for people with neurological disorders including neuromuscular disease and cerebral palsy. This can lead to aspiration and other respiratory problems which are the leading causes of death in patients with complex neurological disorders. The VestTM system supports airway clearance through the use of High-Frequency Chest Wall Oscillation (HFCWO) to loosen secretions in the chest by reducing their viscosity.
Resilience of Kimberley coral reefs to climate and environmental extremes : past , present and future

The Kimberley region in northwest Australia is a naturally extreme environment that features abundant and highly diverse coral reefs. However, it is currently unknown how Kimberley corals can cope with these extreme conditions and whether this affects their calcification rates and resistance to climate and environmental change. Through a series of field and laboratory experiments, we aim to: 1. Study seasonal calcification rates of common Kimberley corals over two years; 2. Assess their thermal tolerance and establish the first bleaching thresholds for this region; and 3. Reconstruct their resilience to historical climate and environmental extremes using geochemical proxies in coral cores. Our findings to date show that: 1. Kimberley corals calcify at rates comparable to those from similar corals living in more typical tropical reefs (Dandan et al. 2015); and that 2. Kimberley corals are nevertheless highly susceptible to heat stress and bleaching, despite their ability to withstand temperature extremes over short time scales (Schoepf et al. accepted). 3. Further details regarding ongoing work and progress towards aim 3 are discussed.
The Effects of Exogenous Gibberellin on Seed Germination of the Fruit Species

Gibberellins are diterpenoid, plant growth hormones and regulators, able to control some important processes in plant growing and breeding; including stem elongation, flowering initiation, increasing fruit set and size, improving fruit shapes, induction of seedlessness, retardation or acceleration of senescence, breaking seed dormancy, in increasing crop metabolic contents, activation preferred gender organs in flowers, pollen development and germination. Some of the chemical substances occur endogenously in some parts of plant organisms. The chemicals are also being produced commercially and commonly used in different aims via exogenous application. One of their uses is breaking seed dormancy and activation of seed germination of fruit species. The fruit trees are mostly propagated via grafting on rootstock derived from seed and the known, valuable seeds sometimes can be hard to germinate themselves because of external or internal factors. In the review study, usages and effects of the exogenous gibberellins on germination of some fruit seeds at in vitro, ex vitro and nursery germination conditions are presented.
Fungal heat-shockproteins in humandisease

Heat-shock proteins (hsps) have been identified as molecular chaperones conserved between microbes and man and grouped by their molecular mass and high degree of amino acid homology. This article reviews the major hsps of Saccharomyces cerevisiae, their interactions with trehalose, the effect of fermentation and the role of the heat-shock factor. Information derived from this model, as well as from Neurospora crassa and Achlya ambisexualis, helps in understanding the importance of hsps in the pathogenic fungi, Candida albicans, Cryptococcus neoformans, Aspergillus spp. , Histoplasma capsulatum, Paracoccidioides brasiliensis, Trichophyton rubrum, Phycomyces blakesleeanus, Fusarium oxysporum, Coccidioides immitis and Pneumocystis jiroveci. This has been matched with proteomic and genomic information examining hsp expression in response to noxious stimuli. Fungal hsp90 has been identified as a target for immunotherapy by a genetically recombinant antibody. The concept of combining this antibody fragment with an antifungal drug for treating life-threatening fungal infection and the potential interactions with human and microbial hsp90 and nitric oxide is discussed.
Water Glass Coating on Ti Substrate for improving Cell behaviors of Dental Implant

Ti and its alloys are widely used as a material for orthopedic and dental implants since it shows outstanding corrosion resistance and good biocompatibility. However, they require a long period of time to bond with the surrounding living bone. In order to enhance early fixation and osseointegration with surrounding bone tissue in a human body, various coatings on Ti surface have been studied for many years. It is known the existence of functional groups such as Si-OH and Ti-OH on Ti surface accelerates the formation of HAp layer formation in SBF solution. Moreover, it has been well known that the collagen coating on Ti surface is effective for enhancing the initial cell attachment. But, the chemical coating of collagen on Ti surface is not easy. In this study, water glass (WG) coating was conducted to form of silanol functional groups (Si-OH) on Ti surface and characterized with SEM and EDS for the examination of surface morphology and chemical composition, respectively. XPS and FT-IR are used to confirm the content of hydroxyl groups on Ti discs. The WG coated Ti discs were immersed in revised SBF solution to examine the ability of HAp formation. Also the cell test was performed to confirm the biocompatibility through cell attachment and proliferation. From SEM images, the WG coating layer was well adhered to the Ti substrate. The composition of WG coated layer was changed from sodium silicate to pure silica by the treatment of HCl solution via the ion-exchange. This result was confirmed by EDS analysis. From XPS and FT-IR results, the amount of hydroxyl group on Ti surface was depended to the vol% of WG and the number of WG coating. The higher vol% of WG and number of WG coating, the more hydroxyl groups exist on the Ti surface. It is expected that the hydroxyl groups on Ti surface will be strongly bonded with collagen. Thus, collagen coated Ti dental implants may be enhanced the cell behaviors.
Ferrozine Assay for Simple and Cheap Iron Analysis of Silica-Coated Iron Oxide Nanoparticles

The Ferrozinen assay is applied as an accurate and rapid method to quantify the iron content of iron oxide nanoparticles (IONPs) and can be used in biological matrices. The addition of ascorbic aqcid accelerates the digestion process and can penetrate an IONP core within a mesoporous and solid silica shell. This new digestion protocol avoids the need for hydrofluoric acid to digest the surrounding silica shell and provides and accessible alternative to inductively coupled plasma methods. With the updated digestion protocol, the quantitative range of the Ferrozine assay is 1 - 14 ppm.
SEXUAL SEGREGATION AND FORAGING ECOLOGY OF SIERRA NEVADA BIGHORN SHEEP DURING WINTER

A critical aspect of the ecology of mountain sheep (Ovis canadensis) is the differences in behavior and foraging ecology between sexes. I compared several ecological variables between adult male and adult female mountain sheep in 4 subpopulations in the Sierra Nevada, Inyo and Mono counties, California, USA, to test hypotheses related to sexual segregation and foraging ecology during winter. Females foraged in larger groups that were closer to escape terrain than did males. Foraging areas used by males had a higher biomass of vegetation and were less open than areas used by females. Males foraged more efficiently when in larger groups, whereas females foraged more efficiently when closer to escape terrain. Male and female sheep differed in their dietary niches and in bite rates. Male mountain sheep traveled farther per day and in less rugged terrain than did females. These differences in behavior and space use are likely a result of allometric differences and associated life-history strategies between the sexes.
Investigation of metabolism in posterior cingulate cortex in patients with Alzheimer ’ s disease using magnetic resonance spectroscopy

Background: The neurodegenerative changes of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) may cause a series of molecular and cellular cascades, leading to dysfunctions in awareness, memory and other fields. Purpose: To investigate the metabolism in posterior cingulate cortex (PCC) in patients with AD by applying point resolved spectroscopy (PRESS) and spin-echo single-voxel spectroscopy (SE SVS). Methods: 20 AD patients and 20 healthy people were enrolled into the study with minimum mental state examination (MMSE) and clinical dementia rating score. The T1WI-3D image was used to perform the spectral positioning of PCC. PRESS and SE SVS were used to collect the PCC spectrum. The levels of N-acetylaspartate (NAA), myo-inositol (mI), choline (Cho) and creatine (Cr) and the relative ratio of NAA/ Cr, mI/Cr, NAA/mI and Cho/Cr were analyzed. Results: Compared with the control group, the NAA peaks in the AD group were reduced to various degrees, while the mI peaks were increased. NAA/Cr and NAA/mI in PCC in the AD group were lower than the control group, while mI/Cr in the AD group was higher than the control group. mI/Cr was negatively correlated with the related MMSE score. Conclusion: Studying PCC with PRESS and SE SVS is helpful towards the screening and early diagnosis of AD.
Onboard Autonomy of CubeSat Clusters based on Smartphone Technology

This paper addresses the problem of onboard autonomy of satellite cluster utilizing smartphone technology. Several attempts have been made to assess the suitability of using smartphone in space. This paper is an extension of existing attempts to distributed space systems and, more specifically, in the context of a CubeSat formation flying mission called DelFFi. The DelFFi mission and its Concept of Operations are introduced. The onboard autonomy architecture of DelFFi is presented, which is based on a group of distributed ARM processors, the Android operating system (OS), and Multi-Agent System (MAS) technology with cooperative mission planning capability. The preliminary ground experimental results of implementing the onboard autonomy architecture are presented as well.
Hacking the CAN Bus: Basic Manipulation of a Modern Automobile Through CAN Bus Reverse Engineering

The modern automobile is an increasingly complex network of computer systems. Cars are no longer analog, mechanical contraptions. Today, even the most fundamental vehicular functions have become computerized. And at the core of this complexity is the Controller Area Network, or CAN bus. The CAN bus is a modern vehicle’s central nervous system upon which the majority of intra-vehicular communication takes place. Unfortunately, the CAN bus is also inherently insecure. Designed more than 30 years ago, the CAN bus fails to implement even the most basic security principles. Prior scholarly research has demonstrated that an attacker can gain remote access to a vehicle’s CAN bus with relative ease. This paper, therefore, seeks to examine how an attacker already inside a vehicle’s network could manipulate the vehicle by reverse engineering CAN bus communications. By providing a reproducible methodology for CAN bus reverse engineering, this paper also serves as a basic guide for penetration testers and automotive security researchers. The techniques described in this paper can be used by security researchers to uncover vulnerabilities in existing automotive architectures, thereby encouraging automakers to produce more secure systems going forward. © 2 01 7 T he SA NS In sti tut e, Au tho r R eta ins Fu ll R igh ts © 2017 The SANS Institute Author retains full rights. Hacking the CAN Bus 2
A Technique to Specify and Analyze Reactive and Real-Time Software

Writing requirements in formal notation for a safety-critical system can improve software quality and reduce the errors that may arise later on in the software development life cycle. In this paper, we propose a formal specification approach used to describe the nuclear control system. The approach is based on the existing AECL approach that was the only formal specification technique applied to nuclear control systems in the past. Although the approach is AECL-based, the complex descriptions of certain requirements have been reduced by using different specification techniques. We discuss the differences and how the proposed approach provides not only specification but also verification environment.
An Introduction to Running Time Analysis for an SOI Workshop

We organize an introductory course on algorithm design and complexity analysis for prospective participants of the Swiss Olympiad in Informatics and interested high school students. The students are assumed to have some background in programming, but no formal computer science education. Our goal for the first lesson is to introduce them to the basic tools used in running time analysis, with a particular emphasis on worst-case versus best-case analysis, uniform versus logarithmic cost measurement, and big-O notation; however, we avoid being too formal and use the example of primality testing to introduce the concepts hands-on. In this paper, we describe our approach in detail.
IN MILITARY VOLUNTARY ORGANISATION : THE ESSENCE OF PSYCHOLOGICAL CONTRACTS

In recent years there has been increasing support from volunteers in providing vital public services. In Estonia some of the positions of the Rescue Service are manned by voluntary fi remen, the Police Forces are assisted by volunteers, and recently the Estonian Defence League has assumed responsibility for the territorial defence. The need to create a positive work environment for volunteers in order to achieve better job performance has increased the need to study the relationships between the volunteers and the organisations that they assist. In the last decade the concept of the psychological contract has become of interest to researchers. The psychological contract is defi ned as the belief in a reciprocal exchange agreement between a person and an organisation1. In the individual-organisation relationship, if the organisation’s tenets coincide with a person’s beliefs, then the psychological contract would precipitate a positive outcome, such as job satisfaction and superb job performance. The quality of the psychological contract, however, is determined by the organisational leadership and the organisation’s human resource practices rather than by the workforce, as employers rather than employees are in the dominant and advantageous position by virtue of their capacity to design and develop the working conditions and employment relationships2. The psychological contract has also been called a silent contract because its content is individual and subjective; it is also often unacknowledged by the parties involved. A survey carried out among Estonian enterprises in 2013 indicated that the actual expectations of
DEGRADATION MECHANISMS AND CHARACTERIZATION TECHNIQUES IN SILICON CARBIDE MOSFETs AT HIGH-TEMPERATURE OPERATION

Due to a number of advantages over silicon, including higher breakdown field, higher operational junction temperature, and higher thermal conductivity, silicon carbide (SiC) has generated keen interest as a material of choice for power electronic devices. Device characteristics resulting directly from SiC’s superior material properties, including enhanced ability to withstand high voltage, lower on-state resistance and capacitance permitting higher switching frequency, and reduced thermal management requirements, give SiC-based power devices the potential to greatly reduce the system footprint and cost, and to increase system efficiency. Among all the possible semiconductor switches, the field-effect transistor provides very low switching loss and is thus an attractive option, especially at high switching frequency. A SiC metal-oxide semiconductor field-effect transistor (MOSFET) is now commercially available that provides a blocking voltage of 1200 volts (V), maximum DC current capability of 33 amps (A), and on-state resistance Ron of 80 milliohms (mΩ). However, the reliability of the silicon oxide (SiO2) insulator on SiC at high temperature is an open question. The predominant degradation trends in this MOSFET under hightemperature overvoltage and pulsed overcurrent stress are reported in this work. We also describe the development of a microcontroller-based condition monitoring module that can track changes in the semiconductor device characteristics in order to improve real-world system availability.
Coexisting pseudobrookite, ilmenite and titanomagnetite in hornblende

14 Pseudobrookite microphenocrysts occur in cognate inclusions in the ~305 ka Coleman 15 Pinnacle hornblende andesite flow from the Mount Baker volcanic field, WA. Pseudobrookites 16 are associated with hornblende phenocrysts and glomerophyric clusters of orthopyroxene, 17 clinopyroxene, plagioclase, ilmenite, titanomagnetite, apatite and zircon in a matrix of fresh 18 rhyolitic glass. Grains of pseudobrookite are rimmed by or intergrown with ilmenite. These 19 textures are analogous to those observed between armalcolite and ilmenite in high-Ti lunar 20 basalts. In a unique occurrence, pseudobrookite and titanomagnetite form a symplectitic 21 intergrowth surrounding a core of ilmenite. Mass balance calculations show that the 22 pseudobrookite + titanomagnetite assemblage is not an isochemical decomposition of ilmenite. 23 2 In the TiO2–FeO–Fe2O3 system (Mg-free), pseudobrookite and titanomagnetite solid solutions do 24 not coexist. However, all three Fe-Ti oxides in the symplectitic assemblage contain significant 25 amounts of Mg. In the TiO2–MgO–FeO–FeO1.5 system at high oxygen fugacities, the Mg-rich 26 pseudobrookite + titanomagnetite assemblage is stable relative to the conjugate pair of Mg27 bearing ilmenite solid solutions. At lower fO2, Fe increases, Mg/(Mg+Fe) decreases and the 28 conjugate ilmenite pair becomes the stable assemblage at Mg# less than ~0.6. The compositions 29 of coexisting ilmenite + titanomagnetite pairs in the Coleman Pinnacle andesite yield T = 9003
Crack-healing variability of asphalt mixtures with RAP and steel wool 1 fibers by the action of external microwave heating 2

9 Microwave heating of asphalt pavement containing steel wool fibers is an auspicious 10 technology for asphalt pavement rehabilitation. These types of mixtures have the ability to self11 heal their cracks when external microwave heating is applied. The assessment of crack-healing 12 has mainly been conducted in mixtures prepared with virgin aggregate materials. This paper 13 studies the variability of the crack-healing in asphalt mixtures prepared with reclaimed asphalt 14 pavement (RAP) and steel wool fibers. The healing ratio was calculated using three-point 15 bending strength of semi-circular asphalt specimens. The average of seven healing cycles 16 applied on the asphalt specimens showed that the general effect of RAP content was an increase 17 in the variability of the crack-healing of the mixtures. Low fibers contents of 1% and 2% 18 reduced the variability of the crack-healing capabilities of asphalt mixtures. It was observed 19 that the number of healing cycles reduce the variability of the healing capabilities of asphalt 20 mixtures. Overall, it is concluded that small contents of fibers and RAP do not increase the 21 variability in the crack-healing of this type of mixtures. 22 23
A Univariate Statistical Parameter Assessing Effect Size for Multivariate Responses

The statistical significance has been intensively criticized in medical and social sciences because of many issues that it has. Effect sizes have been proposed as an alternative to statistical significance. Recently, strictly standardized mean difference (SSMD) has been proposed for the comparison of two groups with applications in a univariate-response setting. There is a need to extend this type of effect size from a univariate-response setting to a multivariate-response setting. In this paper, based on SSMD and Mahalanobis distance, I construct a novel parameter called dimensionadjusted squared Mahalanobis distance (DSMD). The concept of DSMD can be applicable to both univariateand multivariate-response settings. Moreover, the criterion of DSMD to assess the differentiation between two groups can also be applicable to both univariateand multivariate-response settings. Thus, DSMD may have the potency of being applicable to a variety of situations in medical and social sciences.
Wingtip Devices : What They Do and How They Do

The idea of a beneficial wingtip appendage, or “wingtip device,” has been around since the early 20th century, when theoretical calculations first indicated that a vertical endplate added to a wingtip would reduce the induced drag. Early on, however, reality did not live up to the theoretical promise. The simple flat endplate turned out to be a disappointment in practice because the added viscous profile drag more than offsets the saving in induced drag, and the device fails to produce a net benefit. Whitcomb (ref. 1) seems to have been the first to recognize that it is possible to reap the induced-drag benefit of an endplate, and at the same time to realize a net benefit, by keeping the additional profile drag to a minimum through good aerodynamic design practice. The direct result of Whitcomb’s work is the classic near-vertical winglet. Less directly, Whitcomb’s paradigm of applying good design practice to keep the profile drag low has also contributed to the development of concepts other than the winglet. Both winglets and tapered horizontal span extensions have been put into commercial service, and several other device concepts have also been proposed and brought to varying levels of development (fig. 1.1). ������������ ������������������ �������������������������