Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Productive Or Life-Wasting : The Increasingly-Connected And Socially Networked Students

The internet has only been with us since the 1980s (Leiner et al: 32) and public mobile phones for about 40 years (Smith 2009). In a single lifetime this is a ‘while’ but in terms of human history and in the longer-term scopes of social science this is a very short time. In the geological perspective of the age of the Earth, these technologies have been with us for less than a blink of an eye. This short time frame, no matter how many studies we have done and are doing on it, becomes crippling to social science study when it comes to proper perspective. Because we yet to empirically established an enduring conclusion on how the internet and other related modern gadgets are affecting us over our lifetimes. This is even more particular to the younger generation as most appeared to be hooked to these devices.
Estimation and identification of time-varying long-term fading channels via the particle filter and the EM algorithm

In this paper, we are concerned with the estimation and identification of time-varying wireless long-term fading channels. The dynamics of the fading channels are captured using a mean-reverting linear stochastic differential equation driven by a Brownian motion. Recursive estimation and identification algorithms solely from received signal strength data are developed. These algorithms are based on combining the particle filter (PF) with the expectation maximization (EM) algorithm that estimate and identify the power path-loss of the channel and its parameters, respectively. Numerical results are provided to evaluate the accuracy of the proposed algorithms.
Image authentication using LBP-based perceptual image hashing

Feature extraction is a main step in all perceptual image hashing schemes in which robust features will led to better results in perceptual robustness. Simplicity, discriminative power, computational efficiency and robustness to illumination changes are counted as distinguished properties of Local Binary Pattern features. In this paper, we investigate the use of local binary patterns for perceptual image hashing. In feature extraction, we propose to use both sign and magnitude information of local differences. So, the algorithm utilizes a combination of gradient-based and LBP-based descriptors for feature extraction. To provide security needs, two secret keys are incorporated in feature extraction and hash generation steps. Performance of the proposed hashing method is evaluated with an important application in perceptual image hashing scheme: image authentication. Experiments are conducted to show that the present method has acceptable robustness against perceptual content-preserving manipulations. Moreover, the proposed method has this capability to localize the tampering area, which is not possible in all hashing schemes.
Experiment 3 : A search asymmetry for luster Method

Binocular rivalry is a phenomenon of visual competition in which perception alternates between two monocular images.When two eye’s images only differ in luminance, observers may perceive shininess, a form of rivalry called binocular luster. Does dichoptic information guide attention in visual search? Wolfe and Franzel (Perception & Psychophysics, 44(1), 81–93, 1988) reported that rivalry could guide attention only weakly, but that luster (shininess) Bpopped out,^ producing very shallow Reaction Time (RT) × Set Size functions. In this study, we have revisited the topic with new and improved stimuli. By using a checkerboard pattern in rivalry experiments, we found that search for rivalry can be more efficient (16 ms/item) than standard, rivalrous grating (30 ms/item). The checkerboard may reduce distracting orientation signals that masked the salience of rivalry between simple orthogonal gratings. Lustrous stimuli did not pop out when potential contrast and luminance artifacts were reduced. However, search efficiency was substantially improved when luster was added to the search target. Both rivalry and luster tasks can produce search asymmetries, as is characteristic of guiding features in search. These results suggest that interocular differences that produce rivalry or luster can guide attention, but these effects are relatively weak and can be hidden by other features like luminance and orientation in visual search tasks.
We Never See Children in Parks: A Qualitative Examination of the Role of Safety Concerns on Physical Activity Among Children.

BACKGROUND Previous literature indicates physical activity and obesity are interrelated problems, especially among children in disorganized environments. METHODS Qualitative focus groups were conducted with parents of elementary school children located within the Mississippi Delta to answer one overarching research question: "What influence do safety concerns have on physical activity for children in the Mississippi Delta? " RESULTS There were 2 large themes; first was that recreational areas were criminal and the second was that safety concerns were a barrier to physical activity. Safety concerns as a barrier to physical activity rendered 3 sub-themes, including 1) Parental fear of crime inhibited the use of public recreational spaces, 2) Parental perceptions of police as ineffective and untrustworthy reduced the use of public spaces where children might play, and 3) Parents often expressed safety-induced intense supervision requirements that limited the physical activity of their children. CONCLUSIONS Our study provides valuable insights into the mechanisms by which safety concerns limit physical activity of children in the Mississippi Delta.
Long-term trend analysis and climatology of tropical cirrus clouds using 16 years of lidar data set over Southern India

Abstract. Sixteen-year (1998–2013) climatology of cirrus clouds and their macrophysical (base height, top height and geometrical thickness) and optical properties (cloud optical thickness) observed using a ground-based lidar over Gadanki (13.5° N, 79.2° E), India, is presented. The climatology obtained from the ground-based lidar is compared with the climatology obtained from 7 and a half years (June 2006–December 2013) of Cloud-Aerosol Lidar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) observations. A very good agreement is found between the two climatologies in spite of their opposite viewing geometries and the differences in sampling frequencies. Nearly 50–55 % of cirrus clouds were found to possess geometrical thickness less than 2 km. Ground-based lidar is found to detect a higher number of sub-visible clouds than CALIOP which has implications for global warming studies as sub-visible cirrus clouds have significant positive radiative forcing. Cirrus clouds with mid-cloud temperatures between −50 to −70 °C have a mean geometrical thickness greater than 2 km in contrast to the earlier reported value of 1.7 km. Trend analyses reveal a statistically significant increase in the altitude of sub-visible cirrus clouds which is consistent with the recent climate model simulations. The mid-cloud altitude of sub-visible cirrus clouds is found to be increasing at the rate of 41 ± 21 m year−1. Statistically significant decrease in optical thickness of sub-visible and thick cirrus clouds is observed. Also, the fraction of sub-visible cirrus cloud is found to have increased by 9 % in the last 16 years (1998 to 2013). This increase is mainly compensated by a 7 % decrease in thin cirrus cloud fraction. This has implications for the temperature and water vapour budget in the tropical tropopause layer.
Pterygium - An Update on Current Concepts and Treatment Modalities

A pterygium is a relatively common eye disorder that predominates in warm, dry areas north and south of the equator. Although excision with conjunctival grafting is currently the gold standard of treatment, new treatments have been described, some of which have the potential to cause ocular surface complications. This issue of Ophthalmology Rounds describes the risk factors, pathogenesis, symptoms, and therapeutic options for a pterygium, including a description of the surgical technique for excision with conjunctival autografting. Definition and morphology A primary pterygium is defined as a wing-shaped fibrovascular growth from the bulbar conjunctiva onto the cornea (Figure 1). A recurrent pterygium is generally a more aggressive lesion that may rapidly occur several weeks to months after excision of a primary pterygium (Figure 2). A pseudopterygium should be distinguished from a true pterygium; it represents a conjunctival fibrovascular scar or pannus occurring secondary to mechanical or chemical trauma, or peripheral corneal degenerations such as Terrien’s marginal degeneration (Figure 3). Although similar in histology, a pinguecula is distinguishable from a pterygium by virtue of its conjunctival location away from the limbus and the fact that fibrovascular tissues underlying pingueculae are not radially oriented towards the corneal apex. Epidemiology of a pterygium
IMPLEMENTATION OF BUSINESS INTELLIGENCE ON BANKING, RETAIL, AND EDUCATIONAL INDUSTRY

Information technology is useful to automate business process involving considerable data transaction in the daily basis. Currently, companies have to tackle large data transaction which is difficult to be handled manually. It is very difficult for a person to manually extract useful information from a large data set despite of the fact that the information may be useful in decision-making process. This article studied and explored the implementation of business intelligence in banking, retail, and educational industries. The article begins with the exposition of business intelligence role in the industries; is followed by an illustration of business intelligence in the industries and finalized with the implication of business intelligence implementation.
Adenosine and tubercidin binding and transport in Chinese hamster ovary and Novikoff rat hepatoma cells

The uptake of adenosine and tubercidin by control and ATP‐deleted wild‐type and adenosine kinase‐deficient cells was measured by rapid kinetic techniques. Adenosine deamination was inhibited by pretreatment with 2‐deoxy‐coformycin. Control wild‐type cells phosphorylated adenosine so rapidly that the kinetics of transport per se could not be assessed unambiguously. ATP depletion and adenosine kinase deficiency did not abolish the conversion of adenosine to nucleotides, but reduced it to such an extent that initial velocities of uptake could be safely construed as transport velocities in both zerotrans and equilibrium exchange modes. The same was true for tubercidin, which was not phosphorylated in adenosine kinase‐deficient cells. It accumulated intracellularly, however, to concentrations 50 to 120% higher than those in the extracellular space, apparently due to binding to some intracellular component(s). Binding was not saturated up to a concentration of 200 μM, but seemed to be slow relative to transport. Fits of appropriate integrated rate equations based on the simple carrier model to uptake time courses obtained under these conditions yielded Michaelis‐Menten constants for adenosine and tubercidin transport of 100 to 200 μM and maximum velocities of 10 to 30 pmol/μl cell H2O ċ sec, whereas the rate of intracellular phosphorylation was maximal at concentrations between 2 and 8 μM. The first‐order rate constant (Vmax/Km) for adenosine phosphorylation, however, seemed to be appreciably higher than that for its transport. This indicates that at physiological concentrations, which fall in the first‐order range for both processes, adenosine trapping is very efficient. Adenosine, tubercidin, tricyclic nucleoside, 2′‐deoxyadenosine, and 3′‐deoxyadenosine all inhibited uridine and thymidine transport to about the same extent, whereas pyrazofurin was signficantly less effective.
Sensorless control of linear permanent magnet synchronous motors using a combined sliding mode adaptive observer

A novel combined sliding mode adaptive observer for flux and speed estimation of direct thrust controlled surface mounted Linear Permanent Magnet Synchronous Motor (LPMSM) without using position sensors is proposed. The observer comprises a linear state observer combined with a novel nonlinear sliding mode component. The sliding mode component is improved by using two boundary layers which reduce the chattering without compromising the robustness. The novel observer is experimentally validated. The flux, speed and position estimation errors are small resulting in reliable observer performance.
Ethnic differences in microvascular function in apparently healthy South African men and women

What is the central question of this study? It is well recognized that there are disparities in cardiovascular disease outcomes between ethnic groups. Are there ethnic differences in microvascular function between healthy, young men and women of different ethnicities? This study used laser Doppler imagery and iontophoresis of acetylcholine and sodium nitroprusside to compare microvascular function between different ethnic groups and to understand the role of skin resistance in this methodology. What is the main finding and its importance? Endothelium‐independent microvascular function remained attenuated after correcting for skin resistance in the Black African and mixed ancestry groups, suggesting that differences in smooth muscle function may be an important factor contributing to ethnic differences in disease risk.
On-Line Computation of Phase Shifter Distribution Factors and Lineload Alleviation

This paper presents a new method for the computation of phase shifter distribution factors required for adjusting the phase angles of phase shifters to control the line flows. These factors are computed usingusing the sensitivity matrix, which is tversee in- of the constant Jacobian matrix. Computation of these factors is carried out for both the base case system and the outaged system using the same-sensitivity matrix. The factors so computed are used to alleviate the line overloads leaving the economic generation schedules unaffected. In case the phase angle adjustments of the phase shifters do not reduce the line overloads completely, generation rescheduling and/ or load curtailment is proposed, thus ensuring a secure system operation. The proposed techniques are validated by testing on different test systems.
A Historical Note on Illusory Contours in Shadow Writing

It is widely accepted that illusory contours have been first displayed and discussed by Schumann (1900, Zeitschrift für Psychologie und Physiologie der Sinnesorgane 23 1–32). Here we show that, before him, Jastrow (1899, Popular Science Monthly 54 299–312) produced illusory contours consisting of a shadow word. A brief history of shadow writing in psychological literature from Jastrow to Brunswik is presented, in which the contributions of Pillsbury, Warren, Koffka, and Benussi are examined.
An application of tabu search algorithm on cost-based job shop problem with multiple objectives

A cost-based job shop problem with multiple objectives (MOCB-JSP) is proposed in this paper. Three different objectives are considered in the objective function of MOCB-JSP: work in progress (WIP) holding cost, earliness cost and tardiness cost. tabu search algorithm is applied to improve the initial schedules of MOCB-JSP. Extensive experiments are conducted to test the performance of the tabu search when different parameter combinations are taken. Computational results show that tabu search with a properly configured parameter combination significantly improves the schedule quality with reasonable computational effort.
Applications of Three-Dimensional Printing in Surgery

Three-dimensional (3D) printing is a rapidly advancing technology in the field of surgery. This article reviews its contemporary applications in 3 aspects of surgery, namely, surgical planning, implants and prostheses, and education and training. Three-dimensional printing technology can contribute to surgical planning by depicting precise personalized anatomy and thus a potential improvement in surgical outcome. For implants and prosthesis, the technology might overcome the limitations of conventional methods such as visual discrepancy from the recipient’s body and unmatching anatomy. In addition, 3D printing technology could be integrated into medical school curriculum, supplementing the conventional cadaver-based education and training in anatomy and surgery. Future potential applications of 3D printing in surgery, mainly in the areas of skin, nerve, and vascular graft preparation as well as ear reconstruction, are also discussed. Numerous trials and studies are still ongoing. However, scientists and clinicians are still encountering some limitations of the technology including high cost, long processing time, unsatisfactory mechanical properties, and suboptimal accuracy. These limitations might potentially hamper the applications of this technology in daily clinical practice.
Flow-Mediated Arterial Dilation in Primary Antiphospholipid Syndrome

Objective. To investigate precocious alterations in the artery wall of patients with primary antiphospholipid syndrome (APS). Methods. We evaluated flow-mediated dilation (FMD) of the brachial artery and intima-media thickness (IMT) of carotid arteries in 16 patients and 16 healthy controls matched for age, gender, and other cardiovascular risk factors. Results. FMD of the brachial artery was significantly lower in patients than in controls (6.3 ± 5.2% vs 18.2 ± 2.7; P < .005). IMT was similar in the 2 groups. FMD was significantly reduced in patients with anticardiolipin antibodies IgM. Conclusions. APS correlates closely with precocious atherosclerosis, and the correlation with a type of anticardiolipin antibody may be predictive of more accelerated atherosclerosis.
Cirrhosis mortality and per capita consumption of distilled spirits, United States, 1949-1994: trend analysis.

OBJECTIVE To describe, evaluate, and suggest interpretations for an observed aggregate-level relation between trends in mortality from cirrhosis and per capita consumption of distilled spirits in the United States. DESIGN Trend analysis using data on US cirrhosis mortality and per capita alcohol consumption. RESULTS There is a consistent long-term trend relation between mortality from cirrhosis and per capita consumption of distilled spirits in the United States from 1949 to 1994. Two instances of comparatively sharp drops in the consumption of spirits in the 1940s generated mixed results in predicting changes in cirrhosis mortality. CONCLUSIONS An aggregate-level relation between trends in long-term cirrhosis mortality and the consumption of spirits falls considerably short of establishing a direct causal link between the two for individuals. Moreover, two sharp drops in the consumption of spirits generated only mixed results with respect to the short-term trend in cirrhosis. Nevertheless, the observed relation between the consumption of spirits and cirrhosis mortality merits further investigation.
Review: group-based behavioural and cognitive-behavioural parenting interventions are effective and cost-effective for reducing early-onset child conduct problems

Question: Are group-based behavioural and cognitive-behavioural parenting interventions effective and cost-effective in reducing early-onset child conduct problems? Outcomes: Primary outcomes: child behaviour; parental skills; parental mental health; cost-effectiveness. Effects on short-term outcomes (up to 3 months post-treatment) were assessed. Design: Systematic review and meta-analysis. Data sources: CENTRAL (2011, Issue 1), MEDLINE (1950 onwards), EMBASE (1980 onwards), CINAHL (1982 onwards), PsycINFO (1872 onwards), Social Science Citation index (1956 onwards), ASSIA (1987 onwards), ERIC (1966 onwards), Sociological Abstracts (1963 onwards), Academic Search Premier (1970 onwards), Econlit (1969 onwards), PEDE (1980 onwards), Dissertations and Theses Abstracts (1980 onwards), NHS EED (searched 31 January 2011), HEED (searched 31 January 2011), DARE (searched 31 January 2011), HTA (searched 31 January 2011) and randomised controlled trials (mRCT) (searched 29 January 2011) were searched in January 2011. The following parent training websites were searched on 31 January 2011: Triple P Library, Incredible Years Library and Parent Management Training. The reference lists of studies and reviews were hand searched. Study selection and analysis: RCTs or quasi-RCTs of behavioural and cognitive-behavioural group-based parenting interventions for parents of children aged 3–12 …
Wine Flavonoids Protect against LDL Oxidation and Atherosclerosis

Abstract: We have previously shown that consumption of red wine, but not of white wine, by healthy volunteers, resulted in the enrichment of their plasma LDL with flavonoid antioxidants such as quercetin, the potent free radicals scavenger flavanol, which binds to the LDL via a glycosidic ether bond. This phenomenon was associated with a significant three‐fold reduction in copper ion‐induced LDL oxidation. The ineffectiveness of flavonoid‐poor white wine could be overcome by grape's skin contact for 18 hours in the presence of alcohol, which extracts grape's skin flavonoids. Recently, we observed that the high antioxidant potency of Israeli red wine could be related to an increased content of flavonols, which are very potent antioxidants and their biosynthesis is stimulated by sunlight exposure. To find out the effect (and mechanisms) of red wine consumption on atherosclerosis, we used the apo E deficient (E0) mice. In these mice, red wine consumption for two months resulted in a 40% decrement in basal LDL oxidation, a similar decrement in LDL oxidizability and aggregation, a 35% reduction in lesion size, and a marked attenuation in the number and morphology of lesion's macrophage foam cells. Red wine consumption resulted in accumulation of flavonoids in the mouse macrophages and these cells oxidized LDL and took up LDL about 40% less than macrophages from placebo‐treated mice. Finally, the activity of serum paraoxonase (which can hydrolyze specific lipid peroxides in oxidized LDL and in atherosclerotic lesions) was significantly increased following consumption of red wine by E0 mice. Red wine consumption thus acts against the accumulation of oxidized LDL in lesions as a first line of defense (by a direct inhibition of LDL oxidation), and as a second line of defense (by paraoxonase elevation and removal of atherogenic lesion's and lipoprotein's oxidized lipids).
The Role of Banks in Monetary Policy Transmission in South Africa

The role of banks in transmission of monetary policy in an economy has been a subject of theoretical and empirical investigations. This study attempts to empirically investigate the role played by private commercial banks in South Africa in transmitting the impulses of monetary policy shocks to the rest of the economy. Focus is placed on the bank lending channel of monetary transmission due to the importance of banks in the financial system. Specifically, we examine whether the central bank's monetary policy stance affects banks' lending behaviour. We specify and test the bank lending channel of monetary policy transmission in South Africa by using a panel structural approach that distinguishes banks according to size. The results indicate the prevalence of the bank lending channel in which banks play a pivotal role in the monetary policy transmission in South Africa. Also bank size had proved to appropriately discriminate banks in South Africa according to their external finance cost.