Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of Short-term Influences of Ambient Pollen Grains and Fungal Spores on Asthma Hospital Visits in Cincinnati

Generalized linear models and nonparametric generalized additive models were employed to investigate the influences of pollen grains and fungal spores on asthma hospital visits in Cincinnati. In the generalized linear model, indicator variables for each month and restricted cubic splines of time term were used to filter out the seasonal variation and time trends in asthma visits. Temperature and humidity were treated categorically to take out the asthma dependence on weather. Autoregressive Poisson models were estimated if serial correlation detected in the residuals. The Generalized additive model is a more flexible approach when the nature of the asthma dependence on covariates is unknown. Counts of daily asthma hospital visits were fitted to nonparametric smoothing splines of time, temperature, and humidity and a linear term of aeroallergens. Results from both models indicated that significant lag effects of total pollen, Oak/Cedar pollen and Cladosporium were 2, 3 and 4 days, respectively. Because of the superiority of the generalized additive model, 5 day lag effects were also found significant for Altemaria and Ragweed pollen . Plots of relative risk were generated and assessed for significant aeroallergens. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to Dr. Rakesh Shukla and Dr. Linda Levin for their inspiration, professional guidance and support for my thesis. I am indebted to their constant encouragement and mentoring throughout my graduate study. I would also like to thank Dr. Tiina Reponen and Dr. Gurjit K. Khurana Hershey for serving on my committee and allowing me to use the data they have collected. Dr. Reponen provided many insightful suggestions and made contributions to this research as a bioaerosol specialist. Dr. Hershey helped in interpreting the results from medical perspective with her expertise in childhood asthma. Special thanks are extended to Dr. Atin Adhikari at the Center for Health-Related Aerosol Studies at Environmental Health Department. Dr. Adhikari gave me constant professional support whenever I went to him for advice. His sincere help is much appreciated. Finally I would like to convey my deepest gratitude to my parents. I’m so grateful for their unconditional love and long-time support, without them, I would not have achieved so far in my path to knowledge and wisdom. R eproduced with perm ission of the copyright owner. Further reproduction prohibited without perm ission. Table of
Brexit: simply an omnishambles or a major policy fiasco?

ABSTRACT The collective concerns of this Special Issue are twofold. First, it advances possible explanations of how the Brexit issue arose. Why was Britain’s membership of the EU thought to be so problematic for so many members of the British political elite and ultimately for a majority of voters? In a nutshell, how did we get to June 2016 and the Brexit Referendum? Secondly, the Special Issue examines how the issue was managed (or mismanaged) following the referendum result up until the Withdrawal Agreement in March 2019. Drawing on the varied contributions in the Special Issue, this introduction contains our own overview of the Brexit saga, distinguishing idiosyncratic processes from the more general trends that to led to Brexit and its aftermath.
Emission of N2O from nitrogen-saturated, sub-tropical forest ecosystems in south China

Surplus reactive nitrogen (Nr) is one of China’s most pressing environmental problems, and may cause a positive feedback to climate change through increased emission of N2O, an important greenhouse gas. Forests in sub-tropical south China receive high atmogenic N loads (4g N/m 2 /yr), primarily as ammonium (NH4 + ). Having limited ability to retain Nr, these forests may become N-saturated. Here we present mass balance data for the TieShanPing (TSP) forested catchment, near Chongqing, P.R. China; a site with acidic alisols and monsoonal climate (wet, hot summers). Data confirm N-saturation and show that much of the atmogenic N load is nitrified and leached as nitrate (NO3 - ) from the root zone. Yet, only a fraction of the NO3 - flux leached from the soil is detected in catchment runoff, suggesting that denitrification may be a major sink of excess N. Initial data are presented showing elevated N2O emission rates during the monsoon with rates varying between about 100 µg N2O-N/m 2 /hr in soils with permanently high groundwater table to > 500 µg N2O-N/m 2 /hr in soils with variable groundwater table at the foot of hill slopes.
Enhancing Self-Awareness Through Creative Experiential-Learning Play-Based Activities

This column is designed to underscore relationally-based creative teaching practices used by counselor educators in the classroom. Our intention is to provide examples of novel, innovative ways for counselor educators and students to deepen their learning while colloborating toward a spirit of connection and cooperation. If you have implemented a creative teaching method, or if you have adapted an existing method that you would like to share with readers, please follow submission guidelines in the author information packet available at http://www.creativecounselor. org/Journal.html. Self-awareness is a critical component of developing counselors-in-training, as greater self-awareness increases empathy, congruence, and understanding of the client experience (Rogers, 1957). Creative activities used within counseling courses, such as a play therapy course, provide a medium for increasing students’ self-awareness (Bar-On, 2007; Lennie, 2007; Luke & Kiweewa, 2010). The purpose of this article is to provide examples of experiential play-based activities used in a play therapy course to enhance counselor self-awareness through reflective practice. Additionally, the activities discussed may also support increased self-awareness in supervision, individual counseling, and group counseling. Finally, the article provides descriptive support (i.e., journal quotations) for these activities.
Patterns of alcohol consumption and ischaemic heart disease in culturally divergent countries: the Prospective Epidemiological Study of Myocardial Infarction (PRIME)

Objective To investigate the effect of alcohol intake patterns on ischaemic heart disease in two countries with contrasting lifestyles, Northern Ireland and France. Design Cohort data from the Prospective Epidemiological Study of Myocardial Infarction (PRIME) were analysed. Weekly alcohol consumption, incidence of binge drinking (alcohol >50 g on at least one day a week), incidence of regular drinking (at least one day a week, and alcohol <50 g if on only one occasion), volume of alcohol intake, frequency of consumption, and types of beverage consumed were assessed once at inclusion. All coronary events that occurred during the 10 year follow-up were prospectively registered. The relation between baseline characteristics and incidence of hard coronary events and angina events was assessed by Cox’s proportional hazards regression analysis. Setting One centre in Northern Ireland (Belfast) and three centres in France (Lille, Strasbourg, and Toulouse). Participants 9778 men aged 50-59 free of ischaemic heart disease at baseline, who were recruited between 1991 and 1994. Main outcome measures Incident myocardial infarction and coronary death (“hard” coronary events), and incident angina pectoris. Results A total of 2405 men from Belfast and 7373 men from the French centres were included in the analyses, 1456 (60.5%) and 6679 (90.6%) of whom reported drinking alcohol at least once a week, respectively. Among drinkers, 12% (173/1456) of men in Belfast drank alcohol every day compared with 75% (5008/6679) of men in France. Mean alcohol consumption was 22.1 g/day in Belfast and 32.8 g/day in France. Binge drinkers comprised 9.4% (227/2405) and 0.5% (33/7373) of the Belfast and France samples, respectively. A total of 683 (7.0%) of the 9778 participants experienced ischaemic heart disease events during the 10 year follow-up: 322 (3.3%) hard coronary events and 361 (3.7%) angina events. Annual incidence of hard coronary events per 1000 person years was 5.63 (95% confidence interval 4.69 to 6.69) in Belfast and 2.78 (95% CI 2.41 to 3.20) in France. After multivariate adjustment for classic cardiovascular risk factors and centre, the hazard ratio for hard coronary events compared with regular drinkers was 1.97 (95% CI 1.21 to 3.22) for binge drinkers, 2.03 (95% CI 1.41 to 2.94) for never drinkers, and 1.57 (95% CI 1.11 to 2.21) for former drinkers for the entire cohort. The hazard ratio for hard coronary events in Belfast compared with in France was 1.76 (95% CI 1.37 to 2.67) before adjustment, and 1.09 (95% CI 0.79 to 1.50) after adjustment for alcohol patterns and wine drinking. Only wine drinking was associated with a lower risk of hard coronary events, irrespective of the country. Conclusions Regular and moderate alcohol intake throughout the week, the typical pattern in middle aged men in France, is associated with a low risk of ischaemic heart disease, whereas the binge drinking pattern more prevalent in Belfast confers a higher risk.
Some inverse problems in biophysics

During the past few years the development of experimental techniques has allowed the quantitative analysis of biological systems ranging from neurobiology and molecular biology. This work focuses on the quantitative description of these systems by means of theoretical and numerical tools ranging from statistical physics to probability theory. This dissertation is divided in three parts, each of which has a different biological system as its focus. The first such system is Infotaxis, an olfactory search algorithm proposed by Vergassola et al. in 2007: we give a continuous formulation and we characterize its performances. Secondly we will focus on single-molecule experiments, especially unzipping of DNA molecules, whose experimental traces depend strongly on the DNA sequence: we develop a detailed model of the dynamics for this kind of experiments and then we propose several inference algorithm aiming at the characterization of the genetic sequence. The last section is devoted to the description of an algorithm that allows the inference of interactions between neurons given the recording of neural activity from multi-electrode experiments; we propose an integrated software that will allow the analysis of these data.
Resolution of a conjecture on majority dynamics: rapid stabilisation in dense random graphs

We study majority dynamics on the binomial random graph $G(n,p)$ with $p = d/n$ and $d > \lambda n^{1/2}$, for some large $\lambda>0$. In this process, each vertex has a state in $\{-1,+1 \}$ and at each round every vertex adopts the state of the majority of its neighbours, retaining its state in the case of a tie. We show that with high probability the process reaches unanimity in at most four rounds. This confirms a conjecture of Benjamini, Chan, O' Donnel, Tamuz and Tan.
On Social Identity

The question: “Can Complex Societies Form a Rational Identity? ” already indicates how I wish to use the term ‘identity. ’ A society does not just have an identity ascribed to it in the trivial sense an object does, which can be identified by various observers as being the same ‘thing,’ although they may apprehend and describe it in different ways. In a certain sense a society achieves or, let me say, produces its identity; and it is by virtue of its own efforts that it does not lose it. To speak, moreover, of the ‘rational’ identity of society reveals that the concept has a normative content.
Modelling and Analysis of the Difference-bit Cache

Advances in VLSI technology and processor architectures have resulted in a tremendous increase in processor speeds and memory capacities. However memory latencies have failed to improve as rapidly, making memory systems the performance limiters in most high performance processor architectures. Caching is a time-tested mechanism to solve this speed disparity. Among the different cache mapping organizations, direct mapping is the only configuration where the critical path is merely the time requried to access a RAM. Although direct mapped caches are prefe able considering hit-access times, they have poor hit ratios compared to associative caches. The difference-bit cache proposed by Lang et al [1] is functionally equivalent to a two-way set-associative cache but tries to achieve an access time smaller than that of a conventional two-way set-associative cache and close to that of a direct-mapped cache. We modeled and implemented the difference-bit cache to prove the hypothesis of its small access time. We have also tried to prove that the access time advantage of the difference-bit cache improves over the conventional two-way set-associative cache with an increase in the cache size. Finally we have tried to analyze the trade-offs involved in applying these techniques to a higher associativity cache.
STUDYING " ONLINE SOCIALITES " – A UNIFIED FRAMEWORK OF SOCIAL NETWORKING ADOPTION

Using Internet to satisfy social needs is not a recent phenomenon. Although applications like Emails and IM are extensively used to socialize, exponential improvement in technology, infrastructure, and decrease in cost has provided fertile grounds to develop new tools providing richer social environment. One such trend is the use of Social networking websites, which has opened new challenges and avenues for researchers. In this study, we review past research to arrive at a unified model elucidating the antecedents and outcomes for the use of social networking technology.
A study of methods to estimate visibility based on weather conditions

吹雪による視程障害の発生状況に関する情報は,ドライバーが安全かつ適切な経路選択を行う上で有効である. 道路における視程障害の監視には,視程計が用いられているが,設置個所は一部の箇所に限られており,広域的な吹雪の発生状況を把握するには不十分である. そこで,比較的容易に得られる風速や降雪強度から,視程障害の程度を推定する手法を検討した. 最初に,飛雪流量(Mf)と視程(Vis)に関する竹内・福沢(1976)の研究より,視程が3000 m以下のデータから両者にはlog(Vi)=-0.773・log(Mf)+2. 845なる関係式が成り立つことを示した. 飛雪流量は飛雪濃度と風速の積であることから,次に,飛雪濃度を求める方法を検討した. ここでは,高さ10mでの風速が8. 5m/s以上でかつ気温が-2℃未満の条件と,高さ10mでの風速が8. 5m/s未満または気温が-2℃以上の降雪時という条件に分けて,風速と降雪強度から飛雪濃度を推定する方法を示した. これらの式を用いた視程の推定結果と実測例とを比較したところ,1000 m以下の視程において,両者は比較的良く一致した. このことは,この視程推定手法が,道路における視程障害の広域監視に十分有効であることを示すものである.
“ Everybody is their own Island ” : Teacher Disconnection in a Virtual School

Virtual schooling is a recent phenomenon in K-12 online learning. As such, the roles of the online teachers are emerging and differ from those of the traditional classroom teacher. Using qualitative interviews of eight virtual high school teachers, this study explored teachers’ perceptions of their online teaching role. Teachers expressed a sense of disconnection from their students, the profession, and their peers as a result of limited interactions due to significant institutional barriers. Researchers discuss the implications of this disconnection as well as future avenues for research.
The origin of D″ reflections: a systematic study of seismic array data sets

Regional seismic studies of the Earth's deep mantle indicate the presence of P- and S-wave reflectors at the top of the D′′ layer. Such reflectors appear to be laterally intermittent, occur at a range of depths, and produce waveforms whose amplitude and polarity differ at different locations. A number of possible explanations for D′′ reflections have been proposed, including: a phase change from perovskite to post-perovskite; thermal or thermochemical discontinuities generated by subducted slabs; alignment of anisotropic minerals and global or small-scale chemical heterogeneity arising perhaps from core–mantle interactions or primitive material. However, some of the observed heterogeneity in D′′ structure may be related to lack of consistency between the style, quality and number of seismic observations in different regions, as well as complexity in wave propagation due to 3-D structure. In this study, we present a compilation of observations of D′′ reflections for regions in which (1) a reflector is seen in both P- and S-wave arrivals and (2) consistent array seismology techniques have been applied to infer the properties of the reflectors. Using a recent Monte Carlo thermodynamic modelling method to convert changes in chemistry and mineralogy into changes in seismic velocity, we compare the fit of different isotropic thermochemical structures to the observed seismic properties of D′′ reflections, namely the polarity and amplitude of the waveforms. Our results indicate that it may be possible to discriminate between different possible origins for D′′ reflections on the basis of polarity observations alone. Amplitude measurements may provide further constraints but must be treated with caution due to a large number of factors, which can influence waveform amplitudes. In regions such as the Caribbean, which are characterized by high-amplitude, negative polarity P waveforms and positive polarity S waveforms, a phase change from perovskite to post-perovskite provides the most likely explanation for the discontinuity. However, in other regions, notably Siberia and the central Pacific, P- and S waveforms both display a positive polarity, and multiple explanations for the discontinuity are possible, including subduction-related chemical heterogeneity and anisotropy.
ParentsRole in Fostering Young Childrens Learning and Language Development

Introduction During the first years of life, children undergo major developmental changes across a range of domains. In particular, the entry into “formal language” is one of the most heralded achievements of early development. Language enables children to share meanings with others, and to participate in cultural learning in unprecedented ways. Moreover, language is foundational to children’s school readiness and achievement. For these reasons, a vast body of research has been dedicated to understanding the socialcontextual factors that support children’s early language and learning. This work is also central to practitioners, educators and policy makers who seek to promote positive developmental outcomes in young children.
TREATMENT CHARACTERISTICS OF DRINKING DRIVERS REFERRED FOR ALCOHOL ASSESSMENT IN TWO WISCONSIN COUNTIES

As part of a total drunk driving deterrence program, Wisconsin's new law (1982) mandates alcohol assessment for all convicted OWI offenders. During a study over a 2-year period in Kenosha and Racine counties (1 year previous to the enactment of the policy and 1 year after its passage) , the author found over 1/3 of the drinking drivers completing assessment to be in need of treatment as opposed to educationally-oriented rehabilitation efforts. Persons who were repeat offenders, previous users of other human services, and arrested with high blood alcohol concentration tended to be sent to treatment rather than the traffic safety school alternative. The author suggests that methods to deter the chronic problem drinker portion of this population must be devised in order for sustained reductions in alcohol-related crashes to occur.
Assessment of female sex as a risk factor in atrial fibrillation in Sweden: nationwide retrospective cohort study

Objective To determine whether women with atrial fibrillation have a higher risk of stroke than men. Design Nationwide retrospective cohort study. Setting Patients with a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation in the Swedish hospital discharge register between 1 July 2005 and 31 December 2008. Information about drug treatment taken from the Swedish drug register. Participants 100 802 patients with atrial fibrillation at any Swedish hospital or hospital affiliated outpatient clinic with a total follow-up of 139 504 years at risk (median 1.2 years). We excluded patients with warfarin at baseline, mitral stenosis, previous valvular surgery, or who died within 14 days from baseline. Main outcome measure Incidence of ischaemic stroke. Results Ischaemic strokes were more common in women than in men (6.2% v 4.2% per year, P<0.0001). The univariable hazard ratio for women compared with men was 1.47 (95% confidence 1.40 to 1.54), indicating a 47% higher incidence of ischaemic stroke in women than in men. Stratification according to the CHADS2 scheme showed increased stroke rates for women in all strata. After multivariable adjustment for 35 cofactors for stroke, an increased risk of stroke in women remained (1.18, 1.12 to 1.24). Among patients with “lone atrial fibrillation” (age <65 years and no vascular disease), the annual stroke rate tended to be higher in women than in men, although this difference was not significant (0.7% v 0.5%, P=0.09). When low risk patients with CHADS2 scores of 0-1 were stratified according to their CHA2DS2-VASc scores, women did not have higher stroke incidence than men at CHA2DS2-VASc scores of 2 or less. Conclusion Women with atrial fibrillation have a moderately increased risk of stroke compared with men, and thus, female sex should be considered when making decisions about anticoagulation treatment. However, women younger than 65 years and without other risk factors have a low risk for stroke, and do not need anticoagulant treatment.
Bogota's river basin hydrologic digital data library

Strong efforts are directed nowadays towards making scientific information accessible to everyone. The amount of data available is immense, but raw data isolated from an information system could lose its value. Data acquisition is followed by quality controls in order to make it useful for physical or data-driven models. Nonetheless, distribution and accessibility of the final products is imperative in order to exploit them for science advancement purposes. Assimilation, calibration and rectification are the steps which data has to go through before it is distributed in multiple scientific formats. As a result of increasing data availability there has been an impressive improvement in computational models, along with better time and space sampling and enhanced software and hardware capabilities. In this light, this project is aimed at making the Hydrologic Data of the Corporation of Municipalities in Bogotá's River Basin available for the science community. Our goal is to build a digital library that offers online access to the data given the premises of persistence, scalability, independence and self-description. This could be a first step in building a Hydrologic Information System for the basin. In the first chapter of this thesis, the importance of Hydrologic Information Systems in general and the Hydrologic Data Library for the Bogotá's River Basin is outlined. The second chapter reviews different ongoing efforts to organize, distribute and analyze scientific data. Chapter three reviews the underlying computational technologies used for building information systems, in particular those used in this project. Chapter four explains the design and building process of the digital data library along with minor deployment technicalities. Chapter five exposes its shortcomings, future extensions and practical uses. iii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
International Symposium on Robotics and Intelligent Sensors 2012 ( IRIS 2012 ) The Development of a Low Cost Pneumatic Air Muscle Actuated Anthropomorphic Robotic Hand

This paper presents the design of an anthropomorphic robotic hand of low-budget, achieving basic grasps similar to the human hand. The hand has an anthropomorphic design with 16 degrees of freedom (DOFs). With 14 Mckibben style pneumatic air muscles (PAM) implemented as the power actuator of the tendon-driven fingers, the actuator offers the robotic hand a compliant, soft grasp for manipulating objects in open-loop control. Besides, this work reports the force transmission layout that enables underactuation which allowed the use of fewer actuators to control the DOFs of the hand. The performance of the hand was accessed through testings using power and precision grasps. © 2012 The Authors. Published by Elsevier Ltd. Selection and/or peer-review under responsibility of the Centre of Humanoid Robots and Bio-Sensor (HuRoBs), Faculty of Mechanical Engineering, Universiti Teknologi MARA.