cometadata/datacite-rtg-text-other-reclassification-records huggingface dataset:
Applications of Independent Component Analysis in Endmember Extraction and Abundance Quantification for Hyperspectral Imagery
Creators: name: Wang, J.
name: Chang, Chein-I
Publisher: name: IEEE
Year: 2006
Subjects: abundance quantification
Abundance-constrained linear spectral mixture analysis (ACLSMA)
endmember extraction
FastICA
high-order statistics-based independent component (IC) prioritization algorithm (HOS-ICPA)
Hyperspectral imaging
Hyperspectral sensors
IC prioritization
ICA-based endmember extraction algorithm (ICA-EEA)
Image analysis
Image processing
Independent component analysis
independent component analysis (ICA)-based abundance quantification algorithm (ICA-AQA)
initialization driven-based IC prioritization algorithm (ID-ICPA)
Pixel
Remote sensing
Signal processing algorithms
Spatial resolution
Spectral analysis
virtual dimensionality (VD)

description: Independent component analysis (ICA) has shown success in many applications. This paper investigates a new application of the ICA in endmember extraction and abundance quantification for hyperspectral imagery. An endmember is generally referred to as an idealized pure signature for a class whose presence is considered to be rare. When it occurs, it may not appear in large population. In this case, the commonly used principal components analysis may not be effective since endmembers usually contribute very little in statistics to data variance. In order to substantiate the author's findings, an ICA-based approach, called ICA-based abundance quantification algorithm (ICA-AQA) is developed. Three novelties result from the author's proposed ICA-AQA. First, unlike the commonly used least squares abundance-constrained linear spectral mixture analysis (ACLSMA) which is a second-order statistics-based method, the ICA-AQA is a high-order statistics-based technique. Second, due to the use of statistical independency, it is generally thought that the ICA cannot be implemented as a constrained method. The ICA-AQA shows otherwise. Third, in order for the ACLSMA to perform the abundance quantification, it requires an algorithm to find image endmembers first then followed by an abundance-constrained algorithm for quantification. As opposed to such a two-stage process, the ICA-AQA can accomplish endmember extraction and abundance quantification simultaneously in one-shot operation. Experimental results demonstrate that the ICA-AQA performs at least comparably to abundance-constrained methods
Sub-Epidemic Generalized Logistic-Growth Model Performance for Influenza Season in the United States, October 2015–April 2019
Creators: name: Fast, Hannah
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: INTRODUCTION: The public health response to an emerging infectious disease epidemic is based on risk assessments that predict the severity of the health threat. Although infectious disease surveillance data is often limited in scope, mathematical models can provide meaningful information about epidemic growth dynamics to inform development of public health interventions. 
AIM: This investigation aims to validate application of a sub-epidemic version of the generalized logistic-growth model (GLM) to a delineated period of epidemic growth representing the influenza season, using national surveillance data for incidence of influenza-like illness (ILI) in the United States.
METHODS: Surveillance data for ILI case counts were obtained from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) website, FluView. GLM models with one, two, and three sub-epidemics were fit to four epidemic growth periods across four years, each containing 30 weekly ILI incidence counts. Parameter estimates were obtained through nonlinear least squares curve-fitting and sub-epidemic curves were aggregated into the best fit model. Model performance was evaluated using calculation of performance metrics, bootstrapping, and visual analysis.
RESULTS: Model performance consistently improved across all four seasons as the number of sub-epidemics incorporated into the GLM increased (n=1 to n=3). The parameter and sub-epidemic estimates provided information about the growth dynamics of the epidemic period, identifying trends specific to each season.
DISCUSSION: The sub-epidemic GLM provides useful results about epidemic dynamics using national case count data. In addition, while logistic growth models are often applied to discrete outbreaks, the results of this investigation support application of the model to periods of epidemic growth within seasonal trends as well. The findings support the continued use of this model for academic and other public health application.
Infection Prevention and Control Knowledge and Practices Among Healthcare Workers in Lobatse District Health Management Team (LDHMT) Facilities: A Call for an Educational Intervention
Creators: name: Mothibi, Kgomotso
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: Background: Healthcare-Associated Infections (HAIs) are of significant concern to the health care system and a burden to the public health discipline. HAIs are associated with high morbidity and mortality, prolonged hospital stays, and long-term disability, and a massive financial burden for health systems. Limited knowledge and poor practices regarding infection control practices (IPC) among healthcare workers contribute to HAIs. Therefore, healthcare workers should be adequately knowledgeable on IPC and practice safe IPC activities. The study assessed IPC knowledge and practices among the healthcare workers at Lobatse District Health Management Team (LDHMT) healthcare facilities in Botswana.
Method
This study was restricted to Botswana 184 healthcare workers with direct patient care responsibilities at Lobatse healthcare facilities. A WHO and CDC approved questionnaire used to collect data. The questionnaire included questions on infection prevention and control (IPC) knowledge and practices. Data were analyzed with SAS 9.4 software. Bivariate and multivariate logistic regression analyses were conducted to identify factors associated with IPC knowledge and practices.
Results
About 50.6% of the participants practiced safe IPC activities, and 51.3% were adequately knowledgeable in IPC. IPC knowledge level and safer activities were significantly associated with older age, a bachelor's degree level and above level of education, working in a clinic, 25 or more years of work experience, having been trained on IPC, and access to IPC guidelines and training in other health training institutes.
Conclusion
Policymakers at the hospital level should develop educational interventions to improve the participants' IPC knowledge level and practices in Botswana.
Informal recyclers’ health inequities in Vancouver, B.C.
Creators: name: Wittmer, Josie
name: Parizeau, Kate
Publisher: name: New Solutions
Year: 2020

description: We explore informal recyclers’ perceptions and experiences of the social determinants of health in Vancouver, Canada and investigate the factors that contribute to the environmental health inequities they experience. Based on in-depth interviews with forty informal recyclers and seven key informants, we use a social determinants of health framework to detail the health threats that informal recyclers associated with their work and the factors that influenced their access to health-related resources and services. Our analysis reveals that the structural factors influencing environmental health inequities included insufficient government resources for low-income urbanites; the potential for stigma, clientization, and discrimination at some health and social service providers; and the legal marginalization of informal recycling and associated activities. We conclude that Vancouver's informal recyclers experience inequitable access to health-related resources and services, and they are knowledgeable observers of the factors that influence their own health and well-being.
Factors Associated with Diabetic Retinopathy Among us Adults 40 years and Above with Diabetes
Creators: name: Agbo, Chioma
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: Background: Diabetic Retinopathy (DR) is one of the complications of diabetes and the primary cause of blindness among adults, and the third leading cause of all cases of blindness in the United States. DR is also the leading cause of vision loss, affecting over 100 million people worldwide. It accounts for 10,000 new cases of vision loss every year in the United States. Understanding the risk factors of diabetic retinopathy is crucial to the development of effective prevention strategies.
Aim: This study is designed to investigate the relationship between the selected independent variables and the risk of diabetic retinopathy among U.S. adults aged 40 years and above with diabetes.
Methods: Dataset from the 2017-2018 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) was used for this study. The final sample comprised 893 adults aged 40 years and above with diabetes. Logistic regression analysis was used to determine the association between selected risk factors among those with diabetes and the risk of diabetic retinopathy. Results: Approximately 20% of the sample reported a diagnosis of DR Increased age (AOR=2.19, 95% CI:0.69 -7.06), female gender (AOR=1.81, 95% CI:0.71-4.41), and increased total cholesterol (AOR=2.83, 95% CI:1.030-27.3), Increase in BMI (AOR=1.71, 95% CI:0.23-12.88), blood pressure (AOR=1.40, 95% CI:0.41-4.75), Physical activity (AOR=1.37, 95% CI:0.41-4.60) and Non- Hispanic White(AOR=1.32, 95% CI:0.37-4.67) were found to be associated with greater odds of diabetic retinopathy after controlling for covariates.
Conclusion: Though not statistically significant, diabetic retinopathy was related to elevated total cholesterol, high BMI, an increase in age, and duration of diabetes. This study warrants the need for powered research to inform their relationship because of the lack of statistically significant association between the selected risk factors of diabetes and the risk of diabetic retinopathy.
Pathways between Food Insecurity and Diabetes, Observing the Mediating Effects of Depression.
Creators: name: Eferighe, Alpha-Isaac
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: INTRODUCTION: Type 2 diabetes is the seventh leading cause of death in the U.S. and is significantly associated with morbidity, mortality, decreased quality of life, increased health-care utilization, and cost. Studies have shown adults suffering from food insecurity have a greater risk of having diabetes than those that do not. Although 11% of U.S. households suffer from food insecurity, the link between food insecurity and diabetes is not fully understood.

AIM: This study aims to determine the direct and indirect pathways through which food insecurity may lead to diabetes, observing the mediating effects of depression using nationally representative data.
METHODS: The 2005-2006 National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) data were used for this study. The mechanism through which food insecurity influences diabetes was determined using Structural Equation Modeling (SEM). The analysis also included an investigation of the direct and indirect effects of depression on diabetes.
Results: Food insecurity was found to have a negative direct effect on diabetes (?= -.018, p= .497). Depression was directly and significantly related to diabetes (? = 0.09, p = 0.009). Food insecurity was positively and significantly associated with depression (? = 0.329 , p > 0.01).

Conclusion: This study shows that depression is linked to diabetes, and food insecurity is linked to depression. While the total effect of food insecurity on diabetes was positive, the direct impact was negative. Food insecure individuals have heightened chances of being depressed, thus having diabetes, and may benefit from additional income supplements and education in proper food consumption.
Progressive coding for hyperspectral signature characterization
Creators: name: Chang, Chein-I
name: Wang, Jing
name: Chang, Chein-Chi
name: Lin, Chinsu
Publisher: name: Spie
Year: 2006

description: Spectral signature coding is an effective means of characterizing spectral features. This paper develops a rather different encoding concept, called progressive signature coding (PSC), which encodes a signature in a hierarchical manner. More specifically, it progressively encodes a spectral signature in multiple stages; each of these stages captures disjoint spectral information contained in the spectral signature. As a result of this progressive coding, a spectral profile of progressive changes in a spectral signature can be generated for spectral characterization. The proposed idea is very simple and evolved from the pulse code modulation (PCM) commonly used in communications and signal processing. It expands PCM to multistage PCM (MPCM) in the sense that a signature can be decomposed and quantized by PCM progressively in multiple stages for spectral characterization. In doing so, the MPCM generates a priority code for a spectral signature so that its spectral information captured in different stages can be prioritized in accordance with significance of changes in spectral variation. Such MPCM-based progressive spectral signature coding (MPCM-PSSC) can be useful in applications such as hyperspectral data exploitation, environmental monitoring, and chemical/biological agent detection. Experiments are provided to demonstrate the utility of the MPCM-PSSC in signature discrimination and identification.
Determining Disparities by Income Level as Risk Factor for Low Visual Acuity Among U.S. Adults Using the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2008
Creators: name: Umbria, Mariana
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: INTRODUCTION:  Visual loss is a serious health, social and economic problem worldwide in the United States (U.S.), being a cause of morbidity and disability in society. Subsequently, low vision is high in developing countries, where social determinants of health (SDH) play a significant role in individuals' health status. Studies confirm the impact of SDH on low vision and access to visual healthcare in the U.S. Yet there is no recent research that addresses the relationship between income level, as a SDH and low vision in the U.S. at the national level.
AIM: This study aims to analyze income disparities in visual acuity using data from the National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey (NHANES) from 1999 to 2008 to verify the association between income level and low vision.
METHODS: This study is a population-based and nationally-representative, observational, secondary data analysis using information from NHANES (1999 – 2008) with a sample=27,200 adult participants. The study measured descriptive statistics, bivariate statistics (chi-squared), and logistic regression to compute the strength of association between the household income and visual acuity.
RESULTS: Lower-income subjects had significantly lower odds of normal vision (OR=0.822, p<0.05) and higher odds of low visual acuity (OR=1.214, p<0.05) and severe visual impairment (OR=1.44, p<0.05), compared to high-income level groups.
DISCUSSION: Low income is associated with lower likelihood of normal vision and higher risk of visual impairment. To improve disparities in visual health, economic inequality and its effects (for example, unequal access to health insurance and preventative visual healthcare) must be improved.
An Examination Of Dietary Practises Of Nigerian Women In Atlanta
Creators: name: Ikuomola, Oluwaseun
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: Background: Sociocultural and psychological factors influence dietary practices. Poor dietary practices are among the risk factors for non-communicable diseases. There is a disproportionate rate of non-communicable diseases in the United States and Nigeria, which are among the top countries with poor dietary practices globally. Nigerians are shifting from traditional meals, which are good sources of insoluble fibers, preventing certain non-communicable diseases, to Western and unprocessed foods. They are also replacing traditional spices with bouillon.
Aims: This study (i) describes the types and frequency of consuming common Nigerian foods, (ii) determines if the length of stay in the U.S influences the frequency of consuming common Nigerian foods, and (iii) examines if health status influences dietary practices of Nigerian women in metro Atlanta. 
Methods: This is an exploratory cross-sectional study using a semi-structured questionnaire administered as an online survey to obtain data on the frequency of consumption of common Nigerian foods among a convenient sample population of adult Nigerian women living in Atlanta. Other data obtained included sociodemographics, diabetes or hypertension diagnosis, and the frequency of using salt and bouillon in combination for meal preparation. Data were analyzed using descriptive statistics, and bivariate analysis of variables to determine if differences in proportions were statistically significant at a p-value of ? 0.05.
Results: Rice is the most commonly consumed food by a high proportion of study participants, irrespective of health status. The length of stay of participants in the U.S did not significantly infer a difference in the frequency of consuming the most common Nigerian foods among this population. About 43.14% of study participants practice the habit of using the combination of salt and bouillon in meal preparation. The difference in the proportion of study participants who had or did not have diabetes using salt and bouillon for meal preparation was statistically significant (p= 0.0008). In contrast, there was no statistically significant difference in the proportion of study participants who had or did not have hypertension using salt and bouillon in combination.
Summary: This study shows that the most commonly consumed Nigerian foods eaten by Nigerian women in Atlanta are similar to those eaten by Nigerians residing in Nigeria. Although the frequency of consuming common Nigerian foods among these women differed with their length of stay in the U.S and health status, these differences appear to be statistically insignificant. Also, the daily use of salt and bouillon is observed among a considerable proportion of women in this study. Further research is needed for a larger sample size in this population with a comparative analysis on dietary practices of Nigerian women living in Nigeria.
Automatic target recognition for hyperspectral imagery using high-order statistics
Creators: name: Ren, Hsuan
name: Du, Qian
name: Wang, Jing
name: Chang, Chein-I
name: Jensen, James O.
name: Jensen, Janet L.
Publisher: name: IEEE
Year: 2006
Subjects: subject: Hyperspectral imaging
subject: Hyperspectral sensors
subject: Image analysis
subject: Image resolution
subject: Image sensors
subject: Object detection
subject: Signal processing
subject: Signal resolution
subject: Statistics
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: Target recognition

description: Due to recent advances in hyperspectral imaging sensors many subtle unknown signal sources that cannot be resolved by multispectral sensors can be now uncovered for target detection, discrimination, and identification. Because the information about such sources is generally not available, automatic target recognition (ATR) presents a great challenge to hyperspectral image analysts. Many approaches developed for ATR are based on second-order statistics in the past years. This paper investigates ATR techniques using high order statistics. For ATR in hyperspectral imagery, most interesting targets usually occur with low probabilities and small population and they generally cannot be described by second-order statistics. Under such circumstances, using high-order statistics to perform target detection have been shown by experiments in this paper to be more effective than using second order statistics. In order to further address a challenging issue in determining the number of signal sources needed to be detected, a recently developed concept of virtual dimensionality (VD) is used to estimate this number. The experiments demonstrate that using high-order statistics-based techniques in conjunction with the VD to perform ATR are indeed very effective.
Sexual Behavior after Sexual Assault: Differences Based on Racial Identity, Ethnicity, and Sexual Orientation
Creators: name: Umo, Idara
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: Sexual assault victimization occurs at high rates among the college population in the United States. Forms of sexual assault can include rape, unwanted touching, or forcing a victim to perform sexual acts. Sexual assault victimization disproportionately impacts sexual and racial/ethnic minority individuals. This study examined potential differences in the association between sexual assault and risky sexual behavior (i.e., alcohol use prior to sex and condom use) based on minority status (i.e., race/ethnicity and sexual orientation). Secondary data were collected from a study conducted at a university in the Southwestern region of the United States. A total of 399 college-aged participants were included in the study. Hierarchical linear regressions were performed separately for alcohol use prior to sex and condom use. Results revealed a significant association between sexual assault victimization and risky sexual behavior. The interaction between sexual assault victimization and minority status on alcohol use prior to sex was significant. This finding indicated that the association between sexual victimization and alcohol use prior to sex was positive and significant among sexual and racial/ethnic minorities. The association between sexual victimization and alcohol use prior to sex was non-significant among White, non-Latinx, cisgender, heterosexual participants. These findings contribute to the literature available addressing sexual assault victimization among minority populations. Future sexual assault prevention programming should be sure to discuss treatment for victims with the inclusion of minority populations.
Numerical Investigation of the Optimal Inclination Angle of Sloped Bottom Tuned Liquid Damper
Creators: name: ALKHATIB, Ahmad
Publisher: name: figshare
Year: 2025
Subjects: classificationCode: 400509
subject: Structural dynamics

description: One of the most common designing issues that faces structural engineers during design phase is to ensure that the capacity of the studied structure is well enough to withstand seismic events and mitigate as mush as possible to reduce the effects of dynamic loads. This research studies the seismic behavior of sloped-bottom tuned liquid dampers (SB-TLD), these dampers will be used as motion control devices to mitigate the response building under earthquakes, an analytical model of sloped bottom TLD was built using ABAQUSTM to obtain the optimum Incline angle of the sloped bottom which leads to optimum behavior of TLD, further a comparison was carried out between rectangular shaped TLD and trapezoidal shaped TLD (SBTLD). It was found that the SBTLD is more efficient and dissipates more energy than rectangular TLD
Khalka Mongols also known as “Monggol (in Mongolian)”, “Mongolia”, “Mongolians”, “Mongols”, “Menggu (in Chinese)”
Creators: name: Pitek, Emily
Publisher: name: Database of Religious History (DRH)
Year: 2018

description: The Mongol cultural group contains several sub-groups (the Khalka, Buriat, and Oirats). While these subgroups exhibit commonalities, they are unique communities with nuanced distinctions and are located in different geographic regions.This entry focuses specifically on the Khalkha Mongols of the Narobanchin Temple Territory, in western Outer Mongolia (ca. 1920) before the influx of Communism and Japanese occupation.
GAIPAT -Dataset on Human Gaze and Actions for Intent Prediction in Assembly Tasks
Creators: name: Grand, Maxence
name: Pellier, Damien
name: Jambon, Francis
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2025
Subjects: subject: Robotics (cs.RO)
subject: Human-Computer Interaction (cs.HC)
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: The primary objective of the dataset is to provide a better understanding of the coupling between human actions and gaze in a shared working environment with a cobot, with the aim of signifcantly enhancing the effciency and safety of humancobot interactions. More broadly, by linking gaze patterns with physical actions, the dataset offers valuable insights into cognitive processes and attention dynamics in the context of assembly tasks. The proposed dataset contains gaze and action data from approximately 80 participants, recorded during simulated industrial assembly tasks. The tasks were simulated using controlled scenarios in which participants manipulated educational building blocks. Gaze data was collected using two different eye-tracking setups -head-mounted and remote-while participants worked in two positions: sitting and standing.
Bullying Experience of LGBTQ+ Students and Sexual Risk Behavior in Ukraine
Creators: name: Ivasiy, Roman
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: INTRODUCTION: School bullying is a component of social determinants of health that contributes to the marginalization of LGBTQ+ adolescents and correlates significantly with academic indicators and mental health, reported by an extensive body of research. However, very little is known about the relationship between school victimization and sexual risk-taking behavior among LGBTQ+ Youth in Ukraine, where HIV and other STDs remain one of the biggest public health concerns.
AIM: Determine the associations between bullying, based on sexual orientation and gender expression characteristics, and high-risk sexual practices in order to inform the prevention policy development.
METHODS: The final study sample of 1,743 participants was obtained from the 2020 Ukrainian School Climate Survey (USCS), the cross-sectional study focused on measuring bullying experiences of LGBTQ+ students in Ukraine that also collected data on sexual behavior. The survey was conducted online from April 2020 through August 2020 and distributed through social media, targeting students who attended secondary-level school during the 2019-2020 academic year and identified themselves as LGBTQ+. The logistic regression analysis and bootstrapping tools of SAS 9.4 software were applied to estimate the exposure-outcome associations and potential mediation effects.
RESULTS: Severe exposures to verbal and physical harassment that was based on gender expression are associated with a two-fold increase in the risk of condomless sexual intercourse (odds ratios, adjusted to age and gender, equal to 2.1, 95% CI: [1.2 - 3.5] and 1.9, 95% CI: [1.03 - 3.4] respectively). The odds of sexual risk behavior, adjusted to age and gender, among those who had been sexually harassed (AOR = 2.6, 95% CI: [1.5 - 4.5]) and those who experienced cyberbullying (AOR = 2.2, 95% CI: [1.3 - 3.7]) were even higher. There is also evidence suggesting that the more frequent exposure to physical and sexual harassment, the higher odds of condomless sex practices. However, there were no significant indirect effects between any type of school victimization and sexual risk behavior mediated by depression or low self-esteem.
CONCLUSION: Evidence provided by this study underlines the necessity of inclusive anti-bullying policies that would decrease the exposure of LGBTQ+ students to bullying based on prejudice to gender expression. There are reasons to believe that inclusive bullying prevention could reduce HIV incidence among adolescents in Ukraine by minimizing sexual risk behavior.
Postmortem Toxicologic Findings: The Presence of Alcohol and Psychoactive Drugs in Those Who Died by Suicide
Creators: name: Lee, Crystal
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: Background: Substance use and abuse is strongly associated with higher rates of suicidal ideation, attempts, and ultimately suicide completion. The study objective was to examine the presence of alcohol and psychoactive drugs in the blood of individuals who died by suicide. Research aims were (1) explore the prevalence of alcohol and toxicological drugs in individuals who died by suicide by various demographic characteristics, (2) explore the prevalence of alcohol and specific toxicological drugs by methods of suicide, and (3) determine whether pharmaceutical and illicit drugs were associated with the method of suicide (specifically violent-non-drug-related means vs. drug-related means).
Methods: Data was extracted from the Medicolegal Death Investigation log database, retrieved from 2017-2020 within the metro-Atlanta region. Descriptive analyses and regression analyses were conducted.
Results:The presence of alcohol and psychoactive drugs in the blood of individuals who died by suicide had the highest percentages among the age group 25-44, White males that resided in middle-income areas. There were notable differences between detected drugs and methods of suicide. The top five identified drugs were Amphetamines (N=83), Cocaine (N=32), Anti-Depressants (N=27), Opioids (N=24), and Benzodiazepines (N=20). These identified drugs were more common in decedents who used firearms, hanging/ asphyxia, and poisoning/ drug overdose. Individuals who tested positive for pharmaceutical drugs had lower odds of violent-non-drug-related death compared to drug-related death (OR=0.006; 95% CI=0.001-0.027, p
Conclusion: Results of this study were consistent with previous research on the prevalence of alcohol among individuals who died by suicide across various demographic characteristics, however, the prevalence of drugs contradicted findings from other studies. Findings that individuals who tested positive for illicit drugs had higher odds of violent-non-drug-related death compared to drug-related death means support the importance of reducing access to lethal means of self-harm (particularly firearms) for a person at risk of suicide is an important part of a comprehensive approach to suicide prevention.
REASONS: A benchmark for REtrieval and Automated citationS Of scieNtific Sentences using Public and Proprietary LLMs
Creators: name: Tilwani, Deepa
name: Saxena, Yash
name: Mohammadi, Ali
name: Raff, Edward
name: Sheth, Amit
name: Parthasarathy, Srinivasan
name: Gaur, Manas|
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 2024
Subjects: Computer Science - Artificial Intelligence
Computer Science - Computation and Language
Computer Science - Information Retrieval

description: Automatic citation generation for sentences in a document or report is paramount for intelligence analysts, cybersecurity, news agencies, and education personnel. In this research, we investigate whether large language models (LLMs) are capable of generating references based on two forms of sentence queries: (a) Direct Queries, LLMs are asked to provide author names of the given research article, and (b) Indirect Queries, LLMs are asked to provide the title of a mentioned article when given a sentence from a different article. To demonstrate where LLM stands in this task, we introduce a large dataset called REASONS comprising abstracts of the 12 most popular domains of scientific research on arXiv. From around 20K research articles, we make the following deductions on public and proprietary LLMs: (a) State-of-the-art, often called anthropomorphic GPT-4 and GPT-3.5, suffers from high pass percentage (PP) to minimize the hallucination rate (HR). When tested with Perplexity.ai (7B), they unexpectedly made more errors; (b) Augmenting relevant metadata lowered the PP and gave the lowest HR; (c) Advance retrieval-augmented generation (RAG) using Mistral demonstrates consistent and robust citation support on indirect queries and matched performance to GPT-3.5 and GPT-4. The HR across all domains and models decreased by an average of 41.93%, and the PP was reduced to 0% in most cases. In terms of generation quality, the average F1 Score and BLEU were 68.09% and 57.51%, respectively; (d) Testing with adversarial samples showed that LLMs, including the Advance RAG Mistral, struggle to understand context, but the extent of this issue was small in Mistral and GPT-4-Preview. Our study contributes valuable insights into the reliability of RAG for automated citation generation tasks.
Navigating the phase diagram of quantum many-body systems in phase space
Creators: name: Hawary, Khadija El
name: Azzouz, Mohamed
name: Baz, Morad El
name: Deffner, Sebastian
name: Gardas, Bart?Omiej
name: Mzaouali, Zakaria
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Quantum Physics
subject: FOS: Physical sciences

description: We demonstrate the unique capabilities of the Wigner function, particularly in its positive and negative parts, for exploring the phase diagram of the spin?(1/2?1/2) and spin?(1/2?1) Ising-Heisenberg chains. We highlight the advantages and limitations of the phase space approach in comparison with the entanglement concurrence in detecting phase boundaries. We establish that the equal angle slice approximation in the phase space is an effective method for capturing the essential features of the phase diagram, but falls short in accurately assessing the negativity of the Wigner function for the homogeneous spin?(1/2?1/2) Ising-Heisenberg chain. In contrast, we find for the inhomogeneous spin?(1/2?1) chain that an integral over the entire phase space is necessary to accurately capture the phase diagram of the system. This distinction underscores the sensitivity of phase space methods to the homogeneity of the quantum system under consideration.
The Impact of Seasonal Influenza & Influenza Vaccination in Children from Low Income Households: An Exploration of Vaccination Rates & Burden on Children in Low Income Households
Creators: name: Splittorff, Julia
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: Background: Seasonal influenza results in a high burden in children, especially children under 5 years old. Vaccination, which is routinely recommended for every individual over the age of 6 months, is one of the most effective interventions in preventing severe illness and death from seasonal influenza. There is a disparity in vaccinations practices between high and low socioeconomic households, which may lead to a greater impact of influenza on children in these households. The purpose of this study is to explore potential relationships between socioeconomic and vaccination practice variables.
Methods: Using 2018 data from the National Immunization Survey, a biserial correlation between household Income-Poverty Ratio and vaccination status at 24 months of age was conducted as well as a linear regression of household Income-Poverty Ratio and age in days of first influenza vaccination. A logistic regression between household Income-Poverty Ratio and vaccination status at 24 months of age was additionally conducted. All analyses were done in RStudio.
Results: There was a small correlation between household Income-Poverty Ratio and vaccination status at 24 months of -0.231 (p-value
Conclusion: There is a relationship between socioeconomic status and influenza vaccination practices which may impact and amplify the burden of influenza on children in lower income households.
Toxicological Characterization of Traffic-related Air Pollution in Five Distinct Atlanta Locations
Creators: name: Bejdic, Haris
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: Traffic-related air pollution (TRAP) affects approximately 45 million individuals who live within 300 feet of a major highway, resulting in adverse respiratory and cardiovascular outcomes (e.g., asthma, inflammation). Recent studies indicate that green infrastructure reduces aerosol concentrations and potentially limits TRAP-related toxicity. We hypothesized that green infrastructure might mitigate reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation, oxidative stress, cytokine secretion, and potential inflammation and injury in human primary small airway epithelial cells (SAEC) associated with similar respiratory pathologies, including asthma. TRAP was monitored at five Atlanta locations (S1: green barrier; S2: no barrier; S3: combination barrier; S4: no barrier; S5: green barrier) next to and behind barriers using continuous instrumentation, and sampled particulate matter (PM) was collected on pre-weighed polytetrafluoroethylene (PTFE) filters. The collected PM was extracted and prepared for toxicological assessments, including CellROX®, total glutathione (GSH), and MTS assays, which measured ROS production, oxidative stress, and cellular viability, respectively, using SAEC following a 48-hour exposure period. Additionally, the Human Cytokine Array Proinflammatory Focused 15-plex (HDF15) was used to evaluate the secretion of pro-inflammatory cytokines, such as granulocyte-macrophage colony-stimulating factor (GM-CSF), interleukin-8 (IL-8), monocyte chemoattractant protein-1 (MCP-1), and tumor necrosis factor-alpha (TNF-??). Preliminary in vitro toxicological analyses revealed that sites with green barriers (e.g., S1, S5) decreased TRAP-induced impacts on oxidative stress and cytokine secretion in SAEC. However, there was no reduction in cell viability following PM exposures. Additionally, a site with a combination barrier (e.g., S3) decreased GM-CSF, IL-8, and TNF-?? cytokine secretion in SAEC. TRAP exposures may elicit harmful pulmonary mechanisms, including inflammation and oxidative stress in lung epithelial cells over time. This work suggests green barriers may influence the biological activity of PM. In sum, green barriers may play a role in mitigating TRAP-mediated respiratory health effects.
Properties of BV-G structures + textures decomposition models. Application to road detection in satellite images
Creators: name: Gilles, Jerome
name: Meyer, Yves
Publisher: name: arXiv
Year: 2024
Subjects: subject: Functional Analysis (math.FA)
subject: Computer Vision and Pattern Recognition (cs.CV)
subject: FOS: Mathematics
subject: FOS: Computer and information sciences

description: In this paper we present some theoretical results about a structures-textures image decomposition model which was proposed by the second author. We prove a theorem which gives the behavior of this model in different cases. Finally, as a consequence of the theorem we derive an algorithm for the detection of long and thin objects applied to a road networks detection application in aerial or satellite images.
Robustness of Generative Models using Language Guidance for Low-Level Vision Tasks: Findings from Depth Estimation
Creators: name: Chatterjee, Agneet
name: Gokhale, Tejas
name: Baral, Chitta
name: Yang, Yezhou
Publisher: name: Maryland Shared Open Access Repository
Year: 2024

description: CVPR 2024 Workshop, Tuesday, June 18th, 2024 , Seattle, USA
description: Text to image generative models have recently been leveraged to perform monocular depth estimation, by incorporating natural language as additional guidance. Although yielding impressive results, the impact of the language prior, particularly in terms of generalization and robustness, remains unexplored. In this paper, we address this gap by quantifying the impact of this prior and introduce methods to benchmark its effectiveness across various settings. We generate "low-level" sentences that convey object-centric, three-dimensional spatial relationships, incorporate them as additional language priors and evaluate their downstream impact on depth estimation. Our key ?nding is that current language-guided depth estimators perform optimally only with scene-level descriptions and counter-intuitively fare worse with low level descriptions. Despite leveraging additional data, these methods are not robust to directed adversarial attacks and decline in performance with an increase in distribution shift. Finally, to provide a foundation for future research, we identify points of failures and offer insights to better understand these shortcomings. With an increasing number of generative models using language for depth estimation, our ?ndings highlight the opportunities and pitfalls that require careful consideration for effective deployment in real-world settings.
Pinnotherid crabs (Brachyura: Pinnotheridae) from shallow waters of the Mexican Atlantic
Creators: name: Martínez-García, Maritza
name: Simoes, Nuno
name: Campos, Ernesto
Publisher: name: Zenodo
Year: 2013
Subjects: subject: Ecology
subject: FOS: Biological sciences
subject: Ecology
subject: Aquatic ecology
subject: Ecology/classification
subject: Ecology/education
subject: Animal ecology
subject: Fauna
subject: Marine fauna
subject: Marine biology
subject: Marine ecosystem
subject: Marine biota
subject: Marine Biology
subject: Marine biodiversity
subject: Marine biology
subject: Marine organism
subject: Marine ecology
subject: Biodiversity
subject: Biodiversity indices
subject: Biodiversity conservation
subject: Biodiversity loss
subject: Biodiversity conservation
subject: Crustacea
subject: Crustacean
subject: Crustacea/classification
subject: Brachyura
subject: Brachyura/classification
subject: Brachyura/growth & development
subject: Species
subject: Animal species
subject: Pinnotherid crabs
subject: Gulf of Mexico
subject: Parapinnixa bouvieri
subject: Pinnixa sayana
subject: pinotéridos
subject: GBIF: 8672
subject: Pinnotheridae
subject: ITIS: 98964
subject: symbiotic relation
subject: WoRMS: 106775

description: Descubre más información sobre datos, investigaciones científicas, colecciones científicas y grupos de trabajo dedicados al estudio y conservación de la biodiversidad marina en https://www.bdmy.org.mx/

Discover more information about data, scientific research, scientific collections and working groups dedicated to the study and conservation of marine biodiversity at https://www.bdmy.org.mx/

Spanish version: https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.15123374

Designed and illustrated by: naturae.art@gmail.com
A Thesis on Aspects of Perceptions of Alcohol Advertisements and Marketing Appeal: Empirical Analyses of Young Adults in the US and Uganda
Creators: name: Grant, Amber
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: INTRODUCTION: Despite the rapid increase in alcohol marketing and its role in contributing to alcohol use, a growing global health concern, there is limited research examining young adults and their perception of alcohol advertisement and appeal that can inform alcohol counter marketing campaigns and prevention strategies.  
AIM: To examine and compare perceptions of alcohol advertisements and marketing appeal in a cross-sectional survey of young adults in two countries, Uganda, and the U.S. 
METHODS: The analyses are based on a cross-sectional survey, conducted in 2021, comprised of young adults ages 18 to 25 (N=603; 303 in U.S. and 300 in Uganda) Participants were recruited online for a 20-minute survey that included questions about demographic characteristics, alcohol advert exposure, alcohol use (AUDIT) and responses to 4 specific alcohol adverts including compliance with alcohol marketing codes using the alcohol marketing assessment tool (AMART).  The outcome variable was the frequency of selected segments (heatmaps) of the four adverts and the AMART ratings of each ad.  Chi-square tests of independence were conducted for selected preferred element of the advert and the participant home country for all four ads. A multivariate analysis was conducted to assess the association between alcohol use, marketing influence and AMART scores for each ad.
RESULTS: There was an association between the country variable and the regions of interests (X2 (df=2) = 14.21, p = 0.002) in advert 3 with a .04 point increase in perception of marketing features that are in violation of industry standards for every 1-point increase in marketing influence scores. The chi-square test for advert 4 reported a significant association between the country of origin and marketing features that are in violation of industry standards (X2 (df=2) = 33.40, p < 0.0001). 
DISCUSSION: While culturally different, both the Ugandan and the American participants expressed similar perception and appeal of the selected alcohol adverts. However, there were also unique differences in the specific appeal of each adverts and association with alcohol use and code violations that can inform prevention strategies, and alcohol counter marketing initiatives that seek to reduce alcohol use in similar populations.
Temporal and Spatial Evaluation of the Relationship between Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) and E. coli Levels
Creators: name: Daniel, Jordan
Publisher: name: Georgia State University
Year: 2021

description: INTRODUCTION:  Beaver Dam Analogs (BDAs) have been installed along Mill Creek to help improve water quality. As a feeder creek into the impaired creek Nancy Creek, it would be beneficial to improve water quality in Mill Creek. Nancy creek is listed on Georgia’s 303(d) list as an impaired stream. The EPA classifies a stream as impaired if the E. coli levels are consistently over 2.1 Log10/100mL, among other standards.
AIM: Compare the level of E. coli in the water before the beaver dam analogs were installed to the level of E. coli in the water after the beaver dam analogs were installed. In addition, the spatial difference of E. coli levels was also investigated. 
METHODS: Fifteen water samples were collected each week from the same sites that were marked by stakes on the bank of the creek. The water samples were then processed through membrane filtration. The filter was plated on BioRad RAPID'E. coli 2™ medium and incubated at 37 degrees Celsius for 18 – 24 hours. Once the plates were removed, the colonies were counted. The data was collected from March 2018 to April 2021. 

RESULTS: A One-Way ANOVA test was conducted on the data through the program GraphPad Prism 8. When comparing the dates over time it showed that the E. coli levels did differ significantly over time. This adds evidence that the beaver dam analogs (BDAs) do impact the E. coli levels. However, while the ANOVA test showed a significant difference the majority of the data was over the EPA's water quality limit of 2.1 Log10/100mL. Another One-Way ANOVA was run spatially (site-to-site), and it was found that there was no significant difference in the E. coli levels between the fifteen sites.

DISCUSSION: Overall, the data showed that the beaver dam analogs were not effective in improving E. coli levels of Mill Creek. While there was a significant difference between the E. coli levels between dates, there were data points above the EPA's limit of 2.1 Log10/100mL. While the beaver dam analogs did not improve water quality, they also did not decrease water quality. Therefore, the beaver dam analogs had relatively no change on Mill Creek's water quality.
Do Grow-Your-Own Programs Work? Evidence from the Teacher Academy of Maryland
Creators: name: Blazar, David
name: Gao, Wenjing
name: Gershenson, Seth
name: Goings, Ramon
name: Lagos, Francisco
Publisher: name: IZA – Institute of Labor Economics
Year: 2024
Subjects: Grow-Your-Own Programs
address workforce shortages
positive impacts on wages

description: Local teacher recruitment through “grow-your-own” programs is a prominent strategy toaddress workforce shortages and ensure that incoming teachers resemble, understand,and have strong connections to their communities. We exploit the staggered rollout of theTeacher Academy of Maryland career and technical education certificate program acrosspublic high schools, finding that exposed students were more likely to become teachersby 0.6 percentage points (pp), or 47%. Effects are concentrated among White girls(1.4pp/39%) and Black girls (0.7pp/80%). We also identify positive impacts on wages (5%on average/18% for Black girls), countering a prevailing narrative that teaching leaves oneworse off financially relative to other labor market opportunities.