Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Self-Esteem and Religiosity: Comparison of 13- to 15-Year-Old Students in Catholic and Public Junior High Schools

An important goal of schooling is to support students’ personal well-being, including to enhance their self-esteem (Bagley, 1989b; Bagley, Verma, Mallick, & Young, 1979). Self-esteem and self-concept (used as interchangeable con- structs) are linked to scholastic achievement (Byrne, 1990), and, according to Kaplan (1980), inversely to school drop-out, delinquency, premature sexual activity, unwanted pregnancy, and substance abuse. In theory at least, the ethos of Catholic schools (which in many parts of Canada take more than a quarter of all students) should lead to greater integration with supportive social systems (Bryk, Lee, & Holland, 1993; Lesko, 1988). Some North and South American and European studies (Coleman, Hoffer, & Kilgore, 1982; Smith, Weigert, & Thomas, 1979) have shown that students in Catholic schools (or at least those accepting Catholic values, and attending church regularly) have somewhat higher levels of self-esteem than students in public schools; however, factors such as social class, age, and sex have not been entirely controlled for in these studies. In a Belgian study, Brutsaert (1995) points to the interesting finding that girls in Catholic schools, but not boys, have enhanced self-esteem levels. He speculates that the rather structured environment of the Catholic school enhances the self-esteem of girls, but not of boys. Finally, in a national U.S. study of some 30,000 adolescents, Donahue and Benson (1995) found that religiosity had no significant links with self-esteem, despite having significant negative correlations with suicidality, substance abuse, delinquency, and premature sexual involve- ment; thus Kaplan’s earlier finding was not confirmed, although this may be due to the kind of measurements of self-appraisal used.
High CO2 Triggers Preferential Root Growth of Arabidopsis thaliana Via Two Distinct Systems Under Low pH and Low N Stresses

Biomass allocation between shoots and roots is an important strategy used by plants to optimize growth in various environments. Root to shoot mass ratios typically increase in response to high CO2, a trend particularly evident under abiotic stress. We investigated this preferential root growth (PRG) in Arabidopsis thaliana plants cultivated under low pH/high CO2 or low nitrogen (N)/high CO2 conditions. Previous studies have suggested that changes in plant hormone, carbon (C) and N status may be related to PRG. We therefore examined the mechanisms underlying PRG by genetically modifying cytokinin (CK) levels, C and N status, and sugar signaling, performing sugar application experiments and determining primary metabolites, plant hormones and expression of related genes. Both low pH/high CO2 and low N/high CO2 stresses induced increases in lateral root (LR) number and led to high C/N ratios; however, under low pH/high CO2 conditions, large quantities of C were accumulated, whereas under low N/high CO2 conditions, N was severely depleted. Analyses of a CK-deficient mutant and a starchless mutant, in conjunction with sugar application experiments, revealed that these stresses induce PRG via different mechanisms. Metabolite and hormone profile analysis indicated that under low pH/high CO2 conditions, excess C accumulation may enhance LR number through the dual actions of increased auxin and decreased CKs.
The Biofilm Lifestyle Involves an Increase in Bacterial Membrane Saturated Fatty Acids

Biofilm formation on contact surfaces contributes to persistence of foodborne pathogens all along the food and feed chain. The specific physiological features of bacterial cells embedded in biofilms contribute to their high tolerance to environmental stresses, including the action of antimicrobial compounds. As membrane lipid adaptation is a vital facet of bacterial response when cells are submitted to harsh or unstable conditions, we focused here on membrane fatty acid composition of biofilm cells as compared to their free-growing counterparts. Pathogenic bacteria (Staphylococcus aureus, Listeria monocytogenes, Pseudomonas aeruginosa, Salmonella Typhimurium) were cultivated in planktonic or biofilm states and membrane fatty acid analyses were performed on whole cells in both conditions. The percentage of saturated fatty acids increases in biofilm cells in all cases, with a concomitant decrease of branched-chain fatty acids for Gram-positive bacteria, or with a decrease in the sum of other fatty acids for Gram-negative bacteria. We propose that increased membrane saturation in biofilm cells is an adaptive stress response that allows bacteria to limit exchanges, save energy, and survive. Reprogramming of membrane fluidity in biofilm cells might explain specific biofilm behavior including bacterial recalcitrance to biocide action.
Design and development of phonetically rich Urdu speech corpus

Phonetically rich speech corpora play a pivotal role in speech research. The significance of such resources becomes crucial in the development of Automatic Speech Recognition systems and Text to Speech systems. This paper presents details of designing and developing an optimal context based phonetically rich speech corpus for Urdu that will serve as a baseline model for training a Large Vocabulary Continuous Speech Recognition system for Urdu language.
Prevalence and Risk Factors of Cryptosporidiosis in Dairy Calves in Asella Town , South Eastern , Ethiopia

A cross-sectional study was conducted from November 2014 to February 2015 in Asella, South eastern, Ethiopia, to study the prevalence of cryptosporidiosis in dairy calves and to assess the associated risk factors. Faecal samples were collected from 384 randomly selected calves (127 extensive, 164 semi-intensive and 93 intensive management systems) and examined by using modified acid-fast staining techniques. The overall prevalence of cryptosporidium positive calves was 24.0%. Prevalence of cryptosporidium infection in poor, medium and good body condition were 30.4%, 20.2% and 8.0%, respectively with statistically significant variation (x2= 8.849, P = 0.012). Breed of calves was also found to have a statistically high significant association with the prevalence of cryptosporidium infection (P < 0.05), the prevalence being high in exotic breed which is 38.3% (18/47), while 24.9% (67/269) and 10.3% (7/68) within, cross and local breed respectively (x2 = 12.407, P = 0.002). The occurrence of the disease was also assessed among management systems of animals by taking into consideration different management systems such as extensive, intensive and semiintensive management system. The prevalence was (25.2%) in extensive, 30.1% in intensive and 19.5% in semiintensive management system with absence of significant variation (P = 0.148). The sex and age of the calves was also found to have no significant association with prevalence of cryptosporidiosis (P > 0.05). A prevalence of 24.8%, 23.8% and 22.9% were observed in 4, 5-8 and 9-12 months age groups respectively. While the highest and lowest prevalence with in a sex was 26.7% and 20.8% in female and male respectively with p = 0.176. Therefore, even though there was a high disease occurrence among age groups in calves under 4 months than 5-8 and 9-12 month age groups, analysis of the risk factor (age) in calves revealed no significant difference (p =0.945). In conclusion, this study indicated that Cryptosporidium infection is prevalent in Asella, especially in calves less than 4 month age, poor body condition, female and those calves managed intensively.
Marketing Approaches and Organization for Marketing in Ukraine

The paper reports and analyzes findings about how Ukrainian companies of different types of ownership adopt marketing concepts and organize their marketing activity during the transition from a command society to a market economy. Constraints to the adoption of marketing concepts are identified and the correlation between company performance and the degree of the adoption is investigated. The study is based on the information collected through a survey of Ukrainian enterprises and used for a cluster analysis.
X-ray evidence for spectroscopic diversity of type Ia supernovae: XMM observation of the elemental abundance pattern in M87

We present the results of a detailed element abundance study of hot gas in M 87, observed by XMM-Newton. We choose two radial bins, $1'{-}3'$ and $8'{-}16'$ ($8'{-}14'$ for EMOS; hereafter the central and the outer zones), where the temperature is almost constant, to carry out the detailed abundance measurements of O, Ne, Mg, Si, S, Ar, Ca, Fe and Ni using EPIC-PN (EPN) and -MOS (EMOS) data. First, we find that the element abundance pattern in the central compared to the outer zone in M 87 is characterized by SN Ia enrichment of a high (roughly solar) ratio of Si-group elements (Si, S, Ar, Ca) to Fe, implying that Si burning in SN Ia is highly incomplete. In nucleosynthesis modeling this is associated with either a lower density of the deflagration-detonation transition and/or lower C/O and/or lower central ignition density and observationally detected as optically subluminous SNe Ia in early-type galaxies. Second, we find that SN Ia enrichment has a systematically lower ratio of the Si-group elements to Fe by 0.2 dex in the outer zone associated with the ICM of the Virgo cluster. We find that such a ratio and even lower values by another 0.1 dex are a characteristic of the ICM in many clusters using observed Si:S:Fe ratios as found with ASCA. Third, the Ni/Fe ratio in the central zone of M 87 is $1.5\pm0.3$ solar (meteoritic), while values around 3 times solar are reported for other clusters. In modeling of SN Ia, this implies a reduced influence of fast deflagration SN Ia models in the chemical enrichment of M 87's ISM. Thus, to describe the SN Ia metal enrichment in clusters, both deflagration as well as delayed detonation scenarios are required, supporting a similar conclusion, derived from optical studies on SNe Ia. We discuss implications of our results for observations of SN Ia and also suggest a link between the element abundances observed in the M 87 X-ray halo with the observed characteristics of M 87 globular clusters.
Ruminal utilisation of pasture nitrogen in response to inclusion of dietary starch

Four diets based on high quality pasture were formulated using additions of starch to contain 12.8, 19.6, 26.3, or 33% total nonstructural carbohydrate and were evaluated using four continuous culture fermenters during four 10 day periods. The true rum inal digestibility of organic matter was not changed by diet but the digestibility of neutral detergent fibre and crude protein line arly decreased, and the digestibility of total nonstructural carbohydrate linearly increased, as the level of starch inclusion incre ased. Production of NH3 N was reduced linearly from 35.2 to 14.2 mg/dl (P<0.001) and the flow of non-NH 3 N as a proportion of total N flow increased linearly from 66% to 83% (P<0.001) as inclusion of starch increased. The quantity of microbial N and non-NH 3 N flowing from continuous culture was unchanged. The experiment indicated that if the amount of organic matter digested is not appreciabl y increased by the inclusion of nonstructural carbohydrate then the linear increase in ruminal utilisation of pasture N arises mo re from a reduced pasture N intake than an improvement in microbial protein synthesis.
Automatic cluster labeling through Artificial Neural Networks

The clustering problem has been considered as one of the most important problems among those existing in the research area of unsupervised learning (a Machine Learning subarea). Although the development and improvement of algorithms that deal with this problem has been focused by many researchers, the main goal remains undefined: the understanding of generated clusters. As important as identifying clusters is to understand its meaning. A good cluster definition means a relevant understanding and can help the specialist to study or interpret data. Facing the problem of comprehend clusters - in other words, create labels - this paper presents a methodology to automatic labeling clusters based on techniques involving supervised and unsupervised learning plus a discretization model. Considering the problem from its inception, the problem of understanding clusters is dealt similar to a real problem, being initialized from clustering data. For this, an unsupervised learning technique is applied and then a supervised learning algorithm will detect which are the relevant attributes in order to define a specific cluster. Additionally, some strategies are used to create a methodology that presents a label (based on attributes and their values) for each cluster provided. Finally, this methodology is applied in four distinct databases presenting good results with an average above 88.79% of elements correctly labeled.
Improved Goldstein Interferogram Filter Based on Local Fringe Frequency Estimation

The quality of an interferogram, which is limited by various phase noise, will greatly affect the further processes of InSAR, such as phase unwrapping. Interferometric SAR (InSAR) geophysical measurements’, such as height or displacement, phase filtering is therefore an essential step. In this work, an improved Goldstein interferogram filter is proposed to suppress the phase noise while preserving the fringe edges. First, the proposed adaptive filter step, performed before frequency estimation, is employed to improve the estimation accuracy. Subsequently, to preserve the fringe characteristics, the estimated fringe frequency in each fixed filtering patch is removed from the original noisy phase. Then, the residual phase is smoothed based on the modified Goldstein filter with its parameter alpha dependent on both the coherence map and the residual phase frequency. Finally, the filtered residual phase and the removed fringe frequency are combined to generate the filtered interferogram, with the loss of signal minimized while reducing the noise level. The effectiveness of the proposed method is verified by experimental results based on both simulated and real data.
Gender Classification of Walkers via Underfloor Accelerometer Measurements

The ability to classify the gender of occupants in a building has far-reaching applications including security and retail sales. The authors demonstrate the success of machine learning techniques for gender classification. High-sensitivity accelerometers mounted noninvasively beneath an actual building floor provide the input for these machine learning methods. While other approaches using gait measurements, such as vision systems and wearable sensors, provide the potential for gender classification, they each face limitations. These limitations include an invasion of privacy, occupant compliance, required line of sight, and/or high sensor density. Underfloor mounted accelerometers overcome these limitations. The authors utilize the highly-instrumented Goodwin Hall smart building on the Virginia Tech campus to measure vibrations of the walking surface caused by walkers. In this paper, the gait of 15 individual walkers was recorded as they, alone, walked down the instrumented hallway. Fourteen accelerometers, mounted underneath the walking surface, recorded walking trials with the placement of the sensors unknown to the walker. This paper studies bagged decision trees, boosted decision trees, support vector machines, and neural networks as the machine learning techniques for their ability to classify gender. A tenfold-cross-validation method is used to comment on the validity of the algorithm's ability to generalize to new walkers. This paper demonstrates that a gender classification accuracy of 88% is achievable using the underfloor vibration data from the Virginia Tech Goodwin Hall by using decision tree approaches.
Reversible LSD1 Inhibition Interferes with Global EWS/ETS Transcriptional Activity and Impedes Ewing Sarcoma Tumor Growth

Purpose: Ewing sarcoma is a pediatric bone tumor that absolutely relies on the transcriptional activity of the EWS/ETS family of fusion oncoproteins. While the most common fusion, EWS/FLI, utilizes lysine-specific demethylase 1 (LSD1) to repress critical tumor suppressors, small-molecule blockade of LSD1 has not yet been thoroughly explored as a therapeutic approach for Ewing sarcoma. We therefore evaluated the translational potential of potent and specific LSD1 inhibition with HCI2509 on the transcriptional program of both EWS/FLI and EWS/ERG as well as the downstream oncogenic phenotypes driven by EWS/ETS fusions in both in vitro and in vivo models of Ewing sarcoma. Experimental Design: RNA-seq was used to compare the transcriptional profiles of EWS/FLI, EWS/ERG, and treatment with HCI2509 in both EWS/FLI- and EWS/ERG-containing cell lines. We then evaluated morphologic phenotypes of treated cells with immunofluorescence. The induction of apoptosis was evaluated using caspase-3/7 activation and TUNEL staining. Colony forming assays were used to test oncogenic transformation and xenograft studies with patient-derived cell lines were used to evaluate the effects of HCI2509 on tumorigenesis. Results: HCI2509 caused a dramatic reversal of both the up- and downregulated transcriptional profiles of EWS/FLI and EWS/ERG accompanied by the induction of apoptosis and disruption of morphologic and oncogenic phenotypes modulated by EWS/FLI. Importantly, HCI2509 displayed single-agent efficacy in multiple xenograft models. Conclusions: These data support epigenetic modulation with HCI2509 as a therapeutic strategy for Ewing sarcoma, and highlight a critical dual role for LSD1 in the oncogenic transcriptional activity of EWS/ETS proteins. Clin Cancer Res; 20(17); 4584–97. ©2014 AACR.
Mechanisms of Desiccation Tolerance in Plants during Seed to Seedling Transition

The present study was conducted to characterize the role of Arabidopsis thaliana genes in desiccation tolerance during seed to seedling transition. Dehydration stress, such as drought and desiccation, affects the physiological and biochemical activities of seeds and seedlings through either suppressing or inducing stress responsive genes of plants. Responsiveness of genes related to desiccation tolerance (DT) can be mediated with increase in abscisic acid (ABA) level. Treatment of plants with exogenous ABA, therefore, induces responses of stress-associated genes. The objective of this study was to characterize Arabidopsis thaliana stress-associated genes for their role in DT in germinated A. thaliana seeds. Four different mutant lines of Arabidopsis (sod1, daa1, di19 and vip1) were used, which stress-associated genes are knocked out. Seeds of these mutants were selected at two stages (RP-Radical Protrusion and RH-Root Hair), and analyzed for ability to acquire DT in mild-osmotic stress by applying PEG. Levels of gene expression were analyzed using RT-qPCR at RP and RH before and after PEG treatment. Eight key genes of the ABA response pathway were selected and checked for their expression level. Quantitative gene expression data for RP and RH stages showed an overall trend to increase the expression level after PEG treatment. Expression of genes of ABA biosynthesis and the receptors increase in response to PEG treatment, while ABA catabolic gene decreases. The author conclude that ABA genes are assumed to be involved in response to DT, although, three mutants: sod1, daa1 and di19 showed an increase of 20% in acquisition of DT compared to the wild type, genes involved in ABA pathway did not show difference related to phenotype.
Stimulating Effect of Japanese Herbal (Kampo) Medicine, Hochuekkito on Upper Respiratory Mucosal Immune System

Japanese herbal (Kampo) medicine, Hochuekkito (Bu-Zhong-Yi-Qi-Tang in Chinese, TJ-41) and Juzentaihoto (Shi-Quan-Da-Bu-Tang in Chinese, TJ-48) are well-known Kampo formulas used as tonic. Although these medicines have separately been applied to the patients clinically depending on their symptoms, the differences of the pharmacological activities for these medicines have not been fully understood. TJ-48 and TJ-41 were compared for their effects on antibody response in upper respiratory mucosal immune system in vivo. Oral administration of TJ-41 (100 mg kg−1 per day) to early aged BALB/c mice, which were nasally sensitized with influenza hemagglutinin vaccine, significantly enhanced influenza virus-specific IgA and IgG antibody titers in nasal cavity and sera, respectively. However, oral administration of TJ-48 (100 mg kg−1 per day) failed to show the enhancing activity. TJ-41 increased not only influenza virus-specific IgA antibody titer but also total IgA antibody titer in nasal cavity. The stimulating activity of TJ-41 disappeared after treatment with methotrexate. The present study strongly suggests that TJ-41 can stimulate the mucosal immune system of upper respiratory tract, and results in enhancement of antigen-specific antibody response in upper respiratory mucosal and systemic immune systems.
IT-Enabled Knowledge Creation for Open Innovation

Open innovation is increasingly important for researchers and practitioners alike. Open innovation is closely linked to knowledge creation in that, with open innovation, knowledge inflows and outflows are exploited for innovation. In the information systems field, open innovation has been closely linked to open source software development teams. However, the literature has not yet identified how open source software development teams use information technologies to create knowledge to bring about open innovation. This study fills in this gap by asking the following research questions: RQ1) How do innovative open source software development teams create knowledge? , and RQ2) What types of information technologies do innovative open source software development teams rely on for enabling knowledge creation? I answer these research questions with a revelatory case study. The findings contribute to the knowledge management theory by identifying how three of the four knowledge creation modes identified by Nonaka and Takeuchi (1995) manifest through different behaviors in the IT-enabled open innovation setting compared to behaviors observed in the organizational setting. The findings also contribute to information systems theory by identifying the role of information technologies in enabling knowledge creation for open innovation. This study further provides researchers and practitioners with ways of identifying knowledge creation by analyzing information technology artifacts, such as mailing lists, issue trackers, and software versioning tools.
Hidden Ciphertext Policy Attribute-Based Encryption Under Standard Assumptions

We propose two new ciphertext policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) schemes where the access policy is defined by AND-gate with wildcard. In the first scheme, we present a new technique that uses only one group element to represent an attribute, while the existing ABE schemes of the same type need to use three different group elements to represent an attribute for the three possible values (namely, positive, negative, and wildcard). Our new technique leads to a new CP-ABE scheme with constant ciphertext size, which, however, cannot hide the access policy used for encryption. The main contribution of this paper is to propose a new CP-ABE scheme with the property of hidden access policy by extending the technique we used in the construction of our first scheme. In particular, we show a way to bridge ABE based on AND-gate with wildcard with inner product encryption and then use the latter to achieve the goal of hidden access policy. We prove that our second scheme is secure under the standard decisional linear and decisional bilinear Diffie-Hellman assumptions.