Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Comparison of Good Versus Bad Tone Quality of Accompanied and Unaccompanied

The purpose of the study was to investigate patterns of music listening among music majors regarding accompanied versus unaccompanied tonal quality. The research was the second in a series designed to determine whether listeners demonstrate consistent listening patterns to musical excerpts intentionally structured to be perceived as "good" and "bad. " Excerpts consisted of the first and second phrases of Schubert's and Gounod's "Ave Maria" performed by a soprano, tenor, violinist and cellist. Subjects (A/=80), were music majors selected from a large university school of music and randomly assigned to accompanied and unaccompanied conditions. All subjects were individually tested on a Continuous Response Digital Interface (CRDI) and listened via earphones registering their ongoing assessments concerning tone quality. Results indicated that subjects easily discriminated between the good and bad examples when focusing on tone quality. There was not a significant difference between accompanied versus unaccompanied excerpts. Combinations of spectrographic and other acoustical analyses indicated that subjects responded differentially to the various excerpts with each example being perceived idiosyncratically within its own musical context.
Regime for Bowel Preparation in Patients Scheduled to Colonoscopy: Low-Residue Diet or Clear Liquid Diet? Evidence From Systematic Review With Power Analysis

AbstractClear liquid diet (CLD) is used to perform bowel preparation before colonoscopy traditionally, but several clinical studies indicated that low-residue diet (LRD) generates equal effects to CLD and a conclusive conclusion has not yet been yielded. The systematic review was performed to address this conflict and facilitate informed decision-making eventually.To capture randomized controlled trials (RCTs) comparing LRD with CLD in terms of bowel preparation, a search was performed in PubMed, EMBASE, Cochrane Central Register of Controlled Trials (CENTRAL), Science Direct, recent conference abstracts, Google Scholar, and Clinicaltrials.gov through May 2015. We performed all meta-analyses based on fixed- or random-effects model, which is generated from clinical characteristics and methodology. Moreover, the G*Power software was adopted to achieve statistical power for each outcome.In total, we captured 109 potential citations at initial search stage and 2 topic-related articles were included through other sources. After critical appraisal, 7 RCTs were eligible for our inclusion criteria. Meta-analyses generated similar effects in bowel preparation quality, efficacy of colon cleansing, and compliance with recommended dietary regime when LRD versus CLD regime, but patients who were prescribed to receive LRD have slightly better tolerance (RR, 1.06; 95% CI, 1.02–1.11) and tended to repeat the same preparation regime in future (RR, 1.17; 95% CI, 1.09–1.26) relative to patients in CLD. Importantly, both regimes resulted in similar adverse events (AEs). With the best available evidence, LRD could be recommended to be as standard regime for bowel preparation prior to colonoscopy.
Critical Deme SizeFor Serial And Parallel Genetic

This paper investigates the possibility of gaining any computational beneet from multiple deme, small population GAs compared to a single large population GA. Our framework is based on an earlier decision theoretic framework developed by Goldberg, Deb and Clark (1992) for population sizing. Our analysis and empirical results for diierent bounding cases of multiple deme GA, reveal a critical population size below which the computational cost (of good performance) goes up very sharply. However this critical size turns out to be less than the baseline population size (Goldberg, Deb and Clark, 92) by a moderate factor. We therefore recommend only a moderate reduction of population size from a base line population size. Our analysis also presents a methodology for optimizing GA experimental setups for diierent machine architectures, from serial to coarse and ne-grain parallelization. This paper also shows that linear speed up for parallel machines can be accomplished without sacriicing the solution quality even for isolated demes (i.e., no migration). Abstract This paper investigates the possibility of gaining any computational beneet from multiple deme, small population GAs compared to a single large population GA. Our framework is based on an earlier decision theoretic framework developed by Goldberg, Deb and Clark (1992) for population sizing. Our analysis and empirical results for diierent bounding cases of multiple deme GA, reveal a critical population size below which the computational cost (of good performance) goes up very sharply. However this critical size turns out to be less than the baseline population size (Goldberg, Deb and Clark, 92) by a moderate factor. We therefore recommend only a moderate reduction of population size from a base line population size. Our analysis also presents a methodology for optimizing GA experimental setups for diierent machine ar-chitectures, from serial to coarse and ne-grain parallelization. This paper also shows that linear speed up for parallel machines can be accomplished without sacriicing the solution quality even for isolated demes (i.e., no migration).
Translingual practices and monoglot policy aspirations: a case study of Pakistan’s plurilingual classrooms

ABSTRACT Current research in multilingual countries supports local languages and recognizes plurilingual practices as a proficiency (e.g. Luxembourg and Nordic countries in Europe, Bolivia, Argentina, and Columbia in South America). Yet linguistically diverse and multilingual regions, such as Pakistan, continue to be challenged by monoglot language policies dominated by English. Replacing Urdu and the regional languages in education, Pakistan’s latest national education policy mandates professional and higher education in English. This paper using a multilingual theoretical framework that studies empirical data from the linguistic landscape and local classrooms illuminates unique language contact zones and plurilingualism as a competence. It also exhibits inconsistencies between the policy aspirations and people’s dispositions towards linguistic (im)purity and hybridity. The findings from the paper indicate the need of orientations to a language-in-education policy that does not isolate languages, but which accommodates plurilingual repertoires and a metalinguistic awareness.
MHC Class II Restricted Innate-Like Double Negative T Cells Contribute to Optimal Primary and Secondary Immunity to Leishmania major

Although it is generally believed that CD4+ T cells play important roles in anti-Leishmania immunity, some studies suggest that they may be dispensable, and that MHC II-restricted CD3+CD4−CD8− (double negative, DN) T cells may be more important in regulating primary anti-Leishmania immunity. In addition, while there are reports of increased numbers of DN T cells in Leishmania-infected patients, dogs and mice, concrete evidence implicating these cells in secondary anti-Leishmania immunity has not yet been documented. Here, we report that DN T cells extensively proliferate and produce effector cytokines (IFN-γ, TNF and IL-17) and granzyme B (GrzB) in the draining lymph nodes and spleens of mice following primary and secondary L. major infections. DN T cells from healed mice display functional characteristics of protective anti-Leishmania memory-like cells: rapid and extensive proliferation and effector cytokines production following L. major challenge in vitro and in vivo. DN T cells express predominantly (> 95%) alpha-beta T cell receptor (αβ TCR), are Leishmania-specific, restricted mostly by MHC class II molecules and display transcriptional profile of innate-like genes. Using in vivo depletion and adoptive transfer studies, we show that DN T cells contribute to optimal primary and secondary anti-Leishmania immunity in mice. These results directly identify DN T cells as important players in effective and protective primary and secondary anti-L. major immunity in experimental cutaneous leishmaniasis.
Novel Broadcast/Multicast Protocols for Dynamic Sensor Networks

In this paper, we have proposed a time efficient, energy saving and robust broadcast/multicast protocol for reconfigurable cluster-based sensor network. In our broadcast protocol, a broadcast can be executed in O(hd2 + D2) rounds and each node needs to be awake in O(D2) rounds, where D and d are the degrees of G and the sub-network induced by the network backbone, respectively, and h is the height of the backbone. When k channels are available, the broadcast can be executed in O((hd2 + D2)/k) rounds and each. We show that our broadcast protocol can be readily modified to the one for multicast. The cluster-based architecture used in this paper for a sensor network is an improved version. The proposed network architecture is self-constructible and self-reconfigurable by using two topological management operations: node-move-in and node-move-out. Details of the protocol along with experimental results are discussed. Simulation results show that the protocol performance is much better than that in the theoretical analysis.
Molecular and Functional Heterogeneity of Hyperpolarization-Activated Pacemaker Channels in the Mouse CNS

The hyperpolarization-activated cation current (termedIh,Iq, orIf) was recently shown to be encoded by a new family of genes, named HCN forhyperpolarization-activated cyclicnucleotide-sensitive cationnonselective. When expressed in heterologous cells, each HCN isoform generates channels with distinct activation kinetics, mirroring the range of biophysical properties of nativeIh currents recorded in different classes of neurons. To determine whether the functional diversity ofIh currents is attributable to different patterns of HCN gene expression, we determined the mRNA distribution across different regions of the mouse CNS of the three mouse HCN genes that are prominently expressed there (mHCN1, 2 and 4). We observe distinct patterns of distribution for each of the three genes. Whereas mHCN2 shows a widespread expression throughout the CNS, the expression of mHCN1 and mHCN4 is more limited, and generally complementary. mHCN1 is primarily expressed within neurons of the neocortex, hippocampus, and cerebellar cortex, but also in selected nuclei of the brainstem. mHCN4 is most highly expressed within neurons of the medial habenula, thalamus, and olfactory bulb, but also in distinct neuronal populations of the basal ganglia. Based on a comparison of mRNA expression with an electrophysiological characterization of nativeIh currents in hippocampal and thalamic neurons, our data support the idea that the functional heterogeneity ofIh channels is attributable, in part, to differential isoform expression. Moreover, in some neurons, specific functional roles can be proposed for Ihchannels with defined subunit composition.
Gender differences in dreaming in childhood and adolescence: the UK Library study

This study evaluates gender differences in dream recall frequency, dream sharing frequency, dream listening frequency and nightmare frequency in childhood and adolescence. The sample included 3534 children for the ages from 6 to 18 who completed a brief questionnaire distributed in libraries. We were able to show that overall girls recalled dreams more often, shared dreams more often, listened more often to dreams and reported higher nightmare frequency than boys. For dream sharing frequency and dream listening frequency gender differences increased significantly with age indicating that gender-specific dream socialization might be probable. As this effect was most prominent for adolescents of 13 years and older, one might speculate that the peer group – especially same-sex friendships play an important role in dream socialization. Dream listening is still a very young field of research and longitudinal studies are necessary to study when gender differences in dreaming emerge and whether this processes effect dream recall frequency and other dream variables in adults.
Identifying non-adjacent multiuser allocations by joint ℓ1-minimization

We consider a device-to-device scenario in a fragmented spectrum band. Multiple devices transmit complex symbols with a single antenna on distributed, but disjoint OFDM resources. The devices select sufficient frequency resources to enable channel estimation, if the receiver has complete knowledge of the resource map. However, in this scenario the actual allocation map is unknown to the receiver. Therefore, a receiver observing the superposition of all transmitted signals is faced with two problems, channel estimation and identification of the correct resources allocation map. In our previous work [1], we identified the channel and the allocation map of the corresponding users by applying an objective function based on the ℓ1-norm. In this work, we show that successful recovery is possible under different practical ITU channel models. Furthermore, we apply basis pursuit denoising (BPDN) from the compressed sensing framework for channel estimation and show the superior performance in contrast to classical least square estimators. These results show, that identifying non-adjacent multiuser allocations is possible.
Geometric separation of superimposed images

This paper discusses a technique to separate two superimposed images where there is a geometric relationship between the two images. This technique would allow a single camera to capture two images simultaneously with differing fields of view. One image is a wide field-of-view (wFoV) image, and the other is a narrow field-of-view (nFoV) image corresponding to the center of the wFoV image. This is proposed as a means to generate situational awareness and object identification information from a single imaging sensor, with applications for surveillance onboard uninhabited aerial vehicles (UAVs). In this paper the results of the geometric separation technique are temporally averaged and demonstrated to be robust to image registration errors.
Do Beliefs About Sex Behaviors Mediate the Link Between Parent-Adolescent Communication About Sex and Risky Sexual Behaviors?

OF THESIS DO BELIEFS ABOUT SEX BEHAVIORS MEDIATE THE LINK BETWEEN PARENT-ADOLESCENT COMMUNICATION ABOUT SEX AND RISKY SEXUAL BEHAVIORS? The current study examined the protective effect of parenting-adolescent communication about sex on four risky sexual behaviors (age of onset of sex, number of sex partners, condom use, and STDs) among youth, framed by the Theory of Planned Behavior. It also tested for potential mediation effects between parent-adolescent communication and risky sex measures by sexual cues, date rape attitudes, and acceptance of dating violence in a sample of 2,245 college students from Japan, Slovenia, Spain, and the United States. Results provided evidence of a weak effect of parent-adolescent communication about sex on risky sexual behaviors across samples. A number of cultural influences were also found in the effects by mediators: sexual cues predicted risky sexual behaviors only in the Japanese sample; date rape attitudes was a predictor in the American and Slovenian samples; acceptance of dating violence predicted more risky sexual behaviors only in the American sample; and no significant effects were found in the Spanish sample. Several competing explanations were examined in the discussion to better understand the complex and dynamic interaction between parents and their adolescents as well as the role of culture. More studies are needed to better understand the associations between parent-adolescent communication about sex and risky sexual behaviors.
Performance analysis of differential chaos shift-keying over an m-distributed fading channel

In this paper, a new way to predict the performance of single user differential chaos shift keying communication system over an m-distributed fading channel is presented. Since the Gaussian approximation used to compute the performance leads to inaccurate results especially for low spreading factor, this new approach based on the chaos bit energy distribution gives accurate results. Computer simulations verify the precision of our approach to compute the performance of this chaos-based communication system.
Millisecond Coherence Time in a Tunable Molecular Electronic Spin Qubit

Quantum information processing (QIP) could revolutionize areas ranging from chemical modeling to cryptography. One key figure of merit for the smallest unit for QIP, the qubit, is the coherence time (T2), which establishes the lifetime for the qubit. Transition metal complexes offer tremendous potential as tunable qubits, yet their development is hampered by the absence of synthetic design principles to achieve a long T2. We harnessed molecular design to create a series of qubits, (Ph4P)2[V(C8S8)3] (1), (Ph4P)2[V(β-C3S5)3] (2), (Ph4P)2[V(α-C3S5)3] (3), and (Ph4P)2[V(C3S4O)3] (4), with T2s of 1–4 μs at 80 K in protiated and deuterated environments. Crucially, through chemical tuning of nuclear spin content in the vanadium(IV) environment we realized a T2 of ∼1 ms for the species (d20-Ph4P)2[V(C8S8)3] (1′) in CS2, a value that surpasses the coordination complex record by an order of magnitude. This value even eclipses some prominent solid-state qubits. Electrochemical and continuous wave electron paramagnetic resonance (EPR) data reveal variation in the electronic influence of the ligands on the metal ion across 1–4. However, pulsed measurements indicate that the most important influence on decoherence is nuclear spins in the protiated and deuterated solvents utilized herein. Our results illuminate a path forward in synthetic design principles, which should unite CS2 solubility with nuclear spin free ligand fields to develop a new generation of molecular qubits.
How do development HR practices contribute to employees’ motivation to continue working beyond early retirement?

This study tested a mediated model explaining two mechanisms through which perceived availability of developmental Human Resource (HR) practices are related to employee’s motivation to continue working beyond early retirement. On the one hand, development HR relates to more perceptions of a positive development climate, and on the other hand, development HR fulfills the individual needs of workers to build a positive psychological contract with their organization. It was expected that development HR would be positively related to older employees’ motivation to continue working. We further expected that these relationships would be mediated through perceptions of development climate, psychological contract fulfillment, organizational commitment, and work engagement. Hypotheses were tested using two samples (N = 313 and N = 352) of employees working in health care organizations in the Netherlands, and largely supported the hypotheses, finding significant indirect effects of development HR to motivation to continue working. The results of this study demonstrate not only that development HR may be important for older workers to be motivated to continue working, but also show how these relationships manifest.
In vitro and in vivo reversal of multidrug resistance by GF120918, an acridonecarboxamide derivative.

N-(4-[2-(1,2,3,4-tetrahydro-6,7-dimethoxy-2-isoquinolinyl)ethyl]- phenyl)-9,10-dihydro-5-methoxy-9-oxo-4-acridine carboxamide (GF120918) has been selected from a chemical program aimed at identifying an optimized inhibitor of multidrug resistance (MDR). The potency of GF120918 is assessed by dose-dependent sensitization of CHRC5, OV1/DXR and MCF7/ADR cells to the cytotoxicity of doxorubicin and vincristine respectively: GF120918 fully reverses multidrug resistance at 0.05 to 0.1 microM and is half maximally active at 0.02 microM. The spectrum of drugs sensitized by GF120918 coincides with those having the classical MDR phenotype. In CHRC5 cells, 0.01-0.1 microM GF120918 enhances the uptake of [3H]daunorubicin and blocks the efflux from preloaded cells. It is also shown that GF120918 is still active several hours after being taken away from the culture medium showing that it is not, like verapamil, effluxed rapidly by P-glycoprotein. GF120918 effectively competes with [3H]azidopine for binding P-glycoprotein, pointing to this transport membrane protein as its likely site of action. After i.v. administration to mice, GF120918 penetrates thoroughly various organs that have a tissue level/blood level ratio above 10. It is eliminated from organs and blood with a half-time of approximately 2.7 h. It is well absorbed after p.o. administration. In mice implanted i.p. with the MDR P388/Dox tumor, a single i.v. or p.o. dose of GF120918 restores sensitivity of the tumor to a single i.p. dose (5 mg/kg) of doxorubicin administered 1 h later. A statistically significant effect is observed at 1 mg/kg GF120918 i.v. and maximal effect is reached at 5 mg/kg. Similarly, whereas neither drug alone is effective, GF120918 (10 mg/kg i.p.) associated with doxorubicin (5 mg/kg i.p.) inhibits the growth of the moderately MDR C26 tumor implanted s.c. as assessed by tumor size at day 19. GF120918 does not modify significantly the distribution or the elimination of doxorubicin in mice ruling out the possibility that the antitumor effects seen might be explained by pharmacokinetic interactions.
Target-specific delivery of doxorubicin to retinoblastoma using epithelial cell adhesion molecule aptamer

Purpose To study target-specific delivery of doxorubicin (Dox) using an RNA aptamer against epithelial cell adhesion molecule (EpCAM) in retinoblastoma (RB) cells. Methods The binding affinity of the EpCAM aptamer to RB primary tumor cells, Y79 and WERI-Rb1 cells, and Müller glial cell lines were evaluated with flow cytometry. Formation of physical conjugates of aptamer and Dox was monitored with spectrofluorimetry. Cellular uptake of aptamer-Dox conjugates was monitored through fluorescent microscopy. Drug efficacy was monitored with cell proliferation assay. Results The EpCAM aptamer (EpDT3) but not the scrambled aptamer (Scr-EpDT3) bound to RB tumor cells, the Y79 and WERI-Rb1 cells. However, the EpCAM aptamer and the scrambled aptamer did not bind to the noncancerous Müller glial cells. The chimeric EpCAM aptamer Dox conjugate (EpDT3-Dox) and the scrambled aptamer Dox conjugate (Scr-EpDT3-Dox) were synthesized and tested on the Y79, WERI-Rb1, and Müller glial cells. The targeted uptake of the EpDT3-Dox aptamer caused cytotoxicity in the Y79 and WERI-Rb1 cells but not in the Müller glial cells. There was no significant binding or consequent cytotoxicity by the Scr-EpDT3-Dox in either cell line. The EpCAM aptamer alone did not cause cytotoxicity in either cell line. Conclusions The results show that the EpCAM aptamer-Dox conjugate can selectively deliver the drug to the RB cells there by inhibiting cellular proliferation and not to the noncancerous Müller glial cells. As EpCAM is a cancer stem cell marker, this aptamer-based targeted drug delivery will prevent the undesired effects of non-specific drug activity and will kill cancer stem cells precisely in RB.