Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Classification of Wheat by Visible and Near-Infrared Reflectance from Single Kernels

Cereal Chem. 73(3):399-405 Identification of wheat class is a necessary component of the official multiple linear regression analyses were used to develop binary decision inspection of U.S. wheat, owing to differences in functionality and hence models for various combinations of two wheat classes, choosing from in trade value. Because of the numerous cultivars for the several U.S. five classes: hard white (HWH), hard red spring (HRS), hard red winter wheat classes, segregation by cultivar is generally impractical during (HRW), soft red winter (SRW), and soft white (SWH). Two-class model postharvest handling. Cultivars of differing wheat classes are sometimes accuracy, defined as the proportion of correctly identified kernels of a inadvertently mixed, resulting in classification of the lot to a mixed cate- known wheat class, was greatest (99%) when red and white classes such as gory, thus lowering its value. Single-kernel near-infrared reflectance HRW vs. HWH were compared. Accuracies declined to typically 78-91% scans from two spectral regions (551-750 nm for distinctions based on when the two classes were of similar color (e.g., HRW vs. SRW, HWH color, 1,120-2,476 nm for distinctions based on intrinsic properties) vs. SWH). Using a cascade of binary comparisons similar to two-class were collected on 10 randomly drawn kernels from each of 318 unique models, a five-class model structure was developed. Five-class model samples obtained from commercial sources. Partial least squares and accuracy ranged from 65% for SRW wheat to 92% for SWH. Because of its large geographical and climatological diversity, the United States produces several classes of wheat. Unlike governments of many of the other wheat-producing countries, the U.S. government does not regulate the development nor license the release of new wheat lines. Because of these factors, numerous wheat cultivars exist in the U.S. market. In the market channels, it is common for wheat to be segregated by class but not by cultivar, although classes may be intentionally blended to produce a specialty product. When a mixture of two or more classes occurs inadvertently, rendering a lot <90% pure of one class, that lot must be classed as mixed, which causes its price to be devalued. All export wheat and some domestic wheat is inspected by the United States Department of Agriculture, Federal Grain Inspection Service (FGIS). When assigning wheat class, inspectors rely upon their knowledge of where the wheat was grown and an examination of the size, color, and shape of individual kernels. The proliferation of new varieties, often grown outside the traditional geographic areas formerly associated with each wheat class, has placed a large burden on inspectors to maintain the accuracy of the current classification system. Research efforts are underway at several locations (Kansas City, MO; Manhattan, KS; Peoria, IL; and Beltsville, MD) to develop rapid and objective classification methods to supplement the current system.
Health Champions and Their Circles of Influence as a Communication Mechanism for Health Promotion

Abstract: Health Champions are a growing component within the British public health workforce and their roles are now emphasised within the coalition’s Government’s public health strategy. However, there is the need for further exploration of the way in which Health Champions use interpersonal communication within their roles. This paper reports on the findings from a mixed method evaluation of one Health Champion programme in North East England. A key finding was the way in which Health Champions used circles of influence to communicate health knowledge and to try to achieve behaviour change, starting with themselves in the centre of their circle and then moving outwards to influence others such as family, friends and colleagues through their social networks. The paper argues that health champions act as healthy role models within their own circles of influence to successfully communicate health knowledge to those around them.
Improved resource efficient allocation of IMA applications to multi-cores

In [10] we proposed a static timing analysis for IMA applications on multi-core platforms. It produces safe bounds on tasks response times including memory interference delays and for which the number of state space to be explored does not explode. We also proposed a methodology for the automation of the software/hardware allocation which embeds the proposed timing analysis as a verification of the validity of the finally selected solution. However, some assumptions in [10] are not realistic in terms of software model, and the hardware model can be improved to reduce the pessimism of the timing analysis. We propose to improve the work in [10] so that it can better fit real avionic systems, and show that the new approach outperforms the one in [10]. The entire process eases the portability of IMA legacy software to multi-core COTS without requiring any software or hardware modification.
Explorations in 4-peg Tower of Hanoi

Finding an optimal solution to the 4-peg version of the classic Tower of Hanoi problem has been an open problem since the 19th century, despite the existence of a (cid:16)presumed-optimal(cid:17) solution. We verify that the presumed-optimal Frame-Stewart algorithm for 4-peg Tower of Hanoi is indeed optimal, for up to 20 discs. We also develop a distributed Tower of Hanoi algorithm, and present 2D and 3D representations of the state transition graphs. Finally, two variants (k-out-of-order and k-at-a-time) and an analogy with distributed agent software are suggested.
NCAA Division I student athlete characteristics as indicators of academic achievement and graduation from college

NCAA Division I Student Athlete Characteristics as Indicators of Academic Achievement and Graduation from College Bradley David Ridpath The purpose of this study was to determine if NCAA Division I student athlete characteristics of graduation, presented in the literature and previous research, can be generalized to student athletes in the Mid-American Conference using research based conclusions developed from this study. The study identified seven characteristics prominent in the literature and made conclusions to ascertain if information provided on the characteristics, as presented in the literature, can be generalized to the Mid-American Conference. The research population for this study was N=1430. The population represented student athletes at the 13 schools of the MidAmerican Conference. All student athletes represented in the selected population were seniors by NCAA eligibility standards and were within one academic year of receiving a baccalaureate degree. The researcher selected a proportional stratified sample (25%) of the population (n=358) and mailed a research-developed survey instrument, inspired by previous survey instruments and research, to the selected proportion of the population. Data were stored securely and complete anonymity was guaranteed. The analysis of the data indicated that information gleaned from the literature can be applied to student athletes in the Mid-American Conference based upon the research conclusions presented in this study. The characteristics of graduation prominently identified in the literature that formed the basis for this study were student athletes’ perception of college coaches’ emphasis on academics, the extent of use of specialized academic support services for student athletes, specific sport played in college, ethnicity, gender, NCAA high school core course grade point average, and score attained on SAT or ACT test. The analysis of the data specific to the student athletes in the Mid-American Conference revealed, as in the literature, that the constructs of gender, ethnicity, and sport played can have a significant impact on the academic achievement in the other listed categories and on potential for graduation. Ancillary findings were related to the academic achievement of Caucasian females and women basketball players in the conference.
Shikonin Inhibits the Proliferation of Human Lens Epithelial Cells by Inducing Apoptosis through ROS and Caspase-Dependent Pathway

Shikonin is a compound from the herbal plant Lithospermum erythrorhizon that has been proved to possess powerful anti-proliferative effect on many kinds of cancers and to be safe in in vivo study. Posterior capsular opacification (PCO), the most frequent complication of cataract surgery, is mainly caused by the uncontrolled proliferation of retained human lens epithelial cells (HLEs). In this study, we investigated the effect of shikonin on the proliferation of HLEs and explored its underlying mechanism of action. Shikonin significantly inhibited the proliferation of HLEs in a dose- and time-dependent manner. Its anti-proliferative effect was exerted through induction of apoptosis. Reactive oxygen species (ROS) generation played an essential role in this apoptotic process. Interestingly, scavenging of ROS completely blocked the apoptosis induced by shikonin. In addition, the treatment of shikonin in HLEs significantly increased the ratio of Bax/Bcl-2, disrupted mitochondria membrane potential (MMP) and activated caspases. The inhibition of caspase largely blocks the apoptosis. The changes of MAPK pathway were also demonstrated. Shikonin effectively inhibited the phosphorylation of ERK, while it activated the phosphorylation of JNK and p38. These results suggested that shikonin inhibited the proliferation of HLEs by inducing apoptosis through ROS generation and the caspase-dependent pathway and the MAPK pathway was also involved.
Selective COX-2 inhibition prevents proinflammatory cytokine-induced cartilage damage.

OBJECTIVES This study evaluated the in vitro effect of the selective cyclooxygenase-2 (COX) inhibitor celecoxib on cartilage matrix turnover under normal and inflammatory conditions. METHODS Healthy human articular cartilage tissue alone, in co-culture with peripheral blood mononuclear cells (PBMC) or in the presence of interleukin 1 (IL-1beta) plus tumour necrosis factor alpha (TNF-alpha) was cultured for 7 days in the presence of celecoxib. Changes in cartilage matrix turnover were measured. RESULTS No direct effects of celecoxib on healthy normal cartilage were found. Both PBMC and IL-1beta plus TNF-alpha induced strong inhibition of cartilage proteoglycan synthesis and significant enhancement of the release of proteoglycans, diminishing proteoglycan content. Celecoxib was able to reverse these adverse effects up to complete normalization. CONCLUSIONS The results suggest that, under the influence of inflammation, COX-2 is up-regulated, which results in disturbance of cartilage matrix turnover. Celecoxib, by diminishing COX-2 activity, prevents these adverse effects without having a direct effect on healthy cartilage.
Transformation of OWL ontology sources into data warehouse

The Semantic Web, as the extension of the traditional Web, provides the semantic annotations of the information generated by different organizations. Semantic annotations are stored within ontologies. Ontologies are expressed using ontology language. Web Ontology Language (OWL) is one of the most popular ontology languages. As a result of the increasing use of ontologies, large quantity of complex, heterogeneous and semi-structured semantic data sources exists. There is plenty of useful information in these data sources that can be analyzed and used in the decision making process of an organization. In order to facilitate the analysis of semantic data, new data warehouse tools that support semantic data analysis must be made. Data warehouse is used in traditional business analysis and decision making processes. A star schema is the most common design of data warehouse. In this paper a method that transforms OWL structure into the star schema of data warehouse is proposed. After the designer chooses the fact in the ontology, a method transforms OWL into the star schema. At the end, the designer selects which elements in the schema remain while creating physical data warehouse.
Computational Security Analysis of the UMTS and LTE Authentication and Key Agreement Protocols

We present a computational security analysis of the Authentication and Key Agreement (AKA) protocols for both Long-Term Evolution (LTE) and Universal Mobile Telecommunications System (UMTS). This work constitutes the first security analysis of LTE AKA to date and the first computationally sound analysis of UMTS AKA. Our work is the first formal analysis to consider messages that are sent in the core network, where we take into account details of the carrying protocol (i.e., MAP or Diameter) and of the mechanism for secure transport (i.e., MAPsec/TCAPsec or IPsec ESP). Moreover, we report on a deficiency in the protocol specifications of UMTS AKA and LTE AKA and the specifications of the core network security (called network domain security), which may enable efficient attacks. The vulnerability allows an inside attacker not only to impersonate an honest protocol participant during a run of the protocol but also to subsequently use wireless services on his behalf. UMTS AKA run over MAP with MAPsec seems vulnerable in the most straight-forward application of the attack. On the other hand, our analysis shows that UMTS and LTE AKA over Diameter/IPsec and UMTS AKA over MAP/TCAPsec (with sufficiently long session identifiers) computationally satisfy intended authentication properties as well as some key secrecy properties, assuming that the used primitives meet standard cryptographic assumptions.
Virtual Reality approach for nanoparticles tracking using simulated forces

In this paper we propose a Virtual Reality (VR) approach to track the nanoparticle movement using simulated forces. As a first step in this direction we have considered the representation of the interaction between nanoparticles and Atomic Force Microscope (AFM) tip. This involved the computation of both long and short-range forces. In particular, the forces considered in the simulation include Van der Waals, adhesive, capillary, gravitational, electrostatic, and frictional forces. These forces were calculated using standard equations with MatLab and are provided as input to the VR software (EONReality) for the representation of the direction of the particle movement. The VR visualization and control of the magnitude and direction of these forces is demonstrated.
Efficient Institutions

Are efficiency considerations important for understanding differences in the development of institutions? We model institutional quality as the degree to which obligations associated with exchanging capital can be enforced. Establishing a positive level of enforcement requires an aggregate investment of capital that is no longer available for production. When capital endowments are more unequally distributed, the bigger dispersion in marginal products makes it optimal to invest more resources in enforcement. The optimal allocation of the institutional cost across agents is not monotonic and entails a redistribution of endowments before production begins. Investing in enforcement benefits primarily agents at the bottom of the endowment distribution and leads to a reduction in consumption and income inequality. Efficiency, redistribution and the quality of institutions are thus intricately linked and should be studied jointly.
Aspiration, identity and self-belief in disengaged students

Introduction This paper reflects on some of the findings of a research project supported by a small British Academy grant, and applies a model of aspiration formation to “disengaged students”. The project’s original purpose was to “investigate” or “confirm” the use of social capital by middle class families in supporting the educational and other development of their children, with a view to considering whether analogous resources could and should be developed for young people from other social backgrounds and (and help decide whether schools could have a role in this). Although there are findings concerning social capital, this paper is principally concerned with the formation of aspiration and its connection with identity.
Registered Nurses’ Perceptions about the Situation of Family Caregivers to Patients with Heart Failure - A Focus Group Interview Study

Introduction Heart failure is a growing public health problem associated with poor quality of life and significant morbidity and mortality. The majority of heart failure care is provided by family caregivers, and is associated with caregiver burden and reduced quality of life. Research emphasizes that future nursing interventions should recognize the importance of involving family caregivers to achieve optimal outcomes. Aims The aims of this study are to explore registered nurses’ perceptions about the situation of family caregivers to patients with heart failure, and registered nurses’ interventions, in order to improve family caregivers’ situation. Methods The study has a qualitative design with an inductive approach. Six focus group interviews were held with 23 registered nurses in three hospitals and three primary health care centres. Data were analysed using qualitative content analysis. Results Two content areas were identified by the a priori study aims. Four categories and nine sub-categories emerged in the analysis process. The content area “Family caregivers' situation” includes two categories: “To be unburdened” and “To comprehend the heart failure condition and its consequences”. The content area “Interventions to improve family caregivers' situation” includes two categories: “Individualized support and information” and “Bridging contact”. Conclusions Registered nurses perceive family caregivers' situation as burdensome, characterized by worry and uncertainty. In the PHCCs, the continuity and security of an RN as a permanent health care contact was considered an important and sustainable intervention to better care for family caregivers' worry and uncertainty. In the nurse-led heart failure clinics in hospitals, registered nurses can provide family caregivers with the opportunity of involvement in their relative's health care and address congruence and relationship quality within the family through the use of "Shared care" and or Family-centred care. Registered nurses consider it necessary to have a coordinated individual care plan as a basis for collaboration between the county council and the municipality.
Myocardial elastography - comparison to results using MR cardiac tagging

MRI cardiac tagging has been established as the gold standard in assessing intramyocardial displacement and strain. Yet, despite the high imaging quality of cardiac MRI, tagging techniques are limited by low spatial and temporal resolution. It has been recently shown that axial displacement and strain could be estimated and utilizing B-scan ultrasonography. We compared and correlated intramyocardial displacement data from B-scan ultrasound images and cardiac MRI in seven normal human subjects. Subjects were first imaged in a 4-chamber view using an Agilent/PMS 5500 system with a 1.8/3.6 MHz probe and at 38 Hz frame rate, and then scanned using a Philips 1.5T Intera system and a CSPAMM tagging sequence. A single-cardiac-cycle tagging loop was generated combining data from 15 cardiac cycles. Incremental axial and lateral, displacement and strain estimates along the interventricular septum between successive frames were obtained using 2D crosscorrelation with a 5/spl times/5 mm/sup 2/ kernel and 95% overlap. Cine-loop and M-mode displacement images and elastograms and temporal plots depicted the high repeatability of all estimates over 2-5 cardiac cycles. Axial and lateral displacements both ranged between 0.04 mm at peak systole and -0.04 mm at peak diastole. Axial and lateral strains also had similar magnitudes with averages within 6% and -8% and 5% and -5%, respectively. Axial displacements and strains were also estimated from the MR cardiac tagging data using a simple zero-crossing algorithm to track the motion of the horizontally-placed tags. The peak systole and displacement estimates obtained from the ultrasonic and MR tagging data correlated well (r=0.81; p<0.05) as were the strain estimates (r=0.65; p<0.05). The correlation between elastographic and MR tagging results indicates that myocardial elastography could offer comparable quality estimates to those obtained with MR cardiac tagging; with the added advantage of higher temporal and spatial resolution representing thus a viable alternative to the quantitative assessment of myocardial function.
Use of colony-stimulating factor in patients with ovarian cancer receiving paclitaxel and carboplatin in Japan

Objective To assess the use of colony-stimulating factors (CSFs) in patients with ovarian cancer who receive adjuvant paclitaxel and carboplatin chemotherapy in clinical practice and to assess whether the frequency of CSF use differs among hospitals in Japan. Methods CSF use in patients with ovarian cancer who received first-line paclitaxel and carboplatin was analyzed retrospectively using data from the Japanese hospitalization payment system. Results A total of 1,050 patients at 104 hospitals were identified. The median age was 60 years (range, 22 to 88 years). Of these, 163 patients (15.5%) were diagnosed with neutropenia and 134 patients (12.8%) received CSFs. Among the patients who received CSFs, 125 (93%) received them for the treatment of neutropenia without fever and 1 received them for febrile neutropenia. In total, CSFs were administered for 272 cycles of chemotherapy. Among them, CSFs were used as treatment for neutropenia without fever in 259 cycles (95%), as prophylaxis (primary or secondary) in 12 cycles (4%), and as treatment for febrile neutropenia in 1 cycle. Among hospitals, a median of 4.0% of patients received CSFs with an interquartile range of 25% (Q1, 0%; Q3, 25%). A logistic random effects model showed that the variation in the proportion of patients receiving CSFs among the 104 hospitals was 2.0 (p<0.001), suggesting that the use of CSFs varied across hospitals. Conclusion Most patients received CSFs for neutropenia without fever. Standardized and evidence-based use of CSFs is critically required among hospitals in Japan.
In Silico Identification of Structure Requirement for Novel Thiazole and Oxazole Derivatives as Potent Fructose 1,6-Bisphosphatase Inhibitors

Fructose 1,6-bisphosphatase (FBPase) has been identified as a drug discovery target for lowering glucose in type 2 diabetes mellitus. In this study, a large series of 105 FBPase inhibitors were studied using a combinational method by 3D-QSAR, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulations for a further improvement in potency. The optimal 3D models exhibit high statistical significance of the results, especially for the CoMFA results with rncv2, q2 values of 0.986, 0.514 for internal validation, and rpred2, rm2 statistics of 0.902, 0.828 statistics for external validation. Graphic representation of the results, as contoured 3D coefficient plots, also provides a clue to the reasonable modification of molecules. (1) Substituents with a proper length and size at the C5 position of the thiazole core are required to enhance the potency; (2) A small and electron-withdrawing group at the C2 position linked to the thiazole core is likely to help increase the FBPase inhibition; (3) Substituent groups as hydrogen bond acceptors at the C2 position of the furan ring are favored. In addition, the agreement between 3D-QSAR, molecular docking and molecular dynamics simulation proves the rationality of the developed models. These results, we hope, may be helpful in designing novel and potential FBPase inhibitors.