Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Gender differences in mathematics achievement in Beijing: A meta‐analysis

BACKGROUND The topic of gender differences in mathematical performance has received considerable attention in the fields of education, sociology, economics and psychology. AIMS We analysed gender differences based on data from the Beijing Assessment of Educational Quality in China. SAMPLE A large data set of Grade 5 and Grade 8 students who took the mathematical test from 2008 to 2013 (n = 73,318) were analysed. METHOD Meta-analysis was used in this research. RESULTS The findings were as follows. (1) No gender differences in mathematical achievement exist among students in Grade 5, relatively small gender differences exist in Grade 8, females scored higher than males, and variance of male students is larger than that of females in both Grade 5 and Grade 8. (2) Except for statistics and probability, gender differences in other domains in Grade 8 are significantly higher than those in Grade 5, and female students outperform males. (3) The ratio of students of both gender in Grade 5 and Grade 8 at the 95-100% percentile level shows no significant differences. However, the ratio of male students is significantly higher than that of females at the 0-5% percentile level. (4) In Grade 5, the extent to which females outperformed males in low SES group is larger than that in higher SES groups, and in Grade 8, the magnitude of gender differences in urban schools is smaller than that in rural schools. CONCLUSION There is a small gender difference among the 8th graders, with the male disadvantage at the bottom of the distribution. And gender differences also vary across school locations.
The Curiously Warped Mean Plane of the Kuiper Belt

We measured the mean plane of the Kuiper Belt as a function of semimajor axis. For the classical Kuiper Belt as a whole (the nonresonant objects in the semimajor axis range 42–48 au), we find a mean plane of inclination and longitude of ascending node (in the J2000 ecliptic-equinox coordinate system), in accord with theoretical expectations of the secular effects of the known planets. With finer semimajor axis bins, we detect a statistically significant warp in the mean plane near semimajor axes 40–42 au. Linear secular theory predicts a warp near this location due to the nodal secular resonance; however, the measured mean plane for the 40.3–42 au semimajor axis bin (just outside the ) is inclined to the predicted plane, a nearly 3σ discrepancy. For the more distant Kuiper Belt objects of semimajor axes in the range 50–80 au, the expected mean plane is close to the invariable plane of the solar system, but the measured mean plane deviates greatly from this: it has inclination and longitude of ascending node . We estimate this deviation from the expected mean plane to be statistically significant at the ∼97%–99% confidence level. We discuss several possible explanations for this deviation, including the possibility that a relatively close-in ( au), unseen, small planetary-mass object in the outer solar system is responsible for the warping.
The impact of relative centrality and technology diversity on inter-firm technological alliances

This study develops an inter-firm alliance network based for understanding of technological embeddedness and inter-firm technological alliances in biomedical-based industry. Interfirm alliance technological networks are strategic decisions to help focal biomedical firms access the technology resources that they need. Specifically, we consider exploration learning capability as a primary drive force for the advance scientific knowledge and technology acquisition and alliance. We demonstrate that the relative centrality position and technology diversity are contingent on interfirm technology alliances. We thus further explore how the moderating roles of relative centrality positions and technology diversity separately and jointly affect inter-firm technology alliances. More importantly, this study examines whether exploration learning in inter-firm collaboration benefits a firm's technology alliances and whether those benefits depend on how such learning fits the firm's relative centrality position and technology diversity. The empirical results show that relative centrality positions and technology diversity are significantly positively and negatively associated with successful inter-firm technology alliances, respectively. The empirical findings show that firms in inter-firm technology alliances not only depend on exploration learning capability but are also contingent upon relative network positions and technology diversity. Our results indicate the need for focal biomedical firms to assess their technological alliances it based on network positions and technology diversity. We discuss the implications of these finding for research on inter-firm technology alliance.
Unconstrained Online Handwriting Recognition with Recurrent Neural Networks

In online handwriting recognition the trajectory of the pen is recorded during writing. Although the trajectory provides a compact and complete representation of the written output, it is hard to transcribe directly, because each letter is spread over many pen locations. Most recognition systems therefore employ sophisticated preprocessing techniques to put the inputs into a more localised form. However these techniques require considerable human effort, and are specific to particular languages and alphabets. This paper describes a system capable of directly transcribing raw online handwriting data. The system consists of an advanced recurrent neural network with an output layer designed for sequence labelling, combined with a probabilistic language model. In experiments on an unconstrained online database, we record excellent results using either raw or preprocessed data, well outperforming a state-of-the-art HMM based system in both cases.
Increased Carotid Wall Elastic Modulus and Fibronectin in Aldosterone-Salt–Treated Rats: Effects of Eplerenone

Background—Previous studies have demonstrated the development of cardiac fibrosis in aldosterone (Aldo)–salt hypertensive rats. Our aim was to determine the effects of Aldo and the Aldo receptor antagonist eplerenone (Epl) on in vivo mechanical properties of the carotid artery using echo-tracking system. Methods and Results—Aldo was administered (1 &mgr;g/h) in uninephrectomized Sprague-Dawley rats (SD) receiving a high-salt diet from 8 to 12 weeks of age. Uninephrectomized control SD rats received a normal salt diet without Aldo. Three groups of Aldo-salt rats were treated with 1, 10, or 30 mg/kg−1 · d−1 of Epl by gavage. Elasticity was measured by elastic modulus (Einc)-wall stress curves using medial cross-sectional area (MCSA). The structure of the arterial wall was analyzed by histomorphometry (elastin and collagen), immunohistochemistry (EIIIA fibronectin, Fn), and Northern blot (collagens I and III). Aldo produced increased systolic arterial pressure, pulse pressure, Einc, MCSA, and EIIIA Fn with no change in wall stress or elastin and collagen densities compared with controls without Aldo. No differences in collagen mRNA levels were detected between groups. Epl blunted the increase in pulse pressure in Aldo rats and normalized Einc-wall stress curves, MCSA, and EIIIA Fn. These effects were dose dependent and not accompanied by a reduction in wall stress. Conclusions—Aldo is able to increase arterial stiffness associated with Fn accumulation, independently of wall stress. The preventive effects of Epl suggest a direct role for mineralocorticoid receptors in mechanical and structural alterations of large vessels in rat hyperaldosteronism.
Steady swimming muscle dynamics in the leopard shark Triakis semifasciata

SUMMARY Patterns of red muscle strain and activation were examined at three positions along the body (0.42, 0.61 and 0.72 L, where L is total body length) and correlated with simultaneous measurements of midline kinematics during steady swimming (approx. 1.0 L s–1) in the leopard shark Triakis semifasciata. Analysis of lateral displacement along the body indicates that the leopard shark is a subcarangiform swimmer. Longitudinal variation in red muscle strain was observed with strain amplitudes ranging from ±3.9% in the anterior,± 6.6% in the mid, to ±4.8% in the posterior body position. Strain was in-phase with local midline curvature. In addition, strain amplitude calculated from a bending beam model closely matched strain measured using sonomicrometry at all three body positions. There is a high degree of similarity in red muscle activation patterns along the body between the leopard shark and many fish species, in that the onset of activation occurs during muscle lengthening while offset occurs during muscle shortening. However, we found no significant longitudinal variation in the EMG/strain phase relationship and duty cycles, with onset of muscle activation occurring at 51.4–61.8° and offset at 159.7–165.2° (90° is peak length). This consistent pattern of activation suggests that red muscle along the entire length of the body contributes to positive power production. Thus, sharks such as Triakis may have no regional specialization in red muscle function like that seen in many teleosts, which may indicate that the evolution of differential muscle function along the body occurred after the divergence of cartilaginous and bony fishes.
Antenatal Diagnosis Summary of Results a

Prenatal diagnosis of hematologic diseases began in 1974. A registry of cases tested worldwide has been maintained and published intermittently, encompassing June 1974-December 1978, January 1979-March 1980, April 1980-March 1981, April-December 1981, January-December 1982, January-December 1983, January 1984-December 1985, and the current Registry, January 1986-December 1989. '-' The data to be summarized here review the entire 15 years of these endeavors and represent a summary of the information provided by more than three dozen centers worldwide, involving more than a dozen countries (see TABLE 1 and ACKNOWLEDGMENTS). Twenty-three laboratories analyze fetal blood, 29 analyze DNA, and 3 obtain DNA samples from large numbers of cases but send them elsewhere for analysis. Sixteen centers deal with both blood and DNA specimens. This report will present the results of four categories of tests: fetal blood analyses for hemoglobinopathies, fetal DNA analyses for hemoglobinopathies, fetal blood analyses for other hematologic disorders, and fetal DNA analyses for other conditions, primarily hcmophilias.
CANONICAL AND OP-CANONICAL LAX ALGEBRAS

The definition of a category of (T,V)-algebras, where V is a unital com- mutative quantale and T is a Set-monad, requires the existence of a certain lax extension of T. In this article, we present a general construction of such an extension. This leads to the formation of two categories of (T,V)-algebras: the category Alg(T,V )o fcanonical (T,V)-algebras, and the category Alg(T,V )o fop-canonical (T,V)-algebras. The usual topological-like examples of categories of (T,V)-algebras (preordered sets, topological, metric and approach spaces) are obtained in this way, and the category of closure spaces appears as a category of canonical (P,V)-algebras, where P is the powerset monad. This unified presentation allows us to study how these categories are related, and it is shown that under suitable hypotheses both Alg(T,V )a ndAlg(T,V) embed coreflectively into Alg(P,V).
Soft-error tolerance analysis and optimization of nanometer circuits

Nanometer circuits are becoming increasingly susceptible to soft-errors due to alpha-particle and atmospheric neutron strikes as device scaling reduces node capacitances and supply/threshold voltage scaling reduces noise margins. It is becoming crucial to add soft-error tolerance (SET) estimation and optimization to the design flow to handle the increasing susceptibility. The first part of this paper presents a tool for accurate SET analysis of nm circuits (ASERTA) that can be used to estimate the SET of nm circuits consisting of millions of gates. The tolerance estimates generated by the tool match SPICE generated estimates closely while taking orders of magnitude less computation time. The second part of the paper presents a tool for SET optimization of nm circuits (SERTOPT) using the tolerance estimates generated by ASERTA. The tool finds optimal sizes, channel lengths, supply voltages and threshold voltages to be assigned to gates in a combinational circuit such that the SET is increased while meeting the timing constraints. Experiments on ISCAS'85 benchmark circuits showed that the soft-error rate of the optimized circuit decreased by as much as 47% with marginal increase in circuit delay.
RISK FACTORS FOR STROKE : A CASE CONTROL STUDY -

Background: Stroke is global health problem and is a leading cause of disability. It is one of the leading causes of mortality and morbidity worldwide. In rapid increase in burden of stroke in coming years and limited availability of stroke care in India, it would be better to study stroke prevention strategies. The current hospital based case-control study was undertaken with aim, to identify the risk factors for stroke. Material and Method: Study was carried out in BLDEU’s Shri B M Patil Medical College, Hospital & Research Centre. A prospective case-control, age and sex matched study was designed to find the risk factors. Cases: The study consisted of 100 hospitalized computed demography (CT) scan proved cases of stroke. Controls: The controls were selected from patients who attended the study hospital for conditions other than stroke (confirmed with CT scan). For each case of stroke, one control was selected. The controls were matched to cases in respect to age (± 5 years), sex. One hundred controls were selected in the same manner. Results: Bivariate analysis included odds ratio and its 95% confidence intervals were indentified, hypertension (0R=3.807), diabetes (0R=3.473), hypercholesteremia (OR=3.768), obesity (0R=2.471), smoking (0R=2.42), family history of stroke (OR=2.359), and transient ischemic attack (OR=2.006) as a risk factors for stroke. Conclusion: This is a study that quantifies the contribution of different factors to the overall risk of stroke. Finding that, hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, diabetes are the biggest risk factors for all type of strokes is important because like many other factors, these are modifiable risks, that can be treated by appropriate medication and life style changes.
Multiobjective optimization and evolutionary algorithms for the application mapping problem in multiprocessor system-on-chip design

Sesame is a software framework that aims at developing a modeling and simulation environment for the efficient design space exploration of heterogeneous embedded systems. Since Sesame recognizes separate application and architecture models within a single system simulation, it needs an explicit mapping step to relate these models for cosimulation. The design tradeoffs during the mapping stage, namely, the processing time, power consumption, and architecture cost, are captured by a multiobjective nonlinear mixed integer program. This paper aims at investigating the performance of multiobjective evolutionary algorithms (MOEAs) on solving large instances of the mapping problem. With two comparative case studies, it is shown that MOEAs provide the designer with a highly accurate set of solutions in a reasonable amount of time. Additionally, analyses for different crossover types, mutation usage, and repair strategies for the purpose of constraints handling are carried out. Finally, a number of multiobjective optimization results are simulated for verification.
Detection of sinusoidal signals in noise by probabilistic modelling of the spectral magnitude shape and phase continuity

This paper presents a method for detection of sinusoidal signals corrupted by an additive noise in the short-time Fourier domain. The proposed method is based on probabilistic modelling of the spectral magnitude shape and phase continuity around spectral peaks and can deal with both stationary and non-stationary sinusoidal signals. Experimental results are presented for both sinusoidal signals of a constant frequency and frequency varying continuously over time. The performance is analysed in terms of the false acceptance and false rejection error rates of spectral peak detection and also compared to our previous method. Experimental results demonstrate very high detection accuracy in even very strong noisy conditions.
Two alternatively spliced mouse urokinase receptor mRNAs with different histological localization in the gastrointestinal tract

Two mouse urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor (muPAR) cDNAs were isolated: muPAR1 is homologous to the human urokinase-type plasminogen activator receptor while muPAR2 codes for a 199 residue protein sharing the first 133 residues with muPAR1. Mouse genomic DNA sequencing indicates that the two different mRNAs arise by alternative splicing. In situ hybridization showed differential expression of the two mRNAs in mouse gastric mucosa. muPAR1 mRNA is located in luminal epithelial cells situated close to urokinase-type plasminogen activator- producing connective tissue cells of the lamina propria, pointing to plasmin generation controlled by the cooperation of different cells that may play a role in the release of gastric epithelial cells. muPAR2 mRNA is expressed in the basal epithelial cells, and the deduced protein sequence includes the receptor ligand binding domain, but omits the region involved in glycolipid-mediated membrane anchoring, suggesting that muPAR2 may code for a secreted uPA binding protein.
Use of the “Mental Health Inventory – 5” with Portuguese 10-15 Years Old

The present study describes the psychometric properties of the Portuguese version of the Mental Health Inventory-5 for use with young adolescents. A sample of 367 Portuguese students (aged 10-15 years) completed the Portuguese-language versions of Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5; Berwick et al., 1991), Children's Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder et al., 1997), Students' Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS; Huebner, 1991a), and Global Self-Worth Sub-scale (Harter, 1985). Analysis of readability, reliability (internal consistency and 1-year stability), factor structure, and criterion-related validity suggested that the MHI-5 can be appropriately used in this age group. Implications of the findings are discussed. El presente estudio describe las propiedades psicométricas de la versión en portugués del Mental Health Inventory-5 para su uso con los jóvenes adolescentes. Una muestra de 367 estudiantes portugueses (10-15 años de edad) completaron la versión en portugués del Mental Health Inventory-5 (MHI-5; Berwick et al., 1991), Children’s Hope Scale (CHS; Snyder et al., 1997), Students’ Life Satisfaction Scale (SLSS; Huebner, 1991a), y Global Self-Worth Sub-scale (Harter, 1985). Análisis de la comprensión de la lectura, de la fiabilidad (consistencia interna y 1año de estabilidad), de la estructura factorial y de la validez relacionada con el criterio sugiere que el MHI-5 puede ser utilizado con este grupo de edad. Se analizan las implicaciones de los resultados.
Genes for normal sleep and sleep disorders

Sleep and wakefulness are complex behaviors that are influenced by many genetic and environmental factors, which are beginning to be discovered. The contribution of genetic components to sleep disorders is also increasingly recognized as important. Point mutations in the prion protein, period 2, and the prepro‐hypocretin/orexin gene have been found as the cause of a few sleep disorders but the possibility that other gene defects may contribute to the pathophysiology of major sleep disorders is worth in‐depth investigations. However, single gene disorders are rare and most common disorders are complex in terms of their genetic susceptibility, environmental effects, gene‐gene, and gene‐environment interactions. We review here the current progress in the genetics of normal and pathological sleep.
Foam nest components of the túngara frog: a cocktail of proteins conferring physical and biological resilience

The foam nests of the túngara frog (Engystomops pustulosus) form a biocompatible incubation medium for eggs and sperm while resisting considerable environmental and microbiological assault. We have shown that much of this behaviour can be attributed to a cocktail of six proteins, designated ranaspumins (Rsn-1 to Rsn-6), which predominate in the foam. These fall into two discernable classes based on sequence analysis and biophysical properties. Rsn-2, with an amphiphilic amino acid sequence unlike any hitherto reported, exhibits substantial detergent-like surfactant activity necessary for production of foam, yet is harmless to the membranes of eggs and spermatozoa. A further four (Rsn-3 to Rsn-6) are lectins, three of which are similar to fucolectins found in teleosts but not previously identified in a land vertebrate, though with a carbohydrate binding specificity different from previously described fucolectins. The sixth, Rsn-1, is structurally similar to proteinase inhibitors of the cystatin class, but does not itself appear to exhibit any such activity. The nest foam itself, however, does exhibit potent cystatin activity. Rsn-encoding genes are transcribed in many tissues of the adult frogs, but the full cocktail is present only in oviduct glands. Combinations of lectins and cystatins have known roles in plants and animals for defence against microbial colonization and insect attack. Túngara nest foam displays a novel synergy of selected elements of innate defence plus a specialized surfactant protein, comprising a previously unreported strategy for protection of unattended reproductive stages of animals.
Endothelial Activation in Patients With Cardiac Syndrome

Background—The presence of endothelial dysfunction with increased endothelin-1 plasma concentrations in patients with cardiac syndrome X is still under debate. The aim of the present study was to evaluate the presence of endothelial dysfunction in patients with cardiac syndrome X. Methods and Results —Endothelin-1 levels were evaluated with a sensitive radioimmunoassay with previous purification through reverse phase HPLC in 24 patients (3 men and 21 women, mean age 54 67 years) with typical angina, instrumental evidence of ischemia, and normal coronary angiograms both under baseline conditions and after oral glucose load (75 gD-glucose). We also measured plasma nitrite-plus-nitrate levels, a sharp index of endothelial nitric oxide production, and circulating concentrations of the soluble fraction of the endothelial adhesion molecule vascular cell adhesion molecule-1, a well-recognized marker of early endothelial dysfunction. Fourteen healthy subjects (1 man and 13 women, mean age 47 615 years) served as controls. There were no significant differences in baseline plasma endothelin-1 concentrations between patients and control subjects (0.55 60.34 versus 0.4860.22 pg/mL, P50.503). Plasma nitrite-plus-nitrate and soluble vascular cell adhesion molecule-1 concentrations were also similar between the 2 groups. After glucose ingestion, circulating endothelin-1 concentrations were significantly higher in patients with cardiac syndrome X than in control subjects ( P,0.03 at 60, 90, and 120 minutes). Conclusions—Our findings show that no basal endothelial damage is present in patients with cardiac syndrome X. Nevertheless, increased responsiveness of endothelin-1 to glucose loading suggests that patients with cardiac syndrome X present an increased susceptibility to releasing endothelin-1 under stressful circumstances. (Circulation. 2000;102:2359-2364.)