Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Analysis of EPONs under the static priority scheduling scheme with fixed transmission times

In this paper, we analyse the Ethernet passive optical network (EPON) and formulate dimensioning problems. Under the assumption that the transmission times are fixed in duration and that the input traffic is rate limited and scheduled by the static priority scheme, we provide means for dimensioning the network in order to keep the required hard deadlines. Expressions of the frame delay are derived as functions of the arrival curves of the different traffic sources. Furthermore, the arrival regulator structure is general and the only requirements are that the arrival process is causal and that the regulator provides sub-additivity. In this study, we find that the examined structure is highly inefficient with poor utilisation and where the deadlines basically is provided by means of overdimensioning. The static structure of the bandwidth allocation scheme allows no adjustment of the current traffic load and must therefore proactively allocate resources yielding a rigid and inefficient network
Magnetic ordering, spin waves, and Haldane-gap excitations in ( Nd x Y 1 − x ) 2 BaNiO 5 linear-chain mixed-spin antiferromagnets

Linear-chain nickelates with the composition (Nd_x Y_{1-x})_2 Ba Ni O_5 (x=1, x=0.75, x=0.5, and x=0.25) are studied in a series of neutron scattering experiments. Powder diffraction is used to determine the temperature dependence of the magnetic structure in all four systems. Single-crystal inelastic neutron scattering is employed to investigate the temperature dependence of the Haldane-gap excitations and low-energy spin waves in the x=1 compound Nd_2 Ba Ni O_5. The results of these experiments are discussed in the context of the ``Haldane chain in a staggered field'' model for R_2 Ba Ni O_5 systems, and quantitative agreement with theory is obtained.
Phosphorylated fetuin-A-containing calciprotein particles are associated with aortic stiffness and a procalcific milieu in patients with pre-dialysis CKD.

BACKGROUND Vascular stiffening occurs in normal ageing and is accelerated in chronic kidney disease (CKD). Vascular calcification contributes to this stiffening and to the high incidence of vascular morbidity and mortality in this population. A network of inhibitors work in concert to reduce mineralization risk in extra-osseous tissue. Fetuin-A is an important systemic inhibitor of ectopic calcification. A fraction of the total circulating fetuin-A interacts with mineral ions to form stable colloidal complexes, calciprotein particles (CPP), preventing deposition. We sought to assess whether CPP fetuin-A levels were associated with procalcific factors and aortic stiffness in a cohort of patients with Stages 3 and 4 CKD. METHODS We measured fetuin-A CPP levels, serum inflammatory markers [C-reactive protein (CRP), interleukin-6, tumour necrosis factor-α], oxidized low-density lipoprotein (oxLDL), bone morphogenetic protein-2 (BMP-2) and -7 (BMP-7) and aortic pulse wave velocity (APWV) in a cohort of 200 CKD patients. Serum measurements were also made in 78 healthy controls. CPP fetuin-A phosphorylation was characterized by phosphate-affinity gel chromatography. RESULTS Fetuin-A-containing CPPs were only detectable in the serum of CKD patients. Inflammatory markers, oxLDL and BMP-2 levels were all significantly higher in the CKD than control subjects. CPP fetuin-A levels were independently associated with serum phosphate, high-sensitivity C-reactive protein, oxLDL, BMP-2/7 ratio and inversely with estimated glomerular filtration rate (model R(2) = 0.51). After adjusting for confounders, CPP fetuin-A levels were independently associated with APWV. Only phosphorylated fetuin-A was present in serum CPP. CONCLUSION Increased CPP fetuin-A levels reflect an increasingly procalcific milieu and are associated with increased aortic stiffness in patients with pre-dialysis CKD.
Seroprevalence of Sindbis virus and associated risk factors in northern Sweden

SUMMARY Mosquito-borne Sindbis virus (SINV) cause disease characterized by rash, fever and arthritis which often leads to long-lasting arthralgia. To determine the seroprevalence of SINV and associated risk factors in northern Sweden, a randomly selected population aged between 25 and 74 years were invited to join the MONICA study. Serum from 1611 samples were analysed for specific IgG antibodies. Overall, 2·9% had IgG against SINV. More men (3·7%) than women (2·0%) were SINV seropositive (P = 0·047) and it was more common in subjects with a lower educational level (P = 0·013) and living in small, rural communities (P < 0·001). Seropositivity was associated with higher waist circumference (P = 0·1), elevated diastolic blood pressure (P = 0·037), and history of a previous stroke (P = 0·011). In a multiple logistic regression analysis, adjusting for known risk factors for stroke, seropositivity for SINV was an independent predictor of having had a stroke (odds ratio 4·3, 95% confidence interval 1·4–13·0, P = 0·011).
Open Inquiry in Facilitating Metacognitive Skills on High School Biology Learning: An Inquiry on Low and High Academic Ability

Learning model and academic ability are important considerations in developing students’ skills including metacognitive skills in biology learning. The study aimed to investigate the effect of open inquiry on the metacognitive skills of students in different academic abilities. The study was quasi-experimental research, using the equivalent post-test only with control group design. The subjects of the experiment comprised 60 eleventh grade students. The samples were randomly assigned in a 2x2 factorial design. Two learning models were compared: open inquiry and conventional models, and two academic abilities: high and low. The students’ metacognitive skill was measured by an essay test integrated with academic achievement measurement, as well as an application of a learning journal as selfassessment. The result of a 2-way ANOVA test confirmed the metacognitive skills of students with high and low academic abilities in experiment class was significantly higher than those students in control class, but not for their interactions. Accordingly, the implementation of inquiry-based learning appears to be an effective strategy among students with different academic abilities.
Vinpocetine and Pyritinol: A New Model for Blood Rheological Modulation in Cerebrovascular Disorders—A Randomized Controlled Clinical Study

Blood and plasma viscosity are the major factors affecting blood flow and normal circulation. Whole blood viscosity is mainly affected by plasma viscosity, red blood cell deformability/aggregation and hematocrit, and other physiological factors. Thirty patients (twenty males + ten females) with age range 50–65 years, normotensive with history of cerebrovascular disorders, were selected according to the American Heart Stroke Association. Blood viscosity and other rheological parameters were measured after two-day abstinence from any medications. Dual effects of vinpocetine and pyritinol exhibit significant effects on all hemorheological parameters (P < 0.05), especially on low shear whole blood viscosity (P < 0.01), but they produced insignificant effects on total serum protein and high shear whole blood viscosity (P > 0.05). Therefore, joint effects of vinpocetine and pyritinol improve blood and plasma viscosity in patients with cerebrovascular disorders.
The Properties of Intergalactic C IV and Si IV Absorption. I. Optimal Analysis of an Extremely High Signal-to-Noise Quasar Sample

We have analyzed the properties of metals in the high-redshift intergalactic medium using a novel objective pixel optical depth technique on a sample of extremely high signal-to-noise ratio Keck HIRES and ESI spectra of 26 quasars between redshifts 2.1 and 6.4. The technique relies on using the doublet nature of the common ions C IV and Si IV, which are the principal metal tracers in the intergalactic medium outside of the Lyα forest. Optical depths are statistically corrected for contamination by other lines, telluric absorption, bad pixels, continuum fitting, etc. and for incompleteness, and we achieve in this way an increased sensitivity of approximately 0.5 dex over previous analyses. As with existing pixel optical depth analyses, the method is completely objective and avoids subjective cloud selection and Voigt profile fitting, but, unlike existing techniques, we do not compare the ion optical depths with H I optical depths to determine the ion optical depth distributions; we therefore avoid problems arising from different velocity widths in the ion and H I. We have shown how the conventional analysis can be reproduced using a percolation method to generate pseudoclouds from ion optical depths. Using this set of pseudoclouds, we have generated C IV column density distributions and have confirmed that the shape of the C IV column density distribution remains essentially invariant, with slope -1.44, from z = 1.5 to 5.5. This in turn confirms the lack of redshift evolution of Ω(C IV) for z = 2–5, both for all absorbers with column density log N = 12–15 and for stronger absorbers with log N = 13–14. The generation of pseudoclouds from the optical depth vectors also gives information on the column density environment of a given optical depth. We find that for the higher resolution HIRES data there is a tight relation, τ ∼ N0.7, between the peak optical depth and the column density. We have then analyzed the ion redshift evolution directly and model-independently from the optical depth vectors themselves and show that there is little evolution in the total amount of C IV from z = 2 to 5, although there is a turndown of at least a factor of 2 in Ω(C IV) above z = 5. We do, however, see substantial evolution in the ratio Si IV/C IV. In two subsequent papers in this series, we will use this technique to investigate what fraction of the absorbers lie in galactic wind outflows (Paper II) and what metallicity is associated with regions of τ(Lyα) < 1 (Paper III).
A UNIVERSAL DENSITY PROFILE FOR DARK AND LUMINOUS MATTER ?

We explore similarities in the luminosity distribution of e arly type galaxies and the mass profiles of ΛCDM halos. The spatial structure of these systems may be accurat ely described by a simple law where the logarithmic slope of the projected density is a power law of radius; the Sé rsic law. We show that this law provides a significantly better fit than a three-parameter generalizat ion of the NFW profile and derive the best-fitting Sérsic parameters for a set of high-resolution ΛCDM halos spanning a wide range in mass. The mean Sérsic n values are 3 . 0 for dwarfand galaxy-sized halos and 2 . 4 for cluster-sized halos, similar to the values that characterize luminous elliptical galaxies. We discuss pos sible reasons why the same law should describe dark and luminous systems that span a range of over seven decades i n ma s.
Linking leadership styles to work engagement: The role of psychological capital among Chinese knowledge workers

Purpose The purpose of this study is to explore the relationship between leadership styles, psychological capital and job engagement. Design/methodology/approach Data were collected among knowledge workers working no less than 1 year in three high-tech enterprises in Henan Province, China. The investigation was conducted with the cooperation from the human resource departments of the selected enterprises from August to October 2014. To minimize potential common method bias, the authors adopted a cross-lagged design with a time gap of four months. The statistical methods included descriptive statistics, structural equation modeling (SEM) and bootstrap analysis. Findings The results showed: leadership styles significantly influenced employees’ psychological capital and work engagement; specifically, transformational and transactional leadership positively predicted employees’ psychological capital and work engagement; compared with transactional leadership, transformational leadership had stronger predictive power to employees’ psychological capital and work engagement; employees’ psychological capital positively predicted their work engagement; and employees’ psychological capital acts as partial mediator between leadership styles and employees’ work engagement. Originality/value Although a body of studies have shown that leadership is an important factor influencing employees’ work attitude and outcomes, it is only in recent years that the effect mechanism of leadership becomes a hot subject in organizational behavior and management fields. As for leadership styles, in general, most research concerned transformational leadership, rather than transactional leadership and only a little of research compared the effects of transformational leadership and transactional leadership on employees’ work outcomes. In terms of outcomes of leadership, as noted earlier, the previous research mainly explored job performance, job satisfaction, innovation behavior, job burnout and so on. Regarding the effect of leadership styles on employees’ work engagement, in spite of more and more supportive evidence of the link between transformational leadership and work engagement, few studies examined the relationship between transactional leadership and work engagement. What’s more, to the best of our knowledge, till now, no empirical research has explored the internal mechanism of this effect from the perspective of psychological capital. Therefore, the present study is a breakthrough for the direct model of leadership styles and employees’ engagement, theoretically bridges the research gap and contributes to the existing literature by presenting a new picture of leadership behavior effect mechanism.
Social-Aware Stateless Routingin Pocket Switched Networks

Existing social-aware routing protocols for packet switched networks make use of the information about the social structure of the network deduced by state information of nodes (e.g., history of past encounters) to optimize routing. Although these approaches are shown to have superior performance to social-oblivious, stateless routing protocols (BinarySW, Epidemic), the improvement comes at the cost of considerable storage overhead required on the nodes. In this paper we present SANE, the first routing mechanism that combines the advantages of both social-aware and stateless approaches. SANE is based on the observation - that we validate on a real-world trace - that individuals with similar interests tend to meet more often. In SANE, individuals (network members) are characterized by their interest profile, a compact representation of their interests. By implementing a simple routing rule based on interest profile similarity, SANE is free of network state information, thus overcoming the storage capacity problem with existing social-aware approaches. Through thorough experiments, we show the superiority of SANE over existing approaches, both stateful, social-aware and stateless, social-oblivious. We discuss the statelessness of our approach in the supplementary file, which can be found on the Computer Society Digital Library at http://doi.ieeecomputersociety. org/10.1109/TPDS.2014. 2307857, of this manuscript. Our interest-based approach easily enables innovative networking services, such as interest-casting. An interest-casting protocol is also introduced in this paper, and evaluated through experiments based on both real-world and synthetic mobility traces.
Lead Exposure during Early Human Development and DNA Methylation of Imprinted Gene Regulatory Elements in Adulthood

Background: Lead exposure during early development causes neurodevelopmental disorders by unknown mechanisms. Epidemiologic studies have focused recently on determining associations between lead exposure and global DNA methylation; however, such approaches preclude the identification of loci that may alter human disease risk. Objectives: The objective of this study was to determine whether maternal, postnatal, and early childhood lead exposure can alter the differentially methylated regions (DMRs) that control the monoallelic expression of imprinted genes involved in metabolism, growth, and development. Methods: Questionnaire data and serial blood lead levels were obtained from 105 participants (64 females, 41 males) of the Cincinnati Lead Study from birth to 78 months. When participants were adults, we used Sequenom EpiTYPER assays to test peripheral blood DNA to quantify CpG methylation in peripheral blood leukocytes at DMRs of 22 human imprinted genes. Statistical analyses were conducted using linear regression. Results: Mean blood lead concentration from birth to 78 months was associated with a significant decrease in PEG3 DMR methylation (β = –0.0014; 95% CI: –0.0023, –0.0005, p = 0.002), stronger in males (β = –0.0024; 95% CI: –0.0038, –0.0009, p = 0.003) than in females (β = –0.0009; 95% CI: –0.0020, 0.0003, p = 0.1). Elevated mean childhood blood lead concentration was also associated with a significant decrease in IGF2/H19 (β = –0.0013; 95% CI: –0.0023, –0.0003, p = 0.01) DMR methylation, but primarily in females, (β = –0.0017; 95% CI: –0.0029, –0.0006, p = 0.005) rather than in males, (β = –0.0004; 95% CI: –0.0023, 0.0015, p = 0.7). Elevated blood lead concentration during the neonatal period was associated with higher PLAGL1/HYMAI DMR methylation regardless of sex (β = 0.0075; 95% CI: 0.0018, 0.0132, p = 0.01). The magnitude of associations between cumulative lead exposure and CpG methylation remained unaltered from 30 to 78 months. Conclusions: Our findings provide evidence that early childhood lead exposure results in sex-dependent and gene-specific DNA methylation differences in the DMRs of PEG3, IGF2/H19, and PLAGL1/HYMAI in adulthood. Citation: Li Y, Xie C, Murphy SK, Skaar D, Nye M, Vidal AC, Cecil KM, Dietrich KN, Puga A, Jirtle RL, Hoyo C. 2016. Lead exposure during early human development and DNA methylation of imprinted gene regulatory elements in adulthood. Environ Health Perspect 124:666–673; http://dx.doi. org/10.1289/ehp.1408577
Ortaöğretim Öğrencilerinde İnternet Bağımlılığı İle Algılanan Sosyal Destek Arasındaki İlişkinin İncelenmesi

Arastirma ortaogretim ogrencilerinin internet bagimlilik duzeyleri ile algiladiklari sosyal destek durumlarinin incelenmesini amaclamaktadir. Nicel verilere dayali olarak betimsel ve iliskisel tarama modelinde olan arastirmada, katilimcilara Gunuc (2009) tarafindan gelistirilen “Internet Bagimlilik Olcegi (IBO)”, Yildirim (2004) tarafindan gelistirilen ve revizyonu yapilan “Algilanan Sosyal Destek Olcegi” ve orneklem grubundaki ogrencilerin demografik ozelliklerini saptamak icin arastirmacilar tarafindan gelistirilen “Kisisel Bilgi Formu” uygulanmistir. Elde edilen veriler SPSS paket programinda cozumlenmistir. Arastirmanin orneklemi 2011-2012 egitim ogretim yilinda Batman Ili Belediye sinirlari icinde tesadufi ornekleme yoluyla secilen 10 lisede ogrenim gormekte olan 577 erkek, 422 kiz ogrenciden olusmaktadir. Veriler betimleyici ve iliskisel istatistikler kapsaminda degerlendirilmistir. Degerlendirmeler sonucunda, IBO ile ASDO toplam puanlari ve alt boyutlari arasinda iliski bulunmustur. Ayrica IBO ve ASDO toplam puanlari ile Kisisel Bilgi Formu’nda ele alinan degiskenler arasinda anlamli fark gorulmustur.
Using Advertisement to Improve the Speaking Ability of the Second Years of SMAN 5 Makassar

ABSTRAK Speaking is one of the most difficult skills for students of Senior High School. The difficulties faced by students lead to two factors; external factor and internal factor. The external factor, such as: the teacher, the classroom environment, the activities and materials, the relevance and feedback. The internal factor, such as: The goal setting, expectancy, and self confidence. The objectives of this research are (i) to find out whether the use advertisement is effective to improve the speaking ability of the second year students of SMAN 5 Makassar, (ii) to find out whether advertisement is effective to rise the interest of speaking ability of the second year students of SMAN 5 Makassar. This research employed pre-experimental design with one group of pretest and posttest design. The population of this research was the second year students of SMAN 5 Makassar in academic 2015/2016. This research used cluster random sampling. The sample of this research consisted of 36 students in class XI IPA 4. Research instruments used to collect the data in this research namely speaking test (pretest and posttest) and questionnaire. The data were analyzed by using scoring the students’ test, and percentage of students’ interest. The result of this research shows that (i) The use advertisement is effective to improve the speaking ability of the second year students of SMAN 5 Makassar. It can be seen that t-test with significance level 5% and degree of freedom 35 is 2.030, while the T-score is 89.13. This research indicated that Alternative Hypothesis (H₁) is accepted and Null Hypothesis (H₀) is rejected, because the t-students test (ts) is higher than t-table (tt). (ii) Advertisement is effective to rise the interest on speaking ability of the second year students of SMAN 5 Makassar. It can be seen that the students’ percentage response from questionnaire shows that 38.9% very high interest and 52.8% high interest, and 8.3% moderate and the mean score is 81.05.
Improvement of Restricted Interests and Adaptive Behavior in People with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) is characterized by deficits in reciprocal social behavior, communication, and behavioral flexibility that might be explained in terms of reduced perceptual similarity and that reduced perceptual similarity could also account for the difficulties that people with ASD have to adjust their behavior in the context. This study is a prepost design of three groups (N= 15), which was carried out for 6 months, with the aim of comparing the effects of three different programs application to improve the the behavior adaptation to the environment of students with ASD. Results were analyzed using comparative standard statistical techniques. This analysis revealed that individuals with ASD found the highest postintervention scores on adaptive behavior into Integrated Sensory Program group, in relation the another two study programs: A-B Behavior Program and Curricular Program.
Score-Independent Audio Features for Description of Music Expression

During a music performance, the musician adds expressiveness to the musical message by changing timing, dynamics, and timbre of the musical events to communicate an expressive intention. Traditionally, the analysis of music expression is based on measurements of the deviations of the acoustic parameters with respect to the written score. In this paper, we employ machine learning techniques to understand the expressive communication and to derive audio features at an intermediate level, between music intended as a structured language and notes intended as sound at a more physical level. We start by extracting audio features from expressive performances that were recorded by asking the musicians to perform in order to convey different expressive intentions. We use a sequential forward selection procedure to rank and select a set of features for a general description of the expressions, and a second one specific for each instrument. We show that higher recognition ratings are achieved by using a set of four features which can be specifically related to qualitative descriptions of the sound by physical metaphors. These audio features can be used to retrieve expressive content on audio data, and to design the next generation of search engines for music information retrieval.