Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
DNA Polymorphisms of the Lipoprotein Lipase Gene and Their Association with Coronary Artery Disease in the Saudi Population

Coronary heart disease (CHD) is a major health problem and a major cause of death in most countries. Evidence has been presented that gene polymorphisms (HindIII, PvuII and Ser447Ter) of lipoprotein lipase (LPL) are risk factors of coronary artery disease (CAD). Aim Our objective of the present investigation was to determine whether 3 LPL polymorphisms (LPL-HindIII, LPL-PvuII and LPL-Ser447Ter) can be considered as independent risk factors for CAD in the Saudi population. Methods We recruited 120 CAD subjects, confirmed angiographically with identical ethnic backgrounds and 65 control subjects. Polymerase chain reaction-restriction fragment length polymorphisms (RFLP) technique was used to detect the polymorphisms of the LPL gene. Results and conclusion For the HindIII genotype, within the CAD group, the frequencies of the H+H+ were found in 50.8%, whereas 44.2% carried the H−H+ genotype, and 5% carried the H−H− genotype. Within the control group, the H+H+ genotype was found in 44.6%, whereas 35.4% carried the H−H+ genotype, 20% carried the H−H− genotype. The odds ratio (OR) of HindIII genotype H+H+ vs. H−H− genotype at 95% Confidence Interval (CI) were 4.6 (1.57–13.2) and p < 0.005, hence showing no significant association with CAD. For the PvuII genotype, within the CAD group the frequencies of the P+P+ found in 41.7% whereas 43.3. 2% carried the P−P+ genotype, and 15% carried the P−P− genotype. Within the control group the P+P+ was found in 38.5%, 43.0% carried the P−P+ genotype, and 18.5% carried the P−P− genotype. The OR of PvuII genotype P+P+ vs. P−P− genotypes (95% CI) is 1.33 and p = 0.52; hence, it was also insignificant to show association with the disease. For the Ser447Ter genotype, within the CAD group, the frequencies of the C/C found in 83.3%, whereas 16.7% carried the C/G genotype. Within the control group, the C/C was found in 87.7% and 12.3% carried the C/G genotype. We did not get any GG genotypes in control as well as patients for this gene. It can be concluded that C allele of gene masks the presence of G allele in the Saudi population. The OR of CG + GG vs. CC (95% CI) is 1.43 from 0.59 to 3.44 which is insignificant. Hence this gene also has no significant association with CAD in the Saudi population.
Effects of elevation and land use on the biomass of trees, shrubs and herbs at Mount Kilimanjaro

The protection and sustainable management of forest carbon stocks, particularly in the tropics, is a key factor in the mitigation of global change effects. However, our knowledge of how land use and elevation affect carbon stocks in tropical ecosystems is very limited. We compared aboveground biomass of trees, shrubs and herbs for eleven natural and human-influenced habitat types occurring over a wide elevation gradient (866–4550 m) at the world's highest solitary mountain, Mount Kilimanjaro. Thanks to the enormous elevation gradient, we covered important natural habitat types, e.g., savanna woodlands, montane rainforest and afro-alpine vegetation, as well as important land-use types such as maize fields, grasslands, traditional home gardens, coffee plantations and selectively logged forest. To assess tree and shrub biomass with pantropical allometric equations, we measured tree height, diameter at breast height and wood density and to assess herbaceous biomass, we sampled destructively. Among natural habitats, tree biomass was highest at intermediate elevation in the montane zone (340 Mg ha−1), shrub biomass declined linearly from 7 Mg ha−1 at 900 m to zero above 4000 m, and, inverse to tree biomass, herbaceous biomass was lower at mid-elevations (1 Mg ha−1) than in savannas (900 m, 3 Mg ha−1) or alpine vegetation (above 4000 m, 6 Mg ha−1). While the various land-use types dramatically decreased woody biomass at all elevations, though to various degrees, herbaceous biomass was typically increased. Our study highlights tropical montane forest biomass as important aboveground carbon stock and quantifies the extent of the strong aboveground biomass reductions by the major land-use types, common to East Africa. Further, it shows that elevation and land use differently affect different vegetation strata, and thus the matrix for other organisms.
LOCATING THE YOUNGEST H ii REGIONS IN M82 WITH 7 mm CONTINUUM MAPS

We present 7 mm Very Large Array continuum images of the starburst galaxy M82. On arcsecond scales, two-thirds of the 7 mm continuum consists of free–free emission from H ii regions. In the subarcsecond resolution map, we identify 14 compact sources, including 9 bright H ii regions with Nlyc > 1051 s−1. Four of the H ii regions have rising spectra, implying emission measures >108 cm−6 pc. Except for one compact source with peculiar features, all other compact radio sources are found in dust lanes and do not have optical or near-infrared continuum counterparts. Four regions of extended, high brightness (EM >107 cm-6 pc) radio emission are found in our high-resolution map, including some as large as ∼2″, or 30 pc, representing either associations of small H ii regions, or sheet-like structures of denser gas. The good correlation between 7 mm emission and Spitzer IRAC 8 μm continuum-removed polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbon (PAH) feature suggests that PAH emission may track the recently formed OB stars. We find an excellent correlation between molecular gas and star formation, particularly dense gas traced by HCN, down to the ∼45 pc scale in M82. We also find star formation efficiencies (SFEs) of 1%–10% on the same scale, based on CO maps. The highest SFE are found in regions with the highest dense gas fractions.
Perceived emotional competence and emotion appraisal skills in middle childhood in typically developing and behaviourally challenged children

This thesis addresses whether children with severe behavioural problems lack emotional competence in key areas and, if so, whether this is reflected in their ability to appraise emotions in others. Self-rated and objectively rated emotional competence of children in mainstream schooling was compared with 20 children aged seven to 11 excluded for severe social, emotional and behavioural difficulties. In Study 1 self-report questionnaires measured affect perception, empathy and expressivity in typically developing (N=203), special educational needs (N=36) and socially, emotionally and behaviourally disordered (N=30) children in mainstream schooling. Younger children were less perceptive of affect than older children and scored lower for cognitive empathy. Boys scored lower in cognitive and affective empathy than girls and were less intimate, and more covert, in their expression of emotion. Special educational needs children appeared less emotionally perceptive than their peers. In Studies 2a and 2b, affect appraisal and the ability to describe emotional change were examined using a new measure employing pictorial representations of children in ambiguous postures and facial representations of emotion. Typical patterns of appraisal of possibly threatening, depressive and innocuous postures were established (N=242). A developmental progression in reasons given for emotional change was seen with older children providing more socially based and mentalising answers than younger children. Study 3 developed an interactive computerised measure to examine the point at which children recognise the emergence of emotion from an interpolation of photographic facial expressions. Eighty-five typically developing children manipulated 26 emotional changes, including emotion/emotion and emotion/neutral transitions and chose a point of uncertainty in the transformation. A significant effect was found for facial representations of fear and anger, indicating a threat detection mechanism in response to emergent emotion. In Study 4 children with severe behavioural problems were compared across all measures with typically developing children from the first three studies. Behaviourally challenged children were deficient in cognitive and affective empathy and exhibited a hostile appraisal bias when assessing ambiguous postures of other children. No deficit was found in the ability to evaluate emotional change and provide age-appropriate reasons. However, anger was dominant in the perception even over fear stimuli when assessing emotional transition. Overall, children excluded from mainstream schooling with severe behavioural problems showed a very different profile to mainstream children with behavioural problems, suggesting a qualitative difference in cognitive functioning that could have a predictive function. This thesis not only supports the premise that severe SEBD children exhibit altered emotional functioning but has developed a series of tests that will have ongoing value in applied research.
Food Insecurity Is Associated with Increased Risk of Non-Adherence to Antiretroviral Therapy among HIV-Infected Adults in the Democratic Republic of Congo: A Cross-Sectional Study

Background Food insecurity is increasingly reported as an important barrier of patient adherence to antiretroviral therapy (ART) in both resource-poor and rich settings. However, unlike in resource rich-settings, very few quantitative studies to date have investigated the association of food insecurity with patient adherence to ART in Sub-Saharan Africa. The current study examines the association between food insecurity and adherence to ART among HIV-infected adults in the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Methods and Findings This is a cross-sectional quantitative study of patients receiving ART at three private and one public health facilities in Kinshasa, DRC. Participants were consecutively recruited into the study between April and November 2012. Adherence was measured using a combined method coupling pharmacy refill and self-reported adherence. Food insecurity was the primary predictor, and was assessed using the Household Food Insecurity Access Scale (HFIAS). Of the 898 participants recruited into the study, 512 (57%) were food insecure, and 188 (20.9%) were not adherent to ART. Food insecurity was significantly associated with non-adherence to ART (AOR, 2.06; CI, 1.38–3.09). We also found that perceived harmfulness of ART and psychological distress were associated respectively with increased (AOR, 1.95; CI, 1.15–3.32) and decreased (AOR, 0.31; CI, 0.11–0.83) odds of non-adherence to ART. Conclusion Food insecurity is prevalent and a significant risk factor for non-adherence to ART among HIV-infected individuals in the DRC. Our findings highlight the urgent need for strategies to improve food access among HIV-infected on ART in order to ensure patient adherence to ART and ultimately the long-term success of HIV treatment in Sub-Saharan Africa.
Improving Target Detection Accuracy Based on Multipolarization MIMO GPR

In this paper, we combine the multiple-input-multiple-output (MIMO) array antenna technology with a multipolarization component in a ground penetrating radar (GPR) system to improve target detection accuracy. The MIMO technology introduced in previous literature is widely applied in radar and other wireless communication fields. Here, we apply the MIMO technology with a “plane-wave like” (PWL) source that uses array antennas with small spacing to emit a pulse source at the same time in GPR detection. First, we analyze the physical mechanism of the MIMO GPR system with a “PWL” source to improve the target detection resolution. Then, we carry out a numerical simulation with a finite-difference time-domain method in 1-D and 2-D array antennas to compare the imaging results of the MIMO and traditional GPR systems. Finally, the synthetic data MIMO GPR experiment with a step-frequency GPR system is implemented. Compared with the traditional GPR system, our results demonstrate that the MIMO GPR system with a multipolarization detection mode can overcome the influence of target radar cross sections and antenna radiation directions, and improve target detection accuracy effectively. Meanwhile, the synthetic MIMO GPR system also provides a good idea to improve the system performance and reduce system design requirements and the manufacture cost.
Optimal Compensation of Harmonic Propagation in a Multi-Bus Microgrid

This paper discusses how an Active Power Filter (APF) can be utilized for system-wide harmonic mitigation in a microgrid with multiple sources of harmonic distortion located at different buses. A two-bus microgrid system with independent nonlinear loads at both buses is first investigated analytically, and it is demonstrated that it is possible to derive a harmonic current injection from the APF that will minimize the harmonic distortion at both buses. However, analytical optimization of the APF current will be sensitive to parameter variations, will deteriorate when the APF reaches current saturation and cannot be easily extended to larger systems with many loads at different buses. A more practically applicable method for calculating the APF current references, by using the framework of Model Predictive Control (MPC) is instead proposed for the investigated system. Under realistic operating conditions, this approach can obtain further improvement in the system-level harmonic mitigation. The characteristics and performances that are obtained with the analytical solution and the MPC-based control are assessed by time domain simulations in the Matlab/Simulink environment. The results clearly indicate how an MPC-based system-oriented compensation can maximize the utilization of a single APF in a multi-bus Microgrid.
The importance of radiative feedback for the stellar initial mass function

We investigate the effect of radiative feedback on the star formation process using radiation hydrodynamical simulations. We repeat the previous hydrodynamical star cluster formation simulations of Bate et al. and Bate & Bonnell, but we use a realistic gas equation of state and radiative transfer in the flux-limited diffusion approximation rather than the original barotropic equation of state. Whereas star formation in the barotropic simulations continued unabated until the simulations stopped, we find that radiative feedback, even from low-mass stars, were essentially terminates the production of new objects within low-mass dense molecular cloud cores after roughly one local dynamical time. Radiative feedback also dramatically decreases the propensity of massive circumstellar discs to fragment and inhibits fragmentation of other dense gas (e.g. filaments) close to existing protostellar objects. These two effects decrease the numbers of protostars formed by a factor of ≈4 compared with the original hydrodynamical simulations using the barotropic equation of state. In particular, whereas the original simulations produced more brown dwarfs than stars, the radiative feedback results in a ratio of stars to brown dwarfs of approximately 5:1, in much better agreement with observations. Most importantly, we find that although the characteristic stellar mass in the original calculations scaled linearly with the initial mean Jeans mass in the clouds, when radiative feedback is included the characteristic stellar mass is indistinguishable for the two calculations, regardless of the initial Jeans mass of the clouds. We thus propose that the reason the observed initial mass function appears to be universal in the local Universe is due to self-regulation of the star formation process by radiative feedback. We present an analytic argument showing how a characteristic mass may be derived that is relatively independent of initial conditions such as the cloud's density.
Continuous time quantum consensus & quantum synchronisation

Distributed consensus algorithm over networks of quantum systems has been the focus of recent studies in the context of quantum computing and distributed control. Most of the progress in this category have been on the convergence conditions and optimizing the convergence rate of the algorithm, for quantum networks with undirected underlying topology. This paper aims to address the extension of this problem over quantum networks with directed underlying graphs. In doing so, the convergence to two different stable states namely, consensus and synchronous states have been studied. Based on the intertwining relation between the eigenvalues, it is shown that for determining the convergence rate to the consensus state, all induced graphs should be considered while for the synchronous state only the underlying graph suffices. Furthermore, it is illustrated that for the range of weights that the Aldouss conjecture holds true, the convergence rate to both states are equal. Using the Pareto region for convergence rates of the algorithm, the global and Pareto optimal points for several topologies have been provided.
Symmetry Results for Cooperative Elliptic Systems via Linearization

In this paper we prove symmetry results for classical solutions of nonlinear cooperative elliptic systems in a ball or in an annulus in $\mathbb{R}^N$, $N \geq 2 $. More precisely we prove that solutions having Morse index $j \leq N $ are foliated Schwarz symmetric if the nonlinearity is convex and a full coupling condition is satisfied along the solution.
A Comparative Investigation of the Casual and Careful Oral Language Styles of Average and Superior Fifth Grade Boys and Girls.

the "standard" bear investigating are the gifted. In what ways are superior students more advanced in their uses of language? An examinaation of grammatical, lexical, and functional aspects of the language performance of sixthgraders indicates that the differences are not quite where or how one might expect them. The implications for language teaching at the upper elementary level are such as to suggest that it is not grammar but rhetoric that might be the main concern. Reviewed by C.C.
Do Perceptions Fully Mediate the Impacts of Individual Differences on Technology Use?

IS researchers have long posited that perceptions fully mediate the influence of individual differences on technology use. However, anecdotal studies suggest that individual difference may have a direct effect on technology use. In this study, we aimed at exploring whether perceptions fully mediate the impacts of individual differences on technology use and whether individual differences influence two dimensions of technology use, i.e. frequency of use and hours of use, in the same way. Individual differences include personal traits, demographic variables, and situational variables. As demographic variables, age and gender are identified as variables of research of interest in our study. PLS was used to test our research model. Results show that individual difference may directly influence technology use and that individual difference variables influence frequency and amount of technology use in same ways, at least for the two variables we examined in our study, i.e. gender and age.
A Longitudinal Electromyography Study of Complex Movements in Poststroke Therapy. 2: Changes in Coordinated Muscle Activation

Fine motor control is achieved through the coordinated activation of groups of muscles, or “muscle synergies. ” Muscle synergies change after stroke as a consequence of the motor deficit. We investigated the pattern and longitudinal changes in upper limb muscle synergies during therapy in a largely unconstrained movement in patients with a broad spectrum of poststroke residual voluntary motor capacity. Electromyography (EMG) was recorded using wireless telemetry from 6 muscles acting on the more-affected upper body in 24 stroke patients at early and late therapy during formal Wii-based Movement Therapy (WMT) sessions, and in a subset of 13 patients at 6-month follow-up. Patients were classified with low, moderate, or high motor-function. The Wii-baseball swing was analyzed using a non-negative matrix factorization (NMF) algorithm to extract muscle synergies from EMG recordings based on the temporal activation of each synergy and the contribution of each muscle to a synergy. Motor-function was clinically assessed immediately pre- and post-therapy and at 6-month follow-up using the Wolf Motor Function Test, upper limb motor Fugl-Meyer Assessment, and Motor Activity Log Quality of Movement scale. Clinical assessments and game performance demonstrated improved motor-function for all patients at post-therapy (p < 0.01), and these improvements were sustained at 6-month follow-up (p > 0.05). NMF analysis revealed fewer muscle synergies (mean ± SE) for patients with low motor-function (3.38 ± 0.2) than those with high motor-function (4.00 ± 0.3) at early therapy (p = 0.036) with an association trend between the number of synergies and the level of motor-function. By late therapy, there was no significant change between groups, although there was a pattern of increase for those with low motor-function over time. The variability accounted for demonstrated differences with motor-function level (p < 0.05) but not time. Cluster analysis of the pooled synergies highlighted the therapy-induced change in muscle activation. Muscle synergies could be identified for all patients during therapy activities. These results show less complexity and more co-activation in the muscle activation for patients with low motor-function as a higher number of muscle synergies reflects greater movement complexity and task-related phasic muscle activation. The increased number of synergies and changes within synergies by late-therapy suggests improved motor control and movement quality with more distinct phases of movement.
Acquiring distributed representations for verb-object pairs by using word2vec

We propose three methods for obtaining distributed representations for verb-object pairs in predicated argument structures by using word2vec. Word2vec is a method for acquiring distributed representations for a word by retrieving a weight matrix in neural networks. First, we analyze a large amount of text with an HPSG parser; then, we obtain distributed representations for the verb-object pairs by learning neural networks from the analyzed text. We evaluated our methods by measuring the MRR score for verb-object pairs and the Spearman’s rank correlation coefficient for verb-object pairs in experiments.
Immunohistochemical study on distribution of cannabinoid cb1 receptors in the rat`s prefrontal cortex after cold stress procedure

The prefrontal cortex (PFC), which mediates the emotional coping response to different stressful paradigms, is composed of distinct parts depends on stimulus involved physical or psychological stress. It also plays a role in a number of neurological conditions. It`s known that neuroendocrine control of homeostatic and reproductive functions including stress response and energy metabolism is fulfils by important signaling molecules as endogenous cannabinoids. The aim of the present study was to examine the effects of cold stress on distribution of CB1- receptors in PFC of rats. Immunohistochemical procedure for CB1-receptors was performed in adult male Wistar rats. The data were entered in the computer program, recorded automatically, calculated and compared by Student`s t-test. We found CB1-immunoreaction in axons and dendrites as well as in cell bodies where they presented as puncta on somata. The cells bodies were comprised of several distinct shapes: pyramidal, oval, fusiform and multipolar. Numerous fine-beaded fibers and puncta were seen on a handful of pyramidal large-sized neurons and many puncta were observed around the oval-shaped small- and medium-sized neurons.The PFC in cold stress rats demonstrated around 18% higher density of CB1-receptors compared with controls. In conclusion our results showed that cold stress exposure increased distribution of CB1-receptors in PFC of rats. These experimental data suggest that endocannabinoid system in this brain area may play an important role in the continuity of homeostasis in cold stress.