Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adipose Tissue Regeneration: A State of the Art

Adipose tissue pathologies and defects have always represented a reconstructive challenge for plastic surgeons. In more recent years, several allogenic and alloplastic materials have been developed and used as fillers for soft tissue defects. However, their clinical use has been limited by further documented complications, such as foreign-body reactions potentially affecting function, degradation over time, and the risk for immunogenicity. Tissue-engineering strategies are thus being investigated to develop methods for generating adipose tissue. This paper will discuss the current state of the art in adipose tissue engineering techniques, exploring the biomaterials used, stem cells application, culture strategies, and current regulatory framework that are in use are here described and discussed.
Dynamic Modelling and Simulation of an Organic Rankine Cycle Unit of a Geothermal Power Plant

This article presents a dynamic model of a 5.4 MW binary cycle unit of a geothermal power plant. The plant is an Organic Rankine Cycle (ORC) where pentane is used as the motive fluid and it is powered by the separated brine from the geothermal fluid. It is found that the inlet brine properties including brine mass flow rate, and the ambient air temperature are the two most important parameters influencing the plant performance. Specifically, the plant performance is highly dependent on the ambient air temperature as the ORC uses air-cooled condenser. Moreover, the inlet brine property changes less significantly with respect to time compared to the ambient air temperature. Simulation has been carried out where, brine inlet properties and ambient air temperature are fed as inputs to the computer model. The simulated plant performance has been compared with the actual plant performance data. It has been found that the developed model is very competent in predicting plant performance. The average percentage error of the theoretical and the observed power outputs remain within 5%.
A bootstrap estimator for the Student-t regression model

The Student-t regression model suffers from monotone likelihood. This means that the likelihood achieves its maximum value at infinite values of one or more of the parameters, in this case the unknown degrees of freedom. This leads to problems when one uses iterative algorithms to locate the solutions to the non-linear equations generated by the likelihood. Fonseca et al. (2008) deal with this problem by using the Jeffreys priors. We implement a bootstrap estimator which is based on resampling the data until samples without monotone likelihood are encountered. Results from this analysis will be presented.
Dynamic locomotion with one, four and six-legged robots (特集「ロコモーション」)

Abstract : This paper surveys the research in dynamically stable legged locomotion in our lab over the past ten years. Our robots share a reliance on the passive dynamics of their suitably designed dynamical system, low degree-of-freedom electric actuation coupled with a minimalistic approach to mechanical complexity, radially compliant leg designs which decouple the actuators from gravitational loads, minimal reliance on complex feedback-based controllers, a complete system design approach for dynamic mobility and autonomy, and increasingly, biological inspiration. Our one, four and six-legged running robots exemplify these fundamental design and control principles, which are critical to their success, measured in terms of stability, energy efficiency and speed.
An improved ARIMA model for precipitation simulations

Abstract. Auto regressive integrated moving average (ARIMA) models have been widely used to calculate monthly time series data formed by interannual variations of monthly data or inter-monthly variation. However, the influence brought about by inter-monthly variations within each year is often ignored. An improved ARIMA model is developed in this study accounting for both the interannual and inter-monthly variation. In the present approach, clustering analysis is performed first to hydrologic variable time series. The characteristics of each class are then extracted and the correlation between the hydrologic variable quantity to be predicted and characteristic quantities constructed by linear regression analysis. ARIMA models are built for predicting these characteristics of each class and the hydrologic variable monthly values of year of interest are finally predicted using the modeled values of corresponding characteristics from ARIMA model and the linear regression model. A case study is conducted to predict the monthly precipitation at the Lanzhou precipitation station in Lanzhou, China, using the model, and the results show that the accuracy of the improved model is significantly higher than the seasonal model, with the mean residual achieving 9.41 mm and the forecast accuracy increasing by 21%.
Evidence of Linkages Among G 7 Stock Markets Using Causality in Variance Test

This paper enhances the investigation of international linkages in stock markets by focusing on the information dependence between the markets. This is achieved by examining the causality in the variances of the stock returns from the seven members of the OECD group of countries. The characteristics of the monthly stock market return from these countries are first captured in a Markov switching framework. The approach allows both the mean and the variance to depend on an unobserved state that is driven by a Markov process. The results show that the low variance states are quite stable whereas the high variance states are shortlived. The causality test is next carried out with the estimated variance series using a recent econometric method that is robust to distributional assumption. Although the results show the dominance of the two largest economies, feedback effects are also noticed. The existence of this reverse causality has not been documented by most prior studies in this area. JEL classification number E52
A MID-INFRARED IMAGING SURVEY OF SUBMILLIMETER-SELECTED GALAXIES WITH THE SPITZER SPACE TELESCOPE

We present Spitzer-IRAC and MIPS mid-IR observations of a sample of 73 radio-detected submillimeter-selected galaxies (SMGs) with spectroscopic redshifts, the largest such sample published to date. From our data, we find that IRAC colors of SMGs are much more uniform as compared with rest-frame UV and optical colors, and z>1.5 SMGs tend to be redder in their mid-IR colors than both field galaxies and lower-z SMGs. However, the IRAC colors of the SMGs overlap those of field galaxies sufficiently that color–magnitude and color–color selection criteria suggested in the literature to identify SMG counterparts produce ambiguous counterparts within an 8″ radius in 20%–35% of cases. We use a rest-frame J−H versus H−K color–color diagram and a S24/S8.0 versus S8.0/S4.5 color–color diagram to determine that 13%–19% of our sample are likely to contain active galactic nuclei which dominate their mid-IR emission. We observe in the rest-frame JHK colors of our sample that the rest-frame near-IR emission of SMGs does not resemble that of the compact nuclear starburst observed in local ultraluminous IR galaxies and is consistent with more widely distributed star formation. We take advantage of the fact that many high-z galaxy populations selected at different wavelengths are detected by Spitzer to carry out a brief comparison of mid-IR properties of SMGs to UV-selected high-z galaxies, 24 μm-selected galaxies, and high-z radio galaxies, and find that SMGs have mid-IR fluxes and colors which are consistent with being more massive and more reddened than UV-selected galaxies, while the IRAC colors of SMGs are most similar to powerful high-z radio galaxies.
Delayed Computed Tomography Arthrography of Human Knee Cartilage In Vivo

Objective: We investigated the feasibility of delayed computed tomography (CT) arthrography for evaluation of human knee cartilage in vivo. Especially, the diffusion of contrast agent out of the joint space and the optimal time points for imaging were determined. Design: Two patients were imaged using delayed CT arthrography and delayed gadolinium-enhanced magnetic resonance imaging of cartilage (dGEMRIC) techniques. Results: Two hours after injection, the concentration of contrast agent in the joint space was still high enough (20% to 24.5% of the initial concentration at 0 minutes) to allow delayed CT arthrography. The half-life of the contrast agent in the joint space varied from 30 to 60 minutes. The contrast agent concentration in patellar and femoral cartilage reached the maximum after 30 and 60 minutes, respectively. According to dGEMRIC, there were no differences between patients. However, in delayed CT arthrography, the penetration of the contrast agent was higher in the osteoarthritic knee cartilage. Conclusions: Contrast agent remained in the joint space long enough to enable delayed CT arthrography of cartilage. After 30 minutes, the normalized contrast agent concentration was higher in the cartilage of the osteoarthritic knee in comparison with the healthy knee. To conclude, delayed CT arthrography exhibited potential for use in the clinical evaluation of cartilage integrity.
An Investigation of Employee Intentions to Support Organizational Change an Investigation of Employee Intentions to Support Organizational Change

Utilizing the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB) as a framework for understanding employee intentions to support organizational change, this study examined the extent to which attitude, subjective norm, and perceived behavioral control (PBC), as well as the interactive effect of group norm and ingroup identification, predicted intentions to carry out change-supportive activities. It also was hypothesized that communication and participation would increase intentions, with these relationships mediated by the TPB variables. The sample was 149 employees, undergoing the first phase of a building relocation. Attitude, subjective norm, and PBC each predicted intentions. A significant interaction emerged, with group norm predicting intentions only for employees who identified strongly with their reference group. Employees who perceived sufficient information about the relocation reported stronger intentions, an effect that was partially mediated via subjective norm and PBC. Similarly, participation predicted intentions via subjective norm. Implications for fostering employee readiness for change are discussed.
Missing data reconstruction for robust automatic speech recognition in the framework of hybrid HMM/ANN systems

In this paper, we propose to use the missing data theory to allow the reconstruction of missing spectro-temporal parameters in the framework of hybrid HMM/ANN systems. A simple signal-to-noise ratio estimator is used to automatically detect the components that are unavailable or corrupted by noise (missing components). A limited number of multidimensional gaussian distributions are then used to reconstruct those missing components solely on the basis of the present data. The reconstructed vectors are then used as input to an artiﬁcial neural network estimating the HMM state probabilities. Continuous speech recognition experiments have been done on ﬁltered speech. In this case, ﬁltered components carry few or no information at all, and hence, should probably be ignored. The results presented in this paper illustrate this point of view. Complementary experiments also suggest the interest of the proposed approach in the case of noisy speech.
In-Office, Multisinus Balloon Dilation: 1-Year Outcomes from a Prospective, Multicenter, Open Label Trial

Background The objective of this prospective, multicenter study was to assess 1-year changes in sinonasal symptoms and health care use after office-based multisinus balloon dilation. Methods Adults diagnosed with chronic or recurrent acute rhinosinusitis per the 2007 adult sinusitis guidelines were en d in this Institutional Review Board-approved study. Balloon dilation of the maxillary sinuses/ethmoid infundibula with or without frontal or sphenoid ostial dilation was performed in the physician's office under local anesthesia. Intraoperative procedure technical success and subject procedure tolerance were recorded. Efficacy was assessed using the patient-reported 20-item Sino-Nasal Outcome Test (SNOT-20) and Rhinosinusitis Symptom Inventory (RSI). Complications and revision surgeries were also recorded. Results A total of 313 ostial dilations were attempted and 307 were successfully completed (98.1%) in 81 subjects. Mean procedure tolerance was 2.8 ± 2.2 (0 = no pain; 10 = severe pain). Clinically meaningful and statistically significant (p < 0.0001) mean SNOT-20 symptom improvement was observed at 1 and 6 months and sustained through 1 year. The RSI treatment effect for all major rhinosinusitis symptoms was “large” and improvement in each was significant (p < 0.0001). Compared with the previous 1-year period, patients reported an average of 2.3 fewer acute sinus infections (p < 0.0001), 2.4 fewer antibiotic courses taken (p < 0.0001), and 3.0 fewer sinus-related physician visits (p < 0.0 1) after balloon dilation. No serious device or procedure-related adverse events occurred. One subject (1.3%) underwent revision surgery. Conclusion In-office, multisinus balloon dilation is safe, effective, and well tolerated. Patients reported significant reductions in both sinonasal symptoms and health care use after balloon dilation. Efficacy observed at 1 and 6 month follow-up was sustained through 1 year with a very low rate of revision surgery. This study was a part of the clinical trial NCT01612780 registered at www.clinicaltrials. gov
Changes in Morphology, Gene Expression and Protein Content in Chondrocytes Cultured on a Random Positioning Machine

Tissue engineering of chondrocytes on a Random Positioning Machine (RPM) is a new strategy for cartilage regeneration. Using a three-dimensional RPM, a device designed to simulate microgravity on Earth, we investigated the early effects of RPM exposure on human chondrocytes of six different donors after 30 min, 2 h, 4 h, 16 h, and 24 h and compared the results with the corresponding static controls cultured under normal gravity conditions. As little as 30 min of RPM exposure resulted in increased expression of several genes responsible for cell motility, structure and integrity (beta-actin); control of cell growth, cell proliferation, cell differentiation and apoptosis (TGF-β1, osteopontin); and cytoskeletal components such as microtubules (beta-tubulin) and intermediate filaments (vimentin). After 4 hours of RPM exposure disruptions in the vimentin network were detected. These changes were less dramatic after 16 hours on the RPM, when human chondrocytes appeared to reorganize their cytoskeleton. However, the gene expression and protein content of TGF-β1 was enhanced during RPM culture for 24 h. Taking these results together, we suggest that chondrocytes exposed to the RPM seem to change their extracellular matrix production behaviour while they rearrange their cytoskeletal proteins prior to forming three-dimensional aggregates.
Effects of hypertext on knowledge construction

This paper investigates one particular contribution of hypertext to knowledge construction: the transition from declarative knowledge to structural knowledge. The proposed model hypothesizes that the navigational structure of hypertext provides a framework to the learner for integrating new information with previously acquired knowledge and should hence facilitate the acquisition of structural knowledge. The results of an empirical study designed to compare the effect of hypertext on the construction of structural knowledge, as measured by concept maps, to that of linear text (both hard and soft) support the predictions of the model. The implications of these results on the design of the hypertext navigational structure are discussed.
Determining Progress Towards e-Government: What are the Core Indicators?

There are several well-established surveys on e-government. These surveys employ different assessment models for e-readiness, digital divide and other relevant factors, leading to varying conclusions on the global state of e-government. This paper presents a comparative study of 11 international surveys on egovernment between 2001 and 2004. It identifies a common set of ‘core indicators’ for assessing e-readiness and suggests ways to determine the weights for them. The paper also introduces the concept of a ‘target eready state’ and examines how it may provide a scale for determining the progress of individual countries.
D-PATR: A Development Environment for Unification-Based Grammars

I)-PATR is a development environment for unification-based grammars on Xerox l i00 series work stations. It is based on the PATR formalism developed at SRI International. This formalism is suitable for encoding a wide variety of grammars. At one end of this range are simple phrase-structure grammars with no feature augmentations. The PATR formalism can also be used to encode grammars that are based on a number of current linguistic theories, such as lexical-functional grammar (Bresnan and Kaplan), head-driven phrase structure grammar (Pollard and Sag), and functional unification grammar (Kay). At the other end of the range covered by D-PATR are unification-based categorial grammars (Klein, Steedman, Uszkoreit, Wittenburg) in which all the syntactic information is incorporated in the lexicon and the remaining few combinatorial rules that build phrases are function application and composition. Definite-clause grammars (Pereira and Warren) can also be encoded in the PATR formalism.
Hidden Markov Model for Inferring Learner Task Using Mouse Movement

One of the issues of e-learning web based application is to understand how the learner interacts with an e-learning application to perform a given task. This study proposes a methodology to analyze learner mouse movement in order to infer the task performed. To do this, a Hidden Markov Model is used for modeling the interaction of the learner with an e-learning application. The obtained results show the ability of our model to analyze the interaction in order to recognize the task performed by the learner.
Antioxidative Activities of Palm Sugar-Like Flavouring

Maillard reaction products have been considered to have antioxidant capacities due to the reductones com- pound formations which contribute to antioxidant activity. Besides caramelisation, Maillard reaction takes place during the production of palm sugar. This paper reports the antioxidative activity of palm sugar-like flavourings and the commer- cial palm sugar (CPS) which was obtained from Pahang by using different types of methods. Formulation of palm sugar- like flavourings which had been optimised was obtained from the previous studies. Palm sugar-like flavourings (PSLFs) were prepared from sucrose and selected amino acids (Asparagine, Glutamine, Arginine and Lysine) at various ratios with buffer solutions (pH 7.86), heated at 143°C for 116 minutes. The results revealed that the PSLF (C) showed a significant difference (p<0.05) in reducing power, thiobarbituric acid (TBA) test, and radical scavenging activity (DPPH) compared to other formulations of PSLF and commercial palm sugar.
EFFECTS OF STRESS INDUCED CHRONIC DEPRESSION AND ANTIDEPRESSANT DRUGS ON CA 4 REGION OF HIPPOCAMPUS IN ADULT ALBINO RATS

1.By the middle of the last century the hippocampal formation started to be one of the most studied structures of the nervous system. The present study was conducted using 45 albino rats of either sex (150-200 gm) and divided into 3 equal groups. First group was control and received water and food ad-libitum, second group was experimental receiving chronic depression for 7 weeks by immobilization method, the third group received Flouxetine drug (1mg/kg body weight orally) for 4 weeks following chronic depression. The animals were sacrificed after the experiment, perfused with 10% formaldehyde, brains were dissected and tissue blocks were processed for paraffin embedding. Observations were made on 5 micron thick H and E stained sections. Estimation of neuronal density of CA4 regions was performed using Motic images plus 2.0 software. Neuronal density was markedly reduced (85.4 cells/cubic mm) in experimental group, as compared to control (110.5 cells/cubic mm). Neuronal density was enhanced to 144.3 cells /cubic mm in Treatment Group. Statistical analysis was done using students t-test and the significance was assessed. It was found that stress induced depression causes significant neuronal loss in CA4 region that can be significantly reversed by the pharmacological intervention.
Resource-Constrained Low Power Bus Encoding in Embedded System Design

Minimizing power consumption of a bus is one of the most important design objectives in embedded system-on-chip (SoC) design and ultra deep-submicron (UDSM) technology. In this thesis, we address the problem of design space exploration of low-energy software bus encoding in embedded SoC design. Traditionally, finding a bus encoding that leads to a minimum energy consumption of a bus has been an important research issue, but relatively little attention has been paid to the cost of software encoding implementation. In embedded system design, the memory space for storing the encoding information is strictly limited. Consequently, exploring bus encoding implementation alternatives under such constraint becomes very necessary and/or useful. Also, with the move to silicon processes of 0.18 micron and below, crosstalk delay is becoming the first-order problem in dynamic power consumption as well as in signal integrity. Caused by capacitive coupling between adjacent wires, crosstalk can change the delay of a signal or result in an incorrect logic transition, leading to a chip malfunction or a failure. In this thesis, we propose a systematic design space exploration algorithm for low-power bus encoding which completely eliminates the crosstalk delay. From experiments on a set of benchmark designs, the proposed algorithm was shown to consume 48% less power consumption on average over existing techniques with relatively little memory overhead.
Delivering Superior Customer Service through Dual-level Transformational Leadership: a Multi-level, Multi-source Test of the Moderating Role of LMX Differentiation

Conceptualizing superior customer service as behaviors exhibited by people who have direct interactions with customers in the workplace, we proposed a multilevel theoretical model that identified transformational leadership as the primary source, and the quality of leader-member exchange (LMX) as the underlying mechanism through which leadership exerts its positive influence on employee service performance, at both the individual and group levels. We also identified LMX differentiation within the group as a moderator between LMX quality and service performance. Data from 228 leader-member dyads of 23 branches in a large commercial bank revealed that both group-level transformational leadership and group LMX were meaningful group-level constructs that had significant positive effects on group service performance. More intriguingly, LMX differentiation played the role of a cross-level moderator that mitigated such relationship at the group level. The theoretical and practical implications of our findings are discussed in the service organizational context.