Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The change of range of motion in junior high school baseball players

The purpose of this study was to investigate the change of range of motion in junior high school baseball players. We performed the baseball elbow medical check from 2009 to 2011. The subjects were 63 new junior high school baseball players belonging to school baseball team. Physical examinations and sonography of the elbow were performed by physical therapists and orthopaedic doctors at their school. Physical examinations were range of motion in external and internal rotation with the arm in 90 degrees of abduction, internal rotation of the hip joint, neck and trunk rotation. We asked the players if they had the pain in shoulder or elbow. In the third-year student, 52 players were checked as well. The ¿ndings of analysis include following: There were more players with pain in the third-year student than in the ¿rst-year student. There were statistically less in the third-year student than in the ¿rst-year in average external and internal rotation with the arm in 90 degrees of abduction, internal rotation of the hip joint. Average neck rotation was statistically greater in the third-year student, though trunk rotation was no statically difference. It says that soft tissue causes limitation of range of motion in internal rotation with the arm in 90 degrees of abduction and internal rotation of the hip joint. The results indicated that there were any connection between pain in shoulder and elbow and limitation of range of motion. This study suggests that medical check is useful for preventing injuries.
Student Acceptance of Blended Learning In Nigeria

This study explains the factors that influence the acceptance of blended learning and the level of acceptance of the features of blended learning by undergraduate students in Landmark University. Questionnaires were used as the data collection instrument and the acceptance of blended learning was tested using UTAUT model. Data was analyzed using SPSS . Frequencies; Principal Component Analysis and Regression Analysis were used in analysis. The study found that Performance expectance and Facilitating conditions significantly influenced the acceptance of blended learning. In understanding the acceptance of blended learning features, the student’s shows more interest in course-related readings and course materials available on the learning management system and less interest on discussion with lecturers and discussion with classmates. Performance expectancy was a major determinant on the acceptance of blended learning by students. It was also discovered that there is no relationship between the learning style of students and intention to adopt blended learning. This study has implications for university administrators on the importance of academic improvement and supporting features in the introduction of blended learning in educational institutions.
V39: An unusual object in the field of IC 1613

The variable star V39 in the eld of IC 1613 is discussed in the light of the available photometric and new spectroscopic data. It has strong emission Balmer lines, and the observed characteristics could be explained by a W Vir pulsating star with a period of 14.341 d, located at more than 115 kpc, that is in the very outer halo of our Galaxy. It should have an apparent companion, a long period (1118 d) red variable, belonging to IC 1613. The main uncertainty in this interpretation is an emission feature at 6684 A, which we tentatively identied as a He I line.
Sleep homeostasis and cortical synchronization: I. Modeling the effects of synaptic strength on sleep slow waves.

STUDY OBJECTIVES Sleep slow-wave activity (SWA, electroencephalogram [EEG] power between 0.5 and 4.0 Hz) is homeostatically regulated, increasing with wakefulness and declining with sleep. Sleep SWA is thought to reflect sleep need, but the mechanisms of its homeostatic regulation remain unknown. Based on a recent hypothesis, we sought to determine whether a decrease in cortical synaptic strength can account for changes in sleep SWA. DESIGN A large-scale computer model of the sleeping thalamocortical system was used to reproduce in detail the cortical slow oscillations underlying EEG slow waves. SETTING N/A. PATIENTS OR PARTICIPANTS N/A. INTERVENTIONS Simulated reductions in the strength of corticocortical synapses. MEASUREMENTS AND RESULTS Decreased synaptic strength led to (1) decreased single cell membrane potential oscillations and reduced network synchronization, (2) decreased rate of neural recruitment and decruitment, and (3) emergence of local clusters of synchronized activity. These changes were reflected in the local EEG as (1) decreased incidence of high-amplitude slow waves, (2) decreased wave slope, and (3) increased number of multipeak waves. Spectral analysis confirmed that these changes were associated with a decrease in SWA. CONCLUSIONS A decrease in cortical synaptic strength is sufficient to account for changes in sleep SWA and is accompanied by characteristic changes in slow-wave parameters. Experimental results from rat cortical depth recordings and human high-density EEG show similar changes in slow-wave parameters with decreasing SWA, suggesting that the underlying mechanism may indeed be a net decrease in synaptic strength.
Automatic time series forecasting

Automatic forecasts of large numbers of univariate time series are often needed in business. It is common to have over one thousand product lines that need forecasting at least monthly. In these circumstances, an automatic forecasting algorithm is an essential tool. Automatic forecasting algorithms must determine an appropriate time series model, estimate the parameters and compute the forecasts. The most popular automatic forecasting algorithms are based on either exponential smoothing or ARIMA models.
Context-aware image inpainting with application to virtual restoration of old paintings

In this paper, we explore how to use spatial context for image inpainting and we test it in two applications: photoediting and crack removal in digitized old paintings. Context is determined based on the texture and color features. We use these contextual features to guide the search for image patches that can fill in the missing/damaged regions in a visually plausible way. A priori knowledge about spatial consistencies (similarities) among neighbouring image patches is encoded via a Markov Random Field (MRF) model. With this prior, the process of image inpainting is formulated as an optimization problem. We define an efficient inference engine as a valuable alternative to the socalled belief propagation methods. As a case study, we focus on crack removal from the Adoration of the Mystic Lamb (brothers Van Eyck, 1432), demonstrating potentials for virtual restoration of old paintings.
SAW sensors using orthogonal frequency coding

This paper presents a spread spectrum approach using orthogonal frequency coding (OFC) for encoding SAW sensors. The encoding technique is similar to M-ary FSK in terms of its implementation, where a transducer or reflector is built with the desired code. It is shown that the time ambiguity in the autocorrelation due to the OFC is significantly reduced as compared to a single frequency tag having the same code length. The OFC approach is general and could be applicable to many differing SAW sensors for temperature, pressure, liquids, gases, etc. Device embodiments are shown and a discussion is provided for device design considerations such as the number of chips used, chip length, transducer fractional band-width, and chosen piezoelectric material. Measured device results are presented and compared with COM model predictions to demonstrate performance. Devices are then used in computer simulations of multiple transceiver designs and the results are discussed.
Supervised cross-collection topic modeling

Nowadays, vast amounts of multimedia data can be obtained across different collections (or domains). Therefore, it poses significant challenges for the utilization of those cross-collection data, for examples, the summarization of similarities and differences of data across different domains (e.g., CNN and NYT), as well as finding visually similar images across different visual domains (e.g., photos, paintings and hand-drawn sketches). In this paper, a supervised cross-collection Latent Dirichlet Allocation (scLDA) approach is proposed to utilize the data across different collections. As a natural extension of traditional Latent Dirichlet Allocation (LDA), scLDA not only takes the structural priors of different collections into consideration, but also exploits the category information. The strength of this work lies in integrating topic modeling, cross-domain learning and supervised learning together. We conduct scLDA for comparative text mining as well as classification of news articles and images from different collections. The results suggest that our proposed scLDA can generate meaningful collection-specific topics and achieves better retrieval accuracy than other related topic models.
Bayesian Model Averaging for Multiple Structural Change Models

I consider the problem of accounting for model uncertainty in linear models with multiple structural changes of unknown timing in intercept, slope, and residual variance parameters. A feasible approach to Bayesian Model Averaging (BMA) is developed, where the model space encompasses variable selection, the number of structural changes, and the type of each structural change. This model space is too large to allow for direct evaluation of each potential model in all but the simplest cases. Instead, posterior model probabilities are estimated by extending the MC 3 algorithm of Madigan and York (1995) to the multiple structural change model. Direct application of the MC 3 algorithm is complicated by time-consuming computations necessary for marginal likelihood calculations. I instead apply the MC 3 algorithm to an augmented model space that includes the timing of structural change, conditional on which the structural change model collapses to a linear regression model for which the marginal likelihood is computed relatively quickly. The timing of structural change is then integrated out to arrive at posterior model probabilities for the model space of interest. The approach is applied to investigate structural changes in the dynamics of U.S. post-war ination.
Time-aware Collaborative Filtering with the Piecewise Decay Function

In this paper, we determine the appropriate decay function for item-based collaborative filtering (CF). Instead of intuitive deduction, we introduce the Similarity-Signal-to-Noise-Ratio (SSNR) to quantify the impacts of rated items on current recommendations. By measuring the variation of SSNR over time, drift in user interest is well visualized and quantified. Based on the trend changes of SSNR, the piecewise decay function is thus devised and incorporated to build our time-aware CF algorithm. Experiments show that the proposed algorithm strongly outperforms the conventional item-based CF algorithm and other time-aware algorithms with various decay functions.
Interferon-α inhibits hepatitis C virus subgenomic RNA replication by an MxA-independent pathway

Hepatitis C virus (HCV) persists in the majority of infected individuals and is a major cause of chronic hepatitis, liver cirrhosis and hepatocellular carcinoma. Chronic hepatitis C is currently treated with interferon (IFN)-α or with a combination of IFN-α and ribavirin. The availability of an HCV replicon system (Lohmann et al., Science 285, 110–113, 1999) allowed the investigation of the effects of IFN on genuine HCV replication in cultured cells. It is shown here that IFN-α inhibits subgenomic HCV RNA replication in HuH-7 human hepatoma cells. Immunofluorescence, Western blot and Northern blot analysis revealed that levels of both HCV protein and replicon RNA were reduced after treatment with IFN-α in a dose-dependent manner. In further experiments, it was investigated whether MxA plays a role in the inhibition of HCV. The human MxA protein is an IFN-induced GTPase that has antiviral activity against various RNA viruses. However, HCV RNA replication was not affected in transfected HuH-7 cells that transiently overexpressed MxA. Moreover, a dominant-negative mutant of MxA did not interfere with the antiviral activity of IFN-α against HCV RNA replication. Taken together, these results demonstrate that IFN-α inhibits HCV replicons via an MxA-independent pathway.
Pengaruh Motivasi Kerja Dan Budaya Organisasi Terhadap Kinerja Karyawan Pada PT. Perkebunan Nusantara III Medan

Permasalahan dalam penelitian ini adalah menurunnya tingkat kinerja karyawan pada PT Perkebunan Nusantara III Medan, untuk meningkatkan kinerja karyawan banyak faktor yang mempengaruhinya. Oleh karena itu penelitian ini dilakukan untuk mengetahui seberapa besar pengaruh dari faktor motivasi dan budaya organisasi terhadap kinerja karyawan pada PT Perkebunan Nusantara III Medan, dengan populasi dan sampel sebanyak 89 orang. Teknik pengumpulan data dalam penelitian ini dilakukan dengan cara menyebarkan angket (Kuesioner) yang pengukurannya menggunakan skala likert dan diolah secara statistic dengan menggunakan Analisis Jalur. Sesuai dengan model diagram jalur, ditemukan persamaan structural yaitu: Y=PyX1+PyX2+€ diolah dengan program SPSS 17.00 for Windows. Dari hasil penelitian menunjukkan bahwa motivasi (X1) memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan (Y) yaitu dengan nilai koefisien 0,525. Begitu juga dengan budaya organisasi yang memiliki pengaruh positif dan signifikan terhadap kinerja karyawan dengan nilai koefisien 0,324. Persamaan struktural dari model jalur yang dapat dibuat dengan Y = 0,525 X1 + 0,354X2 + 0,708 1€. Pengaruh antara motivasi dan kinerja diperoleh angka t hitung (6,631) > t tabel (1,987). Maka dapat disimpulkan Ho ditolak dan H1 diterima. Pengaruh antara budaya organisasi dengan kinerja diperoleh angka t hitung (6,631) > t tabel (1,987). Maka dapat disimpulkan Ho ditolak dan H1 diterima. Dari perhitungan R Square juga diperoleh nilai R2= 0,498 yang berarti motivasi (X1), Budaya Organisasi (X2) memberikan pengaruh terhadap Y sebesar 49,8% sedangkan 50,2% dipengaruhi oleh faktor lain. Pengaruh antara motivasi dan budaya organisasi secara gabungan terhadap kinerja diperoleh angka signifikansi sebesar 0,000 < 0,05 dan F hitung (42,696) > F tabel (3,10) yang berarti ada hubungan yang linear antara motivasi, budaya organisasi dengan kinerja (H1 diterima). Hal ini menjadi pertimbangan agar faktor-faktor tersebut mampu meningkatkan kinerja karyawan di lingkungan PT Perkebunan Nusantara III Medan.
Protective Effect of Vitamin E on laying performance, antioxidant capacity, and immunity in laying hens challenged with Salmonella Enteritidis.

Vitamin E (VE) has proven to function as potent lipid-soluble antioxidant, a signaling molecule, and a regulator of the immune system. The objective of the study was to assess the protective effect of VE on laying performance, antioxidant capacity, and immunity in laying hens exposed to Salmonella Enteritidis (SE). A total of 80 32-week-old salmonella-free double negative Hy-Line brown laying hens were randomly assigned to 4 treatments with 20 replicates each (1 bird per replicate) according to a 2 × 2 factorial design with 2 VE supplementation levels [0 IU/kg (VE0) vs. 30 IU/kg (VE30)], and 2 challenge treatments [SE vs. physiological saline solution (PS)]. During the last 3 D of week 43 of age, birds were orally challenged with 1.0 mL suspension of 109 cfu/mL S. Enteritidis daily, whereas the birds of negative treatments (VE0) received the same volume of PS. The egg mass of VE0 treatment decreased (P < 0.05) in contrast to VE treatment after challenge. The serum concentrations of interleukins (IL-1β and IL-6) and malondialdehyde (MDA) levels of SE treatments increased (P < 0.05) at week 44 and week 46, respectively. In both VE30 treatments, the decrease (P < 0.05) in birds' mortality was associated with higher IgA, IgG, IgM concentrations at week 44, and higher IgA, IgM concentrations at week 46. There is an interaction (P < 0.05) between SE challenge and VE levels with regard to feed conversion, daily egg mass, and serum MDA, IgA, and IgM levels. It can be concluded that supplemental VE (30 IU/kg) in diets for laying hens may alleviate oxidative and immune stress due to SE challenge.
Reproducibility of Structural, Resting-State BOLD and DTI Data between Identical Scanners

Increasingly, clinical trials based on brain imaging are adopting multiple sites/centers to increase their subject pool and to expedite the studies, and more longitudinal studies are using multiple imaging methods to assess structural and functional changes. Careful investigation of the test-retest reliability and image quality of inter- or intra- scanner neuroimaging measurements are critical in the design, statistical analysis and interpretation of results. We propose a framework and specific metrics to quantify the reproducibility and image quality for neuroimaging studies (structural, BOLD and Diffusion Tensor Imaging) collected across identical scanners and following a major hardware repair (gradient coil replacement). We achieved consistent measures for the proposed metrics: structural (mean volume in specific regions and stretch factor), functional (temporal Signal-to-Noise ratio), diffusion (mean Fractional Anisotropy and Mean Diffusivity in multiple regions). The proposed frame work of imaging metrics should be used to perform daily quality assurance testing and incorporated into multi-center studies.
Intriguing bronchoalveolar lavage proteome in a case of pulmonary langerhans cell histiocytosis

Background: Pulmonary Langerhans cell histiocytosis (PLCH) is a rare interstitial lung disease associated with tobacco smoke exposure. New insights into its pathogenesis and how it differs from that of chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD) may be provided by proteomic studies on bronchoalveolar lavage fluid (BALF). Case Report: We present the BALF proteome in a biopsy-proven case of PLCH and compare it with typical proteomes of COPD and of the healthy lung. The BALF proteins were separated by two-dimensional gel electrophoresis (2-DE) and the protein patterns were analyzed with a computerized 2-DE imaging system. As compared to the healthy subject and the COPD case, the PLCH case showed a strikingly different 2-DE pattern. There was much more IgG (heavy chain) and orosomucoid, and less α1-antitrypsin, surfactant protein-A, haptoglobin, cystatin-S, Clara cell protein 10, transthyretin and gelsolin. Moreover, no apolipoprotein-A1, pro-apolipoprotein-A1, amyloid P, calgranulin A, or calgranulin B was detected at all. Conclusions: This case of PLCH presents with an extreme BALF proteome lacking significant amounts of protective and anti-inflammatory proteins. Thus, the intriguing BALF proteome opens up new lines of research into the pathophysiology of PLCH and how its pathogenesis differs from that in COPD.
What are the Factors Behind Pay Settlements? Evidence from Spanish and British Data

This article presents a study of the determinants of pay settlements in a sample of Spanish and British establishments. We find that variables such as establishment size and age, foreign ownership, labour costs, the existence of internal labour markets, a strategic approach to human resource management and pay setting institutions are related to the factors that shape pay adjustments. Moreover, our findings show that there are significant differences in the determinants of pay settlements between Spain and Great Britain. We suggest that the labour market institutions developed in each country influence pay setting decisions.
M-Channels (Kv7/KCNQ Channels) That Regulate Synaptic Integration, Excitability, and Spike Pattern of CA1 Pyramidal Cells Are Located in the Perisomatic Region

To understand how electrical signal processing in cortical pyramidal neurons is executed by ion channels, it is essential to know their subcellular distribution. M-channels (encoded by Kv7.2–Kv7.5/KCNQ2–KCNQ5 genes) have multiple important functions in neurons, including control of excitability, spike afterpotentials, adaptation, and theta resonance. Nevertheless, the subcellular distribution of these channels has remained elusive. To determine the M-channel distribution within CA1 pyramidal neurons, we combined whole-cell patch-clamp recording from the soma and apical dendrite with focal drug application, in rat hippocampal slices. Both a M-channel opener (retigabine [N-(2-amino-4-(4-fluorobenzylamino)-phenyl) carbamic acid ethyl ester]) and a blocker (XE991 [10,10-bis(4-pyridinylmethyl)-9(10H)-antracenone]) changed the somatic subthreshold voltage response but had no observable effect on local dendritic responses. Under conditions promoting dendritic Ca2+ spikes, local somatic but not dendritic application of M-channel blockers (linopirdine and XE991) enhanced the Ca2+ spikes. Simultaneous dendritic and somatic whole-cell recordings showed that the medium afterhyperpolarization after a burst of spikes underwent strong attenuation along the apical dendrite and was fully blocked by somatic XE991 application. Finally, by combining patch-clamp and extracellular recordings with computer simulations, we found that perisomatic M-channels reduce the summation of EPSPs. We conclude that functional M-channels appear to be concentrated in the perisomatic region of CA1 pyramidal neurons, with no detectable M-channel activity in the distal apical dendrites.
Identity Development in Immigrant Youth: A Multilevel Contextual Perspective

Rates of immigration are at an all-time high in many Western countries, and immigration can exert profound influences on identity development. These influences occur both at the individual level and at the group level, but these two sets of influences have rarely been considered simultaneously. Accordingly, this article adopts a multilevel approach to identity development among immigrant youth, with a focus on North American receiving contexts. We focus not only on individual ethnic, national, and personal identity development, but also on the societal-level intergroup processes (e.g., threats and stereotypes) that constrain the identity options available to immigrants. We highlight the prominence of biculturalism – endorsement of both heritage and destination-country identities – but also discuss ways in which biculturalism may be difficult to attain for some immigrants and immigrant groups. We also emphasize the interplay between individual immigrants’ identities and the mechanisms through which defensive policies enacted by “threatened” majority groups may harm identity development among immigrant youth. The article concludes with a listing of priorities for future work.
A microphone array configuration for an auditory quadrotor helicopter system

In order to achieve acoustic surveillance by using a multirotor helicopter, a microphone array specially tailored for the helicopter is considered in this paper. Several preliminary experiments were conducted to evaluate how the noise generated by rotors distorted the target sound signal from the view point of sound source localization, and the microphone array was developed based on results of the experiments. The microphone array was also installed on the helicopter, and it was tested to record the human voice during an autonomous waypoint flight in an outdoor environment. Investigating the measured auditory signal, it was shown that the proposed mechanism was capable to be utilized for the acoustic search in the outdoor environment.