Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Oxidative capacity and ageing in human muscle

1 This study determined the decline in oxidative capacity per volume of human vastus lateralis muscle between nine adult (mean age 38.8 years) and 40 elderly (mean age 68.8 years) human subjects (age range 25‐80 years). We based our oxidative capacity estimates on the kinetics of changes in creatine phosphate content ([PCr]) during recovery from exercise as measured by 31P magnetic resonance (MR) spectroscopy. A matched muscle biopsy sample permitted determination of mitochondrial volume density and the contribution of the loss of mitochondrial content to the decline in oxidative capacity with age. 2 The maximal oxidative phosphorylation rate or oxidative capacity was estimated from the PCr recovery rate constant (kPCr) and the [PCr] in accordance with a simple electrical circuit model of mitochondrial respiratory control. Oxidative capacity was 50 % lower in the elderly vs. the adult group (0.61 ± 0.04 vs. 1.16 ± 0.147 mM ATP s−1). 3 Mitochondrial volume density was significantly lower in elderly compared with adult muscle (2.9 ± 0.15 vs. 3.6 ± 0.11 %). In addition, the oxidative capacity per mitochondrial volume (0.22 ± 0.042 vs. 0.32 ± 0.015 mM ATP (s %)−1) was reduced in elderly vs. adult subjects. 4 This study showed that elderly subjects had nearly 50 % lower oxidative capacity per volume of muscle than adult subjects. The cellular basis of this drop was a reduction in mitochondrial content, as well as a lower oxidative capacity of the mitochondria with age.
α-Amylase Production and Applications: A Review

Amylases are important hydrolase enzymes which have been widely used since many decades. These enzymes randomly cleave internal glycosidic linkages in starch molecules to hydrolyze them and yield dextrins and oligosaccharides. Among amylases α-Amylase is in maximum demand due to its wide range of applications in the industrial front. With consumers growing increasingly aware of environmental issues, industries find enzymes as a good alternative over other chemical catalysts. α-Amylase can be produced by plant or microbial sources. Due to the advantages that microbial production offers, α-Amylase from microorganisms has been focused upon and preferred to other sources for production. The ubiquitous nature, ease of production and broad spectrum of applications make α-Amylase an industrially important enzyme. This report focuses on the microbial production of α-Amylase and its applications.
Complement Activated Leucopenia during Hemodialysis: Effect of Pulse Methyl-prednisolone

We tested in vivo the effect of methyl-prednisolone (MP) on C5a release and granulocytopenia occurring early in the course of extracorporeal blood circulation through a Cuprophan dialyzer. MP boluses (30 mg/kg) were given to 10 consenting patients suffering from acute renal failure, immediately before blood started to circulate through a hollow-fiber Cuprophan dialyzer. To avoid drug loss through the dialyzer membrane, dialysate flow was witheld during the first hour of treatment and ultrafiltration was kept near zero (sham dialysis). Control procedures were carried out in a similar way, without MP. MP concentration, differential WBC count and anaphylotoxin C5a were serially measured during the procedures. MP pharmacokinetics was evaluated in six other uremic patients off dialysis. As shown by similar C5a levels in dialyzer effluent blood, complement cascade was activated by Cuprophan to a comparable degree whether or not patients received MP. Neutrophil count dropped 68% during the control procedure and 54% during sham dialysis preceded by MP (95% confidence interval of the difference, 1.97–27.2). Sham dialysis did not apparently influence serum MP levels, as shown by similar peak values in patients undergoing sham dialysis (203 μg/ml ± SEM 33) and in patients off dialysis (177 μg/ml ± 42). In vitro aggregometry showed that the uremic milieu does not interfere with the antiaggregating effect of MP. Our results show that MP at the dosage of 30 mg/kg does not affect complement-mediated granulocytopenia in any important way.
Pengaruh Keterampilan Manajerial Kepala Sekolah dan Status Sosial Ekonomi Guru terhadap Kinerja Guru SMA Negeri I Merauke–Papua

Teacher’s performance is identified as one of the important factors in achieving the objectives of national education. Two factors that theoretically affect the teacher’s performance are principal managerial skills and teacher’s social-economic status. This study is aimed to describe the tendency of principal managerial skills, teacher’s social-economic status and teacher’s performance; and to verify partial and simultaneous relationships among the factors. Samples that consist of 56 teachers were drawn by applying a systematic proportional random sampling technique from the population that consists of 60 teachers at first State Senior High School in Merauke city. Based on descriptive analysis, results of this study show that all variables are categorized as high category. Meanwhile, based on regression analysis with respect to degree of truth 95 % and of fault 5 %, and based on the hypotheses as well, conclusions drown as the findings of this study are as follows: (1) there is a significant influence between principal managerial skills and teacher’s performance at first State Senior High School in Merauke city; (2) there is a significant influence between teacher’s social-economic status and teacher’s performance at first State Senior High School in Merauke city; and (3) there is a simultaneous significant influence between principal managerial skills and teacher’s social-economic status with teacher’s performance at first State Senior High School in Merauke city. Keywords: principal managerial skills, teacher’s social-economic status, teacher’s performance
Rationing or rationalizing children's medical care: comparison of a Medicaid HMO with fee-for-service care.

OBJECTIVES This paper examines how medical care obtained by children enrolled in a Medicaid health maintenance organization (HMO) differs from that obtained by similar children who receive care from fee-for-service Medicaid providers. METHODS In a randomized trial, some Medicaid households were assigned to remain in a traditional fee-for-service arrangement and others were randomly selected to join a Medicaid prepaid plan (an HMO). Participating households recorded data on children's health status and use of medical care. RESULTS The prepaid plan members and the fee-for-service recipients received equivalent numbers of checkup visits, but the children in the prepaid plan made significantly fewer acute care visits. This plan appeared to target its services to children with the greatest health care needs. However, the content of health visits in the two systems did not differ, nor did prepaid and fee-for-service enrollees use the emergency room differently. CONCLUSIONS It is possible to design a Medicaid HMO that achieves financial savings without reducing services to the most vulnerable patients. However, these findings alone do not provide a basis for widespread policy change in the direction of Medicaid HMOs. Further research is needed to establish whether the children treated in the HMO differed in health outcomes from those treated by fee-for-service care.
A high-speed FIR adaptive filter architecture using a modified delayed LMS algorithm

In this paper, we present a modified delayed least means square (DLMS) adaptive algorithm to achieve lower adaptation-delay. Besides, we have proposed an efficient pipelined architecture for the implementation of this adaptive filter. We have shown that the proposed DLMS adaptive filter can be implemented by a pipelined inner-product computation unit for calculation of feedback error, and a pipelined weight-update unit consisting of N parallel multiply accumulators, for filter order N. From the synthesis results we find that the existing direct-form structure of [8] involves nearly 50% more area-delay product (ADP) and nearly 74% more energy per sample (EPS) than the proposed one, in average, for filter orders N = 8, 16 and 32. The best of the existing systolic structures [7], similarly, involves nearly 43% more ADP and nearly 35% higher EPS than the proposed one for the same filter orders.
Classification in emotional BCI using phase information from the EEG

Synchronization and distributed functional networks have been used with success in different areas of engineering. In this paper we use the synchronization information from electroencephalogram (EEG) channels through the Phase Locking Value (PLV) as a potential classification method for a Brain Computer Interface (BCI); this achieved using emotional schematic faces as stimuli in a motor imagery (MI) task. Based on the variations of the PLV values for each proposed task and for each participant, the principal channel pairs are identified. Selected channel pairs, corresponding with the accomplished task, present PLV patterns similarly to Evoked Potentials (ERS/ERD) which are widely used as classification features for MI based BCI.
Emotion-processing deficits in eating disorders.

OBJECTIVE First, we measured both emotional awareness and alexithymia to understand better emotion-processing deficits in eating disorder patients (EDs). Second, we increased the reliability of the measures by limiting the influence of confounding factors (negative affects). METHOD Seventy females with eating disorders were compared with 70 female controls. Participants completed the Beck Depression Inventory (BDI; depression), the Hospital and Anxiety Depression Scale (HADS; anxiety), the Toronto Alexithymia Scale (TAS; alexithymia), and the Level of Emotional Awareness Scale (LEAS). RESULTS EDs exhibited higher alexithymia scores and lower LEAS scores, with an inability to identify and describe their own emotions, as well as an impairment in mentalizing others' emotional experience. Whereas alexithymia scores were related to depression scores, LEAS scores were not. After controlling for depression, alexithymia scores were similar in EDs and controls. DISCUSSION The marked impairment in emotion processing found in EDs is independent of affective disorders. Thus, the joint use of TAS and LEAS suggests a global emotion-processing deficit in EDs.
Design and simulation of a high power single mode 1550 nm InGaAsP VCSELs

In the present work, a new structure of vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) is designed and simulated. In this structure, InGaAsP is used as the active region which is sandwiched between GaAs/AlGaAs distributed bragg mirror at the top of structure and GaAs/AlAs distributed bragg mirror at the bottom. In this work, the hole etching depth was continued down to the top of lower spacer layer while in the previous work the hole etching depth was only down to top of the upper spacer. In this way, the threshold current decrement of 76.52% and increment the power by 28% from 5 mW to 6.4 mW at bias current of 9 mA was achieved. In this paper, device characteristics such as light power versus electrical current and voltage versus current are simulated and compared with the previous work.
Image-Based Airborne Sensors: A Combined Approach for Spectral Signatures Classification through Deterministic Simulated Annealing

The increasing technology of high-resolution image airborne sensors, including those on board Unmanned Aerial Vehicles, demands automatic solutions for processing, either on-line or off-line, the huge amountds of image data sensed during the flights. The classification of natural spectral signatures in images is one potential application. The actual tendency in classification is oriented towards the combination of simple classifiers. In this paper we propose a combined strategy based on the Deterministic Simulated Annealing (DSA) framework. The simple classifiers used are the well tested supervised parametric Bayesian estimator and the Fuzzy Clustering. The DSA is an optimization approach, which minimizes an energy function. The main contribution of DSA is its ability to avoid local minima during the optimization process thanks to the annealing scheme. It outperforms simple classifiers used for the combination and some combined strategies, including a scheme based on the fuzzy cognitive maps and an optimization approach based on the Hopfield neural network paradigm.
Teacher training for critical thinking instruction via a computer simulation

The purposes of this study are: (a) to test the effectiveness of teacher training for critical-thinking instruction among preservice teachers via a computer simulation; (b) to explore the relationships among preservice teachers' training-involvement level, their critical-thinking dispositions, and their change in three indices for effective critical-thinking instruction; and (c) to suggest a model for effective training of preservice teachers in critical-thinking instruction. Two types of hypotheses were proposed: those concerning training effectiveness and those concerning structural relationships among all the concerned variables. Seventy-five preservice teachers participated in this study, in which a computer simulation and three questionnaires were employed. The applied analyses included descriptive analyses, reliability analyses, factor analyses, Hotelling's T$\sp2$, MANCOVAs, ANCOVAs, repeated-measure MANOVAs, and Structural Equation Modeling. In terms of training effectiveness, the training significantly improved the preservice teachers' effectiveness in critical-thinking instruction, enhanced their perceived professional knowledge about teaching critical thinking, and increased their use of positive teaching behavior during critical-thinking instruction. More specifically, the training yielded an improvement in the preservice teachers' content knowledge about critical thinking and an increase in their use of teaching behavior related to improving both critical-thinking dispositions and skills in their students. As for structural relationships among the concerned variables, the major findings were as follows: (1) The preservice teachers' training-involvement level directly influenced their increase in perceived professional knowledge and in employment of positive teaching behavior, but indirectly influenced their enhancement of personal teaching efficacy related to critical thinking. (2) The relationship among perceived professional knowledge, personal teaching efficacy, and positive teaching behavior related to critical thinking was dynamic; personal teaching efficacy mediated professional knowledge and positive teaching behavior in critical-thinking instruction. (3) Training-involvement was a stronger predictor for the preservice teachers' improvement of critical-thinking instruction than were critical-thinking dispositions. The study concluded that a computer simulation can be an effective tool for preservice teachers' training in critical-thinking instruction. Moreover, it suggests that simulation-based training in critical-thinking instruction can produce more lasting effects if the training improves teachers' efficacy as well as imparts skills and knowledge.
Laboratory‐scale investigation of saltwater intrusion dynamics

Experiments were completed in a laboratory‐scale, porous media tank to study the transport patterns of a saltwater wedge in a freshwater aquifer. Three types of experiments were performed to develop: (1) steady state salt‐wedge data observed under different hydraulic gradient conditions; (2) transient salt‐wedge data observed under intruding‐wedge conditions; and (3) transient salt‐wedge data observed under receding‐wedge conditions. Furthermore, flux measurements were made to quantify the flow characteristics of three distinct steady state experiments. The saltwater intrusion model SEAWAT was used to simulate these data sets. The model results along with the experimental data are presented as benchmark problems for testing density‐coupled groundwater flow models. A worthiness analysis was completed to test the sensitivity of these experimental problems to density‐coupling effects. The results of our analysis show that the proposed benchmark is a more robust alternative to the traditional Henry problem. These new experimental data sets can be used to assess the performance of saltwater intrusion models under both steady state and transient conditions.
Detecting deception in speech

This dissertation describes work on the detection of deception in speech using the techniques of spoken language processing. The accurate detection of deception in human interactions has long been of interest across a broad array of contexts and has been studied in a number of fields, including psychology, communication, and law enforcement. The detection of deception is well-known to be a challenging problem: people are notoriously bad lie detectors, and no verified approach yet exists that can reliably and consistently catch liars. To date, the speech signal itself has been largely neglected by researchers as a source of cues to deception. Prior to the work presented here, no comprehensive attempt has been made by speech scientists to apply state-of-the-art speech processing techniques to the study of deception. This work uses a set of features new to the deception domain in classification experiments, statistical analyses, and speaker- and group-dependent modeling approaches, all designed to identify and employ potential cues to deception in speech. This dissertation shows that speech processing techniques are relevant to the deception domain by demonstrating significant statistical effects for deception on a number of features, both in corpus-wide and subject-dependent analyses. Results also show that deceptive speech can be automatically classified with some success: accuracy is better than chance and considerably better than human hearers performing an analogous task. The work also examines speaker and group differences with respect to deceptive speech, and we report a number of findings in this regard. We provide a context for our work via a perception study in which human hearers attempted to identify deception in our corpus. Through this perception study we identify a number of previously unreported effects that relate the personality of the hearer to deception detection ability. An additional product of this work is the CSC Corpus, a new corpus of deceptive speech.
MIMO radar angle-doppler imaging via iterative space-time adaptive processing

We consider using multi-input multi-output (MIMO) radar to improve the ground moving target indication (GMTI) performance, especially for slowly moving targets, for airborne surveillance systems. The increased virtual aperture afforded by MIMO radar systems enables many advantages, including enhanced spatial resolution, improved parameter identifiability and better performance for GMTI. To obviate the need of secondary data for space-time adaptive processing (STAP), we apply herein a user parameter-free and secondary data-free fully automatic weighted least squares based iterative adaptive approach (IAA) to angle-Doppler imaging via a standard MIMO scheme, two simplified MIMO schemes (which employ switching strategies for transmission), and also a conventional single-input multi-output (SIMO) scheme. The high-resolution angle-Doppler images formed by IAA, using the primary data only, are provided to compare the performance of the three MIMO schemes as well as the SIMO scheme.
Parallelizing Broad Phase Collision Detection Algorithms for Sampling Based Path Planners

Collision checking takes most of the time in sampling based path planning algorithms. When the scene gets crowded, more samples are needed and the probability decreases to find a collision free sample. Broad phase algorithms are designed to eliminate obviously collision free samples, so narrow phase algorithms can concentrate on fewer samples suspected to be in collision. In this study, we compare the performance of two broad phase algorithms implemented on both CPU and GPU. A novel technique is proposed to provide load balancing and efficient cache utilization on Bounding Sphere Collision Detection algorithm. Furthermore, Thrust library is extensively utilized on Sweep and Prune (SAP) algorithm. Our experimental results indicate speedups up to 103 times faster for GPU-based SAP algorithm and 134 times faster for GPU-based Bounding Sphere algorithm, compared to CPU implementations. This may allow using sampling based path planning algorithms for scenes with many robots.
Two centuries of the Scandinavian wolf population: patterns of genetic variability and migration during an era of dramatic decline

The grey wolf (Canis lupus) was numerous on the Scandinavian peninsula in the early 19th century. However, as a result of intense persecution, the population declined dramatically and was virtually extinct from the peninsula by the 1960s. We examined historical patterns of genetic variability throughout the period of decline, from 1829 to 1979. Contemporary Finnish wolves, considered to be representative of a large eastern wolf population, were used for comparison. Mitochondrial DNA (mtDNA) variability among historical Scandinavian wolves was significantly lower than in Finland while Y chromosome variability was comparable between the two populations. This may suggest that long‐distance migration from the east has been male‐biased. Importantly though, as the historical population was significantly differentiated from contemporary Finnish wolves, the overall immigration rate to the Scandinavian peninsula appears to have been low. Levels of variability at autosomal microsatellite loci were high by the early 1800s but declined considerably towards the mid‐20th century. At this time, approximately 40% of the allelic diversity and 30% of the heterozygosity had been lost. After 1940, however, there is evidence of several immigration events, coinciding with episodes of marked population increase in Russian Karelia and subsequent westwards migration.
A Critical Review of Research on Formative Assessment: The Limited Scientific Evidence of the Impact of Formative Assessment in Education

The existence of a plethora of empirical evidence documenting the improvement of educational outcomes through the use of formative assessment is conventional wisdom within education. In reality, a limited body of scientifically based empirical evidence exists to support that formative assessment directly contributes to positive educational outcomes. The use of formative assessments, or other diagnostic efforts within classrooms, provides information that should help facilitate improved pedagogical practices and instructional outcomes. However, a review of the formative assessment literature revealed that there is no agreed upon lexicon with regard to formative assessment and suspect methodological approaches in the efforts to demonstrate positive effects that could be attributed to formative assessments. Thus, the purpose of this article was two-fold. First, the authors set out to clarify the terminology related to formative assessment and its usage. Finally, the article provides a critical analysis of the seminal literature on formative assessment, beginning with Black and Wiliam (1998), and extending through current published materials.