Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A Novel Partial Agonist of Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor γ with Excellent Effect on Insulin Resistance and Type 2 Diabetes

Partial agonists of peroxisome proliferator–activated receptor γ (PPARγ) reportedly reverse insulin resistance in patients with type 2 diabetes mellitus. In this work, a novel non–thiazolidinedione-partial PPARγ ligand, MDCCCL1636 [N-(4-hydroxyphenethyl)-3-mercapto-2-methylpropanamide], was investigated. The compound displayed partial agonist activity in biochemical and cell-based transactivation assays and reversed insulin resistance. MDCCCL1636 showed a potential antidiabetic effect on an insulin-resistance model of human hepatocarcinoma cells (HepG2). High-fat diet–fed streptozotocin-induced diabetic rats treated with MDCCCL1636 for 56 days displayed reduced fasting serum glucose and reversed dyslipidemia and pancreatic damage without significant weight gain. Furthermore, MDCCCL1636 had lower toxicity in vivo and in vitro than pioglitazone. MDCCCL1636 also potentiated glucose consumption and inhibited the impairment in insulin signaling targets, such as AKT, glycogen synthase kinase 3β, and glycogen synthase, in HepG2 human hepatoma cells. Overall, our results suggest that MDCCCL1636 is a promising candidate for the prevention and treatment of type 2 diabetes mellitus.
Factors associated with effective inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to homologous language structures for persons with post-stroke aphasia

The purpose of this report is to identify parameters associated with language improvement from inhibitory repetitive transcranial magnetic stimulation (rTMS) to homologous language structures in stroke survivors with aphasia. The communication outcomes documented in nine randomized controlled studies (RCTs) of diverse post-stroke aphasia patients receiving 1-Hz rTMS to one or more right homologous language structures, with or without adjunctive speech-language therapy, are reviewed within this report. Associations are drawn between treatment outcomes of reviewed inhibitory rTMS studies to region(s) of the right hemisphere and a) aphasia severity, b) aphasia type, c) aphasia duration, d) lesion site, and e) rTMS stimulation site. Findings of various RCTs suggest variations of 1-Hz rTMS to homologous language structures can give rise language improvements in a heterogenous population of aphasia patients. However, shortcomings in the design of the reviewed studies confounds understanding of conditions associated with
Prevalence of and Factors Associated with Lens Opacities in a Korean Adult Population with and without Diabetes: The 2008–2009 Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey

Objective We examined the prevalence of and factors associated with lens opacities in a Korean adult population with and without diabetes. Research Design and Methods Among the 11,163 adults (≥19 years old) from the fourth Korea National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey in 2008–2009, the data from laboratory tests, nutritional surveys, and slit-lamp examinations of 10,248 persons (4,397 men, 5,851 women) were examined. Cataract was defined as the presence of any nuclear, cortical, subcapsular, or mixed cataract in at least one eye, using the Lens Opacities Classification System III. Results The weighted prevalence of cataracts were 23.5% [95% confidence interval (CI), 21.7–25.4] in a Korean adult population (19–39 years old, 1.8% [1.3–2.5], 40–64 years old, 25.2% [22.5–28.1],≥65 years old, 87.8% [85.4–89.9])and 54.7% [50.1–59.2] in a diabetic population(19–39 years old, 11.6% [4.5–26.5], 40–64 years old, 41.1% [35.4–47.0], ≥65 years old, 88.3% [83.5–91.8]). In a logistic regression analysis, age, myopia, and the presence of diabetes were independent risk factors. For young (age 19–39 years) and middle aged (age 40–65 years) adults with diabetes, the OR of having a lens opacity is 5.04 [1.41–17.98] and 1.47 [1.11–1.94], respectively, as those without diabetes, whereas for adults aged 65 and older, there was no difference in the prevalence of cataract. Conclusions According to these national survey data, ∼ 24% of Korean adults and ∼ 55% of people with diabetes have cataracts. The presence of diabetes was independently associated with cataracts in young and middle aged adults.
Shared Tasks of the 2015 Workshop on Noisy User-generated Text: Twitter Lexical Normalization and Named Entity Recognition

This paper presents the results of the two shared tasks associated with W-NUT 2015: (1) a text normalization task with 10 participants; and (2) a named entity tagging task with 8 participants. We outline the task, annotation process and dataset statistics, and provide a high-level overview of the participating systems for each shared task.
Predicting Effectiveness of IR-Based Bug Localization Techniques

Recently, many information retrieval (IR) based bug localization approaches have been proposed in the literature. These approaches use information retrieval techniques to process a textual bug report and a collection of source code files to find buggy files. They output a ranked list of files sorted by their likelihood to contain the bug. Recent approaches can achieve reasonable accuracy, however, even a state-of-the-art bug localization tool outputs many ranked lists where buggy files appear very low in the lists. This potentially causes developers to distrust bug localization tools. Parnin and Orso recently conduct a user study and highlight that developers do not find an automated debugging tool useful if they do not find the root cause of a bug early in a ranked list. To address this problem, we build an oracle that can automatically predict whether a ranked list produced by an IR-based bug localization tool is likely to be effective or not. We consider a ranked list to be effective if a buggy file appears in the top-N position of the list. If a ranked list is unlikely to be effective, developers do not need to waste time in checking the recommended files one by one. In such cases, it is better for developers to use traditional debugging methods or request for further information to localize bugs. To build this oracle, our approach extracts features that can be divided into four categories: score features, textual features, topic model features, and metadata features. We build a separate prediction model for each category, and combine them to create a composite prediction model which is used as the oracle. We name our proposed approach APRILE, which stands for Automated Prediction of IR-based Bug Localization's Effectiveness. We have evaluated APRILE to predict the effectiveness of three state-of-the-art IR based bug localization tools on more than three thousands bug reports from AspectJ, Eclipse, and SWT. APRILE can achieve an average precision, recall, and F-measure of at least 70.36%, 66.94%, and 68.03%, respectively. Furthermore, APRILE outperforms a baseline approach by 84.48%, 17.74%, and 31.56% for the AspectJ, Eclipse, and SWT bug reports, respectively.
Pre-service teachers’ attitude towards inclusive education for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder in Malaysia

ABSTRACT In this study, the pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards the educational inclusion for students with Autism Spectrum Disorder (ASD) were investigated to identify their attitudinal patterns and predictors. An attitudinal survey was conducted with 264 pre-service teachers in a teacher training programme in Malaysia. The study involved 151 special education pre-service teachers and 181 pre-service teachers in Special Education, Sciences, and in English teacher training programmes, in order to identify the effects of teaching specialisations and societal attitude on their inclusive education attitudinal measures. The findings revealed that the special education pre-service teachers were less in favour of the total inclusion of students with ASD in the mainstream, when compared with the non-special education pre-service teachers. The findings also revealed the combined effects of societal attitude and a categorical teacher training model in shaping the pre-service teachers’ attitudes towards inclusive education for the students with ASD in Malaysia. Such combined effects offered a perspective to explain the delay in the implementation of inclusive education, and also the prospect of its future development in the Southeast Asian region.
SETTLEMENT SCALING IN MIDDLE-RANGE SOCIETIES

The contemporary relevance of archaeology would be greatly enhanced if archaeologists could develop theory that frames human societies of all scales in the same terms. We present evidence that an approach known as settlement scaling theory can contribute to such a framework. The theory proposes that a variety of aggregate socioeconomic properties of human networks emerge from individuals arranging themselves in space so as to balance the costs of movement with the benefits of social interactions. This balancing leads to settlements that concentrate human interactions and their products in space and time in an open-ended way. The parameters and processes embedded in settlement scaling models are very basic, and this suggests that scaling phenomena should be observable in the archaeological record of middle-range societies just as readily as they have been observed in contemporary first-world nations. In this paper, we show that quantitative scaling relationships observed for modern urban systems, and more recently for early civilizations, are also apparent in settlement data from the Central Mesa Verde and northern Middle Missouri regions of North America. These findings suggest that settlement scaling theory may help increase the practical relevance of archaeology for present-day concerns. La relevancia contemporánea de la arqueología sería mucho mayor si los arqueólogos pudieran desarrollar una teoría que enmarcara las sociedades humanas de todas las escalas en los mismos términos. Presentamos evidencia de que un enfoque conocido como teoría de escalamiento de asentamientos puede contribuir a este marco. La teoría propone que una variedad de propiedades socioeconómicas agregadas de las redes humanas surgen de la organización de individuos en el espacio con el fin de equilibrar los costos del movimiento con los beneficios de las interacciones sociales. Esta búsqueda de un equilibrio lleva a desarrollar asentamientos que concentran las interacciones humanas y sus productos en el espacio y el tiempo de una manera abierta. Los parámetros y procesos incluidos en los modelos de escalamiento de asentamientos son muy básicos y esto sugiere que los fenómenos de escalamiento deben ser tan fácilmente observables en el registro arqueológico de las sociedades de rango medio como se han observado en las naciones contemporáneas del primer mundo. En este artículo se muestra que las relaciones cuantitativas de escalamiento que han sido observadas para los sistemas urbanos modernos y, más recientemente, para las civilizaciones tempranas, también son evidentes en los datos de asentamientos de las regiones de la Mesa Verde Central y el Missouri Medio, ambas en Norteamérica. Estos hallazgos sugieren que la teoría de escalamiento de asentamientos puede ayudar a aumentar la relevancia práctica de la arqueología para cuestiones actuales.
DNA looping increases the range of bistability in a stochastic model of the lac genetic switch

Conditions and parameters affecting the range of bistability of the lac genetic switch in Escherichia coli are examined for a model which includes DNA looping interactions with the lac repressor and a lactose analogue. This stochastic gene–mRNA–protein model of the lac switch describes DNA looping using a third transcriptional state. We exploit the fast bursting dynamics of mRNA by combining a novel geometric burst extension with the finite state projection method. This limits the number of protein/mRNA states, allowing for an accelerated search of the model's parameter space. We evaluate how the addition of the third state changes the bistability properties of the model and find a critical region of parameter space where the phenotypic switching occurs in a range seen in single molecule fluorescence studies. Stochastic simulations show induction in the looping model is preceded by a rare complete dissociation of the loop followed by an immediate burst of mRNA rather than a slower build up of mRNA as in the two-state model. The overall effect of the looped state is to allow for faster switching times while at the same time further differentiating the uninduced and induced phenotypes. Furthermore, the kinetic parameters are consistent with free energies derived from thermodynamic studies suggesting that this minimal model of DNA looping could have a broader range of application.
Oral contraceptive use and bone mineral density in premenopausal women: cross-sectional, population-based data from the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study.

BACKGROUND Positive and negative effects on bone mineral density (BMD) have been described as a result of the premenopausal use of oral contraceptives (OCs); increased fracture rates have also been reported. This study assessed the relation between OC use and BMD in a population-based, 9-centre, national sample of women aged 25-45 years. METHODS Premenopausal women who had been enrolled in the Canadian Multicentre Osteoporosis Study were classified as having ever been OC users (> or = 3 months) or as having never been OC users (0 to < 3 months). Data were obtained through extensive questionnaires and measuring of participants' weight, height and the BMD of lumbar vertebrae and the proximal femur. RESULTS Of the sample of 524 women, whose mean age was 36.3 (standard deviation [SD] 5.9) years, 454 had used OCs; their mean age when they started using OCs was 19.8 (SD 3.5) years and the mean duration of use was 6.8 (SD 4.8) years. Women who had ever and those who had never used OCs showed no differences in age, age at menarche, parity, current calcium intake, exercise, body mass index (BMI), education, past irregular cycles or amenorrhea. OC users reported more alcohol and cigarette use and more use of medications to create regular cycles. Mean BMD values (adjusted for age, BMI and height) were 0.02-0.04 g/cm2 (that is, 2.3%-3.7%) lower in OC users, and were significantly lower in the spine and trochanter. The BMD of the spine in OC users was 1.03 (SD 0.12) g/cm2 versus 1.07 (SD 0.12) g/cm2 (95% confidence interval [CI] of difference -0.07 to -0.001) in those who had never used OCs. BMD was neither related to the duration of OC use nor to gynecological age at first use. Current and past users had similar BMD values. INTERPRETATION National, population-based data show lower BMD values for the trochanter and spine in premenopausal women who have used OCs compared with those who have never used OCs.
What the Masses Want: A Case Study in Knowledge Discovery from Politically Oriented Data

This paper describes an approach taken to analyze and categorize a sizable dataset of politically oriented posts that were submitted to a popular idea bank, Egypt 2.0, created following the Egyptian revolution. The aim of the analysis was to organize and present the data in a simple way that allows the voice of the people to be heard by decision makers and activists in a critical 6 week period in February and March 2011. The constraints faced when developing the approach included the absence of a classification scheme, the unavailability of training data, the need to assign more than one category, or label, to individual posts and the need to complete the task in a short period of time. The goal of this paper is twofold. Firstly, to present and evaluate the rapid development framework and algorithms used to organize the data. Secondly, to document the challenges encountered when both developing the system itself and analyzing the data, and to present our experience to the research community with the aim of identifying potentially new interesting research topics. General Terms Knowledge discovery, Taxonomy building, Classification
INVESTIGATING THE EFFECT OF SERVICE QUALITYAND PERCEIVED VALUE ON SATISFACTIONAND WORD OF MOUTH IN INDONESIA

This research investigates the effect of service quality and perceived value on satisfaction and word of mouth. The primary objective of this research is to empirically test the impact of service quality and perceived value on satisfaction and word of mouth. This research is different from previous studies by integrating the variable of perceived value with satisfaction and word of mouth. There are four variables in this study, namely the service quality, perceived value, satisfaction and word of mouth. This research is a type of survey research by using a quantitative approach. The population number was 215 and the sample number was determined according to Isaac and Michael’s table which is at least 135. The questionnaires were distributed to the postgraduate students of State Islamic Studies College Kudus, using stratified random sampling method. For research model testing technique, it used the path analysis approach. The research's findings include five items. First, service quality positively and significantly has effect on satisfaction. Second, perceived value positively and significantly has effect on satisfaction. Third, service quality positively and significantly has effect on word of mouth. Fourth, perceived value is not related to the word of mouth. However, in this research, it is found that perceived value is indirectly able to influence the word of mouth through satisfaction. Fifth, satisfaction positively and significantly has effect on word of mouth. Finally, the research findings suggested that service quality is the important variable that has effect the satisfaction and word of mouth.
Direct Foreign Investments and Productivity Growth in Hungarian Firms, 1992-1999

The impact of FDI on total factor productivity in Hungary during the 1990s' is assessed with a large enterprise panel. Foreign equity is associated with higher productivity levels and has a substantial, positive spillover effect on aggregate TFP growth. However, this benefit is significant only when associated with export orientation, while inward-looking FDI has negative side effects. Regionally, the north-western area, close to EU borders, benefits much more from FDI, whether foreign-owned or locally-owned private firms are considered. Otherwise, only the later absorb a reduced volume of externalities. Finally, State ownership implies lower levels of productivity, but does not hinder the capacity to respond to market incentives, including FDI induced externalities.
Evaluation of isometric force production in L-sit cross in still rings among elite male artistic gymnasts

The aim of the study was to obtain information about the proximity to perform the L-Sit Cross (LSC) element of strength hold in still rings. The production of isometric strength in the LSC in still rings in a group of twenty elite gymnasts was evaluated using a force platform (FP). The participants, who were seated on a FP, exerted a force on the rings to reach the LSC. The vertical force component extracted from the F / t curve (20 Hz) was analyzed, which reflected the weight released when a force was applied in a period of maintenance of the maximum isometric force. The normalized maximum and mean isometric forces were extracted. Results showed large differences (p<0.001, Cohen’s d = 1.6) between performer (P) and non-performer (NP) gymnasts of this element. P gymnasts produced a greater isometric strength level owing to their greater experience in training this element. This information can be useful to coaches in order to determine how close a gymnast is to performing the LSC.
Automatic Preconditioning by Limited Memory Quasi-Newton Updating

This paper proposes a preconditioner for the conjugate gradient method (CG) that is designed for solving systems of equations Ax=bi with different right-hand-side vectors or for solving a sequence of slowly varying systems Ak x = bk. The preconditioner has the form of a limited memory quasi-Newton matrix and is generated using information from the CG iteration. The automatic preconditioner does not require explicit knowledge of the coefficient matrix A and is therefore suitable for problems where only products of A times a vector can be computed. Numerical experiments indicate that the preconditioner has most to offer when these matrix-vector products are expensive to compute and when low accuracy in the solution is required. The effectiveness of the preconditioner is tested within a Hessian-free Newton method for optimization and by solving certain linear systems arising in finite element models.
A Theory of Wage and Turnover Dynamics

The paper proposes a theory of wage and turnover dynamics — built on firm-specific human capital, search-and-matching, and self-enforcing wage contracts — that provides a unified explanation for a broad range of empirical observations on wage and turnover dynamics. For example, the model resolves the apparent puzzle posed by the lack of evidence of wage growth heterogeneity among jobs despite the fact that the same data show past wage growth on the job reduces turnover. The key implications of the model are as follows. First, wages increase and turnover rates decrease over the duration of an employment relationship, but the positive tenure effect on wages is predicted to be quantitatively weaker than the negative tenure effect on turnover. Second, within-job wage growth is higher and turnover is lower in high productivity growth jobs than in low productivity growth jobs. Third, the covariance of successive within-job wage increases is negative for a given productivity growth rate, whereas the same covariance, without the conditioning on the growth rate, is indeterminate.
Estimation of Instantaneous Frequency Parameters of the Operator-Based Signal Separation Method

The main function of the operator-based signal separation approach is to construct an operator from a signal and use it to decompose the signal into two subcomponents. The procedure involves two steps: estimating the operator, and decomposing the signal into two subcomponents. Existing approaches estimate the operator's parameters from the local extrema of a signal. In contrast, we show that the parameters can be estimated by adopting a variational approach. Because the proposed approach imposes a global constraint on the operator's parameter, the estimated parameters are more robust than those derived from the local extrema of the signal. We also compare the signal separation results with those obtained by using the empirical mode decomposition (EMD) method.