Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Renin Inhibitor Aliskiren Improves Impaired Nitric Oxide Bioavailability and Protects Against Atherosclerotic Changes

We investigated whether aliskiren, a direct renin inhibitor, improves NO bioavailability and protects against spontaneous atherosclerotic changes. We also examined the effects of cotreatment with aliskiren and valsartan, an angiotensin II receptor blocker, on the above-mentioned outcomes. Watanabe heritable hyperlipidemic rabbits were treated with vehicle (control), aliskiren, valsartan, or aliskiren plus valsartan for 8 weeks. Then, acetylcholine-induced NO production was measured as a surrogate index of endothelium protective function, and both superoxide and vascular peroxynitrite were measured. Tetrahydrobiopterin in aortic segments was assessed by high-performance liquid chromatography with fluorescence detection. Plaque area was quantified by histology. Increase in plasma NO concentration in response to intra-aortic acetylcholine infusion was significantly greater in all of the test groups than in controls. Aliskiren+valsartan cotreatment increased acetylcholine-induced NO by 6.2 nmol/L, which was significantly higher than that with either aliskiren or valsartan alone. Vascular superoxide and peroxynitrite levels were both significantly higher in controls and significantly lower in the aliskiren+valsartan group than in the aliskiren or valsartan group. The highest tetrahydrobiopterin levels were observed after aliskiren+valsartan cotreatment. Histology of the thoracic aorta revealed that the plaque area was significantly decreased with combination therapy compared with monotherapy. Treatment with a direct renin inhibitor has protective effects on endothelial function and atherosclerotic changes. Furthermore, cotreatment with a direct renin inhibitor and an angiotensin II receptor blocker has additive protective effects on both.
Student Engagement, Academic Self-efficacy, and Academic Motivation as Predictors of Academic Performance

Abstract The research described in this paper aimed to evaluate the extent to which academic performance is affected by student engagement (students’ involvement in school activities and commitment to the school’s mission and rules), academic self-efficacy (the students’ sense of their own capabilities), and academic motivation (the students’ desire to increase their academic performance). The results of the study, which was conducted with the participation of 578 middle and high school students, suggest that cognitive engagement, one of the sub-dimensions of school engagement, predicts academic performance; however, emotional and behavioral engagement does not predict academic performance. A sense of academic self-efficacy and academic motivation, however, do predict academic performance. Moreover, the sense of self-capability and related motivations of students, as well as the sense of the purpose for their learning are significant variables affecting their academic success.
E-SERVICE: A NEW PARADIGM FOR BUSINESS IN THE ELECTRONIC ENVIRONMENT

T raditional e-commerce is giving way to a new paradigm known as "e-service. " This emerging paradigm represents a coherent point of view that challenges many of the traditional assump­ tions about how to use the online environment to raise profits [6]. It is based less on reducing costs throiigh automation and increased efficiency and more on expanding revenues through enhancing service and building profitable customer relationships. This suggests an outward-looking view of e-commerce (focusing on under­ standing the customer) to complement the inward-looking view (focusing on technology and systems).
Learning Community on Computer-Based Statistics Acceptance for Accounting Students

This study aims to examine the influence of the learning community on computer-based statistic acceptance. Acceptability is measured with perceived usefulness variables, perceived ease of use, perceived enjoyment, and reuse intention. This study used quasi-experimental design. To selecting the respondents, researchers used cluster random sampling and a questionnaire to collect the data. Respondents consisted of 207 accounting students of which 86 were engaged in the learning community while 121 were not. One-way ANOVA analysis result showed that students who participated in the learning community have better computer-based statistic acceptance than the students who did not. The learning community was found to be able to facilitate the transfer of knowledge among students more freely than in the classroom. Further research can consider true-experimental design or lab experiment with more rigorous manipulation for controlling bias from another variable that may consist.
Dielectric charging process in AlN RF-MEMS capacitive switches

The paper investigates the electrical properties of magnetron sputtered AlN in view of application in RF-MEMS capacitive switches. The assessment is performed with the aid of application of thermally stimulate polarization currents in MIM capacitors and temperature dependence of device capacitance. The study reveals the presence of a surface charge, which is smaller than the expected from material spontaneous polarization, but definitely is responsible for the low degradation rate under certain bias polarization life tests.
Efficient Selection of Trace and Scan Signals for Post-Silicon Debug

Post-silicon validation is a critical part of integrated circuit design methodology. The primary objective is to detect and eliminate the bugs that have escaped pre-silicon validation phase. One of the key challenges in post-silicon validation is the limited observability of internal signals in manufactured chips. A promising direction to improve observability is to combine trace and scan signals-a small set of trace signals are stored in every cycle, whereas a large set of scan signals are dumped across multiple cycles. Existing techniques are not very effective, since they explore a coarse-grained combination of trace and scan signals. In this paper, we propose a fine-grained architecture that addresses this issue using various scan chains with different dumping periods. We also propose efficient algorithms to select beneficial signals based on this architecture. Our experimental results demonstrate that our approach can improve restoration ratio up to 127% (36% on average) compared with existing trace-only techniques. Our approach also shows up to 125% improvement (61.7% on average) compared with techniques that allow a combination of trace and scan signals with minor (<;1%) area and power overhead.
The digital gift and aspirational mobility

This article discusses aspirational mobility and the digital gift in the context of forced migration in Hong Kong Special Administrative Region. It illustrates how gifting a mobile device and data enhances the aspirational mobility of forced migrants and intervenes into political codes, which promote social and technological isolation. Through the example of fieldwork with forced migrants and social media analysis, the article shows how participation, self-presentation, and social control were encouraged through the object and data gift. The migrants amplified their aspirational mobility by participating in urban life, presenting themselves in digital space, and maintaining romantic sociality with members of other marginalized migrant groups. The article elaborates on previous notions of technology as expanding social worlds for forced migrants while also highlighting the potential of technology for social control between migrant groups. The article also points to the potential dangers of social media use by asylum seekers for refugee status determination.
Do Domestic Investors Have an Edge? The Trading Experience of Foreign Investors in Korea

We investigate whether domestic investors have an edge over foreign investors in trading domestic stocks. Using Korean data, we show that foreign money managers pay more than domestic money managers when they buy and receive less when they sell for medium and large trades. The sample average daily trade-weighted disadvantage of foreign money managers is of 21 basis points for purchases and 16 basis points for sales. There is also some evidence that domestic individual investors have an edge over foreign investors. The explanation for these results is that prices move more against foreign investors than against domestic investors before trades.
Lingual Strengthening and Swallowing

Exercise to improve swallowing has included range of motion, strengthening, control, and volitional alteration of the pharyngeal phase Recently, attention has focused on the effects of lingual exercise on oral and pharyngeal phase swallow functioning. This article reviews the current literature on resistance exercise and swallow functioning. The tongue plays a major role in propulsion of the bolus of food or liquid through the oral cavity into the pharynx and through the pharynx (Ce-renko, McConnel, & Jackson, 1989). Once a bolus of food or liquid is sealed against the palate, the midline portion of the tongue elevates to contact the palate in a sequential anterior to posterior fashion to provide a driving force for bolus propulsion into the pharynx (Kahrilas, Lin, Logemann, Ergun, & Facchini, 1993). The lingual driving force creates pressure on the bolus (Pouderoux & Kahrilas, 1995). Increased muscular activity is required to propel fi rmer food boluses through the oral cavity in healthy individuals (Reimers-Neils, Logemann, & Larson, 1994). Tasks used to investigate non-speech performance of the tongue in normal and abnormal populations have included maximum isometric pressure or force generation (i.e., strength). In healthy individuals, tongue strength has been found to decline with age Reduced fi ne force stability for tongue strength tasks has been observed in patients with amyo-trophic lateral sclerosis (ALS), Parkinson's disease, ataxic dysarthria, spastic cerebral palsy, and closed Reduced tongue strength has also been observed in patients with oral and oropha-ryngeal cancer treated with radiotherapy (Lazarus et al, 2000, 2001). In addition, pilot data by this author (Lazarus, 2005) examining tongue strength in patients with head and neck cancer long after treatment has found impairment in tongue strength following chemo-radiotherapy to the head and neck for tumor sites other than oral or oropharyn-geal. Radiation treatment volume in these patients included the oropharynx because of neck disease. Therefore, it is not surprising to see decrements in lingual strength, as radiotherapy likely resulted in lingual tissue fi brosis. Oral phase swallowing impairment has been observed in a number of patient populations, often demonstrate impairment in tongue strength, as described previously, as well as in individuals treated with radiotherapy for oral and oropharyn-geal cancer (Lazarus et al., 2000). Meyers (1986) found that tongue weakness correlates with increased oral transit times during paste swallows in individuals with ALS. In addition, these same patients demonstrated adequate tongue-to-palate contact during the swallow, but demonstrated oral residue after the …
IMAGE CORRELOGRAM IN IMAGE DATABASE INDEXING AND RETRIEVAL

In this paper we present a new approach to image indexing and retrieval based on image correlogram. We show that in comparison with usually used approaches, i.e. image histogram and autocorrelogram, image correlogram gives significantly better results in image retrieval. These results are achievable without increasing computational cost in image indexing or retrieval. In the experimental part of this paper the retrieval performance of image correlogram is compared to that of image autocorrelogram and image histogram.
An Improved Method for Volume Rendering

Volume rendering is known as the generation of a 2D image directly from 3D volumetric data. Because all the voxels participate in the generation of image, rendering time grows dramatically with the resolution and scale of the dataset. This paper presents a new method to accelerate volume rendering. In order to reduce the rendering time, a technique called ray leaping with back-track is proposed, which is to enhance the acceleration ratio.
Motivaciones para ingresar a la formación docente. Revisión de estudios empíricos publicados en el siglo XXI.

The line of educational research on student´s motivation to enter the initial teacher education program recently has regained strength because of the information about the commitment towards the profession. The purpose of this article is to characterize the production in the XXI century of empirical studies on the topic. A search was made in specialized databases and 31 studies published between 2000-2017 were selected, which were classified by type of participant and the theoretical approach the object of study was analyzed from: psychological, sociological or hybrid. Based on the analysis carried out, it is considered that the hybrid approach (45% of the studies) is the one that provides greater opportunities to understand the multidimensional phenomenon that represents the decision to become a professor. The methodological approach used has predominately been quantitative (77% of the studies), through the use of standardized instruments such as the Fit-Choice Scale (Watt & Richardson,2008).
Towards Efficient Privacy-preserving Image Feature Extraction in Cloud Computing

As the image data produced by individuals and enterprises is rapidly increasing, Scalar Invariant Feature Transform (SIFT), as a local feature detection algorithm, has been heavily employed in various areas, including object recognition, robotic mapping, etc. In this context, there is a growing need to outsource such image computation with high complexity to cloud for its economic computing resources and on-demand ubiquitous access. However, how to protect the private image data while enabling image computation becomes a major concern. To address this fundamental challenge, we study the privacy requirements in outsourcing SIFT computation and propose SecSIFT, a high performance privacy-preserving SIFT feature detection system. In previous private image computation works, one common approach is to encrypt the private image in a public key based homomorphic scheme that enables the original processing algorithms designed for plaintext domain to be performed over ciphertext domain. In contrast to these works, our system is not restricted by the efficiency limitations of homomorphic encryption scheme. The proposed system distributes the computation procedures of SIFT to a set of independent, co-operative cloud servers, and keeps the outsourced computation procedures as simple as possible to avoid utilizing homomorphic encryption scheme. Thus, it enables implementation with practical computation and communication complexity. Extensive experimental results demonstrate that SecSIFT performs comparably to original SIFT on image benchmarks while capable of preserving the privacy in an efficient way.
Mars Orbiting Plasma Surveyor (MOPS)

Mars Orbiting Plasma Surveyor (MOPS) is a microsatellite mission focused on studies of the near -Mars environment and the planet - solar wind interaction. The recent findings by the ESA Mars Express mission further highlighted the complexity of the processes taking place at the planet resulting from the solar wind interaction that strongly affect the planet's atmosphere. However, despite many previous Martian missions carrying different types of space plasma experiments, a comprehensive investigation including simultaneous measurements of particles, fields, and waves has never been performed. We consider a spinning spacecraft of a wet mass of 76.1 kg with a 9.7 kg payload, which can “hitchhike” on another platform until Mars orbit insertion, and then be released into a suitable orbit. The spacecraft design is based on the experience gained in very successful Swedish space plasma missions, Viking, Freja, Astrid-1, and Astrid-2. In the present mission design, the MOPS spacecraft is equipped with its own 1m high gain antenna for direct communication with the Earth. The payload includes a wave experiment with wire booms, magnetometer with a rigid boom, Langmuir probes, electron and ion energy spectrometers and an ion mass analyzer. An energetic neutral atom imager and an UV photometer may complete the core payload. One of the proposed scenarios is piggy - backing on the Russian Phobos - Grunt mission to be launched to Mars in 2011.
The Small Nuclear RNA-activating Protein 190 Myb DNA Binding Domain Stimulates TATA Box-binding Protein-TATA Box Recognition*

Human U6 small nuclear RNA (snRNA) gene transcription by RNA polymerase III requires cooperative promoter binding involving the snRNA-activating protein complex (SNAPc) and the TATA-box binding protein (TBP). To investigate the role of SNAPc for TBP function at U6 promoters, TBP recruitment assays were performed using full-length TBP and a mini-SNAPc containing SNAP43, SNAP50, and a truncated SNAP190. Mini-SNAPc efficiently recruits TBP to the U6 TATA box, and two SNAPc subunits, SNAP43 and SNAP190, directly interact with the TBP DNA binding domain. Truncated SNAP190 containing only the Myb DNA binding domain is sufficient for TBP recruitment to the TATA box. Therefore, the SNAP190 Myb domain functions both to specifically recognize the proximal sequence element present in the core promoters of human snRNA genes and to stimulate TBP recognition of the neighboring TATA box present in human U6 snRNA promoters. The SNAP190 Myb domain also stimulates complex assembly with TBP and Brf2, a subunit of a snRNA-specific TFIIIB complex. Thus, interactions between the DNA binding domains of SNAP190 and TBP at juxtaposed promoter elements define the assembly of a RNA polymerase III-specific preinitiation complex.
The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite

For over 16 years, the Precipitation Radar of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite detected the three‐dimensional structure of significantly precipitating clouds in the tropics and subtropics. This paper reviews and synthesizes studies using the TRMM radar data to present a global picture of the variation of convection throughout low latitudes. The multiyear data set shows convection varying not only in amount but also in its very nature across the oceans, continents, islands, and mountain ranges of the tropics and subtropics. Shallow isolated raining clouds are overwhelmingly an oceanic phenomenon. Extremely deep and intense convective elements occur almost exclusively over land. Upscale growth of convection into mesoscale systems takes a variety of forms. Oceanic cloud systems generally have less intense embedded convection but can form very wide stratiform regions. Continental mesoscale systems often have more intense embedded convection. Some of the most intense convective cells and mesoscale systems occur near the great mountain ranges of low latitudes. The Maritime Continent and Amazonia exhibit convective clouds with maritime characteristics although they are partially or wholly land. Convective systems containing broad stratiform areas manifest most strongly over oceans. The stratiform precipitation occurs in various forms. Often it occurs as quasi‐uniform precipitation with strong melting layers connected with intense convection. In monsoons and the Intertropical Convergence Zone, it takes the form of closely packed weak convective elements. Where fronts extend into the subtropics, broad stratiform regions are larger and have lower and sloping melting layers related to the baroclinic origin of the precipitation.
Communication over a channel that wears out

This work investigates the limits of communication over a noisy channel that wears out, in the sense of signal-dependent catastrophic failure. In particular, we consider a channel that starts as a memoryless binary-input channel and when the number of transmitted ones causes a sufficient amount of damage, the channel ceases to convey signals. We restrict attention to constant composition codes. Since infinite blocklength codes will always wear out the channel for any finite threshold of failure and therefore convey no information, we analyze the performance of finite blocklength codes to determine the maximum expected transmission volume at a given level of average error probability. We show that this maximization problem has a recursive form and can be solved by dynamic programming. A discussion of damage state feedback in channels that wear out is also provided. Numerical results show that a sequence of block codes is preferred to a single block code for streaming sources.
EDUHEM 2018 VIII International conference on intercultural education and International conference on transcultural health: THE VALUE OF EDUCATION AND HEALTH FOR A GLOBAL, TRANSCULTURAL WORLD INFLUENCE OF LANGUAGE ANXIETY ON FRENCH-SPEAKING ORAL PROFICIENCY AMONG SECONDARY EDUCATION STUDENTS

Language anxiety differs from general anxiety and is understood as a kind of anxiety due to, or caused by, learning or using another language. The research objective was to evaluate the influence of language anxiety on performing French-speaking oral proficiency among Secondary Education students. To this end, 519 year 1 to 4 students of Spanish Compulsory Secondary Education who studied French as a second foreign language or as a bilingual form were included from six Secondary Education Institutes. The results showed statistically significant correlations between language anxiety and French-speaking oral proficiency in all academic, where these correlations were higher for females and for the optional teaching form. The language anxiety variable alone explained 46.7% of the French-speaking oral proficiency variable. We conclude that language anxiety influences performance in languages, which suggests the need to consider new research works into this matter in order to improve the teaching practice and teaching students to become competent in languages. © 2019 Published by Future Academy www.FutureAcademy. org.UK
Computational model underlying the one-way quantum computer

In this paper we present the computational model underlying the one-way quantum computer which we introduced recently [Phys. Rev. Lett. 86, 5188 (2001)]. The one-way quantum computer has the property that any quantum logic network can be simulated on it. Conversely, not all ways of quantum information processing that are possible with the one-way quantum computer can be understood properly in network model terms. We show that the logical depth is, for certain algorithms, lower than has so far been known for networks. For example, every quantum circuit in the Clifford group can be performed on the one-way quantum computer in a single step.