Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Manufacturing Performance in Nigeria: Implication for Sustainable Development

The study examined manufacturing performance for sustainable economic development in Nigeria, while the specific objectives are as follows: i) to look at the growth rate and contribution of manufacturing to GDP. ii) to examine trend in both manufacturing and employment. iii) to determine the structure of capacity utilization. iv) to determine factors influencing manufacturing performance. Panel data analysis was used on secondary data from 1980-2008 that was extracted from CBN Statistical Bulletin. The results indicate positive relationship between manufacturing and each of capacity utilization and import as 1 percent change in capacity utilization and import lead to 43081 and 3.8 percent change in manufacturing respectively. However, there is a negative relationship between manufacturing and each of investment, exchange rate, and export. A 1 percent change in investment, exchange rate and export lead to 0.04, 12729, 0.3 percent reduction in manufacturing respectively. The t-values for investment, capacity utilization and import were used to test the hypothesis that each coefficient is different from 0. This is rejected; since the t-value are lower than 1.96 (at 95% confidence level). This showed that investment, capacity utilization and import were major determinants of manufacturing performance for the period. The study concludes that the key to reversing the poor performance of Nigerian manufacturing is to provide incentives for firms to become more export oriented.
Absorption of red clover isoflavones in human subjects: results from a pilot study

In addition to soya-derived preparations, red clover-based dietary supplements have gained considerable interest as an alternative isoflavone (IF) source. While metabolism and bioavailability of the main IF from both sources have already been investigated, studies are still lacking on the biokinetic behaviour of IF, which are present in red clover in minor amounts. In the present pilot study, in which seven volunteers ingested a single dose of a commercial red clover dietary supplement, we focused on the absorption of three such IF, irilone (IRI), prunetin (PRUN) and pseudobaptigenin (PBAP). The compounds were measured as aglycones after enzymatic hydrolysis. A single intake of an amount of as low as 3·8 mg IRI (out of 38·8 mg IF in total) resulted in an IRI plasma concentration of 0·35 (sd 0·16) μm at 6.5 h post-ingestion. Compared to the plasma concentrations found for daidzein (0·39 μm) and genistein (0·06 μm), expected to be the main IF metabolites in plasma, the present findings indicate that IRI might possess a relatively high bioavailability. Furthermore, PRUN and PBAP were detected in human plasma for the first time.
Stokes' formulae on classical symbol valued forms and applications

The Wodzicki residue and the cut-off integral extend to classical symbol-valued forms. We show that they obey a Stokes' type property and that the extended Wodzicki residue can be interpreted as a complex residue like the ordinary one. In the case of cut-off integrals, Stokes' property (i.e. vanishing on exact forms) only holds for non-integer order symbol-valued forms and leads to an integration by parts formula and translation invariance for cut-off integrals on non-integer order classical symbols. The extended Wodzicki residue yields an even residue cycle on classical symbols and an odd cochain (the cosphere cochain) which measures an obstruction to Stokes' property of the cut-off integral on integer order symbol-valued forms.
Bilateral subthalamic stimulation monotherapy in advanced Parkinson's disease: Long‐term follow‐up of patients

Bilateral subthalamic nucleus stimulation (STN‐DBS) is used to improve parkinsonian symptoms and attenuate levodopa‐induced motor complications. In some patients, such clinical improvement allows antiparkinsonian medication (ApMed) withdrawal. We show the clinical outcome at the long‐term follow‐up of patients with advanced Parkinson's disease (PD) in which STN‐DBS was used in monotherapy, and compare the clinical results of patients without medication with those obtained in parkinsonian patients in which ApMed were reduced but could not be totally displaced after surgery. We analyzed clinical outcome of ten patients with PD in which all ApMed was withdrawn after bilateral subthalamic stimulation and 16 parkinsonian patients still taking antiparkinsonian medication after surgery. After 1.5 years, STN‐DBS monotherapy produced UPDRS motor scores similar to those observed in the on‐drug condition before surgery without the inconvenience of motor fluctuations and dyskinesias. No significant differences were seen in most of clinical outcome measures when comparing patients still taking ApMed with patients in STN‐DBS monotherapy but a few patients still taking ApMed presented mild dyskinesias and motor fluctuations and patients with STN‐DBS monotherapy did not. STN‐DBS is useful in the treatment of advanced PD and in some patients it is possible to maintain this therapy alone in the long term. The therapeutic effect of STN‐DBS on motor signs can be equipotent to that of levodopa with the additional benefit of avoiding motor fluctuations and dyskinesias. © 2001 Movement Disorder Society.
Anti-obesity, antiatherogenic, anti-diabetic and antioxidant activities of J. montana ethanolic formulation in obese diabetic rats fed high-fat diet

J. montana extract in the form of ethanolic formulation is rich in polyphenols, mono- and sesquiterpenes, Essential oils, flavonoids, tri- tetra- and pentamethoxy quercetin derivatives. The present study was designed to investigate the anti-obesity, antiatherogenic, anti-diabetic and antioxidant activities of J. montana using obese diabetic rats' model. Rats received either regular diet, high-fat diet or high-fat diet with additional J. montana (150 and 300 mg/kg bw) for 8 weeks. In the preventive experiment, J. montana co-administered with a high fat diet significantly inhibited body weight gain, blood glucose, triglyceride, total cholesterol, LDL-C, vLDL-C, HDL-C, free fatty acid and atherogenic index levels in a dose dependent manner. J. montana-treated rats at doses of 150 and 300 mg/kg improved the insulin resistance index when compared to the high fat diet (HFD) control. Finally, the present study is designed to evaluate the effect of ethanolic extract of J. montana on figh fat diet induce obesity in rats. J. montana treatment (150 and 300 mg/kg bw) for 8 consecutive weeks prior to obese rats administration significantly prevented the decrease in the levels of hepatic oxidative stress biomarkers reduced Glutathione (GSH), Glutathione peroxidase (GPx), Glutathione reductase (GR), Superoxide dismutase (SOD) and Catalase (CAT). The J. montana extract, also exhibited its capacity to prevent the elevated thiobarbituric acid reactive substances (TBARS) in the liver tissue. In conclusion, the anti-obesity actions of J. montana are considered attributable to increased expression of energy expenditure-related fatty liver degradation, and decreased fatty acid synthesis and fat intake in the liver. Taken together, J. montana has potential as a preventive agent for type 2 diabetes mellitus (and possibly obesity) and deserves clinical trial in the near future.
Negative Regulation of Anthocyanin Biosynthesis in Arabidopsis by a miR156-Targeted SPL Transcription Factor[W][OA]

This work reveals that anthocyanin biosynthesis is coupled to floral transition by miR156-targeted SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) genes. SPL negatively regulates anthocyanin accumulation by directly preventing expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes through destabilization of a MYB-bHLH-WD40 transcriptional activation complex. Flavonoids are synthesized through an important metabolic pathway that leads to the production of diverse secondary metabolites, including anthocyanins, flavonols, flavones, and proanthocyanidins. Anthocyanins and flavonols are derived from Phe and share common precursors, dihydroflavonols, which are substrates for both flavonol synthase and dihydroflavonol 4-reductase. In the stems of Arabidopsis thaliana, anthocyanins accumulate in an acropetal manner, with the highest level at the junction between rosette and stem. We show here that this accumulation pattern is under the regulation of miR156-targeted SQUAMOSA PROMOTER BINDING PROTEIN-LIKE (SPL) genes, which are deeply conserved and known to have important roles in regulating phase change and flowering. Increased miR156 activity promotes accumulation of anthocyanins, whereas reduced miR156 activity results in high levels of flavonols. We further provide evidence that at least one of the miR156 targets, SPL9, negatively regulates anthocyanin accumulation by directly preventing expression of anthocyanin biosynthetic genes through destabilization of a MYB-bHLH-WD40 transcriptional activation complex. Our results reveal a direct link between the transition to flowering and secondary metabolism and provide a potential target for manipulation of anthocyanin and flavonol content in plants.
Myth: User fees ensure better use of health services

Tough economic times stir up anxiety over the affordability of public services, especially health care. As governments struggle to balance budgets, and health care spending continues to grow faster than the economy, conditions are ripe for old, and often discredited, policy ideas to make a comeback. User fees are no exception. At first blush, user fees appear to be an obvious solution. After all, any policy that promises to generate revenue and reduce costs by deterring unnecessary use is hard to ignore. But as research has shown over the years, the silver bullet of user fees really is the stuff of fantasy. The evidence indicates that implementing a medical toll booth to reduce health care traffic along a particular route can obstruct access to needed care, especially for those that are poor. Viewing patients as responsible for the high costs of health care ignores the evidence against user fees and the opportunities for greater efficiency that can be found along the continuum of care. A medical toll booth simply would not do the trick.
Global dissipativity for Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with both time-varying delays and infinite distributed delays

In this paper, we study the global dissipativity for Cohen-Grossberg neural networks with both time-varying delays and infinite distributed delays. Based on Lyapunov functions, mean value theorem and inequality techniques, several algebraic criterions for the global dissipativity are obtained. Meanwhile, the estimations of the positive invariant set and globally attractive set are given out. Finally, one example is given and analyzed to demonstrate our results.
Automatic Discovery Using Genetic Programming of an Unknown-Sized Detector of Protein Motifs Containing Repeatedly-Used Subexpressions

Automated methods of machine learning may be useful in discovering biologically meaningful patterns that are hidden in the rapidly growing databases of genomic and protein sequences. However, almost all existing methods of automated discovery require that the user specify, in advance, the size and shape of the pattern that is to be discovered. Moreover, existing methods do not have a workable analog of the idea of a reusable subroutine to exploit the recurring subpatterns of a problem environment. Genetic programming can evolve complicated problem-solving expressions of unspecified size and shape. When automatically defined functions are added to genetic programming, genetic programming becomes capable of efficiently capturing and exploiting recurring sub-patterns. This paper describes how genetic programming with automatically defined functions successfully evolved motifs for detecting the D-E-A-D box family of proteins and for detecting the manganese superoxide dismutase family. Both motifs were evolved without prespecifying their length. Both evolved motifs employed automatically defined functions to capture the repeated use of common subexpressions. When tested against the SWISS-PROT database of proteins, the two genetically evolved consensus motifs detect the two families either as well, or slightly better than, the comparable humanwritten motifs found in the PROSITE database.
Towards model-guided defect reduction in Cd1−xZnxTe/CdS solar cells: Development of molecular dynamics models

Cd1-xZnxTe/CdS solar cells are currently limited by material defects. While nano-structuring promises further defect reductions, the materials synthesis and characterization become more challenging. Molecular dynamics models capable of growth simulations enable defects to be explored without assumptions, and can therefore guide nanoscale experiments. Such models are difficult to develop, and are not routinely available in literature for semiconductor compounds. To fill this gap, we have developed growth simulation enabling Stillinger-Weber and bond-order potentials. These new models begin to enable molecular dynamics to be used to explore nano-structured Cd1-xZnxTe/CdS solar cells with reduced defects.
Encoding and recall of finger sequences in experienced pianists compared to musically naïves : a combined behavioural and functional imaging study

Long-term intensive sensorimotor training alters functional representation of the motor and sensory system and might even result in structural changes. However, there is not much knowledge about how previous training impacts learning transfer and functional representation. We tested 14 amateur pianists and 15 musically naïve participants in a shortterm finger sequence training procedure, differing considerably from piano playing and measured associated functional representation with functional magnetic resonance imaging. The conditions consisted of encoding a finger sequence indicated by hand symbols (“sequence encoding”) and subsequently replaying the sequence from memory, both with and without auditory feedback (“sequence retrieval”). Piano players activated motor areas and the mirror neuron system more strongly than musically naïve participants during encoding. When retrieving the sequence, musically naïve participants showed higher activation in similar brain areas. Thus, retrieval activations of naïve participants were comparable to encoding activations of piano players, who during retrieval performed the sequences more accurately despite lower motor activations. Interestingly, both groups showed primary auditory activation even during sequence retrieval without auditory feedback, supporting previous reports about coactivation of the auditory cortex after learned association with motor performance. When playing with auditory feedback, only pianists lateralized to the left auditory cortex. During encoding activation in left primary somatosensory cortex in the height of the finger representations had a predictive value for increased motor performance later on (error rates). Contrarily, decreased performance was associated with increased visual cortex activation during encoding. Our study extends previous reports about training transfer of motor knowledge resulting in superior training effects in musicians. Performance increase went along with activity in motor areas and the mirror neuron network during pattern encoding.
Immune Defense Varies within an Instar in the Tobacco Hornworm, Manduca sexta

Research on how insect immunity changes with age as insects develop within an instar, or larval developmental stage, is limited and contradictory. Insects within an instar are preparing for the next developmental stage, which may involve changes in morphology or habitat. Immunity may also vary accordingly. To determine how immunity varies in the fifth instar, we tested humoral immune responses, antimicrobial peptide activity, and phenoloxidase activity using the tobacco hornworm, Manduca sexta. We determined that while M. sexta have more robust antimicrobial peptide and phenoloxidase responses at the beginning of their fifth instar, this did not translate into better survival of bacterial infection or lower bacterial load in the hemolymph. We also determined that M. sexta injected with bacteria early in the fifth instar experience lower growth rates and longer development times than caterpillars of the same age injected with sham. This could indicate a shift in energy allocation from growth and development to metabolically costly immune responses. Because of the importance of insects as pests and pollinators, understanding how immunity varies throughout development is critical.
Dominant Resource Fairness: Fair Allocation of Multiple Resource Types

We consider the problem of fair resource allocation in a system containing different resource types, where each user may have different demands for each resource. To address this problem, we propose Dominant Resource Fairness (DRF), a generalization of max-min fairness to multiple resource types. We show that DRF, unlike other possible policies, satisfies several highly desirable properties. First, DRF incentivizes users to share resources, by ensuring that no user is better off if resources are equally partitioned among them. Second, DRF is strategy-proof, as a user cannot increase her allocation by lying about her requirements. Third, DRF is envy-free, as no user would want to trade her allocation with that of another user. Finally, DRF allocations are Pareto efficient, as it is not possible to improve the allocation of a user without decreasing the allocation of another user. We have implemented DRF in the Mesos cluster resource manager, and show that it leads to better throughput and fairness than the slot-based fair sharing schemes in current cluster schedulers.
A Novel Bioinformatics Strategy to Analyze Microbial Big Sequence Data for Efficient Knowledge Discovery: Batch-Learning Self-Organizing Map (BLSOM)

With the remarkable increase of genomic sequence data of microorganisms, novel tools are needed for comprehensive analyses of the big sequence data available. The self-organizing map (SOM) is an effective tool for clustering and visualizing high-dimensional data, such as oligonucleotide composition on one map. By modifying the conventional SOM, we developed batch-learning SOM (BLSOM), which allowed classification of sequence fragments (e.g., 1 kb) according to phylotypes, solely depending on oligonucleotide composition. Metagenomics studies of uncultivable microorganisms in clinical and environmental samples should allow extensive surveys of genes important in life sciences. BLSOM is most suitable for phylogenetic assignment of metagenomic sequences, because fragmental sequences can be clustered according to phylotypes, solely depending on oligonucleotide composition. We first constructed oligonucleotide BLSOMs for all available sequences from genomes of known species, and by mapping metagenomic sequences on these large-scale BLSOMs, we can predict phylotypes of individual metagenomic sequences, revealing a microbial community structure of uncultured microorganisms, including viruses. BLSOM has shown that influenza viruses isolated from humans and birds clearly differ in oligonucleotide composition. Based on this host-dependent oligonucleotide composition, we have proposed strategies for predicting directional changes of virus sequences and for surveilling potentially hazardous strains when introduced into humans from non-human sources.
Parser Showdown at the Wall Street Corral: An Empirical Investigation of Error Types in Parser Output

Constituency parser performance is primarily interpreted through a single metric, F-score on WSJ section 23, that conveys no linguistic information regarding the remaining errors. We classify errors within a set of linguistically meaningful types using tree transformations that repair groups of errors together. We use this analysis to answer a range of questions about parser behaviour, including what linguistic constructions are difficult for state-of-the-art parsers, what types of errors are being resolved by rerankers, and what types are introduced when parsing out-of-domain text.
The Purine Repressor of Bacillus subtilis: a Novel Combination of Domains Adapted for Transcription Regulation

ABSTRACT The purine repressor from Bacillus subtilis, PurR, represses transcription from a number of genes with functions in the synthesis, transport, and metabolism of purines. The 2.2-Å crystal structure of PurR reveals a two-domain protein organized as a dimer. The larger C-terminal domain belongs to the PRT structural family, in accord with a sequence motif for binding the inducer phosphoribosylpyrophosphate (PRPP). The PRT domain is fused to a smaller N-terminal domain that belongs to the winged-helix family of DNA binding proteins. A positively charged surface on the winged-helix domain likely binds specific DNA sequences in the recognition site. A second positively charged surface surrounds the PRPP site at the opposite end of the PurR dimer. Conserved amino acids in the sequences of PurR homologs in 21 gram-positive bacteria cluster on the proposed recognition surface of the winged-helix domain and around the PRPP binding site at the opposite end of the molecule, supporting a common function of DNA and PRPP binding for all of the proteins. The structure supports a binding mechanism in which extended regions of DNA interact with extensive protein surface. Unlike most PRT proteins, which are phosphoribosyltransferases (PRTases), PurR lacks catalytic activity. This is explained by a tyrosine side chain that blocks the site for a nucleophile cosubstrate in PRTases. Thus, B. subtilis has adapted an enzyme fold to serve as an effector-binding domain and has used it in a novel combination with the DNA-binding winged-helix domain as a repressor of purine genes.
Learning monotone decision trees in polynomial time

We give an algorithm that learns any monotone Boolean function f: {-1, 1}n rarr {-1, 1} to any constant accuracy, under the uniform distribution, in time polynomial in n and in the decision tree size of f. This is the first algorithm that can learn arbitrary monotone Boolean functions to high accuracy, using random examples only, in time polynomial in a reasonable measure of the complexity of f. A key ingredient of the result is a new bound showing that the average sensitivity of any monotone function computed by a decision tree of size s must be at most radic(log s). This bound has already proved to be of independent utility in the study of decision tree complexity (Schramm et al., 2005). We generalize the basic inequality and learning result described above in various ways; specifically, to partition size (a stronger complexity measure than decision tree size), p-biased measures over the Boolean cube (rather than just the uniform distribution), and real-valued (rather than just Boolean-valued) functions
Adaptive finite-time stabilization of nonholonomic systems with nonlinear parameterization

In this paper, adaptive finite-time control is presented for a class of uncertain nonholonomic systems in chained form with nonlinear parameterization. Using parameter separation, state scaling and backstepping, an adaptive finite-time control law is obtained in the form of continuous time-invariant feedback. Both Lyapunov stability and finite time convergence are guaranteed by appropriately choosing the design parameters. An adaptive control based switching strategy is used to overcome the uncontrollability problem associated with x0 (0) = 0. Simulation example demonstrates the effectiveness and the robust features of the proposed controller.