Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Solving Tri-Diagonal Linear Systems using Field Programmable Gate Arrays

In this paper, we present the outcomes of a project on the exploration of the use of Field Programmable Gate Arrays (FPGAs) as co-processors for scientific computation. We designed a custom circuit for the pipelined solving of multiple tri-diagonal linear systems. The design is well suited for applications that require many independent tri-diagonal system solves, such as finite difference methods for solving PDEs or applications utilising cubic spline interpolation. The selected solver algorithm was the Tri-Diagonal Matrix Algorithm (TDMA or Thomas Algorithm). Our solver supports user specified precision thought the use of a custom floating point VHDL library supporting addition, subtraction, multiplication and division. The variable precision TDMA solver was tested for correctness in simulation mode. The TDMA pipeline was tested successfully in hardware using a simplified solver model. The details of implementation, the limitations, and future work are also discussed.
Reduced expression of syndecan‐1 in human hepatocellular carcinoma with high metastatic potential

Syndecans comprise a gene family of transmembrane proteoglycans that regulate cellular behavior through interactions with various effectors, including heparin‐binding growth factors and insoluble matrix components. Syndecan‐1, the most extensively studied, localizes in epithelial cells and has been shown to present in normal hepatocytes. However, little is known about the change of syndecan‐1 expression in human hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC). We investigated syndecan‐1‐protein expression by immunohistochemistry in 57 HCC tissue samples. Syndecan‐1 gene expression was also determined. Syndecan‐1 protein was expressed in cytoplasm and cell membrane of the hepatocytes and in the bile duct epithelial cells of liver with underlying hepatitis and cirrhosis. Conversely, among 57 HCC tissues, 39 HCC (68.4%) showed negative staining; 50% of well‐differentiated HCC showed positive staining, whereas 82.4% of poorly differentiated HCC were negative. Loss of syndecan‐1‐protein expression was more prevalent in HCC with intra‐hepatic metastasis (85.2%) than those without metastasis (48.0%). Similarly, syndecan‐1 expression was significantly reduced in HCC with extra‐hepatic metastasis (91.7%) as compared with the HCC without extra‐hepatic metastasis (62.2%). The gene expression of syndecan‐1 was significantly lower in HCC tissue than that in non‐tumoral liver tissue. In 2 human HCC cell lines with poorly differentiated phenotype, HLE and HLF, syndecan‐1 expression was markedly decreased both at the mRNA and the protein levels. These results suggest that the loss of syndecan‐1 expression is a characteristic feature of HCC with high metastatic potential. Int. J. Cancer 74:482–491, 1997. © 1997 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Effects of social reorganization on cellular immunity in male cynomolgus monkeys

Exposure to acute stressors has been shown to impair cellular immunity in human beings and other animal species. Comparatively little is known, however, about the effects of long‐term stressors on immune function and how individual behavioral characteristics may mediate differences in immune function and clinical disease susceptibility. To determine the effects of social stress on cellular immunity and reactivation of a latent herpesvirus, 20 Herpes B virus‐positive male cynomolgus monkeys were exposed to four periodic reorganizations of social group memberships over 5 months. Observations were made to categorize individuals as high or low in expression of aggressive, fearful, and affiliative behaviors. Complete blood counts, lymphocyte proliferation tests, and natural killer cell cytotoxicity assays were performed immediately before and 4 days after reorganizations. Herpesvirus‐specific immunoglobulin G antibody levels were measured, and oral and conjunctival swabs were cultured for virus. Reorganization was associated with increased lymphocyte counts (P = 0.0009) and decreased lymphocyte proliferation in response to phytohemagglutinin (P < 0.005), particularly among monkeys showing high levels of fear (P = 0.0137). High‐aggressive monkeys showed lower baseline natural killer cell activity (P = 0.0013) and higher lymphocyte counts (P = 0.013) than low‐aggressive monkeys. Herpesvirus antibody titers decreased over time (P < 0.004) and no positive virus cultures were obtained. Measures of cellular immunity and behavior were unrelated to virus‐specific antibody titers. These results suggest that repeated exposure to a social stressor alters several measures of cellular immunity, and that some of these changes may be predicted by individual differences in agonistic behavior. In contrast to human studies, the results suggest that some psychological stressors may not cause reactivation of a common herpesvirus in this species. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Calculation of the costs and evaluation of incomes in different systems of production of goat milk in Cariris Paraibanos

The study aimed at calculating milk production cost and evaluating the income in goat milk farm activity by production systems. The production systems are located in the sub region of Cariris Paraibanos and they were defined by criteria of technical and economical efficiency, with grouping method by multivariate data analysis and formation of five groups. The method used for production cost was the operational cost, and the criterion adopted for the conversion of the milk activity cost for the cost of the milk was the participation of the milk income in the gross income of the activity. The criteria adopted for analysis of income were gross margin and net margin. In the count of goat milk production cost the values were R$ 0.67/L R$ 0.73/L, R$ 0.80/L, R$ 0.88/L and R$ 1.21/L for the production systems 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5. Systems of production 1 and 2 with high technology and net margin of R$ 9,147.30 and R$ 3,995.18 in the milk activity, were the ones that showed the lowest costs and they are economically the most advantageous
Discriminant analysis and supervised vector quantization for continuous speech recognition

Several attempts to improve recognition accuracy with the use of supervised clustering techniques are described. These techniques modify the distance metric and/or the clustering procedure in a discrete hidden Markov model recognition system in an attempt to improve phonetic modeling. Three techniques considered are linear discriminant analysis, a hierarchical supervised vector quantization technique, and Kohonen's LVQ2 technique. All experiments were performed on the DARPA resource management speech corpus using the BBN BYBLOS system. Even though the techniques improved the phonetic recognition capability of the vector quantization, the overall word and sentence recognition accuracy did not improve. <<ETX>>
Cloning and characterization of the lactate‐specific inducible gene KlCYB2, encoding the cytochrome b2 of Kluyveromyces lactis

In yeast the utilization of lactate requires two enzymes, the D and L‐lactate ferricytochrome c oxidoreductase (D and L‐LCR), which stereospecifically oxidize D‐ and L‐lactate to pyruvate. These enzymes are nuclearly encoded and localized in mitochondria. In the yeast Kluyveromyces lactis, a mutant devoid of D‐ and L‐LCR activities and unable to grow on racemic lactate was isolated. Transformation of the mutant with a K. lactis genomic library allowed the isolation of the KlCYB2 gene, restoring the growth on lactate and the L‐LCR activity. The KlCYB2 gene and its flanking regions were sequenced (Accession No. AJ243324; EMBL/GenBank databases). The deduced amino acid sequence is highly homologous to the corresponding Saccharomyces cerevisiae and Hansenula anomala protein sequences previously characterized. The homology is missed in the N‐terminal region, corresponding to the presequence cleaved during import into mitochondria. Analysis of KlCYB2 gene expression indicated that, in contrast to S. cerevisiae, the major regulatory feature is induction by lactate. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
The Effects of a Hypermedia Program, Cognitive Style, and Gender on Middle School Students' Music Achievement

This study investigated the effects of a hypermedia program, cognitive style, and gender on middle school students' achievement in music. Four groups of middle school students were identified: field dependent males; field dependent females; field independent males; and, field independent females. The experimental group received instruction on steel band orchestras of Trinidad via a hypermedia program whilst the control group was taught similar material through an expository teaching lesson. An achievement post test was administered immediately after treatment and again approximately six weeks later. Although previous research suggests that attitudes toward computers may differ between males and females, the nonsignificant main effects (both tests) for gender and nonsignificant interactions between gender and instructional mode found in this study demonstrate that boys and girls are equally capable of learning in a music classroom through hypermedia and traditional instruction. Likewise the nonsignificant interaction between gender and the (two) post test variable indicate no gender differences in the long-term retention of information.
Optimization of enzymatic reaction conditions for generating representative pools of cDNA from small RNA

Small regulatory RNA repertoires in biological samples are heterogeneous mixtures that may include species arising from varied biosynthetic pathways and modification events. Small RNA profiling and discovery approaches ought to capture molecules in a way that is representative of expression level. It follows that the effects of RNA modifications on representation should be minimized. The collection of high-quality, representative data, therefore, will be highly dependent on bias-free sample manipulation in advance of quantification. We examined the impact of 2'-O-methylation of the 3'-terminal nucleotide of small RNA on key enzymatic reactions of standard front-end manipulation schemes. Here we report that this common modification negatively influences the representation of these small RNA species. Deficits occurred at multiple steps as determined by gel analysis of synthetic input RNA and by quantification and sequencing of derived cDNA pools. We describe methods to minimize the effects of 2'-O-methyl modification of small RNA 3'-termini using T4 RNA ligase 2 truncated, and other optimized reaction conditions, demonstrating their use by quantifying representation of miRNAs and piRNAs in cDNA pools prepared from biological samples.
R T ] 1 M ar 2 01 9 HOMOLOGY OF TWISTED QUIVER BUNDLES WITH RELATIONS

We study the Ext modules in the category of left modules over a twisted algebra of a finite quiver over a ringed space (X,OX), allowing for the presence of relations. We introduce a spectral sequence which relates the Ext modules in that category with the Ext modules in the category of OX-modules. Contrary to what happens in the absence of relations, this spectral sequence in general does not degenerate at the second page. We also consider local Ext sheaves. Under suitable hypotheses, the Ext modules are represented as hypercohomology groups.
Hypothesis tests for hydrologic alteration - 1-s2.0-S0022169415007404-main

Hydrologic systems can be altered by anthropogenic and climatic influences. While there are a number of statistical frameworks for describing and evaluating the extent of hydrologic alteration, here we present a new framework for assessing whether statistically significant hydrologic alteration has occurred, or whether the shift in the hydrologic regime is consistent with the natural variability of the system. Four hypothesis tests based on shifts of flow duration curves (FDCs) are developed and tested using three different experimental designs based on different strategies for resampling of annual FDCs. The four hypothesis tests examined are the Kolmogorov–Smirnov (KS), Kuiper (K), confidence interval (CI), and ecosurplus and ecodeficit (Eco). Here 117 streamflow sites that have potentially undergone hydrologic alteration due to reservoir construction are examined. 20 years of pre-reservoir record is used to develop the critical value of the test statistic for type I errors of 5% and 10%, while 10 years of post-alteration record is used to examine the power of each test. The best experimental design, based on calculating the mean annual FDC from an exhaustive jackknife resampling regime, provided a larger number of unique values of each test statistic and properly reproduced type I errors. Of the four tests, the CI test consistently had the highest power, while the K test had the second highest power; KS and Eco always had the lowest power. The power of the CI test appeared related to the storage ratio of the reservoir, a rough measure of the hydrologic alteration of the system. Ó 2015 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
A CMOS 18 THzΩ 248 Mb/s transimpedance amplifier and 155 Mb/s LED-driver for low cost optical fiber links

The realization of a complete low cost CMOS optical fiber link using a LED and PIN as optical components is presented. The driver and receiver are realized in a standard 0.8 /spl mu/m digital CMOS process which makes integration with a DSP possible. The driver is a current steering transistor combined with a small quiescent current source. The modulation current is 60 mA which allows a 155 Mb/s optical data-rate. The receiver is a three-stage transimpedance amplifier followed by a signal converter which provides digital output signal levels. The three-stage configuration makes possible the realization of a high transimpedance (150 k/spl Omega/), necessary to obtain a high sensitivity, combined with a high bandwidth. The achieved optical data-rate is 240 Mb/s for 1 /spl mu/A input modulation currents. This results in a transimpedance bandwidth of 18 THz/spl Omega/, which is one order of magnitude higher than recently published circuits. The speed performance of the total link is limited by the optical time-constant of the LED, leading to a 155 Mb/s optical link, designed for use in four-fiber interboard connections in 622 Mb/s B-ISDN systems. >
Technology Acceptance of Healthcare E-Learning Modules: A Study of Korean and Malaysian Students' Perceptions

Educators today are moving towards transforming their teaching and learning methods from conventional teacher-centered approaches to student-centered learning approaches with the support of technology so as to better motivate students to participate and engage in their learning process. This study was developed as a joint collaborative effort between Inje University, South Korea, and Multimedia University, Malaysia, in order to investigate Korean and Malaysian students’ perceptions of an e-learning web module about health rooms in Korea. An e-learning web module was developed using Mayer’s (2001) Principles of Multimedia Learning and presented to Korean and Malaysian students. A Technology Acceptance Model (TAM) survey was developed to measure their perceptions of this e-learning website. Results show that students were positive in the Perceived Usefulness (PU) and Perceived Ease-of-Use (PEOU) constructs which in turn resulted in positive Attitudes towards Usage (ATU) and Behavioral Intentions to Use (BIU) constructs in the application. The results thus show positive technology acceptance of the e-learning health room web module and provide positive encouragement for educators to develop interactive healthcare modules for e-learning.
Promoting Sustainable Construction through Ecological Economics

Ecological economics (EE) is the study of interactions and impact of human activities on the environment, which is an aspect of sustainable concept. To encourage the adoption of EE, this article examined various drivers as well as measures of mitigating environmental impact of construction activities in the South African construction industry. Primary data was collected using well-structured questionnaires that were designed based on information obtained from secondary source, that is, existing literature materials. The questionnaires were administered on contractors, clients and construction professionals in the construction industry. Using convenience sampling approach, 70 questionnaires were distributed to the respondents, 55 were received while 5 of the questionnaires were not properly completed and unfit for analysis. Findings from reviewed literature reveals a low level of awareness and adoption of ecological economics concept in the construction industry. In order to promote and ensure the adoption of this practice, there is a need for the inauguration of EE through communicating new ideas and incentivizing ideas for change relating to greener construction are the major drivers of promoting the concept in the construction industry. These will assist clients, construction professionals, contractors and other stakeholders in overcoming the roadblocks to the adoption of the practice of EE in the South African construction industry. For this reason, stakeholders in the construction industry needs to educate themselves with the knowledge of ecology and information relating to sustainable practices at large. In furtherrance to this study, further specific and detailed research can be conducted to examine the benefits, drivers, barriers as well as the methods of overcoming the roadblocks to to adopting the concept of EE for sustainabke construction.
Rheumatoid Arthritis : A Practical Guide to State-ofthe-Art Imaging , Image Interpretation , and Clinical Implications 1 LEARNING

Rheumatoid arthritis (RA) is a chronic systemic disease of unknown origin that predominantly involves synovial tissue. RA affects 0.5%– 1.0% of the global population, with females affected more frequently than males. Early diagnosis and initiation of proper therapy help modify the course of the disease and reduce the degree of severe late sequelae. Radiology plays a key role in diagnosis and management of RA. Currently, magnetic resonance imaging is the best imaging modality because it depicts soft-tissue changes and damage to cartilage and bone even better and at an earlier stage than does computed tomography. Ultrasound and conventional radiography are more readily available but cannot show the entire spectrum of the disease. Diagnosis and differential diagnosis are achieved by identifying certain radiologic parameters, which are also used for grading purposes. The disease does not follow a linear course, especially with the early initiation of potent therapy. Knowledge of the imaging findings enables the radiologist to accurately select the most helpful imaging technique. Familiarity with the pathophysiologic mechanisms of RA, the imaging findings, and the grading systems and a basic knowledge of therapeutic regimens are prerequisites for a tailored diagnostic approach by the radiologist. RSNA, 2005
attitudes and barriers to physical activity in hemodialysis patients could intradialytic exercise modify these factors

Introduction: This study pioneers in determining the impact of Intradialytic Exercise (IDE) on attitudes and barriers to Physical Activity (PA) in Hemodialysis (HD) patients in the United Arab Emirates, a non-western country with different cultural backgrounds. Subjects and Methods: Forty-one adult HD patients from Al-Qassimi Hospital were recruited for a quasi-experimental intervention with pre-post evaluation. IDE patients trained for 45 minutes per HD session, 2-3 times per week, for 6 months on a static bicycle. Exercise intensity was assessed using the Borg Scale. Participants were educated on the importance of exercise. Results: 30 patients completed the study. The percentage of patients exercising was higher post intervention, but dropped to baseline at the follow up period. At post intervention and follow-up, patient’s knowledge about the benefits and safety of exercise increased, with some patients facing no barrier to PA at the end of the study (p=0.05). There was a significant increase in patients endorsing the “too many medical problems” barrier, and a significant decrease in patients endorsing the “can’t afford to exercise” barrier. Nephrologists and nurses acknowledge the importance of exercise in HD patients, but the former do not prescribe it. Conclusions: Aerobic IDE and knowledge empowerment programs could help HD patients increase their knowledge about exercise benefits and safety and shed some barriers to exercise, although patients appear to easily fall back into their normal habits. Even after an IDE program was adopted in the unit, the medical team is still concerned about the risks of exercise in HD patients.
R A ] 2 2 A ug 2 01 8 IMAGES OF MULTILINEAR POLYNOMIALS OF DEGREE UP TO FOUR ON UPPER TRIANGULAR MATRICES

A famous open problem known as Lvov-Kaplansky’s conjecture asserts: the image of a multilinear polynomial in noncommutative variables over a field K on the matrix algebra Mn(K) is always a vector space [4]. Recently, Kanel-Belov, Malev and Rowen [7] made a major breakthrough and solved the problem for n = 2. A special case on polynomials of degree two has been known for long time ([9] and [1]). Recently, Mesyan [8] and Buzinski and Winstanley [3] extended this result for nonzero multilinear polynomials of degree three and four, respectively. We will study the following variation of the Lvov-Kaplansky’s conjecture:
Structural breaks in stock returns volatility : Evidence from the Stock Exchange of Thailand

This paper examines the time variation in return volatility in the Stock Exchange of Thailand during 1975-2010. Using GARCH-type methodology, together with Bai and Perron’s structural break test, we find that there are two structural breaks in the mean of the conditional volatility of both daily and monthly returns. The empirical analysis in this paper reveals that the structural changes in returns volatility are more likely to be a consequence of policy and regulatory change rather than economic crisis.
Prediction of Temporal Bug Patterns of Debian Using

Predicting the temporal bug patterns is a challenging aspect in software engineering. This paper focuses on modelling the growth in bug numbers as Markov Chain with varying bug growth patterns representing different states. Real software bug data which shows random behaviour can be considered to be generated by an underlying non-stationary random process. The paper demonstrates the distribution of temporal bug patterns of an open source software and also effectiveness of Markov Models in predicting bug growth patterns. As a generalised model this can also be applicable for bug growth patterns for closed source software. The model will be useful for software project managers for taking timely decisions such as effort investment and allocation of resources. Another use of this model will be reduction of testing effort. The end users by knowing the possible bug patterns in the system in advance can take timely precautions to cope with the loss due to system failure. The performance analysis is done on bug data of Debian Operating System extracted from Ultimate Debian Database (UDD) which is publicly available.