Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Role of ICT as a Double-Edged Sword in Fostering Societal Transformations

Information and communication technologies (ICT) have been central to economies seeking improvements in societal conditions. The impacts of ICT advancements manifest themselves in both socioeconomic and sociopolitical changes. While socioeconomic restructuring and, more recently, sociopolitical changes have often been attributed to ICT, research on its impacts and nuances in countries differentiated by economic levels remains sparse. The focus has been on the two ends of the strata for developing and developed economies and restricted to the impacts of ICT on economic metrics like GDP growth. In this study, we explore the pivotal role of ICT in societal transformations for countries categorized as developing, transition, and developed economies. Leveraging endogenous growth theory and social network theory, we hypothesize about the different impacts of ICT across the three economic classifications. Using panel data from 1995 to 2012 for 37 countries belonging to the three economic groups, we empirically investigate the associations between ICT investments and societal outcomes. Our results reveal that ICT has an impact on societal outcomes for transformations, but the nature of its contributions to social change varies with the stage of a country’s economic development. The analysis suggests that developing economies benefit the most from ICT investments with an overall improvement in socioeconomic and sociopolitical conditions, while the ICT effects are either insignificant or negatively inclined for developed economies. Transition economies show mixed ICT effects in stimulating socioeconomic and sociopolitical transformations. These results provide insights for actionable policies and suggest directions for building an ICT-enabled Bright Society.
An Analysis of Stative Verbs Used with the Progressive Aspect in Corpus-informed Textbooks

This study was designed to investigate whether contemporary corpus-informed grammar textbooks written for English language learners and teachers presented the progressive use of stative verbs and if yes, which stative verbs were presented to occur with the progressive aspect and for which functions they took this aspect. A corpus of six electronic copies of corpus-informed textbooks was compiled and analyzed via AntConc. 3.2. 4 text analysis program to identify types and functions of stative verbs and calculate their occurrences. Overall, textbooks differed in their treatment of the progressive use of stative verbs and inclusion of the variety and numbers of types and functions. One remarkable finding was that the stative verbs taking the progressive aspect in all textbooks were found to be associated with emotions (i.e. love ) whereas those not allowing progressive use were related to cognition (i.e. know ). Another remarkable finding was that the textbooks which presented the highest numbers of stative verb types provided the most diverse functions whereas the textbooks which included the least numbers of stative verbs provided one or no function. Findings are hoped to raise awareness among textbook writers in making use of both the communicative messages motivated by the progressive use of stative verbs and the frequency and saliency information based on the corpus of present-day English to help learners grasp the changes in the language use.
Learning towards Minimum Hyperspherical Energy

Neural networks are a powerful class of nonlinear functions that can be trained end-to-end on various applications. While the over-parametrization nature in many neural networks renders the ability to fit complex functions and the strong representation power to handle challenging tasks, it also leads to highly correlated neurons that can hurt the generalization ability and incur unnecessary computation cost. As a result, how to regularize the network to avoid undesired representation redundancy becomes an important issue. To this end, we draw inspiration from a well-known problem in physics -- Thomson problem, where one seeks to find a state that distributes N electrons on a unit sphere as evenly as possible with minimum potential energy. In light of this intuition, we reduce the redundancy regularization problem to generic energy minimization, and propose a minimum hyperspherical energy (MHE) objective as generic regularization for neural networks. We also propose a few novel variants of MHE, and provide some insights from a theoretical point of view. Finally, we apply neural networks with MHE regularization to several challenging tasks. Extensive experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our intuition, by showing the superior performance with MHE regularization.
Temperature Effects in Anaerobic Digestion Modeling

Temperature effects on kinetic coefficients for the biochemical processes particle disintegration, hydrolysis and substrate uptake reactions were included in the anaerobic digestion model 1 (ADM1). It was evaluated on data from a pilot experiments in a 220 liter AD sludge bed reactor treating diary manure for 4 months of varying loads and temperatures; 25, 30 and 35 °C. Implementing individual temperature effects for each biochemical reaction gave the best fit for both biogas production and intermediate products. Simulated overall soluble and particulate organic carbon removal, pH and acetate are close to measured values while propionate is underestimated. Temperature has a moderate influence on steady state biogas production in sludge bed AD (1.6 % per degree at 30 – 35 °C and 3.4 % per degree at 25 – 30 °C), implying the net energy gain can peak at T < 35 °C in some cases.
Different carbon isotope fractionation patterns during the development of phototrophic freshwater and marine biofilms

Natural phototrophic biofilms are influenced by a broad array of abiotic and biotic factors and vary over temporal and spatial scales. Different developmental stages can be distinguished and growth rates will vary due to the thickening of the biofilm, which is expected to lead to a limitation of light or mass transport. This study shows that variation in CO2(aq) availability leads to a fractionation shift and thereby affects ? 13C signatures during biofilm development. For phototrophic freshwater biofilms it was found that the ? 13C value became less negative with the thickening of the biofilm, while the opposite trend was found in marine biofilms. Modeling and pH profiling indicated that the trend in the freshwater system was caused by an increase in CO2(aq) limitation resulting in an increase of HCO3? as C-source. The opposite trend in the marine system could be explained by a higher heterotrophic biomass and activity causing a higher carbon recycling and thereby lower ? 13C values. We conclude that ? 13C was more related to the net areal photosynthesis rate and carbon recycling, rather than to the growth rate of the biofilms.
Writing narrative style literature reviews

AbstractReviews provide a synthesis of published literature on a topic and describe its current state-of-art. Reviews in clinical research are thus useful when designing studies or developing practice guidelines. The two standard types of reviews are (a) systematic and (b) non-systematic or narrative review. Unlike systematic reviews that benefit from guidelines such as PRISMA (Preferred Reporting Items for Systematic Reviews and Meta-Analyses) statement, there are no acknowledged guidelines for narrative reviews. I have attempted to define the best practice recommendations for the preparation of a narrative review in clinical research. The quality of a narrative review may be improved by borrowing from the systematic review methodologies that are aimed at reducing bias in the selection of articles for review and employing an effective bibliographic research strategy. The dynamics of narrative review writing, the organizational pattern of the text, the analysis, and the synthesis processes are also discussed.
C 26-CoA-dependent ceramide synthesis of Saccharomyces cerevisiae is operated by Lag 1 p and Lac 1 p

Lag1p and Lac1p are two highly homologous membrane proteins of the endoplasmic reticulum (ER). When both genes are deleted, cells cannot transport glycosylphosphatidylinositol (GPI)-anchored proteins from the ER to the Golgi at a normal rate. Here we show that microsomes or detergent extracts from lag1D lac1D double mutants lack an activity transferring C26 fatty acids from C26-coenzyme A onto dihydrosphingosine or phytosphingosine. As a consequence, in intact cells, the normal ceramides and inositolphosphorylceramides are drastically reduced. lag1D lac1D cells compensate for the lack of normal sphingolipids by making increased amounts of C26 fatty acids, which become incorporated into glycerophospholipids. They also contain 20to 25-fold more free long chain bases than wild type and accumulate very large amounts of abnormally polar ceramides. They make small amounts of abnormal mild baseresistant inositolphospholipids. The lipid remodelling of GPI-anchored proteins is severely compromised in lag1D lac1D double mutants since only few and mostly abnormal ceramides are incorporated into the GPI anchors. The participation of Lag1p and Lac1p in ceramide synthesis may explain their role in determining longevity.
Multidrug resistance-associated protein 2 expression in rat liver exposedto high +Gz.

Multidrug resistance-associated proteins (MRPs) are efflux transporters known to transport a diverse set of substrates, such as amphipathic chemicals, organic anions and endogenous molecules. MRP2 generally performs excretory or protective roles, and is primarily expressed on the apical domain of hepatocytes. High gravitational acceleration force acting along the body axis from the head to the feet (+Gz) causes considerable strain to several organ systems. Exposure to high +Gz severely reduces blood flow to the visceral organs, including the liver. Whereas previous studies have shown the regulation of MRP2 expression in some experimental animal models, the altered expression of MRP2 associated with +Gz exposure has not yet been investigated. The aim of the present study was to examine the effect of high +Gz exposure on hepatic MRP2 expression. Using a small animal centrifuge, nineteen male Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to +10Gz or +13Gz three times for 3 minutes each. The entire liver was obtained from each rat, and the expression levels of MRP2 were evaluated using immunohistochemistry. MRP2 expression was restricted to the canalicular membranes of hepatocytes. In the control group, MRP2 was localized in a strictly polarized fashion, yielding spider-like canalicular structures. Rats exposed to +10Gz also showed a typical, strong canalicular MRP2 staining, which resembled the control group. By contrast, in rats exposed to +13Gz, the staining was weak, fuzzy and frequently absent among the hepatocytes. This study is the first to describe +Gz exposure-induced alteration in the expression of hepatic MRP2. We observed significantly reduced MRP2 expression in the liver of rats exposed to +13Gz. These finding suggests that down-regulation of hepatic MRP2 occurs after high +Gz exposure.
The Antecedents of Green Purchase Intention among Malaysian Consumers

The objectives of this research are to identify the factors influence the green purchase intention and to determine the relationships between the factors (determinants) and green purchase intention among Malaysian consumers. A descriptive research was conducted to address the research objectives. The survey research was undertaken among the Malaysians who are members of one of the Activist Groups in which is a Non-government Organization (NGO) in Malaysia. The adopted sampling method was simple random sampling. There were 230 usable questionnaires which were analyzed with the Statistical Package for Social Science Software version 19. Five hypotheses were developed for this research and all hypotheses were tested using Pearson Correlation Analysis and Multiple Regression Analysis. The results of the study indicated that government initiative has the most significant influence on green purchase intention among Malaysian consumers. In contrast, eco-label failed to show significant relationship to green purchase intention. The finding of insignificant impact of eco-label on the green purchase intention from this study is in contrast with the finding from Nik Abdul Rashid (2009) because both studies were carried out among Malaysian consumers.
An Expert System to Perform On-Line Controller Tuning

This paper describes an expert system which tunes a Proportional-Integral-Derivative (PID) controller online for a single-input-single-output multiple-lag process with dead time. The expert system examines features of the previous transient responses and their corresponding sets of controller parameters. It determines a new set of controller gains to obtain a more desirable time response. This technique can be used to determine and implement a different set of PID gains for each operating regime and, once in steady state, the system can be used to find optimal parameters for load disturbance rejection. The expert system can be applied to any system of the specified form (aerospace, industrial, etc.) and can be expanded to include additional process models.
MDG-1 prevents high glucose-induced cytotoxicity and inflammation in rat brain microvessel endothelial cells

Hyperglycemia-triggered accelerated endothelial cell injury is a critical event in the process of brain-associated microvascular disease. Ophiopogon japonicus is a traditional Chinese medicine used to treat cerebrovascular and cardiovascular disease. Recent studies have confirmed its beneficial properties, but not the mechanism of action. In the current study, rat brain microvessel endothelial cells (BMECs) were treated with 10 mM D-glucose to establish a high-glucose (HG) induced cell injury model. Herein, pretreatment of BMECs with MDG-1 for 24 h significantly attenuated HG-induced injuries and inflammatory responses, evidenced by increased in cell viability and decreased in cell apoptosis and ROS generation and secretion of IL-8. In addition, pretreatment with MDG-1 markedly reduced HG-induced Cox-2 up-regulation and intranuclear activated NF-κB accumulation. Similar to the protective effect of MDG-1, PDTC depressed not only HG-induced cytotoxicity, but also the secretion of IL-8. Importantly, PDTC obviously attenuated up-regulation of Cox-2 induced by HG. Taken together, these data suggest that MDG-1 protects BMECs against HG-induced injuries and inflammatory responses through inhibition of NF-κB/Cox-2 pathway.
5 CHAPTER ROLE OF TRANSGLUTAMINASES IN CUFF-INDUCED ATHEROSCLEROTIC LESION FORMATION IN FEMORAL ARTERIES OF APOE 3 LEIDEN MICE

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Spatial and Verbal Routes to Number Comparison in Young Children

The ability to compare the numerical magnitude of symbolic numbers represents a milestone in the development of numerical skills. However, it remains unclear how basic numerical abilities contribute to the understanding of symbolic magnitude and whether the impact of these abilities may vary when symbolic numbers are presented as number words (e.g., “six vs. eight”) vs. Arabic numbers (e.g., 6 vs. 8). In the present study on preschool children, we show that comparison of number words is related to cardinality knowledge whereas the comparison of Arabic digits is related to both cardinality knowledge and the ability to spatially map numbers. We conclude that comparison of symbolic numbers in preschool children relies on multiple numerical skills and representations, which can be differentially weighted depending on the presentation format. In particular, the spatial arrangement of digits on the number line seems to scaffold the development of a “spatial route” to understanding the exact magnitude of numerals.
Knowledge of Previous Tasks: Task Similarity Influences Bias in Task Duration Predictions

Bias in predictions of task duration has been attributed to misremembering previous task duration and using previous task duration as a basis for predictions. This research sought to further examine how previous task information affects prediction bias by manipulating task similarity and assessing the role of previous task duration feedback. Task similarity was examined through participants performing two tasks 1 week apart that were the same or different. Duration feedback was provided to all participants (Experiment 1), its recall was manipulated (Experiment 2), and its provision was manipulated (Experiment 3). In all experiments, task similarity influenced bias on the second task, with predictions being less biased when the first task was the same task. However, duration feedback did not influence bias. The findings highlight the pivotal role of knowledge about previous tasks in task duration prediction and are discussed in relation to the theoretical accounts of task duration prediction bias.
Opportunistic Scheduling in Underlay Cognitive Radio based MIMO-RF/FSO Networks

This work proposes an optimal metric for opportunistic scheduling of secondary user transmitters (SU-TXs) in underlay cognitive radio based multiple-input multiple-output radio frequency/free space optical (MIMO-RF/FSO) decode-and-forward system with fixed and proportional interference power constraints. To analyze the performance of the proposed system, the closed-form expressions are derived for the exact and asymptotic outage probabilities considering orthogonal space-time block coded transmission over Nakagami-$m$ fading RF links. Further, the FSO link between the relay and destination eNodeB is modeled as the Generalized M\'{a}laga $(\mathcal{M})$ turbulence channel with pointing errors. Finally, simulation results are presented to develop several interesting insights into the end-to-end system performance and the selection probabilities of SU-TXs. It is also shown that the proposed system outperforms the ones existing in the current literature.
Matrix Co-completion for Multi-label Classification with Missing Features and Labels

We consider a challenging multi-label classification problem where both feature matrix $\X$ and label matrix $\Y$ have missing entries. An existing method concatenated $\X$ and $\Y$ as $[\X; \Y]$ and applied a matrix completion (MC) method to fill the missing entries, under the assumption that $[\X; \Y]$ is of low-rank. However, since entries of $\Y$ take binary values in the multi-label setting, it is unlikely that $\Y$ is of low-rank. Moreover, such assumption implies a linear relationship between $\X$ and $\Y$ which may not hold in practice. In this paper, we consider a latent matrix $\Z$ that produces the probability $\sigma(Z_{ij})$ of generating label $Y_{ij}$, where $\sigma(\cdot)$ is nonlinear. Considering label correlation, we assume $[\X; \Z]$ is of low-rank, and propose an MC algorithm based on subgradient descent named co-completion (COCO) motivated by elastic net and one-bit MC. We give a theoretical bound on the recovery effect of COCO and demonstrate its practical usefulness through experiments.
Interior Point Methods with Adversarial Networks

We present a new methodology, called IPMAN, that combines interior point methods and generative adversarial networks to solve constrained optimization problems with feasible sets that are non-convex or not explicitly defined. Our methodology produces {\epsilon}-optimal solutions and demonstrates that, when there are multiple global optima, it learns a distribution over the optimal set. We apply our approach to synthetic examples to demonstrate its effectiveness and to a problem in radiation therapy treatment optimization with a non-convex feasible set.
Functional attitude theory

P lato proposed that a speaker who wishes to persuade others effectively must not assume that the same persuasive appeal works for everyone. He asserted that each person had a particular type of soul and that to change attitudes, persuasive efforts must be tailored to each. This concept of tailoring persuasive appeals to the needs of individual audience members finds modern expression in a group of persuasion theories identified as functional theories of attitudes. In the 1950s, two groups of scholars developed attitude theories proposing that attitudes serve different functions (Katz, 1960; Smith, Bruner, & White, 1956). They posited that people develop attitudes in order to serve their goals, and that although any particular attitude might serve multiple functions, it would generally serve one more than the others. They theorized that although two people might have an attitude with the exact same valence, that attitude might serve very different functions for each person. For example, Varda might have a positive attitude toward BMWs because they are sturdily built vehicles that help her save money on car repairs, whereas Clover might have a positive attitude toward BMWs because he thinks they will help him impress women. Smith et al. (1956) focused on trying to understand the relationships between attitudes and personality. Taking a clinical perspective, they conducted in-depth interviews to try to understand the personality of 10 men based on their attitudes toward the Soviet Union. From the interviews they then derived inductively their typology of attitude functions. Working independently, and from the thendominant perspectives in psychology (psychoanalysis and behaviorism), Katz (1960) and colleagues (Katz, Sarnoff, & McClintock, 1956; Sarnoff & Katz, 1954) derived attitude functions deductively. Katz’s goal was to define attitude functions as a means of increasing the effectiveness of persuasive appeals. He reasoned that if a persuasive appeal targeted the function that an attitude served for a particular person, then that
Sensible Heat Balance Estimates of Transient Soil Ice Contents

Soil ice content is difficult to quantify. A sensible heat balance with heat pulse probes may indicate soil ice contents. A sensible heat balance can determine transient soil ice content from −5 to 0°C. Soil ice contents below −5°C can be determined with heat capacity changes. Heat pulse probes can monitor soil ice contents at and below 0°C.
Early Malnutrition , Growth , and Development

A large segment of the world population lives on deficient protein-energy intakes and suffers from physical growth retardation, low psychological test performance, and a high prevalence of infant and preschool age mortality. To ascertain the extent to which these events are causally related, the available data on the relationship between early malnutrition and physical growth should be explored, and the implications of early malnutrition and growth retardation for mortality and mental development of the offspring should be analyzed. In the following discussion, early malnutrition includes protein-energy malnutrition (PEM) during intrauterine life, breastfeeding, weaning, and postweaning periods up to the first 5 years of age. Thus it includes children of mothers malnourished during pregnancy and lactation as well as those malnourished during the weaning period and preschool years. The discussion focuses mostly on data from major intervention studies: Bogota (1), Guatemala (2), India (3), Mexico (4), Montreal (5), New York (6), Taiwan (7,8), and the Dutch famine study (9). Although emphasis is put on the integration of existent knowledge, the implications for current action programs are also reviewed.