Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
MTHFR C677T mutation affects adipogenic differentiation abilities of human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells

The effects of 5,10-Methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) C677T polymorphism on human bone marrow-derived mesenchymal stem cells (hBM-MSCs) viability, morphology, physiology and differentiation capacity were investigated in this study. For this purpose, primary hBM-MSCs with wild type (WT, C/C), heterozygote (HTZ, C/T) and homozygote (HMZ, T/T) for the MTHFR gene were obtained with ethical committee permission and donor informed. Mutations were detected using RFLP and Sanger sequencing methods from genomic DNA isolated from cells, colonization properties were investigated by CFU-F test and proliferative differences were investigated by MTT test. Adipogenic, osteogenic, and chondrogenic differentiation were induced to study changes in their differentiation potentials, and the results were statistically analyzed using one-way ANOVA with Graphpad Prism. A total of 13 donors were screened and there were no differences in the hBM-MSC markers and in vitro morphologies of the cells. While there were significant differences between WT and HTZ as a result of the CFU-F test, there were no significant differences in the MTT test after 24 and 48 h. As a result of differentiation tests, it was found that adipogenic differentiation was significantly more in HMZ cells than WT cells. Osteogenic and chondrogenic differentiation results did not give statistically significant results. As a result of these experiments, adipogenic differentiation was found to be affected by the MTHFR genotype in hBM-MSCs.
一流110 m ハードル走選手のハードリング動作に関するバイオメカニクス的分析：角運動量保存則からの検討

The purpose of this study was to investigate the characteristics of the angular momentum of the limbs during the airborne phase of sprint hurdling. Twenty-nine male hurdlers participated in this study. Their hurdling motions at the seventh hurdle were videotaped using two high-speed cameras. During the first half of the airborne phase, the faster hurdlers required a large angular momentum of the lead leg, which they compensated for by a large counter direction of angular momentum in the trail leg. During the second half of the airborne phase, faster hurdlers swung the lead leg for a shorter duration by adjusting the head and trunk. However, if hurdlers overemphasise the downward motion of the lead leg, this can result in excessive backward and left leaning of the trunk upon landing.
A STUDY ON THE EFFECTIVENESS OF TSUNAMI WARNING SYSTEM IN SRI LANKA

- The Indian Ocean tsunami of 26th December 2004 was the greatest natural disaster ever to hit Sri Lanka. This is considered as the world’s first Internet-mediated natural disaster as it got extensive coverage with the power of satellite and Internet technologies. However, the tsunami warning message did not reach the respective coastal communities on time, resulting in massive damage to people and properties. Even though no more tsunamis hit Sri Lanka again, a few early warning and preparedness measures have been taken. Tsunami warningsare generated from tsunami towers and these must provide accurate messages. And the system is supposed to work effectively and accurately to avoid causing panic and unnecessary disruption. The purpose of this research is to identify what factors must be considered to make the tsunami warning system work more effectively. A descriptive research methodology has been used for this research, based on a selected sample from the coastal population in Galle that included 60 cases. The Study has been carried out over a period of eight months and it used a questionnaire as a survey instrument. This study proposes that technology, communication, administration and human resourcesare the most critical factors needed to put in place an effective tsunami warning system in Sri Lanka. This will support government agencies to deploy a wider range of response strategies.
Plenary RED CELLS, IRON, AND ERYTHROPOIESIS Combinatorial effects of malaria season, iron de ﬁ ciency, and in ﬂ ammation determine plasma hepcidin concentration in African children

both populations, similar combinatorial effects of upregulating stimuli (iron stores and to a lesser extent inflammation) and downregulating stimuli (erythropoietic drive) on hepcidin levels. However, malaria season was also a significant factor and was associated with an altered balance of these opposing factors. Consistent with these changes, hepcidin levels were reduced whereas the prevalence of ID was increased at the end of the malaria season. More prevalent ID and lower hepcidin likely reflect an enhanced requirement for iron and an ability to efficiently absorb it at the end of the malaria season. These results, therefore, have implications for ID and malaria control programs. ( Blood . 2014;123(21):3221-3229) competitive enzyme-linked immunosorbent assay (Hepcidin-25 [human] EIA Kit; Bachem). 19 Standards and samples were analyzed in duplicate or triplicate; a 9-point serial twofold dilution stan- dardcurve wasused.Samplesgiving readingsoutside the standard curvelinear region were repeated at appropriate dilutions. Readings with a coef ﬁ cient of variation (CV) . 10% were repeated. The lower limit of detection (LOD) was estimatedas0.08ng/mLbasedonthehepcidinvaluecorrespondingto3standard deviationsbelowthemeannohepcidinblankopticaldensityat450nm;undiluted samples giving readings , LOD were reported as LOD/2 5 0.04 ng/mL.
Gamma ray induced positive alterations in morphogenetic and yield attributing traits of finger millet ( Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn.) in M 2 generation

Induced mutagenesis by gamma rays plays a potent promising technology to be applied for crop improvement through breeding methods, especially in tiny florets possessing self - pollinated plants such as cereals. Finger millet ( Eleusine coracana (L.) Gaertn. ) which always ensured for valuable nutrients, as well as famine tolerant crop to supply food for global population throughout the year. The present study was performed to assess the spectrum and frequency of macro mutants induced by gamma radiations in M2 generation finger millet. The chlorophyll mutants viz., albina, xantha, chlorina and viridis and morphological mutants such as tall, dwarf, bushy, brittle stalk and broad leaf were recorded in different doses. Among the mutagen doses 600 Gy dose induced maximum increase in mean values and phenotypic and genotypic coefficients of variation for the plant height (cm), number of leaves per plant, leaf length (cm), number of tillers per plant, number of panicles per plant, panicle length, days to 50% flowering, and 1000 seeds weight. Except for panicle number/plant and 1000 seed weight, all traits showed high heritability in all doses. The results revealed a progressive de-crease in mean values of quantitative traits with the increase in doses. The present study provides an idea about the optimum dose of gamma rays from a pool of doses that could be employed in future breeding programmes.
On the stability of black holes with nonlinear electromagnetic fields

The stability of three static and spherically symmetric black hole solutions with nonlinear electromagnetism as a source is investigated in three different ways. We show that the specific heat of all the solutions displays an infinite discontinuity with a change of sign, but the turning point method indicates that the solutions are thermodynamically stable (much in the same way as in the case of the Reissner-Nordstrom geometry). We also show that the black holes analyzed here are dynamically stable, thus suggesting that there may be a relation between thermodynamical and dynamical stability for nonvacuum black holes.
PentaGOD: Stepping beyond Traditional GOD with Five Parties

Secure multiparty computation (MPC) is increasingly being used to address privacy issues in various applications. The recent work of Alon et al. (CRYPTO'20) identified the shortcomings of traditional MPC and defined a Friends-and-Foes (FaF) security notion to address the same. We showcase the need for FaF security in real-world applications such as dark pools. This subsequently necessitates designing concretely efficient FaF-secure protocols. Towards this, keeping efficiency at the center stage, we design ring-based FaF-secure MPC protocols in the small-party honest-majority setting. Specifically, we provide (1,1)-FaF secure 5 party computation protocols (5PC) that consider one malicious and one semi-honest corruption and constitutes the optimal setting for attaining honest-majority. At the heart of it lies the multiplication protocol that requires a single round of communication with 8 ring elements (amortized). To facilitate having FaF-secure variants for several applications, we design a variety of building blocks optimized for our FaF setting. The practicality of the designed (1,1)-FaF secure 5PC framework is showcased by benchmarking dark pools. In the process, we also improve the efficiency and security of the dark pool protocols over the existing traditionally secure ones. This improvement is witnessed as a gain of up to 62x in throughput compared to the existing ones. Finally, to demonstrate the versatility of our framework, we also benchmark popular deep neural networks.
Financial literacy and the use of credit cards in Mexico

The objective of this research is to determine the level of financial literacy of Mexican cardholders and its relationship with sociodemographic variables. The influence of financial education on the level of financial literacy of this group, as well as the relationship between their level of financial literacy and their behavior towards debt contracted via credit cards are also explored. Data was obtained from the Mexican Survey of Financial Inclusion (ENIF, 2018). The sample was made up of 2,170 people who declared receiving income from salary and having a credit card. A Probit regression model was used, with which the significant variables related to the debtor behavior of the respondents were identified. The following sociodemographic control variables were included: gender, age, area of residence, country region, educational level, income from salary, economic dependents, marital status and financial training. The results indicate that Mexican cardholders have a higher level of financial literacy than the general population and that those with less financial literacy are more likely to belong to the group called “ fee payer s” . It was also found that women have a lower level of financial literacy, however, it is men who are more likely to belong to the fee payer group.
PGAS Communication for Heterogeneous Clusters with FPGAs

PGAS Communication for Heterogeneous Clusters with FPGAs Varun Sharma Master of Applied Science Graduate Department of Electrical and Computer Engineering University of Toronto 2020 This work presents a heterogeneous communication library for generic clusters of processors and FPGAs. This library, Shoal, supports the partitioned global address space (PGAS) memory model for applications. PGAS is a shared memory model for clusters that creates a distinction between local and remote memory accesses. Through Shoal and its common application programming interface for hardware and software, applications can be more freely migrated to the optimal platform and deployed onto dynamic cluster topologies. The library is tested using a thorough suite of microbenchmarks to establish latency and throughput performance. We also show an implementation of the Jacobi method that demonstrates the ease with which applications can be moved between platforms to yield faster run times.
W P S ERIES Bank Monitoring in Construction Lending

The Center Financial Research (CFR) Working Paper Series allows CFR staff and their coauthors to circulate preliminary research findings to stimulate discussion and critical comment. Views and opinions expressed in CFR Working Papers reflect those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect those of the FDIC or the United States. Comments and suggestions are welcome and should be directed to the authors. References should cite this research as a “FDIC CFR Working Paper” and should note that findings and conclusions in working papers may be preliminary and subject to revision. Although a body of theoretical literature asserts that a key advantage of banks is their ability to monitor borrowers, we believe this is the first paper to empirically examine determinants of bank monitoring within non-syndicated loans. Using a proprietary transaction-level database consisting of nearly 30,000 multiple-draw construction loans, we observe the frequency at which the bank monitors these loans by conducting on-site inspections, the contents of the reports, and borrower actions over the life of the loan. Consistent with theoretical predictions, we find evidence that banks trade-off monitoring with many types of favorable loan origination terms. Monitoring is also less frequent on loans where the bank has a prior relationship with either the borrower or project contractor. Textual analysis on the inspection reports indicates that reports that are more negative are associated with a greater likelihood of draw denials, indicating that banks use the information that they collect in real time. Subsequently, we provide a comprehensive analysis on the determinants of construction loan default and show that more monitoring ultimately decreases loan default within an instrumental variable framework.
to Interactive comment on and temporal in river corridor exchange across a

Adam and colleagues have developed a truly impressive data set from which they test a specific hypothesis about scaling of river corridor exchange. The topic is important, not least because it challenges some of the major pronouncements derived from steady-state models that assume network scaling rules. The technical treatment of the breakthrough curves is exemplary, spanning the full complement of modern approaches, and the writing is uniformly clear and compelling. In short, this is a paper that clearly merits publication. Below I document several areas where I found the paper in need of clarity, with one area in particular inviting at least some additional discussion if not some new analysis (#2 below). My recommendation of minor revision is predicated on the former (discussion), recognizing that some additional statistical treatment of the responses would more accurately considered major revisions. I’ve also created a list of minor comments, provided in no particular order (typos, questions, comments).
Contextualizing Microcredit in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary: A Focus Group Exploration

: Microfinance is gaining importance as a tool to reduce poverty and promote financial and social inclusion. The main goal of the paper is to analyze the role of microcredit to solve the problem of the credit access to vulnerable people. The paper focuses on the direct experience of people who have used microcredit living in Bosnia-Herzegovina and Hungary to analyze the use of microcredit in these areas. From the methodological point of view, the research uses focus groups to investigate on customer relations with the banking system, microcredit, social and financial exclusion, and possible alternatives to microcredit. In this way, it is possible to analyze mechanisms through which the involvement in microcredit operations results in positive (and negative) effects on people's lives. Results show that microcredit is a great opportunity to facilitate employment, create jobs, increase productivity, improve living conditions promote social integration. Results show that services of mentoring and coaching improve entrepreneurship skills or vocational (technical) know-how. These services help to improve access to finance for vulnerable individuals and to support better living conditions. We identify current good practices among microfinance services to understand the future potential role of microcredit propose concrete in particular areas.
Social media as an e-portfolio platform: Effects on L2 learners’ speaking performance

In the past few years, there has been an increase in the use of social media for language pedagogy. While some high-profile social media platforms have been extensively studied, their potential as an electronic portfolio (e-portfolio) is under-researched, particularly in the area of L2 (i.e., English) speaking. Thus, this study fills in the vacuum by investigating the effects of social media as an e-portfolio platform for the speaking performance of L2 students whose L1 is Chinese. Using a quasi-experimental design, the findings demonstrate the viability of a social media-based e-portfolio for significantly improving college students’ speaking performances. These results were linked to three factors, namely the (a) social pressure from high visibility, (b) sense of captive audience, and (c) increased level of engagement due to the interactive features of the platform. Some technical and learner/learning-related challenges were also reported by students. Implications for L2 speaking pedagogy, assessment, and future studies are discussed.
Articulatory Marking of Focus in German

This study reports on a production experiment investigating articulatory means of encoding different focus structures in German. Previous investigations in this field have been restricted to words in maximally diverging focus structures (contrastive focus vs. background) and thus to the accented-unaccented dichotomy (Cho, 2005; Avesani et al., 2007). It is thus unclear from these studies whether the articulatory differences found, such as greater jaw lowering or lip aperture in contrastive focus, are simply due to the presence of an accent, or whether they involve the expression of additional prominence or emphasis as well (Dohen et al., 2006), suggesting that differences in articulation might be found independently of whether a word is accented or not. We concentrated on lip kinematics (Byrd, 2000) in CVC target syllables, comparing different types of focus (contrastive, non-contrastive) and different sizes of focus domain (broad, narrow), as well as comparing focus and background. The lip parameters investigated are greater displacement, longer duration, higher peak velocity and lower stiffness, all of which may enhance the sonority and the prominence of the vowel.
The Global Financial Crisis (GFC), Equity Market Liquidity and Capital Structure: Evidence from Australia

This study investigates how the recent global financial crisis (GFC) has changed the relationship between equity market liquidity and the capital structure of firms listed on the Australian Securities Exchange (ASX). The study takes into account the recent GFC by splitting the sample period into pre-GFC, GFC and post-GFC periods. It has been suggested that firms whose stocks are liquid incur lower costs of issuing equity in comparison to those with less liquid stocks prefer equity to debt. This study employs least square panel regression analysis using a sample of 792 companies listed on the ASX during the period from 2003 to 2011. The study reveals that stock liquidity has a negative effect on leverage. However, this impact was negligible immediately after the crisis. The other important finding is the alteration of the roles of profitability and earning volatility. While profitability was negatively related to leverage before the GFC, it has become irrelevant in the post-GFC period. On the contrary, earnings volatility was not important during the pre-GFC period, but it has become negatively correlated with leverage in the post-GFC period. Overall, the study has found that the relationship between leverage and the determinants of capital structure has been significantly changed by the GFC.
R EVISITING TRANSPOSED CONVOLUTIONS FOR IN - TERPRETING RAW WAVEFORM SOUND EVENT RECOG - NITION CNN S BY SONIFICATION

Most recent work on the interpretability of audio and speech processing deep neural networks (DNNs) interprets spectral information modelled by the first layer, relying solely on visual means of interpretation. In this work, we propose sonifi-cation , a method to interpret intermediate feature representations of sound event recognition (SER) convolutional neural networks (CNNs) trained on raw wave-forms by mapping these representations back into the discrete-time input signal domain, highlighting substructures in the input that maximally activate a feature map as intelligible acoustic events. We use sonification to compare supervised and self-supervised feature hierarchies and observe that deep self-supervised layers learn more acoustically discernible representations compared to their supervised counterparts. We also quantify similarity between the sonifications and their corresponding inputs using spectral coherence on a layer-by-layer basis.
The Motivational Factors and Level of Satisfaction of Millennial Bank Employees

: The purpose of the study is to determine the motivation and level of satisfaction of the 102 rank-and-file millennial respondents among the universal and commercial banks that are currently operating in Tarlac City as well as the relationship and influence of the motivational factors and level of satisfaction of the respondents. The study was anchored on Herzberg’s Two Factor Theory where hygiene and motivator factors were used to determine the motivation of the millennial respondents. Furthermore, the Job Satisfaction Survey was used to determine their level of satisfaction. Pearson r and Regression Analysis were utilized to identify the relationship and influence of the motivational factors and level of satisfaction in the study. The results were aimed to provide significant insights that practitioners such as bank managers, and associations within the industry could refer to in motivating and satisfying the millennials in the workplace and be useful to the millennial respondents, academicians, and future researchers. Furthermore, the study aimed to forward significant implications to human resource management in the banking industry. Based on the findings, the millennial respondents are moderately motivated and satisfied, and all the motivational factors were revealed to have a significant relationship to the level of satisfaction of the millennial respondents. Furthermore, among the motivational factors, salary and recognition were shown to positively influence the level of satisfaction of millennial bank employees.
Preseismic oscillating electric field "strange attractor" like precursor, of T=14 days, triggered by M1 tidal wave. Application on large (Ms > 6.0R) EQs in Greece (March 18th, 2006 - November 17th, 2008)

The "strange attractor like" precursor, calculated from the Earth's oscillating electric field registered at PYR and HIO monitoring sites located in Greece, is studied in the domain of T = 14 days. It is assumed that the generating precursory signals focal mechanism is triggered by the corresponding M1 (moon declination) tidal wave. The obtained results from the analysis of eight (8) cases of large (Ms>6.0R) EQs that occurred from March 18th, 2006 to November 17th, 2008 suggest the validity of the method. Moreover, it is found that the specific methodology applied for T = 14 days behaves very closely to the same one when applied for T = 1 day even though there is a resolution decrease in the calculated predictive time window for the occurrence of the oncoming large EQ. It is speculated that this type of precursor, once it is present in one distinct oscillating component of the seismic precursory generated electric field, then, most probably, it is present in most of its other oscillating components. The latter suggests the investigation of the preseismic precursory electric field at its longer wavelengths i.e. components triggered by the Ssa (6 months, moon declination) oscillating components. The large value of the obtained success rate (predicted EQs / total no. of large EQs) suggests its use as a time prediction tool in the domain of the "short-term prediction".