Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vitamin B-12 status in infancy is positively associated with development and cognitive functioning 5 y later in Nepalese children 1

Background: Poor vitamin B-12 (cobalamin) status is widespread in South Asia. Insufﬁcient vitamin B-12 status has been linked to poor neurodevelopment in young children. Objective: We measured the associations between vitamin B-12 status in infancy (2–12 mo) and the development and cognitive functioning in Nepalese children 5 y later. Design: Vitamin B-12 status was assessed in infancy with the use of plasma cobalamin, total homocysteine (tHcy), and methylmalonic acid (MMA). At 5 y of age, we measured development with the use of the Ages and Stages Questionnaire, 3rd edition (ASQ-3), and cognitive functioning by using the Developmental Neuropsychological Assessment, 2nd edition (NEPSY II), in 320 children. In regression models, we estimated the associations between vitamin B-12 status, including a combined indicator of vitamin B-12 status (3cB12) and scores on the ASQ-3 and NEPSY II subtests. Results: All markers of vitamin B-12 status with the exception of plasma cobalamin were signiﬁcantly associated with the total ASQ-3 scores in the multiple regression models. A 1-unit increase in the 3cB12 score was associated with an increase in the total ASQ-3 score of 4.88 (95% CI: 2.09, 7.68; P = 0.001). Increases in both plasma tHcy and MMA (indicating poorer status) were associated with a decrease in scores on the NEPSY II affect recognition and geometric puzzle subtests. Each unit increment in 3cB12 scores was associated with increases of 0.82 (95% CI: 0.49, 1.14; P , 0.0005), 0.59 (95% CI: 0.10, 1.09; P = 0.020), and 0.24 (95% CI: 0.02, 0.47; P = 0.035) in the affect recognition, geometric puzzle, and block construction scores, respectively. Conclusions: Vitamin B-12 status in infancy is associated with development and performance on social perception tasks and visuospatial abilities at 5 y of age. The long-term effects of poor vitamin B-12 status in infancy need further investigation in randomized controlled trials.
Three- and four-element Windkessel models: Assessment of their fitting performance in a large cohort of healthy middle-aged individuals

Lumped-parameter models are used to estimate the global arterial properties by fitting the model to measured (aortic) pressure and flow. Different model configurations coexist, and it is still an open question as to which model optimally reflects the arterial tree and leads to correct estimates of arterial properties. An assessment was made of the performance of (a) the three-element Windkessel model (WK3) consisting of vascular resistance R, total arterial compliance C, and characteristic impedance Zc; (b) a four-element model with an inertance element L placed in parallel with Zc (WK4-p); and (c) a four-element model with L placed in series with Zc (WK4-s). Models were fitted to data measured non-invasively in 2404 healthy subjects, aged between 35 and 55 years. It was found that model performance segregated into two groups. In a group containing 20 per cent of the dataset (characterized by low blood pressure and wave reflection) the WK4-p model outperformed the other models, with model behaviour as envisioned by its promoters. In these cases, the WK3 and WK4-s models led to increased overestimation of total arterial compliance and underestimation of characteristic impedance. However, in about 80 per cent of the cases, the WK4-p model showed a behaviour that was very similar to that of the WK3 and WK4-s models. Here, the WK4-s model yielded the best quality of fit, although model parameters reached physically impossible values for L in about 12 per cent of all cases. The debate about which lumped-parameter model is the better approximation of the arterial tree is therefore still not fully resolved.
A Ka-band CMOS low-phase-variation variable gain amplifier with good matching capacity

This paper presents a Ka-band variable gain amplifier (VGA) fabricated in a standard 0.18-μm CMOS process using the proposed cascade amplifier method to achieve both low phase variation and good output matching capacity in a variable gain mode. The proposed VGA achieves 14.2 dB gain control range with a phase variation of 8.9°. The input and output reflection coefficients versus the gain control bias at 26.6 GHz are below -19 dB and -10 dB, respectively. A 14.2 dB gain control range with low phase variation and good input and output matching is achieved. The chip size is 0.65 mm2 with pads.
Equity versus non-equity partnership strategies for leaders, challengers, and niche players

Competitive strategy should fit well with the focal firm's market position. This study extends this line of research to include a firm's technology positioning by considering market position at the industry level. Two inter-firm cooperative strategies considers equity-base (joint ventures) and non-equity alliances as effecting factors. The data file obtains that patent, inter-firm cooperative agreements, and financial data of technology firms from 1997 to 2008. This research demonstrates different strategic logic of industry leaders, challengers, and niche players. The empirical results show a nonlinear trend (an inverted U-shaped) to describe the relationship between technology position and non-equity alliances. As compared with joint ventures, challengers are less strategically active in non-equity alliances to compete against industry market leaders. However, niche players are more likely to engage in non-equity alliances than industry leaders when as compared with joint ventures. In terms of theoretical contribution, this study extends the concept of market competitive strategy from the product-market level to that of industry network level. It also broadens the scope of positioning strategy to include technology so that the abundant literature of the knowledge-based view of the firm can be integrated with the market positioning literature. Moreover, the empirical results will provide strategic implications and a systematic framework in managing partnership strategies for the business managers in the future.
Variational Gaussian Mixture Models for Speech Emotion Recognition

In this paper applicability of variational methods for estimation of parameters of models used for speech emotion recognition is discussed.When the amount of data available is not adequate for training complex models, variational Bayesian method helps in training models with less amount of data. It also helps in determining the optimal complexity of the model. Our studies on Berlin emotional speech database show that variational methods perform better than maximum likelihood approach to estimate parameters of Gaussian mixture models used in speech emotion recognition.
Online learning terrain classification for adaptive velocity control

Safe teleoperation during critical missions, such as urban search and rescue, and bomb disposal, requires careful velocity control when different types of terrain are found in the scenario. This can particularly be challenging when mission time is limited and the operator's field of view affected. This paper presents a method for online adapting robot velocities according to the terrain classification results combined from vision- and laser-based classifiers. The vision-based classifier is self-supervised and adapts itself according to the vibration sensing and the pose estimation of the robot. The image patches where the vibration data are gathered are used to train the vision-based classifier. The Support Vector Machine is used for the laser-based classifier to train and classify the data. The final prediction result is produced by using the Naive Bayes Classifier to fuse the vision- and laser-based classifiers. The system is robust to illumination variations, and can be improved online given feedback from the operator.
238 ARTERIOSCLEROSIS VOL 6 , No 2 , MARCH / APRIL 1986 Macroscopic Examination and Chemical Analysis of the Aorta

The effects of diltiazem, a calcium antagonist, on the development of atherosclerosis were studied in Japanese white rabbits. The rabbits were examined at the end of 10 weeks on the following regimens; 1) a diet of standard pellets and daily intraperitoneal (ip) injections of saline; 2) a diet of pellets containing 1% cholesterol and daily ip injections of saline; or 3) a diet of pellets containing 1% cholesterol and daily ip injections of diltiazem (50 mg). The plasma total and LDL cholesterol levels for the third group were significantly lower than those of the cholesterol diet group. Macroscopically, atheromatous lesions covered 26.7% ± 6.7% (mean ± SE) of the intimal surface of the aorta in the second group, and 0.7% ± 0.3% in the third group (p < 0.005). The levels of cholesterol, calcium, and uronic acid in the aortic tissue of the second group were significantly higher than those in the third. We concluded that diltiazem administered intraperitoneally suppresses the plasma total and LDL cholesterol elevation induced by the cholesterol diet and inhibits experimentally-induced atherosclerosis. (Arteriosclerosis 6:237-241, March/April 1986)
Research on simplified equivalent method of 3D simulation model for temperature distribution of HVDC submarine cables

Temperature distribution and ampacity are the two important parameters to reflect the operating state of a cables. According to the ±160kV DC submarine XLPE cable of Nan'ao multi-terminal VSC system, the three-dimensional (3D) transient simulation model of the temperature distribution of the submarine cable under the typical ampacity was set up by using the COMSOL Multiphysics finite element analysis software, and a simplified equivalent method of the model was proposed. Multiple thin layers and the adjacent medium were used as three equivalent layers. The thermal conductivity of the equivalent layer was handled by harmonic mean method, and the specific heat capacity and density of the equivalent layer were calculated according to IEC 60287 standard, which solved the problem that the mesh generation in thin layer of the submarine cable was too dense in simulation. By comparing the model to the steady state and transient temperature distribution of the cable and the calculation time before and after simplification and equivalence under the typical ampacity, the correctness of the simplified equivalent method is verified and greatly reduces the calculation time.
Toolset and Program Repository for Code Coverage-Based Test Suite Analysis and Manipulation

Code coverage is often used in academic and industrial practice of white-box software testing. Various test optimization methods, e.g. Test selection and prioritization, rely on code coverage information, but other related fields benefit from it as well, such as fault localization. These methods require access to the fine details of coverage information and efficient ways of processing this data. The purpose of the (free) SoDA library and toolset is to provide an efficient set of data structures and algorithms which can be used to prepare, store and analyze in various ways data related to code coverage. The focus of SoDA is not on the calculation of coverage data (such as instrumentation and test execution) but on the analysis and manipulation of test suites based on such information. An important design goal of the library was to be usable on industrial-size programs and test suites. Furthermore, there is no limitation on programming language, analysis granularity and coverage criteria. In this paper, we demonstrate the purpose and benefits of the library, the associated toolset, which also includes a graphical user interface, as well as possible usage scenarios. SoDA also includes a repository of prepared programs, which are from small to large sizes and can be used for experimentation and as a benchmark for code coverage related research.
Uncivil Youth: Race, Activism, and Affirmative Governmentality

Pen’s National Front gained 25% of the vote pushing President Hollande’s ruling Socialists to third place. In Greece, Golden Dawn, a neo-Nazi party led by Nik Michaloliakos won three seats and got 9.4% of the vote. Geert Wilders and the Netherlands Party for Freedom retained four seats. In Sweden, right-wing Sweden Democratic leader, Jimmie Akesson, led his party to win its first two seats. Despite a history of racism and xenophobia, a cadre of prominent right-wing leaders continues to emerge alongside Nick Griffin and win votes. This troublesome fact makes Goodwin’s work even more relevant.
Book Reviews: Far Too Sexy a Topic

dress issues of literacy alone, but places literacy in context with language, learning, schooling, or society. Nonetheless, the works reflect a continuing insularity, with few references crossing disciplines and with underlying concepts remaining different in intent, even when vocabulary is shared. The volumes hint of something more than they deliver; missing is the intellectual argument that is borne of a basic reconceptualization of the issues—using what is known to move forward not merely in parallel, but to engage in dialogue in a way that makes it possible to relate findings across fields. Such a dialogue might lead to identification of shared issues and problems and a group of colleagues who, while maintaining their disciplinary integrity, are able to argue with each other about shared concerns instead of talking past one another.
Complete Genome Sequence of Avian Paramyxovirus Strain APMV-6/red-crested pochard/Balkhash/5842/2013 from Kazakhstan

ABSTRACT An avian paramyxovirus 6 strain was isolated during a wild bird monitoring study in Kazakhstan in 2013. The virus was isolated from a wild duck red-crested pochard (Netta rufina) in southeastern Kazakhstan. Here, we present the complete genome sequence of the virus.
Enhancement of speech corrupted by acoustic noise

This paper describes a method for enhancing speech corrupted by broadband noise. The method is based on the spectral noise subtraction method. The original method entails subtracting an estimate of the noise power spectrum from the speech power spectrum, setting negative differences to zero, recombining the new power spectrum with the original phase, and then reconstructing the time waveform. While this method reduces the broadband noise, it also usually introduces an annoying "musical noise". We have devised a method that eliminates this "musical noise" while further reducing the background noise. The method consists in subtracting an overestimate of the noise power spectrum, and preventing the resultant spectral components from going below a preset minimum level (spectral floor). The method can automatically adapt to a wide range of signal-to-noise ratios, as long as a reasonable estimate of the noise spectrum can be obtained. Extensive listening tests were performed to determine the quality and intelligibility of speech enhanced by our method. Listeners unanimously preferred the quality of the processed speech. Also, for an input signal-to-noise ratio of 5 dB, there was no loss of intelligibility associated with the enhancement technique.
Female leaders’ experiences of psychosocial working conditions and its health consequences in Swedish public human service organizations

Municipal workplaces have high levels of sickness absence, and deterioration of the psychosocial work environment has been most pronounced for women and employees in this sector of Swedish working life. This study explores how female leaders in one rural municipality in Sweden experience their psychosocial working conditions and its health consequences. Interviews were carried out with 20 female leaders. Data were analyzed with a content analysis method using major dimensions of work stress models. These were job demands, job control, job resources, social support, and its health consequences. The analysis shows that the leaders experience high and conflicting job demands, limited possibilities to influence their work situation, insufficient job resources and social support, and limited time for their own health promotion. However, the leaders experience possibilities to develop skills in their jobs and opportunities to participate in educational programs. The analyses confirm the need for improvements in the prerequisites for female leaders in public human service organizations. It is important to improve female leaders’ psychosocial working conditions by implementing a more narrow control range, increased personal and economical recourses, leadership support, and leader development programs.
Introduction: The legitimising effect of social and environmental disclosures – a theoretical foundation

This paper serves as an introduction to this special issue of Accounting, Auditing & Accountability Journal; an issue which embraces themes associated with social and environmental reporting (SAR) and its role in maintaining or creating organisational legitimacy. In an effort to place this research in context the paper begins by making reference to contemporary trends occurring in social and environmental accounting research generally, and this is then followed by an overview of some of the many research questions which are currently being addressed in the area. Understanding motivations for disclosure is shown to be one of the issues attracting considerable research attention, and the desire to legitimise an organisation’s operations is in turn shown to be one of the many possible motivations. The role of legitimacy theory in explaining managers’ decisions is then discussed and it is emphasised that legitimacy theory, as it is currently used, must still be considered to be a relatively under‐developed theory of managerial behaviour. Nevertheless, it is argued that the theory provides useful insights. Finally, the paper indicates how the other papers in this issue of AAAJ contribute to the ongoing development of legitimacy theory in SAR research.
Scales and Scale‐like Structures

We present a method for generating scales and scale‐like structures on a polygonal mesh through surface replacement. As input, we require a triangular mesh that will be covered with scales and one or more proxy‐models to be used as the scale's shape. A user begins scale generation by drawing a lateral line on the model to control the distribution and orientation of scales on the surface. We then create a vector field over the surface to control an anisotropic Voronoi tessellation, which represents the region occupied by each scale. Next we replace these regions by cutting the proxy model to match the boundary of the Voronoi region and deform the cut model onto the surface. The result is a fully connected 2‐manifold that is suitable for subsequent post‐processing applications like surface subdivision.
Coherence based analysis of distributed scatterers in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau

In Qinghai-Tibet Plateau, permafrost is usually full of ice underground and sensitive to the temperature. So due to the global warming and seasonal change of temperature, great changes of surface in physical characteristics would occur in the temporal dimension. This could lead to the decorrelation between two SAR images, and hinder the application of Interferometric Synthetic Aperture Radar (InSAR) technique in this area. Additionally, distributed scatterers (DS) spread all over the tundra. In this paper, we first introduce DS analytical method, and use 45 ENVISAT-ASAR images to analyze the coherence of several typical ground features. The result shows that DS analytical method could improve the accuracy of coherence estimation, mainly railway and road in our study area.
The expression of native and cultured human retinal pigment epithelial cells grown in different culture conditions

Aim: To determine the transcriptional proximity of retinal pigment epithelium (RPE) cells grown under different culture conditions and native RPE. Methods: ARPE-19 cells were grown under five conditions in 10% CO2: “subconfluent” in DMEM/F12 + 10% FBS, “confluent” in serum and serum withdrawn, and “differentiated” for 2.5 months in serum and serum withdrawn medium. Native RPE was laser microdissected. Total RNA was extracted, reverse transcribed, and radiolabelled probes were hybridised to an array containing 5353 genes. Arrays were evaluated by hierarchical cluster analysis and significance analysis of microarrays. Results: 78% of genes were expressed by native RPE while 45.3–47.7% were expressed by ARPE-19 cells, depending on culture condition. While the most abundant genes were expressed by native and cultured cells, significant differences in low abundance genes were seen. Hierarchical cluster analysis showed that confluent and differentiated, serum withdrawn cultures clustered closest to native RPE, and that serum segregated cultured cells from native RPE. The number of differentially expressed genes and their function, and profile of expressed and unexpressed genes, demonstrate differences between native and cultured cells. Conclusions: While ARPE-19 cells have significant value for studying RPE behaviour, investigators must be aware of how culture conditions can influence the mRNA phenotype of the cell.
PROBABILITY OF SPERM DETECTION IN NONOBSTRUCTIVE AZOOSPERMIC MEN UNDERGOING TESTICULAR SPERM EXTRACTION PROCEDURES UNRELATED TO CLINICAL PARAMETERS

The study was conducted to evaluate the significance of preoperative clinical parameters for detection of mature testicular sperm cells in nonobstructive azoospermic men. Sixty-five consecutive men with nonobstructive azoospermia underwent testicular sperm extraction procedures. Testicular samples were analyzed histologically with patterns classified as mature spermatogenesis (normal or partial), arrest of spermatogenesis, and Sertoli cell only. Testicular sperm cells were isolated for use in an IVF/ICSI program. Histologic patterns and detection rate of sperm cells were correlated to clinical characteristics. Mature sperm cells were found in all levels of serum FSH. The men were divided into 3 groups based on their clinical characteristics (serum FSH level and testicular size). The distribution of the different testicular histologic patterns, as well as detection rate of sperm cells, was similar in all groups. No correlation was found between serum levels of FSH, LH, prolactin, or testosterone and sperm presence. None of these parameters, nor the testicular size and consistency, can serve as predictive variables of the histological pattern or the presence of mature sperm cells in the testicular biopsies in cases of nonobstructive azoospermia. Until an effective predictive tool is available, a trial of sperm retrieval is recommended for all azoospermic men independent of their clinical characteristics.
Age and Proficiency in L2 Attrition: Data from Two Siblings

This paper investigates whether any difference exists in the degree of second language attrition between two siblings in terms of grammatical complexity, grammatical accuracy, lexical complexity, and lexical productivity based on their storytelling data collected over the period of 31 months. The subjects’ L1 and L2 are Japanese and English, respectively. The siblings (one male, one female) have similar L2 profiles with respect to attained proficiency, including literacy, but differ in age. The ages of returning home were 7;0, an age reported to be more vulnerable to attrition and 10;0, an age reported to be more resistant. The siblings showed similar attrition patterns suggesting that an attained high proficiency level including the acquisition of literacy skills is an important factor in the maintenance of L2. One exception was grammatical accuracy, but the difference surfaced only after the second year, indicating that the period of disuse was differentially affected according to their ages. The younger sibling's data also suggest that maturational factors may play a role in successfully handling grammatical complexity and accuracy simultaneously.