Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Examining STEM Bachelor’s Degree Completion for Students With Differing Propensities at College Entry

The study utilized data from the Beginning Postsecondary Students Longitudinal Study (BPS:04/09) to examine factors that affect 4-year college students’ likelihoods of completing a science, technology, engineering, or mathematics (STEM) bachelor’s degree within 6 years of entering college. Results highlight the lasting influence of high school academic achievement, the importance of declaring a STEM major early in a student’s college career, and disparate effects of academic performance and levels of social and academic integration. The findings suggest that students who initially may not be oriented toward STEM fields upon entering college may particularly benefit from receiving information on and encouragement toward STEM programs of study during their first year of college.
A Novel Strategy Involved Anti-Oxidative Defense: The Conversion of NADH into NADPH by a Metabolic Network

The reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide phosphate (NADPH) is pivotal to the cellular anti-oxidative defence strategies in most organisms. Although its production mediated by different enzyme systems has been relatively well-studied, metabolic networks dedicated to the biogenesis of NADPH have not been fully characterized. In this report, a metabolic pathway that promotes the conversion of reduced nicotinamide adenine dinucleotide (NADH), a pro-oxidant into NADPH has been uncovered in Pseudomonas fluorescens exposed to oxidative stress. Enzymes such as pyruvate carboxylase (PC), malic enzyme (ME), malate dehydrogenase (MDH), malate synthase (MS), and isocitrate lyase (ICL) that are involved in disparate metabolic modules, converged to create a metabolic network aimed at the transformation of NADH into NADPH. The downregulation of phosphoenol carboxykinase (PEPCK) and the upregulation of pyruvate kinase (PK) ensured that this metabolic cycle fixed NADH into NADPH to combat the oxidative stress triggered by the menadione insult. This is the first demonstration of a metabolic network invoked to generate NADPH from NADH, a process that may be very effective in combating oxidative stress as the increase of an anti-oxidant is coupled to the decrease of a pro-oxidant.
Enterprise resource planning and organisational innovation: a management perspective

Purpose – To explore the organisational issues involved in implementing an enterprise resource Planning (ERP) system as the main approach to change management within a large global organisation, from a management perspective.Design/methodology/approach – A case based research approach is used which includes participant observation and semi structured interviews with all of the case management team.Findings – The findings indicate that ERP should be incorporated within a wider change programme, with changes to people management and cultural practices, in addition to process change. Much more consideration should be given to organisational change issues prior to design and implementation of ERP.Research limitations/implications – The study is limited to that of a management perspective.Practical implications – The findings can be used to guide management teams in designing and implementing ERP as part of a wider approach to organisational change.Originality/value – The paper contributes to the need for ERP .
Understanding the Interaction of Temperament and Social Skills in the Development of Social Anxiety in Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders

Children with Autism Spectrum Disorders (ASD) often have comorbid psychopathology in addition to socialcommunication difficulties. Social anxiety is of particular interest because it has been linked to downstream deficits in social functioning. Bellini found a link between social skills, temperament, and the development of social anxiety. The current paper examines whether negative affectivity moderates the relationship between social skills and social anxiety. Twenty-five high-functioning children diagnosed with ASD were administered self and parent report questionnaires measuring pragmatics ability, socialization behaviors, negative affectivity, and social anxiety. High negative affectivity was related to social anxiety, and moderated the relationship between socialization behaviors and social anxiety. Pragmatics ability was not related to social anxiety. Together, these results indicate that negative affectivity is an important factor in the relationship between social skills and social anxiety, and that not all social skills deficits contribute to social anxiety.
Quadrature VCO based on direct second harmonic locking

The paper proposes a quadrature VCO based on two LC-oscillators directly coupled by means of second harmonic such that extra inductors or extra current are not required. A simple model is presented clarifying the following points: i) existence and stability of steady state solutions, ii) phase noise transfer function, iii) phase deviation from ideal quadrature versus tank mismatches. A design is presented in CMOS 0.13 /spl mu/m technology, operating at 1.8GHz, 1.2V supply, with 4 mA total current consumption. Simulation results exhibit -128 dBc/Hz at 1 MHz phase noise and 2/spl deg/ quadrature error for 0.5% mismatch between the two tanks.
OPTICAL MEASUREMENT TECHNIQUES FOR THE DIGITAL PRESERVATION , DOCUMENTATION AND ANALYSIS OF CULTURAL HERITAGE

Nowadays the digital documentation and 3D modeling of Cultural Heritage objects and sites is receiving much more attention. This is due from one side to the large amount of technologies and data available for fast, detailed and quick documentation and from the other side to the great interest of restorators and archaeologists towards instruments able to provide innovative inspections and diagnostic results. The correct selection, combination and integration of the available techniques requires great experience and the need to combine them comes from the complexity of some heritage structures and the lack of a single method capable of providing satisfactory results in all measuring conditions. In this work we report our use of consumer digital cameras, range sensors and infrared thermography data for the documentation of heritage objects. The objective is to give an overview of the different techniques and the used methodology for the digital recording of detailed objects, monuments and large structures.
Design and Implementation of a Software-Defined Integrated Wired-Wireless Network Testbed

Software-Defined Networking (SDN) has been gaining momentum as the main technology for implementation of data center environment, and its usage has recently been extended to transport and wireless networks. Recently, research has been conducted on applying SDN principals to 802.11 networks in order to solve traditional issues such as handover, Radio Resource Management (RRM), network security, as well as integration of wired and 802.11 networks. This paper presents a design for the integration of 802.11 access points into an SDN test bed as an experimental environment to perform analysis, development and testing of SDN applications in 802.11 networks. We present design challenges and solutions, and performance results obtained from this testbed.
Effect of teaching decision analysis on student nurses' clinical intervention decision making.

The purpose of this study was to evaluate the effect of teaching decision analysis on nursing students' ability to prioritize clinical interventions given the probabilities for the decision situation. Sixty-eight university nursing students were randomly assigned to one of two groups. The 37 nursing students in the experimental group received a 4-hour didactic and interactive teaching session on decision analysis. The 31 nursing students in the control group also received a 4-hour interactive session on a nondecision analysis topic. A posttest experimental design was selected to minimize testing bias. Three clinical case studies were developed, tested, and utilized for data collection. Subjects in the experimental group selected clinical decisions that were in accordance with clinical decisions made by experts more often and more consistently than did subjects in the control group (p less than .0001).
From Inside the Newsroom

It has long been understood that the media has the power to shape the representation of social issues and effectively manage the understanding that the public has of the world. Control of information in media centres at major sporting events such as the Paralympic Games is vital if agencies such as the International Paralympic Committee and national affiliates such as the British Paralympic Association are to properly manage the image of elite sport for the disabled. Information that print journalists receive in this environment is already highly mediated and the added influence of editors who often have strong views as to what is appropriate for their target audience means that the final published product often is devoid of cultural understanding of Paralympic sport. As such the shaping of printed media texts related to sport for the disabled is not distinct from the mainstream. However, while there have been numerous studies exploring the media representation of Paralympic athletes, there has been no critical discussion surrounding the actual production of printed media texts around this community. Using ethnographic and anthropological approaches, this article attempts to address this lacuna by researching the lived experience of these media production processes.
Contribution of GSTM1, GSTT1, and MTHFR polymorphisms to end-stage renal disease of unknown etiology in Mexicans

Oxidative stress is increased in chronic kidney disease, owing to an imbalance between the oxidative and antioxidant pathways as well as a state of persistent hyperhomocysteinemia. The enzymes glutathione S-transferases (GSTs) and methylenetetrahydrofolate reductase (MTHFR) are implicated in the regulation of these pathways. This study investigates the association between polymorphisms in the Glutathione S-transferase Mu 1 (GSTM1), glutathione S-transferase theta 1 (GSTT1), and MTHFR genes and end-stage renal disease (ESRD) of unknown etiology in patients in Mexico. A Case-control study included 110 ESRD patients and 125 healthy individuals. GSTM1 and GSTT1 genotypes were determined using the multiplex polymerase chain reaction (PCR). The MTHFR C677T polymorphism was studied using a PCR/restriction fragment length polymorphism method. In ESRD patients, GSTM1 and GSTT1 null genotype frequencies were 61% and 7% respectively. GSTM1 genotype frequencies differed significantly between groups, showing that homozygous deletion of the GSTM1 gene was associated with susceptibility to ESRD of unknown etiology (P = 0.007, odds ratios = 2.05, 95% confidence interval 1.21-3.45). The MTHFR C677T polymorphism genotype and allele distributions were similar in both groups (P > 0.05), and the CT genotype was the most common genotype in both groups (45.5% and 46.6%). Our findings suggest that the GSTM1 null polymorphism appears to be associated with the ESRD of unknown etiology in patients in Mexico.
Distributed estimation for nonlinear stochastic signals over sensor networks

This paper considers the problem of estimating the state of nonlinear stochastic processes observed by spatially distributed sensor nodes i.e, observations are taken by a network of sensor nodes. The measurement process of each node is assumed to be some nonlinear function of an unobservable process and is corrupted by gaussian noise. We refer to a scenario in which all nodes in the network wish to have near-optimal identical state estimate of the observed process and there is no centralized computation center. Sensor nodes do not have any global knowledge of the network topology and nodes are allowed to communicate with only their nearest neighbors. Each node applies a particle filtering algorithm to its own measurements to generate an individual state estimated signal. These nodes based estimated signals are then combined by using nonlinear distributed fusion rule to produce improved state estimated signal at each node. We demonstrate through numerical example that the performance of fused state estimated signal is superior to the performance of the state estimated signal generated by particle filtering algorithm.
Hybrid position/force control for biped robot stabilization with integrated center of mass dynamics

Traversing uneven terrain with unexpected changes in ground height still poses a major challenge to walking stabilization of humanoid robots. A common approach to balance a biped in such situations is the control of the ground reaction forces at the feet. However, the dynamics of the center of mass is not considered in existing solutions for this direct force control scheme. In this work, we present a force control method to realize contact forces by accelerating the center of mass, which is directly integrated into our hybrid position/force control scheme. For this, we first introduce an analytical formulation for a contact model in task-space. We evaluate the performance of our approach in simulation and real-world experiments with our humanoid robot LOLA. The integration of center of mass dynamics shows great reduction of upper-body inclination angles for a late contact experiment with 5.5 cm change in ground height. We found that by using the system's center of mass dynamics in the force controller, undesired movements along the under-actuated degrees of freedom can be compensated effectively. We consider our approach a starting point for the development of more sophisticated direct force control concepts for humanoid robots.
Bayesian two-part bent-cable Tobit models with skew distributions: Application to AIDS studies

This paper presents a new development of a bent-cable two-part Tobit model to identify both phasic patterns and mixture of advancing (to AIDS) and non-advancing patients of HIV. In identification of such phasic patterns, estimation of a transition period for the development of drug resistance to antiretroviral (ARV) drug or therapy is carried out using longitudinal data that have a gradual change from a declining phase to an increasing phase. In addition to phasic changes, there are also problems of skewness and left-censoring in the response variable because of a lower limit of detection. A relatively large percentage of data below limit of detection are recorded more than expected under an assumed skew-distribution. To properly accommodate these features, we present an extension of the random effects bent-cable Tobit model that incorporates a mixture of true undetectable observations and those values from a skew-normal distribution for a response with left-censoring, skewness and phasic patterns. The proposed methods are illustrated using real data from an AIDS clinical study.
Differential responses of mesenteric arterial bed to vasoactive substances in L-NAME-induced preeclampsia: Role of oxidative stress and endothelial dysfunction

ABSTRACT To investigate the systemic and placental oxidant status as well as vascular function in experimental preeclampsia (PE) induced by nitro-L-arginine methyl ester (L-NAME). Fetal parameters and maternal blood pressure, proteinuria, mesenteric arterial bed (MAB) reactivity, and systemic and placental oxidative stress were compared between four groups: pregnant rats receiving L-NAME (60 mg/kg/day, orally) (P + L-NAME) or vehicle (P) from days 13 to 20 of pregnancy and nonpregnant rats receiving L-NAME (NP + L-NAME) or vehicle (NP) during 7 days. L-NAME administration during pregnancy induced some hallmarks of PE, such as hypertension and proteinuria. The P + L-NAME group presented lower weight gain and placental mass as well as reduced number and weight of live fetuses than P group. The vasodilator effect induced by acetylcholine (ACh) and angiotensin II (Ang II) was lower in the perfused MAB from NP + L-NAME and P + L-NAME than in control groups. Otherwise, the nitroglycerine-induced vasodilation and the phenylephrine- and Ang II-induced vasoconstriction were higher in MAB from NP + L-NAME and P + L-NAME groups than in the respective controls. Systemic and placental oxidative damage, assessed by malondialdehyde and carbonyl levels, was increased and activities of the antioxidant enzymes superoxide dismutase and glutathione peroxidase were reduced in P + L-NAME and NP + L-NAME groups compared to controls. The present data suggest that the oxidative stress and reduced bioavailability of nitric oxide may contribute to attenuation of vasodilator responses to ACh and Ang II, and hyperreactivity to Ang II in the mesentery of preeclamptic rat, which may contribute to the increased peripheral vascular resistance and BP, as well as intrauterine growth restriction in L-NAME-induced PE.
Towards an updated typology of non-player character roles

In video games, non-player characters (NPCs) provide important services in that they facilitate the player's interaction with the game in a way that is in accordance with the expectations set by the narrative. It is, however, still unclear in what ways these NPCs must act, look, and feel in order to fulfill these expectations. In this study we aim to establish a typology of the roles NPCs play in games, building on a previous typology by Bartle (2004) aimed at providing a framework for describing the requirements put on NPCs by these expectations. This was done via an online survey, where respondents were asked to classify NPCs in images from 4 games, and to provide a description of why they classified it as belonging to a certain role. The results of the survey were the analyzed for instances where players expressed confusion about which role an NPC belonged to. These findings were used to update the previous typology. The results from this were later verified by applying the new typology to 10 other games. In the end we identified a number of new roles, as well as modifications to existing roles, which when combined with Bartle’s original typology created a typology applicable to a larger number of genres.
Inactivation of human liver bile acid CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferase by the electrophilic lipid, 4-hydroxynonenal Published, JLR Papers in Press, October 27, 2007.

The hepatic enzyme bile acid CoA:amino acid N-acyltransferase (BAT) catalyzes the formation of amino acid-conjugated bile acids. In the present study, protein carbonylation of BAT, consistent with modification by reactive oxygen species and their products, was increased in hepatic homogenates of apolipoprotein E knock-out mice. 4-Hydroxynonenal (4HNE), an electrophilic lipid generated by oxidation of polyunsaturated long-chain fatty acids, typically reacts with the amino acids Cys, His, Lys, and Arg to form adducts, some of which (Michael adducts) preserve the aldehyde (i.e., carbonyl) moiety. Because two of these amino acids (Cys and His) are members of the catalytic triad of human BAT, it was proposed that 4HNE would cause inactivation of this enzyme. As expected, human BAT (1.6 μM) was inactivated by 4HNE in a dose-dependent manner. To establish the sites of 4HNE's reaction with BAT, peptides from proteolysis of 4HNE-treated, recombinant human BAT were analyzed by peptide mass fingerprinting and by electrospray ionization-tandem mass spectrometry using a hybrid linear ion trap Fourier transform-ion cyclotron resonance mass spectrometer. The data revealed that the active-site His (His362) dose-dependently formed a 4HNE adduct, contributing to loss of activity, although 4HNE adducts on other residues may also contribute.
Effects of donor/recipient human leukocyte antigen mismatch on human cytomegalovirus replication following liver transplantation

Natural immunity against cytomegalovirus (CMV) can control virus replication after solid organ transplantation; however, it is not known which components of the adaptive immune system mediate this protection. We investigated whether this protection requires human leukocyte antigen (HLA) matching between donor and recipient by exploiting the fact that, unlike transplantation of other solid organs, liver transplantation does not require HLA matching, but some donor and recipient pairs may nevertheless be matched by chance.
A Computer-Assisted Collaborative Approach for E-Training Course Design

The subject materials of most enterprise e-training programs were mainly developed by employees of the enterprises; therefore, it becomes a challenging issue to efficiently and effectively translate the knowledge and experiences of the employees to computerized subject materials, especially for those who are not an experienced teacher. In addition, to develop an e- training course, personal ignorance or incorrect concepts might significantly affect the quality of the course if only a single employee is asked to develop the subject materials. To cope with this problem, a multi- expert e-training course design model is proposed in this paper. Accordingly, an e-training course development system has been implemented. Moreover, a practical application has showed that of the novel approach not only can improve the quality of the e- training course, but also help the experts to organize their domain knowledge.
InterpNET: Neural Introspection for Interpretable Deep Learning

Humans are able to explain their reasoning. On the contrary, deep neural networks are not. This paper attempts to bridge this gap by introducing a new way to design interpretable neural networks for classification, inspired by physiological evidence of the human visual system's inner-workings. This paper proposes a neural network design paradigm, termed InterpNET, which can be combined with any existing classification architecture to generate natural language explanations of the classifications. The success of the module relies on the assumption that the network's computation and reasoning is represented in its internal layer activations. While in principle InterpNET could be applied to any existing classification architecture, it is evaluated via an image classification and explanation task. Experiments on a CUB bird classification and explanation dataset show qualitatively and quantitatively that the model is able to generate high-quality explanations. While the current state-of-the-art METEOR score on this dataset is 29.2, InterpNET achieves a much higher METEOR score of 37.9.
The strategic value of enterprise mobility: Case study insights

The rapidly improving price-performance of wireless technologies is providing an unprecedented platform for the development of wireless applications for businesses. This paper aims to explore the strategic value of enterprise mobility. In order to achieve this goal, it provides an overview of the literature related to mobile business applications in the work domain and highlights the findings of four studies developed in New Zealand. The paper concludes with a discussion about present challenges and the future of the mobile enterprise.