Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Dietary changes during pregnancy and the postpartum period in Singaporean Chinese, Malay and Indian women: the GUSTO birth cohort study

Abstract Objective To examine changes in food consumption during pregnancy and the postpartum period in women of major Asian ethnic groups. Design Using interviewer-administered questionnaires, we assessed changes in food consumption during pregnancy (26–28 weeks’ gestation) and the postpartum period (3 weeks after delivery) as compared with the usual pre-pregnancy diet. Setting Singapore. Subjects Pregnant women (n 1027) of Chinese, Malay and Indian ethnicity (mean age 30·4 (sd 5·2) years) who participated in the Growing Up in Singapore Towards healthy Outcomes (GUSTO) study. Results During pregnancy, participants tended to increase their consumption of milk, fruit and vegetables and decrease their consumption of tea, coffee, soft drinks and seafood (all P < 0·001). Most participants reported adherence to traditional restrictions (‘confinement’) during the early postpartum period (Chinese: 94·8 %, Malay: 91·6 %, Indian: 79·6 %). During the postpartum period, participants tended to increase their consumption of fish and milk-based drinks and decrease their consumption of noodles, seafood, and chocolates and sweets (all P < 0·001). Ethnic differences in food consumption were pronounced during the postpartum period. For example, most Chinese participants (87·2 %) increased their ginger consumption during the postpartum period as compared with smaller percentages of Malays (31·8 %) and Indians (40·8 %; P for ethnic difference <0·001). Similar ethnic differences were observed for cooking wine/alcohol, herbs and spices, and herbal tea consumption. Conclusions Marked changes in food consumption that reflect both modern dietary recommendations and the persistence of traditional beliefs were observed in Singaporean women during pregnancy and the postpartum period. Traditional beliefs should be considered in interventions to improve dietary intakes during these periods.
Hindsight , Foresight , and Insight : An Experimental Study of a Small-Market Investment Game with Common and Private Values

We experimentally test an endogenous-timing investment model in which subjects privately observe their cost of investing and a signal correlated with the common investment return. Subjects overinvest, relative to Nash. We separately consider whether subjects draw inferences, in hindsight, and use foresight to delay profitable investment and learn from market activity. In contrast to Nash, cursed equilibrium, and level-k predictions, behavior hardly changes across our experimental treatments. Maximum likelihood estimates are inconsistent with belief-based theories. We offer an explanation in terms of boundedly rational rules of thumb, based on insights about the game, which provides a better fit than QRE. ∗Asen Ivanov, Department of Economics, Virginia Commonwealth University, 301 W. Main Street, Snead Hall B3149, Richmond, VA 23284; aivanov@vcu.edu. Dan Levin: Department of Economics, The Ohio State University, 1945 N High Street, Arps Hall 410, Columbus, OH 43210; levin.36@osu.edu. James Peck: Department of Economics, The Ohio State University, 1945 N High Street, Arps Hall 410, Columbus, OH 43210; peck.33@osu.edu. This material is based upon work supported by the NSF under Grant No. SES-0417352. Any opinions, findings and conclusions or recommendations expressed are those of the authors and do not necessarily reflect the views of the NSF. We thank the John Glenn Institute at Ohio State for their support. We thank three anonymous referees for their suggestions. We thank Steve Cosslett, David Harless, P. J. Healy, and Oleg Korenok for helpful conversations.
Leaky mode directional coupler for prism coupling interconnection

A leaky mode directional coupler was fabricated with its beam shaped into a Gaussian-like profile and was experimentally demonstrated for suppressing the diffraction of an out-coupled beam. The demonstrated coupler consists of a multilayered waveguide with six layers that are embedded in a symmetric slab waveguide. The out-coupled beam profile was measured to be shaped into a Gaussian function by using the prism coupling method. There was an excellent agreement between the measured and theoretically predicted coupling angles, and it was also confirmed that the diffraction was suppressed.
Whole-Genome Sequences of Five Oligotrophic Bacteria Isolated from Deep within Lechuguilla Cave, New Mexico

ABSTRACT Here, we report the whole-genome sequences and annotation of five oligotrophic bacteria from two sites within the Lechuguilla Cave in the Carlsbad Caverns National Park, NM. Three of the five genomes contain an acyl-homoserine lactone signal synthase ortholog (luxI) that is involved in cell-to-cell communication via quorum sensing.
A Distributed Spatiotemporal Cognition Approach to Visualization in Support of Coordinated Group Activity

Technological advances in both distributed cooperative work and web-map services have the potential to support distributed and collaborative time-critical decision-making for crisis response. We address this potential through the theoretical perspective of distributed cognition and apply this perspective to development of a geocollaborationenabled web application that supports coordinated crisis management activities. An underlying goal of our overall research program is to understand how distributed cognition operates across groups working to develop both awareness of the geographic situation within which events unfold, and insights about the processes that have lead to that geographic situation over time. In this paper, we present our preliminary research on a web application that addresses these issues. Specifically, the application (key parts of which are implemented) enables online, asynchronous, map-based interaction between actors, thus supporting distributed spatial and temporal cognition, and, more specifically, situational awareness and subsequent action in the context of humanitarian disaster relief efforts.
Scalability and reliability in a distributed search engine

We have developed a distributed search engine, called cooperative search engine (CSE), in order to retrieve fresh information. In CSE, a local search engine located in each Web server makes an index of local pages. A meta search server integrates these local search engines in order to realize a global search engine. In such a way, the communication delay occurs at retrieval time. So, it is thought to be difficult to search quickly. However we have developed several speedup techniques in order to realize real time retrieval. In addition, the meta server is a single point of failure in CSE. So, we propose redundancy of meta search servers in order to increase availability of CSE. In this paper we describe scalability and reliability of CSE and their evaluations.
The influence of brand experience and service quality to customer loyalty mediated by customer satisfaction in Starbucks coffee Malang

This study discusses the effect of Brand Experience and service quality on customer loyalty mediated customer satisfaction. The purpose of this study was to determine and analyze in depth the effect of brand experience and service quality on customer loyalty mediated customer satisfaction at Starbucks Coffee Malang. This research uses explanatory research that explain the causal relationship between the variables studied.By using a survey of 180 respondents to test the research hypothesis.Research data analysis using the test instrument, the classical assumption test, multiple linear regression, and path analysis / Path Analysis. The test results prove the instrument has met the criteria of validity and reliability, the classic assumption test results also have met the criterion of the assumptions of normality, autocorrelation, Non-Multicolinearity and heterocedastisity. In this study obtained; a). Brand experience on consumer satisfaction with the value of 0.309, or 30.9%, b). The quality of service to customer satisfaction with the value of 0.387 or 38.7%. , C). Brand experience on consumer loyalty to the value of 0.216 or 21.6%. , D). Service quality on customer loyalty with a value of 0,305 or 30.5%. , E). Effect of brand experience and service quality customer satisfaction with the value of 0.581 or 58.1%. , F). Effect of brand experience and service quality on customer loyalty with a value of 0.657 or 65.7%. , G). Effect of brand experience and service quality on customer loyalty mediated consumer satisfaction with the value of 0.438 or 43.8%. Based on these results, it is necessary to enhance the consumer's commitment to give satisfaction to the consumers better by excellent service or "service excellence" is the attitude and serve with satisfactory manner from the present level while maintaining the brand experience Starbucks Coffee Malang.
RADAR: a case for retention-aware DRAM assembly and repair in future FGR DRAM memory

Refresh operations consume substantial energy and bandwidth in high-density DRAM memory. To cope with this issue, Fine-Grained Refresh (FGR) is recently proposed to eliminate unnecessary refresh operations caused by minor weak cells. Even JEDEC's DDR4 DRAM specification announces the support of FGR to make DRAM refresh more scalable. Unfortunately, we observe that the effectiveness of FGR is greatly confined by the procedure of refresh-oblivious device integration because all memory devices within a module have to be controlled and refreshed in a lockstep way after the step of assembly. In this work, we firstly propose to intelligently integrate the "compatible" devices through a pre-assembly testing and retention-aware matching method. Second, we reuse the reconfiguration structure from yield-oriented remapping mechanism in memory chips and propose Microfix to create a balanced distribution of retention time in memory banks through fine-grained row-address tuning. With this optimization architecture, RADAR, we can eliminate the refresh overhead of produced memory modules by 28% on average.
Managing knowledge conflicts in an interorganizational project: A case study of the Infocomm Development Authority of Singapore

As knowledge gains currency as a critical resource in the information-intensive economy, organizations have doubled their efforts to extract value from knowledge management endeavors, including the creation of interorganizational knowledge alliances. One particular aspect of such knowledge partnerships that has gone unnoticed in academic research is the presence of conflicts in knowledge activities. By adopting a conflict perspective of knowledge management in an interorganizational context, this study arrives at a two-dimensional framework that defines knowledge conflicts in terms of their type and nature. Central to this article is the fundamental notion that conflicts form an integral part of knowledge management, and depending on how they are managed, conflicts may be formidable partners or dangerous adversaries in the corporate quest for a holistic knowledge strategy.
How An Organization’s Environmental Orientation Impacts Environmental Performance through Green Computing Hiring Practices

-This research uses the logic embodied in Strategic Fit Theory, the Natural Resource-Based View of the Firm (NRBV), strategic human resource management, and other relevant literature to empirically demonstrate how the environmental orientation of a firm's strategy impacts their environmental performance through the firm's Information Technology hiring practices. Specifically, it was hypothesized that firms with a strong relationship between their environmental orientation and their green computing hiring practices will achieve higher environmental performance than firms lacking such fit. The sample size of firms is fairly large, increasing the statistical power of the empirical tests. The combination of using a large sample of real world firms, a powerful combination of qualitative and quantitative methodological techniques to tap into key trace evidence not available through other methodological techniques, and leveraging a recognized environmental data set has enhanced the robustness of the empirical findings in addressing this important gap in the literature. The results of the analyses show that there is a strong relationship between an organization’s environmental posturing and its environmental performance. Additionally, this effect is mediated by the organization’s environmental hiring practices, indicating that implementing the organization’s environmental strategy through its hiring practices is important in achieving improved environmental performance.
Reinforcement learning in financial markets - a survey

The advent of reinforcement learning (RL) in financial markets is driven by several advantages inherent to this field of artificial intelligence. In particular, RL allows to combine the "prediction" and the "portfolio construction" task in one integrated step, thereby closely aligning the machine learning problem with the objectives of the investor. At the same time, important constraints, such as transaction costs, market liquidity, and the investor's degree of risk-aversion, can be conveniently taken into account. Over the past two decades, and albeit most attention still being devoted to supervised learning methods, the RL research community has made considerable advances in the finance domain. The present paper draws insights from almost 50 publications, and categorizes them into three main approaches, i.e., critic-only approach, actor-only approach, and actor-critic approach. Within each of these categories, the respective contributions are summarized and reviewed along the representation of the state, the applied reward function, and the action space of the agent. This cross-sectional perspective allows us to identify recurring design decisions as well as potential levers to improve the agent's performance. Finally, the individual strengths and weaknesses of each approach are discussed, and directions for future research are pointed out.
A Framework Towards A Trust Management System For Services In Cloud Environments

Trust management is one of the most challenging issues for the adoption and growth of cloud computing. The highly dynamic, distributed, and non-transparent nature of cloud services introduces several challenging issues such as privacy, security, and availability. Preserving consumers’ privacy is not an easy task due to the sensitive information involved in the interactions between consumers and the trust management service. Protecting cloud services against their malicious users (e.g., such users might give misleading feedback to disadvantage a particular cloud service) is a difficult problem. Guaranteeing the availability of the trust management service is another significant challenge because of the dynamic nature of cloud environments. In this article, we describe the design and implementation of CloudArmor, a reputation-based trust management framework that provides a set of functionalities to deliver trust as a service (TaaS), which includes i) a novel protocol to prove the credibility of trust feedbacks and preserve users’ privacy, ii) an adaptive and robust credibility model for measuring the credibility of trust feedbacks to protect cloud services from malicious users and to compare the trustworthiness of cloud services, and iii) an availability model to manage the availability of the decentralized implementation of the trust management service. The feasibility and benefits of our approach have been validated by a prototype and experimental studies using a collection of real-world trust feedbacks on cloud services.
Silicon-to-silicon microswitch with wide operation temperature range

Using an ultra-clean vacuum sealing process, an encapsulated Si-to-Si contact micro switch is fabricated and characterized. This three-terminal micro switch relies on a curved beam (source) that actuates toward the contact terminal (drain) by charging the control terminal (gate). We report the temperature stability of this switch from -60 °C to 300 °C, which yields a resistance drift of -196 Ω/K. Meanwhile, through continuous on-off cycles, the operating lifetime in high temperature environment is investigated. Microswitches of more than 106 cycles lifetime at 400 °C are successfully demonstrated. The study of such Si-to-Si contact-based micro switches provides a crucial guideline to the field of mechanical and electrical failure mechanisms for harsh environment applications.
Composantes linguistiques de la référence temporelle : les compléments de temps, du lexique à l'énoncé

L'ouvrage propose une description globale des complements de temps du francais, articulee sur le temps lexical (une partie est consacree aux noms temporels) et fondee sur des contraintes contextuelles diverses. Il se demarque de modeles locaux de la reference temporelle aussi bien que de conceptions purement referentielles de la semantique, par l'hypothese que l'interpretation temporelle des enonces doit trouver un ancrage grammatical et lexical. A cette fin, les niveaux d'analyse utilises font intervenir (I) les proprietes des noms, referentielles et semantiques, chaque ordre de proprietes prenant en charge une part de la determination potentielle des noms, classes en deux ensembles, (II) le sens structurel assigne aux complements, qui permet de traiter les prepositions polysemiques, d'effectuer degroupements et regroupements, d'analyser les contraintes sur la determination pre- et postnominale, (III) la thematisation, qui induit des changements d'acceptabilite, d'interpretation et de localisation des proces. On recourt pour partie aux proprietes des intervalles, pour les complements comme pour les temps. Les complements sont regroupes en trois ensembles (reperes, espaces de temps et durees, reperes et intervalles deictiques) qui font apparaitre une correlation entre contraintes sur la determination et la selection des noms et types d'interpretation. Les relations de synonymie partielle (assignees aux complements) et de paraphrases (assignees aux enonces) sont analysees. Les diverses conditions d'acceptabilite d'un complement sont le cas echeant formulees en termes d'equivalences entre operations grammaticales correspondant a des categories de surface differentes. L'ouvrage comporte 4 index, dont l'un classe les construc-
Production of human vitronectin in Nicotiana benthamiana using the INPACT hyperexpression platform

Summary Human vitronectin (hVN) is a glycoprotein that functions as a cell adhesion molecule and a regulator of coagulation in blood plasma and the extracellular matrix. In vitro, hVN is added to serum‐free media in order to promote the adhesion of animal cells to tissue culture surfaces and the proliferation of undifferentiated stem cells. Here, we report the production of hVN in Nicotiana benthamiana using the inducible In Plant ACTivation (INPACT) hyperexpression platform. N. benthamiana plants were transformed with an INPACT expression cassette encoding hVN, and both the Tobacco yellow dwarf virus Rep/RepA activator and Tomato bushy stunt virus p19 gene under the transcriptional control of the ethanol‐inducible AlcR:alcA gene switch. hVN expression was maximal 4–5 days postactivation of the INPACT platform with a dilute ethanol solution, and crude yields of the recombinant protein reached a maximum of 643 ± 78 mg/kg fresh weight. A three‐stage purification protocol was developed using heparin and polyhistidine tag affinity binding and size exclusion filtration, resulting in a plant‐made hVN product of >90% purity. Storage conditions for plant‐made hVN were identified that maximized the capacity of the recombinant protein to promote cell adhesion. Critically, plant‐made hVN was shown to be functionally equivalent to commercial, plasma‐derived hVN at promoting one‐half maximal attachment of murine fibroblast cells (BALB‐C/3T3) in serum‐free medium at <0.1 μg/cm2 to tissue culture plasticware. The INPACT platform represents an attractive means of producing large quantities of functional, animal‐free hVN for in vitro applications.
Chapter 19 Environmentally Friendly Corrosion Inhibitors

Inorganic CIs are those in which the active substance is an inorganic compound. This is one of the simplest ways to improve the passivity of a metal by adding electropositive metal salts to the medium. These metal ions must have a more positive redox potential more positive than the metal constituting the surface to be protected and also a more positive potential than that required for discharging a proton so that the electropositive metal to be reduced is deposited on the surface.
Molecular determinants of HIV-2 R5-X4 tropism in the V3 loop: development of a new genotypic tool.

OBJECTIVE The use of CCR5 inhibitors requires a tool to predict human immunodeficiency virus type 2 (HIV-2) tropism, as established in HIV-1. The aim of our study was to identify genotypic determinants of HIV-2 tropism located in the gp105 V3 loop. METHODS HIV-2 tropism phenotypic assays were performed on 53 HIV-2 clinical isolates using GFP expressing human osteosarcoma T4 [GHOST(3)] cell lines expressing CD4 and CCR5 or CXCR4 coreceptors. The gp105 V3 loop was sequenced and analyzed. RESULTS Thirty-four HIV-2 isolates were classified as R5, 7 as X4, and 12 as X4/R5 (dual). Substitution at residue 18 was always associated with a dual/X4 tropism (P < .00001). The following determinants were associated with dual/X4 tropism: a global net charge of more than +6 (P < .00001), V19K/R mutation (P < .00001), S22A/F/Y mutation (P < .002), Q23R mutation (P < .00001), and insertions at residue 24 (P < .00001), I25L/Y (P < .0004), R28K (P < .0004), and R30K (P < .014). These mutations were not found in R5 isolates, except R28K and R30K, which were detected in 4 and 5 R5 isolates, respectively. The 4 major genotypic determinants of dual/X4 tropism were mutation at residue 18, V19 K/R mutation, insertions at residue 24, and V3 global net charge. CONCLUSIONS We established a strong association between HIV-2 phenotypic tropism and V3-loop sequences, allowing for the prediction of R5- and/or X4-tropic viruses in HIV-2 infection.
Host Specialization and Geographic Localization of Avian Malaria Parasites: A Regional Analysis in the Lesser Antilles

We recovered 26 genetically distinct avian malaria parasite lineages, based on cytochrome b sequences, from a broad survey of terrestrial avifauna of the Lesser Antilles. Here we describe their distributions across host species within a regional biogeographic context. Most parasite lineages were recovered from a few closely related host species. Specialization on one host species and distribution across many hosts were both rare. Geographic patterns of parasite lineages indicated limited dispersal and frequent local extinction. The central islands of the archipelago share similar parasite lineages and patterns of infection. However, the peripheral islands harbor well‐differentiated parasite communities, indicating long periods of isolation. Nonetheless, 20 of 26 parasite lineages were recovered from at least one of three other geographic regions, the Greater Antilles, North America, and South America, suggesting rapid dispersal relative to rate of differentiation. Six parasite lineages were restricted to the Lesser Antilles, primarily to endemic host species. Host differences between populations of the same parasite lineage suggest that host preference may evolve more rapidly than mitochondrial gene sequences. Taken together, distributions of avian malarial parasites reveal evidence of coevolution, host switching, extinction, and periodic recolonization events resulting in ecologically dynamic as well as evolutionarily stable patterns of infection.