Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Adaptive and Personalizing Learning Sequence Using Modified Roulette Wheel Selection Algorithm

Prior literature in the field of adaptive and personalized learning sequence in e-learning have proposed and implemented various mechanisms to improve the learning process such as individualization and personalization, but complex to implement due to expensive algorithmic programming and need of extensive and prior data. The main objective of personalizing learning sequence is to maximize learning by dynamically selecting the closest teaching operation in order to achieve the learning competency of learner. In this paper, a revolutionary technique has been proposed and tested to perform individualization and personalization using modified reversed roulette wheel selection algorithm that runs at O(n). The technique is simpler to implement and is algorithmically less expensive compared to other revolutionary algorithms since it collects the dynamic real time performance matrix such as examinations, reviews, and study to form the RWSA single numerical fitness value. Results show that the implemented system is capable of recommending new learning sequences that lessens time of study based on student's prior knowledge and real performance matrix. Keywords—E-learning, fitness value, personalized learning sequence, reversed roulette wheel selection algorithms.
Evaluating reliability of distributed generation with analytical techniques

This paper presents an analytical method for the reliability evaluation of distribution system, including the distributed generations. Unlike the large sized generations of transmission system, the distributed generations have complexities in analyzing and determining the operation. In the process of evaluate reliability, it could be shown that the analytical method is simpler than the Monte-Carlo simulation. Modeling techniques of distributed generation to analysis distribution system reliability using Markov processes and frequency & duration techniques are proposed in this paper, and is compared with the simulation method as a result of the reliability evaluation.
A novel LC-MS/MS method for simultaneous quantification of tenofovir and lamivudine in human plasma and its application to a pharmacokinetic study.

A new, rapid, sensitive and specific LC-MS/MS method has been developed and validated for the simultaneous quantification of tenofovir and lamivudine in human plasma using abacavir as an internal standard. An API-4000 LC-MS/MS with electrospray ionization was operated in multiple-reaction monitoring mode for the analysis. The analytes were extracted from plasma by solid-phase extraction technique using an Oasis HLB cartridge. The reconstituted samples were chromatographed on a Chromolith ROD speed C(18) column using a mixture of 0.1% formic acid in water and acetonitrile (90:10 v/v) at a flow-rate of 1 mL/min. The method was validated as per the FDA guidelines. The calibration curves were found to be linear in the range of 5-600 ng/mL for tenofovir and 25- 4000 ng/mL for lamivudine. The intra- and inter-day precision and accuracy results were well within the acceptable limits. A run time of 2.8 min consumed for each sample made it possible to analyze more samples per day. The proposed assay method was found to be applicable to a pharmacokinetic study in human male volunteers.
Truncated forms of the prion protein PrP demonstrate the need for complexity in prion structure

Abstract Self-propagation of aberrant protein folds is the defining characteristic of prions. Knowing the structural basis of self-propagation is essential to understanding prions and their related diseases. Prion rods are amyloid fibrils, but not all amyloids are prions. Prions have been remarkably intractable to structural studies, so many investigators have preferred to work with peptide fragments, particularly in the case of the mammalian prion protein PrP. We compared the structures of a number of fragments of PrP by X-ray fiber diffraction, and found that although all of the peptides adopted amyloid conformations, only the larger fragments adopted conformations that modeled the complexity of self-propagating prions, and even these fragments did not always adopt the PrP structure. It appears that the relatively complex structure of the prion form of PrP is not accessible to short model peptides, and that self-propagation may be tied to a level of structural complexity unobtainable in simple model systems. The larger fragments of PrP, however, are useful to illustrate the phenomenon of deformed templating (heterogeneous seeding), which has important biological consequences.
Inhibitory Impact of Bifidobacteria on the Transfer of β-Lactam Resistance among Enterobacteriaceae in the Gnotobiotic Mouse Digestive Tract

ABSTRACT While looking for new means to limit the dissemination of antibiotic resistance, we evaluated the role of potentially probiotic bifidobacteria on the transfer of resistance genes between enterobacteria. Transfers of bla genes encoding extended-spectrum β-lactamases (SHV-5 and CTX-M-15) were studied in the absence or presence of bifidobacteria. In vitro, transfer frequencies of these bla genes decreased significantly in the presence of three of five tested strains, i.e., Bifidobacterium longum CUETM-89-215, Bifidobacterium bifidum CIP-56.7T, and Bifidobacterium pseudocatenulatum CIP-104168T. Four transfer experiments were conducted in the digestive tract of gnotobiotic mice, the first three observing the effect of B. longum CUETM-89-215, B. bifidum CIP-56.7T, and B. pseudocatenulatum CIP-104168T on blaSHV-5 transfer and the fourth experiment studying the effect of B. bifidum CIP-56.7T on blaCTX-M-15 transfer. These experiments revealed significant decreases in the transconjugant levels (up to 3 logs) in mice having received B. bifidum CIP-56.7T or B. pseudocatenulatum CIP-104168T compared to control mice. Bifidobacteria appear to have an inhibitory impact on the transfer of antibiotic resistance genes. The inhibitory effect is associated to specific bifidobacterial strains and may be related to the production of thermostable metabolites by these strains.
Shape optimization of ferromagnetic pole of a superconducting MRI magnet with niching genetic algorithm

The magnetic field inhomogeneity and the Lorentz force of a superconducting magnet for magnetic resonance image are optimized by changing the shape of the ferromagnetic poles. The two objectives are calculated by a commercial software Opera3D-TOSCA based on the finite element method. The genetic algorithm improved by adding niching and adaptive algorithms is developed on the computation platform MATLAB and is applied to the optimization problem. Twice calculations with progressive discretization are performed and satisfactory results with low magnetic field inhomogeneity and very small Lorenz force are obtained.
Performance of Steady-State Voltage Stability Analysis in MATLAB Environment

In recent years, electric power systems have been often operated close to their working limits due to increased power consumptions and installation of renewable power sources. This situation poses a serious threat to stable network operation and control. Therefore, voltage stability is currently one of key topics worldwide for preventing related black-out scenarios. In this paper, modelling and simulations of steady-state stability problems in MATLAB environment are performed using authordeveloped computational tool implementing both conventional and more advanced numerical approaches. Their performance is compared with the Simulink-based library Power System Analysis Toolbox (PSAT) in terms of solution accuracy, CPU time and possible limitations.
Enduring Poststroke Motor Functional Improvements by a Well–Timed Combination of Motor Rehabilitative Training and Cortical Stimulation in Rats

Background. In animal stroke models, peri-infarct cortical stimulation (CS) combined with rehabilitative reach training (RT) enhances motor functional outcome and cortical reorganization, compared with RT alone. It was unknown whether the effects of CS + RT (a) persist long after treatment, (b) can be enhanced by forcing greater use of the paretic limb, and (C) vary with treatment onset time. Objective. To test the endurance, time sensitivity, and the potential for augmentation by forced forelimb use of CS + RT treatment effects following ischemic stroke. Methods. Adult rats that were proficient in skilled reaching received unilateral ischemic motor cortical lesions. RT was delivered for 3 weeks alone or concurrently with 100-Hz cathodal epidural CS, delivered at 50% of movement thresholds. In study 1, this treatment was initiated at 14 days postinfarct, with some subgroups receiving an overlapping period of continuous constraint of the nonparetic forelimb to force use of the paretic limb. The function of the paretic limb was assessed weekly for 9 to 10 months posttreatment. In study 2, rats underwent CS, RT, and the combination during the chronic postinfarct period. Results. Early onset CS + RT resulted in greater functional improvements than RT alone. The CS-related gains persisted for 9 to 10 months posttreatment and were not significantly influenced by forced use of the paretic limb. When treatment onset was delayed until 3 months post-infarct, RT alone improved function, but CS + RT was no more effective than RT alone. Conclusion. CS can enhance the persistence, as well as the magnitude of RT-driven functional improvements, but its effectiveness in doing so may vary with time postinfarct.
Unknown aware k nearest neighbor classifier

Unknown awareness is very important for many applications such as face recognition. In a typical unknown aware classifier, an “unknown” label is assigned to strange test instances. This study proposes an unknown aware classifier known as UAkNN by extending the well-known kNN classifier. In UAkNN, unknown awareness is achieved by exploiting distances between instances of individual classes. These distances and their related statistics are used to confirm the kNN prediction or change it to “unknown”. Average accuracy of 85 percent based on the Iris dataset by using 5-fold cross validation has been achieved. Experimental results demonstrate that UAkNN is promising under various test situation.
Development of a ground station software for a vertical take-off/landing unmanned aerial vehicle

With the modernization and commercialization of the unmanned aerial vehicle (UAV) industry, new unmanned aircraft system (UAS) designs are being researched and developed for a variety of applications in the civil market. This project is for a vertical take-off/landing (VTOL) UAV which is being developed for new and cost-effective agricultural solutions. The proposed design entails setting up a new ground station facility for the UAV. This paper addresses the design, simulation, development and implementation of software for this VTOL UAV's transmitter and ground control station receiver.
Variability in Sustained Attention and Risk of Frailty

Conflict of Interest: The editor in chief has reviewed the conflict of interest checklist provided by the authors and has determined that the authors have no financial or any other kind of personal conflicts with this paper. This study was supported by a grant from the Ministry of Health, Labour and Welfare, Japan (No. 23-4; and No. 21A-9; principal investigator: Dr. Yumiko Arai). Author Contributions: All of the authors contributed to the study concept, design, data analysis, and preparation of the letter. Sponsor’s Role: The funding resources did not play any role in this study.
Quantifying naturalistic social gaze in fragile X syndrome using a novel eye tracking paradigm

A hallmark behavioral feature of fragile X syndrome (FXS) is the propensity for individuals with the syndrome to exhibit significant impairments in social gaze during interactions with others. However, previous studies employing eye tracking methodology to investigate this phenomenon have been limited to presenting static photographs or videos of social interactions rather than employing a real‐life social partner. To improve upon previous studies, we used a customized eye tracking configuration to quantify the social gaze of 51 individuals with FXS and 19 controls, aged 14–28 years, while they engaged in a naturalistic face‐to‐face social interaction with a female experimenter. Importantly, our control group was matched to the FXS group on age, developmental functioning, and degree of autistic symptomatology. Results showed that participants with FXS spent significantly less time looking at the face and had shorter episodes (and longer inter‐episodes) of social gaze than controls. Regression analyses indicated that communication ability predicted higher levels of social gaze in individuals with FXS, but not in controls. Conversely, degree of autistic symptoms predicted lower levels of social gaze in controls, but not in individuals with FXS. Taken together, these data indicate that naturalistic social gaze in FXS can be measured objectively using existing eye tracking technology during face‐to‐face social interactions. Given that impairments in social gaze were specific to FXS, this paradigm could be employed as an objective and ecologically valid outcome measure in ongoing Phase II/Phase III clinical trials of FXS‐specific interventions. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
Interfaces with Other Disciplines On the consistency of aggregate production frontiers

This paper investigates the consistency of efficiency frontier methods applied at the aggregate level. We estimate eight aggregate production frontiers on a sample of 93 countries, depending on three methodological choices for the specification of the frontier: the choice of the approach technique (stochastic frontier approach or data envelopment analysis), the specification of human capital as an input, and the nature of returns to scale. We observe some differences on the descriptive statistics of the distributions of the efficiency scores, but also a very high significant and positive correlation between scores rankings regardless of the methodological choices made. Our results tend then to suggest the consistency of the efficiency techniques at the aggregate level. 2004 Elsevier B.V. All rights reserved.
Semiconductor memories for IT era

Information technology (IT) emerged from the 1970s based on main-frame computers. Since then, PCs and the Internet world have drastically expanded the IT industry along with rapid growth of network and communication technology. For almost all platforms, semiconductor memories have been a key enabling technology. In the PC era, DRAM density increase has been driven by rapid expansion of applications with advanced operating systems. In the future, servers will continue driving high-density DRAM requirements, and the maximum memory size of servers will be one of the key performance parameters. 512 Mb DRAM will be widely available in 2002 and 16 Gb DRAM is expected to appear within the next 10 years. Performance of semiconductor memories will be driven by graphics applications and network systems. 1 Gb/s/pin DRAM will be popular in 2002 and 2 Gb/s/pin in 2004 for high-end graphics applications. Random-access times in the range of 5 ns for SRAM and 20 ns for DRAM range and 1 Gb/s/pin DRAM will be available in 2002, and even faster (frequency, latency) memories will be required for high-end network systems such as OC-768-based switches and routers and beyond. Mobile platforms, especially 3 G phones and PDAs, are driving low-voltage low-power memories. Standby power of DRAM and pseudo-SRAM has been reduced drastically over the last 2 years. 1.8 V DRAM will be in volume production in 2002 and 1.0 V DRAM is expected in 2005 for longer battery life and moving-picture capability of mobile applications. The small-form-factor requirement of mobile phones and consumer applications such as PDA, and DSC will expedite various multi-chip-package solutions such as SRAM+Flash, DRAM+Flash, and SRAM+DRAM+Flash. Recent digital convergence and the rapid reduction of $/MB of mass storage flash memory increased the usage of flash memory in various mobile and consumer applications. Semiconductor memory will continue to follow Moore's Law for at least the next 10 years and will be lead by mass storage flash memory technology. Memory requirement of various IT platforms will continue to increase the trend of MB/system and MB/person.
An evaluation of sampling-based size estimation methods for selections in database systems

The results of a performance study of the representative sampling-based size estimation methods in database management systems are reported in this paper. Major performance measurement includes estimation accuracy, the amount of sample taken, and the coverage. The impact of skewed data on the performance is also discussed. These results allow a better understanding and assessment of sampling estimation methods and determine the suitability of different methods under different situations. <<ETX>>
Preliminary studies on the development of IgA-loaded chitosan–dextran sulphate nanoparticles as a potential nasal delivery system for protein antigens

This study describes the development of a biodegradable nanoparticulate system for the intranasal delivery of multiple proteins. Chitosan (CS)–dextran sulphate (DS) nanoparticles were developed and optimised for the incorporation of pertussis toxin (PTX) and a potential targeting ligand (immunoglobulin-A, IgA). In vitro characterization and in vivo uptake studies were performed for the evaluation of developed nanoparticles. The ratio of CS to DS, the order of mixing and pH of nanoparticle suspension were identified as important formulation factors governing the size and zeta potential of nanoparticles. An optimised CS–DS nanoparticle formulation prepared with the CS to DS weight ratio of 3 : 1 was used to load PTX and/or IgA. Entrapment efficiency of >90% was obtained for both. The in vivo uptake of IgA-loaded CS–DS nanoparticles in mice showed a preferential uptake of nanoparticles probably by nasal membranous or microfold cells following intranasal administration. The results of this study indicate the potential application of IgA-loaded CS–DS nanoparticles as a nasal vaccine delivery system.
A Reevaluation of the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) Test’s Repeatability

Purpose. To investigate the repeatability of the Developmental Eye Movement (DEM) Test in a group of third grade elementary school students. Methods. Thirty, third grade children who passed a modified clinical technique vision screening were given the DEM and then retested 2 weeks later. Results. A clinically and statistically significant improvement in mean scores from test to retest was found on the vertical time, horizontal time, and ratio score. The intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC) and the 95% limits of agreement (LoA) suggest that the vertical (ICC, 0.60; LoA, −4.2 ± 16.5 s) and corrected horizontal (ICC, 0.55; LoA, −8.3 ± 17.4 s) times have fair to good repeatability, whereas the ratio score was found to have poor repeatability (ICC, 0.27; LoA, −0.08 ± 0.39). Based on these results, large changes can be expected on retest, which may result in a change in diagnostic classification from pass to fail. Conclusions. These results suggest that the ratio score of the DEM had poor repeatability in the third grade children who were evaluated. Poor repeatability of the ratio score may affect the clinician’s diagnostic decisions and ability to monitor the effects of saccadic treatment.
Significant late Neogene east-west extension in northern Tibet

Field mapping in northern Tibet reveals that the normal slip along late Cenozoic northsouth‐trending faults is comparable to that estimated for equivalent structures in southern Tibet. The orientation of fault striations in two north-south‐trending rifts suggests an eastnortheast‐west-northwest direction of extension in northern Tibet, which in turn implies that northeast-striking active faults in northern Tibet have significant left-slip components. Initiation of rifting in northern Tibet postdates the early Oligocene, and possibly occurred after 4 Ma. The broad similarities in the magnitude of slip and the direction of extension for normal faults in both northern and southern Tibet imply that the entire plateau has been extending. This precludes significant eastward extrusion of north Tibet relative to south Tibet and requires a regional boundary condition as the cause of east-west extension for the entire Tibet plateau.
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Craig S. Miller (moderator) DePaul University Chicago, IL USA 60604 1 312 362-5085 cmiller@cdm.depaul. edu Jack Zheng Southern Polytechnic State University Marietta, GA USA 30060 1 678 915-5036 jackzheng@spsu.edu Randy Connolly Mount Royal University Calgary, Alberta, Canada T3E 6K6 1 403 440-6061 rconnolly@mtroyal.ca Amos Olagunju St Cloud State University St Cloud, MN USA 56301 1 320 308-5696 aoolagunju@stcloudstate.edu
Optimized alcoholytic deacetylation of N-acetyl-blocked polypeptides for subsequent Edman degradation.

N-terminal protein acetylation is a common posttranslational modification, blocking Edman degradation during sequencer analysis. Use of mass spectrometry allows the analysis also of acetyl-blocked polypeptides; however, for large proteins mass spectrometry is not always informative, and deacetylation by chemical pretreatments is desirable for making direct sequencer analysis possible. For this purpose, alcoholytic deacetylation is attractive. In the present work, we have studied the optimal conditions for specific removal of the acetyl group without extensive cleavage of peptide bonds in general. We find that incubation with trifluoroacetic acid in methanol (1:1, by volume) at an elevated temperature ( approximately 47 degrees C) for 2-3 days results in efficient deacetylation allowing direct application to sequencer analysis with initial yields up to approximately 50% of the amount applied for deblocking. Deacetylation compared to internal peptide bond cleavage is often high, as evaluated by recoveries of residues from the deblocked sequence over those from the background, and this applies to both peptides (up to the order of 10:1 for the specific residue versus the background) and proteins (>2:1). Although yields may still vary and some sequences be only partly susceptible to the chemistry, this deblocking can in many cases allow unambiguous interpretation of N-terminally acetyl-blocked sequences.
Effects of tryptophan depletion in drug-free depressed patients who responded to total sleep deprivation.

BACKGROUND There is some evidence that sleep deprivation (SD) might exert its antidepressant properties by involving serotonergic mechanisms. We investigated the effects of short-term tryptophan depletion (TD) on depressed patients who responded to a single night of total SD. METHODS Drug-free depressed inpatients (n = 30) were randomly assigned to either TD or sham depletion. Tryptophan depletion was induced by a 24-hour low-tryptophan diet (day 1) followed the next morning by ingestion of a tryptophan-free amino acid mixture (day 2). During sham depletion, the diet and the amino acid beverage were supplemented with tryptophan. Sleep deprivation was performed from day 1 until day 2. Only SD responders received the amino acid beverage the morning after SD. Behavioral ratings and total and free plasma tryptophan levels were obtained before and after the test sessions. RESULTS Twenty-two of 30 patients showed a favorable outcome after SD. As predicted, TD significantly lowered total and free plasma tryptophan levels, whereas both levels increased during sham depletion. No acute effects on mood were observed during the day after SD in either treatment group. Unexpectedly, TD, but not control testing, prevented the depressive relapse after the recovery night in most of the patients. CONCLUSIONS Tryptophan depletion did not reverse the antidepressant effects of SD, but it prevented the relapse beyond a night of recovery sleep. These findings suggest that SD does not act via a single monoamine-related mechanism, but they allow the assumption that TD may induce neurochemical alterations that transiently improve depression.