Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Metabolic syndrome in normal-weight Americans: new definition of the metabolically obese, normal-weight individual.

OBJECTIVE To determine the prevalence rates and likelihood of the metabolic syndrome and its individual components in normal-weight and slightly overweight individuals (BMI 18.5-26.9 kg/m(2)). RESEARCH DESIGN AND METHODS There were a total of 7,602 adult participants of the Third National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey, a nationally representative cross-sectional survey. Prevalence and odds ratios (ORs) of the metabolic syndrome, defined according to National Cholesterol Education Program Adult Treatment Panel III criteria, were computed according to 2.0- to 2.5-unit increments in BMI. RESULTS Depending on ethnicity and sex, the prevalence of the metabolic syndrome increased in a graded fashion from 0.9-3.0% at BMI 18.5-20.9 kg/m(2) to 9.6-22.5% at BMI 25.0-26.9 kg/m(2). Compared with men with BMI 18.5-20.9 kg/m(2), the odds for the metabolic syndrome were 4.13 (95% CI 1.57-10.87) for men with BMI 21-22.9 kg/m(2), 5.35 (2.41-11.86) for men with BMI 23-24.9 kg/m(2), and 9.08 (4.23-19.52) for men with BMI 25-26.9 kg/m(2) after controlling for age, ethnicity, education, income, physical activity, smoking status, and alcohol and total fat, saturated fat, carbohydrate, and fiber intakes. The corresponding ORs in women were 4.34 (2.08-9.07), 7.77 (3.95-15.26), and 17.34 (9.29-32.38). CONCLUSIONS Individuals in the upper normal-weight and slightly overweight BMI range have a relatively high prevalence and are at increased risk of having the metabolic syndrome. Therefore, screening in individuals with normal or slightly elevated BMI is important in the prevention of diabetes and cardiovascular disease.
Executing a biological sequence comparison application on a federated cloud environment

Smith-Waterman (SW) is a popular application in Bioinformatics which calculates the best score/alignment between two genomic sequences. Even though SW provides the best result, it is not widely used in genome projects due to huge requirements in computing power and memory space. Recently, Cloud Computing has been receiving a lot of attention since it is able to provide utility computing in an elastic environment. The advantages of Cloud Computing can be obtained at zero cost since many of the Public Clouds provide free usage slots, allowing users to run their applications for free in Cloud environments. Also, many Clouds can be put together and seen as a unique environment, creating Federated Clouds. In this paper, we propose and evaluate an approach to implement the SW algorithm in Federated Clouds. A hierarchical Multi-Cloud architecture is proposed which is able to transparently connect and manage several Clouds. The results obtained with our architecture and our MapReduce SW implementation in five Public Clouds show that, only by using the free quota, we were able to run the SW application over a huge genomic database in time that is comparable with the one obtained in multicore clusters, showing the appropriateness of our approach.
meta-Iodobenzylguanidine, an Inhibitor of Arginine-Dependent Mono(ADP-ribosyl)ation, Prevents Neointimal Hyperplasia

The association of ADP-ribosylation with cell proliferation and ischemia-reperfusion injury suggests that it may be a suitable target for therapeutic control of revascularization-induced injury. The purpose of this study was to investigate the inhibitory actions of ADP-ribosylation inhibitors on restenosis. In organ culture, the poly(ADP-ribose) polymerase (PARP) inhibitor 3,4-dihydro-5-methylisoquinolinone (PD128763) was unable to prevent neointimal hyperplasia, whereas the arginine-dependent mono(ADP-ribosyl)transferase (ART) inhibitor meta-iodobenzylguanidine (MIBG) was highly effective (EC50 21 μM). Treatment with 3-aminobenzamide (3AB), a less potent ART inhibitor, also produced a significant reduction in neointimal hyperplasia. Single doses (25 mM) of MIBG and 3AB were also applied within a fibrin coagulum directly to the adventitial surface of the porcine femoral artery after balloon catheter injury in vivo. MIBG reduced the neointimal index, measured 14 days after angioplasty, by 82%, whereas 3AB was ineffective. However, when extended to 45 days, the neointimal index was not significantly decreased by MIBG treatment relative to control. Assessment of MIBG release from the fibrin glue showed that the bulk of the compound was eluted within 3 days, suggesting that the vehicle was not suitable for long-term delivery. On the other hand, direct infusion of MIBG into vessels was able to reduce neointimal hyperplasia over 14 days in organ culture. These data support the conclusion that the cellular retention characteristics of MIBG contribute significantly to the efficacy of this compound. Based on these results, ART, but not PARP, may be a credible target for therapeutic treatment of restenosis.
From STEM to STEAM: Strategies for Enhancing Engineering & Technology Education

This paper sets out to challenge the common pedagogies found in STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) education with a particular focus on engineering. The dominant engineering pedagogy remains “chalk and talk”; despite research evidence that demonstrates its ineffectiveness. Such pedagogical approaches do not embrace the possibilities provided by more student-centric approaches and more active learning. The paper argues that there is a potential confusion in engineering education around the role of active learning approaches, and that the adoption of these approaches may be limited as a result of this confusion, combined with a degree of disciplinary egocentrism. The paper presents examples of design, engineering and technology projects that demonstrate the effectiveness of adopting pedagogies and delivery methods more usually attributed to the liberal arts such as studio based learning. The paper concludes with some suggestions about how best to create a fertile environment from which inquiry based learning can emerge as well as a reflection on whether the only real limitation on cultivating such approaches is the disciplinary egocentrism of traditional engineering educators.
Undecidability of satisfiability in the algebra of finite binary relations with union, composition, and difference

We consider expressions built up from binary relation names using the operators union, composition, and set difference. We show that it is undecidable to test whether a given such expression $e$ is finitely satisfiable, i.e., whether there exist finite binary relations that can be substituted for the relation names so that $e$ evaluates to a nonempty result. This result already holds in restriction to expressions that mention just a single relation name, and where the difference operator can be nested at most once.
Employment Relations in Small Business: A Case Study of Registered Clubs in New South Wales

Employment relations in Australian small businesses has been a relatively neglected area of empirical research. The research that has been undertaken has concentrated on 'typical' owner-operated small businesses. This article helps to address the paucity of research in small business employment relations and provides a different perspective by examining 'atypical' small businesses. Registered clubs, which are neither privately nor government owned, have a unique ownership structure and business goals. In addition, club managers who are responsible for the day to day running of clubs have to carry out policies formulated by Boards of Directors. The study found that employment relations in small clubs were similar to those in small business generally. For example, small clubs were more likely to have lower rates of unionisation than large clubs and less communications with a trade union. They were also likely to have more informal methods of communication within the workplace. Small clubs, like other small businesses, despite more informality in employment relations, were more likely to use award provisions to determine wages for their managers and employees. These similarities occurred despite substantial differences in the circumstances of small registered club managers and their private sector counterparts.
Achieving Business Practicability of Model-Driven Cross-Platform Apps

Due to the incompatibility of mobile device platforms such as Android and iOS, apps have to be developed separately for each target platform. Cross-platform development approaches based on Web technology have significantly improved over the last years. However, since they do not lead to native apps, these frameworks are not feasible for all kinds of business apps. Moreover, the way apps are developed is cumbersome. Advanced cross-platform approaches such as MD 2 , which is based on model-driven development (MDSD) techniques, are a much more powerful yet less mature choice. We discuss business implications of MDSD for apps and introduce MD 2 as our proposed solution to fulfill typical requirements. Moreover, we highlight a business-oriented enhancement that further increases MD 2 ’s business practicability. We generalize our findings and sketch the path towards more versatile MDSD of apps.
The Effect of Internal Control Weakness on Firm Valuation: Evidence from SOX Section 404 Disclosures

We find that firms reporting internal control material weakness (ICW) under Section 404 of Sarbanes–Oxley Act (SOX) have 13% lower valuation than non-ICW firms based on Tobin's q. This valuation difference is mainly driven by stock underperformance of more than 13% during the year before ICW disclosure. The ICW firms that remedy the internal control weakness in the subsequent year have much better stock performance compared to those firms that fail to remedy existing ICW problems. We further show a better stock performance in the year before disclosure if a SOX 404 ICW firm has prior SOX 302 ICW disclosure more than one year earlier. All these results are consistent with the hypothesis that the equity market has incorporated the negative information associated with SOX 404 ICW reports before the actual disclosures are made.
Tests of stellar model atmospheres by optical interferometry. VLTI/VINCI limb-darkening measurements of the M4 giant ψ Phe

We present K-band interferometric measurements of the limb-darkened (LD) intensity profile of the M 4 giant star ψ Phoenicis obtained with the Very Large Telescope Interferometer (VLTI) and its commissioning instrument VINCI. High- precision squared visibility amplitudes in the second lobe of the visibility function were obtained employing two 8.2 m Unit Telescopes (UTs). This took place one month after light from UTs was first combined for interferometric fringes. In addition, we sampled the visibility function at small spatial frequencies using the 40 cm test siderostats. Our measurement constrains the diameter of the star as well as its center-to-limb intensity variation (CLV). We construct a spherical hydrostatic PHOENIX model atmosphere based on spectrophotometric data from the literature and compare its CLV prediction with our interferometric measurement. We compare as well CLV predictions by plane-parallel hydrostatic PHOENIX, ATLAS9 ,a ndATLAS12 models. We find that the Rosseland angular diameter as predicted by comparison of the spherical PHOENIX model with spectrophotometry is in good agreement with our interferometric diameter measurement. The shape of our measured visibility function in the second lobe is consistent with all considered PHOENIX and ATLAS model predictions, and is significantly different to uniform disk (UD) and fully darkened disk (FDD) models. We derive high-precision fundamental parameters for ψ Phe, namely a Rosseland angular diameter of 8.13 ± 0.2 mas, with the Hipparcos parallax corresponding to a Rosseland linear radius R of 86 ± 3 R� , and an effective temperature of 3550 ± 50 K, with R corresponding to a luminosity of log L/L� = 3.02 ± 0.06. Together with evolutionary models, these values are consistent with a mass of 1.3 ± 0.2 M� , and a surface gravity of log g = 0.68 ± 0.11.
The Extensible Run-Time Infrastructure (XRTI): An Emerging Middleware Standard for Interoperable Networked Virtual Environments

The Extensible Run-Time Infrastructure, or XRTI, is an experimental implementation of proposed improvements to the High Level Architecture (HLA) [Kapolka 03]. The HLA, a middleware standard for sharing information between distributed simulation components, can act as the communications infrastructure for an enduring network of shared virtual worlds, but only if several of its shortcomings are resolved. First, in order to encourage widespread acceptance, it must be made easier to use. Second, to ensure that all applications based on the HLA can interoperate effortlessly, the HLA must specify a common message protocol for its middleware implementations (Run-Time Infrastructures, or RTIs) to use. Third, because supporting large-scale and long-running heterogeneous networked virtual environments requires the ability to introduce new classes of objects and interactions at run-time, the HLA must support the dynamic extension and composition of the Federation Object Models (FOMs) that act as its simulation schemas. Finally, to ensure that application developers always have access to a no-cost version of the HLA middleware, and to provide the RTI development community with a reference implementation and a test bed for future enhancements, there must exist a freely available, freely redistributable open-source RTI.
Analysis of Spanish synthesized speech signals using spectral and basis pursuit representations

speech, the sounds involved in an utterance are not produced independently of one another, but rather reflect the result of a complex process of sound concatenation. It is important to study these coarticulation effects in representations of speech signals since, for example, their cues can be helpful in the development of robust speech recognition systems. Representational tools, such as the spectrogram, are useful for visualizing spectral characteristics along the time axis; most of these tools are based on second-order statistics, and it is interesting to consider other methods which might be useful in studying the problem of coarticulation. In recent years, sparse signal representations using suitable dictionaries of functions seem to provide an attractive alternative. With this alternative in mind, the present paper applies spectral and basis pursuit techniques to spanish synthesized signals. The results on a reduced vocabulary show that some prosodic and coarticulatory cues can be obtained from the basis pursuit method compared to the spectral representation.
Stability and Accuracy Assessment of Identification of Traditional Chinese Materia Medica Using DNA Barcoding: A Case Study on Flos Lonicerae Japonicae

DNA barcoding is a novel molecular identification method that aids in identifying traditional Chinese materia medica using traditional identification techniques. However, further study is needed to assess the stability and accuracy of DNA barcoding. Flos Lonicerae Japonicae, a typical medicinal flower, is widely used in China, Korea, and other Southeast Asian countries. However, Flos Lonicerae Japonicae and its closely related species have been misused and traded at varying for a wide range of prices. Therefore, Flos Lonicerae Japonicae must be accurately identified. In this study, the ITS2 and psbA-trnH regions were amplified by polymerase chain reaction (PCR). Sequence assembly was performed using CodonCode Aligner V 3.5. 4. The intra- versus inter-specific variations were assessed using six metrics and “barcoding gaps. ” Species identification was conducted using BLAST1 and neighbor-joining (NJ) trees. Results reveal that ITS2 and psbA-trnH exhibited an average intraspecific divergence of 0.001 and 0, respectively, as well as an average inter-specific divergence of 0.0331 and 0.0161. The identification efficiency of ITS2 and psbA-trnH evaluated using BLAST1 was 100%. Flos Lonicerae Japonicae was formed into one clade through the NJ trees. Therefore, Flos Lonicerae Japonicae can be stably and accurately identified through the ITS2 and psbA-trnH regions, respectively.
Two nonrecombining sympatric forms of the human malaria parasite Plasmodium ovale occur globally.

BACKGROUND Malaria in humans is caused by apicomplexan parasites belonging to 5 species of the genus Plasmodium. Infections with Plasmodium ovale are widely distributed but rarely investigated, and the resulting burden of disease is not known. Dimorphism in defined genes has led to P. ovale parasites being divided into classic and variant types. We hypothesized that these dimorphs represent distinct parasite species. METHODS Multilocus sequence analysis of 6 genetic characters was carried out among 55 isolates from 12 African and 3 Asia-Pacific countries. RESULTS Each genetic character displayed complete dimorphism and segregated perfectly between the 2 types. Both types were identified in samples from Ghana, Nigeria, São Tomé, Sierra Leone, and Uganda and have been described previously in Myanmar. Splitting of the 2 lineages is estimated to have occurred between 1.0 and 3.5 million years ago in hominid hosts. CONCLUSIONS We propose that P. ovale comprises 2 nonrecombining species that are sympatric in Africa and Asia. We speculate on possible scenarios that could have led to this speciation. Furthermore, the relatively high frequency of imported cases of symptomatic P. ovale infection in the United Kingdom suggests that the morbidity caused by ovale malaria has been underestimated.
Exploiting Parallel News Streams for Unsupervised Event Extraction

Most approaches to relation extraction, the task of extracting ground facts from natural language text, are based on machine learning and thus starved by scarce training data. Manual annotation is too expensive to scale to a comprehensive set of relations. Distant supervision, which automatically creates training data, only works with relations that already populate a knowledge base (KB). Unfortunately, KBs such as FreeBase rarely cover event relations (e.g. “person travels to location”). Thus, the problem of extracting a wide range of events — e.g., from news streams — is an important, open challenge. This paper introduces NewsSpike-RE, a novel, unsupervised algorithm that discovers event relations and then learns to extract them. NewsSpike-RE uses a novel probabilistic graphical model to cluster sentences describing similar events from parallel news streams. These clusters then comprise training data for the extractor. Our evaluation shows that NewsSpike-RE generates high quality training sentences and learns extractors that perform much better than rival approaches, more than doubling the area under a precision-recall curve compared to Universal Schemas.
Internal State GPOMDP with Trace Filtering

GPOMDP is an algorithm for estimating the gradient of the average reward for arbitrary Partially Observable Markov Decision Processes (POMDPs) controlled by parameterized stochastic policies. It app lies to purely reactive(memoryless) policies, or policies that generate actions a s a function of finite histories of observations. Based on the f act that maintenance of abelief stateis sufficient for optimal control inPOMDPs, this paper extendsGPOMDP to cover parameterized stochastic controllers with internal state. We also generalize the discounting of r ewards used by GPOMDP and other RL algorithms to arbitrary IIR and FIR filters, and show how prior knowledge may be used to set the taps in the fi lters in a way that reduces variance in the gradient estimation. Se veral experimental results are presented, including large scale phonem e r cognition.
Does Grammatical Structure Accelerate Number Word Learning? Evidence from Learners of Dual and Non-Dual Dialects of Slovenian

How does linguistic structure affect children’s acquisition of early number word meanings? Previous studies have tested this question by comparing how children learning languages with different grammatical representations of number learn the meanings of labels for small numbers, like 1, 2, and 3. For example, children who acquire a language with singular-plural marking, like English, are faster to learn the word for 1 than children learning a language that lacks the singular-plural distinction, perhaps because the word for 1 is always used in singular contexts, highlighting its meaning. These studies are problematic, however, because reported differences in number word learning may be due to unmeasured cross-cultural differences rather than specific linguistic differences. To address this problem, we investigated number word learning in four groups of children from a single culture who spoke different dialects of the same language that differed chiefly with respect to how they grammatically mark number. We found that learning a dialect which features “dual” morphology (marking of pairs) accelerated children’s acquisition of the number word two relative to learning a “non-dual” dialect of the same language.
Artificial neural network flood prediction for sungai isap residence

A flood is an extremely dangerous disaster that can wipe away an entire city, coastline, and rural area. The flood can cause wide destrotion to property and life that has the supreme corrosive force and can be highly damaging. In order to decrease the damages caused by the flood, an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) model has been established to predict flood in Sungai Isap, Kuantan, Pahang, Malaysia. This model is able to initiate the same brain thinking process and avoid the influence of the predict judgment. In this paper, presentation and comparison that using Bayesian Regularization (BR) back-propagation, Levenberg-Marquardt (LM) back-propagation and Gradient Descent (GD) back-propagation algorithms will be organized and carry out the result flood prediction. The predicted result of the Bayesian Regularization indicates a satisfactory performance. The conclusions also indicate that Bayesian Regularization is more versatile than Levenberg-Marquart and Gradient Descent with that can be backup or a practical tool for flood prediction. Temperature, precipitation, dew point, humidity, sea level pressure, visibility, wind, and river level data collected from January 2013 until May 2015 in the city of Sungai Isap, Kuantan is used for training, validation, and testing of the network model. The comparison is shown on the basis of mean square error (MSE) and regression (R). The prediction by training function Bayesian Regularization back-propagation found to be more suitable to predict flood model.
Cervical lymph node diseases in children

The lymph nodes are an essential part of the body’s immune system and as such are affected in many infectious, autoimmune, metabolic and malignant diseases. The cervical lymph nodes are particularly important because they are the first drainage stations for key points of contact with the outside world (mouth/throat/nose/eyes/ears/respiratory system) – a critical aspect especially among children – and can represent an early clinical sign in their exposed position on a child’s slim neck. Involvement of the lymph nodes in multiple conditions is accompanied by a correspondingly large number of available diagnostic procedures. In the interests of time, patient wellbeing and cost, a careful choice of these must be made to permit appropriate treatment. The basis of diagnostic decisions is a detailed anamnesis and clinical examination. Sonography also plays an important role in differential diagnosis of lymph node swelling in children and is useful in answering one of the critical diagnostic questions: is there a suspicion of malignancy? If so, full dissection of the most conspicuous lymph node may be necessary to obtain histological confirmation. Diagnosis and treatment of childhood cervical lymph node disorders present the attending pediatric and ENT physicians with some particular challenges. The spectrum of differential diagnoses and the varying degrees of clinical relevance – from banal infections to malignant diseases – demand a clear and considered approach to the child’s individual clinical presentation. Such an approach is described in the following paper.