Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Role and regulation of VEGF and its receptors 1 and 2 in the aseptic loosening of total hip implants

It was hypothesized that vascular endothelial growth factor (VEGF) in fibroblasts participates in aseptic loosening of total hip replacement (THR) implants. Therefore, osteoarthritic (OA) samples (n = 11) were compared with synovial membrane‐like interface tissues from revision THR (n = 10). VEGF‐A and its receptors were stained using streptavidin‐immunoperoxidase method. Their regulation by hypoxia and cytokines were studied in cultured fibroblasts using quantitative real‐time polymerase chain reaction (qRT‐PCR). VEGFR1+ lining cells (p < 0.01), stromal fibroblast‐like cells (p = 0.001) and stromal macrophage‐like cells (p < 0.05) were more numerous in rTHR than in OA. As to VEGFR2+, only stromal fibroblast‐like cells in rTHR outnumbered those found in OA (p < 0.05). VEGFRs in synovial fibroblasts were not affected by hypoxia, but VEGF increased 2.4‐fold (p < 0.05). Interleukin‐4 up‐regulated VEGFR1 expression 23‐fold. This is the first study to describe a difference between rTHR and OA in VEGF receptors, particularly VEGFR1. Hypoxia increased VEGF, but the VEGFR1 increase in the lining and stroma is probably IL‐4 driven, in accordance with the M2‐type macrophage dominance in interface tissues. VEGF/VEGFR system is also affected by hypoxia and may play a role in angiogenesis and bone pathology in aseptic loosening of total hip implants. © 2012 Orthopaedic Research Society. Published by Wiley Periodicals, Inc. J Orthop Res 30:1830–1836, 2012
The Development and Validation of a Measure of Relational Leadership.

This study reports the development and validation of the Relational Leadership Questionnaire (RLQ). The consensus attributes of relational leadership are that the relational leader is caring, empowering, ethical, inclusive, and has vision. For each of these five attributes, 10 Likert items were written using a 7-point response scale. These 50 items were administered to 141 high school teachers. Five factors were found for the RLQ, and the 5 items with the highest factor loadings for each attribute were retained for the confirmatory study. A confirmatory study was done with 434 elementary, middle, and high school teachers who responded to the Leader-Member Exchange (LMX) scale (R. Liden and J. Maslyn, 1998), the known marker scale, and Mayers trust scale (R. Mayer and others, 1999) . The hypothesized correlations with the LMX and trust scales were obtained as were the expected factor structures. The RLQ was in general validated, but gender, teaching level, and teaching experience were found to influence factor structure and scores on all three instruments significantly. The meaning and implications of these findings are discussed as they are important to both research on and theories of leadership. (Contains 12 tables and 15 references.) (SLD) Reproductions supplied by EDRS are the best that can be made from the original document.
Support vector machines in handwritten digits classification

In the paper our approach to classify handwritten digits by using support vector machines is described. Because of the unsatisfying, long time of training of SVM we propose to apply k-nearest neighbours algorithm with Manhattan distance to obtain reduced size of training set having a hope that this hybrid method does not make the significantly worse results of recognition. The aim of presented further experiments was to verify this assumption.
Estimating the Voltage Stability of a Power System

A method for the online testing a power system is proposed which is aimed at the detection of voltage instabilities. Thereby an indicator L is defined which varies in the range between 0 (noload of system) and 1 (voltage collapse). Based on the basic concept of such an indicator various models are derived which allow to predict a voltage instability or the proximity of a collapse. The indicator uses information of a normal load flow. The advantage of the method lies in the simplicity of the numerical calculation and the expressiveness of the result.
Continuous Visibility Feature ∗ # supplementary material #

In this supplementary document, we provide additional evaluations between the proposed CVF and other methods. These evaluations are obtained using the Princeton Segmentation Benchmark [1] and results are shown in Section 1. We provide an algorithm that details idea of filtering-based approach for speeding up CVF computation in Section 2. We will also show more results from CVF variants, namely the strong CVF and weak CVF in Section 4. Finally, we will show weak CVF with different values of τ .
Working Memory Impairment in Fibromyalgia Patients Associated with Altered Frontoparietal Memory Network

Background Fibromyalgia (FM) is a disorder characterized by chronic widespread pain and frequently associated with other symptoms. Patients with FM commonly report cognitive complaints, including memory problem. The objective of this study was to investigate the differences in neural correlates of working memory between FM patients and healthy subjects, using functional magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). Methodology/Principal Findings Nineteen FM patients and 22 healthy subjects performed an n-back memory task during MRI scan. Functional MRI data were analyzed using within- and between-group analysis. Both activated and deactivated brain regions during n-back task were evaluated. In addition, to investigate the possible effect of depression and anxiety, group analysis was also performed with depression and anxiety level in terms of Beck depression inventory (BDI) and Beck anxiety inventory (BAI) as a covariate. Between-group analyses, after controlling for depression and anxiety level, revealed that within the working memory network, inferior parietal cortex was strongly associated with the mild (r = 0.309, P = 0.049) and moderate (r = 0.331, P = 0.034) pain ratings. In addition, between-group comparison revealed that within the working memory network, the left DLPFC, right VLPFC, and right inferior parietal cortex were associated with the rating of depression and anxiety? Conclusions/Significance Our results suggest that the working memory deficit found in FM patients may be attributable to differences in neural activation of the frontoparietal memory network and may result from both pain itself and depression and anxiety associated with pain.
Exploiting Core Criticality for Enhanced GPU Performance

Modern memory access schedulers employed in GPUs typically optimize for memory throughput. They implicitly assume that all requests from different cores are equally important. However, we show that during the execution of a subset of CUDA applications, different cores can have different amounts of tolerance to latency. In particular, cores with a larger fraction of warps waiting for data to come back from DRAM are less likely to tolerate the latency of an outstanding memory request. Requests from such cores are more critical than requests from others. Based on this observation, this paper introduces a new memory scheduler, called (C)ritica(L)ity (A)ware (M)emory (S)cheduler (CLAMS), which takes into account the latency-tolerance of the cores that generate memory requests. The key idea is to use the fraction of critical requests in the memory request buffer to switch between scheduling policies optimized for criticality and locality. If this fraction is below a threshold, CLAMS prioritizes critical requests to ensure cores that cannot tolerate latency are serviced faster. Otherwise, CLAMS optimizes for locality, anticipating that there are too many critical requests and prioritizing one over another would not significantly benefit performance. We first present a core-criticality estimation mechanism for determining critical cores and requests, and then discuss issues related to finding a balance between criticality and locality in the memory scheduler. We progressively devise three variants of CLAMS, and show that the Dynamic CLAMS provides significantly higher performance, across a variety of workloads, than the commonly-employed GPU memory schedulers optimized solely for locality. The results indicate that a GPU memory system that considers both core criticality and DRAM access locality can provide significant improvement in performance.
ORGANIZATIONAL CLIMATE AND SLEEPING DISORDERS : THE MEDIATION ROLE OF WORKPLACE CONFLICTS ’ IMPACT

Sleep deprivation is one of the most important health problem in modern society and evidenced so far, on Romanian employees, have shown that 74% of them have been diagnosed with sleeping disorders (About Sleep Disorders, 2016). Despite this evidence, little attention has been given to the role of organizational factors and to the effects of workplace conflicts in triggering sleeping disorders among Romanian employees. The present empirical research addresses the relationship between organizational climate, the impact of workplace conflicts and employees’ sleeping disorders. 151 Romanian employees (101/66.88% female and 44/29.13% male) participated at the present study by completing, in paper-pencil format, the questionnaires measuring organizational climate, workplace conflicts and sleeping disorders. The results showed that lower levels of organizational support, justice, decisions and assessment are correlated with sleeping disorders and workplace conflicts. Moreover, the direct relationship between organizational climate and sleeping disorders can be better understood when the impact of workplace conflicts is introduced as a mediator. The present study emphasize on the importance of understanding the role of workplace conflicts in employees’ sleeping disorders and helps human resources professional to develop more efficient training programs designed to improve employees social competences (i.e. offering social support to their colleagues experiencing symptoms of sleeping disorders) and to increase knowledge referring to poor organizational climate-sleeping disorders relationship. Correspondence concerning this paper should be addressed to:  Ph.D., Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Faculty of Psychology and Social Sciences, Psychology Department, Iaşi, Romania, U.E. E-mail: tconst@uaic.ro  Ph. D. Researcher, Alexandru Ioan Cuza University, Motivation, Self & Well-being Research Center, Psychology Department. Address: Toma Cozma Street, no. 3, 700554, Iasi, Romania, E.U. E-mail: teodoramc09@gmail.com T. Constantin and T. Maidaniuc-Chirilă / IJEPC, 2016, 6 (1 & 2), 53-68 ___________________________________________________________________ 54
LuckyJ: an Asynchronous Evolution Platform for Component-Based Applications

In this article we present the implementation of a model for software evolution. This model enables components to communicate through asynchronous services. The key feature is that services are described rather than designated. This means that components registers services by giving service description to a central component called service manager. Components willing to invoke services submit to the service manager the description of the desired service. The call is effectively made asynchronously by the service manager after a matching process. Such an invocation process may be characterized by the fact that it is anonymous, associative and asynchronous. The implementation of the model, called the LuckyJ platform, that we present in this article conforms to these principles. Experiences, which we made, show that such a model allows to hot-swap, duplicate and remove temporarily parts of an application at runtime.
Fast deterministic processor allocation

Interval allocation has been suggested as a possible formalization for the PRAM of the (vaguely defined) processor allocation problem, which is of fundamental importance in parallel computing. The interval allocation problem is, given n nonnegative integers x1, . , xn, to allocate n nonoverlapping subarrays of sizes x1, . , xn from within a base array of O(? nj=1xj) cells. We show that interval allocation problems of size n can be solved in O((log log n)3) time with optimal speedup on a deterministic CRCW PRAM. In addition to a general solution to the processor allocation problem, this implies an improved deterministic algorithm for the problem of approximate summation. For both interval allocation and approximate summation, the fastest previous deterministic algorithms have running times of ? (log n/log log n). We describe an application to the problem of computing the connected components of an undirected graph. Finally we show that there is a nonuniform deterministic algorithm that solves interval allocation problems of size n in O(log log n) time with optimal speedup.
Non-technical loss detection using state estimation and analysis of variance

Summary form only given. Illegal use of electric energy is a widespread practice in many parts of the world. Smart metering enables the improvement of customer load model, theft and stressed asset detections. In this paper, a state estimation based approach for distribution transformer load estimation is exploited to detect meter malfunction/tampering and provide quantitative evidences of non-technical loss (NTL). A measure of overall fit of the estimated values to the pseudo feeder bus injection measurements based on customer metering data aggregated at the distribution transformers is used to localize the electricity usage irregularity. Following the state estimation results, an analysis of variance (ANOVA) is used to create a suspect list of customers with metering problems and estimate the actual usage. Typical Taiwan Power Company (TPC) distribution feeder data are used in the tests. Results of NTL detection under meter defect and energy theft scenarios are presented. Experiences indicate that the proposed scheme can give a good trace of the actual usage at feeder buses and supplement the current meter data validation estimation and editing (VEE) process to improve meter data quality.
Effects of Treatment on Outcome in Mildly Symptomatic Patients With Ischemia During Daily Life: The Atenolol Silent Ischemia Study (ASIST)

BackgroundDetection of asymptomatic ischemia in patients with coronary artery disease has been associated with increased risk for adverse outcome, but treatment of patients with asymptomatic ischemia remains controversial. Accordingly, the purpose of this study was to determine if treatment reduces adverse outcome in patients with daily life ischemia. Methods and ResultsA multicenter, randomized, double-blind, placebo- controlled study of asymptomatic or minimally symptomatic outpatients with daily life silent ischemia due to coronary artery disease was conducted. The primary outcome measure was event- free survival at 1 year by Kaplan-Meier analysis. Events were death, resuscitated ventricular tachycardia/ fibrillation, myocardial infarction, hospitalization for unstable angina, aggravation of angina, or revascularization. The secondary outcome was ischemia during ambulatory ECG monitoring at 4 weeks. Three hundred six outpatients with mild or no angina (Canadian Cardiovascular Society class I or II), abnormal exercise tests, and ischemia on ambulatory monitoring were randomized to receive either atenolol (100 mg/d) or placebo. After 4 weeks of treatment, the number (mean±SD, 3.6±4.2 versus 1.7±4.6 episodes, P<.001) and average duration (30±3.3 versus 16.4+6.7 minutes, P<.001) of ischemic episodes per 48 hours of ambulatory monitoring decreased in atenolol- compared with placebo-assigned patients (4.4±4.6 to 3.1±6.0 episodes and 36.6±4.1 to 30±5.5 minutes). Event-free survival improved in atenolol-treated patients (P<.0066), who had an increased time to onset of first adverse event (120 versus 79 days) and fewer total first events compared with placebo (relative risk, 0.44; 95% confidence intervals, 0.26 to 0.75; P=.001). There was a nonsignificant trend for fewer serious events (death, resuscitation from ventricular tachycardia/fibrillation, nonfatal myocardial infarction, or hospitalization for unstable angina) in atenolol-treated patients (relative risk, 0.55; 95% confidence intervals, 0.22 to 1.33; P=.175). The most powerful univariate and multivariate correlate of event-free survival was absence of ischemia on ambulatory monitoring at 4 weeks. Side effects were mild and generally similar comparing atenolol- and placebo-treated patients, although bradycardia was more frequent with atenolol. ConclusionsAtenolol treatment reduced daily life ischemia and was associated with reduced risk for adverse outcome in asymptomatic and mildly symptomatic patients compared with placebo.
The Development and Evaluation of a Program to Improve Parent-Child Attachment in Families Adopting an Older Child

The purpose of this study was to develop and evaluate an attachment improvement program for families adopting an older child. The objectives and contents of this program reflected on the experiences of adopted parents and the characteristics of older-age adoptee children with attachment disruption. The program consisted of three components: parent-child relationship building, parenting skills enhancement for adopted parents, and negative emotions mediation for the older-age adoptees. The subjects of program were eight parent-child dyads. Differences between pre- and post-test data showed statistically significant improvements in the quality of parent-child relationships, communication levels with parents, and the parents` autonomic levels. There was also a reduction in the children`s social problems. The implications of this study were discussed in terms of improving parent-child attachments in families adopting an older child.
An Integration Approach of QA Engines depending on Answer-Class

In this paper, we attempt integration approach of various QA engines based on heterogeneous answer extraction methods. Our QA system is based on Web encyclopedia in Korean. We investigate characteristics of the encyclopedia and incorporate them in our answer acquisition methods. We defined four different types of QA engines depending on answer-class: knowledge-base QA, record QA, descriptive QA, and general QA. We describe how our proposed model was applied to the QA system with reviewing a set of experimental results
Optimal multistage vector quantization of LPC parameters over noisy channels

The direct use of vector quantization (VQ) to encode LPC parameters in a communication system suffers from the following two limitations: 1) complexity of implementation for large vector dimensions and codebook sizes and 2) sensitivity to errors in the received indices due to noise in the communication channel. In the past, these issues have been simultaneously addressed by designing channel matched multistage vector quantizers (CM-MSVQ). A sub-optimal sequential design procedure has been used to train the codebooks of the CM-MSVQ. In this paper, a novel channel-optimized multistage vector quantization (CO-MSVQ) codec is presented, in which the stage codebooks are jointly designed. The proposed codec uses a source and channel-dependent distortion measure to encode line spectral frequencies derived from segments of a speech signal. Extensive simulation results are provided to demonstrate the consistent reduction in both the mean and the variance of the spectral distortion obtained using the proposed codec relative to the conventional sequentially designed CM-MSVQ. Furthermore, the perceptual quality of the reconstructed speech using the proposed codec was found to be better than that obtained using the sequentially designed CM-MSVQ.
Project liberty: a public health response to New Yorkers' mental health needs arising fromthe World Trade Center terrorist attacks

The September 11th terrorist attacks had a dramatic impact on the mental health of millions of Americans. The impact was particularly severe in New York City and surrounding areas within commuting distance of the World Trade Center. With support from the federal government, state and local mental health authorities rapidly mounted a large-scale public health intervention aimed at ameliorating the traumatic stress experienced by residents of the disaster area. The resulting program, named Project Liberty, has provided free public educational and crisis counseling services to tens of thousands of New Yorkers in its initial months of operation. Individuals served vary widely in the severity of experienced trauma and associated traumatic reactions. Data from logs kept by Project Liberty workers suggest that individuals with the most severe reactions are being referred to longer-term mental health treatment services.
Sampling-based dimension reduction for subspace approximation

We give a randomized bi-criteria algorithm for the problem of finding a <i>k</i>-dimensional subspace that minimizesthe L<sub>p</sub>-error for given points, i.e., <i>p</i>-th root of the sum of <i>p</i>-th powers of distances to given points,for any p ≥ 1. Our algorithm runs in time Õ (mn · pk<sup>3</sup> (k/ε)<sup>2p</sup>) andproduces a subset of size Õ (pk<sup>2</sup> (k/ε)<sup>2p</sup>) from the given points such that, withhigh probability, the span of these points gives a (1+ε)-approximation to the optimal <i>k</i>-dimensionalsubspace. We also show a dimension reduction type of result for this problem where we can efficiently find asubset of size Õ (pk<sup>2(p+1)</sup> + (k/ε)<sup>p+2</sup>) such that, with high probability, theirspan contains a <i>k</i>-dimensional subspace that gives (1+ε)-approximation to the optimum. We prove similarresults for the corresponding projective clustering problem where we need to find multiple <i>k</i>-dimensional subspaces.
Testing configurable LUT-based FPGA's

We present a new technique for testing field programmable gate arrays (FPGA's) based on look-up tables (LUT's). We consider a generalized structure for the basic FPGA logic element (cell); it includes devices such as LUT's, sequential elements (flip-flops), multiplexers and control circuitry. We use a hybrid fault model for these devices. The model is based on a physical as well as a behavioral characterization. This permits detection of all single faults (either stuck-at or functional) and some multiple faults using repeated FPGA reprogramming. We show that different arrangements of disjoint one-dimensional (l-D) cell arrays with cascaded horizontal connections and common vertical input lines provide a good logic testing regimen. The testing time is independent of the number of cells in the array (C-testability), We define new conditions for C-testability of programmable/reconfigurable arrays. These conditions do not suffer from limited I/O pins. Cell configuration affects the controllability/observability of the iterative array. We apply the approach to various Xilinx FPGA families and compare it to prior work.
Automatic Methods for the Extension of a Bilingual Dictionary using Comparable Corpora

Bilingual dictionaries define word equivalents from one language to another, thus acting as an important bridge between languages. No bilingual dictionary is complete since languages are in a constant state of change. Additionally, dictionaries are unlikely to achieve complete coverage of all language terms. This paper investigates methods for extending dictionaries using non-aligned corpora, by finding translations through context similarity. Most methods compute word contexts from general corpora. This can lead to errors due to data sparsity. We investigate the hypothesis that this problem can be addressed by carefully choosing smaller corpora in which domain-specific terms are more predominant. We also introduce the notion of efficiency which we consider as the effort required to obtain a set of dictionary entries from a given corpus