Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Single Nucleotide Polymorphisms in Pediatric Idiopathic Nephrotic Syndrome

Polymorphic variants in several molecules involved in the glomerular function and drug metabolism have been implicated in the pathophysiology of pediatric idiopathic nephrotic syndrome (INS), but the results remain inconsistent. We analyzed the association of eleven allelic variants in eight genes (angiopoietin-like 4 (ANGPTL4), glypican 5 (GPC5), interleukin-13 (IL-13), macrophage migration inhibitory factor (MIF), neural nitric oxide synthetase (nNOS), multidrug resistance-1 (MDR1), glucocorticoid-induced transcript-1 (GLCCI1), and nuclear receptor subfamily-3 (NR3C1)) in 100 INS patients followed up till adulthood. We genotyped variants using PCR and direct sequencing and evaluated estimated haplotypes of MDR1 variants. The analysis revealed few differences in SNP genotype frequencies between patients and controls, or in clinical parameters among the patients. Genotype distribution of MDR1 SNPs rs1236, rs2677, and rs3435 showed significant (p < 0.05) association with different medication regimes (glucocorticoids only versus glucocorticoids plus additional immunosuppressives). Some marginal association was detected between ANGPTL4, GPC5, GLCCI1, and NR3C1 variants and different medication regimes, number of relapses, and age of onset. Conclusion. While MDR1 variant genotype distribution associated with different medication regimes, the other analyzed gene variants showed only little or marginal clinical relevance in INS.
A Self-Fueling Coordination Model for Enterprise Architecting Effectiveness

Enterprise "architecting" is the process of developing, updating and maintaining the EA. The goal of EA is to align business process and IT for the effective execution of business strategy. But the architecting process involves many stakeholders with very diverse and often conflicting goals. This makes architecting a daunting process. However, coordination in EA has received very little attention in the literature. A prior study reported that there are three fundamental types of coordination, each affecting architecting differently: (1) communication - the most prevalent, but least effective coordination mechanism in EA, (2) task programming - less prevalent but a very necessary type of coordination for EA success, and (3) team cognition - less understood but the most critical predictor of EA coordination success. In this paper we report on two case studies that investigated one highly successful and one less successful EA practice. Both organizations had competent business, IT and EA staff and active architecting coordination via communication and task programming. Only the successful organization, however, had strong team cognition, underscoring the importance of cognitive coordination in architecting.
VALIDITY OF SELF‐ASSESSMENT: A FIELD EVALUATION

This study evaluated the validity of self-assessment in a natural setting. It also addressed the possibility of improving the utility of self-assessment by cautioning subjects that their responses could be compared with other existing data on them. Subjects were 357 males, aged 18–19 years, who were being screened for a prestigious military course. During the screening, they participated in small groups for nine days of tests, class exercises, and field simulations supervised by veteran commanders. On the ninth day, ratings were collected from commanders, peer group members, and the subjects themselves on dimensions related to eventual success in the training course. The experimental group was told their reports would be compared with those from other sources; the control group was not. Predictive and convergent validities were examined on three criteria: course success, commander ratings, and peer evaluations. Self-assessments from both experimental and control group were valid; however, those of the experimental group did not yield consistently higher validities. Findings are discussed in regard to their practical ramifications.
Forest Driven Dependency Analysis Enhanced by Japanese Clause Structure Estimation

For applications of the natural language processing, such as spoken translation, it is the most important characteristic to accept various inputs. We analyze a speech input as a sequence of speech fragment and achieve high acceptability. But it is difficult to determine whether each fragment/unit should be interpreted separately or not. This sort of problem is shared by several applications. We regard a clause and dependency structures as one of the clue to solve this type of problem. Because, even in a spoken language domain, a clause represents a syntactic unit and a dependency represents a semantic unit. In this paper, we describe the dependency analysis method on the syntax forest structure enhanced by Japanese clause structure estimation. It also contributes to improve on translation in manual evaluation from 77.8% up to 78.8%.
Using social networks in resolving conflicts of concept learning process

Distributed agent-mediated knowledge management (AMKM) has attracted much attention as a way to improve knowledge sharing across the world. In AMKM, many systems can potentially interact with each other and share their knowledge while keeping their own ontology such as health care systems that handle problems of distributed experience and search engines that search distributed information in the Internet. The main problem for those systems is to make the agents understand each other adequately. Concept learning is an enabling technique. However, the semantic heterogeneity problem may occur. That is, those concepts may have been defined differently in separate ontologies and conflicts become inevitable. In order to overcome the problem of semantic heterogeneity, we present a mechanism for concept learning based on social networking that can be used to effectively resolve possible conflicts that may occur during the learning process.
Water harvest via dewing.

Harvesting water from humid air via dewing can provide a viable solution to a water shortage problem where liquid-phase water is not available. Here we experimentally quantify the effects of wettability and geometry of the condensation substrate on the water harvest efficiency. Uniformly hydrophilic surfaces are found to exhibit higher rates of water condensation and collection than surfaces with lower wettability. This is in contrast to a fog basking method where the most efficient surface consists of hydrophilic islands surrounded by hydrophobic background. A thin drainage path in the lower portion of the condensation substrate is revealed to greatly enhance the water collection efficiency. The optimal surface conditions found in this work can be used to design a practical device that harvests water as its biological counterpart, a green tree frog, Litoria caerulea , does during the dry season in tropical northern Australia.
Disc nucleus fortification for lumbar degenerative disc disease: a biomechanical study.

OBJECTIVE Spinal stability is attributed in part to osteoligamentous structures, including the vertebral body, facets, intervertebral discs, and posterior elements. The materials in this study provide an opportunity to augment the degenerated nucleus without removing native disc material, a procedure introduced here as "fortification. " The objective of this study was to determine the effect of nucleus fortification on lumbar disc biomechanics. METHODS The authors performed in vitro analysis of human cadaveric functional spinal units (FSUs), along with characterization and quantification of movement of the units using biomechanical data in intact, disc-only, and fortified specimens. The units underwent removal of all posterior elements and annulus and were fortified by injecting a biogel into the nucleus pulposus. Each specimen was subjected to load testing, range of motion (ROM) quantification, and disc bulge measurements. Optoelectric tracking was used to quantify disc bulge. These criteria were assessed in the intact, disc-only, and fortified treatments. RESULTS Disc-only FSUs resulted in increased ROM when compared with intact and fortified conditions. Fortification of the FSU resulted in partial restoration of normal ROM in the treatment groups. Analysis of hysteresis loops showed more linear response in the fortified groups when compared with the intact and disc-only groups. CONCLUSIONS Disc nucleus fortification increases linearity and decreases ROM.
The Effects of Shelf Display on Online Grocery Choices

Research on shelf effects in traditional grocery stores has shown that a product's absolute and relative shelf position may strongly affect consumer choices. In this paper, we examine whether and how such shelf effects translate into an online grocery context. We find that a product's choice probability increases when presented on the first screen or located near focal items - especially when the latter are out-of-stock. These primacy and proximity effects have a stronger impact on choice decisions when assortments are more difficult to evaluate and when a clear shelf organization facilitates the use of shelf-based choice heuristics.
NAM-to-speech conversion with Gaussian mixture models

In order to realize a new human communication style using Non-Audible Murmur (NAM) that cannot be heard by people around a speaker, we perform conversion from NAM to ordinary speech (NAM-to-Speech). NAM-to-Speech has a possibility of realizing “non-speech telephone” that is a technique for communicating each other by talking in NAM and hearing in speech. In this paper, we apply a statistical conversion method with Gaussian Mixture Model (GMM) to NAM-to-Speech. In advance, we train GMMs for representing correlations between acoustic features of NAM and those of speech using 50 utterance pairs of NAM and speech. In the conversion, we estimate acoustic spectral and F0 features of speech based on a maximum likelihood criterion, and then synthesize the converted speech with a vocoder. From results of subjective evaluations on intelligibility and naturalness, it is demonstrated that the NAMto-Speech with GMMs can convert NAM to more consistently natural voice.
Neural Feedback Passivity of Unknown Nonlinear Systems via Sliding Mode Technique

Passivity method is very effective to analyze large-scale nonlinear systems with strong nonlinearities. However, when most parts of the nonlinear system are unknown, the published neural passivity methods are not suitable for feedback stability. In this brief, we propose a novel sliding mode learning algorithm and sliding mode feedback passivity control. We prove that for a wide class of unknown nonlinear systems, this neural sliding mode control can passify and stabilize them. This passivity method is validated with a simulation and real experiment tests.
CIVIC ENGAGEMENT AND RELIGIOUS ACTIVITIES: EXAMINING THE INFLUENCE OF RELIGIOUS TRADITION AND PARTICIPATION

Typically the relationship between civic engagement and religion has been investigated using only basic measures of religious attendance or denomination. We utilize more detailed indicators of various types of religious participation and a more valid concept of religious traditions to examine the influence on civic engagement, finding that typical measures of religious attendance or denomination camouflage much of religion's influence. We show that while several religious traditions are positively related to civic engagement, being an Evangelical Protestant or Black Protestant is negatively related. The results also indicate that religious attendance reduces overall civic engagement, while other types of religious participation increase civic engagement. At the specific levels of civic engagement such as belong, contribute, volunteer, and lead, we find similar variations in religious traditions and types of religious participation. Our findings suggest that scholars often overlooked the importance of religious participation beyond religious attendance and reached conclusions regarding civic engagement that do not accurately describe religion's effects. Thus, we contend that attendance and religious tradition, while they may be important and should be included in analysis, should not be the sole, or even primary, focus.
Effect of the Selection of Input Voltage and Maximum Operating Flux Density of Different Core Material on the Optimum Design of Switching Power Converter

The effects of using different input voltage and different core material of different saturation flux density on the switching power converter weight minimization are presented. The design- oriented sensitivity analysis by perturbing the operating point, for example, the input voltage and the maximum flux density, reveals valuable design insights into the switching power converter global design optimization. A cost-effective computer-aided nonlinear programming (NLP) design technique is utilized for the minimum weight design. The new topology Cuk switching converter is taken as a demonstration example. Detailed loss and weight breakdowns as a function of the input voltage and the operating flux density are calculated for the optimum operation. Significant differences of the overall power converter performances are observed by using different input voltages and saturation flux densities.
Parallel symbolic execution for automated real-world software testing

This paper introduces Cloud9, a platform for automated testing of real-world software. Our main contribution is the scalable parallelization of symbolic execution on clusters of commodity hardware, to help cope with path explosion. Cloud9 provides a systematic interface for writing "symbolic tests" that concisely specify entire families of inputs and behaviors to be tested, thus improving testing productivity. Cloud9 can handle not only single-threaded programs but also multi-threaded and distributed systems. It includes a new symbolic environment model that is the first to support all major aspects of the POSIX interface, such as processes, threads, synchronization, networking, IPC, and file I/O. We show that Cloud9 can automatically test real systems, like memcached, Apache httpd, lighttpd, the Python interpreter, rsync, and curl. We show how Cloud9 can use existing test suites to generate new test cases that capture untested corner cases (e.g., network stream fragmentation). Cloud9 can also diagnose incomplete bug fixes by analyzing the difference between buggy paths before and after a patch.
Document Annotation Support Using Biomedical Ontologies

Adding annotations to documents by extracting data from text yields richer document representation, which users can exploit for various tasks such as search and browsing. However, data extraction is hard, especially in large-scale heterogeneous settings. A more focused technique for data extraction is entity linking, which does not extract new data from documents, but links words in documents to referent entities in existing structured datasets or ontologies. We follow this direction in the sense that given some documents, we also aim at finding entities (ontology concepts in our case) that can be used for creating document annotations. However, we emphasize the role of users in this annotation creation process such that the concepts we search for are not directly annotations, but candidate annotations as well as their contexts forming annotation modules that are then employed by users for creating the annotations manually. We propose a technique, which efficiently computes annotation candidates based on a coarse-grained topic-based representation of documents and ontology concepts. Aiming at maximizing compactness while preserving useful information, we also elaborate on a module extraction technique, which considers only annotation candidates and context elements that are “on-topic”, i.e. share topics with the documents to be annotated. Initial experiments show promising results as well as the needs for much more research work towards this new direction of ontology-based annotation support.
Single-Channel Speech Separation Using Soft Mask Filtering

We present an approach for separating two speech signals when only one single recording of their linear mixture is available. For this purpose, we derive a filter, which we call the soft mask filter, using minimum mean square error (MMSE) estimation of the log spectral vectors of sources given the mixture's log spectral vectors. The soft mask filter's parameters are estimated using the mean and variance of the underlying sources which are modeled using the Gaussian composite source modeling (CSM) approach. It is also shown that the binary mask filter which has been empirically and extensively used in single-channel speech separation techniques is, in fact, a simplified form of the soft mask filter. The soft mask filtering technique is compared with the binary mask and Wiener filtering approaches when the input consists of male+male, female+female, and male+female mixtures. The experimental results in terms of signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) and segmental SNR show that soft mask filtering outperforms binary mask and Wiener filtering.
CodY-Regulated Aminotransferases AraT and BcaT Play a Major Role in the Growth of Lactococcus lactis in Milk by Regulating the Intracellular Pool of Amino Acids

ABSTRACT Aminotransferases, which catalyze the last step of biosynthesis of most amino acids and the first step of their catabolism, may be involved in the growth of Lactococcus lactis in milk. Previously, we isolated two aminotransferases from L. lactis, AraT and BcaT, which are responsible for the transamination of aromatic amino acids, branched-chain amino acids, and methionine. In this study, we demonstrated that double inactivation of AraT and BcaT strongly reduced the growth of L. lactis in milk. Supplementation of milk with amino acids and keto acids that are substrates of both aminotransferases did not improve the growth of the double mutant. On the contrary, supplementation of milk with isoleucine or a dipeptide containing isoleucine almost totally inhibited the growth of the double mutant, while it did not affect or only slightly affected the growth of the wild-type strain. These results suggest that AraT and BcaT play a major role in the growth of L. lactis in milk by degrading the intracellular excess isoleucine, which is responsible for the growth inhibition. The growth inhibition by isoleucine is likely to be due to CodY repression of the proteolytic system, which is necessary for maximal growth of L. lactis in milk, since the growth of the CodY mutant was not affected by addition of isoleucine to milk. Moreover, we demonstrated that AraT and BcaT are part of the CodY regulon and therefore are regulated by nutritional factors, such as the carbohydrate and nitrogen sources.
A Multiple Model Localization System for Outdoor Vehicles

This paper presents the problematic of localization under the IMM (Interacting Multiple Model) approach. The localization is often tackled under the accuracy problem. In order to achieve the goal of the assessment of an accurate ego localization, one often uses the merging of data coming from both exteroceptive and proprioceptive sensors. In our approach, we don't focuss much on the accuracy, but more especially on both the confidence and the robustness of this positioning. In fact, the IMM approach is based on the discretization of the vehicle evolution space into simple maneuvers, represented each by a simple dynamic model. In order to reach our objective using IMM, we assume that at every time period the true mode under which the vehicle goes is represented. After a review of different traditional filters used in vehicle localization, an IMM method is proposed and the comparison is mainly based on some robustness criteria that are presented in this paper.
Evaluation of Pre-Cecal, Ileal Digestibility and Glycemic Response in Fistulated Horses Fed with Different Starch Sources

The objective of this study was to evaluate the coefficients of pre-cecal, ileal digestibility, and glycemic response in cannulated horses fed with different starch sources. Four male horses were used in a 4 × 4 Balanced Latin Square cannulated in the cecum, with 36 months of age and average weight of 350 kg. The horses were fed with hay and the following sources of starch in concentrates: 1) corn (C); 2) oats (O); 3) sorghum (S); and 4) corn/oats (CO). The experiment consisted of four periods of eighteen days each, being the first twelve days of adaptation and six days to collect samples. There was no difference in cecal and ileal digestibility of starch, CP, ADF, NDF and OM among diets evaluated. However, horses fed with oats diet had higher values of pre-cecal apparent digestibility of DM in relation at the horses fed to sorghum and corn/oats diets. The values of CF digestibility were higher for equines fed with oats and sorghum diet compared to corn/oats diet. The horses fed with corn/oats diet had lower plasma glucose concentrations 30 minutes before the supply and higher insulin concentrations 210 minutes after ingestion of the foods. The digestibility of nutrients in equine diets, in pre-cecal and pre-ileal evaluation, presents significant differences, depending on the starch source provided, oat, corn or sorghum. The plasma glucose concentrations are directly correlated with the digestibility of starch.
Phonological Analysis: A Functional Approach

One would like for this to be a good book. There is such a serious need for a clear introductory text in phonology which combines a discussion of fundamental theoretical principles with a sound methodological component. In spite of a number of new texts in this area, it is hard to find one that is a good, up-to-date, comprehensive and readable text, designed for a one-semester course. Otherwise bright students I have taught over the years regularly complain that their text is unclear regardless of the text being used. A new text is sorely needed. In this regard, the present book inspired some optimism when I began to read it. It is of a reasonable size and for the most part clearly written. Moreover, the authors regularly teach introductory courses at schools affiliated with the Summer Institute of Linguistics, an organisation with an outstanding reputation for well-developed, practical courses in linguistic field work. Yet in spite of the excellent timing and potential benefits of a new textbook in phonology, it is not likely to win the hearts of the majority of phonologists, due to its unevenness, theoretical eclecticism and lack of some basic pedagogical elements, among other shortcomings. In this review I will evaluate the book from pedagogical and theoretical perspectives. While the review is on the whole a negative one, I argue that this book will be worth reading for some phonologists because of the usefulness of some of its discussions and for its intriguing and thought-provoking (albeit often unintentional) juxtapositions of structuralist, especially Pikean, and generative concepts of phonological analysis. Beginning from a pedagogical perspective, the first question any textbook ought to ask itself is what it wants to teach students. Unfortunately, the authors' answer to this question leaves out important information for anyone who wants to know either what current phonology is about or how to go about doing phonological analysis. The authors assert (p. vii) that their purpose is 'to present pretheoretical principles useful for phonological analysis'. And indeed they do present a few such principles. But they do not limit themselves to this. They claim that they will also ' attempt to explain phonological phenomena. in terms of their function in the communicative context of language'. While they in fact attempt to do this in a couple of places in the book, their promise is for the most part not kept. Aside from the fact that attempting to explain phonology in terms of communicative function is a theoretical, not a pretheoretical, position, the authors do take time to discuss recent theoretical developments. So