Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Learning through Virtual Representations

This research explores Avatars' appearance on students from different countries and cultures, in three-dimension (3D) virtual learning environments. Analysis of observations, questionnaires and interviews examine the ways participants use Avatars to represent themselves. Seeking educational opportunities in technology based learning environments, 3D virtual environments enable learning which simulates face to face encounters while retaining the advantages of online learning. The study examines the choice of students' Avatar appearance in relation to their appearance and their prevailing social and cultural norms. Results indicated that although virtual 3-Dimention environments provide freedom in appearance, external contexts create powerful boundaries and expectations, leading many participants to seek online social acceptable appearance influenced by their offline cultural norms, as well as by online group identity. We extend the dual-congruity perspectives of Avatar Choice Model to a conceptual framework based on quad-congruity perspectives, adding the importance of online group and focus on the constraining effect of offline culture and norms on virtual representations.
TUW at the First Total Recall Track

Abstract : For the first participation in the TREC Total Recall track, we set out to trysome basic changes to the baseline provided by the organisers. Namely, the weightingscheme, the use of stopwords, and the number of learners that contribute to the decisionof which documents to ask the virtual assessor to review. We observed that the baselinewas extremely strong and none of the runs significantly and consistently outperformed it.
Context-DependentModulationofMovement-Related DischargeinthePrimateGlobusPallidus

A selective contribution of the basal ganglia (BG) to memory-contingent motor control has long been hypothesized. The importance of memory context remains an open question, however, for the BG skeletomotor circuit. To investigate this question, we studied the perimovementdischargeofacarefullyselectedgroupof74“arm-related”pallidalcellsintworhesusmonkeys.Theanimalsperformed threetasksdesignedtodissociatemultipleindependentaspectsofmemory-contingentreachingwhilecontrollingmovementkinematics. The activity of most neurons (88%) was influenced strongly by the memory demands of a task (remembering “where” or “when” to move), but the population as a whole showed no systematic preference for memory- or sensory-contingent conditions. The effects of memorycontextwereprimarilyadditivewiththoseofmovementkinematics(particularlymovementdirection). Consideredseparately, decreases and increases in firing had very different context preferences: decreases were nearly always larger for sensory-triggered movements,whereasincreaseswereenhancedmostoftenundermemory-contingentconditions(i.e.,self-initiatedorself-guidedmovements). Asimilarpatternofpreferenceswasfoundforbothpallidalsegments.Thedistinctcontext-specificenhancementsofdecreases andincreasescouldnotbeexplainedassimplesensoryresponsesorasinteractionswithpreparatoryoranticipatoryprocessespresent beforemovementinitiation.Rather,theyappearrelatedtomovementexecutionunderspecificcontexts.Ourresultsleadtotheconclusionthatmovementfacilitatorydecreasesininternalpallidal(GPi)activityareprimarilygreaterundersensory-triggeredconditions.GPi increases and their suppressive effects, perhaps on competing activity in pallidal-recipient centers, have increased prevalence under memory-contingentconditions.
Penile Curvature: An Update for Management from 20 Years Experience in a High Volume Centre

Our aim was to review the literature and discuss about penile curvature in order to have an update for management after 20 years experience in the field. Penile curvature may be congenital or acquired. Congenital penile curvature is a relatively uncommon condition that may present in late adolescent or early adult life. The incidence is estimated to be 0.6 %. On the other side, acquired penile curvature has an overall prevalence of 0.5-13%. Three main factors seem to increase the risk of developing an acquired penile curvature, often related to Peyronie's disease: penile traumatism, genetic and familiar conditions and a history of diseases of the genital tract. In treating Peyronie's disease, no medical therapy is fully effective, and surgery remains the gold standard in cases of severe deformity and/or erectile disfunction. Peyronie's disease is associated with significant psychological stress for patients and their partners. Appropriate treatment should be individualized and tailored to the patient's goals and expectations. There is not the ‘best’ surgical technique and outcomes are satisfactory when proper treatment decisions are made.
Message Understanding Conference- 6: A Brief History

We have recently completed the sixth in a series of "Message Understanding Conferences" which are designed to promote and evaluate research in information extraction. MUC-6 introduced several innovations over prior MUCs, most notably in the range of different tasks for which evaluations were conducted. We describe some of the motivations for the new format and briefly discuss some of the results of the evaluations.
Coos, booms, and hoots: The evolution of closed‐mouth vocal behavior in birds

Most birds vocalize with an open beak, but vocalization with a closed beak into an inflating cavity occurs in territorial or courtship displays in disparate species throughout birds. Closed‐mouth vocalizations generate resonance conditions that favor low‐frequency sounds. By contrast, open‐mouth vocalizations cover a wider frequency range. Here we describe closed‐mouth vocalizations of birds from functional and morphological perspectives and assess the distribution of closed‐mouth vocalizations in birds and related outgroups. Ancestral‐state optimizations of body size and vocal behavior indicate that closed‐mouth vocalizations are unlikely to be ancestral in birds and have evolved independently at least 16 times within Aves, predominantly in large‐bodied lineages. Closed‐mouth vocalizations are rare in the small‐bodied passerines. In light of these results and body size trends in nonavian dinosaurs, we suggest that the capacity for closed‐mouth vocalization was present in at least some extinct nonavian dinosaurs. As in birds, this behavior may have been limited to sexually selected vocal displays, and hence would have co‐occurred with open‐mouthed vocalizations.
Effect of Urinary Protease Inhibitor (Ulinastatin) on Cardiopulmonary Bypass: A Meta-Analysis for China and Japan

Objectives A meta-analysis was conducted to investigate the effects of ulinastatin treatment on adult patients undergoing cardiac surgery under cardiopulmonary bypass (CPB). Methods Seven electronic databases were searched for reports of randomized, controlled trials conducted up to February 2014 in which patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB were administered ulinastatin in the perioperative period. Results Fifty-two studies with 2025 patients were retained for analysis. The results showed that the ulinastatin can attenuate the plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and enhance the anti-inflammatory cytokine levels in patients undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB. Meanwhile, the ulinastatin had a significant beneficial effect on myocardial injury. The mean differences (MD) and 95% confidence intervals (95% CI) of biochemical markers were −63.54 (−79.36, −47.72) for lactate dehydrogenase, −224.99 (−304.83, −145.14) for creatine kinase, −8.75 (−14.23, −3.28) for creatine kinase-MB, and −0.14 (−0.20, −0.09] for troponin I (all P<0.01). However, neither hemodynamics nor cardiac function improved significantly, except that the MD and 95% CI of mean arterial pressure were 2.50 (0.19, 4.80) (P = 0.03). There were no statistically significant differences in the use of inotropes, postoperative bleeding, postoperative complications, the intensive care unit (ICU) stay, and the hospital stay; however, the frequency of auto resuscitation increased significantly (OR 1.98, 95%CI 1.19 to 3.30, P<0.01), the duration of intubation (MD −1.58, 95%CI −2.84 to −0.32, P<0.01) and the duration of mechanical ventilation (MD −3.29, 95%CI −4.41 to −2.17, P<0.01) shortened significantly in patients who were treated with ulinastatin. Conclusions Ulinastatin can reduce the plasma levels of pro-inflammatory cytokines and elevate anti-inflammatory cytokine in patients from China and Japan undergoing cardiac surgery with CPB. Ulinastatin treatment may have protective effects on myocardial injury, and can increase the frequency of auto resuscitation, shorten the duration of intubation and mechanical ventilation.
Body fat and fitness improvements in Hispanic and African American girls.

OBJECTIVE The design of effective obesity interventions to reduce adiposity and increase fitness in minority children is a public health priority. This study assessed the effectiveness of a summer intervention in lowering adiposity and increasing aerobic endurance in minority girls. METHODS 99 Hispanic and African American girls and their mothers participated. During the intervention, girls attended daily exercise, nutrition education, and counseling sessions from 9:00 AM to 5:00 PM. Mothers attended 2-h weekly exercise, nutrition, and counseling sessions. Percent body fat, abdominal fat, and aerobic endurance (1-mile run/walk minutes) data were collected at pre- and post-intervention. RESULTS A repeated-measures analysis of variance was used to test differences in adiposity indicators and aerobic endurance. Findings indicated statistically significant reductions in percent body fat (p < .001), abdominal fat (p < .001), and 1-mile run/walk minutes (p < .001). CONCLUSIONS This study demonstrated the effectiveness of a summer intervention in reducing adiposity indicators and increasing aerobic endurance.
Moderate Intensity Resistance Training Significantly Elevates Testosterone following Upper Body and Lower Body Bouts When Total Volume is Held Constant

Introduction: It is unknown whether resistance training intensity or total volume of work affects the acute testosterone response to a greater extent. Purpose: Therefore, the circulating testosterone response was investigated following four resistance training protocols where total volume of work was held constant: moderate intensity (70% 1RM) upper body (bench press, bent barbell row, and military press), moderate intensity lower body (squat and deadlift), high intensity (90% 1RM) upper body, high intensity lower body. Methods: Total volume of work performed by each participant between protocols was maintained by adjusting the number of sets and or repetitions performed. Ten healthy, resistance trained men volunteered, and performed exercise protocols on separate days in a counterbalanced order. Capillary blood was obtained via finger stick at baseline (pre), immediately following the exercise session (post), and 1h post for the determination of testosterone concentration. Data were analyzed using a factorial ANOVA and significance was accepted at p≤ 0.05. Results: Both moderate intensity resistance protocols (upper and lower body) significantly increased testosterone concentration (p=0.026, and p=0.024 respectively), whereas the high intensity protocols elevated testosterone but failed to achieve significance (upper p=0.272, lower p=0.658). No difference was noted in post session testosterone concentration between upper and lower body protocols for either moderate (p=0.248) or high intensity (p=0.990). Conclusion: This may be useful for novice resistance trained individuals because it provides evidence that moderate intensity is sufficient to increase testosterone compared to high intensity protocols that could be associated with a greater risk of injury. Keywords: hormone response, equal total work, high intensity protocol
Clinic practice guidelines: more of the same?

1. Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services. Medicare program; hospital inpatient value-based purchasing program. Final rule. Fed Regist 2011; 76:26490–26547. 2. Berwick DM. Launching accountable care organizations–the proposed rule for the Medicare shared savings program. N Engl J Med 2011;364:e32. 3. Petersen LA, Woodard LD, Urech T, Daw C, Sookanan S. Does pay-forperformance improve the quality of health care? Ann Intern Med 2006; 145:265–272. 4. Snyder L, Neubauer RL. Pay-for-performance principles that promote patient-centered care: an ethics manifesto. Ann Intern Med 2007;147: 792–794. 5. Federman AD, Woodward M, Keyhani S. Physicians’ opinions about reforming reimbursement: results of a national survey. Arch Intern Med 2010;170:1735–1742. 6. Klompas M, Platt R. Ventilator-associated pneumonia–the wrong quality measure for benchmarking. Ann Intern Med 2007;147:803–805. 7. Kahn JM, Scales DC, Au DH, Carson SS, Curtis JR, Dudley RA, Iwashyna TJ, Krishnan JA, Maurer JR, Mularski R, et al. An official American Thoracic Society policy statement: Pay-for-performance in pulmonary, critical care, and sleep medicine. Am J Respir Crit Care Med 2010; 181:752–761.
Chips go vertical [3D IC interconnection]

This article describes 3D ICs. By stacking chips and directly connecting them with vertical wires, chip makers help interconnects keep up with increasing transistor speeds. A 3D IC is a stack of multiple dies with many direct connections tunneling through them, dramatically reducing global interconnect lengths and increasing the number of transistors that are within one clock cycle of each other. The key to the advantage comes from allowing wires to be routed directly between and through the chips. With this approach, the maximum global-interconnect length and the average global-interconnect length both decrease by a factor equal to the square root of the number of dies being stacked. This decreases the bottleneck effect they have on the IC's performance by about the same factor.
Genetic and physical interactions between Srp1p and nuclear pore complex proteins Nup1p and Nup2p

Nup1p is a yeast nuclear pore complex protein (nucleoporin) required for nuclear protein import, mRNA export and maintenance of normal nuclear architecture. We have used a genetic approach to identify other proteins that interact functionally with Nup1p. Here we describe the isolation of seventeen mutants that confer a requirement for Nup1p in a background in which this protein is normally not essential. Some of the mutants require wild-type Nup1p, while others are viable in combination with specific nup1 alleles. Several of the mutants show nonallelic noncomplementation, suggesting that the products may be part of a hetero-oligomeric complex. One is allelic to srp1 which, although it was identified in an unrelated screen, was shown to encode a protein that is localized to the nuclear envelope (Yano, R., M. Oakes, M. Yamaghishi, J. A. Dodd, and M. Nomura. 1992. Mol. Cell. Biol. 12:5640- 5651). We have used immunoprecipitation and fusion protein precipitation to show that Srp1p forms distinct complexes with both Nup1p and the related nucleoporin Nup2p, indicating that Srp1p is a component of the nuclear pore complex. The distant sequence similarity between Srp1p and the beta-catenin/desmoplakin family, coupled with the altered structure of the nuclear envelope in nup1 mutants, suggests that Srp1p may function in attachment of the nuclear pore complex to an underlying nuclear skeleton.
Growth factor upregulation of a phosphoinositide-coupled metabotropic glutamate receptor in cortical astrocytes

CNS function depends on a capacity for plasticity during development, following injury, and in response to changing environmental conditions. Functional alterations in signal transduction pathways and in neurotransmitter receptor expression are possible mechanisms for the expression of such plasticity. In the present report, we demonstrate that exposure of astrocytes to specific growth factors alters both the functional activity and the protein levels of a specific glutamate receptor. Exposure of astrocytes to basic fibroblast growth factor, epidermal growth factor, or transforming growth factor-alpha produced marked increases in the ability of metabotropic glutamate receptor (mGluR) agonists to stimulate phosphoinositide hydrolysis. Using Western immunoblotting, we demonstrate that an increase in the levels of one of the phosphoinositide-coupled mGluR subtypes, mGluR5, accompanies the increased ability of mGluR agonists to stimulate phosphoinositide hydrolysis. In contrast, another phosphoinositide- coupled subtype of this receptor family, mGluR1 alpha, was not present at detectable levels in these cultures. The enhanced stimulation of phosphoinositide hydrolysis showed little sensitivity to pertussis toxin, and appeared to be selective to mGluR agonists, as there was not a similar increase in the ability of norepinephrine or carbachol to stimulate phosphoinositide hydrolysis. These findings demonstrate that expression of mGluRs in astrocytes is plastic, and indicate a novel pathway through which specific growth factors may selectively modulate neurotransmitter action.
Peroxisome Proliferator-Activated Receptor Alpha Target Genes

The peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor alpha (PPARα) is a ligand-activated transcription factor involved in the regulation of a variety of processes, ranging from inflammation and immunity to nutrient metabolism and energy homeostasis. PPARα serves as a molecular target for hypolipidemic fibrates drugs which bind the receptor with high affinity. Furthermore, PPARα binds and is activated by numerous fatty acids and fatty acid-derived compounds. PPARα governs biological processes by altering the expression of a large number of target genes. Accordingly, the specific role of PPARα is directly related to the biological function of its target genes. Here, we present an overview of the involvement of PPARα in lipid metabolism and other pathways through a detailed analysis of the different known or putative PPARα target genes. The emphasis is on gene regulation by PPARα in liver although many of the results likely apply to other organs and tissues as well.
Asymmetric Organocatalytic Reactions of α, β-Unsaturated Cyclic Ketones

The 1,4-conjugate addition of nucleophiles to α,β-unsaturated carbonyl compounds represents one fundamental bond-forming reaction in organic synthesis. The development of effective organocatalysts for the enantioselective conjugate addition of malonate, nitroalkane and other carbon and heteroatom nucleophiles to cycloenones constitutes an important research field and has been explored in recent years. At the same time, asymmetric Diels-Alder reactions have been developed and often a mechanism has been demonstrated to be a double addition rather than synchronous. This review aims to cover literature up to the end of 2010, describing all the different organocatalytic asymmetric 1,4-conjugate additions even if they are listed as transfer hydrogenation, cycloadditions or desymmetrization of aromatic compounds.
High Throughput Data Transfers using the Tornado Transport Protocol

The need to transfer extremely large files over very high bandwidth network paths is becoming more and more common. Current windowbased transport protocols often limit throughput to a level well below what might otherwise be achievable. In this paper we describe and evaluate the Tornado Transport Protocol (TTP) which is designed to be reliable, to achieve very high throughput and to maintain an adjustable level of TCP-friendliness. Reliability is achieved through the use of efficient forward error correction. High throughput is achieved by eliminating the need for acknowledgment-based pacing from the receiver. TCP-friendliness is achieved by setting a threshold to specify when to react to loss. We compare TTP with an out-of-the-box configuration of TCP NewReno and two TCP-based methods for high throughput file transfers under a variety of traffic conditions. Our simulations show that for large file transfers in long delay, large bandwidth environments, TTP achieves throughput nearly an order of magnitude higher than out-of-the-box TCP NewReno, and up to 300% higher than the next best high performance transport protocol. In each case we assess TCP-friendliness and find that TTP effectively allows competing TCP flows a fair share of bandwidth.
Graceful degradation via versions: specifications and implementations

Correctness of a fault-tolerant system hinges on the failure model, which typically constrains the number of concurrent failures in the system. These assumptions are sometimes violated in practice, inevitably leading to degraded system behavior that deviates from the system's specification and even causing complete unavailability of the system. This paper advocates the notion of graceful degradation as a complementary mechanism to fault tolerance in thedesign of highly available distributed systems. It provides three specifications for meaningful system behavior under degradation. The different specifications capture different tradeoffs between the gracefulness of degradation and the semantics preserved by a degraded view. The paper further demonstrates the practical relevance of the specifications by presenting three designs of versioned distributed storage systems that implement the specifications.
Changes in curve pattern after brace treatment for idiopathic scoliosis

We studied whether thoracic Boston brace treatment changes the King type of scoliotic curves in a group of 50 patients with adolescent idiopathic scoliosis. Bending radiographs showed more flexibility of the lumbar curves than that of the thoracic curves. However, after initial application of the brace, the mean lumbar correction in degrees was less than the mean thoracic correction. After brace treatment we found a slight statistically significant increase in the mean lumbar curve, but no significant change in the mean thoracic curve. In 7 of our patients, we found a change in the King classification which seemed to be related to insufficient lumbar correction at the start of brace treatment. When classifying idiopathic scoliosis, one should bear in mind that the result may be temporary because scoliosis is a dynamic process. A change in curve type can occur during brace treatment.
Real-time traffic vehicle tracking based on improved MoG background extraction and motion segmentation

A new method for real-time detection and tracking of multiple moving vehicles from traffic video is proposed. This method first uses MoG and texture based model to extract foreground from the scene, then detect moving targets using a modified version of timed motion history image (tMHI), and finally uses Kalman prediction filter to track these targets, which the full moving trajectories of the targets are obtained. Experiments on the real traffic scenes show that the method has good real-time performance and robustness against disturbance factors for outdoor traffic surveillance. Besides, it greatly improves the effects for detection in case of vehicle occlusion.
Helium, for learning Haskell

Helium is a user-friendly compiler designed especially for learning the functional programming language Haskell. The quality of the error messages has been the main concern both in the choice of the language features and in the implementation of the compiler. Helium implements almost full Haskell, where the most notable difference is the absence of type classes. Our goal is to let students learn functional programming more quickly and with more fun. The compiler has been successfully employed in two introductory programming courses at Utrecht University.