Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Medical students’ perceptions of stress factors affecting their academic performance, perceived stress and stress management techniques

Medical students during their training period to become competent physicians are themselves vulnerable to various stresses which can affect their health and academic performance. It has been observed that undergraduate medical education in India and many developing nations is facing new challenges. In today’s ultra competitive environment, students are exposed to more stress than ever, either related to studies, examination, peer, teachers or parent’s pressure. Also, there has been a growing recognition of the issues of quality of life and stresses involved in medical training especially in recent years, as this may affect the medical students’ learning and academic performance. A prevalence of stress in medical students ranging from 2073% have been reported from various studies conducted all over the world. The different stressors reported in these studies were those of academic demands, psychosocial type like peer pressure, inability to cope etc. and environmental stressors. The process of adjustment from the initial stage of preclinical training to the later stage of clinical training has also been determined as a factor of stress in medical students. Excess stress can cause physical, psychosocial problems, reduce self esteem in the students and affect their academic performance. Also failure to detect stress related problems in the medical students can be detrimental, as ABSTRACT
The Interrelationship between Promoter Strength, Gene Expression, and Growth Rate

In exponentially growing bacteria, expression of heterologous protein impedes cellular growth rates. Quantitative understanding of the relationship between expression and growth rate will advance our ability to forward engineer bacteria, important for metabolic engineering and synthetic biology applications. Recently, a work described a scaling model based on optimal allocation of ribosomes for protein translation. This model quantitatively predicts a linear relationship between microbial growth rate and heterologous protein expression with no free parameters. With the aim of validating this model, we have rigorously quantified the fitness cost of gene expression by using a library of synthetic constitutive promoters to drive expression of two separate proteins (eGFP and amiE) in E. coli in different strains and growth media. In all cases, we demonstrate that the fitness cost is consistent with the previous findings. We expand upon the previous theory by introducing a simple promoter activity model to quantitatively predict how basal promoter strength relates to growth rate and protein expression. We then estimate the amount of protein expression needed to support high flux through a heterologous metabolic pathway and predict the sizable fitness cost associated with enzyme production. This work has broad implications across applied biological sciences because it allows for prediction of the interplay between promoter strength, protein expression, and the resulting cost to microbial growth rates.
BridgeNet: An Adaptive Multi-Source Stream Dissemination Service Overlay

Emerging stream processing applications such as on-line data analysis often need to acquire streaming information from geographically dispersed locations (e.g., different sensor net- works). Different from conventional discrete data (e.g., messages), streaming data are often time-varying and long-lived, which provides both new challenges and opportunities for optimizing wide-area continuous information dissemination. In this paper, we present BridgeNet, a novel adaptive multi-source stream dissemination overlay network, which can efficiently collect streaming information from distributed locations and disseminate aggregated information to different stream consumers. BridgeNet provides a new distributed cell tree structure for multi-source stream aggregations, which can adaptively expand or contract itself in response to workload changes. In particular, Brid- geNet performs stream-pattern-based cell tree adaptations, stream clustering, and overlay topology adaptations to deliver efficient stream dissemination without losing system stability. For failure resilience, BridgeNet provides light-weight backup schemes to achieve fast failure recovery. We have implemented a prototype of BridgeNet and conducted extensive experiments using both simulations and Planetlab deployment. The experimental results based on both synthetic workload and real data streams show that BridgeNet outperforms existing schemes for efficient multi- source stream dissemination.
Advanced Shadow Algorithms

Shadows play a very important role in enhancing realism of rendered scenes. Scenes without them look unnatural and flat. If you look at them you feel like there is something missing. Furthermore it is hard to determine a spatial relationship between the objects in a scene without shadows. In recent years a lot of papers and articles have been published on the topic of rendering realistic shadows in real time. Many of the presented techniques are based on shadow mapping, which has become widely accepted as a method for shadow rendering. This thesis focuses on giving an overview of commonly used methods to fight aliasing and produce soft-edged shadows in real time by filtering hard shadows created on the basis of shadow mapping. These filtering techniques are integrated into an existing framework, which allows the user to modify different essential parameters to find the best solution regarding shadow creation for a particular scene. Additionally gamma correction as another realism and image quality improving mechanism is explained. We present a tutorial on what to consider when implementing a gamma correct rendering pipeline in DirectX R © 11.
Test Generation Algorithm for Fault Detection of Analog Circuits Based on Extreme Learning Machine

This paper proposes a novel test generation algorithm based on extreme learning machine (ELM), and such algorithm is cost-effective and low-risk for analog device under test (DUT). This method uses test patterns derived from the test generation algorithm to stimulate DUT, and then samples output responses of the DUT for fault classification and detection. The novel ELM-based test generation algorithm proposed in this paper contains mainly three aspects of innovation. Firstly, this algorithm saves time efficiently by classifying response space with ELM. Secondly, this algorithm can avoid reduced test precision efficiently in case of reduction of the number of impulse-response samples. Thirdly, a new process of test signal generator and a test structure in test generation algorithm are presented, and both of them are very simple. Finally, the abovementioned improvement and functioning are confirmed in experiments.
A Multimodal corpus to check on pragmatic competence for Mild Cognitive Impaired aging people

This article presents a multimodal video corpus with the principal aim to model and predict the effects of aging in Mild Cognitive Impairment situation on pragmatic and communicative skills. We take as observable variables the verbal pragmatic markers and non-verbal pragmatic markers. This approach, at the interface of the psycholinguistics, cognitive sciences and rehabilitation medicine (speech-language pathology and therapy) is part of a longitudinal research process in an ecological situation (interviews conducted by close intimate of the elderly). In the first part of the article we present the linguistic, cognitive and social characteristics of aging in its continuum up to mild cognitive impairment and pathological disorders such as Alzheimer’s disease. In the second part, we develop a multimodal approach, in particular to inform and enrich speech and language therapy knowledge. Finally, we present our experimental design and preliminary results on two female participants over 75 years of age with mild cognitive impairment.Our general findings indicate that with aging, verbal pragmatic markers acquire an interactive function that allows people with Mild Cognitive Impairment to maintain intersubjective relationships with their interlocutor. In addition, at the non-verbal level, gestural manifestations are increasingly mobilized over time with a preference for non-verbal pragmatic markers with a referential function and an interactive function. One such non-verbal manifestation compensates for naming deficits, planning difficulties, discursive hitches; while another optimizes and maintains the interaction with the interlocutor.Clinicians have a duty to develop their professional practice through an evidence-based clinical approach whose main objective is to reconcile clinical practice with the best evidence from research (Dollaghan 2007). In the case of speech-language pathology, clinicians consider themselves very limited in this approach (Lof 2011; McCurtin 2011), especially for patients with Mild Cognitive Impairment (Mungas et al. 2010; Hopper 2013; Morello 2017) and more specifically when it comes to assessing or supporting language functions (Cummings 2014). The studies focusing on Mild Cognitive Impairment require longitudinal corpora i) to understand the naturally occurring evolutions in subjects, ii) the implication of the cognitive reserve in each individual, and iii) to take advantage of these parameters as evidence for research and earlier rehabilitation. We aim to show the benefits of linguistic and interactional scientific investigation methods through fragile aging, for health professionals and everyday caregivers.
Biophysical regulations of NEE light response in a steppe and a cropland in Inner Mongolia

Aims Ecosystem carbon models often require accurate net ecosystem exchange of CO2 (NEE) light-response parameters, which can be derived from the Michaelis–Menten equation. These parameters include maximum net ecosystem exchange (NEEmax), apparent quantum use efficiency (a) and daytime ecosystem respiration rate (Re). However, little is known about the effects of land conversion between steppe and cropland on these parameters, especially in semi-arid regions. To understand how these parameters vary in responses to biotic and abiotic factors under land conversions, seasonal variation of light-response parameters were evaluated for a steppe and a cropland of Inner Mongolia, China, during three consecutive years (2006–08) with different precipitation amounts. Methods NEE was measured over a steppe and a cropland in Duolun, Inner Mongolia, China, using the eddy covariance technique, and NEE light-response parameters (NEEmax, a and Re) were derived using the Michaelis–Menten model. Biophysical regulations of these parameters were evaluated using a stepwise regression analysis. Important Findings The maximum absolute values of NEEmax occurred in the meteorological regimes of 15C < Ta <2 5C, vapor pressure deficit (VPD) < 1 KPa and 0.21 m 3 m 3 < volumetric soil water content at 10 cm (SWC) < 0.28 m 3 m 3 for both the steppe and the cropland ecosystems. The variations of a and Re showed no regular variation pattern in different Tair, VPD and SWC regimes. Under the same regime of Tair ,V PD and SWC, the cropland had higher absolute values of NEEmax than the steppe. Canopy conductance and leaf area index (LAI) were dominant drivers for variations in NEE light-response parameters of the steppe and the cropland. The seasonal variation of NEE light-response parameters followed the variation of LAI for two ecosystems. The peak values of all light-response parameters for the steppe and the cropland occurred from July to August. The values of NEE light-response parameters (NEEmax, a and Re) were lower in the driest year (2007). Seasonally averaged NEE light-response parameters for the cropland surpassed those for the steppe. Land conversion from steppe to cropland enhanced NEE light-response parameters during the plant growing period. These results will have significant implications for improving the models on regional NEE variation under climate change and land-use change scenarios.
Using bilingual written argumentation to promote undergraduates’ bilingual scientific literacy: Socrative® as an immersive participation tool

ABSTRACT A key goal of university bilingual science courses is to enrich undergraduates’ bilingual scientific literacy (BSL). However, very little is known about how to foster BSL. This study aimed to provide research evidence to explore the possibility that BSL can be promoted by using bilingual written argumentation when Socrative® is treated as an immersive participation tool. To test our hypothesis, we intervened a university Spanish–English bilingual Biology course. Fifty-two undergraduates (25 females and 27 males, 16–25 years old) were: (1) presented with argumentative questions requiring application of concepts covered in lectures, (2) asked to write a Spanish–English bilingual argumentative paragraph individually, and (3) polled for the most reasonable answer. A histogram of class responses was displayed, and undergraduates were encouraged to: (4) discuss the question in pairs, (5) write a Spanish–English bilingual argumentative paragraph in pairs, and (6) be polled for the most reasonable answer. Undergraduates’ paragraphs were the subject of peer critique and useful feedback throughout the Spanish–English bilingual science course. The findings suggest significant benefits for providing undergraduates with opportunities and support to written argumentation in both English and Spanish. The outcomes of this study carry important policy implications in light of the growing university bilingual practices around the world.
Levels and Prevalence of Mental Health Functioning in Canadian University Student-Athletes

We examined the level and prevalence of mental health functioning (MHF) in intercollegiate student-athletes from 30 Canadian universities, and the impact of time of year, gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and type of sport on MHF. An online survey completed in November 2015 (N = 388) and March 2016 (n = 110) revealed that overall, MHF levels were moderate to high, and more student-athletes were flourishing than languishing. MHF levels did not significantly differ across time based on gender, alcohol use, living situation, year of study, and type of sport. Eighteen percent reported a previous mental illness diagnosis and yet maintained moderate MHF across time. These findings support Keyes’ (2002) dual-continua model, suggesting that the presence of mental illness does not automatically imply low levels of well-being and languishing. Nonetheless, those without a previous diagnosis were 3.18 times more likely to be flourishing at Time 1 (November 2015).
Entanglement concentration by ordinary linear optical devices without postselection

Recently, entanglement concentrations have been experimentaly demonstrated by postselection [T. Yamamoto et al., Nature (London) 421, 343 (2003), and Z. Zhao et al., Phys. Rev. Lett. 90, 207901 (2003)], i.e., to each individual outcome state, one has to destroy it to know whether it has been purified. Here we give proposal for entanglement concentration without any postselection by using only practically existing linear optical devices. In particular, a sophisticated photon detector to distinguish one photon or two photons is not required.
Intestinal farnesoid X receptor signaling promotes non-alcoholic fatty liver disease Supplemental methods

Preparation and cultures of primary mouse hepatocytes Primary hepatocytes from 6-week-old C57BL/6N mice were obtained by collagenase 1 (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) perfusion. The cells were purified by 45% Percoll (Sigma, St. Louis, MO) density centrifugation and cultured in DMEM (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA) with 10% fetal bovine serum and 1% Insulin-Transferrin-Selenium-Ethanolamine (ITS -X) (Invitrogen, Carlsbad, CA). The viability of hepatocytes was determined using trypan blue dye exclusion, and those with higher than 85% viability were used. The medium was changed to DMEM with 1% fetal bovine serum after culturing for 4 hours. After starvation for 4 hours, the cells were exposed to C2:0 ceramide. At the prescribed time points, cells were harvested and subjected to qPCR analysis and measurement of triglyceride content.
What is the Long-Term Impact of Changes ? — Short Position Paper —

During their life cycle, programs undergo many changes. Each of these changes may introduce new features—or new problems. While most of the impact of a change is immediate, some of the impact may become evident only in the long term. For instance, suppose we make the internals of a component accessible to its clients. In itself, this does not introduce a problem. In the long term, though, this will most likely lead to maintainability issues. We are currently exploring ways to identify this long-term impact of change. We want to show how a change eventually impacts program quality (in terms of defects), program maintainability, and development effort. Identifying those changes with the greatest impact will foster our understanding of a program’s history, and help us in learning lessons for future projects. Eventually, such lessons may come as automated recommendations regarding long-term impact: “In the long run, this change will cause maintainability issues. Do you want to reconsider? ”
05 07 24 2 v 1 2 6 Ju l 2 00 5 Are Quantum States Exponentially Long Vectors ?

I’m grateful to Oded Goldreich for inviting me to the 2005 Oberwolfach Meeting on Complexity Theory. In this extended abstract, which is based on a talk that I gave there, I demonstrate that gratitude by explaining why Goldreich’s views about quantum computing are wrong. Why should anyone care? Because in my opinion, Goldreich, along with Leonid Levin [10] and other “extreme” quantum computing skeptics, deserves credit for focusing attention on the key issues, the ones that ought to motivate quantum computing research in the first place. Personally, I have never lain awake at night yearning for the factors of a 1024-bit RSA integer, let alone the class group of a number field. The real reason to study quantum computing is not to learn other people’s secrets, but to unravel the ultimate Secret of Secrets: is our universe a polynomial or an exponential place? Last year Goldreich [7] came down firmly on the “polynomial” side, in a short essay expressing his belief that quantum computing is impossible not only in practice but also in principle:
Editorial : Software / Knowledge Sharing andReuse via NetworksV

The knowledge engineering, requirements engineering and software engineering communities are active in the eld of sharing and reuse. The notions of ontologies 2] and problem-solving methods 1] have been developed to enable reuse of knowledge and reasoning components. In Requirements Engineering, generic models of applications are used to improve the acquisition of complete, consistent and accurate requirements 4]. Software architectures 3] are a general approach to describe software systems at a higher level and focus on component-based software development. In general, reuse is not only about code but also about all various kinds of documents that support the development and use of systems. Reuse and sharing of software is signiicantly improved by the omni-presence of networks (organization-wide intranets as well as the Internet). First, distribution is sim-pliied and can be automated. Either through software agents that automatically search and download appropriate components, or via push services (i.e., channels). Second, execution can be distributed. Standards like CORBA make it transparent on which server an object is running. As a consequence, component-based software reuse comes much closer
Artificial Physics Optimization algorithm with a feasibility-based rule for constrained optimization problems

Artificial Physics Optimization (APO) Algorithm is a novel population-based stochastic algorithm for solving the unconstrained global problems. This paper first presents a simple mechanism to handle constrained optimization problems with APO. A feasibility-based rule is employed, because this rule can guide the swarm quickly to the feasible region and need not additional penalty parameters. The mass formula is constructed based on this rule, the feasible and infeasible individuals' mass are calculated with different mass formulas. The force direction of the individual is determined based on the feasibility-based rule. The simulation results and comparisons with other methods in the literature show the feasibility, effectiveness, and efficiency of the proposed APO algorithm.
Keep Me Around: Intron Retention Detection and Analysis

We present a tool, keepme around (kma), a suite of python scripts and an R package that finds retained introns in RNA-Seq experiments and incorporates biological replicates to reduce the number of false positives when detecting retention events. kma uses the results of existing quantification tools that probabilistically assign multi-mapping reads, thus interfacing easily with transcript quantification pipelines. The data is represented in a convenient, database style format that allows for easy aggregation across introns, genes, samples, and conditions to allow for further exploratory analysis.
Rayleigh-wave multi-pathing along the west coast of North America

We have created a movie of surface ground motions for the November 3, 2002, Denali fault earthquake based upon spectral-element simulations using crustal model CRUST2.0, mantle model S20RTS, topography and bathymetry model ETOPO5, and a finite-fault slip model. The movie features two anomalous wave packets that travel along the west coast of the North American plate following off-great-circle paths. These wave packets are Rayleigh waves with dominant periods around 20 sec, which are also found in seismograms recorded by the Southern California Seismic Network. One of these packets is the direct surface wave, whose group arrival-time changes laterally as dictated by the shape of the Oregon coast. The other packet is a surface wave reflected by a lateral interface underneath the Rocky Mountains. A linear reflector parallel to the Canadian coast offsetting it by a few hundred kilometers can explain its arrival time, but the offsetting distance derived from the synthetic seismograms puts the reflector 350 km northeast of the result obtained from the data, indicating a need to update the crustal and mantle models in this area.
Networking for the Cloud: Challenges and Trends

Cloud services have changed the way computing power is delivered to customers, by offering computing and storage capacity in remote data centers on demand over the Internet. The success of the cloud model, however, has not come without challenges. Cloud providers have repeatedly been related to reports of major failures, including outages and performance degradation. The internal network of cloud data centers has frequently been identified as a root-cause of these problems, showing that network provisioning and monitoring is still a major challenge for the deployment of cloud services. This paper argues that today’s technologies for measuring and monitoring Internet traffic could be applied in the context of the internal network of cloud data centers as well. To support that, we first show the suitability of flow-based traffic measurements for monitoring cloud services. Then, we present a case on bandwidth capacity provisioning to exemplify how flow-based measurements can be used to guarantee the performance of cloud services. Finally, we discuss future directions we believe will guide the development of new cloud services. We advocate that next generation cloud services will not only rely on the Internet as a means to reach users, but also influence how the Internet itself is organized. We illustrate this trend by describing our ongoing research on mobile clouds.