Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Vocabulary Development in Young Children: Influence of Maternal Factors A Senior Honors Thesis Proposal Presented in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for graduation with distinction in Early Childhood Education and Development in the College of Education and Human Ecology

Vocabulary is an essential area of development because the acquisition of vocabulary is key in the development of language, cognition, and academic achievement. While there is extensive research on the various influential factors of vocabulary development (e.g., instructional curriculum, family SES), the direct influence of maternal depression on a child’s vocabulary development is not as well researched. This study examined whether maternal depressive symptoms were associated with child vocabulary acquisition during early childhood. Participants included 32 mother-child dyads, with varying levels of depressive symptoms. The mothers were at least 21 years of age and children were between 3 and 3.5 years of age. The vocabulary of the child and the mother were assessed using a standardized test (PPVT-IV). Maternal depressive symptoms were measured using the CES-D. Family income, used as an indicator of SES, maternal vocabulary, and child gender were included as control variables. A hierarchal regression analysis was conducted with the child’s vocabulary as the dependent variable. The independent variables were entered into the analysis in three steps: 1) child sex, 2) family income, maternal education, maternal vocabulary and 2) maternal depressive symptoms. Findings of this study showed no correlation between maternal depressive symptoms and child vocabulary. It did however show strong correlation between family income and child vocabulary. Implications and future research are discussed.
Modelling Mechanical Enhancements in Competitive Cycling

The model is constructed using the Matlab toolbox SimMechanics to model physical entities and Simulink to model control structures. The system is actuated by force or motion actuators applied to joints or bodies with sensors measuring the resulting forces and motion. SimMechanics automatically derives the equations of motion leaving the developer free to concentrate on defining the mechanics of the system. Initial conditions are specified and a variable step ODE solver numerically integrates solutions that meet defined tolerances.
Does light pressure effleurage reduce pain and anxiety associated with genetic amniocentesis? A randomized clinical trial.

OBJECTIVE To determine if light pressure effleurage (leg rubbing) during genetic amniocentesis reduces procedure-related pain and anxiety. METHODS Two hundred women with singleton gestations undergoing genetic amniocentesis between 15-22 weeks recorded their level of anticipated pain and anxiety on a 10-cm linear visual analog scale prior to the amniocentesis. Subjects were then randomized to receive effleurage or no effleurage by the assisting nurse during the procedure. Subjects were blinded to the effleurage nature of the study. Following the amniocentesis, subjects repeated the pain and anxiety scoring. RESULTS The two groups were similar with respect to subject and procedure characteristics, as well as anticipated pain or anxiety prior to amniocentesis. Postamniocentesis pain and anxiety scoring were similar in the two groups. The mean effleurage acceptance score was 8.3 +/- 1.8 (out of 10), and 90.2% of subjects reported that they would want effleurage with future amniocenteses. CONCLUSIONS Although well accepted by women, light pressure effleurage during genetic amniocentesis does not reduce procedure-related pain or anxiety.
CURRENT RESEARCH STATUS ON THE BIOLOGY OF PINK PIGMENTED FACULTATIVE METHYLOTROHPHIC ( PPFM ) BACTERIA BELONGING TO THE GENUS M ETHYLOBACTERIUM IN THE PHILIPPINES

This paper outlines the current state of knowledge on Methylobacterium spp. or commonly known as Pink Pigmented Facultative Methylotrophic (PPFM) bacteria in the Philippines. This review deals with its isolation and cultural properties, colonial, microscopic, biochemical, physiological and genotypic characterization, diversity and systematics, plantand human-association, and lastly, the research thrusts and directions applicable in the Philippines.
The effects of cultural policy on nascent cultural entrepreneurship: A Bayesian nonparametric approach to longitudinal mediation

Despite the topic of nascent entrepreneurship receiving quite extent in coverage in the scientific literature there is very few, if any, knowledge on the characteristics of nascent firms in the cultural and creative sector. In this article we use Amadeus database for a sample of firms from 28 European Union countries in the period 2007-2016, to study the effects of cultural policy on nascent entrepreneurship. We model the effects as a mediation problem and show that while cultural policy has an effect on general performance of cultural firms it is mediated through its indirect effect on nascent cultural and creative firms and mediation happens with time delay. This finding is robust to numerous cultural policy variables, definitions of nascent entrepreneurship, performance indicators and model specifications. The article also implements and discusses a Bayesian nonparametric (BNP) approach to longitudinal mediation analysis (using Bayesian additive regression trees used on cross-lagged panel modelling of the Baron-Kenny approach to mediation) which is to our knowledge the first application of BNP in longitudinal mediation in statistical and econometric literature. We conclude by policy and research recommendations and reflections.
Frequency Reconfigurable Antenna Array Using Defected Ground Structure for Outdoor Wireless Communication Systems

This paper proposes frequency reconfigurable antenna for outdoor wireless communication systems, the 4 x 4 array antenna has designed at two resonant frequencies 7.5 GHz and 8.85 GHz. The periodic dumbbell geometry etched on the ground layer newly proposed with dual functionality, to control desired frequency and to couple radiating patches at the top substrate with feeding line at the bottom substrate. The reconfigurability of the patch antenna is controlled by utilizing the copper pad of the feeding network with OPEN and SHORT states. The reconfigurable antenna has been simulated and optimized using Computer Simulation Technology (CST) to get the desired responds. The good agreement between simulation and measured results indicates that the frequency reconfigurable patch array antenna using Periodic Dumbbell Slotted Aperture Structure (FRPDSA) is feasible to support outdoor wireless communication systems.
Intermediaries in Two-Sided Markets : An Economic Analysis of the TV Advertising Industry

In this paper, we build a model of a two-sided market with intermediaries and analyze how the number of intermediaries influences the functioning and performance of two-sided markets. The model considers TV-advertising industry and determines equilibria in each level of the two-sided market, taking into account the network effects and interdependence of the markets. We investigate the optimal number of intermediaries which gives the greatest social surplus. To do this, we build a social welfare function and analyze its reaction to different numbers of intermediaries. The results suggest that the number of intermediaries and the maximum amount of advertising per channel are substituting regulation policies. Socially optimal regulation depends crucially on the profitability of advertising and the externalities present on both sides of the two-sided market.
Comparison of leakage inductance between fractional slot winding and distributed winding

Due to the large magnetic relevant air gap the leakage inductance is the main inductance in a surface mounted permanent magnet machine. The major components of the leakage inductance are known as the harmonic leakage and the slot leakage inductance. This paper proposes an analytical method to determine those two leakage components for a fractional slot concentrated winding machine (FSCW) with an arbitrary phase number. Further, a comparison to a machine design with distributed winding (DTBW), having the same number of poles and fundamental flux linkage, is done. The comparison is done for FSCW machines with a double layer and single layer winding layout.
Replacement by Drosophila melanogaster Protamines and Mst77F of Histones during Chromatin Condensation in Late Spermatids and Role of Sesame in the Removal of These Proteins from the Male Pronucleus

ABSTRACT Chromatin condensation is a typical feature of sperm cells. During mammalian spermiogenesis, histones are first replaced by transition proteins and then by protamines, while little is known for Drosophila melanogaster. Here we characterize three genes in the fly genome, Mst35Ba, Mst35Bb, and Mst77F. The results indicate that Mst35Ba and Mst35Bb encode dProtA and dProtB, respectively. These are considerably larger than mammalian protamines, but, as in mammals, both protamines contain typical cysteine/arginine clusters. Mst77F encodes a linker histone-like protein showing significant similarity to mammalian HILS1 protein. ProtamineA-enhanced green fluorescent protein (eGFP), ProtamineB-eGFP, and Mst77F-eGFP carrying Drosophila lines show that these proteins become the important chromosomal protein components of elongating spermatids, and His2AvDGFP vanishes. Mst77F mutants [ms(3)nc3] are characterized by small round nuclei and are sterile as males. These data suggest the major features of chromatin condensation in Drosophila spermatogenesis correspond to those in mammals. During early fertilization steps, the paternal pronucleus still contains protamines and Mst77F but regains a nucleosomal conformation before zygote formation. In eggs laid by sesame-deficient females, the paternal pronucleus remains in a protamine-based chromatin status but Mst77F-eGFP is removed, suggesting that the sesame gene product is essential for removal of protamines while Mst77F removal is independent of Sesame.
Formation of D‐alanyl‐lipoteichoic acid is required for adhesion and virulence of Listeria monocytogenes

The dlt operon of Gram‐positive bacteria comprises four genes (dltA, dltB, dltC and dltD) that catalyse the incorporation of D‐alanine residues into the cell wall‐associated lipoteichoic acids (LTAs). In this work, we characterized the dlt operon of Listeria monocytogenes and constructed a D‐Ala‐deficient LTA mutant by inactivating the first gene (dltA) of this operon. The DltA− mutant did not show any morphological alterations and its growth rate was similar to that of the wild‐type strain. However, it exhibited an increased susceptibility to the cationic peptides colistin, nisin and polymyxin B. The virulence of the DltA− mutant was severely impaired in a mouse infection model (4 log increase in the LD50) and, in vitro, the adherence of the mutant to various cell lines (murine bone marrow‐derived macrophages and hepatocytes and a human epithelial cell line) was strongly restricted, although the amounts of surface proteins implicated in virulence (ActA, InlA and InlB) remains unaffected. We suggest that the decreased adherence of the DltA− mutant to non‐phagocytic and phagocytic cells might be as a result of the increased electronegativity of its charge surface and/or the presence at the bacterial surface of adhesins possessing altered binding activities. These results show that the D‐alanylation of the LTAs contributes to the virulence of the intracellular pathogen L. monocytogenes.
Quantitative DNA methylation analysis identifies a single CpG dinucleotide important for ZAP-70 expression and predictive of prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia.

PURPOSE Increased ZAP-70 expression predicts poor prognosis in chronic lymphocytic leukemia (CLL). Current methods for accurately measuring ZAP-70 expression are problematic, preventing widespread application of these tests in clinical decision making. We therefore used comprehensive DNA methylation profiling of the ZAP-70 regulatory region to identify sites important for transcriptional control. PATIENTS AND METHODS High-resolution quantitative DNA methylation analysis of the entire ZAP-70 gene regulatory regions was conducted on 247 samples from patients with CLL from four independent clinical studies. RESULTS Through this comprehensive analysis, we identified a small area in the 5' regulatory region of ZAP-70 that showed large variability in methylation in CLL samples but was universally methylated in normal B cells. High correlation with mRNA and protein expression, as well as activity in promoter reporter assays, revealed that within this differentially methylated region, a single CpG dinucleotide and neighboring nucleotides are particularly important in ZAP-70 transcriptional regulation. Furthermore, by using clustering approaches, we identified a prognostic role for this site in four independent data sets of patients with CLL using time to treatment, progression-free survival, and overall survival as clinical end points. CONCLUSION Comprehensive quantitative DNA methylation analysis of the ZAP-70 gene in CLL identified important regions responsible for transcriptional regulation. In addition, loss of methylation at a specific single CpG dinucleotide in the ZAP-70 5' regulatory sequence is a highly predictive and reproducible biomarker of poor prognosis in this disease. This work demonstrates the feasibility of using quantitative specific ZAP-70 methylation analysis as a relevant clinically applicable prognostic test in CLL.
Climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen

Fossil fuel combustion and fertilizer application in the United States have substantially altered the nitrogen cycle, with serious effects on climate change. The climate effects can be short-lived, by impacting the chemistry of the atmosphere, or long-lived, by altering ecosystem greenhouse gas fluxes. Here we develop a coherent framework for assessing the climate change impacts of US reactive nitrogen emissions, including oxides of nitrogen, ammonia, and nitrous oxide (N2O). We use the global temperature potential (GTP), calculated at 20 and 100 y, in units of CO2 equivalents (CO2e), as a common metric. The largest cooling effects are due to combustion sources of oxides of nitrogen altering tropospheric ozone and methane concentrations and enhancing carbon sequestration in forests. The combined cooling effects are estimated at −290 to −510 Tg CO2e on a GTP20 basis. However, these effects are largely short-lived. On a GTP100 basis, combustion contributes just −16 to −95 Tg CO2e. Agriculture contributes to warming on both the 20-y and 100-y timescales, primarily through N2O emissions from soils. Under current conditions, these warming and cooling effects partially offset each other. However, recent trends show decreasing emissions from combustion sources. To prevent warming from US reactive nitrogen, reductions in agricultural N2O emissions are needed. Substantial progress toward this goal is possible using current technology. Without such actions, even greater CO2 emission reductions will be required to avoid dangerous climate change.
Investigation of Defects in Epitaxial 3 CSiC , 4 H-SiC , and 6 H-SiC Films Grown on SiC Substrates

Defects were investigated in SiC films grown on both Lely-grown and boule-grown SiC substrates. Etching with HCl was used to decorate defects in the vicinal (0001) SiC substrates and films. Line defects and micropipes in the boule-grown substrates were major sources of defects in the epitaxial films. Micropipes propagating into the epitaxial film were shown to be very harmful defects in pn junctions.
Lehrstuhl für Informatik 10 ( Systemsimulation ) A Multi-Objective Genetic Algorithm for Evaluating Build Order E ectiveness in StarCraft II

The goal of this thesis is to develop a multi-objective genetic algorithm for evaluating the e ectiveness of build orders, which correspond to the amount of units that have been produced until a certain point of time, in the real-time strategy game StarCraft II. As there is no freely available application programming interface for controlling units in the game directly, this rst requires an accurate simulation of the actual game mechanics. Next, based on the concept of arti cial potential elds a general behavior model is developed which allows controlling units in an optimal way based on a number of real-valued parameters. The goal of each individual unit is to maximize their damage output while minimizing the amount of received damage. Finding parameter values that control the units of two opposing players in an optimal way with respect to these objectives can be formulated as a multi-objective continuous optimization problem. This problem is then solved by applying a genetic algorithm that optimizes the behavior of each unit of two opposing players in a competitive way. To evaluate the quality of a solution, only a nite number of solutions of the opponent can be used. Therefore, the current optima are repeatedly exchanged between both players and serve as input for the simulated encounter. By comparing the solutions of both players at the end of the optimization, it can be estimated if one of the two players has an advantage. The algorithm is implemented in the C++ programming language and parallelized in a hybrid approach based on OpenMP and MPI. Finally, in order to test the e ectiveness of the presented approach, a number of sample build orders serve as input for several optimization runs which are used to evaluate its stability and convergence under di erent conditions.
The predominant cultivable microbiota of active and inactive lesions of destructive periodontal diseases.

Subgingival plaque samples were taken from active and inactive lesions in 33 subjects exhibiting active destructive periodontal diseases. Active diseased sites were those which showed a significant loss of attachment within a 2-month interval as computed by the "tolerance method". The predominant cultivable species from 100 active sites were compared with those found in 150 inactive sites of comparable pocket depth and attachment level loss. Among the 33 subjects, W. recta, B. intermedius, F. nucleatum, B. gingivalis and B. forsythus were elevated more often in active sites; whereas, S. mitis, C. ochracea, S. sanguis II, V. parvula and an unnamed Actinomyces sp. were elevated in inactive sites. The likelihood of a site being active was increased if B. forsythus, B. gingivalis, P. micros, A. actinomycetemcomitans, W. recta, or B. intermedius were detected in that site, and decreased if S. sanguis II, the Actinomyces sp. , or C. ochracea were detected.
Reducing chemical risks in low-income countries: strategies for improved coverage of basic chemicals-management legislation

Legislation on classification and labelling of chemicals – a cornerstone for risk reduction If not properly managed, the use of hazardous chemicals constitutes a risk to human health and the environment. Sound chemicals management is needed to reduce the risks. Such management consists of several components cutting across all sectors of society. One of the most basic components is a legislative framework that sets the rules for classifying and labelling chemicals. Such a framework is needed to lay the groundwork for countries to implement other risk-reduction measures, such as reducing imports of certain types of hazardous substances, or regulating best practices in handling, storage, and disposal of these chemicals.
Renal afferent denervation prevents hypertension in rats with chronic renal failure.

Increased activity of the sympathetic nervous system has been described in chronic renal failure, but its role in the genesis and maintenance of hypertension associated with this condition has not been established. The kidney has an intense network of chemoreceptors and baroreceptors that send impulses to the brain. To what extent activation of these receptors by the scarred kidney or the uremic milieu may contribute to this model of hypertension is unknown. In the present study, we evaluated the effect of bilateral dorsal rhizotomy on the development of hypertension and neuroadrenergic activity in the anterior, lateral, and posterior hypothalamic nuclei, in the locus ceruleus, and in the nucleus tractus solitarius of Sprague-Dawley rats that underwent 5/6 nephrectomy or were sham operated. Neuroadrenergic activity was determined by calculating norepinephrine turnover rate after inhibition of norepinephrine synthesis with alpha-methyl-DL-p-tyrosine methyl ester hydrochloride. The endogenous norepinephrine concentration was significantly greater in the posterior and lateral hypothalamic nuclei and the locus ceruleus, but not in the nucleus tractus solitarius, and the anterior hypothalamic nuclei of uremic rats compared with control rats. In rats with chronic renal failure and sham rhizotomy, the turnover rate of norepinephrine in the posterior (15.3 +/- 1.61 nmol.g-1.h-1) and lateral hypothalamic nuclei (11.7 +/- 2.12 nmol.g-1.h-1) and in the locus ceruleus (26.6 +/- 2.42 nmol.g-1.h-1) was significantly faster (P < .01) than in rats with renal failure and dorsal rhizotomy (4.1 +/- 0.51, 4.7 +/- 0.77, and 5.1 +/- 1.13 nmol.g-1.h-1, respectively) or control animals with or without rhizotomy. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
Sparse Representation Classification-Based Automatic Chord Recognition For Noisy Music

In this paper, Sparse Representation-based Classiﬁcation(SRC) is used for automatic chord recognition in music signals. It extracts Pitch Class Proﬁle (PCP) features from raw audio and achieve sparse representation of classes via (cid:96) 1 -norm minimization on feature space and uses Viterbi algorithm to recognize 24 major and minor triads. But in the real word, the music usually is corrupted by noise. This recognition model is evaluated on MIREX09 dataset. And it compares the recognition rates when the music contains Gaussian white noise or not. Experimental results demonstrate that the method is robust to the Gaussian white noise
Investigation of the role of TCF4 rare sequence variants in schizophrenia

Transcription factor 4 (TCF4) is one of the most robust of all reported schizophrenia risk loci and is supported by several genetic and functional lines of evidence. While numerous studies have implicated common genetic variation at TCF4 in schizophrenia risk, the role of rare, small‐sized variants at this locus‐such as single nucleotide variants and short indels which are below the resolution of chip‐based arrays requires further exploration. The aim of the present study was to investigate the association between rare TCF4 sequence variants and schizophrenia. Exon‐targeted resequencing was performed in 190 German schizophrenia patients. Six rare variants at the coding exons and flanking sequences of the TCF4 gene were identified, including two missense variants and one splice site variant. These six variants were then pooled with nine additional rare variants identified in 379 European participants of the 1000 Genomes Project, and all 15 variants were genotyped in an independent German sample (n = 1,808 patients; n = 2,261 controls). These data were then analyzed using six statistical methods developed for the association analysis of rare variants. No significant association (P < 0.05) was found. However, the results from our association and power analyses suggest that further research into the possible involvement of rare TCF4 sequence variants in schizophrenia risk is warranted by the assessment of larger cohorts with higher statistical power to identify rare variant associations. © 2015 Wiley Periodicals, Inc.
A Comparison of LiDAR and Image-derived Canopy Height Models for Individual Tree Crown Segmentation with Object Based Image Analysis

P. Tompalski1*, P. Wężyk, M. Weidenbach, R. de Kok, P. Hawryło 1 Integrated Remote Sensing Studio, Faculty of Forestry, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, Canada 2 Laboratory of Geomatics, Faculty of Forestry, University of Agriculture in Krakow, Poland 3 landConsult.de, Geographic Information Management and Environmental Planning, Buehl, Germany *Corresponding author: Piotr.Tompalski@forestry.ubc. ca