Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Behavior analysis of a 3-axis detection push-pull piezoresistive MEMS accelerometer

This paper reports a new concept of a 3-axis accelerometer design along with proposed fabrication steps and a circuit readout configuration. In order to achieve a better performance in terms of induced output, the study focuses on the optimization of the structure dimensions and the optimal piezoresistor's location. The proposed model will be analyzed using Finite Element Modeling (FEM) to fully investigate the stress field in the structure based on the seismic mass movement and dimensions of attachment arms. Using Finite Element Analysis results, the push-pull operation mode has been confirmed. Maximum stress magnitude with an appropriate profile has been studied in terms of various key geometric parameters. Under an acceleration of 100g, symmetric stress magnitude profile with an approximate value of 3MPa, has been detected. This paper also discusses the structure of the built-in network of the piezoresistive Wheatstone bridge circuit and its position. We also show a flip-chip process flow for the ongoing fabrication of a polymer based accelerometer prototype.
Production of Silicon Metal and Alloys Is Associated With Accelerated Decline in Lung Function: A 5-Year Prospective Study Among 3924 Employees in Norwegian Smelters

Objectives: To investigate the association between decline in lung function and production of alloys in the Norwegian smelting industry. Methods: All employees (N = 3924) were examined annually for 5 years (16,570 examinations). The employees were classified into three categories: 1) line operators (employed full time in the production line), 2) nonexposed (no exposure last year), and 3) non-line operators (remaining subjects). The outcome variable was expressed as forced expiratory volume in 1 second per squared height (FEV1/height2). Results: In the subcohorts of the ferrosilicon/silicon metal and silicon carbide industries, the differences between line operators and nonexposed workers were −2.3 (−4.3 to −0.3) (CI = 95%) and −5.6 (−10.4 to −0.7) mL/(m2 × year), respectively. Conclusion: Line operators in the ferrosilicon/silicon metal and silicon carbide industries had a steeper annual decline in FEV1/height2 compared with nonexposed workers.
Multimodal News Article Analysis

The intersection of Computer Vision and Natural Language Processing has been a hot topic of research in recent years, with results that were unthinkable only a few years ago. In view of this progress, we want to highlight online news articles as a potential next step for this area of research. The rich interrelations of text, tags, images or videos, as well as a vast corpus of general knowledge are an exciting benchmark for high-capacity models such as the deep neural networks. In this paper we present a series of tasks and baseline approaches to leverage corpus such as the BreakingNews dataset.
Bifidobacterial surface-exopolysaccharide facilitates commensal-host interaction through immune modulation and pathogen protection

Bifidobacteria comprise a significant proportion of the human gut microbiota. Several bifidobacterial strains are currently used as therapeutic interventions, claiming various health benefits by acting as probiotics. However, the precise mechanisms by which they maintain habitation within their host and consequently provide these benefits are not fully understood. Here we show that Bifidobacterium breve UCC2003 produces a cell surface-associated exopolysaccharide (EPS), the biosynthesis of which is directed by either half of a bidirectional gene cluster, thus leading to production of one of two possible EPSs. Alternate transcription of the two opposing halves of this cluster appears to be the result of promoter reorientation. Surface EPS provided stress tolerance and promoted in vivo persistence, but not initial colonization. Marked differences were observed in host immune response: strains producing surface EPS (EPS+) failed to elicit a strong immune response compared with EPS-deficient variants. Specifically, EPS production was shown to be linked to the evasion of adaptive B-cell responses. Furthermore, presence of EPS+ B. breve reduced colonization levels of the gut pathogen Citrobacter rodentium. Our data thus assigns a pivotal and beneficial role for EPS in modulating various aspects of bifidobacterial–host interaction, including the ability of commensal bacteria to remain immunologically silent and in turn provide pathogen protection. This finding enforces the probiotic concept and provides mechanistic insights into health-promoting benefits for both animal and human hosts.
Memory-aware multiple reference frame motion estimation for the H.264/AVC standard

This paper presents an architecture for Multiple Reference Frame Motion Estimation (MRF-ME) targeting H.264/AVC standard. MRF introduces issues regarding processing throughput and memory access. In this context, this work proposes a memory-aware architecture for MRF-ME that relies on data reuse and current block parallelism. The data reuse scheme guarantees a reduction of almost 70% in the number of external memory accesses when compared with a traditional approach. The architecture was synthesized targeting a Xilinx FPGA device and it is capable of processing high definition (HD) videos in real time (30fps), with very good processing rates results when compared with related works. This solution is based on one single view, but it is being used as base to design an architecture which will be able to process multi view videos as defined in the H.264/AVC MVC extension.
Communications of the Association for Information Systems Enabling Collaboration with IT

Globalizing organizations, outsourcing, mobile work, inter-organizational teams, innovation, and reaching out to suppliers and customers are driving today‘s need to improve collaboration within firms. And information technology (IT) is at the center of these trends. Businesses are also experimenting with different types of collaboration. While IT functions provide the ―heavy lifting,‖ such as connectivity and information integrity, without which most collaboration efforts would not be effective, how new applications are implemented is often as important as the technology itself in delivering business value. This article explores IT‘s role in enabling collaboration in organizations, and at the same time, what IT‘s role should not be (i.e., what responsibilities and accountabilities should properly be the function of the business). It presents the results of research with a focus group of senior IT managers, looking first at why collaboration is becoming so important and the business value it enables. Next, it examines some of the different characteristics of collaboration and the key components of a collaboration program and at IT‘s role in one. It concludes that effective collaboration will not result from implementing more collaboration software. Instead, this will require a proactive and holistic strategy that integrates business goals and technology potential.
Evolution of the proton ring current energy distribution during 21–25 April 2001 storm

[1] Three ring current models are used to follow the evolution of the proton ring current during the 2001-04-21–25 storm: The ring current model combined with tracing particles numerically in the drift approximation by Ganushkina et al. (2005), the empirical model of proton fluxes in the inner magnetosphere developed by Milillo et al. (2003), and the kinetic ring current-atmosphere interaction model (RAM) by Liemohn et al. (2001). The paper focuses on the effects of the electric and magnetic field models and initial particle distributions on the final energy distribution. We examine a variety of large-scale magnetic field and convection electric field models as well as substorm-associated, smaller-scale, and time-varying electric fields. We find that (1) using more realistic magnetic field models leads to reduction of the ring current energy content by ∼30%; (2) details of the global convection field have little influence on the overall ring current evolution; (3) smaller-scale impulsive electric field have profound effects on the ring current evolution, particularly with regard to the acceleration of the higher-energy particles; and (4) in the ring current models, the choice of the initial and boundary conditions have significant effects on the modeled ring current intensity and energy spectrum.
Assessing reading difficulties: the validity and utility of current measures of reading skill.

BACKGROUND Accurate assessment of reading difficulties is clearly important if appropriate support and remediation is to be provided. Many different reading tests are routinely used yet it is not clear to what extent different tests tap the same underlying skills. AIMS The nature of the relationships between different tests of reading accuracy, reading comprehension and linguistic comprehension is investigated in this paper. SAMPLES, METHODS AND RESULTS: In study 1, 184 7-10 year old children completed a listening comprehension test, three tests of reading accuracy (reading of nonwords, single words and text) and two tests of reading comprehension (test comprehension and sentence completion). While sentence completion was well accounted for by individual differences in word recognition, text comprehension was more heavily dependent on listening comprehension. Study 2 compared the performance of children with poor comprehension skills with controls matched for age, nonverbal ability and decoding skill. The poor comprehenders had greatest difficulty with those tests most heavily dependent on linguistic comprehension and least difficulty on purer measures of decoding. CONCLUSIONS These findings show that different reading tests measure different aspects of the reading process and that caution should be exercised when selecting tests for the assessment of reading difficulties.
Enhancing productivity: The role of management practices

There is no doubt that management practices are linked to the productivity and performance of a company. However, research findings are mixed. This paper provides a multi-disciplinary review of the current evidence of such a relationship and offers suggestions for further exploration. We provide an extensive review of the literature in terms of research findings from studies that have been trying to measure and understand the impact that individual management practices and clusters of management practices have on productivity at different levels of analysis. We focus our review on Operations Management (OM) and Human Resource Management (HRM) practices as well as joint applications of these practices. In conclusion, we can say that taken as a whole, the research findings are equivocal. Some studies have found a positive relationship between the adoption of management practices and productivity, some negative and some no association whatsoever. We believe that the lack of universal consensus on the effect of the adoption of complementary management practices might be driven either by measurement issues or by the level of analysis. Consequently, there is a need for further research. In particular, for a multi-level approach from the lowest possible level of aggregation up to the firm-level of analysis in order to assess the impact of management practices upon the productivity of firms.
Cognitive-behavioral treatment reduces attrition in treatment-resistant obese women: results from a 6-month nested case-control study.

OBJECTIVE The aim of this nested case-control study was to compare the effectiveness of cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) for treatment-resistant obese (body mass index [BMI] ≥ 30 kg/m²) women compared with standard dietary treatment. The main outcome measures were attrition and weight loss success. METHODS We designed a 6-month case-control study, nested within a cohort of adult (age ≥ 18 years) treatment-resistant (history of at least two previous diet attempts) obese women. Cases were 20 women who were offered CBT sessions. Controls (n=39) were randomly selected from the source population and matched to cases in terms of baseline age, BMI, and number of previous diet attempts. RESULTS Compared with controls, cases were significantly more likely to complete the 6-month program in both age-adjusted (odds ratio [OR]=2.94, 95% confidence interval [CI]=1.05-8.97) and multivariate-adjusted (OR=2.77, 95% CI=1.02-8.34) analyses. In contrast, cases were not more likely to achieve weight loss success in age-adjusted (OR=1.32, 95% CI=0.86-1.67) and multivariate-adjusted (OR=1.21, 95% CI=0.91-1.44) analyses. CONCLUSIONS Compared with a standard dietary treatment, CBT was significantly more effective in reducing attrition in treatment-resistant obese women, without differences in terms of weight loss success.
AIRBORNE PARTICULATE MATTER WITHIN 100 RANDOMLY SELECTED OFFICE BUILDINGS IN THE UNITED STATES (BASE)

The United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has collected extensive indoor air quality data in 100 randomly selected office buildings following a standardized protocol developed for the Building Assessment Survey and Evaluation (BASE) study. These data were collected to provide normative data in typical office buildings for various uses including: a) basis for making policy and guidance development; b) hypothesis development and testing; c) input into risk assessments and environmental models; and, d) comparison of complaint buildings to “typical” building stock. Airborne particulate matter (PM) of respirable (less than or equal to 2.5 microns (µm)) and inhalable (less than or equal to 10µm) size were collected by inertial impaction at a specified flowrate onto pre-weighed filters over an eight-hour period at up to three randomly selected locations within the study area and near the outdoor air intake of the ventilation system. This paper presents the concentration distributions and comparisons of PM2.5 and PM10 in the BASE buildings and outdoor air near the building.
Huntington's disease: phenomenological diversity of a neuropsychiatric condition that challenges traditional concepts in neurology and psychiatry.

Huntington’s disease is an autosomal-dominant inherited disorder with full penetrance that is characterized by a triad of motor, cognitive, and psychiatric disturbances. In 1993, its disease etiology was successfully identified as an excess of CAG nucleotide repeats in the IT15 gene on the short arm of chromosome 4 (>38) (1). Because of this polyglutamine expansion, a mutant cytoplasm protein (“huntingtin”) of presently unknown function is expressed and is possibly responsible for neurotrophic deficits, abnormal vesicle fusion, and amyloid-like inclusions in striatal nerve cells (2, 3). Depending on the individual CAG expansion load, disease onset generally occurs between the ages of 30 and 40, entailing an invariably lethal progression within 10 to 20 years (4). Characteristic neuropathological features include the degeneration of the head of the caudate nucleus and other striatal areas as well as frontally pronounced cortical atrophy without temporal lobe involvement (5). Aside from new treatment approaches that examine the benefit of fetal striatal transplantation, current disease management is still entirely symptomatic (6). Neurodegenerative alterations and its presentation as a movement disorder account for the traditional linkage of Huntington’s disease to the field of neurology. Within this context, the divergent development of psychiatric and neurologic disciplines during the last century (“the great divide” [7]) may explain the common neglect of psychiatric manifestations in Huntington’s disease patients (8). Recent advances of clinical neuroscience, however, challenge the obsolete mind-body dichotomy with concepts emphasizing the plasticity of brain structure in mediating behavioral and emotional (dys)function (9). By adapting a modern holistic approach, the following case report emphasizes the spectrum and clinical significance of neuropsychiatric phenomena associated with Huntington’s disease. Diagnostic difficulties are exemplified and discussed in light of the traditional separation of neurological and psychiatric facets in the clinical setting (7). Within this context, the current scientific knowledge of Huntington’s disease’s pleiotropy is reviewed along with a discussion of the diagnostic power of specific neuropsychological approaches.
Comparative Drug Use and Psychosocial Profiles of Opioid Dependents Applying for Medication Versus Medication‐Free Treatment

Drug treatment‐seeking abusers generally self‐select their treatment modality. Most opioid‐dependent individuals select either methadone maintenance or detoxification followed by medication‐free outpatient treatment. This study examined demographic, drug use, and drug abuse treatment history for opioid dependent patients entering an opioid agonist (n = 203) or a medication‐free (n = 155) treatment program located on the same hospital campus. Similar demographic profiles support the assertion that samples were drawn from the same inner city urban opioid using population. Patients entering drug‐free treatment, however, reported more extensive prior use of both cocaine and alcohol. Further, these patients had a generally more severe profile of psychosocial problems in medical, legal, employment, family/social, and psychiatric areas as measured by the Addiction Severity Index (ASI). These findings suggest that outpatient drug‐free programs enrolling opioid abusers are faced with a unique service delivery challenge that involves service needs in multiple arenas. The findings further suggest that patient self‐selection of treatment programs may in some cases result in a discrepancy between patient needs and the ability of treatment programs to retain patients and deliver an appropriate array of services.
Rnf152 Is Essential for NeuroD Expression and Delta-Notch Signaling in the Zebrafish Embryos

We report the biological functions of a zebrafish homologue of RING-finger protein 152 (rnf152) during embryogenesis. rnf152 was initially identified as a brain-enriched E3 ligase involved in early embryogenesis of zebrafish. Expression of rnf152 was ubiquitous in the brain at 24 hpf but restricted to the eyes, midbrain-hindbrain boundary (MHB), and rhombomeres at 48 hpf. Knockdown of rnf152 in zebrafish embryos caused defects in the eyes, MHB, and rhombomeres (r1–7) at 24 hpf. These defects in rnf152-deficient embryos were analyzed by whole-mount in situ hybridization (WISH) using neuroD, deltaD, notch1a, and notch3 probes. NeuroD expression was abolished in the marginal zone, outer nuclear layer (ONL), inner nuclear layer (INL), and ganglion cell layer (GCL) of the eyes at 27 hpf. Furthermore, deltaD and notch1a expression was remarkably reduced in the ONL, INL, subpallium, tectum, cerebellum, and rhombomeres (r1–7) at 24 hpf, whereas notch3 expression was reduced in the tectum, cerebellum, and rhombomeres at 24 hpf. Finally, we confirmed that expression of Notch target genes, her4 and ascl1a, also decreased significantly in these areas at 24 hpf. Thus, we propose that Rnf152 is essential for development of the eyes, midbrain and hindbrain, and that Delta-Notch signaling is involved.
Re-engineering enterprise architectures

An Enterprise Architecture (EA) is used for the design and realization of the business processes, along with user roles, applications, data, and technical infrastructures. Over time, maintaining an EA update may become a complex issue, let alone an organization-wide architecture and its related artifacts. EA practices provide much of the required guidelines for the design and development of EAs. However, they cannot present a comprehensive method or solution for the re-engineering processes of EAs. In this paper, we propose an EA re-engineering model and present its potential contributions. The study is conducted according to the Design Science Research Method. The research contribution is classified as an “application of a new solution (process model) to a known problem (re-engineering EA)”. The future research efforts will focus on the implementation and evaluation of the model in case studies for gathering empirical evidences.
Predictive value of cervimetric labour patterns in primigravidae

Summary. From a study of 2000 consecutive labours the outcome of the 684 primigravid patients admitted in spontaneous labour has been examined according to their cervimetric progress during the first stage of labour. A partogram and labour stencil were used to identify dysfunctional labour which was treated with a standard protocol of augmentation by oxytocin. This policy achieved labours with a mean‘observed first stage’ of 6.3 h and a caesarean section rate of 8.7%. There was one stillbirth due to multiple congenital abnormalities and no increase in perinatal morbidity. Our data show that the type of first stage cervimetric pattern is helpful in predicting the outcome of labour. A normal cervimetric pattern resulted in a vaginal delivery rate of 98.4%; primary dysfunctional labour, which could be improved by oxytocin, had a 93.8% incidence of vaginal delivery, but if there was no improvement in the rate of cervical dilatation when this was administered the vaginal delivery rate was only 22.7%. A prolonged latent phase was associated with a caesarean section rate of 16.7% and the incidence of neonatal intubation was nearly as high as that found in uncorrected primary dysfunctional labour. The neonatal asphyxia in secondary arrest was minimal with an overall caesarean section rate of 28.4%; there was no increased incidence of neonatal morbidity with this cervimetric type.
Surface Elastic Properties of Human Retinal Pigment Epithelium Melanosomes †

Atomic force microscope (AFM) imaging and nanoindentation measurements in water were used to probe the mechanical properties of retinal pigment epithelium melanosomes isolated from 14‐year‐old and 76‐year‐old donors. Topographic imaging reveals surface roughness similar to previous measurements on dry melanosomes. Force‐indentation measurements show different types of responses that were catalogued into four different categories. In these measurements no permanent surface damage of melanosomes was observed as revealed by imaging before and after indentation measurements. The indentation measurements that exhibited nearly elastic responses were used to determine the Young’s modulus of melanosomes. The average Young’s modulus values are similar for 14‐year‐old and 76‐year‐old melanosomes with a somewhat narrower distribution for the 14‐year‐old sample. These elastic modulus values are considerably higher than the modulus of organelles with cytoplasm (<1 MPa) and approaching values of the modulus of protein crystals (∼100 MPa) indicating rather high packing density of biologic material in melanosomes. The width of the Young’s modulus distributions is considerable spanning from few megapascals to few tens of megapascals indicating large heterogeneity in the structure. A fraction of the force curves cannot be described by the homogeneous elastic sample model; these force curves are consistent with ∼10 nm structural heterogeneity in melanosomes. The approach‐withdraw hysteresis indicates a significant viscoelasticity, particularly in the samples from the 14‐year‐old sample. Adhesion of the AFM probe was detected on ∼3% and ∼20% of the surface of 14‐year‐old and 76‐year‐old samples, respectively. In light of previous studies on these same melanosomes using photoelectron emission microscopy, this adhesion is attributed to the presence of lipofuscin on the surface of the melanosomes. This suggestion indicates that part of the difference in photochemical properties between the old and young melanosomes originates from surface lipofuscin.