Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Externalizing behaviours of Turkish-Dutch and Moroccan-Dutch youth: The role of parental cultural socialization

Abstract The present study examines whether perceived parental cultural socialization (e.g., encouraging cultural practices, traditions, language and cultural pride) is negatively associated with externalizing problem behaviours (e.g., fighting, expression of anger, lying and stealing) among Turkish-Dutch (n = 143) and Moroccan-Dutch (n = 164) youth (age 14–18), with ethnic in-group connectedness as a mediator. The results show that Turkish-Dutch youth, who report more cultural socialization efforts by their parents, are less likely to exhibit externalizing behaviours, because of their increased connectedness to the ethnic in-group. For Moroccan-Dutch youth, however, in-group connectedness is lower and we find no indirect effect of perceived parental cultural socialization on externalizing behaviours. We conclude that Turkish-Dutch youth seem to reap mental health benefits from what they perceive as their parents’ cultural socialization efforts. Thus, it is important to study ethnic differences in parental cultural socialization to enhance youth development across diverse youth populations in Europe.
Tactile design language for indoor - outdoor pedestrian navigation

Introduction Related work Audiovisual navigation Localization and Indoor navigation Tactile navigation The Human Body Tactile illusions Design Process Scoping Design. Make. Test. Repeat The Method Early exploration Sketching in Hardware, Part 1 1 X 5 5 X 5 5 X 3 Evaluation Overview Study: Communicability of the patterns Study: Positions of the arm Sketching in Hardware, Part 2 3 X 3 tac.tic Conclusion & Future work References 2 4 8
Ability of the Human Cytomegalovirus IE1 Protein To Modulate Sumoylation of PML Correlates with Its Functional Activities in Transcriptional Regulation and Infectivity in Cultured Fibroblast Cells

ABSTRACT In one of the earliest events in human cytomegalovirus (HCMV)-infected cells, the major immediate-early (IE) protein IE1 initially targets to and then disrupts the nuclear structures known as PML oncogenic domains (PODs) or nuclear domain 10. Recent studies have suggested that modification of PML by SUMO is essential to form PODs and that IE1 both binds to PML and may disrupt PODs by preventing or removing SUMO adducts on PML. In this study, we showed that in contrast to herpes simplex virus type 1 (HSV-1) IE110 (ICP0), the loss of sumoylated forms of PML by cotransfected IE1 was resistant to the proteasome inhibitor MG132 and that IE1 did not reduce the level of unmodified PML. Reduced sumoylation of PML was also observed in U373 cells after infection with wild-type HCMV and proved to require IE1 protein expression. Mutational analysis revealed that the central hydrophobic domain of IE1, including Leu174, is required for both PML binding and loss of PML sumoylation and confirmed that all IE1 mutants tested that were deficient in these functions also failed both to target to PODs and to disrupt PODs. These same mutants were also inactive in several reporter gene transactivation assays and in inhibition of PML-mediated repression. Importantly, a viral DNA genome containing an IE1 gene with a deletion [IE1(Δ290-320)] that was defective in these activities was not infectious when transfected into permissive fibroblast cells, but the mutant IE1(K450R), which is defective in IE1 sumoylation, remained infectious. Our mutational analysis strengthens the idea that interference by IE1 with both the sumoylation of PML and its repressor activity requires a physical interaction with PML that also leads to disruption of PODs. These activities of IE1 also correlate with several unusual transcriptional transactivation functions of IE1 and may be requirements for efficient initiation of the lytic cycle in vivo.
Government Ownership and Firm Performance: The Case of Vietnam

This study extends some predictions from a game theoretical model which evaluates the net effect of government ownership on firm performance and empirically tests these predictions using a panel dataset of Vietnamese firms in the period 2004-2012. The empirical results estimated from static and dynamic models confirm our propositions of a negative effect of state ownership on firm profitability and labor productivity. Furthermore, this study documents a moderating role of firm size in the relationship between state shareholding and the performance of firms with higher state ownership in larger firms enhancing profitability and labor productivity.
Efficient sorting of search results by string attributes

It is sometimes required to order search results using textual document attributes such as titles. This is problematic for performance because of the memory required to store these long text strings at indexing and search time. We create a method for compressing strings which may be used for approximate ordering of search results on textual attributes. We create a metric for analyzing its performance. We then use this metric to show that, for document collections containing tens of millions of documents, we can sort document titles using 64-bits of storage per title to within 100 positions of error per
No Beneficial Effects Evident for Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 in Weaned Pigs Infected with Salmonella enterica Serovar Typhimurium DT104

ABSTRACT Salmonella enterica serovar Typhimurium DT 104 is the major pathogen for salmonellosis outbreaks in Europe. We tested if the probiotic bacterium Enterococcus faecium NCIMB 10415 can prevent or alleviate salmonellosis. Therefore, piglets of the German Landrace breed that were treated with E. faecium (n = 16) as a feed additive and untreated controls (n = 16) were challenged with S. Typhimurium 10 days after weaning. The presence of salmonellae in feces and selected organs, as well as the immune response, were investigated. Piglets treated with E. faecium gained less weight than control piglets (P = 0.05). The feeding of E. faecium had no effect on the fecal shedding of salmonellae and resulted in a higher abundance of the pathogen in tonsils of all challenged animals. The specific (anti-Salmonella IgG) and nonspecific (haptoglobin) humoral immune responses as well as the cellular immune response (T helper cells, cytotoxic T cells, regulatory T cells, γδ T cells, and B cells) in the lymph nodes, Peyer's patches of different segments of the intestine (jejunal and ileocecal), the ileal papilla, and in the blood were affected in the course of time after infection (P < 0.05) but not by the E. faecium treatment. These results led to the conclusion that E. faecium may not have beneficial effects on the performance of weaned piglets in the case of S. Typhimurium infection. Therefore, we suggest a critical discussion and reconsideration of E. faecium NCIMB 10415 administration as a probiotic for pigs.
A ug 2 01 8 Quantum Algorithm to Cubic Spline Interpolation

HHL algorithm [12] to solve linear system is a powerful and efficient quantum technique to deal with many matrix operations (such as matrix multiplication, powers and inversion). It inspires many applications in quantum machine learning [4, 11]. However, due to the restrictions of HHL algorithm itself, many quantum machine learning algorithms also share one or two restrictions. The most common restrictions include quantum state preparation, condition number and Hamiltonian simulation. In this work, we first give an efficient quantum algorithm to achieve quantum state preparation, which actually achieves an exponential speedup than the algorithms given in [10, 18]. Then we provide an application of HHL algorithm in cubic spline interpolation problem. We will show that in this problem, the condition number is small, the preparation of quantum state is efficient based on the new algorithm we proposed and the Hamiltonian simulation is efficiently implemented. So the quantum algorithm obtained by HHL algorithm towards this problem actually achieves an exponential speedup than any classical algorithm with no restrictions. This can be viewed as another application of HHL algorithm with no restrictions after the work of Clader et al [10] in studying electromagnetic scattering cross-section.
Chapter 9 Multitasking in the Automobile

while driving an automobile, people regularly engage in a wide variety of multitasking activities when they are behind the wheel. Indeed, data from the 2000 US census indicates that drivers spend an average of 25.5 minutes each day commuting to work, and there is a growing interest in trying to make the time spent on the roadway more productive (Reschovsky, 2004). Unfortunately, because of the inherent limited capacity of human attention (e.g., Kahneman, 1973; Navon & Gopher, 1979; Wickens, 1984), engaging in these multitasking activities often comes at a cost of diverting attention away from the primary task of driving. There are a number of more traditional sources of driver distraction. These “old standards” include talking to passengers, eating, drinking, lighting a cigarette, applying makeup, and listening to the radio (cf. Stutts, Feaganes, Rodman, Hamlet, Meadows, Rinfurt, Gish, Mercadante, & Staplin, 2003). However, during the last decade many new electronic devices were developed and are making their way into the vehicle. In many cases, these new technologies are engaging, interactive information delivery systems. For example, drivers can now surf the Internet, send and receive e-mail or faxes, communicate via cellular device, and even watch television. There is good reason to believe that some of these new multitasking activities may be substantially more distracting than the old standards because they are more cognitively engaging and because they are often performed over more sustained periods of time. This chapter focuses on how driving is impacted by cellular communication, because this is one of the most prevalent exemplars of this new class of multitasking activity. Indeed, the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration estimates that that 8% of drivers on the roadway at any given daylight moment are using their cell phone (Glassbrenner, 2005). Here we summarize research from our laboratory that addresses four interrelated questions related to cell phone use while driving. First, does cell phone use interfere with driving? There is ample anecdotal evidence suggesting that it does. However, multiple-resource models of dual-task
Milk protein responses to balanced amino acid and removal of Leucine and Arginine supplied from jugular‐infused amino acid mixture in lactating dairy cows

This study was undertaken to evaluate the milk protein response when cows were supplied a balanced AA profile and to determine whether a deficiency of Leucine (Leu) or Arginine (Arg) had a negative effect on milk protein. Eight mid-lactation Holstein cows were randomly assigned to 5-day continuous jugular infusions of saline (CTL), EAA mixture prepared on the profile of casein and supplied (in % of lysine (Lys)) 100% of Lys, 33.3% of methionine (Met), 110.2% of Leu, 43.6% of Arg, 50.8% of threonine (Thr), 81.6% of valine (Val), 69.7% of isoleucine (Ile), 61.4% of phenylalanine (Phe) and 34.2% of histidine (His) (Casein, 160 g/d), EAA mixture excluding Leu (-Leu, 163 g/d) or EAA mixture excluding Arg (-Arg, 158 g/d) in a duplicated 4 × 4 Latin square design with four infusion periods separated by 7-day interval period. The basal diet supplied 1.6 Mcal NEL and 94.4 g MP per 1 kg DM to meet requirements for lactation. The Casein treatment provided a balanced supply (in % of MP) of 10.3% Leu and 5.3% Arg, whereas in the two subsequent -Leu and -Arg treatments, the concentration of Leu and Arg was reduced to 8.4 and 4.6% respectively. Dry matter intake (15.4 kg/day) was not affected by treatments. The Casein treatment increased milk yield (14.9%, p < 0.001), milk protein yield (120 g, p < 0.001) and milk protein efficiency (0.03, p = 0.099) than CTL treatment. However, the -Leu treatment decreased the responses of above-measured parameters by 6.25%, 70 g, 0.05 (p < 0.06) (compared with Casein). These effects of Leu were related to decreased Leu concentration and improved concentration of Ile and Val in plasma. The -Arg treatment decreased the plasma Arg concentration than the Casein treatment, whereby resulted in the decrease of milk yield (5.7%, p = 0.073), milk protein yield (60 g, p = 0.011) and milk protein efficiency (0.04, p = 0.037). In conclusion, supply of EAA profile of casein can increase the lactation production in dairy cows, and 8.6% of Leu in MP partly limits the milk protein response when the requirements of Lys, Met and His were met. The level of Arg at 4.6% MP is not deemed to an ideal profile, as evidenced by decreased milk protein efficiency.
Speculative Contention Avoidance in Software Transactional Memory

The well-known drawbacks of lock-based programming have forced researchers to explore new alternatives for parallel programming of which Transactional memory (TM) is a promising one. TM has been shown to scale well in multi-core processors when applications have data access patterns with a few conflicts. In contrast, if conflicts happen frequently in programs TM results in poor performance. In this paper, we introduce speculative contention avoidance (SCA) to prevent conflicts in TMs. SCA dynamically controls number of concurrently executing transactions and serializes those transactions that are likely to conflict. This technique is built on the concept of contention locality, which describes the likelihood that a previously aborted transaction fails again in the future. We find that contentions are highly predictable in TMs and exploit simple predictors which rely on history of transactions to speculate contentions. We have incorporated SCA into TL2 and compared the performance of the new implementation with the original STM using Stamp v0.9. 7 benchmark suite. Our results show that SCA is highly effective at preventing contentions and significantly improves performance.
A new high-dose treatment with intra-articular hyaluronic acid facilitates the management of osteoarthritis

Intra-articular hyaluronic acid (HA) has an established place in the symptomatic treatment of osteoarthritis. We report, for the first time, data on a new “high-dose treatment” in 25 patients with radiologically ascertained symptomatic osteoarthritis of the hip or knee joint. Within the scope of an open, prospective study patients received either one (in hip osteoarthritis) or three (in knee osteoarthritis) intra-articular injections of Ostenil Plus, a new medical device that contains 40 mg fermentative hyaluronic acid and 10 mg mannitol in a terminally sterilised pre-filled syringe with a 2 ml fill volume. In this formulation mannitol functions as a free-radical scavenger which will protect the exogenous HA from rapid depolymerisation, especially in the activated stage of osteoarthritis. When the test product was administered repeatedly, an interval of two weeks between injections was respected. In this study Ostenil Plus proved to be safe and, in a high percentage of the patients, reliably effective. Of the 24 patients that were included in the analyses at the end of the study, 12 were free from pain on movement while 10 patients reported mild pain and 2 reported moderate pain. Regarding the global treatment satisfaction, both the Investigator and the patients assessed treatment as satisfactory in 87.5% of the cases. The tolerability of Ostenil Plus was assessed as very good in 94.7% of the cases and good in 5.3%. The reduced number of injections required facilitates the application of intra-articular HA in patients with a difficult access to the joint. Longer intervals between individual injections also allow a useful, temporal flexibility in planning and execution of the treatment.
TRACKING VEHICLES IN URBAN SMART CITY BASED XILINX PLATFORM

Computer vision becomes one of the significant smart city applications due to the unbelievable growth in electronics, informatics, and communication fields. Since the smart city is directed by smart self-governing systems, A lot of algorithms have been released for achieving smart city requirements. These algorithms include methods for detecting text, faces, vehicles and moving objects. Then, by comparing their output with the ground-truth, the performance of these algorithms can be measured. This paper focusing on following (detect and track) the moving vehicles. Two different object detection algorithms have been tested, namely temporal difference algorithm and fixed background algorithm for a video of (120 x 160) pixels frame-size. The designed system was implemented based on FPGA board (Xilinx-ISE 14.6 XC3S700A), while the simulation was built by employing MATLAB. To stay away from the limitation of the FPGA board size, the Verilog code was invoked by utilizing the MATLAB platform.
Insurance Risk Modeling Using Data Mining Technology

The UPA (Underwriting Profitability Analysis) application embodies a new approach to mining Property & Casualty (P&C) insurance policy and claims data for the purpose of constructing predictive models for insurance risks. UPA utilizes the ProbE (Probabilistic Estimation) predictive modeling class library to discover risk characterization rules by analyzing large and noisy insurance data sets. Each rule defines a distinct risk group and its level of risk. To satisfy regulatory constraints, the risk groups are mutually exclusive and exhaustive. The rules generated by ProbE are statistically rigorous, interpretable, and credible from an actuarial standpoint. The ProbE library itself is scalable, extensible, and embeddable. Our approach to modeling insurance risks and the implementation of that approach have been validated in an actual engagement with a P&C insurance firm. The benefit assessment of the results suggest that this methodology provides significant value to the P&C insurance risk management process.
Differences between National Reporting Practices and IFRS for SMEs Presentation and Disclosure Requirements: Evidence from Italy

The aim of this paper is to assess the differences between the International Financial Reporting Standard for Small and Medium-sized Entities (IFRS for SMEs) requirements and national financial reporting practices. For this purpose, the IASB’s checklist was applied to a sample of financial statements prepared in Italy by non-listed manufacturing companies. The results reveal the major differences existing in the presentation of financial statements, as well as in narrative disclosure practices in management commentary and notes. Furthermore, econometric analysis suggests that the differences are influenced by certain exploratory factors, namely, profitability, leverage, size and parent company relationship. This study offers new insights into the roles of certain exploratory factors that are likely to influence the movement towards the application of the IFRS for SMEs.
Differential gene expression in patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis

Abstract Our objective was to analyze gene expression pattern in muscles from patients with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis (ALS) and multifocal motor neuropathy (MMN) compared to controls. Biopsied skeletal muscles from three ALS, three MMN and three control subjects had total RNA extracted and subjected to genome-wide gene expression analysis using Affymetrix GeneChip Exon 1.0 ST array. The most significant expression pattern differences were confirmed with RT-PCR in four additional ALS patients. Results showed that over 3000 genes were identified across the groups using q < 10%. Among 50 genes that were overexpressed only in the ALS group were: leucine-rich repeat kinase-2, follistatin, collagen type XIX alpha-1, ceramide kinase-like, sestrin-3 and CXorf64. No genes were significantly overexpressed in MMN alone. Underexpressed genes only in ALS included actinin α3, fructose-1,6-bisphosphatase-2 and homeobox C10; whereas only in MMN: hemoglobin A1 and CXorf64. Ankyrin repeat domain-1 was overexpressed in both groups. Underexpressed genes in both groups included myosin light chain kinase-2, enolase-3 and 6-phosphofructo-2-kinase/fructose-2,6-biphosphatase-1. Validation analysis using RT-PCR confirmed the data for leucine-rich repeat kinase-2, follistatin, collagen type XIX alpha-1, ceramide kinase-like, sestrin-3 and CXorf64. In conclusion, there is differential tissue-specific gene expression in patients with ALS relative to MMN and controls. Further studies are necessary to evaluate the identified genes in larger patient groups and different tissues.
The Influence of the Booming Mining Industry on the Agricultural Sector in Mongolia

Mongolia’s extensive mineral deposits and attendant growth in mining-sector activities have transformed Mongolia’s economy, which traditionally has been dependent on herding and agriculture. In this paper a Keynesian type equilibrium displacement model is developed to deduce hypotheses about the effects of mining on agriculture. A major hypothesis to be tested is whether the effects have been adverse, as suggested by the “Dutch Disease” hypothesis.
Captive supplies and cash market prices for fed cattle: a dynamic rational expectations model of delivery timing

Several empirical analyses of data from fed cattle markets have found a negative correlation between a region's weekly delivery volume of captive supply cattle and contemporaneous price in the local cash market. This negative correlation has been cited as evidence of a causal relationship between the two variables; a relationship in which buyers (beef packing plants) use captive supply procurement as an instrument to depress prices paid to cash market sellers (feeders). This paper investigates circumstances under which this empirical regularity might emerge as a benign artifact of buyer and seller behavior in a fed cattle market in which both sides are price takers. One feature of these markets is that sellers of both marketing agreement (the predominant captive supply procurement method) cattle and spot market cattle have some flexibility in scheduling delivery in order to take advantage of expected price changes. The effect that this type of inter-temporal arbitrage has on the dynamics of price and captive supply is investigated using simulation methods applied to a rational expectations model of delivery timing incentives.
VISION-REQUIREMENT FOR A SUCCESSFUL LEADER PhD . Student : Angela-Olimpia Lobonea ( Oltean ) FEAA , West University of Timisoara oltean

These people were called in the past chiefs, rulers. Now they are known as leaders. After management by objectives, strategic planning, project organization, this concept appears as a tool called "fourth generation". It is called VISION. Leadership and vision exist in the actual sense, which has become modern a few decades ago, managing to gather during this time a variety of scientific instruments. The connection between these two domains creates a certain type of leader, the visionary leader. The hypothesis from which we start is that all active leaders have a vision of what needs to be accomplished, and the inability to predict something that could be provided involves loss the capacity of the leader. Without vision, the energy reaches the lowest quotas, production decreases, terms limits are exceeded and human resources begin to dissipate. The conclusion is that visionary leaders are endowed with multiple attributes (multiple intelligence), even if sometimes the role of intuition and unconscious in building vision at the expense of reason that is based on experience and facts is exaggerated.