Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Variations in the Soil Enzyme Activity, Protein Expression, Microbial Biomass, and Community Structure of Soil Contaminated by Heavy Metals

Heavy metals have adverse effects on soil ecology. Given the toxicity of heavy metals, there is an urgent need to select an appropriate indicator that will aid in monitoring their biological effects on soil ecosystems. By combining different monitoring techniques for various aspects of microbiology, the effects of heavy metals on soil microorganisms near a smelter were studied. Our goal was to determine whether proteins could be a proper indicator for soil pollution. This study demonstrated that the activities of acid phosphatase and dehydrogenase, as well as the levels of microbial biomass carbon and proteins, were negatively affected by heavy metals. In addition, significantly negative correlations were observed between these microbial indicators and heavy metals. Denaturing gradient gel electrophoresis analysis was used in this study to demonstrate that heavy metals also have a significantly negative effect on soil microbial diversity and community structure. The soil protein expression was similar across different soils, but a large quantity of presumably low molecular weight protein was observed only in contaminated soil. Based on this research, we determined that the soil protein concentration was more sensitive to heavy metals than acid phosphatase, dehydrogenase, or microbial biomass carbon because it was more dramatically decreased in the contaminated soils. Therefore, we concluded that the soil protein level has great potential to be a sensitive indicator of soil contamination. Further research is essential, particularly to identify the low molecular weight protein that only appears in contaminated soil, so that further insight can be gained into the responses of microbes to heavy metals.
A New Technique for Endoscopic Esophageal Mucosectomy Using a Transparent Overtube with Intraluminal Negative Pressure (np‐EEM)

Abstract: We devised a new technique for endoscopic esophageal mucosectomy using a transparent overtube (OT) with intraluminal negative pressure (np‐EEM) (Figs. 1,2). Basic studies were performed on six dogs. The following two methods were utilized in the np‐EEM technique in line with standard approaches used for mucosal resection: (1) A “snare” method was used in which the esophageal mucosa protruded, similar to a polyp, through the slit of the OT and was resected by an electro‐snare passing through the endoscope biopsy channel or the injection channel of the OT. A high‐frequency current was used for the resection (Figs. 2‐a 2‐b, Fig. 3, Color). (2) A “cutter” method was used in which the mucosal protrusion was resected by a recently developed electro‐cutter (Figs. 2‐a, 2‐c, 2‐d, Fig. 3, Color).
New rules-based algorithm to improve Arabic stemming accuracy

In the recent past, the world has been witnessing a steady increase in the area of natural language processing owing to the spread of the internet. However, attempts and efforts devoted for Arabic language are still limited. By morphological and semantic properties, Arabic is considered a difficult language in the field of automatic processing. From that perspective, many different approaches were attempted to deal with the morphological variation and the agglutination phenomenon while stemming Arabic texts. Formally, stemming and light-stemming are used to remove irrelevant morphological variations from a given word, and extract its original stem or root. This research introduces a complete new rules-based algorithm. This involves precise removal of affixes based on context-sensitive morphological rules and then deduces the root according to a predefined set of rules. Finally, results show that the accuracy of the proposed algorithm is higher than the two well-known Arabic stemmers.
Towards next-location prediction for process executions

Predictive monitoring of business processes aims at predicting the future of an ongoing process execution. In this work, we focus on the prediction of the next activities to be executed in a running case. However, in contrast with most state-of-the-art approaches, focused on predicting exactly the next activity that will be executed from the current state of the process, we propose an approach aimed at predicting the portion of the process (or “location”) that is likely to be executed next. The notion of location allows us to detect activities belonging to the same portion of a control-flow construct (e.g., at the beginning of a parallelism, or at the end of a loop). It provides an abstraction mechanism from the level of the single activity, which can be used to provide the process analyst with an higher-level overview of what can be expected next in the process execution. We validated the approach over a set of real-world datasets comparing and discussing different strategies for training a classifier in returning a location in place of an activity label.
A two-nation experiment to investigate the relationships among national culture, individual-level cultural variables and consumer attitudes toward advertising websites and the brand

This research investigated how the attitudes of Japanese and US consumers toward three types of advertiser websites, and their attitudes toward the brand advertised on them, compared to the attitudes of consumers with independent and interdependent self-construals toward the same websites and brand. The three types of websites were informative, socially interactive, and entertaining. Some of the results confirmed previous research; some did not. For example, Japanese consumers tend to have a more positive attitude than US consumers toward a socially interactive advertiser website; consumers with an interdependent self-construal also tended to have a more positive attitude toward the website. But regardless of the type of website, US consumers had a more positive attitude toward the brand. To some extent both national culture and individual-level variables were found to be useful predictor variables for consumer attitudes toward advertiser websites and brands. The results suggested numerous additional directions for further research.
The praxeology approach as primer for the implementation of KM in secondary education

This paper presents a model of teaching Knowledge Management (KM) to teachers of public secondary education using as primer the praxeology approach. The main argument is that any implementation of new learning and knowledge technologies should have as starting point the integrative and interactive axe between context and identities. Our intervention relies on the three basic building blocks of action-research, praxeology and accompanying mentoring. This paper presents also the application of our theoretical model in 11 public secondary education schools in Greece that resulted in an improvement in the function of teachers' teams and also in improvement in both the psychological climate of students' classes and in school climate. Finally, it reveals context and identity as fundamental issues for the success of implementation of KM in education.
Genome-wide gene expression profiles of dental follicle stem cells

Abstract Objective. Dental stem cells (SCs) will be increasingly used for bone regeneration in the future. Recently, dental follicle cells (DFCs) from retained human third molars have been isolated and characterized as osteogenic progenitors. Although these results are promising for regenerative dentistry, molecular processes during osteogenic differentiation are not yet well understood. Materials and methods. This study compared DFCs before and during osteogenic differentiation. ALP activity was measured and cells were stained with alizarin red. Real-time RT-PCRs for osteogenic markers were done. The genome-wide expression profile was evaluated using a microarray. Results. DFCs showed strong mineralization and increased expression of osteogenic marker genes during osteogenic differentiation. A microarray analysis showed regulated genes before and in the process of osteogenic differentiation (day 7). Several regulated genes in DFCs were associated with skeletal development. Bioinformatic analysis revealed a number of factors associated with dental follicle osteogenic differentiation. Osteogenic differentiation affected expression levels of the transcriptional regulators FOXC2 and ZNF219. Conclusion. In conclusion, the results yielded new objectives for further studies on transcription factors like FOXC2 or ETV1 and their role in dental SCs during osteogenic differentiation.
Quantitative microleakage analysis of endodontic temporary filling materials using a glucose penetration model

Abstract Objective. The purpose of this study was to analyze the sealing ability of different temporary endodontic materials over a 6-week period using a glucose penetration model. Materials and methods. Standardized holes were formed on 48 dentin discs from human premolars. The thicknesses of the specimens were distributed evenly to 2 mm, 3 mm and 4 mm. Prepared dentin specimens were randomly assigned into six groups (n = 7) and the holes in the dentin specimens were filled with two kinds of temporary filling materials as per the manufacturers’ instructions as follows: Caviton (GC Corporation, Tokyo, Japan) 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm and IRM (Dentsply International Inc., Milford, DE) 2 mm, 3 mm, 4 mm. The remaining specimens were used as positive and negative controls and all specimens underwent thermocycling (1000; 5–55°C). The sealing ability of all samples was evaluated using the leakage model for glucose. The samples were analyzed by a spectrophotometer in quantitative glucose microleakage test over a period of 6 weeks. As a statistical inference, a mixed effect analysis was applied to analyze serial measurements over time. Results. The Caviton groups showed less glucose penetration in comparison with the IRM groups. The Caviton 4 mm group demonstrated relatively low glucose leakage over the test period. High glucose leakage was detected throughout the test period in all IRM groups. The glucose leakage level increased after 1 week in the Caviton 2 mm group and after 4 weeks in the Caviton 3 mm and 4 mm groups (p < 0.05). Conclusions. Caviton had better sealing ability than IRM in the glucose penetration model during 6 weeks. Temporary filling of Caviton to at least 3 mm in thickness is necessary and temporary filling periods should not exceed 4 weeks.
Comparing Cox Model and Parametric Models in Estimating the Survival Rate of Patients with Prostate Cancer on Radiation Therapy

Background and purpose: Prostate cancer is the second most common malignant cancer in men and radiotherapy is one of the treatments for this disease. The aim of this study was to determine the effect of demographic, clinical and pathology factors in survival rate of patients on radiotherapy and comparing different survival models to determine an efficient model. Materials and methods: In a historical cohort study 422 patients with prostate cancer were included. The subjects were chosen among those undergone radiotherapy and were followed up during 2007-2012 in the Cancer Institute of Tehran University. Effects of various factors on the survival rate of radiation treatment were determined using Cox model and three parametric models including log-normal, log-logistic and Weibull. We used AIC criteria and also standardized variability of regression coefficient. To analyze the data the Survival was applied in R version 2.14. 1. Results: Patients who received higher total dose of radiation and those undergone hormone therapy simultaneously, indicated higher survival rate (both p≤0.001). Univariate and multivariate models based on AIC criteria were more efficient than the Cox model for log-normal, log-logistic and Weibull, respectively. The findings were confirmed by the standardized variability. Conclusion: Parametric models in univariate and multivariate models showed higher efficiency compared with Cox model.
Evaluation of knowledge-based competency in Iranian universities: a practical model

This paper explores the importance of knowledge-based capabilities of educational establishments with an orientation towards strategic indicators of knowledge management. For the purpose of this paper, the relationship between strategic approach and knowledge management capabilities of universities has been analysed through a comprehensive review of related literature and identification of related measures. Since there have been few efforts in concentrating on the relationships among strategic viewpoints of universities and knowledge management capabilities, there has been an attempt to conceptualise a pervasive model which encompasses influential indicators on knowledge-based competency of universities regarding their capabilities in strategic knowledge management. An exploratory factor analysis has been conducted in order to identify the most important factors affecting the successful management of knowledge so as to gain the knowledge-based competency.
Mistake detection method in Chinese-Japanese translation for Japanese learning support

When Chinese students study Japanese, they sometimes find it difficult to understand the grammar of Japanese correctly because Chinese and Japanese use the same Chinese characters in a different way. Our research focuses on the students' exercises of translating Chinese sentences into Japanese, and enables students to acquire correct knowledge based on translated sentences. For this objective, our Chinese-Japanese translation process is divided into three steps: translation of words, ordering of words, and addition of functional expressions to complete the sentence. The system compares translated sentences written by students with the correct answer preset in the system and specifies the step in which students might be mistaken. Then, the system gives a result of evaluating the translated sentence with the explanation of incorrect translation. Since the usage of Japanese functional expressions is the most difficult for the Chinese students translating a sentence, our system supports students learning Japanese functional expressions by considering the factors of the mistaken functional expressions. According to the mistake information, the system selects another question from the question database, which has the same factor as the mistaken functional expression. Experimental results showed that our system was effective in detecting the mistakes, especially mistakes of words and Japanese functional expressions.
A method for generating presentation slides based on expression styles using document structure

A communication environment in which people use presentation slides to exchange and discuss ideas can be created. Presenters, however, must clearly communicate content for audience understanding. Although most slides generated by conventional methods follow structured document summaries e.g. academic papers, our method has been designed to generate outlines for lecture slides from textbook chapters. We aimed to organise slide layouts from target chapters based on the expression styles of referred slides. Therefore, we analysed level positions of words in the referred slides and arranged words from target chapters to generate slide outlines based on difference in document structure i.e. text structure, slide structure. To achieve this, we extracted differences between tendency of word appearance in chapters and their slides. This method generated slide outlines by using the expression styles of the corresponding words from the target chapters. In this paper, we have also included an evaluation of our method's effectiveness.
Evaluation of the Prevalence of Joint Laxity in Children with Attention Deficit/Hyperactivity Disorder

Objective: The purpose of this study was to assess the prevalence of joint laxity in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD). Method: Eighty-six children, 28 girls and 58 boys, with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder were diagnosed at the child psychiatry outpatient clinic of the Mofid Children’s Hospital, and 86 controls were assessed for joint laxity using Beighton criteria. Result: Joint laxity was discovered in 74.4% of children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder and in 12.8% of healthy controls. Conclusion: The prevalence of benign joint hypermobility syndrome was high in children with attention deficit hyperactivity disorder, which shows a new basis for further studies.
Racial disparity in consultation, treatment, and the impact on survival in metastatic colorectal cancer.

BACKGROUND Black patients with metastatic colorectal cancer have inferior survival compared to white patients. The purpose of this study was to examine disparity in specialist consultation and multimodality treatment and the impact that treatment inequality has on survival. METHODS We identified 9935 non-Hispanic white and 1281 black patients with stage IV colorectal cancer aged 66 years and older from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER)-Medicare linked database. Logistic regression models identified race-based differences in consultation rates and subsequent treatment with surgery, chemotherapy, or radiation. Multivariable Cox regression models identified potential factors that explain race-based survival differences. All statistical tests were two-sided. RESULTS Black patients had lower rates of consultation with surgery, medical oncology, and radiation oncology. Among patients seen in consultation, black patients received less surgery directed at the primary tumor, liver- or lung-directed surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy. Unadjusted survival analysis found a 15% higher chance of dying for black patients compared with white patients (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.15; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 1.08 to 1.22; P < . 001). Adjustment for patient, tumor, and demographic variables marginally reduced the risk of death (HR = 1.08; 95% CI = 1.01 to 1.15; P = .03). After adjustment for differences in treatment, the increased risk of death for black patients disappeared. CONCLUSIONS Our study shows racial disparity in specialist consultation as well as subsequent treatment with multimodality therapy for metastatic colorectal cancer, and it suggests that inferior survival for black patients may stem from this treatment disparity. Further research into the underlying causes of this inequality will improve access to treatment and survival in metastatic colorectal cancer.
Diagnosing knowledge using learning activity traces generated by various problem-solving modalities

Learners work increasingly with a large panel of learning environments that involve them in various activities thanks to a number of tools. These tools generate activity traces, which must then be taken into consideration and combined so as to establish the most accurate diagnosis about the learner's activity. This paper presents a diagnosis model, called DiagElec. This model considers traces generated by various independent tools. DiagElec integrates a notion of uncertainty in the diagnoses that it generates thanks to the notion of 'degree of belief' which is defined by the rules of the diagnosis. To evaluate our model, we carried out a two-phase experiment, first with learners and then with teachers. From the corpus of diagnoses compiled by the teachers, we look for the emergence of a model of human behaviour in order to ascertain whether or not it is necessary to readjust the degree of belief defined by the rules of the diagnosis.
Epithelial barrier and antigen uptake in lymphoepithelium of human adenoids

Abstract Invasion of antigens through the mucosal surface can be prevented by the common mucosal immune system, including Peyer's patches (PPs) and nasopharyngeal-associated lymphoreticular tissue (NALT). The adenoids (nasopharyngeal tonsils) comprise one of the NALTs and constitute the major part of Waldeyer's lymphoid ring in humans. However, the role of the lymphoepithelium, including M cells and dendritic cells (DCs), in the adenoids is unknown compared with the epithelium of PPs. NALTs also have unique functions such as the barrier of epithelial cells and uptake of antigens by M cells and DCs, and may play a crucial role in airway mucosal immune responses. The lymphoepithelium of adenoids has well-developed tight junctions that play an important role in the barrier function, the same as nasal epithelium but not palatine tonsillar epithelium. Tight junction molecules are expressed in both M cells and DCs as well as epithelial cells, and various antigens may be sampled, transported, and released to lymphocytes through the cells while they maintain the integrity of the epithelial barrier. This review summarizes the recent progress in our understanding of how M cells and DCs control the epithelial barrier in the adenoids.
Housing priorities of people with dementia: security, continuity and support

This project involved secondary analysis of ABS and AIHW data, interviews with housing and community care service provider stakeholders in two sites (South Australia and Tasmania) and interviews with people with dementia and their carers about their housing. Housing security is an important goal for people with dementia, since familiarity of surroundings and continuity help maintain quality of life and reduce anxiety and stress. Home owners had some advantages over renters: renters often faced difficulties in making home while owners could draw down on their housing wealth to obtain obtaining additional care or seek alternative housing options. Those in marginal housing (caravan parks and boarding houses) often had problematic arrangements for managing personal care and accessing home based support. Timely modification to respond to mobility and cognitive issues of people with dementia was also important since current home design is often focused on aesthetics over function. There was widespread concern that people with dementia receive adequate home–based face-to-face care especially those living alone. Current identified service gaps included in relation to managing medication, limited service access over weekends, shortfalls in respite care, help with preparation of nutritious meals in the home and podiatry services. Particular groups such as CALD communities also often require specialised support services, yet there is often a lack of diverse and appropriate community services to address social isolation. There was also a need to provide suitable housing and support for those with early on-set dementia (who are under 65 years of age). While improved awareness of dementia has led to earlier diagnosis, there remained a need to improve awareness of pathways to assessment (especially within the social housing and homelessness sector), and improve understanding from housing providers and landlords about the need for modifications. Other policy directions included in the area of advocacy and case management, expanded availability of affordable service-integrated housing and expansion of respite services for carers.
Energy efficient complete coverage of mapped areas by single and multiple robots

Path planning for complete coverage whilst seeking to minimise energy consumption is not an idea which has been rigorously investigated in the past. This work details a new approach to this problem. The system described herein should prove useful for planetary exploration due to the limited supply of electrical power available to exploration rovers. Our system accepts as input terrain maps detailing the energy consumption required to move to each of eight adjacent points. Exploration is performed via a cost function which determines the robot’s next move by selecting the lowest cost adjacent point as the next target. This system was successfully extended to groups of two, three and four robots by means of a shared exploration map. The energy consumed by our system was substantially less than that consumed by a boustrophedon (back and forth) coverage pattern.