Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Social Network, Facebook Use and Loneliness: A Comparative Analysis Between Public and Private University Students in Bangladesh

The study mainly explores the level of real life social network, Facebook use and loneliness of the university students in Bangladesh. In addition, the study examines the factors affecting loneliness of the students. To achieve these objectives, the study uses primary data collected from 380 students and employs several methods. Firstly, the study employs Lubben Social Network Scale and UCLA loneliness scale to measure the level of real life social network and loneliness, respectively. Secondly, the study uses a linear regression model estimated through OLS method to find out the factors affecting loneliness of the students. The study finds that although aggregately students are averagely engaged in real life social network in the study area, public university students are relatively more engaged in real life social network than that of private university students. The study also finds that aggregately students in the study area suffer from loneliness moderately where private university students suffer more than that of public university students. Moreover, the study finds that the level of loneliness is increased by 3.27 and 3.47 if students use Facebook one hour more per day and students read in private university, respectively while the level of loneliness is decreased by 4.61 if the level of real life social network is increased by one. Therefore, the study suggests the students to be careful in using Facebook and to be engaged more in real life social network in order to get rid of the adverse effects of loneliness.
Clinical study comparing shangke xiaoyan plaster with votalin for treatment of osteoarthritis

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the efficacy of shangke xiaoyan plaster (SKXYP) in the treatment of knee osteoarthritis (KOA). Method: Eighty patients with KOA were randomly divided into two groups (SKXYP-treated group [n = 42] and votalin [diclofenac diethylamine emulgel/diclofenac emulgel]-treated group [n = 38]). SKXYP was applied to the SKXYP-treated group for 2 weeks, while diclofenac emulgel was applied to the diclofenac emulgel-treated group for 2 weeks. This study compared pain scores, stiffness scores, physical function scores, WOMAC total scores, integrals of Traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) syndrome, and auxiliary serum indexes, before and after treatment. Results: SKXYP was shown to be as effective as diclofenac emulgel in ameliorating knee pain among patients with KOA. In addition, SKXYP reduced physical function and WOMAC total scores (P < 0.05). SKXYP reduced total WOMAC scores by 54.76%, compared to 36.84% for diclofenac emulgel. SKXYP improved the integrals of TCM syndromes by 73.81%, compared to 44.74% for diclofenac emulgel. Conclusion: SKXYP is an effective plaster for treatment of KOA. Moreover, present findings indicate that the clinical efficacy of SKXYP was superior to diclofenac emulgel in patients with KOA.
Present status of computer simulation at IPP

The computer center of the Institute of Plasma Physics installed a supercomputer, and almost all computation time is used for simulation studies of plasmas. The status of the simulation is reported. Although particle simulation codes are used to study microscopic phenomena of plasma, they contain a charge-assignment portion that cannot be vectorized because of the recurrence of data. The author proposes an algorithm to vectorize the charge-assignment routine. <<ETX>>
Single photon MIR upconversion detector at room temperature with a PPLN ridge waveguide

In this paper we describe an upconversion detector in the mid infrared (around 3.5 μm). We take advantage of the PPLN ridge waveguide technology to achieve single photon detection at room temperature on a single spatial mode. With a pump power of 192 mW we obtain a detection efficiency of 0.4% for 22k dark count per second, which corresponds to a noise equivalent power of 3.0 fW · Hz−1/2 and an internal conversion efficiency of 85 %/W of pump. © 2019 Optical Society of America under the terms of the OSA Open Access Publishing Agreement
Performance Evaluation of a Distributed Synchronization Protocol

This paper presents a solution to the well-known problem of synchronization in a distributed asynchronous system prone to process crashes. This problem is also known as the Test&Set problem. The Test&Set is a distributed synchronization protocol that, when invoked by a set of processes, returns a unique winning process. This unique process is then allowed to use, for instance, a shared resource. Recently many advances in implementing Test&Set objects have been achieved, however all of them uniquely target the shared memory model. In this paper we propose an implementation of a Test&Set object for a message passing distributed system. This implementation can be invoked by any number n ≤ N of processes where N is the total number of processes in the system. We show in this paper, using a Markov model, that our implementation has an expected step complexity in O(log n) and we give an explicit formula for the distribution of the number of steps needed to solve the problem. We also analyze the expected value and the distribution of the number of operations invoked by the n processes to determine the winning process.
Title Multisite extracoronary calcification indicates increased risk of coronary heart disease and all-cause mortality : The Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis

Background: Cardiovascular calcification outside of the coronary tree, known as extracoronary calcification (ECC), is highly prevalent, often occurs concurrently in multiple sites, and yet its prognostic value is unclear. Objective: To determine whether multisite ECC is associated with coronary heart disease (CHD) events, CHD mortality, and all-cause mortality. Methods: We evaluated 5903 participants from the Multi-Ethnic Study of Atherosclerosis without diabetes who underwent CT imaging for calcification of the aortic valve, aortic root, mitral valve, and thoracic aorta. Participants were followed for 10.3 years. Multivariable adjusted hazard ratios estimated risk of outcomes for increasing numbers of ECC sites (0, 1, 2, 3, and 4), and receiver operator characteristic analysis assessed model
GENETIC AND ANATOMICAL ANALYSIS OF NORMAL AND ABNORMAL FLOWERS OF DATE PALM CULTIVAR ' BARHY ' DERIVED FROM OFFSHOOT AND TISSUE CULTURE

Random Amplified Polymorphic DNA (RAPD) analysis between 6 normal flower producing offshoot derived and 6 abnormal multiple carpel, flower producing tissue culture (TC) derived trees of cultivar (cv.) 'Barhy', was performed with the objective to check genetic variation if any at DNA level. DNA samples were extracted from pollinated and un-pollinated flowers from both sets of plants. Amplified RAPD products were clearly detected with 30 primers used in this experiment but only 3 gave a few polymorphic bands which shows low level of genetic variation among the offshoot and TC derived plants. Cluster analysis by the unweighted paired group method of arithmetic means (UPGMA) showed close genomic similarity among the 12 DNA samples with the range of 0.486-0.904 Nei and Li's coefficient in the similarity matrix. The average similarity among the 12 DNA samples was more than 50%. Floral abnormalities in TC derived plants were also studied microscopically. Abnormalities like more than three carpel development, abnormal ovule development and deformities of style and stigma were observed. The results show that the composition and the abnormalities of flowers in TC derived plants of cultivar 'Barhy' may be attributed to epigenetic changes that takes place at different stages of tissue culture and not due to major changes at DNA level.
International Conference on Mobile Systems and Pervasive Computing ( MobiSPC-2014 ) Sentiment Analysis on Reviews of Mobile Users

In recent years, the dramatic increase of smartphone and tablet applications has allowed users to comment on various service platforms at any time through mobile internet, social media, cloud computing, and etc. While unfortunately, up to now, very few studies of classification methods have been applied in such area. In this paper, we concluded the following unique characteristics through more than 1,400,000 real mobile application reviews: (1) Short average length; (2) Large span of length; (3) Power-law distribution and (4) Significant difference in polarity. Based on above mentioned characteristics, a series of comparative experiments have been done for emotion classifications through classification algorithms, feature representations and review length, respectively. © 2014 The Authors. Published by Elsevier B.V. Peer-review under responsibility of the Program Chairs of MobiSPC-2014.
Causality Reunied

Hall has recently argued that there are two concepts of causality, picking out two dierent kinds of causal relation. McGrath, and Hitchcock and Knobe, have recently argued that the facts about causality depend on what counts as a “default” or “normal” state, or even on the moral facts. In the light of these claims you might be tempted to agree with Skyrms that causal relations constitute, metaphysically speaking, an “amiable jumble”, or with Cartwright that ‘causation’, though a single word, encompassesmany dierent kinds of things. is paper argues, drawing on the author’s recent work on explanation, that the evidence adduced in support of causal pluralism can be accommodated easily by a unied theory of causality—a theory according to which all singular causal claims concern the same fundamental causal network.
Rapid Evolution of Cool Season , Low-CAPE Severe Thunderstorm Environments

Low-CAPE (i.e., CAPE # 1000 J kg) severe thunderstorms are common in the greater southeastern United States (including the Tennessee and Ohio valleys). These events are often poorly forecasted, and the environments in which they occur may rapidly evolve. Real-data simulations of 11 low-CAPE severe events and 6 low-CAPE nonsevere events were performed at convection-allowing resolution. Some amount of surface-based destabilization occurred during all simulated events over the 3-h period prior to convection. Most simulated severe events experienced comparatively large destabilization relative to the nonsevere events as a result of surface warming, cooling aloft, and surfacemoistening. The release of potential instability by large-scale forcing for ascent likely influenced the cooling aloft in some cases. Surface warming was attributable primarily to warm advection and appeared to be an important discriminator between severe and nonsevere simulated events. Severe events were also found to have larger low-level wind shear than nonsevere events, particularly during nocturnal cases. Because of the rapid destabilization that occurred within 3 h in the simulated events, it is evident that 3–6-hourly model output may not be adequate for forecasting severe events in high-shear, low-CAPE environments. Monitoring of high-resolution model forecasts and surface observations may be necessary to identify a rapidly changing severe environment.
Evidence from network-connected firms in China

In this paper, we examine whether comovement in the stock returns of pairs of Chinese firms connected to the same political network are systematically shaped by the prevailing coordination vs. competition incentives of the network’s politicians. We find strong evidence that stock price comovement is affected by the embeddedness of the firm-politician tie within the network. Among pairs of firms connected to a network through a common politician, we document an increase in stock return comovement. For those pairs of firms connected to a common network via separate politicians (rather than a common politician), we document a relative decrease in stock return comovement. This negative effect suggests that the politicians’ relationships within these political networks are generally adversarial rather than cooperative in nature. This interpretation is supported by evidence that stock price comovement becomes even more negative (positive) in settings which are expected to increase competition (coordination) between the separate politicians (by the common politician). * We thank the comments from workshop participants at USC China Research workshop and the Chinese University of Hong Kong Center of Institutions and Governance Conference in 2017.
Design and Performance of A High Resolution μ-Spec : An Integrated Submillimeter Spectrometer

μ-Spec is a compact submillimeter (∼ 100 GHz−1.1 THz) spectrometer which uses low loss superconducting microstrip transmission lines and a single-crystal silicon dielectric to integrate all of the components of a diffraction grating spectrometer onto a single chip. We have already successfully evaluated the performance of a prototype μ-Spec, with spectral resolving power, R=64. Here we present our progress towards developing a higher resolution μ-Spec, which would enable the first science returns in a balloon flight version of this instrument. We describe modifications to the design in scaling from a R=64 to a R=256 instrument, as well as the ultimate performance limits and design concerns when scaling this instrument to higher resolutions.
Pattern classification of time-series EMG signals using neural networks

This paper proposes a pattern classification method of time-series EMG signals for prosthetic control. To achieve successful classification for non-stationary EMG signals, a new neural network structure that combines a common back-propagation neural network with recurrent neural filters is used. A convergence time of the network learning can be regulated by a new learning method based on dynamics of a terminal attractor. The experiments of pattern classification and prosthetic control are carried out for several subjects including an amputee. It is shown from the results that the proposed method improves learning/classification ability for stationary and non-stationary EMG signals during a series of continuous motions. Copyright © 2000 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.
Performance evaluation of GSM and GPRS systems based on measurement campaigns

A comprehensive study of the performance of GSM and GPRS is presented. The behavior of the network is classified into traffic load scenarios and key indicators are presented. Network response and logical channel occupation are discussed and the GPRS segment is evaluated according to a measurement campaign. Focus is given. on traffic overload and network congestion. This in-depth study can be used as a basis to evaluate the efficiency of resource management techniques in cellular systems.
Pole Vault Practice and Rotator Cuff Strength : Comparison Between Novice and Competitive Athletes

Frère, Julien1, L’Hermette, Maxime1,2 & Tourny-Chollet, Claire1,2 E.A. 3832: Centre d’Etude des Transformations des Activités Physiques et Sportives (CETAPS), Faculty of Sport Sciences, University of Rouen, Boulevard Siegfried, 76821 Mont Saint Aignan Cedex, France. 2 Groupe de Recherche sur le Handicap de l’Appareil Locomoteur (GRHAL), Rouen Hospital, 1 rue de Germont, 76031 Rouen Cedex 1, France
Assessing L-band SAR modes for commercial forest management

The use of remote sensing in UK forestry has previously been limited to Interpretation of aerial photographs. One new technique which is near commercial realisation is Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR). Various approaches to using SAR data exist. This paper demonstrates the use of dual-baseline coherence to classify a forested landscape to improve upon a basic backscatter intensity approach, and to give an indication of vegetation density. It is shown that enhancements to the classification are possible, although a few inconsistencies are highlighted. SAR has the capabilities to aid commercial forest management, through complimenting and enhancing current practices, although further research is required to fully quantify the value.
Stretch activated ion channels in myocytes: parameter estimation, simulations and phenomena

Mechanosensitive ion channels influence the electrophysiological state of cardiac myocytes. An examination of the mechanisms of mechano-electrical coupling on cellular level by the mechanosensitive ion channels was performed. Simulations with a detailed electrophysiological model were carried out. Static stretch leaded to an increase of the resting potential and a decrease of the duration of the action potential with increasing sarcomere length. Dynamic stretch delivered a variety of phenomena depending on the duration and amplitude of the stretch. An arrhythmogenic single cell phenomenon, early after depolarisation, was observed.
Performance Analysis of Temporal Codings for Spiking Neural Network

Spiking neural networks (SNNs) are neuromorphic computing models mimicking brain activity, which are expected to achieve equivalent inference performance to artificial neural networks with low energy consumption. Since training SNNs with spike-timing-dependent plasticity requires intensive computational cost, recent studies have focused on how to reduce computational cost in SNN training phase. To address this issue, we analyzed the multivariate trade-off between time resolution, training time, and inference performance. The experimental result showed that setting appropriate time resolution enables to reduce 50% of SNN training time with negligible accuracy degradation.
A Control Approach for Cooperative Sharing of Network Resources in Cyber-Physical Systems

This paper introduces an approach to cooperatively control the utilization of network resources, which are shared by several control loops, in cyber-physical systems without fixed scheduling schemes. Main goal of the proposed approach is to achieve a fair balancing with regards to the performance of each control loop such that the overall performance of the CPS is maximized. To maintain a loose coupling between the underlying communication system and the control loops on top, the approach relies on a data exchange between the control and the communication domain. This data exchange is carried out by a translator component embedded between each control loop and the communication system. Motivated by previous results, this data exchange is backed up by the principle of event-based control and used to restate the problem of balancing the network resources in terms of a control problem that resembles the popular consensus problem in multi-agent systems. We illustrate the applicability of the proposed approach by means of the task of simultaneously stabilizing two inverted pendulums over a shared medium.
An Application of Variation Theory of Learning in Higher Education

The purpose of this chapter is to investigate students’ qualitatively different ways of understanding the learning object in three undergraduate courses in the discipline of accounting. The theoretical framework of variation theory, a general learning theory, is applied. The lecturers chose a learning object which is investigated under two different teaching conditions – the conventional lecture model and the variational method. Two student groups were identified as a comparison group and a target group, comparable in various relevant parameters. All students took three required accounting courses. In the comparison group, the lecturers used the conventional lecture model and in the target group the variational model. The results indicated significant differences between the two groups’ examination results in the three courses, with students in the target group performing much better. The educational implications and limitations of the study, and areas for further research, are discussed.
Synthesis and analysis of fuzzy logic finite state machine models

A common drawback of most linguistic models is that they are essentially static, time is not a parameter in describing the behavior of the process model, or they are unable to respond to a specific sequence of changes at the inputs of the system. Dynamic linguistic models can be implemented by fuzzy automata. Of the feasible solutions, at present, fuzzy logic RISC processors and fuzzy logic finite state machines (ASIC) seem to be most promising. The latter approach is taken into consideration. In this paper the model of the fuzzy-state-fuzzy-output (FSFO) finite state machine (FSM) is discussed in detail. The state membership function (SMF) is introduced and the FSFO FSM implementation by means of crisp-state-fuzzy-output (CSFO) FSM using SMF is proposed. The multivariable model and inference scheme are suggested based on CSFO and FSFO FSM. <<ETX>>
Berberine alleviates chronic inflammation of mouse model of type 2 diabetes by adjusting intestinal microbes and inhibiting TLR 4 signaling pathway

Background: Type 2 diabetes mellitus (T2DM) is associated with systemic chronic inflammation induced by gut microbes imbalance. Although it was revealed that Berberine (BBR) can decrease fasting plasma glucose (FPG) in T2DM patients, it is rarely absorbed in gastrointestinal tract so that the hypoglycemic mechanism is unclear. Methods: We established mouse models of T2DM and treatment the animals with BBR. Meanwhile, the levels of FPG and fasting insulin (FIns), changes of intestinal microbes, mRNA levels of TLR4, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, pathological damage and macrophages (MΦs) infiltration in pancreatic islets of mice were measured. Furthermore, THP-1 derived MΦs were used to study the influence of BBR to LPS-TLR4 axis. Results: FPG, FIns, and mRNA levels of TLR4, TNF-α, IL-1β and IL-6, pathological damage and MΦs infiltration were significantly increased in pancreatic islets of T2DM mice and the probiotics obviously decreased in intestinal tract compared with normal control. However, these parameters were markedly decreased and the probiotics obviously increased in intestinal tract after administration of BBR. Moreover, in THP-1 derived MΦs by BBR treatment, the expression of TLR4, TNF-α, IL-1β, and IL-6 were markedly decreased, and the nuclear translocation of NF-κB were blocked. Conclusion: BBR can reduce systemic low-grade inflammation of T2DM mice to alleviate disease, this effect may be through regulating the gut microbes or inhibiting TLR4 signaling pathway.
Image-Based Phylogenetic Classification

The goal of this thesis is to study the problem of phylogenetic classification based on image data. The work will entail a survey of the related literature, development of the algorithm based on machine learning, and the implementation in the Python programming language using existing frameworks. The solution will be applied to the collection of publicly available images.
VLSI Reed Solomon decoder architecture for networked multimedia applications

In this paper a novel VLSI Reed Solomon decoder architecture is presented. During the design flow, particular care has been posed to the methodology used in order to grant a great degree of reusability. The obtained decoder core is very suitable for complex System On Chip (SoC) based applications, common in networking environments. In fact, thanks to the high reliability allowed by advanced channel coding techniques, the architecture developed has interesting figures of simplicity and speed. Logic synthesis on a FPGA device has shown an operating frequency up to 86 MHz with a core area of just 447 cells.