Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Prune-Able Fuzzy ART Neural Architecture for Robot Map Learning and Navigation in Dynamic Environments

Mobile robots must be able to build their own maps to navigate in unknown worlds. Expanding a previously proposed method based on the fuzzy ART neural architecture (FARTNA), this paper introduces a new online method for learning maps of unknown dynamic worlds. For this purpose the new Prune-able fuzzy adaptive resonance theory neural architecture (PAFARTNA) is introduced. It extends the FARTNA self-organizing neural network with novel mechanisms that provide important dynamic adaptation capabilities. Relevant PAFARTNA properties are formulated and demonstrated. A method is proposed for the perception of object removals, and then integrated with PAFARTNA. The proposed methods are integrated into a navigation architecture. With the new navigation architecture the mobile robot is able to navigate in changing worlds, and a degree of optimality is maintained, associated to a shortest path planning approach implemented in real-time over the underlying global world model. Experimental results obtained with a Nomad 200 robot are presented demonstrating the feasibility and effectiveness of the proposed methods
DRUG INTERACTIONS WITH METHADONE *

Chronic methadone maintenance is now being used to treat over 85,000 heroin addicts in the United States alone. It is also being widely used throughout the world. It has been suggested anecdotally that various sedatives, tranquilizers, other depressants and stimulants including alcohol, diazepam, barbiturates, cocaine and amphetamines may have additive, potentiating, or antagonistic effects when taken by methadone maintenance patients. Few of these postulated drug interactions have been documented in human subjects on chronic methadone maintenance. None of these pharmacologic agents have been shown to alter methadone disposition in patients receiving methadone on a chronic basis, although certainly such drug interactions might be documented in the future. Two different types of drug interactions, both resulting in the same clinical picture of acute narcotic withdrawal, have been observed in methadone-maintained subjects. Both of these drug interactions have been studied to determine whether or not the clinical observations of narcotic withdrawal could be related to any alterations in methadone disposition. Gas liquid chromatography techniques developed in this laboratory and chemical ionization mass spectrometry techniques developed in the collaborative laboratory were used in this study for the quantitative and qualitative analyses of methadone and its metabolites in plasma, urine, and feces. Following oral administration and absorption, methadone is widely distributed in the body. Plasma levels are relatively low, even after a chronic daily maintenance dose of 50 to 100 m ~ . l ~ Methadone is metabolized primarily in the liver by the hepatic microsomal drug-metabolizing enzymes. In the major pathway of biotransformation, methadone is first N-demethylated and then undergoes cyclization to form its major pyrrolidine metabolite (FIGURE 1) . 4
Alcoholic fermentation of rice hulls hydrolyzed by rumen fluid obtained from slaughterhouse wastes

Increased awareness on climate change causing fossil fuels created a global movement to produce and use ethanol. As a result, several regulatory standards coupled with financial incentives which support the use of ethanol have been implemented in the past decade. However, the selling price of ethanol in the global market is still not competitive due to its high processing costs. In an attempt to reduce the market price of ethanol, we test the extent to which rumen fluid obtained from slaughterhouse wastes can effectively convert cellulose into glucose. The hydrolase collected was filtered to remove inactive rumen microorganisms and this was subsequently fermented into ethanol. Control experiments were also performed to also assess the fermentability of the unfiltered hydrolase. A semi-factorial experimental design was adopted to evaluate the influence of initial rumen fluid concentration, initial rice hull dosage, and contact time on the glucose yield. Factor interactions and its effects on the glucose yield were assessed through two-way ANOVA comparison of the experimental data. Results show that the rumen fluid effectively hydrolyzed the cellulose into glucose. Even though a higher ethanol yield was observed for the filtered hydrolase, significant ethanol concentration produced in the unfiltered hydrolase indicated minimal inhibition of ethanol fermentation activity in solution. These findings suggest the potential use of rumen fluid in producing fermentable carbohydrates for the production ethanol. Due to the voluminous generation of slaughterhouse wastes annually, rumen fluid can be an inexpensive alternative source of cellulolytic enzymes that are essential for fermentation of glucose into ethanol.
SIRT1 Suppresses Human T-Cell Leukemia Virus Type 1 Transcription

ABSTRACT Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1)-associated diseases are poorly treatable, and HTLV-1 vaccines are not available. High proviral load is one major risk factor for disease development. HTLV-1 encodes Tax oncoprotein, which activates transcription from viral long terminal repeats (LTR) and various types of cellular promoters. Counteracting Tax function might have prophylactic and therapeutic benefits. In this work, we report on the suppression of Tax activation of HTLV-1 LTR by SIRT1 deacetylase. The transcriptional activity of Tax on the LTR was largely ablated when SIRT1 was overexpressed, but Tax activation of NF-κB was unaffected. On the contrary, the activation of the LTR by Tax was boosted when SIRT1 was depleted. Treatment of cells with resveratrol shunted Tax activity in a SIRT1-dependent manner. The activation of SIRT1 in HTLV-1-transformed T cells by resveratrol potently inhibited HTLV-1 proviral transcription and Tax expression, whereas compromising SIRT1 by specific inhibitors augmented HTLV-1 mRNA expression. The administration of resveratrol also decreased the production of cell-free HTLV-1 virions from MT2 cells and the transmission of HTLV-1 from MT2 cells to uninfected Jurkat cells in coculture. SIRT1 associated with Tax in HTLV-1-transformed T cells. Treatment with resveratrol prevented the interaction of Tax with CREB and the recruitment of CREB, CRTC1, and p300 to Tax-responsive elements in the LTR. Our work demonstrates the negative regulatory function of SIRT1 in Tax activation of HTLV-1 transcription. Small-molecule activators of SIRT1 such as resveratrol might be considered new prophylactic and therapeutic agents in HTLV-1-associated diseases. IMPORTANCE Human T-cell leukemia virus type 1 (HTLV-1) causes a highly lethal blood cancer or a chronic debilitating disease of the spinal cord. Treatments are unsatisfactory, and vaccines are not available. Disease progression is associated with robust expression of HTLV-1 genes. Suppressing HTLV-1 gene expression might have preventive and therapeutic benefits. It is therefore critical that host factors controlling HTLV-1 gene expression be identified and characterized. This work reveals a new host factor that suppresses HTLV-1 gene expression and a natural compound that activates this suppression. Our findings not only provide new knowledge of the host control of HTLV-1 gene expression but also suggest a new strategy of using natural compounds for prevention and treatment of HTLV-1-associated diseases.
The transition of adult students to higher education : communities, practice and participation

This thesis investigates the distinctive characteristics of adult students’ experience of transition to higher education. It addresses a gap in the current academic literature which, driven by concerns about the economic, social and personal implications of ‘problematic’ or ‘failed’ transition, often conceptualises transition to higher education in narrow, instrumental terms and frames it as a predominately linear process with a discernible beginning and end. By highlighting what falls within normative parameters of transition, this approach arguably obscures its heterogeneity. The research presented in this thesis suggests that it particularly lacks the flexibility to illuminate the more diverse experience of adult students whose individual histories, responsibilities, social networks, fears and dreams are – in general – very different to those of ‘traditional’ younger students around whose needs most models of transition support are primarily shaped. By adopting a more radical conceptualisation of transition which sees it as the lifelong ebb and flow of change in response to the multiplicity of factors that impact and shape human experience, the research highlights two overarching aspects of adult students’ experience of transition which have received relatively little attention in the relevant literature. First, it highlights the ubiquitous presence of risk and the anxiety it engenders in adult students’ experience of transition. For the vast majority of adult students their decision to enter higher education later in life is accompanied by a heightened awareness that the expectations behind that decision may not be fully realised. The research suggests that the anxiety that frequently accompanies this awareness permeates their whole experience of transition to higher education and has the potential to intensify concerns about mastering its valued practices. Second, the research highlights the significance of adult students’ social networks outwith higher education. Managing the interaction between these and higher education networks and communities is challenging for some students, particularly when the identity shift inherent in transition entails an element of distancing from longstanding supportive networks. Overall, this research points to the need for a widened perspective on adult students’ transition which moves the focus beyond problem solving towards a more nuanced approach that more fully acknowledges the sheer diversity of the factors involved.
On the Effect of Reciprocal Teaching Strategy on EFL Learners' Reading Proficiency

This study aimed at exploring the comparative effect of reciprocal teaching on EFL learners’ reading proficiency. From the total population of freshmen at Shahrood University of Technology (SUT) who enrolled for the General English course, 120 students were randomly selected. The researcher administered and scored the Comprehensive English Language Test (CELT) and then selected subjects whose raw scores were one standard deviation above and below the arithmetic mean. All in all, 70 students were paired based on their rank score. Subjects of the same rank were randomly assigned to experimental and control groups and were instructed through transmission and reciprocal models respectively. A second test, i.e. TOFL, was used for pre-test and post-test. The results showed: (1) a significant (at the 0.05 level) difference in how the control and experimental groups performed in the post test; (2) a significant (at the 0.05 level) difference in how the experimental group performed in pre-test and post test.
Social Capital and Technological Literacy in Taiwan

The burgeoning interest in social capital within the technology community represents a welcome move towards a concern for the social elements of technological adaptation and capacity. Since technology plays an ever larger role in our daily life, it is necessary to articulate social capital and its relationship to technological literacy. A nationwide data was collected by area sampling, and position generator was used to measure social capital. Regression model was constructed for technological literacy. Age, gender, education, income, web access, and social capital were included as independent variables. The results show that age, gender, education, web access, and social capital were good predictors of technological literacy. It is concluded that social capital is helpful in coping with rapid technological change. Theoretical and empirical implications and future research are discussed.
Generating databases for query workloads

To evaluate the performance of database applications and DBMSs, we usually execute workloads of queries on generated databases of different sizes and measure the response time. This paper introduces MyBenchmark, an offline data generation tool that takes a set of queries as input and generates database instances for which the users can control the characteristics of the resulting workload. Applications of MyBenchmark include database testing, database application testing, and application-driven benchmarking. We present the architecture and the implementation algorithms of MyBenchmark. We also present the evaluation results of MyBenchmark using TPC workloads.
Collaborative Problem-Solving to Promote the Inclusion of Young Children with Significant Disabilities in Primary Grades

The installation of a collaboratively-based problem-solving process was undertaken over a 2-year period in an elementary school in which students with mild to profound disabilities were physically integrated. Teachers and students participated in collaborative problem-solving (CPS) process training sessions and then used CPS to identify and solve issues related to the physical, social, and instructional inclusion of students in the classroom. Data were collected to evaluate the process over a 24-month period in 12 different classrooms. Findings revealed that the CPS process was implemented as designed; teachers judged CPS to be easily incorporated into existing practices; and CPS promoted outcomes valued by administrators, teachers, and parents.
Automatic Transcription of Bell Chiming Recordings

Bell chiming is a folk music tradition that involves performers playing rhythmic patterns on church bells. The paper presents a method for automatic transcription of bell chiming recordings, where the goal is to detect the bells that were played and their onset times. We first present an algorithm that estimates the number of bells in a recording and their approximate spectra. The algorithm uses a modified version of the intelligent k-means algorithm, as well as some prior knowledge of church bell acoustics to find clusters of partials with synchronous onsets in the time-frequency representation of a recording. Cluster centers are used to initialize non-negative matrix factorization that factorizes the time-frequency representation into a set of basis vectors (bell spectra) and their activations. To transcribe a recording, we propose a probabilistic framework that integrates factorization and onset detection data with prior knowledge of bell chiming performance rules. Both parts of the algorithm are evaluated on a set of bell chiming field recordings.
Prenatal growth and risk of occlusive and haemorrhagic stroke in Swedish men and women born 1915-29: historical cohort study

Evidence for an inverse association of impaired fetal growth with stroke is less securely established than that with coronary heart disease. Even less is known about the association of fetal growth with occlusive stroke and haemorrhagic stroke. The cohort comprises all 14 611 births in the Uppsala Academic Hospital between 1915 and 1929.1 Socioeconomic circumstances and neonatal characteristics, including gestational age (number of completed weeks since last menstrual period), were available for 96% of the subjects from hospital records and follow up is 98% complete. Analyses were restricted to singletons born at 30-45 weeks' gestation for whom information was available in the 1960 and 1970 censuses. Data on occurrence of first stroke were obtained from the Swedish national hospital discharge register2 and from the national cause of death register. Two subtypes of stroke were defined—haemorrhagic (ICD-8 (international classification of diseases, …
Association of the Src Family Tyrosine Kinase Fyn with TrkB

Abstract: Fyn tyrosine kinase, a member of the Src family, was recently reported to be present in neurons and glia cells. We investigated whether Fyn is involved in the Trk‐dependent signal transduction pathways of neurotrophin. The Fyn‐Src homology domain 2 (SH2) was observed to associate in vitro with the intracellular domain of TrkB (ICD‐TrkB). This association was dependent on the autophosphorylation of ICD‐TrkB. The Fyn‐SH2 domains bound to phosphorylated ICD‐TrkB (plCD‐TrkB) with an affinity similar to the binding of phospholipase Cγ (PLCγ)‐SH2 domains to its autophosphorylation site in TrkB. The Src‐SH2 domains showed substantially lower affinity with plCD‐TrkB, suggesting that the association between Fyn‐SH2 and plCD‐TrkB is not due to non‐specific interactions of SH2 domains with phosphorylated tyrosine residues. This is further supported by the observation that Fyn‐SH2 was able to trap phosphorylated TrkB in cell lysate prepared from primary rat cortical neurons stimulated with brain‐derived neurotrophic factor (BDNF). In contrast, endogenous Fyn was coprecipitated with TrkB from cortical neurons without BDNF stimulation. This basal association showed a threefold increase on BDNF stimulation, probably due to the SH2/phosphotyrosine interaction that was observed in the cell‐free system. All these data suggest the involvement of Fyn in the neurotrophin signal transduction pathways downstream of TrkB.
Ansiedad en hijos de padres alcohólicos en tratamiento

Nuestro trabajo pretende valorar la importancia que determinadas variables descriptoras de la enfermedad y del estres familiar juegan en el nino, una vez que el enfermo alcoholico se integra en un programa de tratamiento. Seleccionamos una muestra de 155 ninos entre 9 y 18 anos, con una edad media de 13.44; todos eran hijos de padres alcoholicos en tratamiento y procedian de 93 familias. Los instrumentos utilizados, ademas de una entrevista semiestructurada, consistieron en una bateria de tests psicologicos: FES, STAI, STAIC, CMAS y CAST. Una vez analizados los resultados concluimos que la estabilidad emocional del hijo de enfermo alcoholico en tratamiento viene caracterizada por: niveles bajos de ansiedad en ambos padres, principalmente en el padre, y una vivencia positiva de la enfermedad del padre. Ademas, la ansiedad del hijo de alcoholico en tratamiento viene influida de forma indirecta por la estabilidad familiar y unas adecuadas relaciones internas entre los miembros. Los resultados obtenidos nos hacen ser optimistas debido a que el tratamiento recibido parece ejercer una notable influencia positiva, no solo para el enfermo alcoholico sino tambien para el resto de la familia y especialmente para los hijos.
Decoy Effects in a Consumer Search Task

Richard Anderson, Advisor Research by Huber, Payne, and Puto (1982) revealed that the addition of a third alternative to a choice set can lead to a redistribution of the choice probabilities for the two existing alternatives, such that one alternative that had not previously been preferred over the other becomes the favored alternative. The results of that study violated both the principles of regularity and similarity, and these findings have since been replicated in numerous studies. The present research was designed to address a potential limitation of these previous studies. Specifically, to the author’s knowledge, no study had yet examined the effect of introducing a decoy alternative to a choice set after the other alternatives have already been presented. This tendency to present all alternatives simultaneously may be a significant limitation for two reasons. First, there is an issue of ecological representativeness: In an actual shopper’s experience, all relevant products are not typically available concurrently. Second, studies of non-instrumental information search indicate that the relative weighting of information may depend on how and when the information was obtained with participants typically placing greater weight on the newly acquired information. Thus there are theoretical grounds to expect a decoy to have different effects on choice, depending on whether the decoy occurs concurrently with, or subsequent to, the other alternatives. In the work reported herein, the effect of inviting or directing participants to search for an asymmetrically dominated decoy alterative was examined to determine whether the act of searching for a third alternative influences participants’ preference for the available alternatives. In the present research, participants were more likely to select the asymmetrically dominated alternative when they had been given the option to search for that alternative than were participants who either had the same alternative
Antioxidant activity of selected wild Canadian prairie fruits.

BACKGROUND Canadian prairies are a habitat for unique wild plants. The main object of the present study was to investigate phytochemicals content and antioxidant activity in seven wild Canadian prairie fruits. METHODS The presence of total phenolics, flavonoids, anthocyanins and antioxidant activity were identified in the extracts according to standard procedure. RESULTS Wild rose had the highest amounts of total phenolics and total flavonoids, whereas elderberry exhibited the highest amount of anthocyanins. All extracts showed good scavenging activities towards DPPH radicals. The results showed a good linear relationship between oxygen radical absorbance capacity and total phenolics indicating that radicals are scavenged at a greater rate as the total phenolics content increases. Additionally, all extracts when applied at concentration of 800 ppm, showed ability to inhibit oxidation of canola oil. In SOT test the best results were obtained when extract of American mountain ash was used. In general, wild rose followed by American mountain ash demonstrated the highest antioxidant activity among assessed Canadian prairie fruits. CONCLUSIONS From the results it can be concluded that prairie fruit extracts are a rich source of phenolic compounds and poses a high antioxidant activity, confirmed by assessment with different type of radicals employed.
Is the subdominant part of the energy spectrum due to downscale energy cascade hidden in quasi-geostrophic turbulence?

In systems governing two-dimensional turbulence, surface quasi-geostrophic turbulence, (more generally $\alpha$-turbulence), two-layer quasi-geostrophic turbulence, etc., there often exist two conservative quadratic quantities, one "energy''-like and one "enstrophy''-like. In a finite inertial range there are in general two spectral fluxes, one associated with each conserved quantity. We derive here an inequality comparing the relative magnitudes of the "energy'' and "enstrophy'' fluxes for finite or infinitesimal dissipations, and for hyper or hypo viscosities. When this inequality is satisfied, as is the case of 2D turbulence,where the energy flux contribution to the energy spectrum is small, the subdominant part will be effectively hidden. In sQG turbulence, it is shown that the opposite is true: the downscale energy flux becomes the dominant contribution to the energy spectrum. A combination of these two behaviors appears to be the case in 2-layer QG turbulence, depending on the baroclinicity of the system.