Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Inherent variability and the obligatory contour principle

ABSTRACT English coronal stop deletion is constrained by the preceding segment, so that stops and sibilants favor deletion more than liquids and nonsibilant fricatives. Previous explanations of this constraint (e.g., the sonority hierarchy) have failed to account for the details, but we show that it can be comprehensively treated as a consequence of the obligatory contour principle (OCP). The OCP, introduced to account for a variety of categorical constraints against adjacent identical tones, segments, and so forth, can be generalized as a universal disfavoring of sequences of like features: *[αF] [αF]. Therefore, coronal stop deletion, which targets the set of segments /t, d/ defined by the features [−son, −cont, +cor], is favored when the preceding segment shares any of these features. But this requires adopting the assumption of inherent variability and interpreting the OCP as a probabilistic constraint with cumulative effects (the more shared features, the greater likelihood of deletion). This suggests an attractive theoretical integration of categorical and variable processes in the grammar.
Preparation and Evaluation of Orally Disintegrating Tablets Containing Taste-Masked Microcapsules of Berberine Hydrochloride

The purpose of this study was to prepare and evaluate a taste-masked berberine hydrochloride orally disintegrating tablet for enhanced patient compliance. Taste masking was performed by coating berberine hydrochloride with Eudragit E100 using a fluidized bed. It was found that microcapsules with a drug–polymer ratio of 1:0.8 masked the bitter taste obviously. The microcapsules were formulated to orally disintegrating tablets and the optimized tablets containing 6% (w/w) crospovidone XL and 15% (w/w) microcrystalline cellulose showed the fastest disintegration, within 25.5 s, and had a pleasant taste. The dissolution profiles revealed that the taste-masked orally disintegrating tablets released the drug faster than commercial tablets in the first 10 min. However, their dissolution profiles were very similar after 10 min. The prepared taste-masked tablets remained stable after 6 months of storage. The pharmacokinetics of the taste-masked and commercial tablets was evaluated in rabbits. The Cmax, Tmax, and AUC0−24 values were not significantly different from each other, suggesting that the taste-masked orally disintegrating tablets are bioequivalent to commercial tablets in rabbits. These tablets will enhance patient compliance by masking taste and improve patients’ quality of life.
Dual pathways to endochondral osteoblasts: a novel chondrocyte-derived osteoprogenitor cell identified in hypertrophic cartilage

According to the general understanding, the chondrocyte lineage terminates with the elimination of late hypertrophic cells by apoptosis in the growth plate. However, recent cell tracking studies have shown that murine hypertrophic chondrocytes can survive beyond “terminal” differentiation and give rise to a progeny of osteoblasts participating in endochondral bone formation. The question how chondrocytes convert into osteoblasts, however, remained open. Following the cell fate of hypertrophic chondrocytes by genetic lineage tracing using BACCol10;Cre induced YFP-reporter gene expression we show that a progeny of Col10Cre-reporter labelled osteoprogenitor cells and osteoblasts appears in the primary spongiosa and participates – depending on the developmental stage – substantially in trabecular, endosteal, and cortical bone formation. YFP+ trabecular and endosteal cells isolated by FACS expressed Col1a1, osteocalcin and runx2, thus confirming their osteogenic phenotype. In searching for transitory cells between hypertrophic chondrocytes and trabecular osteoblasts we identified by confocal microscopy a novel, small YFP+Osx+ cell type with mitotic activity in the lower hypertrophic zone at the chondro-osseous junction. When isolated from growth plates by fractional enzymatic digestion, these cells termed CDOP (chondrocyte-derived osteoprogenitor) cells expressed bone typical genes and differentiated into osteoblasts in vitro. We propose the Col10Cre-labeled CDOP cells mark the initiation point of a second pathway giving rise to endochondral osteoblasts, alternative to perichondrium derived osteoprogenitor cells. These findings add to current concepts of chondrocyte-osteocyte lineages and give new insight into the complex cartilage-bone transition process in the growth plate.
Energy-optimal dynamic thermal management for green computing

Existing thermal management systems for microprocessors assume that the thermal resistance of the heat-sink is constant and that the objective of the cooling system is simply to avoid thermal emergencies. But in fact the thermal resistance of the usual forced-convection heat-sink is inversely proportional to the fan speed, and a more rational objective is to minimize the total power consumption of both processor and cooling system. Our new method of dynamic thermal management uses both the fan speed and the voltage/frequency of the microprocessor as control variables. Experiments show that tracking the energy-optimal steady-state temperature can saves up to 17.6% of the overall energy, when compared with a conventional approach that merely avoids overheating.
Loss of trabeculae by mechano-biological means may explain rapid bone loss in osteoporosis

Osteoporosis is characterized by rapid and irreversible loss of trabecular bone tissue leading to increased bone fragility. In this study, we hypothesize two causes for rapid loss of bone trabeculae; firstly, the perforation of trabeculae is caused by osteoclasts resorbing a cavity so deep that it cannot be refilled and, secondly, the increases in bone tissue elastic modulus lead to increased propensity for trabecular perforation. These hypotheses were tested using an algorithm that was based on two premises: (i) bone remodelling is a turnover process that repairs damaged bone tissue by resorbing and returning it to a homeostatic strain level and (ii) osteoblast attachment is under biochemical control. It was found that a mechano-biological algorithm based on these premises can simulate the remodelling cycle in a trabecular strut where damaged bone is resorbed to form a pit that is subsequently refilled with new bone. Furthermore, the simulation predicts that there is a depth of resorption cavity deeper than which refilling of the resorption pits is impossible and perforation inevitably occurs. However, perforation does not occur by a single fracture event but by continual removal of microdamage after it forms beneath the resorption pit. The simulation also predicts that perforations would occur more easily in trabeculae that are more highly mineralized (stiffer). Since both increased osteoclast activation rates and increased mineralization have been measured in osteoporotic bone, either or both may contribute to the rapid loss of trabecular bone mass observed in osteoporotic patients.
Onset and duration of intradermal mixtures of bupivacaine and lidocaine with epinephrine.

BACKGROUND/OBJECTIVE Bupivacaine and lidocaine are often used concurrently, in theory, to combine the more rapid onset of lidocaine and the longer duration of bupivacaine. The purpose of this study was to evaluate this concept. METHODS Twenty-five subjects were enrolled in a double-blinded, randomized block design study to evaluate the onset and duration of four different mixtures of lidocaine and bupivacaine with epinephrine. The study was designed to achieve 80% power to detect an effect size of 0.37 at 5% overall significance. The four mixtures tested were: 0.25% bupivacaine with epinephrine (1:200,000); 1% lidocaine with epinephrine (1:100,000); 0.125% bupivacaine and 0.5% lidocaine with epinephrine (1:150,000); and 0.25% bupivacaine and 1% lidocaine with epinephrine (1:150,000). Four intradermal injections were made in the volar forearms of each participant. Time to effect and duration were measured by sensation of a sharp skin prick. RESULTS Mean time to onset ranged from 12 s to 29 s without statistical significance across all tested solutions (P=0.891). Mean duration of effect ranged from 6 h 38 min to 7 h 25 min with a statistically significant difference across the tested solutions (P=0.036). CONCLUSIONS No statistical benefit was measured when comparing lidocaine with epinephrine, bupivacaine with epinephrine, and mixtures of these local anesthetics with regard to onset of action. While a statistical difference was observed in duration of effect, the clinical benefit measured was narrow.
Arabic Character Segmentation Using Projection Based Approach with Profile's Amplitude Filter

Arabic is one of the languages that present special challenges to Optical character recognition (OCR). The main challenge in Arabic is that it is mostly cursive. Therefore, a segmentation process must be carried out to determine where the character begins and where it ends. This step is essential for character recognition. This paper presents Arabic character segmentation algorithm. The proposed algorithm uses the projection-based approach concepts to separate lines, words, and characters. This is done using profile's amplitude filter and simple edge tool to find characters separations. Our algorithm shows promising performance when applied on different machine printed documents with different Arabic fonts.
Innovative array architectures for 5G communications

An innovative iterative scheme which combines parametric optimization techniques and convex programming strategies is proposed as a design tool to assess feasibility and limitations of next generation phased array architectures for 5G backhauling applications. The proposed design technique is aimed at (i) identifying the lattice geometry and minimum array aperture (complying with bandwidth, directivity, and steering range requirements) and (ii) computing the optimal excitation coefficients (to satisfy sidelobe constraints) for a 5G backhauling scenario. Preliminary numerical examples are shown to validate the proposed methodological approach and architectures in 5G backhauling scenarios and to deduce relevant applicative guidelines.
Consequences of implementing knowledge management initiatives in different organizational subcultures

Organizations implementing knowledge management (KM) initiatives are concerned with promoting sharing and transferring of knowledge, within and across different organizational units. Thus, gaining a deeper awareness of the diverse viewpoints and attributes of the various organizational units is one of the important challenges facing organization-wide knowledge management (KM) interventions. It is imperative for large organizations to be sensitive to the inherent differences within different units and align their KM strategies so that the differences are suitably reflected and accommodated in the organization-wide KM strategy. In this context, this paper focuses on the KM strategies of Infosys Technologies, a leading Indian software services and products company recognised globally as a successful KM exponent. Adopting the case study methodology, we conducted an intensive two-month study at Infosys and looked at the consequences of initiating organization-wide KM in two different organizational Business units (BU). Evidence from the case highlights the unfolding of unintended and intended consequences in the two units, and organizational efforts to reconcile them. Taking a subcultural perspective of the two units offered useful insights into the consequences. The Theoretical and managerial contributions of the study to the KM arena are discussed.
The forest transition: a theoretical basis

Summary A theoretical basis for the forest transition (the change from contraction to expansion of national forest area) is suggested in terms of increasing agricultural adjustment to land quality. This adjustment, operating through a process of learning by farmers, results in the concentration of agricultural production in smaller areas of better land, and the agricultural abandonment of larger areas of poorer land, which are then available for reforestation through natural regeneration or planting.
Amplified spontaneous emission (ASE) in the TCP over OBS networks

optical signal transverse a number of optical elements which introduce linear and non linear impairments. The aim of this paper is to study the TCP over OBS performance taking into consideration only the linear impairment the Amplified Spontaneous Emission (ASE). More specifically the TCP performance is evaluated with and without impairments in terms of the blocking probability.
Proof Analogy in Interactive Theorem Proving: A Method to Express and Use It via Second Order Pattern Matching

A method is presented to express and use syntactic analogies between proofs in interactive theorem proving and proof checking. Up to now, very few papers have addressed instances of this problem. The paradigm of "proposition as types" is adopted and proofs are represented as terms. The proposed method is to transform a known proof of a theorem into what might become a proof of an "analogous" --according to the user-- proposition, namely the one to be proved. This transformation is expressed by means of second order pattern matching (this may be seen as a generalisation of rewriting rules), thus allowing the use of variable function symbols. For the moment, it is up to the user to discover the transformation rule, and the paper deals only with the problem of managing it. We explain the proposed analogy treatment with a fully developed running example.
A built-in current sensor for high speed soft errors detection robust to process and temperature variations

Soft errors can be efficiently detected using built in current sensors connected to the transistors bulk, monitoring currents caused by ionizations in the substrate. However, electrical parameter variations can compromise the functional operation of the sensor. The electrical parameter variations can arise from variations during the fabrication process of nanometer scale technologies, as well as from exposure to radiation. This work presents a parameterized current sensor (Tbulk-BICS), which is based on trimming bits. The Tbulk-BICS is able to compensate electrical parameter variations by digitally adjusting the transconductance. Electrical simulation results show the high detection efficiency of the Tbulk-BICS, even in presence of process and temperature variations.
A comparative study of quality of life among the age groups of kidney transplant recipients.

CONTEXT Quality of life and transplant age are 2 major concerns of professionals and researchers. Both variables are contemplated in transplant allocation decisions as a result of longer graft and patient survival and the likelihood of achieving a reasonably good quality of life for patients of all ages. Studies are warranted to understand if quality of life might serve as a moderating variable to balance question of age and transplant allocations. OBJECTIVE To determine if there are differences in the pretransplant and posttransplant quality of life of kidney transplant recipients with respect to age. DESIGN, PARTICIPANTS, SETTING, AND OUTCOME MEASURES: This study comparatively examined the differences in pretransplant and posttransplant quality of life of kidney transplant recipients in 5 age groups (18-29 years, 30-39, 40-49, 50-59, and older than 60). A sample of 293 patients admitted to a midsouthern US transplant center and selected on a convenience-sampling basis were included in the study. Multiple measures of quality of life were used, including the Quality of Life Index, the Adult Self-Image Scale, and the Sickness Impact Profile. RESULTS Both the pretransplant and posttransplant quality of life of all age groups of kidney transplant recipients were similar, with the exception that the recipients in the age range of 30 to 49 years reported better posttransplant quality of life on the Sickness Impact Profile Psychosocial measure (F=2.18, P=.02). CONCLUSIONS Quality of life outcomes do not appear to favor one age group over another, although psychosocial outcomes may warrant some additional consideration.
Satisfaction of health-care providers with electronic health records and perceived barriers to its implementation in the United Arab Emirates.

The integration of electronic health records (EHRs) has shown promise in improving health-care quality. In the United Arab Emirates, EHRs have been recently adopted to improve the quality and safety of patient care. A cross-sectional survey of 680 health-care providers (HCPs) was conducted to assess the satisfaction of HCPs in the United Arab Emirates with EHRs' impact on access/viewing, documentation and medication administration and to explore the barriers encountered in their use. Data were collected over 6 months from April to September 2014. High overall satisfaction with EHRs was reported by HCPs, suggesting their acceptance. Physicians reported the greatest overall satisfaction with EHRs, although nurses showed significantly higher satisfaction with the impact on medication administration compared with other HCPs. The most significant barriers reported by nurses were lack of belief in the value of EHRs for patients and lack of adequate computer skills. Given the large investment in technology, additional research is necessary to promote the full utilization of EHRs. Nurses need to be aware of the value of EHRs for patient care and be involved in all stages of EHR implementations to maximize its meaningful use for better clinical outcomes.
Learning the Language of Leadership: A Proposed Agenda for Leader Training

This paper proposes a training/research agenda for teaching leaders strategic language. Strategic language is defined by motivating language theory (Sullivan, 1988) as leader-to-subordinate oral communication that increases the likelihood of such desirable worker outcomes as high performance levels and job satisfaction. Motivating language has been further specified as appropriate use of the following speech act categories: 1) Direction-Giving, 2) Empathetic, and 3) Meaning-Making. Motivating language theory and its predictions have received strong support from previous research, including scale development and model testing. The proposed next step is implementation through organizational diagnosis and training programs.
Multi-document Summarization Based on Locally Relevant Sentences

Multi-document summarization systems must be able to draw the "best" information from a set of documents.In this paper we propose a novel extractive approach for multidocument summarization based on the detection of locally relevant sentences. Our main hypothesis is that by extracting relevant sentences from each document within a collection, instead of considering all documents at once, the final multi-document summary will be of higher quality. Performed experiments showed that the proposed method is able to outperform conventional baselines as well as traditional approaches by constructing summaries of high quality according to the ROUGE evaluation metrics.
A Search Strategy for Large Document Bases

SUMMARY In this paper, we emphasize the need of modelling the inherent uncertainty associated with the information retrieval process. Within this context, a search strategy is proposed for locating documents which are likely to be relevant to a given query. A notion of closeness between document(s) and query is introduced and the implementation of an improved algorithm for the identification of the closest document set is presented with emphasis on computational efficiency.
Markers of developmental surface dyslexia in a language (Italian) with high grapheme–phoneme correspondence

Abstract This article examines the characteristics of surface dyslexia in a language (Italian) with high grapheme–phoneme correspondence. The reading performances of four boys are reported. The most pervasive reading symptom was severe slowness, which was associated in some, but not all, cases with reduced text comprehension. All four dyslexics performed at chance level on a task requiring comprehension of homophonous words (Study I). Vocal reaction times to single words were delayed with respect to the controls and showed a clear word length effect (Study II). However, vocal reaction times to pictorial stimuli were normal (Study III). Eye movement recordings taken during reading indicated an increased number and a reduced amplitude of rightward saccades and longer fixation durations (Study IV). A test of letter recognition in central and peripheral vision indicated that the reading deficit could not be explained in terms of an abnormal attentional “window,” as found in other cases of dyslexia (Study V). An analysis of the boys' cognitive skills (Study VI) indicated spared phonological awareness in three of four subjects; a severe deficit in rapid scanning of nonlinguistic stimuli was present in all of the subjects. Overall, these results indicate that parallel visual processing of words was impaired, and that the boys analyzed words sequentially, presumably through an orthographic–phonological conversion. This condition may be interpreted as surface dyslexia, even though the prominent characteristics of this syndrome are somewhat different in Italian than in other languages. In languages with “loose” relationships between graphemes and phonemes (e.g., English), when the phonological analysis of words is insufficient, a variety of errors is produced. In languages with considerably more regular grapheme–phoneme correspondence (e.g., Italian), the number of errors may be small since phonological reading is generally correct, and the most conspicuous symptom is slowness in reading.
Expression of Epistemic Stance in EFL Chinese University Students' Writing

This paper reported findings on a contrastive analysis of epistemic expressions in argumentative essays between NS and NNS Chinese L2 writers. Based on an examination of a NS corpus and a NNS learner corpus across four proficiency levels, the study shows there is great similarity in the total number of epistemic devices used per thousand words between the NS and NNS university students’ written texts. However, the NNS were found to use a restricted range of epistemic items to express epistemic modality and their written texts were marked by strong, unwarranted assertions compared with those of NS students. The study suggested there seems to be an improvement in selecting an appropriate level of commitment to the propositions being expressed with the increase in the students’ proficiency.
5 GHz /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ analog-to-digital converter with polarity alternating feedback comparator

We designed and fabricated a 5 GHz oversampling, 100 MHz bandwidth continuous time second order /spl Sigma//spl Delta/ analog-to-digital converter (ADC) using 0.4-/spl mu/m InGaP/-InGaAs enhancement and depletion mode high electron mobility transistor (E/D HEMT) technology. We propose the polarity alternating feedback (PAF) technique for enhancing the sampling frequency and have applied it in the design of an ADC circuit. The fabricated ADC shows a signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) of 43 dB (7.3 bits) under a differential clock of 4.9 GHz with a power dissipation of 400 mW.