Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Impact of Dependence on Unobservable Queues

In unobservable queueing systems, customers have several chances to leave the system and forgo their service from an agent. Typically customers may choose to leave by balking, which is based on the queue length or they may leave by reneging from the queue, which is based on the virtual waiting time and the patience of the customer. However, the current literature on unobservable queues assumes that the sequences of balking and reneging random variables are independent and this implies that a customer’s decision to join the line is independent of the their willingness to wait for service. In this paper, we relax the independence assumption and assess the impact of dependence of the balking and reneging distributions on the stochastic behavior of the queue length and workload processes. We find that the dependence of the balking and reneging distributions significantly affects the distribution of the queue length through decreasing the strength of the state dependent drift towards the origin. Lastly, we show that the joint density near the origin and not the correlation of the balking and reneging random variables describes the impact of the queue length and workload processes.
Bioactive Protopanaxatriol Type Saponins Isolated from the Roots of Panax Notoginseng (Burk.) F. H. Chen

Seven new protopanaxatriol type saponins, 20S-sanchirhinosides A1 (1), A2 (2), A3 (3), A4 (4), A5 (5), and A6 (6), and sanchirhinoside B (7) were obtained as minor constituents from the root extract of Panax notoginseng (Burkill, F. H. Chen), which showed protection effects against antimycin A induced mitochondrial oxidative stress. Their structures were elucidated by chemical and spectroscopic methods (IR, HRESI-TOF-MS, 1D and 2D NMR). Among them, compounds 4, 6 and 7 showed significant protective effects against antimycin A-induced L6 cell injury.
What Sound Does That Taste? Cross-Modal Mappings across Gustation and Audition

All people share implicit mappings across the senses, which give us preferences for certain sensory combinations over others (eg light colours are preferentially paired with higher-pitch sounds; Ward et al, 2006 Cortex 42 264–280). Although previous work has tended to focus on the cross-modality of vision with other senses, here we present evidence of systematic cross-modality between taste and sound. We created four sound continua representing to varying extents phonetic qualities of speech (F1, F2, voice discontinuity, and spectral balance). Sixty-five participants selected their preferred sound to accompany each of the basic tastes of sweet, sour, bitter, and salty, at two different concentrations. We found significant shared preferences among our participants to map certain acoustic qualities to certain types of tastes (eg sweet tastes tend to be mapped to a lower spectral balance than sour tastes). We also found a preference for mapping certain sound qualities to different taste concentrations. Together our data provide the first detailed analysis of how phonetic features map systematically to different tastants and concentrations. We examine the roots of these mappings, and discuss how such associations might guide the ways in which human languages are used to name objects with taste.
Vitamin C Intake, Circulating Vitamin C and Risk of Stroke: A Meta‐Analysis of Prospective Studies

Background Though vitamin C supplementation has shown no observed effects on stroke prevention in several clinical trials, uncertainty remains as to whether long‐term, low‐dose intake influences the development of stroke among general populations. Furthermore, the association between circulating vitamin C and the risk of stroke is also unclear. For further clarification of these issues, we conducted a meta‐analysis of prospective studies. Methods and Results PubMed and EMBASE databases were searched, and the bibliographies of the retrieved articles were also reviewed to identify eligible studies. Summary relative risk (RRs) with corresponding 95% confidence intervals (CIs) were computed with a random‐effects model. The summary RR for the high‐versus‐low categories was 0.81 (95% CI: 0.74 to 0.90) for dietary vitamin C intake (11 studies), and 0.62 (95% CI: 0.49 to 0.79) for circulating vitamin C (6 studies). The summary RR for each 100 mg/day increment in dietary vitamin C was 0.83 (95% CI: 0.75 to 0.93) (10 studies), and for each 20 μmol/L increment in circulating vitamin C was 0.81 (95% CI: 0.75 to 0.88) (5 studies). Few studies reported results for vitamin C supplements (RR for high‐versus‐low intake=0.83, 95% CI: 0.62 to 1.10, 3 studies). Conclusions This meta‐analysis suggests significant inverse relationships between dietary vitamin C intake, circulating vitamin C, and risk of stroke.
FACTORS THAT INFLUENCE STUDENTS’ DECISION TO DROPOUT OF ONLINE COURSES

Although there are many reasons why students dropout of college courses, those reasons may be unique for students who are enrolled in an online program. Issues of isolation, disconnectedness, and technological problems may be factors that influence a student to leave a course. To understand these factors, an online survey was developed to collect data from students who dropped out of an online program. Logistic regression analysis was used to compare various factors between those who persist in the program and those who dropout. The results, based on the dropouts from three cohorts in an online graduate program, show that demographic variables do not predict likelihood of dropping from a program. Instead, the students’ reasons for dropping out of an online program are varied and unique to each individual. Recommendations for further study are incorporated in the conclusions.
Open-Angle Glaucoma—An Epidemiologic Overview

Purpose: To provide a summary overview of current epidemiologic data on open-angle glaucoma. Methods: Literature review. Results: The review summarizes information on the following topics: Definition of open-angle glaucoma; Prevalence data from studies conducted in various populations; Incidence data available from population studies; Risk factors, categorized as demographic, familial, systemic, and ocular; and, Progression factors. It concludes by outlining the epidemiologic contributions to glaucoma and suggesting research needs. Conclusions: Epidemiologic studies have contributed greatly to our knowledge of open-angle glaucoma. Still, many gaps remain, and the multifactorial etiology of glaucoma needs further clarification. Future research would benefit by standardizing the approach to define the disease, thus allowing better comparability across studies. A major priority is to achieve a better understanding of risk factors, which are likely to involve gene-environment interactions.
SEVOFLURANE ANESTHESIA IN LIVINGSTONE'S FRUIT BATS (PTEROPUS LIVINGSTONII)

Abstract Fourteen captive Livingstone's fruit bats (Pteropus livingstonii) were anesthetized for routine veterinary health checks, including echocardiography, using sevoflurane. In addition, three specimens suffering from cardiac disease and a pregnant specimen were anesthetized for clinical assessment. No anesthetic complications were observed in any of the specimens. Significant differences in the core body temperature were found between the esophageal and rectal measurements. A significant decrease in blood glucose was noted through the anesthesia, suspected to be related to an extended fasting period prior to the procedure.
Transitional Phase or a New Balance?

In recent years in the Netherlands, mothers’ labor participation has increased sharply. This article examines which factors influence mothers’ employment rates and the division of household and caring responsibilities between parents. From research among 1,285 women with young children, it appears that cultural factors rather than economic motives or institutional obstacles offer the most important explanation for whether they work or not. A culture of care dominates more among women with lower than higher education levels, which clarifies the more limited labor participation of lower educated mothers. A comparison is also drawn between the various earner types of family. It appears that the one-and-a-half earner type of family with the man working full-time and the woman part-time is particularly popular among women with lesser education levels. However, for women with higher educations, the ideal is for both parents to work part-time, but for the time being, they have not yet been able to realize this.
Modifications to the Aesop's Fable Paradigm Change New Caledonian Crow Performances

While humans are able to understand much about causality, it is unclear to what extent non-human animals can do the same. The Aesop's Fable paradigm requires an animal to drop stones into a water-filled tube to bring a floating food reward within reach. Rook, Eurasian jay, and New Caledonian crow performances are similar to those of children under seven years of age when solving this task. However, we know very little about the cognition underpinning these birds' performances. Here, we address several limitations of previous Aesop's Fable studies to gain insight into the causal cognition of New Caledonian crows. Our results provide the first evidence that any non-human animal can solve the U-tube task and can discriminate between water-filled tubes of different volumes. However, our results do not provide support for the hypothesis that these crows can infer the presence of a hidden causal mechanism. They also call into question previous object-discrimination performances. The methodologies outlined here should allow for more powerful comparisons between humans and other animal species and thus help us to determine which aspects of causal cognition are distinct to humans.
Cannabinoid CB2 receptors modulate midbrain dopamine neuronal activity and dopamine-related behavior in mice

Significance Although early studies suggested that cannabinoid CB2 receptors (CB2Rs) are absent in the brain, this view has been challenged by recent findings of significant brain CB2R involvement in several dopamine (DA)-related CNS disorders. The cellular mechanisms underlying these actions are unclear, however. Using multiple approaches, we found that CB2R genes and receptors are expressed in midbrain DA neurons, and that activation of CB2Rs inhibits DA neuronal firing and i.v. cocaine self-administration. These findings not only challenge the long-held view that brain CB2Rs are not expressed in neurons, but also suggest that neuronal CB2Rs modulate DA neuronal activity and DA-regulated behavior. Thus, brain CB2Rs may constitute a new therapeutic target in medication development for treatment of a number of CNS disorders. Cannabinoid CB2 receptors (CB2Rs) have been recently reported to modulate brain dopamine (DA)-related behaviors; however, the cellular mechanisms underlying these actions are unclear. Here we report that CB2Rs are expressed in ventral tegmental area (VTA) DA neurons and functionally modulate DA neuronal excitability and DA-related behavior. In situ hybridization and immunohistochemical assays detected CB2 mRNA and CB2R immunostaining in VTA DA neurons. Electrophysiological studies demonstrated that activation of CB2Rs by JWH133 or other CB2R agonists inhibited VTA DA neuronal firing in vivo and ex vivo, whereas microinjections of JWH133 into the VTA inhibited cocaine self-administration. Importantly, all of the above findings observed in WT or CB1−/− mice are blocked by CB2R antagonist and absent in CB2−/− mice. These data suggest that CB2R-mediated reduction of VTA DA neuronal activity may underlie JWH133's modulation of DA-regulated behaviors.
The current status of the elemental defense hypothesis in relation to pathogens

Metal hyperaccumulating plants are able to accumulate exceptionally high concentrations of metals, such as zinc, nickel, or cadmium, in their aerial tissues. These metals reach concentrations that would be toxic to most other plant species. This trait has evolved multiple times independently in the plant kingdom. Recent studies have provided new insight into the ecological and evolutionary significance of this trait, by showing that some metal hyperaccumulating plants can use high concentrations of accumulated metals to defend themselves against attack by pathogenic microorganisms and herbivores. Here, we review the evidence that metal hyperaccumulation acts as a defensive trait in plants, with particular emphasis on plant–pathogen interactions. We discuss the mechanisms by which defense against pathogens might have driven the evolution of metal hyperaccumulation, including the interaction of this trait with other forms of defense. In particular, we consider how physiological adaptations and fitness costs associated with metal hyperaccumulation could have resulted in trade-offs between metal hyperaccumulation and other defenses. Drawing on current understanding of the population ecology of metal hyperaccumulator plants, we consider the conditions that might have been necessary for metal hyperaccumulation to be selected as a defensive trait, and discuss the likelihood that these were fulfilled. Based on these conditions, we propose a possible scenario for the evolution of metal hyperaccumulation, in which selective pressure for resistance to pathogens or herbivores, combined with gene flow from non-metallicolous populations, increases the likelihood that the metal hyperaccumulating trait becomes established in plant populations.
Anomaly-based intrusion detection and prevention system on website usage using rule-growth sequential pattern analysis: Case study: Statistics of Indonesia (BPS) website

Websites are now widely used by many public and private sectors known to be the most popular system that is able to reach many users in many platforms through internet. Since websites are generally placed as a public domain, there is a large chance of intruders to compromise the system at any time. C-panel raw access log data nowadays widely used by many security tools to analysis the user behaviors regarding to the activities on the web, however they commonly provide the descriptive analysis, rather than prescriptive analysis for prediction and estimation. In this paper, we introduce the solution about the website security protection mechanism by investigating the user behaviors using sequential rule-pattern analysis. Rule-patterns of user behaviors are created by mining the log data with sequential pattern analysis in near real time. Using anomaly-based intrusion detection and prevention system approach, our proposed system then can predict the user behaviors activities whether identified as baseline patterns or malicious patterns.
Can Stereotype Threat Explain the Gender Gap in Mathematics Performance and Achievement?

Men and women score similarly in most areas of mathematics, but a gap favoring men is consistently found at the high end of performance. One explanation for this gap, stereotype threat, was first proposed by Spencer, Steele, and Quinn (1999) and has received much attention. We discuss merits and shortcomings of this study and review replication attempts. Only 55% of the articles with experimental designs that could have replicated the original results did so. But half of these were confounded by statistical adjustment of preexisting mathematics exam scores. Of the unconfounded experiments, only 30% replicated the original. A meta-analysis of these effects confirmed that only the group of studies with adjusted mathematics scores displayed the stereotype threat effect. We conclude that although stereotype threat may affect some women, the existing state of knowledge does not support the current level of enthusiasm for this as a mechanism underlying the gender gap in mathematics. We argue there are many reasons to close this gap, and that too much weight on the stereotype explanation may hamper research and implementation of effective interventions.
A Functional Peroxisome Proliferator-activated Receptor-γ Ligand-binding Domain Is Not Required for Adipogenesis*

The nuclear hormone receptor peroxisome proliferator-activated receptor-γ (PPARγ) is the central regulator of adipogenesis. Although it is the target for several drugs that function as agonist activators, a high affinity endogenous ligand for this receptor that is involved in regulating adipogenesis has yet to be identified. Here, we investigated the requirement for ligand activation of PPARγ in fat cell differentiation, taking advantage of a natural mutant of this receptor that does not bind or become activated by any known natural or synthetic ligand. When ectopically expressed in PPARγ-null fibroblasts, this Q286P allele was able to strongly promote morphological adipogenesis, without any significant difference compared with wild-type PPARγ. In addition, no significant differences were found in the expression of several adipogenic genes between the wild-type and Q286P mutant alleles. To extend our studies to an in vivo setting, we performed subcutaneous injections of PPARγ-expressing fibroblasts into nude mice. We found that both wild-type and Q286P mutant-expressing fibroblasts were able to generate fat pads in the mice. These results suggest that the binding and activation of PPARγ by agonist ligands may not be required for adipogenesis under physiological conditions.
Sliding-Mode Observer based Direct Torque Control of an IPM-Synchronous Motor Drive at Very Low Speed Vaishali

Fast torque and flux dynamic responses are delivered by direct torque control of interior permanentmagnet synchronous motors. However, the major drawback is being the poor flux estimation at very low speeds. A majority of flux observers have been proposed for flux estimation, but most of them fail to check in the lowspeed region. In this paper, to improve flux estimation at very low speeds, a sliding-mode stator flux observer is proposed. This observer does not require any speed adaptation mechanism unlike conventional flux observers and is immune to speed estimation error. A novel stator resistance estimator is incorporated into the sensor less drive to compensate the effects of stator resistance variation. DC-offset effects are reduced by introducing a small elemental component in the observer gains. Simulation results at very low speeds, including 0 and 2 r/min, without signal injection confirm the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Communication, commitment, and cooperation in social dilemma.

Intragroup communication promotes cooperation in social dilemmas. Two explanations are plausible: discussion may (1) enhance feelings of group identity or (2) induce commitments to cooperate. Some remedies for social dilemmas (like group communication) may be subclassified as public welfare remedies (of which enhanced group identity is an example) vs cooperation-contingent remedies (of which commitment is an example). The efficacy of a cooperative act for enhancing the collective welfare should moderate remedies of the former but not the latter type. An experiment, using 441 female undergraduates, is reported in which group communication and the efficacy of cooperation were manipulated. As expected if communication induced commitments, but contrary to the group identity explanation, efficacy did not moderate the effect of group discussion. Other analyses provided more direct evidence that group members made and honored commitments to cooperate.
Prediction of the Reference Evapotranspiration Using a Chaotic Approach

Evapotranspiration is one of the most important hydrological variables in the context of water resources management. An attempt was made to understand and predict the dynamics of reference evapotranspiration from a nonlinear dynamical perspective in this study. The reference evapotranspiration data was calculated using the FAO Penman-Monteith equation with the observed daily meteorological data for the period 1966–2005 at four meteorological stations (i.e., Baotou, Zhangbei, Kaifeng, and Shaoguan) representing a wide range of climatic conditions of China. The correlation dimension method was employed to investigate the chaotic behavior of the reference evapotranspiration series. The existence of chaos in the reference evapotranspiration series at the four different locations was proved by the finite and low correlation dimension. A local approximation approach was employed to forecast the daily reference evapotranspiration series. Low root mean square error (RSME) and mean absolute error (MAE) (for all locations lower than 0.31 and 0.24, resp.), high correlation coefficient (CC), and modified coefficient of efficiency (for all locations larger than 0.97 and 0.8, resp.) indicate that the predicted reference evapotranspiration agrees well with the observed one. The encouraging results indicate the suitableness of chaotic approach for understanding and predicting the dynamics of the reference evapotranspiration.
Differences in Antibody Response of Rabbit to Enterobacterial Antigen After Intravenous and Subcutaneous Injection with Adjuvant.∗

Summary The antibody response of the rabbit to administration of various enteric bacteria containing both O antigen and an antigen (CA) common to numerous enteric bacilli was studied with the following results: (1) Administration into the footpad of antigen from E. coli 0111 and 026, S. typhimurium, or S. flexneri, together with Freund's adjuvant, resulted in formation of both CA and O antibodies in high titer. Even a single injection of antigen and complete adjuvant proved to be effective. Complete adjuvant was more effective than incomplete adjuvant. (2) Antigen (supernate) alone injected into the footpad also engendered CA antibodies, although the titers were considerably lower than those obtained after administration with adjuvant. (3) Intravenous injection of these antigens did not result in production of CA antibodies in high titer, but O antibody titers were similar to those achieved with adjuvant. (4) Intravenous administration of S. typhimurium antigen into animals injected previously with Freund's adjuvant into the footpad, failed to elicit CA antibody production. (5) Feeding of viable E. coli 014 led to a moderate CA antibody response. In contrast, feeding of S. sonnei or E. coli 0111 engendered O antibodies but not CA antibodies.
The case for lifetime reliability-aware microprocessors

Ensuring long processor lifetimes by limiting failures due to wear-out related hard errors is a critical requirement for all microprocessor manufacturers. We observe that continuous device scaling and increasing temperatures are making lifetime reliability targets even harder to meet. However, current methodologies for qualifying lifetime reliability are overly conservative since they assume worst-case operating conditions. This paper makes the case that the continued use of such methodologies will significantly and unnecessarily constrain performance. Instead, lifetime reliability awareness at the microarchitectural design stage can mitigate this problem, by designing processors that dynamically adapt in response to the observed usage to meet a reliability target. We make two specific contributions. First, we describe an architecture-level model and its implementation, called RAMP, that can dynamically track lifetime reliability, responding to changes in application behavior. RAMP is based on state-of-the-art device models for different wear-out mechanisms. Second, we propose dynamic reliability management (DRM) - a technique where the processor can respond to changing application behavior to maintain its lifetime reliability target. In contrast to current worst-case behavior based reliability qualification methodologies, DRM allows processors to be qualified for reliability at lower (but more likely) operating points than the worst case. Using RAMP, we show that this can save cost and/or improve performance, that dynamic voltage scaling is an effective response technique for DRM, and that dynamic thermal management neither subsumes nor is subsumed by DRM.