Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Psychological Traits Affecting Both Cultural Adaptation and Foreign Language Acquisition

This empirical study goes a long way in determining the psychometric variables that predict individual differences in terms of the degree of success in both cultural adaptation and foreign language acquisition (FLA). Ever since Schumann (1978) introduced his Acculturation Model, the most well-known attempt to link cultural adaptation with FLA, a number of empirical studies have sought to determine these psychometric variables with mixed results due to the wide variation in the research methodologies applied in terms of learning targets, achievement measures, types of treatment, etc. (D.rnyei, 2005). This study overcomes the weaknesses of many previous studies. The experiment involved 86 Chinese students studying at a major private Japanese university in Japan. The 16 psychometric scales of the Kozai Group’s Global Competency Inventory (GCI), a validated psychometric instrument for measuring psychological traits affecting success in cultural adaptation, were employed as independent variables. The dependent variable was “Japanese Ability” in terms of oral/aural performance measured by six native Japanese raters reviewing video-recorded individual structured interviews conducted in Japanese with the Chinese students by a Japanese native speaker. Out of the 16 GCI psychometric scales, 14 demonstrated highly significant associations with the “Japanese Ability” of the Chinese students participating in the study. The results are very promising in elucidating the psychological traits modulating both cultural adaptation and foreign language acquisition.
A Pull-in Based Test Mechanism for Device Diagnostic and Process Characterization

A test technique for capacitive MEMS accelerometers and electrostatic microactuators, based on the measurement of pull-in voltages and resonance frequency, is described. Using this combination of measurements, one can estimate process-induced variations in the device layout dimensions as well as deviations from nominal value in material properties, which can be used either for testing or device diagnostics purposes. Measurements performed on fabricated devices confirm that the 250 nm overetch observed on SEM images can be correctly estimated using the proposed technique.
A Trace Conjecture and Flag-Transitive Affine Planes

For any odd prime power q, all (q2? q+1)th roots of unity clearly lie in the extension field Fq6 of the Galois field Fq of q elements. It is easily shown that none of these roots of unity have trace ? 2, and the only such roots of trace ? 3 must be primitive cube roots of unity which do not belong to Fq. Here the trace is taken from Fq6 to Fq. Computer based searching verified that indeed ? 2 and possibly ? 3 were the only values omitted from the traces of these roots of unity for all odd q? 200. In this paper we show that this fact holds for all odd prime powers q. As an application, all odd order three-dimensional flag-transitive affine planes admitting a cyclic transitive action on the line at infinity are enumerated.
Web cache replacement policies: a pragmatic approach

Research involving Web cache replacement policy has been active for at least a decade. In this-article we would like to claim that there is a sufficient number of good policies, and further proposals would only produce minute improvements. We argue that the focus should be fitness for purpose rather than proposing any new policies. Up to now, almost all policies were purported to perform better than others, creating confusion as to which policy should be used. Actually, a policy only performs well in certain environments. Therefore, the goal of this article is to identify the appropriate policies for proxies with different characteristics, such as proxies with a small cache, limited bandwidth, and limited processing power, as well as suggest policies for different types of proxies, such as ISP-level and root-level proxies
Evaluation of ENA-6 Profile by ELISA Immunoassay in Patients with Systemic Lupus Erythematodes

Autoimmune diseases occur in 3−5% of the population. Study included 30 patients with clinically diagnosed SLE and 30 healthy controls (American college of Rheumatology, 1997). SLE was diagnosed according to criteria issued in 1997 by the American College of Rheumatology (ACR). The aim of this study was to evaluate concentration values of each antigen of ENA-6 profile in SLE, to investigate possible correlation between the concentration of Sm antibodies and CIC, and to test their use as possible immunobiological markers in SLE. Furthermore, the aim of our study was to determine whether there is a correlation between Sm antibodies and CIC and SLE activity. The results revealed that all of these ENA-6 and Sm antibodies as biomarkers complement diagnoses of active SLE but their use as solo markers does not allow classifying patients with SLE. Our study has shown that based on calculations from ROC curves, Sm/RNP was clearly a very important marker for diagnosis of SLE (cut off ≥ 9.56 EU, AUC 0,942). The high incidence of Scl-70 (10%) reactivity suggests that ELISA monitoring of this antibody produces more false positive results than other multiplex assay. An important conclusion that can be drawn from the results of our study is that laboratory tests are no more effective than clinical examination for detecting disease relapse, but are helpful in the confirmation of SLE activity.
Multidimensional clustering based collaborative filtering approach for diversified recommendation

This paper presents a hybrid recommendation approach that is used for discovering potential information with multidimensional clustering in recommender systems. This facilitates to obtain user groups for improving effectiveness and diversity of recommendation. The proposed algorithm works in three phases. In first phase, user groups are collected in the form of user profile, which applied multidimensional clustering algorithm and stored in the database for future recommendation. In second phase, the appropriate clusters are chosen using pruning of clusters. In third phase, the recommendations are generated for target user with similarity measures and quality rating prediction. The performance of proposed approach is evaluated using a public movie dataset and compared with two representative recommendation algorithms. The experimental results demonstrate that our proposed approach performs superiorly and alleviates problems, such as cold-start and data sparsity in collaborative filtering recommendation.
Activation of Protein Kinase G Upregulates Expression of 15-Lipoxygenase-1 in Human Colon Cancer Cells

Recent studies indicate that the induction of apoptosis in human colon cancer cells by certain nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs involves increased expression of 15-LOX-1 and synthesis of its major product 13-S-hydroxyoctadecadienoic acid (13-S-HODE). Evidence was obtained that this occurs via a cyclooxygenase-2 (COX-2)–independent mechanism, but the actual mechanism of induction of 15-LOX-1 by these compounds is not known. There is extensive evidence that treatment of SW480 human colon cancer cells with sulindac sulfone (Exisulind, Aptosyn) or the related derivative OSI-461, both of which inhibit cyclic GMP (cGMP)-phosphodiesterases but lack COX-2 inhibitory activity, causes an increase in intracellular levels of cGMP, thus activating protein kinase G (PKG), which then activates pathways that lead to apoptosis. Therefore, in the present study, we examined the effects of various agents that cause increased cellular levels of cGMP on the expression of 15-LOX-1 in SW480 human colon cancer cells. Treatment of the cells with Exisulind, sulindac sulfide, OSI-461, the guanylyl cyclase activator YC-1, or the cell-permeable cGMP compound 8-para-chlorophenylthio-cGMP (8-pCPT-cGMP) caused an increase in cellular levels of 15-LOX-1. Exisulind, OSI-461, and 8-pCPT-cGMP also increased mRNA levels of 15LOX-1, suggesting that the effects were at the level of transcription. The cGMP-phosphodiesterase inhibitors and YC-1 increased the production of 13-S-HODE, which is the linoleic acid metabolite of 15-LOX-1. Treatment of SW480 cells with the PKG inhibitor Rp-8-pCPT-cGMP blocked Exisulindinduced 15-LOX-1 expression. Furthermore, derivatives of SW480 cells that were engineered to stably overexpress wildtype PKG IB displayed increased cellular levels of 15-LOX-1 when compared with vector control cells. Taken together, these results provide evidence that the cGMP/PKG pathway can play an important role in the induction of 15-LOX-1 expression by nonsteroidal antiinflammatory drugs and related agents. (Cancer Res 2005; 65(18): 8442-47)
MicroRNA 10a Marks Regulatory T Cells

MicroRNAs (miRNAs) are crucial for regulatory T cell (Treg) stability and function. We report that microRNA-10a (miR-10a) is expressed in Tregs but not in other T cells including individual thymocyte subsets. Expression profiling in inbred mouse strains demonstrated that non-obese diabetic (NOD) mice with a genetic susceptibility for autoimmune diabetes have lower Treg-specific miR-10a expression than C57BL/6J autoimmune resistant mice. Inhibition of miR-10a expression in vitro leads to reduced FoxP3 expression levels and miR-10a expression is lower in unstable “exFoxP3” T cells. Unstable in vitro TGF-ß-induced, iTregs do not express miR-10a unless cultured in the presence of retinoic acid (RA) which has been associated with increased stability of iTreg, suggesting that miR-10a might play a role in stabilizing Treg. However, genetic ablation of miR-10a neither affected the number and phenotype of natural Treg nor the capacity of conventional T cells to induce FoxP3 in response to TGFβ, RA, or a combination of the two. Thus, miR-10a is selectively expressed in Treg but inhibition by antagomiRs or genetic ablation resulted in discordant effects on FoxP3.
A Detailed, Accurate, Extensive, Available English Lexical Database

We present an English lexical database which is fuller, more accurate and more consistent than any other. We believe this to be so because the project has been well-planned, with a 12-month intensive planning phase prior to the lexicography beginning; well-resourced, employing a team of fifteen highly experienced lexicographers for a thirty-month main phase; it has had access to the latest corpus and dictionary-editing technology; it has not been constrained to meet any goals other than an accurate description of the language; and it has been led by a team with singular experience in delivering high-quality and innovative resources. The lexicon will be complete in Summer 2010 and will be available for NLP groups, on terms designed to encourage its research use.
CDV/DT INDUCED TURN-ON IN SYNCHRONOUS BUCK REGULATORS

Cdv/dt induced turn-on of the synchronous MOSFET deteriorates performance in synchronous buck regulators. We will discuss this problem and provide several solutions that can reduce the effects. SYNCHRONOUS BUCK REGULATOR Synchronous buck topology is becoming popular in powering ultra-fast CPU cores. A standard buck circuit is shown in Figure 1(a) and a synchronous buck is shown in Figure 1(b). As shown in Figure 1(b), by replacing the freewheeling diode with a MOSFET, the standard buck regulator is converted into a synchronous buck topology. This topology will provide higher efficiency than the standard buck circuit. Typically a Schottky diode is paralleled with MOSFET Q2 but is omitted from this paper because it is not required to understand and solve the Cdv/dt induced turn-on problem. Ideal synchronous buck regulator waveforms are illustrated in Figure 2(a). The control MOSFET Q1 is used to regulate the output voltage by adjusting its duty factor. When Q1 is turned off, the inductor current of Lout continues to flow through either the synchronous MOSFET Q2 or its body diode. Figure 1. (a) Standard buck topology. (b) Synchronous buck topology. Figure 2. (a) Ideal waveforms in a synchronous buck voltage regulator; (b) waveforms due to Cdv/dt induced turn-on at Q2. Dead-times, td12 and td21 as shown in Figure 2(a) are introduced to prevent the cross conduction that would occur if Q1 and Q2 gate drive signals were overlapped. During the dead time, only the body diode of Q2 conducts and the drain voltage of Q2 is clamped to minus one diode
A Blind Image Watermarking Based on Dual Detector

This paper presents a blind image watermarking technique based on a novel detection scheme which contains two detectors aiming at the positive attack and negative attack, respectively. The analysis on signal processing attack indicates that there exist unreliable transformed coefficients in the attacked image which result in errors of the extraction of watermark data. The novel detection scheme removes the unreliable transformed coefficients and employs the remaining reliable coefficients for the extraction of embedded watermark. The experimental results indicate the proposed technique improves robustness significantly, as compared to the existing single detector scheme.
Modelling Arterial Pressure Waveforms Using Gaussian Functions and Two-Stage Particle Swarm Optimizer

Changes of arterial pressure waveform characteristics have been accepted as risk indicators of cardiovascular diseases. Waveform modelling using Gaussian functions has been used to decompose arterial pressure pulses into different numbers of subwaves and hence quantify waveform characteristics. However, the fitting accuracy and computation efficiency of current modelling approaches need to be improved. This study aimed to develop a novel two-stage particle swarm optimizer (TSPSO) to determine optimal parameters of Gaussian functions. The evaluation was performed on carotid and radial artery pressure waveforms (CAPW and RAPW) which were simultaneously recorded from twenty normal volunteers. The fitting accuracy and calculation efficiency of our TSPSO were compared with three published optimization methods: the Nelder-Mead, the modified PSO (MPSO), and the dynamic multiswarm particle swarm optimizer (DMS-PSO). The results showed that TSPSO achieved the best fitting accuracy with a mean absolute error (MAE) of 1.1% for CAPW and 1.0% for RAPW, in comparison with 4.2% and 4.1% for Nelder-Mead, 2.0% and 1.9% for MPSO, and 1.2% and 1.1% for DMS-PSO. In addition, to achieve target MAE of 2.0%, the computation time of TSPSO was only 1.5 s, which was only 20% and 30% of that for MPSO and DMS-PSO, respectively.
INFORMATION THEORETIC AND PROBABILISTIC MEASURES FOR POWER ANALYSIS OF DIGITAL CIRCUITS

ii To my family iii Acknowledgments I would like to thank my advisor, Professor Massoud Pedram, for his continuous support, guidance and encouragement throughout the process of working towards my Ph.D. degree. I am deeply grateful for his support in difficult moments and for being not only my advisor, but also a friend. Special thanks to his wife, Afsane, who always encouraged me during my last years as a doctoral student. Many thanks to Professors Melvin Breuer and Michael Arbib for serving in my thesis committee and for giving me key advice during my last year as a doctoral student. I would also like to thank my colleagues in the Low Power CAD group at USC, especially Chi-Ying Tsui and Chih-Shun Ding for interesting and stimulating discussions. Also, I cannot omit from my acknowledgment list the people who guided and influenced my career even before it started: my elementary school teacher Veronica Marinescu, who introduced me to the wonderful world of mathematics; from " Politehnica " University of Bucharest, Professors Octavian Stanasila and Paul Flondor of the Department of Mathematics who were my mathematics mentors during my college years; Professor Cristian Giumale of the Department of Computer Science who taught me how to be a good computer scientist; and my Master's thesis advisor, Professor Irina Athanasiu of the Department of Computer Science, who encouraged me to pursue an academic career. Last, but not least, I would like to thank to the ones without whom this would have never been possible, my family: especially to my husband Radu and my son Andrei, for helping me and being a constant and loving support in every difficult moment, and to my parents Gina and Adrian, and my sister Daniela for encouraging me and believing in me.
Optimization of Tokamak Poloidal Field Configuration by Genetic Algorithms

The design of the poloidal field system in tokamaks is a lengthy procedure due to functional dependence of design parameters on pre-assumed plasma parameters. Therefore changing an individual design parameter could in principle influence the overall design. This complicated task could easily lead to non-optimal final results. In the paper it is shown that genetic algorithms, as powerful optimization methods, are useful in approaching an optimal design. The work may be extended to the whole plasma scenario and magnetic configuration in other small and large scale systems.
Modeling the effect of task interdependence on the relationship between transactive memory systems (TMS) quality and team performance

Task interdependence within teams is critical towards the team's performance. However, there has not been strong support in examining the effect of task interdependence on the relationship between Transactive Memory Systems (TMS) quality and team performance. Using a survey, this research examines the potential effects of the moderating and mediating effects between task interdependence towards team performance. A partial support was found in the mediating effect between task interdependence and team performance. However, a significant negative effect was obtained in the moderating effect between TMS quality and team performance. Both of these findings provide empirical evidence of the possible effects of the task interdependence between TMS quality and team performance.
Winning Through Cheating or Creativity: How Emotions Influence Behavioral Choice in Competition

In this paper we investigate the role of emotions in determining when and why employees try to beat competitors using creativity versus resorting to unethical behaviors. Building on theories of action and appraisal tendencies, we propose that when competition elicits anxiety, people will be more likely to focus on how they can increase their performance through unethical means. Drawing on theories of positive emotions and creativity, we predict that when competition elicits excitement, people will be more likely to strive for creative means to get ahead of their competitors. We tested these ideas experimentally with a sample of managers in a large retail bank. We find that when a negative career outcome was salient, managers experienced more anxiety in response to the competition, and subsequently were more likely they were to respond unethically to typical scenarios. When a positive career outcome was salient, managers experienced more excitement in response to the competition, and subsequently were more likely to choose creative rather than unethical behaviors.
Probabilistic model for definitional question answering

This paper proposes a probabilistic model for definitional question answering (QA) that reflects the characteristics of the definitional question. The intention of the definitional question is to request the definition about the question target. Therefore, an answer for the definitional question should contain the content relevant to the topic of the target, and have a representation form of the definition style. Modeling the problem of definitional QA from both the topic and definition viewpoints, the proposed probabilistic model converts the task of answering the definitional questions into that of estimating the three language models: topic language model, definition language model, and general language model. The proposed model systematically combines several evidences in a probabilistic framework. Experimental results show that a definitional QA system based on the proposed probabilistic model is comparable to state-of-the-art systems.
Seeing and being seen: Co-situation and impression formation using Grindr, a location-aware gay dating app

While online spaces and communities were once seen to transcend geography, the ubiquity of location-aware mobile devices means that today’s online interactions are deeply intertwined with offline places and relationships. Systems such as online dating applications for meeting nearby others provide novel social opportunities, but can also complicate interaction by aggregating or “co-situating” diverse sets of individuals. Often this aggregation occurs across traditional spatial or community boundaries that serve as cues for self-presentation and impression formation. This paper explores these issues through an interview study of Grindr users. Grindr is a location-aware real-time dating application for men who have sex with men. We argue that co-situation affects how and whether Grindr users and their behavior are visible to others, collapses or erases contextual cues about normative behavior, and introduces tensions in users’ self-presentation in terms of their identifiability and the cues their profile contains relative to their behavior.
Bacterial production in fresh and saltwater ecosystems: a cross-system overview

Heterotrophic bacteria are thought to be important components of aquatic ecosystems in several ways. These bacteria remineralize organic materials and convert some organic material into bacterial biomass. We examined data from 70 studies in which estimates of production of heterotrophic bacterial biomass (bacterial production) were reported for freshand saltwater ecosystems. In sediments, bacterial production was sigdicantly (p <0.001), positively correlated to sediment organic C content. Systems which had hlgh rates of benthic primary production (such as coral reefs) had rates of bacterial production greater than those predicted by sediment organic C content alone. In the photic zone of lakes and the ocean, bacterial production was significantly correlated with planktonic primary production, chlorophyll a, or numbers of planktonic bacteria. For all planktonic systems analysed, bacterial production ranged from 0.4 to 150 pg C 1-' d-' and averaged 20 % (median 16.5 %) of planktonic primary production. On an area1 basis for the entire water column, bacterial production ranged from 118 to 2439 mg m-2 d-' and averaged 30 % (median 27 %) of water column primary production. Heterotrophic bacterial production is, thus, a large component of total secondary production and is roughly twice as large as the production of macrozooplankton for a given level of primary production.
Population PK/PD Model of Homocysteine Concentrations after High-Dose Methotrexate Treatment in Patients with Acute Lymphoblastic Leukemia

Elevated homocysteine concentrations have been associated with methotrexate-induced neurotoxicity. Based on methotrexate and homocysteine plasma concentrations of 494 children with acute lymphoblastic leukemia treated with high-dose methotrexate in the TOTAL XV study, a pharmacokinetic/pharmacodynamic (PK/PD) model was built with NONMEM. Several compartment and indirect response models were investigated. The pharmacokinetic disposition of methotrexate was best described by a two-compartment model. Homocysteine concentrations were included by an indirect response model where methotrexate inhibition of the homocysteine elimination rate was described by an Emax model. The homocysteine baseline level was found to be age-dependent. Simulations revealed that folinate rescue therapy does not affect peak concentrations of homocysteine but leads to a modestly reduced homocysteine exposure. In conclusion, our PK/PD model describes the increase of methotrexate-induced HCY concentrations with satisfactory precision and can be applied to assess the effect of folinate regimens on the HCY concentration-time course.