Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sources of Listening Anxiety in Learning English as a Foreign Language

In this study of college students' listening anxiety in learning English in a classroom context, participants were 160 students (47 men and 113 women) ages 18 to 19 years. To address their listening anxiety, participants were chosen from students enrolling in a required listening course. A listening questionnaire was used to assess learners' anxiety about spoken English, its intensity, and the main sources of listening anxiety. Overall, participants showed moderately high intensity of anxiety in listening to spoken English, but were more anxious in testing than in general situations. In contrast to previous research on the nature of spoken English as the main source of listening anxiety, this study found that low confidence in comprehending spoken English, taking English listening courses as a requirement, and worrying about test difficulty were the three main factors contributing to participants' listening anxiety in a classroom context. Participants' learning profiles both in the classroom and outside the class yielded data which provides suggestions for reducing anxiety.
Kalman Filter Based Detection and Mitigation of Subsynchronous Resonance with SSSC

In a long transmission line the use of static series synchronous compensation (SSSC) with fixed series capacitor enables fast control of power flow. There is a potential risk of subsynchronous resonance (SSR) due to the series capacitor. In this paper, we propose to use the Kalman filter (KF) for state estimation of subsynchronous components present in series compensated line and the mitigation of SSR. This novel KF based SSR damping controller is referred to as KF-damping controller. The design of KF-damping controller is based on the magnitude of damping torque in the range of torsional mode frequencies. We apply the genetic algorithm to optimize the controller parameters. The proposed KF-damping controller is highly frequency selective and effectively suppresses subsynchronous components of line current in the presence of close frequency oscillations. Analytical and simulation results at various system operating conditions demonstrate the effectiveness and robustness of the proposed KF-damping controller in mitigating SSR.
de-Sitter space, (D)pp-waves and star-matrix model

We consider de Sitter spacetime solutions and the corresponding de Sitter kind of plane-wave solution in M* theory which is a (2+9)-dimensional theory. We attempt to write down corresponding matrix model which is found to have explicit negative energy mass terms as well as ghost-like kinetic terms for the matrix valued fields.
Hyperresponsiveness to ET‐1 After Treatment with a Mixture of ETA and ETB Receptor Antagonists in the Rabbit In Vivo and In Vitro

Summary: We tested the reversibility of the response to endothelin-1 (ET-1) in the rabbit renal vasculature after termination of an infusion of either a selective ETA receptor antagonist, BQ-123, a selective ETB receptor antagonist, BQ-788, or a mixture of both antagonists. Previous studies from our laboratory have shown that, as in humans, vasoconstriction of the rabbit renal vasculature induced by ET-1 is mediated solely via the activation of ETA receptors. Therefore, a 15-min infusion of BQ-123 (1 μM) prevented the vasoconstrictor response to ET-1 (10 nM). Sixty minutes after the end of the infusion, the vasoconstrictor response to ET-1 was fully restored to control levels. Conversely, when the selective ETB receptor antagonist was administered, the vasoconstrictor response to ET-1 was markedly potentiated. After the infusion of the antagonist was ended there was no further potentiation of the response to ET-1. Co-infusion of supramaximal concentrations of BQ-123 (1 μM) and BQ-788 (10 nM) still reduced by about 90% the vasoconstrictor response to ET-1. However, after removal of the antagonists, the vasoconstriction to ET-1 was potentiated by more than 75% compared to control (n = 8; p < 0.05). Similarly, a mixture of both antagonists was less effective than BQ-123 alone in reducing the pressor effect of ET-1 in anesthetized rabbits. These results show that blockade of ETB receptors produces marked potentiation in the vasoconstrictor responses to ET-1. Furthermore, a rebound hyperresponsiveness is found after treatment with a mixture of BQ-123 and BQ-788. These results suggest that the systemic and renal vasculatures would respond to ET-1 with enhanced vasoconstriction after treatment with mixed ETA/ETB receptor antagonists owing to the slow reversibility of the antagonism of the ETB receptor-mediated release of nitric oxide.
The First Detection of Gravitational Waves

This article deals with the first detection of gravitational waves by the advanced Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory (LIGO) detectors on 14 September 2015, where the signal was generated by two stellar mass black holes with masses 36 M ⊙ and 29 M ⊙ that merged to form a 62 M ⊙ black hole, releasing 3 M ⊙ energy in gravitational waves, almost 1.3 billion years ago. We begin by providing a brief overview of gravitational waves, their sources and the gravitational wave detectors. We then describe in detail the first detection of gravitational waves from a binary black hole merger. We then comment on the electromagnetic follow up of the detection event with various telescopes. Finally, we conclude with the discussion on the tests of gravity and fundamental physics with the first gravitational wave detection event.
Comparison of quality degradation effects caused by limitation of bandwidth and by down-mix algorithms in consumer multichannel audio delivery systems

The comparative effect on audio quality of controlled multichannel audio bandwidth limitation and selected downmix algorithms was examined. The investigation was focused on the standard 5.1 multichannel audio set-up (Rec. ITU-R BS.775-1) and was limited to the optimum listening position. The obtained results indicate that in case of multichannel audio systems spatial quality is less important than timbral quality for typical programme material.
Examining the Relationship between Contextual Dimensions of Organization and Organizational Climate According to Weisbord Six-Box Model

This study investigates the relationship between contextual dimensions of organization and organizational climate. In order to examine the association between these two variables, library research as well as administering questionnaire was utilized. The employed questionnaire enjoys Alpha Cronbach of 0.91, sufficiently enough to support reliability. Descriptive statistics was used to analyze data obtained from the questionnaire and the most important tests were KMO test and Spearman correlation coefficient. This research is applied and concerning procedure, it is correlational descriptive. The statistical population is 85 staffs of telecommunication management of Borujerd that among them a sample of 70 staffs were selected through simple random sampling based on Morgan's table for determining sample size. Analysis of results demonstrated that there are significant relationships between contextual dimensions of organization (goals, environment, size, technology and organizational culture) and organizational climate.
Role of the constitutive androstane receptor in obesity and type 2 diabetes: a case study of the endobiotic function of a xenobiotic receptor

The constitutive androstane receptor (CAR, NR1I3) is a member of the nuclear receptor superfamily. Initially recognized as a xenobiotic receptor, CAR has been increasingly appreciated for its endobiotic functions in influencing glucose and lipid metabolism, whose dysregulations are implicated in the most prevalent metabolic disorders, such as obesity and type 2 diabetes. Given the metabolic benefits of CAR activation, CAR may represent an attractive therapeutic target to manage obesity and type 2 diabetes. Further studies are necessary to understand the mechanisms of action of CAR in metabolic diseases and to determine the human relevance of the antidiabetic effect of CAR.
Filter design for a compressive sensing delay and Doppler estimation framework

The theory of compressive sensing (CS) aims to find efficient signal acquisition and recovery techniques with the aid of prior knowledge about the signal. While traditionally applied to sparse vectors, CS has been extended to analog signals with more general structures. The use of CS in delay and Doppler estimation in radar application has recently received attention from the signal processing community. In this paper, we adopt one of the available CS frameworks for delay and Doppler estimation and optimize the deployed filter in this framework. The optimization criterion is the Bayesian Crámer Rao Bound of delay estimation and Doppler in general additive Gaussian interference. An iterative algorithm is proposed to solve the optimization problem and the results are compared with the prototype filter design available in the literature.
Ménière's disease: a reappraisal supported by a variable latency of symptoms and the MRI visualisation of endolymphatic hydrops

Objectives To evaluate the onset of vertigo, hearing loss and tinnitus in Ménière's disease and the associated endolymphatic hydrops (EH) of the inner ear. Design Multicentre evaluation of three patient groups. Settings Disease-specific symptoms were reviewed among referred patients in a tertiary referral hospital in Finland and in members of a Finnish Ménière Association in Finland. The MRI of a separate group of patients was undertaken in a tertiary referral centre in Japan. Participants 340 patients were reviewed in the referral hospital along with 740 members of the Ménière Association. MRI was undertaken in 224 patients in Japan. Primary and secondary outcome measures Latency and symptom development in Ménière's disease, and the appearance of EH of the inner ear in monosymptomatic patients and in Ménière's disease. Results The mean age of the first symptom was 43.8 years, with 10% of the patients being older than 65 years. The time delay between hearing loss and vertigo was more than 5 years in 20% of the members and of the patients. Gadolinium-contrasted MRI demonstrated EH in 90% of the patients with Ménière's disease, in which 75% was bilateral among patients with unilateral symptoms. In monosymptomatic patients with vertigo, tinnitus or hearing loss; EH was demonstrated in 55–90% of the patients either in the cochlea and/or the vestibulum of the symptomatic ear. Conclusions Ménière's disease often shows bilateral EH and comprises a continuum from a monosymptomatic disease to the typical symptom complex of the disease. We suggest that a 3T MRI measurement should be carried out in patients with sensory-neural hearing loss, vertigo and tinnitus, 4 h after the intravenous injection of a gadolinium-contrast agent to verify the inner ear pathology. This may lead to a better management of the condition.
Increased carotid intima–media thickness is not associated with T-cell activation nor with cytomegalovirus in HIV-infected never-smoker patients

Objectives:Increased risk of cardiovascular disease in patients infected with HIV has been attributed to immune activation, inflammation, and immunosenescence, all of which are linked to chronic immune activation by viral infections, particularly cytomegalovirus (CMV). Our aim is to evaluate the impact of these atherogenic markers in HIV-infected patients who never smoked. Design:Exposure-matched, cross-sectional study. Methods:In 59 HIV-infected individuals [n = 30 undergoing ≥4 years of antiretroviral therapy (ART); n = 29 never treated with ART] and 30 age-matched HIV-negative controls, we measured the level of activation and senescence, as well as the frequency of CMV-specific T cells, on peripheral blood mononuclear cells, while examining their association with carotid intima–media thickness. Partial correlations were adjusted for age, systolic blood pressure, and nadir CD4+ cell count. Results:The previously described roles of T-cell activation, CMV, and immunosenescence in the atherosclerotic risk of HIV-infected patients, as assessed by carotid intima–media thickness, were not apparent in our cohort of particularly ‘healthy’ HIV-infected never-smokers. Conclusion:In HIV-infected individuals at low cardiovascular disease risk, our data show that the increased risk of carotid atherosclerosis is not associated with immunological markers described to be associated with HIV disease progression.
Changes in performance, skinfold thicknesses, and fat patterning after three years of intense athletic conditioning in high level runners

Objectives: To determine if the changes in specific skinfold sites induced by intense athletic conditioning over a three year period were associated with changes in running performance in high level athletes. Methods: Thirty seven top class runners (eight male and five female sprint trained, 16 male and eight female endurance trained) volunteered to participate in the study. The athletes were divided into class A (n = 18) and class B (n = 17), with class A having the best performance. Biceps, triceps, subscapular, pectoral, iliac crest, abdominal, front thigh, and medial calf skinfold thickness and the best running performance were recorded at the beginning and after one, two, and three years of training. A one way analysis of variance and a linear regression analysis were conducted to determine changes and association between performance and skinfold thicknesses. Analyses were controlled for sex, sprint event or endurance event, and class. Results: Training resulted in a significant increase in performance and decreases in sum of six skinfolds, abdominal, front thigh, and medial calf skinfolds, and the ratio of extremity to trunk skinfolds (E/T, ∑triceps, front thigh, medial calf/∑subscapular, iliac crest, abdominal). There were no significant differences in body weight. Except for the abdominal skinfold, there was no significant difference in trunk skinfolds. Significant differences in these changes were observed by sex for E/T, which decreased and increased in male and female runners respectively, and by class. Class B runners significantly improved performance, with decreased skinfold thicknesses in the lower limb. There were no significant changes in performance or skinfold thicknesses in class A runners. Improvements in performance were consistently associated with a decrease in the lower limb skinfolds. Conclusions: On the basis of these findings, anthropometric assessment of top class athletes should include an evaluation of all skinfolds. The loss of body fat appears to be specific to the muscular groups used during training. The lower limb skinfolds may be particularly useful predictors of running performance.
Studies concerning functional differences between liver regions supplied by the hepatic artery and by the portal vein.

The small bile ducts in the liver of a number of species are enmeshed by a vascular plexus, supplied largely by the hepatic artery (1-3). This peribiliary arterial plexus has been considered by some as evidence that the bile duct epithelia might play an important and active role in the secretion of bile, possibly even to the exclusion of the parenchymal cells (4, 5). In support of this view, it was reported that in the dog the dye sulfobromophthalein sodium (BSP) is removed more completely, and for longer periods of time, when infused into the hepatic artery than when it reaches the liver by way of the portal vein. Since the vascular pathways traversed are common for both routes of injection, except for the intercalation of the peribiliary plexus in the path of part of the arterial blood, this was the site where the extra BSP uptake was thought to take place (6). By way of interpretation the possibility was suggested that BSP is preferentially excreted into bile when taken up by the tissues supplied by this plexus, i.e., by the smaller bile ducts. No direct test of this hypothesis was undertaken, however. With the availability of S35-labeled BSP (7) the possibility suggested itself of using this material in conjunction with nonradioactive BSP to trace quantitatively two simultaneous BSP injections from two injection sites-portal vein and hepatic artery, for example-into bile, and thus to subject the concept of preferential biliary excretion of intra-arterially administered BSP to a critical test. To validate the results of any such experiments requires some further analysis of the qualitative pattern of BSP excretion into bile and of the degree to which this might vary with the route by which the dye reaches the liver, as well as of the
Calpain activation in apoptosis of ventral spinal cord 4.1 (VSC4.1) motoneurons exposed to glutamate: Calpain inhibition provides functional neuroprotection

Glutamate toxicity has been implicated in cell death in neurodegenerative diseases and injuries. Glutamate‐induced Ca2+ influx may mediate activation of calpain, a Ca2+‐dependent cysteine protease, which in turn may degrade key cytoskeletal proteins. We investigated glutamate‐mediated apoptosis of VSC4.1 motoneurons and functional neuroprotection by calpain inhibition. Exposure of VSC4.1 cells to 10 μM glutamate for 24 hr caused significant increases in intracellular free [Ca2+], as determined by fura‐2 assay. Pretreatment of cells with 10 or 25 μM calpeptin (a cell‐permeable calpain‐specific inhibitor) for 1 hr prevented glutamate‐induced Ca2+ influx. Western blot analyses showed an increase in Bax:Bcl‐2 ratio, release of cytochrome c from mitochondria, and calpain and caspase‐3 activities during apoptosis. Cell morphology, as evaluated by Wright staining, indicated predominantly apoptotic features following glutamate exposure. ApopTag assay further substantiated apoptotic features morphologically as well as biochemically. Our data showed that calpeptin mainly prevented calpain‐mediated proteolysis and apoptosis and maintained whole‐cell membrane potential, indicating functional neuroprotection. The results imply that calpeptin may serve as a therapeutic agent for preventing motoneuron degeneration, which occurs in amyotrophic lateral sclerosis and spinal cord injury. In this investigation, we also examined glutamate receptor subtypes involved in the initiation of apoptosis in VSC4.1 cells following exposure to glutamate. Our results indicated that the N‐methyl‐D‐aspartate (NMDA) receptors contributed more than α‐amino‐3‐hydroxy‐5‐methyl‐isoxazole‐4‐propionic acid (AMPA) receptors to glutamate‐mediated Ca2+ influx and cell death mechanism. Inhibition of the activities of both NMDA and AMPA receptors protected VSC4.1 cells from glutamate toxicity and preserved whole‐cell membrane potential. © 2005 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
An iterative method to solve symmetric positive definite matrix equations

Let A : R m◊n ! R m◊n be a symmetric positive definite linear operator. In this paper, we propose an iterative algorithm to solve the general matrix equation A(X) = C which includes the Lyapunov matrix equation and Sylvester matrix equation as special cases. It is proved that the sequence of the approximate solutions, obtained by the presented algorithm, satisfies an optimality condition. More precisely, the application of the proposed method is investigated for solving the Sylvester matrix equation S(X) = C, where S is the well-known Sylvester operator S(X) = AX+XB. In order to illustrate the eectiveness of the algorithm, two numerical examples are given.
Metabolomics technology and bioinformatics for precision medicine

Precision medicine is rapidly emerging as a strategy to tailor medical treatment to a small group or even individual patients based on their genetics, environment and lifestyle. Precision medicine relies heavily on developments in systems biology and omics disciplines, including metabolomics. Combination of metabolomics with sophisticated bioinformatics analysis and mathematical modeling has an extreme power to provide a metabolic snapshot of the patient over the course of disease and treatment or classifying patients into subpopulations and subgroups requiring individual medical treatment. Although a powerful approach, metabolomics have certain limitations in technology and bioinformatics. We will review various aspects of metabolomics technology and bioinformatics, from data generation, bioinformatics analysis, data fusion and mathematical modeling to data management, in the context of precision medicine.
A Ghost Cell Expansion Method for Reducing Communications in Solving PDE Problems

In solving Partial Di.erential Equations, such as the Barotropic equations in ocean models, on Distributed Memory Computers, . nite di.erence methods are commonly used. Most often, processor subdomain boundaries must be updated at each time step. This boundary update process involves many messages of small sizes, therefore large communication overhead. Here we propose a new approach which expands the ghost cell layers and thus updates boundaries much less frequently — reducing total message volume and groupping small messages into bigger ones. Together with a technique for eliminating diagonal communications, the method speedup communication substantially, upto 170%. We explain the method and implementation in details, provide systematic timing results and performance analysis on the Cray T3E and IBM SP.
Genetic analysis of the archaeon Methanosarcina barkeri Fusaro reveals a central role for Ech hydrogenase and ferredoxin in methanogenesis and carbon fixation

Ech hydrogenase (Ech) from the methanogenic archaeon Methanosarcina barkeri catalyzes the reversible reduction of ferredoxin by H2 and is a member of a distinct group of membrane-bound [NiFe] hydrogenases with sequence similarity to energy-conserving NADH:quinone oxidoreductase (complex I). To elucidate the physiological role(s) of Ech a mutant lacking this enzyme was constructed. The mutant was unable to grow on methanol/H2/CO2, H2/CO2, or acetate as carbon and energy sources but showed wild-type growth rates with methanol as sole substrate. Addition of pyruvate to the growth medium restored growth on methanol/H2/CO2 but not on H2/CO2 or acetate. Results obtained from growth experiments, cell suspension experiments, and enzyme activity measurements in cell extracts provide compelling evidence for essential functions of Ech and a 2[4Fe-4S] ferredoxin in the metabolism of M. barkeri. The following conclusions were made. (i) In acetoclastic methanogenesis, Ech catalyzes H2 formation from reduced ferredoxin, generated by the oxidation of the carbonyl group of acetate to CO2. (ii) Under autotrophic growth conditions, the enzyme catalyzes the energetically unfavorable reduction of ferredoxin by H2, most probably driven by reversed electron transport, and the reduced ferredoxin thus generated functions as low potential electron donor for the synthesis of pyruvate in an anabolic pathway. (iii) Reduced ferredoxin in addition provides the reducing equivalents for the first step of methanogenesis from H2/CO2, the reduction of CO2 to formylmethanofuran. Thus, in vivo genetic analysis has led to the identification of the electron donor of this key initial step of methanogenesis.