Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Use of Social Media and its Impact on Academic Performance of Tertiary Institution Students: A Study of Students of Koforidua Polytechnic, Ghana

The study sought to assess students’ use of social media and its effect on academic performance of tertiary institutions students in Ghana with a focus on Koforidua Polytechnic students. Questionnaire was used for collecting data. Out of one thousand five hundred and seventy-eight copies of the questionnaire distributed, one thousand five hundred and eight were retrieved which represented a response rate of 95.5 %. The study revealed that majority of the respondents had mobile phones which also had Internet facility on them and had knowledge of the existence of many media sites. The study further confirmed that most of the respondents visit their social media sites using their phones and spend between thirty minutes to three hours per day. In addition the study revealed that the use of social media sites had affected academic performance of the respondents negatively and that there was direct relationship between the use of social media sites and academic performance. The study recommends among others that, students with mobile phones having internet facility should be encouraged to use it to supplement their research in the library rather than the usual charting with friends all the time. Students should be encouraged to limit the time they spend on their social media sites per day and advise them to rather substitute those hours to read novels to improve their knowledge. Since the use of social media sites had affected the academic work of students negatively there is the urgent need for the introduction of students to the availability of novels and other information resources or materials that can help them academically.
4-(4-Hydroxybenzoyl)phenol monohydrate

The aromatic rings of the title compound, C13H10O3·H2O, are aligned at dihedral angles of 20.6 (1) and 40.8 (1)° with respect to the triangular Caryl–C(=O)–Caryl fragment. The hydroxy groups are each hydrogen-bond donors to separate water molecules, the water molecule itself being hydrogen-bonded to one hydroxy group and one carbonyl group. The water molecule exists in an unusual four-coordinate environment in the resulting layer structure.
La relación sueño-epilepsia

In this paper sleep/epilepsy interaction is analized. We review the sleep impact on epilepsy including the circadian presentation of seizures and the effects of NREM, REM and sleep deprivation on inctal and interictal epileptiform discharges. Inversely we describe the impact of individual seizures and anticonvulsant drugs on sleep structure. Finally recognition and treatment of sleep disorders coexisting in epileptic patients is important for optimizing their management and may improve seizure control and daytime alertness.
[Vitrectomy for vitreous hemorrhage caused by retinal vein occlusion].

OBJECTIVE To evaluate the efficacy and complications of vitrectomy for vitreous hemorrhage after retinal vein occlusion. METHODS We retrospectively studied 47 patients (47 eyes) having undergone vitrectomy during the period from April, 1992 to December, 1996. Follow-up was made on 30 patients. RESULTS (1) Visual acuity was improved postoperatively in 80% of the eyes. The patients with branch vein occlusion achieved more favorable final vision than those with central retinal vein occlusion (P < 0.05). (2) The most common complications were lens opacity, recurrent vitreous hemorrhage, iatrogenic rhegmatogenous retinal detachment and glaucoma. (3) Patients treated with endophotocoagulation had a lower rate of recurrent vitreous hemorrhage (P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS (1) More than half of the patients can achieve ambulant vision after vitrectomy for vitrous hemorrhage induced by retinal vein occlusion. (2) Recurrent vitreous hemorrhage can be effectively prevented by endophotocoagulation during the operation.
Dynamic structure from motion based on nonlinear adaptive observers

Structure and motion estimation from long image sequences is a an important and difficult problem in computer vision. We propose a novel approach based on nonlinear and adaptive observers based on a dynamic model of the motion. The estimation of the three-dimensional position and velocity of the camera as well as the three-dimensional structure of the scene is done by observing states and parameters of a nonlinear dynamic system, containing a perspective transformation in the output equation, often referred to as a perspective dynamic system. An advantage of the proposed method is that it is filter-based, i.e. it provides an estimate of structure and motion at each time instance, which is then updated based on a novel image in the sequence. The observer demonstrates a trade-off compared to a more computer vision oriented approach, where no specific assumptions regarding the motion dynamics are required, but instead additional feature points are needed. Finally, the performance of the proposed method is shown in simulated experiments.
Large-Scale Benchmarking of the OWL Interoperability of Semantic Web Technologies

This paper presents the UPM-FBI, a framework for benchmarking the interoperability of semantic Web technologies; it also provides an example of how to use its automatic approach for benchmarking the interoperability of such technologies using OWL as the interchange language. The paper also introduces the OWL Lite import benchmark suite and the IBSE tool, both used in the benchmarking activity, and offers an overview of the OWL interoperability results of the eight tools participating in the benchmarking: GATE, Jena, KAON2, Protege Frames, Protege OWL, SemTalk, SWI-Prolog, and WebODE.
Concerted modulation of alanine and glutamate metabolism in young Medicago truncatula seedlings under hypoxic stress

The modulation of primary nitrogen metabolism by hypoxic stress was studied in young Medicago truncatula seedlings. Hypoxic seedlings were characterized by the up-regulation of glutamate dehydrogenase 1 (GDH1) and mitochondrial alanine aminotransferase (mAlaAT), and down-regulation of glutamine synthetase 1b (GS1b), NADH-glutamate synthase (NADH-GOGAT), glutamate dehydrogenase 3 (GDH3), and isocitrate dehydrogenase (ICDH) gene expression. Hypoxic stress severely inhibited GS activity and stimulated NADH-GOGAT activity. GDH activity was lower in hypoxic seedlings than in the control, however, under either normoxia or hypoxia, the in vivo activity was directed towards glutamate deamination. 15NH4 labelling showed for the first time that the adaptive reaction of the plant to hypoxia consisted of a concerted modulation of nitrogen flux through the pathways of both alanine and glutamate synthesis. In hypoxic seedlings, newly synthesized 15N-alanine increased and accumulated as the major amino acid, asparagine synthesis was inhibited, while 15N-glutamate was synthesized at a similar rate to that in the control. A discrepancy between the up-regulation of GDH1 expression and the down-regulation of GDH activity by hypoxic stress highlighted for the first time the complex regulation of this enzyme by hypoxia. Higher rates of glycolysis and ethanol fermentation are known to cause the fast depletion of sugar stores and carbon stress. It is proposed that the expression of GDH1 was stimulated by hypoxia-induced carbon stress, while the enzyme protein might be involved during post-hypoxic stress contributing to the regeneration of 2-oxoglutarate via the GDH shunt.
Having Your Ca e and Eatin nd Interactio a Model of

Is the human language understander a collection of modular processes operating with relative autonomy, or is it a single integrated process? This ongoing debate has polarized the language processing community, with two fundamentally different types of model posited, and with each camp concluding that the other is wrong. One camp puts forth a model with separate processors and distinct knowledge sources to explain one body of data, and the other proposes a model with a single processor and a homogeneous, monolithic knowledge source to explain the other body of data. In this paper we argue that a hybrid approach which combines a unified processor with separate knowledge sources provides an explanation of both bodies of data, and we demonstrate the feasibility of this approach with the computational model called COMPERE. We believe that this approach brings the language processing community significantly closer to offering human-like language processing systems.
Black hole X-ray transients: Mass accumulation in the disk -constraints for the viscosity

The outburst cycles of black hole X-ray transients are now generally understood as caused by a thermal instability in the accretion disk, the same mechanism as in dwarf novae outbursts. During quiescence the accretion occurs via a cool disk in the outer region but changes to a coronal flow/ADAF in the inner region. The transition to the coronal flow is caused by evaporation of matter from the cool disk. This process is an important feature for the disk evolution. We point out that if the disk is depleted during the outburst, e.g. by irradiation, its evolution during quiescence is independent of the detailed outburst luminosity decline. The mass accumulation during quiescence has to meet several constraints as the accretion rate, the recurrence time and the total outburst energy. We present a critical discussion of different ways to model X-ray transient outburst cycles and compare with the requirements from observations. For the case of only little mass left over after the outburst the observations indicate a frictional parameter in the cool disk of order $\alpha_{\rm {cold}} =0.05$, similar to that in dwarf nova disks during quiescence, with no need to resort to much lower α values of order 0.005.
Hemoglobin predicts long-term survival in dialysis patients: a 15-year single-center longitudinal study and a correlation trend between prealbumin and hemoglobin.

BACKGROUND Dialysis patients have much higher mortality rates than the general population. Anemia is a common complication of uremia and a major contributor to morbidity and mortality in dialysis patients. The benefits of anemia correction using recombinant human erythropoietin (rHuEPO) are well established. Optimum hemoglobin level for dialysis patients remain controversial. We have investigated the association of enrollment hemoglobin with long-term survival in hemodialysis (HD) and peritoneal dialysis (PD) patients. METHODS We enrolled 529 HD and 326 PD patients from 1987 and followed them to April 2003. Demographics, enrollment, and clinical and laboratory data were recorded. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to compute observed survival, and the multivariate Cox regression analysis was used to identify the independent predictors of mortality risk. RESULTS Mean ages of HD and PD patients were 60 +/- 16 (SD) and 54 +/- 16 (SD) years, respectively. Forty-seven percent of HD patients and 41% of PD patients were diabetic. Mean enrollment hemoglobin levels of HD and PD patients were 9.44 +/- 1.9 and 9.61 +/- 1.77 g/dL respectively. Cumulative 15 year observed survivals of HD (P = 0.05) and PD (P = 0.032) patients with hemoglobin levels greater or equal to 12 g/dL were higher than those with hemoglobin levels less than 12 g/dL. Hemoglobin <12 g/dL was a better predictor of mortality in nondiabetics than diabetics, particularly in HD patients. Both in HD and PD diabetic patients, hemoglobin was not a significant predictor of mortality. By Cox regression analysis, after adjusting for age, race, gender, and months on dialysis at enrollment, the relative risk of mortality of patients with hemoglobin <12 g/dL was 2.13-fold (P = 0.008) higher for HD and 1.85-fold (P = 0.06) higher for PD compared to those with hemoglobin >/=12 g/dL (P = 0.035). A logistic regression analysis revealed a strong inverse relationship between the hemoglobin level and the odds risk of death in HD (OR = 0.83, P = 0.008) and in PD (OR = 0.85, P = 0.02) patients. CONCLUSION Enrollment hemoglobin is a predictor of long-term survival in HD and PD patients. Patients with hemoglobin levels that are higher than current treatment recommendations (>12 g/dL) may benefit from long-term survival. Survival of dialysis patients may be improved by better management of malnutrition and anemia.
Debates in Music Teaching

Philosophical, Sociological and Psychological Foundations * What can reflective teachers learn from philosophies of music education? From Personal Philosophy to Critical Cultural Readership. Heidi Westerlund * Policy and Practice in Music Education: A Sociological Perspective. Ruth Wright * Creativity, Culture and the Practice of Music Education. John Finney * The Justification for Music in the Curriculum: Music Can be Bad for You. Chris Philpott * What is Musical Development and Can Education Make a Difference? Keith Swanwick Political Perspectives * Music Education and Social Justice: Towards a Radical Political History and Vision. Paul Woodford * The National Curriculum as Manifest Destiny. Cathy Benedict and Patrick Schmidt * Musical Ideologies, Practices and Pedagogies: Addressing Pupil Alienation through a Praxial Approach to the Music Curriculum. Gary Spruce with Francesca Matthews The Pedagogy of Music * Integrity and Autonomy for Music in a Creative and Cross-Curriculum. Jonathan Barnes * Assessment for Self Directed Learning in Music Education. Chris Philpott * Those Who Can - Play Those Who Can't - Use Music Tech? How Can Teachers Knock Down the Walls Between Music and Music Technology? Jonathan Savage * Musical Knowledge, Critical Conscious and Critical Thinking. Gary Spruce * Music 14-19: Choices, Challenges, and Opportunities. Keith Evans * Partnerships in Music Education: So - Who is the Teacher? Katherine Zeserson Professional Development * Teachers and Pupils as Researchers: Methods for Researching School Music. Tim Cain and Pamela Burnard * Professional Development and Music Education. Vanessa Young
The suppression of FOXM1 and its targets in breast cancer xenograft tumors by siRNA

As an oncogenic transcription factor, the Forkhead box protein M1 (FOXM1) is overexpressed in human tumors. FOXM1 promotes tumorigenesis by regulating genes associated with cell cycle progression and cell proliferation, and its inhibition in cell lines has been shown to sensitize cells to apoptosis. In this report, we examined the possibility of suppressing FOXM1 in tumors in vivo, through the administration of FoxM1-specific siRNA. Firstly, we determined the functionality of siRNA treatment in subcutaneous MDA-MB-231-luc breast cancer tumors. We found that upon encapsulation into a PEI-based delivery agent, fluorescently-labeled siRNA was retained within tumors when administered intratumorally. Injection of anti-luciferase siRNA was also able to suppress tumor-associated luciferase for at least 48 hours. More importantly, repeat administrations of PEI-encapsulated anti-FoxM1 siRNA resulted in the reduced expression of FOXM1 protein levels in tumors. In addition, both the protein levels and mRNA levels of cdc25B and Aurora B Kinase, transcriptional targets of FOXM1 were also reduced in tumors treated with anti-FoxM1 siRNA. p27, an indirect target of FOXM1 associated with growth inhibition was further found be increased in tumors treated with FoxM1-siRNA. Our data suggests that anti-FoxM1 siRNA can be functional when administered into tumors in an in vivo system, and that anti-FoxM1 siRNA holds potential as part of a therapy for cancer treatment.
Convolutional Neural Network and Convex Optimization

This report shows that the performance of deep convolutional neural network can be improved by incorporating convex optimization techniques. First, we find that the sub-models learned by dropout can be more effectively combined by solving a convex problem. Also, we generalize this idea to models that are not trained by dropout. Compared to traditional methods, we get an improvement of 0.22% and 0.76% test accuracy on CIFAR10 dataset. Second, we investigate the performance for different loss functions borrowed from the convex optimization community and find that selecting loss functions matters a lot. We also implement a novel loss based on the idea of One-VersusOne SVM, which has never been explored in the literature. Experiment shows that it can give performance comparable to the standard cross-entropy loss, without being fully tuned.
Plasticity of retinal ribbon synapses

Ribbon synapses differ from conventional chemical synapses in that they contain, within the cloud of synaptic vesicles (SV's), a specialized synaptic body, most often termed synaptic ribbon (SR). This body assumes various forms. Reconstructions reveal that what appear as rod‐ or ribbon‐like profiles in sections are in fact rectangular or horseshoe‐shaped plates. Moreover, spherical, T‐shaped, table‐shaped, and highly pleomorphic bodies may be present. In mammals, ribbon synapses are present in afferent synapses of photoreceptors, bipolar nerve cells, and hair cells of both the organ of Corti and the vestibular organ. Synaptic ribbons (SR's) are also found in the intrinsic cells of the third eye, the pineal gland, and in the lateral line system. The precise function of SR's is enigmatic. The prevailing concept is that SR's function as conveyor belts to channel SV's to the presynaptic membrane for neurotransmitter release by means of exocytosis. The present article reviews the evidence that speaks for a plasticity of these organelles in the retina and the third eye, as reflected in changes in number, size, shape, location, and grouping pattern. SR plasticity is especially pronounced in the mammalian and submammalian pineal gland and in cones and bipolar cells of teleost fishes. Here, SR number and size wax and wane according to the environmental lighting conditions. In the pineal SR numbers increase at night and decrease during the day. In teleost cones, SR's are in their prime during daytime and decrease or disappear at night, when transmitter release is enhanced. In addition to numerical changes, SR's may also exhibit changes in size, shape, grouping pattern, and location. In the mammalian retina of adults, in contrast to the developing retina, the reported signs of SR plasticity are subtle and not always consistent. They may reflect changes in function or may represent signs of degradation. To distinguish between the two, more detailed studies under selected experimental conditions are required. Probably the strongest evidence for SR plasticity in the mammalian retina is that in hibernating squirrels SR's leave the synaptic site and accumulate in areas as far as 5 μm from the synapse. Changes in shape include the occurrence of club‐shaped SR's and round SR's or synaptic spheres (SS's). SS's may represent a special type of synaptic body, yet belonging to the family of SR's, or may be related to the catabolism of SR's. SR number is regulated by Ca2+ in teleost cones, whereas in the mammalian pineal gland cGMP is involved. An interesting biochemical feature of ribbon synapses is that they lack synapsins. The presently reviewed results suggest to us that SR's do not primarily function as conveyor belts, but are devices to immobilize SV's in inactive ribbon synapses. © 1996 Wiley‐Liss, Inc.
Comparison of Single-Incision Laparoscopic Cholecystectomy versus Needlescopic Cholecystectomy: A Single Institutional Randomized Clinical Trial

Background: Both single-incision laparoscopic cholecystectomy (SILC) and needlescopic cholecystectomy (NSC) are superior to conventional laparoscopic cholecystectomy in terms of cosmetic outcome and incisional pain. We conducted a prospective, randomized clinical trial to evaluate the surgical outcome, postoperative pain, and cosmetic outcome for SILC and NSC procedures. Methods: In this trial, 105 patients were enrolled (52 in the SILC group; 53 in the NSC group). A visual analogue scale (VAS) was used to evaluate the cosmetic outcome and incisional pain for patients. Logistic regression analyses were used to evaluate the operative difficulty that was present for both procedures. Results: There were no significant differences in patient characteristics or surgical outcomes, including operative time and blood loss. The mean VAS scores for cosmetic satisfaction were similar in both groups. There were significant differences in the mean VAS scores for incisional pain on postoperative day 1 (p = 0.009), and analgesics were required within 12 h of surgery (p = 0.007). Obesity (body mass index ≥25 kg/m2) was the only significant influential factor for operating time over 100 min (p = 0.031). Conclusion: NSC is superior to SILC in terms of short-term incisional pain. Experienced laparoscopic surgeons can perform both SILC and NSC without an increase in operative time.
Evolutionary synthesis of robust QCA circuits

Today's electronic devices are reaching their miniaturization limit and, as a result, new technologies capable of further reducing the scale of such devices are being investigated. Quantum-Dot Cellular Automata (QCA) is a nanometer-scale computing paradigm and can be seen as a possible alternative to the presently available electronic devices. The absence of efficient and automatic methods for developing an architecture for QCA circuits has encouraged the application of evolutionary computation in the synthesis of these circuits. This paper proposes to synthesize such circuits using a Genetic Algorithm that considers device robustness against external influences. The results obtained demonstrate that the method proposed is able to efficiently and automatically produce robust circuits with a reduced number of cells.
Small Ubiquitin-like Modifier (SUMO) Modification of Zinc Finger Protein 131 Potentiates Its Negative Effect on Estrogen Signaling*

Background: A poorly characterized zinc finger protein, ZNF131, is implicated as a negative regulator of estrogen receptor α target gene expression. Results: ZNF131 is a target of covalent SUMOylation via hPc2, which potentiates its inhibitory effect on estrogen signaling. Conclusion: Estrogen signaling is down-regulated through the SUMOylation of ZNF131. Significance: Covalent SUMO1 modification of ZNF131 negatively regulates estrogen receptor-mediated signaling and estrogen-induced cell proliferation in breast cancer cells. Like ubiquitin, small ubiquitin-like modifier (SUMO) covalently attaches to specific target proteins and modulates their functional properties, including subcellular localization, protein dimerization, DNA binding, and transactivation of transcription factors. Diverse transcriptional co-regulator complexes regulate the ability of estrogen receptors to respond to positive and negative acting hormones. Zinc finger protein 131 (ZNF131) is poorly characterized but may act as a repressor of estrogen receptor α (ERα)-mediated trans-activation. Here, we identify ZNF131 as a target for SUMO modification and as a substrate for the SUMO E3 ligase human polycomb protein 2 (hPc2). We report that the SUMO-interacting motif 1 (SIM1) and the C-box of hPc2 are critical regions required for ZNF131 SUMOylation and define the ZNF131 SUMOylation site as lysine 567. We further show that SUMO modification potentiates the negative effect of ZNF131 on estrogen signaling and consequently attenuates estrogen-induced cell growth in a breast cancer cell line. Our findings suggest that SUMOylation is a novel regulator of ZNF131 action in estrogen signaling and breast cancer cell proliferation.