Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Some Population Aspects of Cricetid Rodents in a Central Oklahoma Tall Grass Prairie

Population parameters of cricetid rodents were investigated with a livetrap study in a tall grass prairie in central Oklahoma between June 1973, and March 1975. The hispid cotton rat (Sigmodon hispidus) represented 60.5% of the captures and 69.7% of all recaptures. The deer mouse (Peromyscus maniculatus) and the white-footed mouse (Peromyscus leucopus) represented 22.2% and 8.0% of the captures respectively. The P. maniculatus population was most abundant in February and had been 95% replaced within 11 months. Survival rates of P. leucopus were similar to those of P. maniculatus. Sigmodon adults were most abundant in the winter; juveniles and old adults were most numerous in the spring and fall. The survivorship curves were greater than those reported in other investigations of Sigmodon and may have been influnced by the unusually heavy precipitation in 1973.
Crowdsourced Rumour Identification During Emergencies

When a significant event occurs, many social media users leverage platforms such as Twitter to track that event. Moreover, emergency response agencies are increasingly looking to social media as a source of real-time information about such events. However, false information and rumours are often spread during such events, which can influence public opinion and limit the usefulness of social media for emergency management. In this paper, we present an initial study into rumour identification during emergencies using crowdsourcing. In particular, through an analysis of three tweet datasets relating to emergency events from 2014, we propose a taxonomy of tweets relating to rumours. We then perform a crowdsourced labeling experiment to determine whether crowd assessors can identify rumour-related tweets and where such labeling can fail. Our results show that overall, agreement over the tweet labels produced were high (0.7634 Fleiss Kappa), indicating that crowd-based rumour labeling is possible. However, not all tweets are of equal difficulty to assess. Indeed, we show that tweets containing disputed/controversial information tend to be some of the most difficult to identify.
The Value of Implementing TARGET within a Trauma-Informed Juvenile Justice Setting

This article describes a nonrandomized program evaluation study of a trauma-focused intervention for youth incarcerated for felony-level offenses in a juvenile justice setting. Thirty-eight youth previously assigned to two mental health units were provided with Treatment as Usual (TAU) plus a one day trauma training for staff, while 36 youth placed on three mental health units during the same time frame were provided with the intervention, which included TAU combined with environmental modifications, additional trauma training for staff, and Trauma Affect Regulation: Guide for Education and Therapy group for youth. Results showed significant reductions in depression, youth threats toward staff, use of physical restraints, and seclusion rates for youth on the intervention program units when compared with youth on the TAU program units. The youth involved in the intervention program also reported greater hope and optimism.
Genomics-aided structure prediction

We introduce a theoretical framework that exploits the ever-increasing genomic sequence information for protein structure prediction. Structure-based models are modified to incorporate constraints by a large number of non-local contacts estimated from direct coupling analysis (DCA) of co-evolving genomic sequences. A simple hybrid method, called DCA-fold, integrating DCA contacts with an accurate knowledge of local information (e.g., the local secondary structure) is sufficient to fold proteins in the range of 1–3 Å resolution.
Evaluation of Thick-Film Materials for High-Temperature Packaging

High-temperature electronics are required for applications such as automotive, down-hole drilling for oil and geothermal energy, aircraft, and space exploration. SiC and GaN devices are capable of operating in these high-temperature environments and challenging the packaging materials and technology to be compatible with these environments. Thick-film materials and technology have the potential of building reliable interconnections at high temperatures. This paper investigated the electrical reliability of two thick-film conductors (PtPdAu, Au) and two dielectrics at 300 °C. Test vehicles were fabricated with thick-film materials as capacitor and interdigitated finger test structures. For the test vehicles with PtPdAu thick-film, the leakage current of the capacitor structures with thin multilayer dielectrics increased in a short time during 300 °C aging with a 100-V bias, while the leakage current of capacitor structures with thick dielectrics had only a slight increase or remained constant during 300 °C aging with bias. Cross-sectional scanning electron microscopy and energy dispersive spectroscopy analysis showed that bismuth (Bi) in the PtPdAu paste diffused into the dielectrics from both the top and bottom conductors during the high-temperature firing steps in fabrication. If the Bi was continuous through the thin dielectric, the leakage current increased during aging with bias. The leakage current of the Au conductor in capacitor and interdigitated finger structures (both thick and thin dielectrics) did not increase with biased aging in high temperature. The Au conductor did not contain Bi.
Investigating Influences Among Individuals and Groups in a Collaborative Learning Setting

The research presented in this paper aims at investigating factors that reflect Individual to Group I-to-G and Group to Individual G-to-I influences in a collaborative learning setting. An empirical study is described, in which students worked on concept mapping tasks, individually and in groups. Analysing the individual and group concept maps, specific factors were identified that account for G-to-I and I-to-G influences reflecting peer interaction and impact on group and individual achievement during and after collaboration. Dependences were also identified between individual/group characteristics, such as knowledge and style, and individual/group progress. Finally, a discussion about how these factors may inform the learner and group models of the adaptive concept mapping environment COMPASS is given.
An Indoor Positioning System Based on the Dual-Channel Passive RFID Technology

In the Internet-of-Things era, it will be increasingly important to accurately and efficiently locate an object in the real world as well as identify it in the virtual world. However, it is not easy to accurately locate an indoor target using radio technology because the multipath propagation of radio waves in an indoor environment may lead to serious position estimation errors. In addition, when each target has a transceiver or each reader operates in its high-power mode, the overall power consumption of the whole system is considerable. In this paper, a dual-channel low-power passive RFID positioning system is proposed to solve this problem. The probability for accurately locating a target within 0.5 m from its real position can reach 96.7% in this system. The positioning area of this work is bigger than those of the prior arts. The total RF radiation power of one block of the proposed system is 23.14 dBm, which is the lowest among reported RFID positioning systems. Furthermore, this proposed architecture can be easily expanded to a large system.
Infrequent Genetic Alterations of the PTEN/MMAC1 Gene in Japanese Patients with Primary Cancers of the Breast, Lung, Pancreas, Kidney, and Ovary

In the present study, we searched for genetic alterations of the entire coding region of PTEN/MMACl, a recently isolated candidate tumor suppressor gene, in 178 specimens from Japanese patients with various malignant tumors by the polymerase chain reaction‐single strand conformation polymorphism method. The samples consisted of 11 glioblastoma multiformes (GBMs), 14 astrocytomas, 47 breast cancers, 25 non‐small cell lung cancers, 9 small cell lung cancers, 8 pancreatic cancers, 24 renal cell carcinomas, 20 ovarian cancers, and 20 metastatic lung tumors from various organs. Only one somatic frameshift mutation at codon 319 was observed in one (9%) of eleven GBMs. Our results suggest that mutation of the PTEN/MMAC1 gene does not play a major role in carcinogenesis, at least in the tumor types from Japanese patients analyzed in this study.
BIOMARKERS OF CARDIAC INJURY IN DETECTION OF CARDIOTOXICITY INDUCED BY CHEMOTHERAPEUTIC AGENTS

Summary Cardiotoxicity is a well-known and potentially serious complication of oncology treatment. Anthracyclines and high-dose chemotherapy especially regimens containing high-dose Cyclophosphamide represent the greatest risk. Early detection of cardiotoxicity is crucial for applying preventive and supportive therapeutic strategies. Various methods have been recommended for monitoring of cardiotoxicity. In our conditions, echocardiography and electrocardiography are routinely used. However, this approach shows low sensitivity for the early prediction of cardiomyopathy when the possibilities of appropriate management could still improve the patient’s outcome. Recently, biomarkers of cardiac injury have been investigated in the assessment of chemotherapy-induced cardiotoxicity. Cardiospecific biomarkers, such as cardiac troponins, show high diagnostic efficacy in the early subclinical phase of the disease before the clinical onset of cardiomyopathy. The increase in their concentrations correlates with disease severity. As for natriuretic peptides, some studies, including ours, have shown promising results. Definitive evidence of their diagnostic and prognostic role in this context is still lacking and natriuretic peptides have not been routinely used for monitoring of cardiotoxicity in clinical practice. Other perspective biomarkers of cardiotoxicity in oncology are under study, especially heart-type fatty acid-binding protein (H-FABP) and glycogen phosphorylase BB (GPBB). Our studies using GPBB have brought priority and encouraging results. However, the available data are limited and their practical use in this context cannot be recommended until their clinical efficacy is clearly defined. The author presents his own experience with multiple biomarkers of cardiac injury in the detection of cardiotoxicity associated with conventional and high-dose chemotherapy for hematological malignancies.
Induction of p53‐independent Apoptosis Associated with G2M Arrest Following DNA Damage in Human Colon Cancer Cell Lines

The tumor suppressor p53 protein induces apoptosis in response to various kinds of DNA damage in normal cells, but it is still unclear whether or not apoptosis induced by DNA damage correlates with the p53 status in tumor cells. We determined the status of p53 by functional analysis of separated alleles in yeast in five human colon cancer cell lines, SW‐480, SW‐620, DLD‐1, COLO320 and LS174T and investigated whether p53 is necessary for apoptosis and cell cycle arrest after treatment of the cells with a DNA‐damaging agent, etoposide (VP‐16), or γ‐irradiation. Of these cell lines, only LS174T expresses a functional p53. Apoptosis was detected in SW‐480 and COLO320 cell lines, but not in the other cell lines, including LS174T cell line with a normal p53 function. Furthermore, cell cycle analysis revealed accumulation in the G2M phase preceding induction of apoptosis in SW‐480 and COLO320 cells, but not in the other cells. These results suggest that apoptotic induction by DNA damage is not necessarily related to p53 status and that induction of p53‐independent apoptosis following DNA damage may correlate with G2M arrest in the cell cycle, at least in the colon cancer cell lines used in this study.
On the Confucian Values and Philosophy of Life Characterized by the "Three Immortalities

The essence of culture finds concentrative expression in philosophy. The greatest achievement in the traditional Chinese philosophy is in the field of philosophy of life. In the Chinese culture, Confucianists' pursuit of the value of life can be summarized as the "three immortalities". The everlasting and profound fascination of Confucianism over the past 2,000 years lies, in an important degree, in its deep concern for, and valuable and instructive response to, the problems arising from the real life. Under the circumstances of the socialist market economy today, the "three immortalities" advocated by Confucianists has become the ideological weapon against money worship, hedonism and extreme individualism.
Inhibitory Role of Plasminogen Activator Inhibitor‐1 in Invasion and Proliferation of HLE Hepatocellular Carcinoma Cells

Plasminogen activator inhibitor (PAI)‐1, a serine protease inhibitor, inactivates urokinase‐type plasminogen activator (uPA) and regulates degradation of the extracellular matrix; whether it functions for or against tumor progression, however, has been the subject of controversy. To assess the role of PAI‐1 in invasion and proliferation of hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells, HLE cells were transfected with a vector capable of expressing an antisense PAI‐1 transcript. Analysis of seven stably transfected clones (PAI‐1−) showed reductions of 81% in PAI‐1 mRNA by northern blot analysis and 63% in the cellular PAI‐1 antigen level by enzyme‐linked immunosorbent assay(ELISA). There was no change in the levels of secreted PAI‐1 or PAI‐2. The activity of cellular uPA increased by 54%, without change in the protein level or the secreted uPA activity evaluated by ELISA. Morphologically, PAI‐1 antisense induced a spindle shape with narrower cytoplasmic processes in HLE cells. The forced inhibition of PAI‐1 increased the invasion and the growth of PAI‐1− cells by 75% and 82%, respectively. These results suggest that PAI‐1 plays a role in inhibiting invasion and proliferation, and the balance between uPA and PAI‐1 expression is important to assess the invasiveness of HCC cells.
Autoregressive Neural F0 Model for Statistical Parametric Speech Synthesis

Recurrent neural networks (RNNs) have been successfully used as fundamental frequency (F0) models for text-to-speech synthesis. However, this paper showed that a normal RNN may not take into account the statistical dependency of the F0 data across frames and consequently only generate noisy F0 contours when F0 values are sampled from the model. A better model may take into account the causal dependency of the current F0 datum on the previous frames’ F0 data. One such model is the shallow autoregressive (AR) recurrent mixture density network (SAR) that we recently proposed. However, as this study showed, an SAR is equivalent to the combination of trainable linear filters and a conventional RNN. It is still weak for F0 modeling. To better model the temporal dependency in F0 contours, we propose a deep AR model (DAR). On the basis of an RNN, this DAR propagates the previous frame's F0 value through the RNN, which allows nonlinear AR dependency to be achieved. We also propose F0 quantization and data dropout strategies for the DAR. Experiments on a Japanese corpus demonstrated that this DAR can generate appropriate F0 contours by using the random-sampling-based generation method, which is impossible for the baseline RNN and SAR. When a conventional mean-based generation method was used in the proposed DAR and other experimental models, the DAR generated accurate and less oversmoothed F0 contours and achieved a better mean-opinion-score in a subjective evaluation test.
BRCA1 Expression Status in Relation to DNA Methylation of the BRCA1 Promoter Region in Sporadic Breast Cancers

To understand the biological role of BRCA1 in sporadic breast cancers, the relationship between DNA methylation of the BRCA1 Promoter region and BRCA1 expression was studied using molecular biological and immunohistochemical methods. Furthermore, BRCA1 expression was compared with the expression of various cell cycle regulatory proteins and the morphological nuclear grade of cancer cells. Of 32 sporadic breast cancers investigated in this study, 10 (31%) revealed DNA methylation of the BRCA1 promoter region. The expression of BRCA1 was observed in the nuclei of cancer cells and 18 (56%) of 32 cancers were positive for BRCA1 immunoreactivity. Breast cancers with BRCA1 methylation lacked BRCA1 expression, except for only three cancers, and there was a significant inverse relationship between BRCA1 methylation and its expression in sporadic breast cancers (P=0.043). Compared with the expression of various cell cycle regulatory proteins, breast cancers with BRCA1 methylation showed decreased expression of estrogen receptor (P=0.016) and p27 (P=0.018) and increased expression of p21 (P=0.011). Furthermore, breast cancers without BRCA1 expression or with BRCA1 methylation had a tendency to contain nuclei with higher grade. These findings indicate that BRCA1 methylation might greatly influence its expression and BRCA1 expression might play an important role in cell cycle regulation and influence the grade of malignancy of sporadic breast cancers.
Tea Consumption and Lung Cancer Risk: A Case‐Control Study in Okinawa, Japan

To disclose the relationship between tea consumption and lung cancer risk, we analyzed the data from a case‐control study conducted in Okinawa, Japan from 1988 to 1991. The analysis, based on 333 cases and 666 age‐, sex‐ and residence‐matched controls, provided the following major findings, (a) The greater the intake of Okinawan tea (a partially fermented tea), the smaller the risk, particularly in women. For females, the odds ratios (and 95% confidence intervals) for those who consumed 1‐4, 5‐9, and 10 cups or more of Okinawan tea every day, relative to non‐daily tea drinkers, were 0.77 (0.28‐2.13), 0.77 (0.26‐2.25) and 0.38 (0.12‐1.18), respectively (trend: P=0.032). The corresponding odds ratios for males were 0.85 (0.46‐1.55), 0.85 (0.46‐1.56) and 0.57 (0.31‐1.06) (trend: P=0.053). (b) The risk reduction by Okinawan tea consumption was detected mainly in squamous cell carcinoma. Daily tea consumption significantly decreased the risk of squamous cell carcinoma in males and females, the odds ratios being 0.50 (95% confidence interval 0.27‐0.93) and 0.08 (0.01‐0.68), respectively. These findings suggest a protective effect of tea consumption against lung cancer in humans.
Contention and Locality-Aware Work-Stealing for Iterative Applications in Multi-Socket Computers

Modern large-scale computers have shifted to Multi-socket Multi-core (MSMC) architectures, where multiple CPU chips are integrated into a machine as sockets and multiple memory nodes are integrated into the shared main memory (NUMA). To improve the hardware utilization of MSMC computers, multiple programs are often executed concurrently. However, most work-stealing schedulers are designed for single-socket architectures and contention-free scenarios. Work-stealing programs suffer from very-high-frequency remote memory access and serious interference from co-located programs in MSMC architectures, which in turn significantly degrade their performance. To solve these two problems, we propose a Contention- and Locality-Aware Work-Stealing (CLAWS) scheduler. CLAWS first evenly distributes the data set of a program to all the memory nodes and allocates a task to the socket where the local memory node stores its data. Then, according to the real-time contention situation for each socket collected at runtime, CLAWS dynamically migrates data and re-allocates the corresponding tasks to balance the workload and reduce remote memory accesses. Experimental results show that CLAWS can improve the performance of memory-bound programs by 40.1 percent on average compared with traditional work-stealing schedulers. Meanwhile, CLAWS is also more energy efficient than traditional work-stealing schedulers.
Investigating emotional responses to self-selected sad music via self-report and automated facial analysis

People often listen to sad music in spite of its seemingly negative qualities. Sad music, and especially sad music with a personal significance, has been shown to evoke a wide span of emotions with both positive and negative qualities. We compared emotional responses to familiar self-selected sad music (SSSM) with both unfamiliar sad and unfamiliar happy music. Alongside self-reports, a commercial, continuous measure of discrete facial expressions was applied, promising an in-depth assessment of both the quality and strength of experienced affective states at any given point in time. Results of the facial analysis showed that SSSM evoked more mixed affective states than unfamiliar sad music. Also, listeners reacted with consistent facial expressions to distinct musical events, e.g. the introduction of a lead voice. SSSM evoked more self-reported feelings of nostalgia, reminiscence, being moved, and chills and tears than unfamiliar sad and happy music. Furthermore, SSSM resulted in more self-reported happiness and a similar trend with happy facial expressions compared to unfamiliar sad music. These results point to the emotional diversity and the strong involvement of positive affective states elicited by SSSM, even when compared with music of similar quality, such as unfamiliar sad music. Automated facial analysis allows us to observe emotions on a more detailed level in terms of time resolution, onset, intensity and concurrence of discrete affective states. This technique is promising for future research, particularly when investigating mixed emotions and the social aspect of emotions in response to music.
N-deacetylation and Characterization of Chitosan: Impact on Optimized Nanoparticulate Drug Delivery Systems

Context: An attempt has been made to modify the natural polymer (chitosan) to its deacetylated form to enhance its physico-chemical properties with improved feasibility in nanoparticulate delivery systems for stability and reproducibility. Objective: Deacetylation of chitosan was processed by removal of branched acetyl group in order to increase the polymer stability for particulate drug delivery systems with enhanced physical and process dependent properties. Alongside, preparation of deacetylated chitosan based drug loaded nanoparticles for determining its impact on formulation process and stability. Materials and methods: Chitosan is poly [(1,4)-2-amino-2-deoxy-D-glucopyranose], a copolymers of N-acetyl-D-glucosamine and D-glucosamine (backbone chains). N-deacetylation was performed using modified alkali reduction method to get ≥99% deacetylation. Later on, nanoparticles were prepared and characterized with optimization accordingly. Results and discussion: Implemented polymer characterization: physical parameters, solubility, degree of deacetylation, viscosity and crystallinity shown desired properties. Alongside, application based evaluations, i.e., screened and optimized preparation of nanoparticles with characterization and in vitro release behaviour. Conclusion: Desirable changes in chitosan properties and the subsequent reproducibility of nanoparticles prepared with promising results, paves the way towards extensive research in modifications of existing natural polymers for better reproducibility at reduced costs and higher commercialization probability.
Serological Evidence and Sociodemographic Risk Factors of Recent Cytomegalovirus Infection in Pregnant Women Attending a Tertiary Hospital in Maiduguri, Nigeria

Human cytomegalovirus (HCMV) belongs to the family Herpesviridae, which its members are able to remain latent in various cells of the human body for a long time [1]. Globally, CMV is a very common viral infection and one of the most common causes of congenital infections. There are some evidences indicating that CMV infection leads to miscarriage and stillbirth [2]. Even in infants who are asymptomatic at birth, hearing deficits and ocular damage may appear later and progress during the first few years of life [3, 4]. Although, infection with CMV is self-limiting in immunocompetent individuals, it is associated with high morbidity and mortality in immunocompromised individuals. Consequently, CMV establishes a latent lifelong infection, which may be reactivated by altered immune status [3, 4].