Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A cross-sectional study of growth, nutritional status and body proportions in children and adolescents at a medical center specializing in the treatment of cystic fibrosis in Poland

Introduction Malnutrition, delayed growth and delayed puberty are commonly seen in children with cystic fibrosis. The aim of this study was to evaluate growth, nutritional status and body proportions in children and adolescents suffering from cystic fibrosis. Material and methods The evaluation was based on 19 somatic measurements and indices calculated from these measurements. Somatic development was evaluated in relation to several factors connected to the clinical picture or the course of the disease. Anthropometric data were extracted from the medical histories of 41 boys and 48 girls diagnosed and treated at the Institute of Mother and Child in Warsaw (Poland). Mean values for somatic parameters and body build indices for the children suffering from CF were compared to those for the reference group. Results The results revealed that growth in these children was significantly delayed in comparison to that seen in the healthy population (Z-score = –0.56, p < 0.001). Nutritional status was also adversely affected (Z-score = –0.85, p < 0.001). The children suffered more from a deficit in muscularity than in adiposity (Z-score = –0.75 and Z-score = –0.34, p < 0.01, respectively). This was especially true for boys. The children had infantile body proportions and defects in trunk and chest structure. Conclusions The factors that most affected somatic development were infection by Pseudomonas aeruginosa and the time at which the disease was diagnosed. Chronic infection by P. aeruginosa and type of CFTR mutation were the factors that most affected pulmonary function parameters.
Phonological vulnerability for school-aged Spanish-English-speaking bilingual children

ABSTRACT This study examined accuracy on syllable-final (coda) consonants in newly-learned English-like nonwords to determine whether school-aged bilingual children may be more vulnerable to making errors on English-only codas than their monolingual, English-speaking peers, even at a stage in development when phonological accuracy in productions of familiar words is high. Bilingual Spanish-English-speaking second-graders (age 7–9) with typical development (n = 40) were matched individually with monolingual peers on age, sex, and speech skills. Participants learned to name sea monsters as part of five computerized word learning tasks. Dependent t-tests revealed bilingual children were less accurate than monolingual children in producing codas unique to English; however, the groups demonstrated equivalent levels of accuracy on codas that occur in both Spanish and English. Results suggest that, even at high levels of English proficiency, bilingual Spanish-English-speaking children may demonstrate lower accuracy than their monolingual English-speaking peers on targets that pattern differently in their two languages. Differences between a bilingual’s two languages can be used to reveal targets that may be more vulnerable to error, which could be a result of cross-linguistic effects or more limited practice with English phonology.
An efficient construction algorithm for binary interval tree nodes

The preprocessing almost take half of the whole time in isosurface extraction of large-scale data, thus it will make sense to shorten the preprocessing time to improve visualization efficiency. We develop a new construction algorithm for binary interval tree nodes based on partitioning span space, and it reduce the sorting computation considerably in isosurface extraction preprocessing. Both complexity analysis and experiments demonstrate the effectiveness of our new technique, and it has 50% around performance promotion in our test data sets. So the new algorithm is practical in large-scale data isosurface extraction, especially for the real-time visualization system.
The Influence of Organizational Culture and Job Stress on Employees Performance by Job Satisfaction as an Intervening Variable in PT Binor Karya Mandiri Paiton Probolinggo

This research proposed five hypothesis and results indicated that organizational culture has a positive and significance influence toward job satisfaction and employees performance , job stress has a negative and significance influence toward job satisfaction and employees performance , job satisfaction has a positive and significance influence toward employees performance, organizational culture has a positive influence toward employees performance through the job satisfaction of the employees in PT Binor Karya Mandiri Paiton Probolinggo, job stress has a negative influence toward employees performance through the job satisfaction of the employees in PT Binor Karya Mandiri Paiton Probolinggo.
Tenascin-C: Form versus function

Tenascin-C is a large, multimodular, extracellular matrix glycoprotein that exhibits a very restricted pattern of expression but an enormously diverse range of functions. Here, we discuss the importance of deciphering the expression pattern of, and effects mediated by, different forms of this molecule in order to fully understand tenascin-C biology. We focus on both post transcriptional and post translational events such as splicing, glycosylation, assembly into a 3D matrix and proteolytic cleavage, highlighting how these modifications are key to defining tenascin-C function.
Language learning and study abroad

The aim of this review is to synthesize empirical studies on undergraduate language learners’ experience abroad during a time period of a year or less. To help provide a framework to this synthesis, we begin our review by tracing the recent evolution of empirical mixed-method research on the learner, identifying problems and characteristics that language learners generally encounter in the study abroad (SA) experience. We take a closer look at variables related to individual difference such as anxiety, motivation, and attitudes to more recent views of learner identity in language learning. We highlight the shift to language learner agency, a topic that merits more discussion in SA literature. We then review how the SA learning environments are treated. This review takes a closer look at research informed by socially grounded theories. Finally, we review the role that SA plays in undergraduate language curricula, where the objectives of the experience are aligned with at-home (AH) curricula, a topic that has not been fully discussed in SA literature. The conclusions offer suggestions for keeping pace with the broader field of applied/educational linguistics.
Premia for Correlated Default Risk

Using data on corporate default experience in the U.S. and market rates of CDX index and tranche swaps of various maturities, we estimate reduced-form models of correlated default timing in the CDX High Yield and Investment Grade portfolios under actual and risk-neutral probabilities. The striking contrast between the estimated processes followed by the actual and risk-neutral arrival intensities of defaults, and between the parameters governing the actual and risk-neutral dynamics of the risk-neutral intensities, indicates the presence of substantial default risk premia in CDX swap market rates. The effects of risk premia on swap rates covary strongly across maturities, and depend on general stock market volatility and several measures of credit spreads. Large moves in the effects of these premia on swap rates have natural interpretations in terms of economic and financial market developments during the sample period, April 2004 to October 2007. Our results suggest that a large portion of the movements in CDX swap market rates observed during the sample period may be caused by changing attitudes toward correlated default risk rather than changes in the economic factors affecting the actual risk of clustered defaults, which ultimately governs swap payoffs.
Latest Insights on Adenovirus Structure and Assembly

Adenovirus (AdV) capsid organization is considerably complex, not only because of its large size (~950 Å) and triangulation number (pseudo T = 25), but also because it contains four types of minor proteins in specialized locations modulating the quasi-equivalent icosahedral interactions. Up until 2009, only its major components (hexon, penton, and fiber) had separately been described in atomic detail. Their relationships within the virion, and the location of minor coat proteins, were inferred from combining the known crystal structures with increasingly more detailed cryo-electron microscopy (cryoEM) maps. There was no structural information on assembly intermediates. Later on that year, two reports described the structural differences between the mature and immature adenoviral particle, starting to shed light on the different stages of viral assembly, and giving further insights into the roles of core and minor coat proteins during morphogenesis [1,2]. Finally, in 2010, two papers describing the atomic resolution structure of the complete virion appeared [3,4]. These reports represent a veritable tour de force for two structural biology techniques: X-ray crystallography and cryoEM, as this is the largest macromolecular complex solved at high resolution by either of them. In particular, the cryoEM analysis provided an unprecedented clear picture of the complex protein networks shaping the icosahedral shell. Here I review these latest developments in the field of AdV structural studies.
Vehicle Driving Comfort Analysis for a Cable-stayed Bridge Considering Vehicle Bridge Coupled Vibration

The vibration problem induced by vehicle moving over cable-stayed bridge has been widely investigated, but most of previous work focused on dynamic response and security of bridge. In the view of comfort properties, the effects of bridge vibration on vehicle driving comfort are discussed in present paper. Taking the Nanjing 2nd bridge in China for example, applying self-compiling vehicle-bridge coupling vibration analysis program, vehicle-bridge system vibration response was analyzed considering different influence factors and a twelve degree of freedom vehicle model. Based on the PSD analysis of vehicle dynamic response, vehicle driving comfort was studied by 1/3 octave evaluation method. Results show that random bridge deck roughness is a domain effect factor for ridding comfort for a cable-stayed bridge. Keeping deck roughness level on average level or better by implementing scientific maintenance is requisite. The influence of driving speed on comfort is not obvious. The research makes reference to correlated project evaluation in procedure and method.
Preference for procedural ordering in distributed groups: how do media and repeated interaction affect perceptions and procedural structuring?

Groups use procedural structures to organize their efforts in meetings. These structures are affected by group members' preferences for the degree of procedural order they want in a meeting, as well as by the communication media available in the meeting environment. Analysis of thirty partially distributed experimental groups that met over a series of four sessions was conducted by using two methods. Questionnaires were administered to ascertain perceptions of satisfaction and procedural practices. Content analysis was used to determine actual procedural behavioral patterns. Results indicate that members' preferences for procedural order do appear to affect the patterns of their actual structuring behaviors, but do not affect their satisfaction with the group process.
Simultaneous Determination of Celecoxib, Erlotinib, and its Metabolite Desmethyl-Erlotinib (OSI-420) in Rat Plasma by Liquid chromatography/Tandem Mass Spectrometry with Positive/Negative Ion-Switching Electrospray Ionisation

A new method for the simultaneous determination of celecoxib, erlotinib, and its active metabolite desmethyl-erlotinib (OSI-420) in rat plasma, by liquid chromatography/tandem mass spectrometry with positive/negative ion-switching electrospray ionization mode, was developed and validated. Protein precipitation with methanol was selected as the method for preparing the samples. The analytes were separated on a reverse-phase C18 column (50mm×4.6mm i.d., 3μ) using methanol: 2 mM ammonium acetate buffer, and pH 4.0 as the mobile phase at a flow rate 0.8 mL/min. Sitagliptin and Efervirenz were used as the internal standards for quantification. The determination was carried out on a Theremo Finnigan Quantam ultra triple-quadrupole mass spectrometer, operated in selected reaction monitoring (SRM) mode using the following transitions monitored simultaneously: positive m/z 394.5→278.1 for erlotinib, m/z 380.3→278.1 for desmethyl erlotinib (OSI-420), and negative m/z −380.1→ −316.3 for celecoxib. The limits of quantification (LOQs) were 1.5 ng/mL for Celecoxib, erlotinib, and OSI-420. Within- and between-day accuracy and precision of the validated method were within the acceptable limits of < 15% at all concentrations. The quantitation method was successfully applied for the simultaneous estimation of celecoxib, erlotinib, and desmethyl erlotinib in a pharmacokinetic study in Wistar rats.
Convolutional sparse coding classification model for image classification

In this paper, we present a novel classification model which combines the convolutional sparse coding framework with the classification strategy. In the training phase, the proposed model trained a convolutional filter bank by all images of each class. In the test phase, the label of test image is determined by all convolutional filter banks. Compared with canonical sparse representation and dictionary learning classification algorithm, more representative information of the corresponding images could be captured by the trained filters, thus better classification performance can be obtained. Experimental results on some image benchmark databases demonstrated the effectiveness of the proposed method.
Weak mixing angle at low energies

We determine the weak mixing angle in the (MS) over bar scheme, sin(2)(theta) over cap (W)(mu), at energy scales mu relevant for present and future low-energy electroweak measurements. We relate the renormalization group evolution of sin(2)(theta) over cap (W)(mu) to the corresponding evolution of (alpha) over cap(mu) and include higher-order terms in alpha(s) and alpha that had not been treated in previous analyses. We also update the analysis of nonperturbative, hadronic contributions and argue that the associated uncertainty is small compared to anticipated experimental errors. The resulting value of the low-energy (MS) over bar weak mixing angle is sin(2)(theta) over cap (W)(0)=0.23867 +/- 0.00016.
Persistent Propagation of Variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob Disease Agent in Murine Spleen Stromal Cell Culture with Features of Mesenchymal Stem Cells

ABSTRACT The transmission of variant Creutzfeldt-Jakob disease (vCJD) through blood transfusions has created new concerns about the iatrogenic spread of transmissible spongiform encephalopathies (TSEs)/prion diseases through blood and plasma-derived products and has increased the need to develop efficient methods for detection of the agent in biologics. Here, we report the first successful generation of spleen-derived murine stromal cell cultures that persistently propagate two mouse-adapted isolates of human TSE agents, mouse-adapted vCJD, and Fukuoka 1. These new cell cultures can be used efficiently for studies of the pathogenesis of the disease, for development of diagnostics and therapeutics, and as a rapid ex vivo assay for TSE inactivation/removal procedures.
Feeding Cues Alter Clock Gene Oscillations and Photic Responses in the Suprachiasmatic Nuclei of Mice Exposed to a Light/Dark Cycle

The suprachiasmatic nuclei (SCN) of the hypothalamus contain the master mammalian circadian clock, which is mainly reset by light. Temporal restricted feeding, a potent synchronizer of peripheral oscillators, has only weak influence on light-entrained rhythms via the SCN, unless restricted feeding is coupled with calorie restriction, thereby altering phase angle of photic synchronization. Effects of daytime restricted feeding were investigated on the mouse circadian system. Normocaloric feeding at midday led to a predominantly diurnal (60%) food intake and decreased blood glucose in the afternoon, but it did not affect the phase of locomotor activity rhythm or vasopressin expression in the SCN. In contrast, hypocaloric feeding at midday led to 2-4 h phase advances of three circadian outputs, locomotor activity rhythm, pineal melatonin, and vasopressin mRNA cycle in the SCN, and it decreased daily levels of blood glucose. Furthermore, Per1 and Cry2 oscillations in the SCN were phase advanced by 1 and 3 h, respectively, in hypocalorie- but not in normocalorie-fed mice. The phase of Per2 and Bmal1 expression remained unchanged regardless of feeding condition. Moreover, the shape of behavioral phase-response curve to light and light-induced expression of Per1 in the SCN were markedly modified in hypocalorie-fed mice compared with animals fed ad libitum. The present study shows that diurnal hypocaloric feeding affects not only the temporal organization of the SCN clockwork and circadian outputs in mice under light/dark cycle but also photic responses of the circadian system, thus indicating that energy metabolism modulates circadian rhythmicity and gating of photic inputs in mammals.
A Statistical Approach to Solving the EBL Utility Problem

Many "learning from experience" systems use information extracted from problem solving experiences to modify a performance element PE, forming a new element PE' that can solve these and similar problems more efficiently. However, as transformations that improve performance on one set of problems can degrade performance on other sets, the new PE' is not always better than the original PE; this depends on the distribution of problems. We therefore seek the performance element whose expected performance, over this distribution, is optimal. Unfortunately. the actual distribution. which is needed to determine which element is optimal is usually not known. Moreover, the task of finding the optimal element, even knowing the distribution, is intractable for most interesting spaces of elements. This paper presents a method, PALO, that side-steps these problems by using a set of samples to estimate the unknown distribution, and by using a set of transformations to hill-climb to a local optimum. This process is based on a mathematically rigorous form of utility analysis: in particular, it uses statistical techniques to determine whether the result of a proposed transformation will be better than the original system. We also present an efficient way of implementing this learning system in the context of a general class of performance elements, and include empirical evidence that this approach can work effectively.
The focus of attention in working memory: Evidence from a word updating task

Three experiments examined the cognitive costs of item switching within working memory with a novel word updating task, thereby extending previous research to the field of linguistic stimuli and linguistic-graphemic updating operations. In Experiments 1 and 2 costs for switching between working memory items were evident on the word level, and they increased with an increasing word set size (Experiment 2). In contrast, a surprisingly similar switch effect on the level of letters was not affected by word set size (Experiment 2). Experiment 3 showed that this effect is not simply based on the need for re-orienting visual spatial attention. To account for the overall picture of results, a recursive model of attentional foci is proposed. Moreover, individual working memory span appears to be associated with the accuracy of item switching, but not with its speed.
Nonlinear dynamics of turbulent waves in fluids and plasmas

In a model drift wave system that is interesting both in fluids and plasmas, we find that an embedded moving saddle point plays an important role at the onset of turbulence. Here the saddle point is actually a saddle steady wave, in its moving frame the wave system can be transformed into a set of coupled oscillators whose motion is affected by the saddle steady wave as if it is a potential. It is found that a collision with the saddle point triggers a crisis, following the collision another dynamic event occurs which involves a transition in the phase state of the master oscillator. Only after the latter event the spatial regularity is destroyed. The phase dynamics before and after the transition is further investigated. It is found that in a spatially coherent state before the transition the oscillators reach a functional phase synchronization collectively with or without phase slips, after the transition in the turbulent state an on-off imperfect synchronization is established among the oscillators with long wavelengths. When the synchronization is on, their amplitudes grow up simultaneously, giving rise to a burst in the total wave energy. A power law behavior is observed in the correlation function between phases of the oscillators. Potential application of our results in prediction of energy bursts in turbulence is discussed.
A requirements engineering methodology combining models and controlled natural language

The use of models in requirements engineering (RE) for software-intensive embedded systems is considered beneficial. The main advantages of requirements models as documentation format are that they facilitate requirements understanding and foster automatic analysis techniques. However, natural language (NL) is still the dominant documentation format for requirements specifications, particularly in the domain of embedded systems. This is due to the facts that NL-based requirements can be used within legally binding documents and are more appropriate for reviews than models. In order to bridge the gap between both of these documentation formats, this paper proposes a model-driven RE methodology that makes use of requirements models along with a controlled natural language. The methodology combines the advantages of model-based and NL-based documentation by means of a bidirectional multi-step model transformation between both documentation formats. We illustrate the approach by means of an automotive example, explain the particular steps of the model transformation, and present performance results.
Message negotiation of e-services: Case study of life and commercial support services for property management in Taiwan

Property management has become a major area of research interest in the Taiwanese building management and maintenance industry. However, conventional security and property management services are considered basic service items that are inadequate to fully satisfy human needs. Supplying adaptive services catering to various aspects of the lives of residents is the main focus of the building management and maintenance industry, particularly for enhancing community management quality. Recently, Information and Internet techniques have changed human lifestyle. Service providers offer innovative e-services to attract and retain customers. This study thus explores the lifestyle of community residents based on the category, “life and commercial support services”, used by property managers in Taiwan. This work presents a novel service platform that community residents can use to provide innovative e-services. The e-service platform includes a system framework that uses advanced techniques to create the XML-based resident profile. The resident profile records basic personal attributes, professional skills, and life requirements. According to the resident and commercial e-service profiles collected in the knowledge base, this work uses negotiation to discover hidden knowledge and reasonable solutions. Finally, the discovered knowledge and solutions are recommended to residents to help them improve their lives. Hopefully, supplying an adaptive knowledge message can help residents make good decisions regarding their life requirements.