Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Peeping into Human Renal Calcium Oxalate Stone Matrix: Characterization of Novel Proteins Involved in the Intricate Mechanism of Urolithiasis

Background The increasing number of patients suffering from urolithiasis represents one of the major challenges which nephrologists face worldwide today. For enhancing therapeutic outcomes of this disease, the pathogenic basis for the formation of renal stones is the need of hour. Proteins are found as major component in human renal stone matrix and are considered to have a potential role in crystal–membrane interaction, crystal growth and stone formation but their role in urolithiasis still remains obscure. Methods Proteins were isolated from the matrix of human CaOx containing kidney stones. Proteins having MW>3 kDa were subjected to anion exchange chromatography followed by molecular-sieve chromatography. The effect of these purified proteins was tested against CaOx nucleation and growth and on oxalate injured Madin–Darby Canine Kidney (MDCK) renal epithelial cells for their activity. Proteins were identified by Matrix-assisted laser desorption/ionization-time of flight (MALDI-TOF MS) followed by database search with MASCOT server. In silico molecular interaction studies with CaOx crystals were also investigated. Results Five proteins were identified from the matrix of calcium oxalate kidney stones by MALDI-TOF MS followed by database search with MASCOT server with the competence to control the stone formation process. Out of which two proteins were promoters, two were inhibitors and one protein had a dual activity of both inhibition and promotion towards CaOx nucleation and growth. Further molecular modelling calculations revealed the mode of interaction of these proteins with CaOx at the molecular level. Conclusions We identified and characterized Ethanolamine-phosphate cytidylyltransferase, Ras GTPase-activating-like protein, UDP-glucose:glycoprotein glucosyltransferase 2, RIMS-binding protein 3A, Macrophage-capping protein as novel proteins from the matrix of human calcium oxalate stone which play a critical role in kidney stone formation. Thus, these proteins having potential to modulate calcium oxalate crystallization will throw light on understanding and controlling urolithiasis in humans.
Cultural Transformations in Parents’ Handling of Child ICT Usage

How should one encourage “a positive and quality usage of ICT” among students? Earlier work (Lam, June 2016) suggests that both “school and family partnership theory” and “mediation philosophy” are the keys to parents changing their attitude towards the handling of child ICT usage. Even so, what are the stages or processes of these transformation? This study reviews four models and theories (as described later) which predict people’s behavioural changes. Based on these, the author also recommends a “permeability model of changes” for depicting the parents’ alteration actions. Therefore, one can provide assistance, also known as – systemic therapy, immediately during the different stages or levels of change in the model. Hence, parents can successfully change their behaviour towards processing children’s ICT usage and in addition control these usage. Furthermore, this author also proposes that social, cultural and psychological factors of children’s ICT usage constitute a step approaching the philosophy of Digital Equity. These enhance the aim of the present research by – ultimately urging “a positive and quality usage of ICT” (Yuen et al., 2014: p.13) among students. The poor academic effects of using ICT for entertainment can therefore be eliminated. As a result, one can improve the scholarly achievements of students by using educational technology and can also bridge the digital divide in education.
Semantic Feature Selection Using WordNet

The web has caused an explosion of documents, requiring the need for an automated text categorization system. This paper explores the notion of semantic feature selection by employing WordNet [Introduction to WordNet: An On-line Lexical Database], a lexical database. The proposed semantic approach employs noun synonyms and word senses for feature selection to select terms that are semantically representative of a category of documents. The categorical sense disambiguation extends the use of WordNet, which has been typically used for text retrieval and word sense disambiguation [A WordNet-based Algorithm for Word Sense Disambiguation]. Our experiments on the Reuters-21578 dataset have shown that automated semantic feature selection is able to perform better than well known statistical feature selection methods, Information Gain and Chi-Square as a feature selection method.
A Random Assignment Evaluation of a College and Career Coaching Program

Razor C.O. A.C. H. (Creating Opportunities for Arkansan’s Career Hopes) is a college and career coaching program for at-risk students in 15 Northwest Arkansas high schools. To perform a random assignment evaluation, at-risk students were targeted to apply to the program, and applicant students were randomly assigned to the program. Academic coaches from the University of Arkansas College of Education and Health Professions utilized a needs-based intervention focusing on pro-academic behaviors, college or technical school preparation, and post-secondary and career exploration. The evaluation included two cohorts of students. Cohort One treatment students received the full intervention throughout the 2012-13 school year, and a follow-up intervention with lower dosage in the 2013-14 school year. Cohort Two treatment students received the full intervention in the 2013-14 school year, meeting with a coach at least once a week in individual or group meetings. To determine the impact of participation in Razor C.O. A.C. H. , I examine the impact of the program on students’ academic, short-term non-cognitive, and post-secondary preparation outcomes. The main research questions are: 1. What is the impact of being assigned a coach on high school academic outcomes (high school GPA, core-subject GPA, credits earned, and ACT performance)? 2. What is the impact of being assigned a coach on short-term non-cognitive outcomes (academic self-efficacy, academic responsibility, grit, and future-mindedness) as measured during high school? 3. What is the impact of being assigned a coach on post-secondary preparation outcomes (college and career readiness outcomes, FAFSA and scholarship completion, and future
Asteroseismology of exoplanets hosts stars: Tests of internal metallicity

Exoplanet host stars present a clear metallicity excess compared to stars without detected planets, with an average overabundance of 0.2 dex. This excess may be primordial, in which case the stars should be overmetallic down to their center, or it may be due to accretion in the early phases of planetary formation, in which case the stars would be overmetallic only in their outer layers. In the present paper, we show the differences in the internal structure of stars, according to the chosen scenario. Namely two stars with the same observable parameters (luminosity, effective temperature, outer chemical composition) are completely different in their interiors according to their past histories, which we reconstitute through the computations of their evolutionary tracks. It may happen that stars with an initial overmetallicity have a convective core while the stars which suffered accretion do not. We claim that asteroseismic studies of these exoplanet host stars can give clues about their internal structures and metallicities, which may help in understanding planetary formation.
Question Answering System for Entrance Exams in QA4MRE

This paper describes our question answering system for Entrance Exams, which is a pilot task of the Question Answering for Machine Reading Evaluation at Conference and Labs of the Evaluation Forum (CLEF) 2013. We conducted experiments in which participants were provided with documents and multiple-choice questions. Their goals was to select one answer or leave it unanswered for each question. In our system, we developed a component to detect all story characters in the documents and tag all personal pronouns using coreference resolution. For each question, we extracted related sentences and combined them with candidate answers to create inputs for a Recognizing Textual Entailment (RTE) component. The answers were then selected based on the confidence scores from the Recognizing Textual Entailment component. We submitted five runs in the task and the run that ranked highest obtained a c@1 score of 0.35, which outperformed the baseline c@1 score of 0.25.
Managing execution variants in task coordination by exploiting design-time models at run-time

The development of service robots has gained more and more attention over the last years. Advanced robots have to cope with many different situations and contingencies while executing concurrent and interruptable complex tasks. In particular, mobile manipulation tasks increase the complexity. To manage the raising number of tasks and execution variants in complex environments there is a tremendous need for context and situation dependent composition and selection of reusable skills. This requires explicit descriptions of relevant properties and parameters of the robot, its resources and its capabilities. Different views on partial aspects of a robot system (mechanical, electrical and even software) can be provided by different models as is already common practice at design-time. However, these design-time models also need to be accessible at run-time to support run-time reasoning of the robot in order to adequately compose its skills and assign resources. That requires to extract useful information out of the design-time models and to transform it into representations which can be exploited at runtime. We present an approach to exploit information provided via design-time models (e.g. software components, simulation, planning) for run-time decision making. It allows for more informed decisions on how to compose action plots at run-time in order to manage the huge amount of different execution variants in service robotics.
Chronic Exposure of Corals to Fine Sediments: Lethal and Sub-Lethal Impacts

Understanding the sedimentation and turbidity thresholds for corals is critical in assessing the potential impacts of dredging projects in tropical marine systems. In this study, we exposed two species of coral sampled from offshore locations to six levels of total suspended solids (TSS) for 16 weeks in the laboratory, including a 4 week recovery period. Dose-response relationships were developed to quantify the lethal and sub-lethal thresholds of sedimentation and turbidity for the corals. The sediment treatments affected the horizontal foliaceous species (Montipora aequituberculata) more than the upright branching species (Acropora millepora). The lowest sediment treatments that caused full colony mortality were 30 mg l−1 TSS (25 mg cm−2 day−1) for M. aequituberculata and 100 mg l−1 TSS (83 mg cm−2 day−1) for A. millepora after 12 weeks. Coral mortality generally took longer than 4 weeks and was closely related to sediment accumulation on the surface of the corals. While measurements of damage to photosystem II in the symbionts and reductions in lipid content and growth indicated sub-lethal responses in surviving corals, the most reliable predictor of coral mortality in this experiment was long-term sediment accumulation on coral tissue.
AMDS: Sentence Extraction Based Proficient Framework for Multi-Document Summarization

Rapid improvement of electronic documents in World Wide Web has made overload to the users in accessing th e information. Therefore, abstracting the primary content from numerous documents related to same topic is highly essential. Summarization of multiple documents helps in valuable decision-making in less time. This paper proposed a fr amework named Adept Multi-Document Summarization (AMDS ) for efficient summarization of document, which achieves the aforementioned requirement. Here, the documents are preprocessed initially to remove the information that is less important. S ummary of each preprocessed document is obtained through the sentence extraction process. Single document summarization is carried out based on graph model. A ranking method named Ingenious Ranking (IR) is proposed to rank and order the extracted single document summaries. It ranks the sentences in the generated summaries of each document and incorporates the individual summaries to generate a concise summary. Empirical results presented in this paper demonstrate the efficiency of the proposed AMDS framework.
A hybrid format for better performance of sparse matrix-vector multiplication on a GPU

In this paper, we present a new sparse matrix data format that leads to improved memory coalescing and more efficient sparse matrix-vector multiplication for a wide range of problems on high-throughput architectures such as a GPU. The sparse matrix structure is constructed by sorting the rows based on the row length (defined as the number of non-zero elements in a matrix row) followed by a partition into two ranges, short rows and long rows. Based on this partition, the matrix entries are then transformed into ELLPACK or vectorized compressed sparse row format. In addition, the number of threads are adaptively selected by their row length, in order to balance the workload for each graphics processing unit thread. Several computational experiments are presented to support this approach and the results suggest a notable improvement over a wide range of matrix structures.
A bioassay for studying behavioural responses of the common bed bug, Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae) to bed bug-derived volatiles

Abstract The common bed bug, Cimex lectularius (Hemiptera: Cimicidae), has recently re-emerged in increasing numbers, distribution and intensity of infestation in many countries. Current control relies on the application of residual pesticides; but, due to the development of insecticide resistance, there is a need for new tools and techniques. Semiochemicals (behaviour and physiology modifying chemicals) could be exploited for management of bed bugs. However, in order to identify semiochemicals that can be utilised in monitoring or control, a suitable olfactometer is needed that enables the study of the responses of bed bugs to volatile chemicals. Previous studies have used olfactometers that do not separate olfactory responses from responses to physical contact. In this study, a still-air olfactometer was used to measure behavioural responses to different bed bug-derived volatiles presented in an odour pot. Bed bugs were significantly more likely to visit the area above the odour pot first, and more frequently, in the presence of volatiles from bed bug-exposed paper but not in the presence of volatiles from conspecific bed bugs. Bed bug activity was found to be dependent on the presence of the volatiles from bed bug-exposed paper, the time during the scotophase and the sex of the insect being tested. The still-air olfactometer could be used to test putative semiochemicals, which would allow an understanding of their behavioural role in bed bug ecology. Ultimately, this could lead to the identification of new semiochemical tools for bed bug monitoring and control.
Are psychology students getting worse at math?: Trends in the math skills of psychology statistics students across 21 years

Abstract Statistics is an important subject in psychology and social science education. However, inadequate mathematical skills can pose a barrier to learning statistics. Some educators have suggested that students’ math skills are declining. The present research examined trends in the math skills of psychology undergraduates across 21 years. Students (n = 3735) who were enrolled in an introductory psychology statistics course from 1990 to 2011 completed a pencil-and-paper math skills test. Over the 21-year period, there was a 9% decline in math skills scores and a 28% increase in the number of attempts required to pass the test. Consistent with national trends, SAT Math scores also increased by 7%; however, the pencil-and-paper math skills test was nearly twice as predictive of course performance as was the SAT. Results suggest that important math abilities have declined. Implications for statistical education in the social sciences are discussed.
Phthalates Impair Germ Cell Development in the Human Fetal Testis in Vitro without Change in Testosterone Production

Background Several studies have described an increasing frequency of male reproductive disorders, which may have a common origin in fetal life and which are hypothesized to be caused by endocrine disruptors. Phthalate esters represent a class of environmental endocrine-active chemicals known to disrupt development of the male reproductive tract by decreasing testosterone production in the fetal rat. Objectives Using the organ culture system we developed previously, we investigated the effects on the development of human fetal testis of one phthalate—mono-2-ethylhexyl phthalate (MEHP)—an industrial chemical found in many products, which has been incriminated as a disruptor of male reproductive function. Methods Human fetal testes were recovered during the first trimester (7–12 weeks) of gestation, a critical period for testicular differentiation, and cultured for 3 days with or without MEHP in basal conditions or stimulated with luteinizing hormone (LH). Results Whatever the dose, MEHP treatment had no effect on basal or LH-stimulated testosterone produced by the human fetal testis in vitro, although testosterone production can be modulated in our culture system. MEHP (10−4 M) did not affect proliferation or apoptosis of Sertoli cells, but it reduced the mRNA expression of anti-Müllerian hormone. MEHP (10−4 M) reduced the number of germ cells by increasing their apoptosis, measured by the detection of caspase-3–positive germ cells, without modification of their proliferation. Conclusions This is the first experimental demonstration that phthalates alter the development of the germ cell lineage in humans. However, in contrast to results observed in the rat, phthalates did not affect steroidogenesis.
APPLYING THE 3 D GIS DILAS TO ARCHAEOLOGY AND CULTURAL HERITAGE PROJECTS – REQUIREMENTS AND FIRST RESULTS

The original aim of the 3D GIS project DILAS (Digital Landscape Server) was the efficient generation, management and visualisation of large 3D landscape and city models. Thus, the primary focus was placed on 3D objects with often generalised geometry and on medium to small scale representations. The result of the first project phase was an operational prototype of a 3D GIS based on an object-relational DBMS. This prototype system has since been commercialised and is now used in applications such as regional or city planning. Among the emerging application areas for 3D GIS are archaeology and the preservation of cultural heritage. This paper highlights some of the domain-specific requirements and illustrates how these requirements have been addressed in DILAS. The requirements include a strong support for object semantics, for complex object geometries and photo-realistic textures, for the integration of existing databases and for temporal aspects. 3D object support in DILAS is based on an object-oriented topological 3D data model. This model is automatically mapped between an object representation in Java and an XML representation which is stored in an object-relational DBMS (Oracle 9i). DILAS provides a rich semantic support at the object level and at the element level. DILAS is built on top of a spatial DBMS architecture (Oracle Spatial) and can make use of spatial indexing and querying functionality available in typical 2D GIS. This architecture has now been extended to support complex 3D objects, e.g. buildings consisting of their exterior hull and of different types of interior objects (rooms, hallways, caverns etc.). The following two projects served as case studies and test beds for the new features. In the first example DILAS was applied to the generation of a high-resolution, reality-based 3D model of the castle of Wildenstein, BL (Switzerland). The complex model incorporates the interior and exterior of the castle including its surroundings. The second project is the 3D reconstruction of the roman city of Augusta Raurica (Switzerland) and the modern city of Augst, which is partially built on top of the historic site. Both projects demonstrate the benefits of applying 3D GIS to archaeological and cultural heritage projects by integrating all required types of information into a single system environment. It is also shown, that a 3D GIS serves as an ideal platform for generating web-based 3D geoinformation services, in this case by using the high-performance viewer technology G-VISTA.
Assessing the Efficacy of Adjustable Moving Averages Using ASEAN-5 Currencies

The objective of this research is to examine the trends in the exchange rate markets of the ASEAN-5 countries (Indonesia (IDR), Malaysia (MYR), the Philippines (PHP), Singapore (SGD), and Thailand (THB)) through the application of dynamic moving average trading systems. This research offers evidence of the usefulness of the time-varying volatility technical analysis indicator, Adjustable Moving Average (AMA′) in deciphering trends in these ASEAN-5 exchange rate markets. This time-varying volatility factor, referred to as the Efficacy Ratio in this paper, is embedded in AMA′. The Efficacy Ratio adjusts the AMA′ to the prevailing market conditions by avoiding whipsaws (losses due, in part, to acting on wrong trading signals, which generally occur when there is no general direction in the market) in range trading and by entering early into new trends in trend trading. The efficacy of AMA′ is assessed against other popular moving-average rules. Based on the January 2005 to December 2014 dataset, our findings show that the moving averages and AMA′ are superior to the passive buy-and-hold strategy. Specifically, AMA′ outperforms the other models for the United States Dollar against PHP (USD/PHP) and USD/THB currency pairs. The results show that different length moving averages perform better in different periods for the five currencies. This is consistent with our hypothesis that a dynamic adjustable technical indicator is needed to cater for different periods in different markets.
Location based speaker segmentation

The paper proposes a technique that segments audio according to speakers and based on their location. In many multi-party conversations, such as meetings, the location of participants is restricted to a small number of regions, such as seats around a table, or at a whiteboard. In such cases, segmentation according to these discrete regions would be a reliable means of determining speaker turns. We propose a system that uses microphone pair time delays as features to represent speaker locations. These features are integrated in a GMM/HMM framework to determine an optimal segmentation of the audio according to location. The HMM framework also allows extensions to recognise more complex structures, such as the presence of two simultaneous speakers. Experiments testing the system on real recordings from a meeting room show that the proposed location features can provide greater discrimination than standard cepstral features, and also demonstrate the success of an extension to handle dual-speaker overlap.