Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Effect of spontaneous fermentation and amylase-rich flour on the nutritive value, functional and viscoelastic properties of cowpea-fortified nixtamalized maize

Abstract Studies were conducted to evaluate the combined effects of spontaneous fermentation and amylase-rich flours (ARF) on some nutritive value, functional and viscoelastic properties of cowpea-fortified nixtamalized maize. A 2 × 3 × 3 factorial design, with fermentation medium, fermentation time and ARF level, was performed. The blends were fermented for the specific times and analysed for their titratable acidity, pH, water absorption capacity, viscoelastic properties, texture, protein and mineral content. Fermentation and ARF addition influenced titratable acidity, pH, water absorption, viscoelastic properties and texture of the cowpea-fortified nixtamalized maize. Addition of ARF decreased the viscoelastic properties, texture and pH of all the blends with a corresponding increase in acidity. Slight increases in protein and ash contents were noted with products fermented in coconut water, but ARF addition had only a marginal effect. Thus, fermentation and ARF addition could be applied to cowpea-fortified nixtamalized maize to enhance the functionalities with reduced viscosity and texture suitable for weaning food formulations.
Modelling residential land values using geographic and geometric accessibility in Guatemala City

Location and accessibility are core concepts for land-value research. However, the perspective is still limited in their conceptual and methodological application to cities from the Global South. The objective of this research is to bridge concepts and definitions to comprehensively operationalize accessibility indicators and uncover its relation with residential land-values in Guatemala City. We developed a multivariate regression model using the following access metrics: (1) geographic-access indices that were computed using time-based analyses per transport mode; (2) geometric-access metrics estimated via Space Syntax at various spatial scales; (3) a proposed geometric via geographic-access metric computed as potential access to network centrality. A variable selection process allowed to assess the information contribution of each variable in building a parsimonious model. We assessed the model in the context of model variations that represent common approaches used in existing literature. Geographic access to the core business district has the highest impact on the land-values, followed by proximity to urban areas with high geometric-access, measured as geometric via geographic access. Geometric accessibility at neighbourhood and city-wide scales add spatialized information that contributes to a parsimonious model and reduces spatial dependence. The model yielded the highest goodness of fit and prediction accuracy compared with the model variations. We concluded that Guatemala City land-values follow a predominant monocentric structure. Additionally, potential access to vital urban areas as identified via Space Syntax denotes the presence of economic activities, or potential for such, which were not explicitly addressed through the geographic-access metrics. The results have limitations but pose methodological possibilities relevant for research and practice in similar Latin American cities.
HappyDB: A Corpus of 100,000 Crowdsourced Happy Moments

The science of happiness is an area of positive psychology concerned with understanding what behaviors make people happy in a sustainable fashion. Recently, there has been interest in developing technologies that help incorporate the findings of the science of happiness into users' daily lives by steering them towards behaviors that increase happiness. With the goal of building technology that can understand how people express their happy moments in text, we crowd-sourced HappyDB, a corpus of 100,000 happy moments that we make publicly available. This paper describes HappyDB and its properties, and outlines several important NLP problems that can be studied with the help of the corpus. We also apply several state-of-the-art analysis techniques to analyze HappyDB. Our results demonstrate the need for deeper NLP techniques to be developed which makes HappyDB an exciting resource for follow-on research.
Effect of Model Spatial Resolution on Estimates of Fine Particulate Matter Exposure and Exposure Disparities in the United States

To the extent that pollution and population are spatially correlated, air quality modeling with coarse-resolution horizontal grids may systematically underpredict exposures and disparities in exposure among demographic groups (i.e., environmental injustice). We use InMAP, a reduced-complexity air pollution model, to quantify how estimates of year-2014 fine particulate matter (PM2.5) exposure in the United States vary with model spatial resolution, for a variable-resolution grid. We test five grids, with population-weighted average grid cell edge lengths ranging from 5.9 to 69 km. We find that model-estimated PM2.5 exposure, and exposure disparities among racial-ethnic groups, are lower with coarse grids than with fine grids: switching from our coarsest- to finest-resolution grid increases the calculated population-weighted average exposure by 27% (from 6.6 to 8.3 μg m–3) and causes the estimated difference in average exposure between minorities and whites to increase substantially (from 0.4 to 1.6 μg m–3).
Apparent position governs contour–element binding by the visual system

An assumption inherent in many models of visual space is that the spatial coordinates of retinal cells implicitly give rise to the perceptual code for position. The results of the experiments reported here, in which it is shown that retinally non–veridical locations of contour elements are used by the visual system for contour–element binding, lend support to a different view. The visual system does not implicitly code position with reference to the labelled locations of retinal cells, but dynamically extracts spatial position from the aggregate result of local computations. These computations may include local spatial relationships between retinal cells, but are not confined to them; other computations, including position derived from local velocity cues, are combined to code the position of objects in the visual world.
Role of nerve growth factor in the development of rat sympathetic neurons in vitro. I. Survival, growth, and differentiation of catecholamine production

To study the effect of nerve growth factor (NGF) on neuronal survival, growth, and differentiation, cultures of dissociated neonatal rat sympathetic neurons virtually free of other cell types were maintained for 3-4 wk. In the absence of NGF, the neurons did not survive for more than a day. Increased levels of NGF increased neuronal survival and growth (total protein and total lipid phosphate); saturation occurred at 0.5 microgram/ml 7S NGF. Neuronal differentiation examined by measuring catecholamine (CA) production from tyrosine also depended on the level of NGF in the culture medium. As the NGF concentration was raised, CA production per neuron, per nanogram protein, or per picomole lipid phosphate increased until saturation was achieved between 1 and 5 microgram/ml 7S NGF. Thus, NGF induces neuronal survival, growth, and differentiation of CA production in a dose-dependent fashion. Neuronal growth and differentiation were quantitatively compared in the presence of the high and low molecular weight forms of NGF; no significant functional differences were found.
A Survey of Building a Reverse Dictionary

- A reverse dictionary takes as input a phrase or a sentence describing a concept, and returns a set of candidate words that satisfy the meaning of the input phrase. This paper presents a literature survey regarding the design and implementation of a reverse dictionary. The reverse dictionary identifies a concept/idea/definition to words and phrases used to describe that concept. It has significant application for those who work closely with words and also in the general field of conceptual search. Mainly for linguists, poets, anthropologists and forensics specialist examining a damaged text that had only the final portion of a particular word preserved.
Software for Reliability Data Analysis and Test Planning

Increasingly, statisticians and reliability engineers in industry are being asked to analyze reliability data. Because of the complicated nature of the data and models that are often encountered in reliability studies, statistical methods and corresponding software needed for appropriate analyses are not developed as well as methods and software needed for the analysis of standard experimental designs and observational studies. This paper outlines the needs of practitioners and researchers in this area and describes a software tool that is being developed to satisfy the most important needs facing reliability analysts.
A landscape with games in the background

An overview of applications of two player path-forming games to verification and synthesis is given. Several extensions of the standard model of finite games with regular winning conditions are discussed. One direction is that of considering non-regular winning conditions. The other concerns the ways games are played, in particular probabilistic and multi-player games.
Energy-efficient Machine Learning in Silicon: A Communications-inspired Approach

This position paper advocates a communications-inspired approach to the design of machine learning systems on energy-constrained embedded `always-on' platforms. The communications-inspired approach has two versions - 1) a deterministic version where existing low-power communication IC design methods are repurposed, and 2) a stochastic version referred to as Shannon-inspired statistical information processing employing information-based metrics, statistical error compensation (SEC), and retraining-based methods to implement ML systems on stochastic circuit/device fabrics operating at the limits of energy-efficiency. The communications-inspired approach has the potential to fully leverage the opportunities afforded by ML algorithms and applications in order to address the challenges inherent in their deployment on energy-constrained platforms.
A language-based approach to protocol implementation

Morpheus is special-purpose programming language that facilitates the efficient implementation of communication protocols. Protocols are divided into three categories, called shapes, so that they can inherit code and data structures based on their category; the programmer implements a particular protocol by refining the inherited structure. Morpheus optimization techniques reduce per-layer overhead on time-critical operations to a few assembler instructions even though the protocol stack is not determined until runtime. This supports divide-and-conquer simplification of the programming task by minimizing the penalty for decomposing complex protocols into combinations of simpler protocols.
Prisoner’s Dilemma cellular automata revisited: evolution of cooperation under environmental pressure

We propose an extension of the evolutionary Prisoner’s Dilemma cellular automata, introduced by Nowak and May (1992 Nature 359 826), in which the pressure of the environment is taken into account. This is implemented by requiring that individuals need to collect a minimum score Umin, representing indispensable resources (nutrients, energy, money, etc) to prosper in this environment. So the agents, instead of evolving just by adopting the behaviour of the most successful neighbour (who got Umsn), also take into account if Umsn is above or below the threshold Umin. If Umsn<Umin an individual has a probability of adopting the opposite behaviour from the one used by its most successful neighbour. This modification allows the evolution of cooperation for payoffs for which defection was the rule (as happens, for example, when the sucker’s payoff is much worse than the punishment for mutual defection). We also analyse a more sophisticated version of this model in which the selective rule is supplemented with a ‘win-stay, lose-shift’ criterion. The cluster structure is analysed, and for this more complex version we found power-law scaling for a restricted region in the parameter space.
Body positioning of intensive care patients: Clinical practice versus standards*

Objective The routine turning of immobilized critically ill patients at a minimum of every 2 hrs has become the accepted standard of care. There has never been an objective assessment of whether this standard is achieved routinely. To determine if immobilized patients in the intensive care unit (ICU) receive the prevailing standard of change in body position every 2 hrs. To determine prevailing attitudes about patient positioning among ICU physicians. Design Prospective longitudinal observational study. E-mail survey of ICU physicians. Setting and Participants Convenience sample of mixed medical/surgical ICU patients at three tertiary care hospitals in two different cities in the United States. Random sampling of ICU professionals from a directory. Main Outcome Measures Changes in body position recorded at 15-min intervals. Results Seventy-four patients were observed for a total of 566 total patient hours of observation, with a mean observation time per patient of 7.7 hrs (range, 5–12). On average, 49.3% of the observed time, patients remained without a change in body position for >2 hrs. Only two of 74 patients (2.7%) had a demonstrable change in body position every 2 hrs. A total of 80–90% of respondents to the survey agreed that turning every 2 hrs was the accepted standard and that it prevented complications, but only 57% believed it was being achieved in their ICUs. Conclusions The majority of critically ill patients may not be receiving the prevailing standard of changes in body position every 2 hrs. This warrants a reappraisal of our care of critically ill patients.
Effects of 2,3‐butanedione monoxime on the contractile activation properties of fast‐ and slow‐twitch rat muscle fibres.

1. The effects of 2,3‐butanedione monoxime (BDM, 0.2‐10 mmol/l) have been examined at different temperatures on calcium transients (measured with aequorin) and isometric force in intact bundles of fibres from soleus (slow‐twitch) and extensor digitorum longus (EDL; fast‐twitch) muscles of the rat and on Ca2+‐activated isometric force of mechanically skinned soleus and EDL fibres. Ca2+ release and uptake by the sarcoplasmic reticulum has also been investigated directly on skinned EDL fibres at 1 mmol/l BDM at 23 degrees C. 2. BDM bound calcium with low affinity (KCaBDMapp = 55.9 +/‐ 4.3 M‐1 at 22 degrees C, pH 7.10, ionic strength approximately 155 mmol/l) and did not affect the kinetics and quantum yield of the Ca2+‐induced aequorin luminescence. 3. BDM reversibly reduced both force‐ and Ca2+‐dependent aequorin light during the twitch and tetanus of all intact‐muscle preparations in a dose‐related manner. Twitch responses of soleus fibres were more sensitive to BDM than were EDL fibres. Higher concentrations of BDM were needed to abolish the tetanic force response than the twitch response in both muscle types. 4. The initial rate of rise and the decay rate constants of twitches in both soleus and EDL muscles were increased in the presence of BDM. Accordingly, a higher frequency of stimulation was required to produce fusion of the tetanus. This phenomenon could be explained by the reduced magnitude of the Ca2+ transient. 5. BDM reduced maximal Ca2+‐activated force development in mechanically skinned soleus and EDL muscle fibres in a dose‐dependent fashion. This depression of force was less sensitive to BDM than were the light transients in intact fibres. Furthermore, BDM affected EDL skinned fibres to a greater extent than soleus skinned fibres, in contrast with its effects on intact fibres. 6. At concentrations of BDM greater than 2.5 mmol/l, BDM significantly decreased the sensitivity of the contractile apparatus to calcium. The relative force‐pCa (= ‐log [Ca2+]) curves for both soleus and EDL skinned fibres were shifted to the right (i.e. to higher calcium concentrations) in a dose‐related manner. 7. BDM (10 mmol/l) slowed maximal Ca2+‐activated force development of skinned preparations of both fibre types at all temperatures investigated (4‐24 degrees C). 8. BDM reduced stiffness in skinned preparations maximally activated by calcium in proportion to the reduction in the isometric force response. BDM also inhibited rigor force of all fibres but only if it was present before the onset of rigor. (ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 400 WORDS)
Sufficient mutation operators for measuring test effectiveness

Mutants are automatically-generated, possibly faulty variants of programs. The mutation adequacy ratio of a test suite is the ratio of non-equivalent mutants it is able to identify to the total number of non-equivalent mutants. This ratio can be used as a measure of test effectiveness. However, it can be expensive to calculate, due to the large number of different mutation operators that have been proposed for generating the mutants. In this paper, we address the problem of finding a small set of mutation operators which is still sufficient for measuring test effectiveness. We do this by defining a statistical analysis procedure that allows us to identify such a set, together with an associated linear model that predicts mutation adequacy with high accuracy. We confirm the validity of our procedure through cross-validation and the application of other, alternative statistical analyses.
Multi-AUV Target Search Based on Bioinspired Neurodynamics Model in 3-D Underwater Environments

Target search in 3-D underwater environments is a challenge in multiple autonomous underwater vehicles (multi-AUVs) exploration. This paper focuses on an effective strategy for multi-AUV target search in the 3-D underwater environments with obstacles. First, the Dempster-Shafer theory of evidence is applied to extract information of environment from the sonar data to build a grid map of the underwater environments. Second, a topologically organized bioinspired neurodynamics model based on the grid map is constructed to represent the dynamic environment. The target globally attracts the AUVs through the dynamic neural activity landscape of the model, while the obstacles locally push the AUVs away to avoid collision. Finally, the AUVs plan their search path to the targets autonomously by a steepest gradient descent rule. The proposed algorithm deals with various situations, such as static targets search, dynamic targets search, and one or several AUVs break down in the 3-D underwater environments with obstacles. The simulation results show that the proposed algorithm is capable of guiding multi-AUV to achieve search task of multiple targets with higher efficiency and adaptability compared with other algorithms.
Atmospheric modeling and experimental characterization of gas and aerosol phase cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes

Cyclic volatile methyl siloxanes (cVMSs) are important components in personal care products that transport and react in the atmosphere. Octamethylcyclotetrasiloxane (D4), decamethylcyclopentasiloxane (D5), dodecamethylcyclohexasiloxane (D6), and their gas-phase oxidation products have been incorporated into the Community Multiscale Air Quality (CMAQ) model. Gas-phase oxidation products, as the precursor to secondary organic aerosol from this compound class, were included to quantify the maximum potential for aerosol formation from gas-phase reactions with OH. Four 1-month periods were modeled to quantify typical concentrations, seasonal variability, spatial patterns, and vertical profiles. Typical model concentrations showed parent compounds were highly dependent on population density as cities had monthly averaged peak D5 concentrations up to 432 ng m-3. Peak oxidized D5 concentrations were significantly less, up to 9 ng m-3, and were located downwind of major urban areas. Model results were compared to available measurements and previous simulation results. Seasonal variation was analyzed and differences in seasonal influences were observed between urban and rural locations. Parent compound concentrations in urban and peri-urban locations were 3 This work was published as two peer reviewed papers, Janechek et al. (2017) and Bzdek et al. (2014). Bzdek et al. (2014) was featured in a Chemical and Engineering News article, Lockwood, D. (2014). “Some Atmospheric Nanoparticles Could Have Cosmetic Sources”. For Bzdek et al. (2014), preliminary modeling of cVMSs (without boundary conditions, deposition, or non-US emissions) was featured in support of the main objective of the paper; detection of Si in ambient nanoparticles. Nathan Janechek performed modeling, figure generation, and draft write-up for the modeling portion of Bzdek et al. (2014). Jaemeen Baek provided the model meteorology input and non-cVMS emissions for both works.
Parasitic methods: an implementation of multi-methods for Java

In an object-oriented programming language, method selection is (usually) done at run-time using the class of the receiver. Some object-oriented languages (such as CLOS) have multi-methods which comprise several methods selected on the basis of the runtime classes of all the parameters, not just the receiver. Multi-methods permit intuitive and typesafe definition of binary methods such as structural equality, set inclusion and matrix multiplication, just to name a few. Java as currently defined does not support multimethods. This paper defines a simple extension to Java that enables the writing of "encapsulated" multi-methods through the use of parasitic methods, methods that "attach" themselves to other methods. Encapsulated multi-methods avoid some of the modularity problems that, arise with fully general multi-methods. Furthermore, this. extension yields for free both covariant and contravariant specialization of methods (besides Java's current invariant specialization). Programs using this extension. can be translated automatically at the source level into programs that do not; they are modular, type-safe, and allow separate compilation.
Interaction between Helicobacter pylori and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs in peptic ulcer bleeding.

BACKGROUND Helicobacter pylori and non-steroidal anti-inflammatory drugs (NSAIDs) are the two primary causes of peptic ulcer disease. How H. pylori and NSAIDs interact and influence the development of ulcer bleeding is still not clear. METHODS A hospital-based, age- and sex-matched case-control study was conducted. Multivariate and stratified analyses were performed for further evaluation of the interaction between H. pylori and NSAIDs. RESULTS Ninety-seven patients (52 gastric ulcers, 45 duodenal ulcers) and 97 non-ulcer controls were enrolled in the study. H. pylori and NSAIDs were both found to be independent risk factors for ulcer bleeding (H. pylori odds ratio, 2.22; 95% confidence interval (CI), 1.23-4.01; NSAIDs odds ratio, 4.57; 95% CI, 2.50-8.35). There was no synergistic effect. In contrast, a negative interaction was observed in the logistic regression and stratified analysis, although the difference was not significant (H. pylori adjusted odds ratio, 3.47; 95% CI, 1.73-6.95; NSAID adjusted odds ratio, 6.16; 95% CI, 3.14-12.09). CONCLUSION H. pylori increases the risk of peptic ulcer bleeding but may play a protective role in NSAID users.