Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Multi-dimensional assessment of risks in a distributed software development course

The organizational shift from local to global settings in many software development initiatives has triggered the need for entailing it when educating the future software engineers. Several educational institutions have embraced this need and started collaborating for the provision of global software engineering courses. The rather complex nature of such courses results in a wider range of risks, in comparison to standard software engineering courses, that arise in different dimensions, ranging from course-to result-related, and for different reasons. In this work we provide an assessment of such a variety of risks as well as their causes, and we give a hint on how they may affect each other based on our 10-year-long experience with a tightly integrated GSD course.
Design of MEMS piezoelectric blood pressure sensor

Advancement of healthcare has been rapid due to phenomenal growth in engineering. The combination of medicine and engineering has been a boom to the mankind; this combination is called biomedical Engineering. Biomedical engineering is the field of engineering that creates such medical instruments which help us to measure, record and transmit data to or from human body [1]. In biomedical engineering various suitable smart sensors is used and which provides real time monitoring of health parameters like temperature and blood pressure of human body [13]. This research paper describes the modeling and simulation of blood pressure using MEMS technology and piezoelectric cantilever sensor is used for sensing element that detects blood pressure from human body and provides electrical voltage at output. Here, COMSOL Multiphysics 5.2 is used for designing and simulation of such a sensor.
The cytoplasm of mouse germinal vesicle stage oocytes can enhance somatic cell nuclear reprogramming

In mammalian cloning, evidence suggests that genomic reprogramming factors are located in the nucleus rather than the cytoplasm of oocytes or zygotes. However, little is known about the mechanisms of reprogramming, and new methods using nuclear factors have not succeeded in producing cloned mice from differentiated somatic cell nuclei. We aimed to determine whether there are functional reprogramming factors present in the cytoplasm of germinal vesicle stage (GV) oocytes. We found that the GV oocyte cytoplasm could remodel somatic cell nuclei, completely demethylate histone H3 at lysine 9 and partially deacetylate histone H3 at lysines 9 and 14. Moreover, cytoplasmic lysates of GV oocytes promoted somatic cell reprogramming and cloned embryo development, when assessed by measuring histone H3-K9 hypomethylation, Oct4 and Cdx2 expression in blastocysts, and the production of cloned offspring. Thus, genomic reprogramming factors are present in the cytoplasm of the GV oocyte and could facilitate cloning technology. This finding is also useful for research on the mechanisms involved in histone deacetylation and demethylation, even though histone methylation is thought to be epigenetically stable.
Behavior problems in sexually abused preschoolers over a 1-year period: The mediating role of attachment representations

Abstract According to the developmental psychopathology framework, adverse childhood experiences, including child sexual abuse (CSA), may alter the course of normal development in children. Attachment security has been identified as a protective factor against psychopathology and may thus play a critical role in predicting victims’ adaptation. The main objective of the present study was to investigate the mediating effect of attachment representations in the relation between CSA and behavior problems over a 1-year period. The sample consisted of 391 children (251 sexually abused) aged 3.5 to 6 years. The Attachment Story Completion Task and the Child Behavior Checklist were used. Disorganized attachment partially mediated the relation between CSA and children's internalizing and externalizing behavior problems 1 year following the initial assessment. This mediation effect was not found for ambivalent nor secure attachment dimensions. Child gender was found to moderate the association between CSA and disorganization, with larger effects of CSA among boys. These findings underscore the importance of considering attachment representations in treatment programs for preschool victims. Evidence-based practice focusing on trauma could be combined with an attachment-based intervention targeting the parent–child relationship. Moreover, interventions should be gender sensitive, as CSA appears to affect boys and girls differently.
2. Introduction

Subject Area: molecular biology/microbiology These authors contributed equally to this study. Ribosomal frameshifting used in influenza A virus expression occurs within the sequence UCC_UUU_CGU and is in the þ1 direction 1. Summary Programmed ribosomal frameshifting is used in the expression of many virus genes and some cellular genes. In eukaryotic systems, the most well-characterized mechanism involves –1 tandem tRNA slippage on an X_XXY_YYZ motif. By contrast, the mechanisms involved in programmed þ1 (or 22) slippage are more varied and often poorly characterized. Recently, a novel gene, PA-X, was discovered in influenza A virus and found to be expressed via a shift to the þ1 reading frame. Here, we identify, by mass spectrometric analysis, both the site (UCC_UUU_CGU) and direction (þ1) of the frameshifting that is involved in PA-X expression. Related sites are identified in other virus genes that have previously been proposed to be expressed via þ1 frameshifting. As these viruses infect insects (chronic bee paralysis virus), plants (fijiviruses and amalgama-viruses) and vertebrates (influenza A virus), such motifs may form a new class of þ1 frameshift-inducing sequences that are active in diverse eukaryotes. During translation, shifts in reading register can occur to either alternative frame. The most widely known frameshifting mechanism involves shifting to the –1 frame. In part, this is because of the relatively well-defined nature of the most commonly used shift site motif that allows two adjacent tRNAs to repair to mRNA in the –1 frame, and in part due to the prominence of the viruses and other mobile elements that use this type of frameshift. The other reading frame can be accessed by either a – 2 or a þ1 frameshift event, with
Child-Computer Interaction SIG: Ubiquity and Big Data -- A Changing Technology Landscape for Children

This SIG will provide child-computer interaction researchers and practitioners an opportunity to discuss topics related to challenges brought about by the increasing ubiquity of computing in children's lives, including the collection, and use of "big data". Topics include control and ownership of children's data, the impact of personalization on inclusion, the proper role for the quantification of children's lives, and the educational needs of children growing up in a society with ubiquitous computing and big data.
Cone beam computed tomography and periapical lesions: a systematic review analysing studies on diagnostic efficacy by a hierarchical model.

AIM To evaluate using a systematic review approach the diagnostic efficacy of CBCT for periapical lesions, focusing on the evidence level of the included studies using a six-tiered hierarchical model. METHODOLOGY The MEDLINE bibliographic database was searched from 2000 to July 2013 for studies evaluating the potential of CBCT imaging in the diagnosis and planning of treatment for periapical lesions. The search strategy was limited to English language publications using the following combined terms in the search strategy: apical pathology or endodontic pathology or periapical or lesion or healing and CBCT or cone beam CT. The diagnostic efficacy level of the studies was assessed independently by four reviewers. RESULTS The search identified 25 publications that qualitatively or quantitatively assessed the use of CBCT for the diagnosis of periapical lesions, in which the methodology/results comprised at least one of the following parameters: the methods, the imaging protocols or qualitative/quantitative information on how CBCT influenced the diagnosis and/or treatment plan. CONCLUSION From the assessed studies, it can be concluded that although there is a tendency for a higher accuracy for periapical lesion detection using CBCT compared to two-dimensional imaging methods, no studies have been conducted that justify the standard use of CBCT in diagnosing periapical lesions. In addition, it should be considered that, at the present time, the efficacy of CBCT as the diagnostic imaging method for periapical lesions has been assessed merely at low diagnostic efficacy levels.
The treatment of Parkinson's disease with deep brain stimulation: current issues

Deep brain stimulation has become a well-established symptomatic treatment for Parkinson′s disease during the last 25 years. Besides improving motor symptoms and long-term motor complications, positive effects on patients′ mobility, activities of daily living, emotional well-being and health-related quality of life have been recognized. Apart from that, numerous clinical trials analyzed effects on non-motor symptoms and side effects of deep brain stimulation. Several technical issues and stimulation paradigms have been and are still being developed to optimize the therapeutic effects, minimize the side effects and facilitate handling. This review summarizes current therapeutic issues, i.e., patient and target selection, surgical procedure and programming paradigms. In addition it focuses on neuropsychological effects and side effects of deep brain stimulation.
Fatty acids from fish or fish-oil supplements , but not-linolenic acid , benefit cardiovascular disease outcomes in primary-and secondary-prevention studies : a systematic review 1 – 3

Studies on the relation between dietary n 3 fatty acids (FAs) and cardiovascular disease vary in quality, and the results are inconsistent. A systematic review of the literature on the effects of n 3 FAs (consumed as fish or fish oils rich in eicosapentaenoic acid and docosahexaenoic acid or as -linolenic acid) on cardiovascular disease outcomes and adverse events was conducted. Studies from MEDLINE and other sources that were of 1 y in duration and that reported estimates of fish or n 3 FA intakes and cardiovascular disease outcomes were included. Secondary prevention was addressed in 14 randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of fish-oil supplements or of diets high in n 3 FAs and in 1 prospective cohort study. Most trials reported that fish oil significantly reduced allcause mortality, myocardial infarction, cardiac and sudden death, or stroke. Primary prevention of cardiovascular disease was reported in 1 RCT, in 25 prospective cohort studies, and in 7 case-control studies. No significant effect on overall deaths was reported in 3 RCTs that evaluated the effects of fish oil in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators. Most cohort studies reported that fish consumption was associated with lower rates of all-cause mortality and adverse cardiac outcomes. The effects on stroke were inconsistent. Evidence suggests that increased consumption of n 3 FAs from fish or fish-oil supplements, but not of -linolenic acid, reduces the rates of all-cause mortality, cardiac and sudden death, and possibly stroke. The evidence for the benefits of fish oil is stronger in secondarythan in primary-prevention settings. Adverse effects appear to be minor. Am J Clin Nutr 2006;84:5–17.
A Neutralizing RNA Aptamer against EGFR Causes Selective Apoptotic Cell Death

Nucleic acid aptamers have been developed as high-affinity ligands that may act as antagonists of disease-associated proteins. Aptamers are non immunogenic and characterised by high specificity and low toxicity thus representing a valid alternative to antibodies or soluble ligand receptor traps/decoys to target specific cancer cell surface proteins in clinical diagnosis and therapy. The epidermal growth factor receptor (EGFR) has been implicated in the development of a wide range of human cancers including breast, glioma and lung. The observation that its inhibition can interfere with the growth of such tumors has led to the design of new drugs including monoclonal antibodies and tyrosine kinase inhibitors currently used in clinic. However, some of these molecules can result in toxicity and acquired resistance, hence the need to develop novel kinds of EGFR-targeting drugs with high specificity and low toxicity. Here we generated, by a cell-Systematic Evolution of Ligands by EXponential enrichment (SELEX) approach, a nuclease resistant RNA-aptamer that specifically binds to EGFR with a binding constant of 10 nM. When applied to EGFR-expressing cancer cells the aptamer inhibits EGFR-mediated signal pathways causing selective cell death. Furthermore, at low doses it induces apoptosis even of cells that are resistant to the most frequently used EGFR-inhibitors, such as gefitinib and cetuximab, and inhibits tumor growth in a mouse xenograft model of human non-small-cell lung cancer (NSCLC). Interestingly, combined treatment with cetuximab and the aptamer shows clear synergy in inducing apoptosis in vitro and in vivo. In conclusion, we demonstrate that this neutralizing RNA-aptamer is a promising bio-molecule that can be developed as a more effective alternative to the repertoire of already existing EGFR-inhibitors.
A Proposal of Food Texture Display by Jamming

We propose a novel system that displays various food textures by using jamming, a physical process by which particles become rigid when the density is increased. We utilize it as a simple and effective method to control the hardnesses and shapes of materials chewed in the mouth. We implemented a prototype of a pneumatic jamming system to verify the feasibility of adapting jamming for food texture displays. Experiment results confirmed that the prototype provides various hardnesses perceived in the mouth. Feedback comments from experiment participants indicated that the provided range of hardness was that between marshmallow softness and sherbet hardness.
A global delay model for domino cmos circuits with application to transistor sizing

Domino CMOS circuits have played important roles in the design of high-speed VLSI chips such as 32-bit microprocessors and their family chips. Many researchers have worked on the characterization of the delay time and optimal design of domino CMOS circuits using circuit simulators as the main CAD tools. This paper presents a global analytical delay model for an important class of domino CMOS circuits wherein a multitude of n-channel transistors form a series connection. the new model is shown to predict the delay time from the precharging clock edge to the 0.5 VDD output level with less than 10% error as compared to that from SPICE simulation over the entire design space. the delay model has been applied efficiently to the design automation of domino CMOS circuits modules.
A PLANAR ANTENNA ARRAY WITH SEPARATED FEED LINE FOR HIGHER GAIN AND SIDELOBE REDUCTION

A new antenna structure with lower side lobe pattern and higher gain was designed by combining a microstrip rectangular planar antenna array with the separated feed network technique. In this paper, the side lobe behaviors of two difierent radiating structures have been studied and compared. The flrst antenna conflguration (\Structure 1") is a 16-element planar antenna array whose feed line is printed on the same plane as the radiating elements. The second one (\Structure 2") is a 16-element planar antenna array whose feed network is separated from the radiating elements by an air gap. This technique enables one to reduce the unwanted spurious efiects from the feed line. Both antennas are designed at 5.8GHz. Compared to \Structure 1" we show that the optimization of \Structure 2" allows reducing the side lobe level and increasing the antenna gain. The experimental results are shown to be in very good agreement with the numerical simulations.
Distributed XML Repositories: Top-down Design and Transparent Query Processing

XML is increasingly used not only for data exchange but also to represent arbitrary data sources as virtual XML repositories. In many application scenarios, fragments of such repositories are distributed over the Web. However, design and query processing models for distributed XML data have not yet been studied in detail. The goal of this paper is to study the design and management of distributed XML repositories. Following the well-established concepts of vertical and horizontal data fragmentation schemes for relational databases, we introduce a flexible distribution design approach for XML repositories. We provide a comprehensive data allocation model with a particular focus on storage efficient index structures. These index structures encode global path information about XML fragment data at local sites and provide for an efficient, local evaluation of the most common types of global path and tree pattern queries. Finally, we describe the basic principles of a distributed query processing model based on the concept of index shipping.
Computing the Minimum Recombinant Haplotype Configuration from Incomplete Genotype Data on a Pedigree by Integer Linear Programming

We study the problem of reconstructing haplotype configurations from genotypes on pedigree data with missing alleles under the Mendelian law of inheritance and the minimum-recombination principle, which is important for the construction of haplotype maps and genetic linkage/association analyses. Our previous results show that the problem of finding a minimum-recombinant haplotype configuration (MRHC) is in general NP-hard. This paper presents an effective integer linear programming (ILP) formulation of the MRHC problem with missing data and a branch-and-bound strategy that utilizes a partial order relationship and some other special relationships among variables to decide the branching order. Nontrivial lower and upper bounds on the optimal number of recombinants are introduced at each branching node to effectively prune the search tree. When multiple solutions exist, a best haplotype configuration is selected based on a maximum likelihood approach. The paper also shows for the first time how to incorporate marker interval distance into a rule-based haplotyping algorithm. Our results on simulated data show that the algorithm could recover haplotypes with 50 loci from a pedigree of size 29 in seconds on a Pentium IV computer. Its accuracy is more than 99.8% for data with no missing alleles and 98.3% for data with 20% missing alleles in terms of correctly recovered phase information at each marker locus. A comparison with a statistical approach SimWalk2 on simulated data shows that the ILP algorithm runs much faster than SimWalk2 and reports better or comparable haplotypes on average than the first and second runs of SimWalk2. As an application of the algorithm to real data, we present some test results on reconstructing haplotypes from a genome-scale SNP dataset consisting of 12 pedigrees that have 0.8% to 14.5% missing alleles.
Stem cell transplantation for autoimmune diseases: What can we learn from experimental models?

Using animal models for autoimmune diseases, we have previously shown that allogeneic bone marrow transplantation (allo BMT) can be used to treat autoimmune diseases. Using cynomolgus monkeys, we have recently developed new BMT methods for the treatment of autoimmune diseases. The methods include the perfusion method (PM) for the collection of bone marrow cells (BMCs), and intra-bone marrow (IBM)-BMT for the direct injection of collected whole BMCs into the bone marrow cavity. The PM, in comparison with the conventional aspiration method, can minimize the contamination of BMCs with T cells from the peripheral blood. Therefore, without removing T cells, no graft-versus-host disease (GvHD) develops in the case of the PM. Since BMCs collected by the PM contain not only hemopoietic stem cells (HSCs) but also mesenchymal stem cells (MSCs), the injection of both cells directly into the bone marrow cavity (IBM–BMT) facilitates the engraftment of donor hemopoietic cells. In organ allografts with IBM–BMT, no graft failure occurs even if the radiation dose is reduced. In addition, IBM–BMT is applicable to regeneration therapy and various age-associated diseases such as osteoporosis, since it can efficiently recruit donor-derived normal MSCs. We have also found that IBM–BMT in conjunction with donor lymphocyte infusion can prevent GvHD, but suppress tumor growth. We believe that this strategy heralds a revolution in the field of transplantation (BMT and organ allografts) and regeneration therapy.
Joint Frame Synchronization and Frequency Offset Estimationin OFDM Systems

A new joint frame synchronization and carrier frequency offset estimation scheme in orthogonal frequency division multiplexing (OFDM) systems is proposed in this paper, where both frame synchronization and carrier frequency offset estimation can be performed by using only ONE training symbol. Frame synchronization and carrier frequency offset acquisition are performed simultaneously in the proposed scheme. Reliable frame synchronization is obtained in the proposed scheme even in low SNR. The maximum carrier frequency offset acquisition range of the proposed scheme can be up to one half of the total signal bandwidth. The same training symbol can also be utilized to carrier frequency offset Fine Adjustment, which estimates the remaining carrier frequency offset after acquisition with higher accuracy. The performance comparison of the proposed Fine Adjustment algorithm and Schmidl's algorithm by using computer simulation illustrates and verify the superior performance of the proposed algorithm with regard to estimation accuracy.
The Effect of Intravenous Magnesium Sulfate and Lidocaine in Hemodynamic Responses to Endotracheal Intubation in Elective Coronary Artery Bypass Grafting: A Randomized Controlled Clinical Trial

Background: There have been many concerns about alteration in hemodynamic parameters within and shortly after endotracheal intubation (ETI) in patients scheduled for elective coronary artery bypass grafting (CABG). Objectives: We compared the attenuation effect of magnesium sulfate and lidocaine on hemodynamic responses after ETI, in patients undergoing CABG. Patients and Methods: In this randomized controlled trial 150 patients undergoing elective CABG were enrolled. Included patients were randomly allocated to three groups and received lidocaine (1.5 mg/kg), magnesium sulfate (50 mg/kg within five minute), or normal saline, 90 seconds before ETI. Baseline hemodynamic parameters including heart rate (HR), systolic blood pressure (SBP), diastolic blood pressure (DBP), and mean arterial pressure (MAP) were recorded immediately before anesthesia induction, before intubation, immediately after intubation, and at second and fifth minutes after intubation. Results: The baseline hemodynamic variables had no deference among the three groups. HR between intubation and five minute after intubation was significantly lower in two groups received lidocaine or magnesium sulfate in comparison with placebo group. Lidocaine induced more than 20% decrease in HR and MAP immediately after intubation; hence, lidocaine group showed significant MAP reduction in comparison with the two other groups. Conclusions: Lidocaine induced hemodynamic instability but premedication of magnesium sulfate maintained hemodynamic stability after intubation. Therefore, in patients undergoing CABG who received high-dose intravenous analgesic for general anesthesia, the administration of magnesium sulfate might result in maintaining hemodynamic stability after ETI in comparison with lidocaine.