Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
A comparison of normalized formant trajectories of English vowels produced by
 American men and women*

Formant trajectories reflect the continuous variation of speakers’ articulatory movements over time. This study examined formant trajectories of English vowels produced by ninety-three American men and women; the values were normalized using the scale function in R and compared using generalized additive mixed models (GAMMs). Praat was used to read the sound data of Hillenbrand et al. (1995). A formant analysis script was prepared, and six formant values at the corresponding time points within each vowel segment were collected. The results indicate that women yielded proportionately higher formant values than men. The standard deviations of each group showed similar patterns at the first formant (F1) and the second formant (F2) axes and at the measurement points. R was used to scale the first two formant data sets of men and women separately. GAMMs of all the scaled formant data produced various patterns of deviation along the measurement points. Generally, more group difference exists in F1 than in F2. Also, women’s trajectories appear more dynamic along the vertical and horizontal axes than those of men. The trajectories are related acoustically to F1 and F2 and anatomically to jaw opening and tongue position. We conclude that scaling and nonlinear testing are useful tools for pinpointing differences between speaker group’s formant trajectories. This research could be useful as a foundation for future studies comparing curvilinear data sets.
Implant overdenture using a locator bar system by drill and tapping technique in a mandible edentulous patient: a case report

Various options have been introduced for the selection of implant overdenture attachments. Attachment wear due to the repeated insertion and removal of dentures has caused problems such as decreased retention and the requirement for suprastructure remanufacturing. In these cases, a Locator bar system was applied using the drill and tapping technique to achieve total retrievability. In a 55-year-old female patient who showed three degrees of mobility in most of her teeth due to severe alveolar bone loss, a complete denture in the maxilla and an implant supported type overdenture in the mandible were planned after extracting all the remaining teeth. Six implants were placed from canine region to the distal molar region, and the locator was connected to the milled bar using the drill and tapping technique. For a 61-year-old female edentulous patient who complained of poor retention with old denture, a complete denture in the maxilla and an implant-tissue supported type overdenture in the mandible were planned. Four implants were placed in front of mental foramen, and the Locator was also connected to the Hader bar using the drill and tapping technique. With this technique, female parts can be easily replaced, and retention can be continuously maintained.
Matrix control-flow algorithm-based fault tolerance

A novel software-implemented hardware fault tolerance method based on encoding both the control and the data-flow segments of programs with matrices is proposed and evaluated. Results show an average speed-up of 3 times compared to standard duplication and comparison, with coverage higher than 95% for the case studies considered, which outperforms previous works in the field.
Visual Software Architecture Description Based on Design Space

Boxology is the essence of software architecture description. In comparison with text-based languages,well-defined visual notations model software architecture at a high level of abstraction. They are easy to understand and easy to use due to its simplicity, but less expressive as many architectural properties can not be adequately represented. A key question to be answered in the design of a visual notation for the description of software architectures is what properties should be visually represented. This paper applies the theory of design space in the development of a visual notation called ExSAVN for software architectural modeling. It is based on the design space of software architectural elements to determine the properties of software architectures that are visually represented. It achieves balance between simplicity and expressiveness and supports incremental and iterative architectural design through a number of high level language facilities, which include the representation of undecided properties, hierarchical abstraction and type definition facilities. The paper also illustrated the style of ExSAVN by some examples of real systems.
A systematic review on comparison of symptoms improvement with two surgical methods for intraspinal tumor

Conservative therapy for intraspinal tumor is mentioned very often in the literature. However, there is no clear reference on surgical method choices for intraspinal tumors. Therefore, we conducted a systematic review to investigate the difference of preoperative and postoperative symptoms between the hemilaminectomy (HEM) and laminectomy (LAM) on intraspinal tumor. A computer based online search of the computerized data bases MEDLINE and PUBMED and EMBASE and ISI Web of Science for articles published from 1970 to January 2011 was performed. Studies that compared hemilaminectomy with laminectomy were included. Data were evaluated by RevMan 5.0 for the systematic review. Six eligible trials including 409 intraspinal cases were considered. The systematic review indicates that hemilaminectomy was more efficient in the improvement of early symptoms than laminectomy. The combined odds ratios (OR) were 2.82, with 95% confidence intervals (CIs) (1.75–4.54). The systematic review indicates that hemilaminectomy was more efficient than laminectomy in the improvement of advanced symptoms. The combined OR was 2.42, with 95% CI (1.56–3.74). In the case of appropriate surgical indications, the choice of hemilaminectomy was better for improving symptoms as cerebrospinal fluid leakage, infection, poor circulation and other possible complications for patients with intraspinal tumor.
The Role of Assessment in a Learning Culture

of assessments used to give grades or to satisfy the accountability demands of an external authority, but rather the kind of assessment that can be used as a part of instruction to support and enhance learning. On this topic, I am especially interested in engaging the very large number of educational researchers who participate, in one way or another, in teacher education. The transformation of assessment practices cannot be accomplished in separate tests and measurement courses, but rather should be a central concern in teaching methods courses. The article is organized in three parts. I present, first, an historical framework highlighting the key tenets of social efficiency curricula, behaviorist learning theories, and "scientific measurement. " Next, I offer a contrasting socialconstructivist conceptual framework that blends key ideas from cognitive, constructivist, and sociocultural theories. In the third part, I elaborate on the ways that assessment practices should change to be consistent with and support socialconstructivist pedagogy. The impetus for my development of an historical framework was the observation by Beth Graue (1993) that "assessment and instruction are often conceived as curiously separate in both time and purpose" (p. 291, emphasis added). As Graue notes, the measurement approach to classroom assessment, "exemplified by standardized tests and teacher-made emulations of those tests," presents a barrier to the implementation of more constructivist approaches to instruction. To understand the origins of Graue's picture of separation and to help explain its continuing power over presentday practice, I drew the chronology in Figure 1. A longerterm span of history helps us see that those measurement perspectives, now felt to be incompatible with instruction, came from an earlier, highly consistent theoretical framework (on the left) in which conceptions of "scientific measurement" were closely aligned with traditional curricula and beliefs about learning. To the right is an emergent, constructivist paradigm in which teachers' close assessment of students' understandings, feedback from peers, and student self-assessments would be a central part of the social processes that mediate the development of intellectual abilities, construction of knowledge, and formation of students' identities. The best way to understand dissonant current practices, shown in the middle of the figure, is to realize that instruction (at least in its ideal form) is drawn from the emergent paradigm, while testing is held over from the past. Historical Perspectives: Curriculum, Psychology, and Measurement
Preparation and Enzymatic Degradation of Porous Crosslinked Polylactides of Biomass Origin

To understand the enzymatic degradation behavior of crosslinked polylactide (PLA), the preparation and enzymatic degradation of both thermoplastic (linear) and crosslinked PLAs that have pore structures with different dimensions were carried out. The porous structures of the linear PLA samples were of micro and nanoporous nature, and prepared by batch foaming with supercritical CO2 and compared with the porous structures of crosslinked PLA (Lait-X) created by the salt leaching method. The surface and cross-sectional morphologies of the porous structures were investigated by using scanning electron microscopy. The morphological analysis of porous Lait-X showed a rapid loss of physical features within 120 h of exposure to proteinase-K enzymatic degradation at 37 °C. Due to the higher affinity for water, enhanced enzymatic activity as compared to the linear PLA porous structures in the micro and nanoporous range was observed.
Genetic and Serological Analysis of Lipoprotein LppA in Mycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoides LC and Mycoplasma mycoides subsp.capri

ABSTRACT The genes encoding the 62-kDa lipoproteins from theMycoplasma mycoides subsp. mycoideslarge-colony type (LC) strain Y-goat and the M. mycoidessubsp. capri strain PG3 were cloned and analyzed by sequencing. These two lipoproteins have been named LppA[MmymyLC] and LppA[Mmyca], and their corresponding genes have been namedlppA[MmymyLC] and lppA[Mmyca], respectively. The nucleotide and deduced amino acid sequences of these two lipoproteins showed a very high degree of similarity between these two mycoplasmas. Given the sequence data, LppA seems to fulfill the same structural functions as the previously described major lipoproteins P72 of M. mycoides subsp. mycoidessmall-colony type and P67 of the Mycoplasma species bovine group 7. Based on lppA gene sequences of M. mycoides subsp. mycoides LC and M. mycoides subsp. capri type strains, a specific PCR assay was developed so that it amplified this gene in all field strains of the two species analyzed in this study but not in the other members of the M. mycoides cluster. Analysis of the PCR-amplifiedlppA genes with frequently cutting restriction enzymes showed a certain degree of genetic variability which, however, did not cluster the two subspecies. This PCR therefore allows a rapid identification of M. mycoides subsp. mycoidesLC and M. mycoides subsp. capri but does not distinguish between these two closely related subspecies. LppA was expressed in Escherichia coli K-12 and used for the production of polyclonal mouse antiserum. Antibodies against recombinant LppA[MmymyLC] reacted with a 62-kDa protein in allM. mycoides subsp. mycoides LC and M. mycoides subsp. capri type strains and field strains tested but not with the other members of the M. mycoidescluster, thus showing the antigenic specificity of LppA and further supporting the concept that a close relationship exists between these two mycoplasmas.
Effect of Therapeutic Touch on Anxiety Level of Hospitalized Patients

Effect of therapeutic touch on the anxiety of 90 volunteer male and female subjects between the ages of 21 and 65, hospitalized in a cardiovascular unit of a large medical center in New York City, was examined. The dependent variable, state anxiety, was defined as a transitory emotional state of the individual at a particular point and was measured by the Self-Evaluation Questionnaire x-1, developed by Spielberger, Gorsuch, and Lushene. Subjects were administered this tool pre- and postintervention. Three matched intervention groups were formed; each subject received an individual five-minute period of intervention by therapeutic touch, casual touch, or no touch. Subjects who received intervention by therapeutic touch experienced a highly significant (p < .001) reduction in state anxiety, according to a comparison of pre–posttest means on A-state anxiety using a correlated t ratio. Subjects who received intervention by therapeutic touch had a significantly (p < .01) greater reduction in posttest anxiety scores than subjects who received intervention by casual touch or no touch.
Mechanized Cultural Reasoning as a Tool to Assess Trust in Virtual Enterprises

The globalized knowledge society generates virtual enterprises that are usually set up and managed on the web, and the new trend is to make the relevant technologies avail- able on intelligent portable devices. The existence of trust is a mandatory condition to make such enterprises successful. Trust has many facets ranging from very theoretical ones to fully heuristic features. One point is that trust can arise when one understands better the behavior of partners. In this paper we outline a new technology leading to the possibility to include inter-cultural issues among the factors having a strong impact on trust. This technology is called Abstraction-Based Information Technology. Its goal is to enable to design tools in articial intelligence to perform so-called cultural reasoning that ensures better trust among inter-cultural communities.We outline how Abstraction- Based Information Technology becomes feasible when working with virtual knowledge communities. An argument in favor of our approach is that it relies on a bottom-up ap- proach, particularly suitable for the web technology and for intelligent wearable devices. The solution of intercultural troubles then amounts to solve knowledge con icts among virtual knowledge communities.
Classification of Temporal Patterns in Dynamic Biological Networks

A general method is presented to classify temporal patterns generated by rhythmic biological networks when synaptic connections and cellular properties are known. The method is discrete in nature and relies on algebraic properties of state transitions and graph theory. Elements of the set of rhythms generated by a network are compared using a metric that quantifies the functional differences among them. The rhythms are then classified according to their location in a metric space. Examples are given, and biological implications are discussed.
Knockdown of MicroRNA-122 Protects H9c2 Cardiomyocytes from Hypoxia-Induced Apoptosis and Promotes Autophagy

Background Acute myocardial infarction (AMI) is a severe disease causing heart failure and sudden death. Studies indicate that microRNAs (miRNAs) are involved in the pathophysiology of AMI. In the present study, we carefully explored the effects of miR-122 on myocardial hypoxia injury and its possible underlying mechanism. Material/Methods miR-122 expression was analyzed in H9c2 cardiomyocytes after being transfected with miR-122 mimic, ASO-miR-122, or negative control. Cell viability and apoptosis were investigated by CCK-8 assays and flow cytometry analysis, respectively. Cell migration was analyzed using wound-healing assays. Western blotting was performed to analyze the expression of phosphatase and tensin homolog deleted on chromosome 10 (PTEN)/phosphatidylinositol 3-hydroxy kinase (PI3K)/AKT and LC3-II/LC3-I. Result Hypoxia exposure significantly inhibited H9c2 cell viability (P<0.01). miR-122 overexpression promoted the hypoxia-induced H9c2 cell proliferation and migration loss (P<0.05), and cell apoptosis was increased (P<0.05). miR-122 knockdown enhanced cell viability and decreased cell apoptosis (P<0.05). Knockdown of miR-122 enhanced PTEN/PI3K/AKT activation and cell autophagy. Overexpression of miR-122 inhibited the PTEN/PI3K/AKT pathway and cell autophagy pathway. Conclusions The expression of miR-122 is involved in hypoxia-induced H9c2 cardiomyocyte injury. Knockdown of miR-122 protects H9c2 cells from hypoxia-induced apoptosis and enhances cell viability.
Analysis of Object-Specific Authorization Protocol (OSAP) using Coloured Petri Nets

The use of Trusted Platform Module (TPM) is becoming increasingly popular in many security systems. To access objects protected by TPM (such as cryptographic keys), several cryptographic protocols, such as the Object Specific Authorization Protocol (OSAP), can be used. Given the sensitivity and the importance of those objects protected by TPM, the security of this protocol is vital. Formal methods allow a precise and complete analysis of cryptographic protocols such that their security properties can be asserted with high assurance. Unfortunately, formal verification of these protocols are limited, despite the abundance of formal tools that one can use. In this paper, we demonstrate the use of Coloured Petri Nets (CPN) - a type of formal technique, to formally model the OSAP. Using this model, we then verify the authentication property of this protocol using the state space analysis technique. The results of analysis demonstrates that as reported by Chen and Ryan the authentication property of OSAP can be violated.
A Novel Protein for Photosystem I Biogenesis*

Hcf101-1 is a high-chlorophyll-fluorescence (hcf) Arabidopsis mutant that lacks photosystem I (1). Photosystem I subunits are synthesized in the mutant but do not assemble into a stable complex. hcf101 was isolated by map-based cloning and encodes an MRP-like protein with a nucleotide-binding domain. The protein is localized in the chloroplast stroma. In green tissue, the Hcf101 level is stimulated by light, and the protein is not detectable in roots. Two independent knock-out lines, hcf101-2 and hcf101-3, are also impaired in Hcf101 accumulation, although to different extents. Like hcf101-1, hcf101-2 and hcf01-3 are hcf mutants with impaired photosystem I. Our results indicate that Hcf101 is a novel component required for photosystem I biosynthesis.
Vindoline formation in shoot cultures of Catharanthus roseus is synchronously activated with morphogenesis through the last biosynthetic step.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS The Madagascar periwinkle (Catharanthus roseus) produces the monoterpenoid alkaloid vindoline, which requires a specialized cell organization present only in the aerial tissues. Vindoline content can be affected by photoperiod and this effect seems to be associated with the morphogenetic capacity of branches; this association formed the basis of the study reported here. METHODS Vindoline-producing in vitro shoot cultures were exposed either to continuous light or a 16-h photoperiod regime. New plantlet formation and alkaloid biosynthesis were analysed throughout a culture cycle. KEY RESULTS In cultures under the photoperiod, the formation of new plantlets occurred in a more synchronized fashion as compared to those under continuous light. The accumulation of vindoline in cultures under the photoperiod occurred in co-ordination with plantlet formation, in contrast to cultures under continuous light, and coincided with a peak of activity of deacetylvindoline acetyl CoA acetyltransferase (DAT), the enzyme that catalyses the last step in vindoline biosynthesis. When new plantlet formation was blocked in cultures under the photoperiod by treatment with phytoregulators, vindoline synthesis was also reduced via an effect on DAT activity. No association between plantlet formation and other biosynthetic enzymes, such as tryptophan decarboxylase (TDC) and deacetoxyvindoline 4-hydroxylase (D4H), was found. Effects of light treatment on vindoline synthesis were not mediated by ORCA-3 proteins (which are involved in the induction of alkaloid synthesis in response to elicitation), suggesting that the presence of a different set of regulatory proteins. CONCLUSIONS The data suggest that vindoline biosynthesis is associated with morphogenesis in shoot cultures of C. roseus.
Hardening Cassandra Against Byzantine Failures

Cassandra is one of the most widely used distributed data stores these days. Cassandra supports flexible consistency guarantees over a wide-column data access model and provides almost linear scale-out performance. This enables application developers to tailor the performance and availability of Cassandra to their exact application's needs and required semantics. Yet, Cassandra is designed to withstand benign failures, and cannot cope with most forms of Byzantine attacks. In this work, we present an analysis of Cassandra's vulnerabilities and propose protocols for hardening Cassandra against Byzantine failures. We examine several alternative design choices and compare between them both qualitatively and empirically by using the Yahoo! Cloud Serving Benchmark (YCSB) performance benchmark. We include incremental performance analysis for our algorithmic and cryptographic adjustments, supporting our design choices.
The effects of combined conventional treatment, oral antioxidants and essential fatty acids on sperm biology in subfertile men.

We evaluated the effects of combined conventional treatment, oral antioxidants (N-acetyl-cysteine or vitamins A plus E) and essential fatty acids (FA) on sperm biology in an open prospective study including 27 infertile men. The evaluation included sperm characteristics, seminal reactive oxygen species (ROS), FA of sperm membrane phospholipids, sperm oxidized DNA (8-OH-dG), and induced acrosome reaction (AR). Treatment did not improve sperm motility and morphology, nor decrease the concentration of round cells and white blood cells in semen. Sperm concentration increased in oligozoospermic men (7.4+/-1.3 to 12.5+/-1.9 million/ml). Treatment significantly reduced ROS (mean+/-SEM) (775.3+/-372.2 to 150.3+/-105.2 x 10(3)counts/10 second) and 8-OH-dG (45.3+/-10.4 to 16. 8+/-3.3 fmol/microg DNA). Treatment increased the AR (55.1+/-2.2 to 71.6+/-2.2%), the proportion of polyunsaturated FA of the phospholipids, and sperm membrane fluidity. The overall pregnancy rate was 4.5% in 134 months. The per month pregnancy rate tended to be higher in partners of (ex)-smokers (7.15%, n=14,70 months) than in never-smokers (1.6%, n=13,64 months) (OR:4.57, 95% Cl:0.55-38.1).
Near-infrared imaging polarimetry of young stellar objects in ρ Ophiuchi

The results of a near-infrared (J H K LP) imaging linear polarimetry survey of 20 young stellar objects in ρ Ophiuchi are presented. The majority of the sources are unresolved, with K band polarizations, PK 20% are seen over their envelopes. Correlations are observed between the degree of core polarization and the evolutionary status inferred from the spectral energy distribution. K band core polarizations >6% are only observed in Class I YSOs. A 3-dimensional Monte Carlo model with oblate grains aligned with a magnetic field is used to investigate the flux distributions and polarization structures of three of the ρ Oph young stellar objects with extended nebulae. A ρ / r 1.5 power law for the density is applied throughout the envelopes. The large scale centrosymmetric polarisation structures are due to scattering. However, the polarization structure in the bright core of the nebula appears to require dichroic extinction by aligned nonspherical dust grains. The position angle indicates a toroidal magnetic field in the inner part of the envelope. Since the measured polarizations attributed to dichroic extinction are usually 610%, the grains must either be nearly spherical or very weakly aligned. The higher polarizations observed in the outer parts of the reflection nebulae require that the dust grains responsible for scattering have maximum grain sizes 61.05 � m.