Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
The Marker Index: A new method of selection of marker variables in factor analysis

A new method for selecting marker variables in factor analysis is introduced, called the Marker Index. The Marker Index evaluates the usefulness of a variable in representing a factor by weighting both primary and secondary loadings, and by maximizing the similarity between the marker and the underlying factor. The method is compared with other four methods of selections, based on factor loadings or factor weights. Theoretical and empirical comparisons of the performance of the different methods are performed and the advantages of the Marker Index are illustrated. The comparisons demonstrate that the use of the Marker Index as a selection method can improve factorial simplicity, scale validity, and reliability of the composite scales composed by variables selected as markers.
Fusing Detected Humans in Multiple Perception Sensors Network

A fusion method is proposed to keep a correct number of humans from all humans detected by the robot operating system based Perception Sensor Network (PSN) which includes multiple partially overlapped Field of View (FOV) Kinects. To this end, the fusion rules are based on the parallel and orthogonal con gurations of Kinects in PSN system. For the parallel con guration, the system will decide whether the detected humans staying in FOV of single Kinect or in overlapped FOV of multiple Kinects by evaluating the angles formed between their locations and Kinect original point on top view (x, z plane) of 3D coordination. Then, basing on the angles, the PSN system will keep the person stay in only one FOV or keep the one with biggest ROI if they stay in overlapped FOV of Kinects. In the case of Kinects with orthogonal con guration, 3D Euclidian distances between detected humans are used to determine the group of humans supported to be same human but detected by di erent Kinects. Then the system, keep the human with a bigger Region of Interest (ROI) among this group. The experimental results demonstrate the outperforming of the proposed method in various scenarios.
Electrical Properties of Fluoro-Containing Alicyclic Polyimides

The electrical, physical, mechanical and thermal properties of fluorine-containing alicyclic polyimides have been investigated. It was shown that the minimum value of the dielectric constant 1.91 at room temperature and 1 kHz frequency was achieved for polymers containing only one fluorine atom in the structure. The dielectric loss tangent of new polymers was (1-4)×10 -3 . Electro-physical parameters were stable during polymer heating up to 300 °C, and at the frequency from 1 to 20 kHz. Resistivity by heating in the air up to 320-380 °C has been investigated depending on the polyimides structure. The coefficient of moisture absorption for the fluorine-containing polyimide based on dianhydride with 4,4'-oxydianiline was determined at 50% humidity and 25 °C. It was around 0.6, but after immersion in the water for 24 and 48 h was 0.8% and 1.2%, respectively. Manufactured films had tensile strength to 160-170 MPa, and elongation up to 55%.
FERMAT ) 1 Evolution of Frequency Selective Surfaces

This review gives an account of the route through which Frequency Selective Surfaces have developed in form and in application over the past few decades. Applications range from their use in radome structures, and in meta-materials, to their incorporation into buildings for signal propagation control in the built environment. For some of these applications the geometries of the array elements can be very simple, but in cases where surfaces are curved, significantly more complicated configurations are likely to be required. Fabrication cost is an important issue. In applications to multiband radiometry for satellite systems for example, the high cost of precision manufacture is normally considered to be acceptable. In contrast, in the built environment inexpensive larger scale production techniques are important. Inkjet or 3D printing may offer cost effective ways forward.
HLA DRB1 Gene Study in Different Population Groups From Mumbai, Maharashtra, India

Abstract Indian population exhibits not only a wide variety of ethnic but also great culture and linguistic diversity. In the present study 483 unrelated individuals belonging to different linguistic groups from Maharashtra were studied for their HLA DRB1* allele gene frequencies using commercially procured PCR-SSOP kits. The results revealed that > 0.1 allele frequencies observed for HLA DRB1*03 among Marathi, Gujarathi and Punjabi linguistic groups; for HLA DRB1*06 among Marathi, Gujarathi, South Indian, Muslim and Christians; for HLA DRB1*05 among Gujarathi, Punjabi, Muslim and Christian; for HLA DRB1*07 among Gujarathi, Punjabi and Muslim. HLA DRB1*02 was observed > 0.1 allele frequencies among all the Marathi, Gujarathi, Punjabi, South Indian, Muslim, Christian and the random Western Indians studied. Further HLA DRB1*01, DRB1*08, DRB1*09 and DRB1*10 were < 0.1 allele frequencies in all the population groups studied. When compared with other reported Indian populations HLA DRB1*0305, DRB1*0308, DRB1*0309, DRB1*1107, DRB1*1111, DRB1*1123, DRB1*1128, DRB1*1307, DRB1*1315, DRB1*1334, DRB1*1402, DRB1*1410, DRB1*1411 and DRB1*1416 were identified in our study. Our results suggest the influence of genetic drift caused by selection geography and culture among different population groups studied and the Indian population cannot be considered as a single panmictic population.
G Protein–Coupled Receptor Kinase 2 Activity Impairs Cardiac Glucose Uptake and Promotes Insulin Resistance After Myocardial Ischemia

Background— Alterations in cardiac energy metabolism downstream of neurohormonal stimulation play a crucial role in the pathogenesis of heart failure. The chronic adrenergic stimulation that accompanies heart failure is a signaling abnormality that leads to the upregulation of G protein–coupled receptor kinase 2 (GRK2), which is pathological in the myocyte during disease progression in part owing to uncoupling of the &bgr;-adrenergic receptor system. In this study, we explored the possibility that enhanced GRK2 expression and activity, as seen during heart failure, can negatively affect cardiac metabolism as part of its pathogenic profile. Methods and Results— Positron emission tomography studies revealed in transgenic mice that cardiac-specific overexpression of GRK2 negatively affected cardiac metabolism by inhibiting glucose uptake and desensitization of insulin signaling, which increases after ischemic injury and precedes heart failure development. Mechanistically, GRK2 interacts with and directly phosphorylates insulin receptor substrate-1 in cardiomyocytes, causing insulin-dependent negative signaling feedback, including inhibition of membrane translocation of the glucose transporter GLUT4. This identifies insulin receptor substrate-1 as a novel nonreceptor target for GRK2 and represents a new pathological mechanism for this kinase in the failing heart. Importantly, inhibition of GRK2 activity prevents postischemic defects in myocardial insulin signaling and improves cardiac metabolism via normalized glucose uptake, which appears to participate in GRK2-targeted prevention of heart failure. Conclusions— Our data provide novel insights into how GRK2 is pathological in the injured heart. Moreover, it appears to be a critical mechanistic link within neurohormonal crosstalk governing cardiac contractile signaling/function through &bgr;-adrenergic receptors and metabolism through the insulin receptor.
Short-term forecasting with mixed-frequency data: a MIDASSO approach

In this article, we extend the targeted-regressor approach suggested in Bai and Ng (2008) for variables sampled at the same frequency to mixed-frequency data. Our MIDASSO approach is a combination of the unrestricted MIxed-frequency DAta-Sampling approach (U-MIDAS) (see Foroni et al. 2015; Castle et al. 2009; Bec and Mogliani 2013), and the LASSO-type penalized regression used in Bai and Ng (2008), called the elastic net (Zou and Hastie 2005). We illustrate our approach by forecasting the quarterly real GDP growth rate in Switzerland.
Crayfish Cherax quadricarinatus — Possible Activation y Methyl Farnesoate

During ovarian maturation in the crayfish Cherax quadand methyl farnesoate stimulated activation of PKC a in o t t i v r P ricarinatus, changes in ovarian protein kinase C (PKC) soenzymes take place in parallel to yolk accumulation as shown by immunoblot analysis). Significant changes ere recorded in the amounts of specific isoenzymes and n their distribution between the cytosol and the memranes. Ovarian maturation was accompanied by the apearance of highand low-molecular-weight immunorective PKC isoenzyme species. Among the isoenzymes ested, PKC a was the most clearly activated during ovarian maturation, as shown by significant translocation from the cytosol to the particulate fraction and the appearance of high-molecular-weight species. Moreover, a similar picture was obtained in the ovaries of intersex individuals upon induction of secondary vitellogenesis by androgenic gland ablation. Immunohistological staining showed PKC a to be localized mainly in the cytosol of remature oocytes, whereas in later maturation stages, it as concentrated around the nucleus in a vesicular strucure and in the oocyte membrane. In secondary vitelloenic stages, PKC was localized in the plasma membrane nd apparently in follicular cells. In addition, its activity as demonstrated by in vitro phosphorylation assays of a rayfish ovarian homogenate. Activation of total PKC hosphorylation of histone, an external substrate, was nduced by phosphatidylserine plus 12-O-tetradecanoylhorbol-13-acetate (TPA) or methyl farnesoate. Both TPA
Comparison of some probabilistic methods for analyzing slope stability problem

The study aims at comparing the results of different probabilistic methods such as the perturbation method, Spectral Stochastic Finite Element Method (SSFEM) and Monte Carlo Method. These methods are developed for a linear soil behavior. In this study, by assuming soil strength properties and Young modulus are random variables, a preliminary search of critical slip surface is established. One-dimensional random field is used to conduct a parametric study. The proposed probabilistic slope stability analysis is performed using a performance function formulated by the stochastic stress field mobilized along the slip surface. The results have shown that the Young modulus has no significant effect on the factor of safety. In addition, the studies have found that the perturbation method is valid than SSFEM to conduct the slope stability analysis. Moreover, SSFEM performed with high orders of expansion to reach the convergence of solution can lead to intractable calculations, while Monte Carlo method is too time consuming for a slope stability reliability analysis using modeling the spatial variability of soil properties by the random field’s theory. Finally, the numerical results have shown that the correlation lengths of the soil strength properties have effect on the position of the critical sliding surface.
Comparison of Healthy and Cancerous Pancreatic Tissue Though Dissection and Imaging

The pancreas is an organ that produces hormones regulating blood sugar levels and enzymes assisting with digestion. Despite these life-sustaining roles, a detailed study of the pancreas is often neglected in undergraduate courses in gross anatomy. To develop a better understanding of pancreatic structure, two pancreata, one with pancreatic cancer and one normal, were removed from cadavers donated to the Northern Illinois University (NIU) Anatomy program. These pancreata were serially sectioned by hand and scanned in a flatbed scanner to produce a series of images of their internal structures. ImageJ and 3D Slicer were used to produce 3D volume renderings of the pancreata. While multi-detector CT scanning is by far superior to scanning sections by hand, it is impractical for use at the undergraduate level. In the absence of multi-dector CT scanning, flatbed scanning can produce sequential images and 3D models of internal organ structures that serve to enhance anatomical education. doi: 10.21692/haps.2017. 016
Energy Regulation in a Low Carbon World

This chapter discusses the implications of an increasing proportion of renewable energy for the way in which energy companies are regulated. While the scope of regulation varies from country to country, depending on the degree of liberalisation, an increase in the overall cost of energy, and a shift from operating to capital costs will be relevant for all regulators. Where there is third party access to transmission, the tariffs may need to send stronger signals of the relative costs imposed by generators in different places, and may have significant effects on their profitability. Regulators responsible for generation revenues will have to allow peaking plants to recover their costs, even if those are rarely-used reserves to cope with intermittent renewable generation. Regulators in control of final prices charged to consumers will probably have to pass on a higher cost of energy, and determine how much is paid by different groups. The shift to renewable energy, however, will not change the fundamental tasks or nature of economic regulation.
Subsidizing Addiction: Do State Health Insurance Mandates Increase Alcohol Consumption?

We include insurance for addiction treatment in the standard rational addiction model and show that an increase in the level of insurance for addiction treatment induces a forward-looking individual to consume more of a harmfully addictive good currently. We test this implication using cross-state variation in the adoption of mental health parity mandates. We examine the effects of these mandates on the consumption of alcohol and find that parity legislation leads to a statistically significant increase in alcohol consumption. To account for the possible endogeneity of the adoption of mental health parity mandates, we perform an instrumental variables analysis, and find that the Ordinary Least Squares significantly underestimates the insurance effect on alcohol consumption. JEL Classification: I12, I18, K32, J32
Sentiment Mining on Products Features based on Part of Speech Tagging Approach

In today's competitive business, paying attention to the feedback from customers has become a valuable factor for organizations. Organizations have found that satisfied customers are not only a repeated buyer, they are also propaganda arm of the organization. Therefore, the correct analysis of their feedback by relying on information technology tools is a key element in the success of the organizations in trade. People generally share their opinions about purchased goods on the Web sites or in social networks. Extraction of these opinions is known as a special branch of text mining under the term of sentiment mining. Although this category is brand new, but in recent years, extensive researches have been done on sentiment analysis and classification of intentions. Therefore, in this paper a model is suggested about sentiment mining with the ability to extract users' opinion and product features. So dataset of customer comments has been made in a way that the comments are taken from a Website about some specific digital products. Then the paragraphed opinions are converted into sentences and the sentences are separated into two categories of subjective and objective. Next, user’s opinion and product features are taken from subjective sentences by using StanfordPOStagger and relying on Tf-idf factor for product features and finding opinion polarity by using SentiWordNet tools. In this way, user satisfaction of specific features of the product can be detected. As a means of evaluation, three factors of Recall, Precision and F-Measure provide an indication of the accuracy of each part of this research.
Application of Cognitive-Behavioral Therapy in Obstructive Sleep Apnea: Comparison of combined treatment, and CPAP Therapy on Executive Functions of the Brain -

Sleep apnea disorder brings about negative effects to the quality of life of the people involved. Debilitation of cognitive functioning is one of the consequences of this condition. Scant researches have been carried out to explore the efficacy of cognitive therapy on mitigating clinical symptoms and cognitive functions of the brain. In our study we combined cognitive method and medical treatment. This research aims to compare the effectiveness of continuous positive air pressure (CPAP) therapy and cognitive-behavioral treatment (CBT) on improving mental cognitive functions in patients with sleep apnea disorder. Methods: The study population included all patients referred the Sleep Disorders Clinic in Tehran. The sample consisted of 45 people who were randomly placed into three groups of 15 people (CPAP, combined treatment, and control). All three groups were psychologically assessed prior to the intervention. Next, individuals in the cognitive-behavioral group underwent CPAP and 12 sessions of cognitive training, progressive muscle relaxation, mental visualization, and sleep hygiene. The other group went through CPAP therapy and the third group were assessed. After the intervention, All groups were assessed psychologically. Data collection instruments included Wisconsin cognitive software, simple Stroop, complex Stroop, continuous performance, polysomnography device, and CPAP devices. Results: The results indicated that both types of intervention can enhance cognitive functioning; however, a greater efficacy is obtained by combining the two methods compared with the exclusive application of medical treatment solely. Conclusion: We propose cognitive-behavioral therapy as a complement to medical treatment.
Protein Folding in 3D Lattice HP Model Using Heuristic Algorithm

The proteins play a key role in many vital functions in living organisms. The tertiary structure of the proteins determines their functions. Predicting of a protein's tertiary structure can be the base for development of treatments for diseases such as Alzheimer's disease and cystic fibrosis. Therefore, the predicting of a protein's tertiary structure from its amino acid sequence from long time is one of the fundamental problems in computational biology, molecular biology, biochemistry, and physics. The prediction of a protein’s tertiary structure from its amino acid sequence is known as Protein Folding Problem. This is the NP-complete problem. In this article we propose extension of the heuristic algorithm that solves the problem in 2D (described by some of authors on this article) to solve the protein folding problem in 3D lattice HP model.
[Are antioxidant supplements effective in reducing delayed onset muscle soreness? A systematic review].

INTRODUCTION In recent years, antioxidant supplements have become popular to counter the effects of free radicals and muscle damage symptoms, including delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). AIM To conduct a systematic review in different databases to determine the effects of antioxidant supplements on DOMS. METHODS We conducted a search in databases; Cochrane, Pubmed, Scopus and SportDiscus and Web of Science (WOS). The words and acronyms used were; Delayed onset muscle soreness, exercise induced muscle damage, DOMS, EIMD, antioxidant and oxidative stress. RESULTS 54 articles were identified of which 48 were retreived, all in English, 17 related to vitamin C and E, supplements polyphenolic correspond to fourteen, eleven other antioxidant supplements and six to commercial supplements, all of them used to diminish the DOMS and other variables. CONCLUSIONS Both vitamins and commercial supplements have low effectiveness in reducing DOMS, while polyphenols and other antioxidant supplements show moderate to good effectiveness in combating DOMS. However, most of the studies have effectiveness in reducing other symptoms of muscle damage besides helping in the post-exercise recovery.
Purification and characterization of protease from Bacillus cereus SU12 isolated from oyster Saccostrea cucullata

Protease-producing bacterium Bacillus cereus SU12 was isolated from oyster Saccostrea cucullata . Fifteen strains of bacteria were isolated from oyster S. cucullata and screened for secretion of protease on casein agar plates. Among them, SU12 isolate was selected due to its high enzyme production capacity and was identified as B. cereus SU12 on the basis of its morphological, biochemical and 16S rDNA properties. Media and cultivation conditions were studied to optimize bacterial growth and protease production which includes different carbon and nitrogen sources, in addition to different factors such as incubation time, pH, temperature, NaCl concentrations. At pH 7, temperature 40°C and 2.5% NaCl concentration, carbon source such as starch and beef extract as nitrogen source, the protease activity was maximum. Extracellular protease was isolated, purified to 8.73 fold by diethyl aminoethyl (DEAE) ion-exchange chromatography and its specific activity was determined to be 886.56 U/mg and the sodium dodecyl sulfate poly-acrylamide gel electrophoresis (SDS-PAGE) showed a single band for the purified enzyme, with an apparent molecular weight of 66 kDa. These findings suggest that the scope for the use of B. cereus SU12 strain as suited organism for the industrial production of the extracellular protease enzyme. Keywords: Protease, Bacillus cereus SU12, Oyster, diethyl aminoethyl (DEAE) ion-exchange chromatography, optimization. African Journal of Biotechnology Vol. 12(40), pp. 5897-5908
Effect of task specific training and wrist-fingers extension splint on hand joints range of motion and function after stroke.

BACKGROUND Most stroke patients experience hand impairments that can result in persistent limitations in daily activities. OBJECTIVE This study aimed at estimating the immediate and retention effects of task specific training and wrist/fingers extension splint on hand joints range of motion and function after stroke. METHODS Twenty-four right handed patients with first ever stroke represented the sample of the study. The participants were randomly assigned into two equal groups. The study group received task specific exercises five times a week for an hour concurrently with wrist/fingers extension splint which was used two hours for each three hours (day and night) excluding exercises and sleeping hours for 16 weeks. The control group received traditional passive stretch and range of motion exercises. Manual dexterity and upper limb function were assessed by nine holes peg test and Fugl-Meyer upper extremity and hand. Goniometry was used for measuring wrist, metacarpophalangeal, thumb carpometacarpal joints active range of motion. RESULTS Significant improvements were observed in nine holes peg test, Fugl-Meyer upper extremity and hand scores and ranges of motion at post-intervention and follow-up compared to pre-intervention at P≤0.05. CONCLUSIONS The results of this study provide an evidence that task specific training and wrist/fingers extension splint are effective in improving fingers dexterity, upper extremity function and wrist/hand range of motion.