Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Doctoral Candidacy Examination Scores and Time to Degree Completion

Aim/Purpose: The purpose of this study was to determine if there was a relationship between doctoral students’ candidacy examination scores and estimated time to degree completion, measured by dissertation progression. Background: Time to degree completion in doctoral programs continues to be an issue and reasons for high attrition rates for doctoral students are broad and include varied core components of the academic pathway such as challenges with critical thinking during coursework, stress about passing comprehensive examinations, poor academic writing, and lack of knowledge around scholarly practitioner research. Methodology: An ex post facto, correlational research design utilized quantitative data to determine whether a relationship existed between candidacy examination scores and time to doctoral degree completion. Contribution: If student’s ability to score higher on the candidacy examination increases their likelihood of dissertation activity, completion of specified benchmarks such as a pre-prospectus, prospectus, and final dissertation defenses, one year following the candidacy examination, programs have evidence-based support to retain a comprehensive examination. Findings: The findings denoted a weak to moderate relationship between candidacy examination score and dissertation progression (defending pre-prospectus and/or prospectus) within one year from taking the candidacy examination. Thus, the researchers believe this identification of this relationship warrants further research to continue to examine how candidacy examination scores impact progress to degree completion with a focus on academic writing and scholarly practitioner research. Recommendations for Practitioners: We recommend for practitioners the continued implementation of the candidacy examination for students to aid in addressing any issues or misunderstandings students may have prior to the bulk of their data collection and analysis by assessing students’ abilities in academic writing and scholarly practitioner research and in turn, improve time to degree completion. Recommendation for Researchers: We recommend that future research is conducted to gather a longitudinal understanding of the implications of administering a comprehensive examination followed by a pre-prospectus and prospectus defense will positively impact student’s progression through their research and result in the dissertation being completed in a more timely manner. Impact on Society: Doctoral programs need to provide support to avoid students who are progressing through a doctoral program and successfully completing coursework, being halted at the All But Dissertation (ABD) stage and as a result fail to complete these programs due to poor academic writing and lack of knowledge around scholarly practitioner research. Future Research: A longer analysis timeline and larger sample size would help in further understanding the true beneficial or potentially harmful implications this continued implementation of the candidacy examination has on individual students’ progression through to degree completion.
Data-driven prediction and control of wastewater treatment process through the combination of convolutional neural network and recurrent neural network

It is widely believed that effective prediction of wastewater treatment results (WTR) is conducive to precise control of aeration amount in the wastewater treatment process (WTP). Conventional biochemical mechanism-driven approaches are highly dependent on complicated and redundant model parameters, resulting in low efficiency. Besides, sharp increase in business volume of wastewater treatment requires automatic operation technologies for this purpose. Under this background, researchers started to introduce the idea of data mining to model the WTP, in order to automatically predict WTR given inlet conditions and aeration amount. However, existing data-driven approaches for this purpose focus on modelling of the WTP at independent timestamps, neglecting sequential characteristics of timestamps during the long-term treatment process. To tackle the challenge, in this paper, a novel prediction and control framework through combination of convolutional neural network (CNN) and recurrent neural network (RNN) is proposed for prediction of the WTR. Firstly, the CNN model is utilized to automatically extract the local features of each independent timestamp in the WTP and make them encoded. Next, the RNN model is employed to represent global sequential features of the WTP on the basis of local feature encoding. Finally, we conduct a large number of experiments to verify efficiency and stability of the proposed prediction framework.
Characterization of aminopeptidase N and endopeptidases E, O, O2, O3 from Lactobacillus helveticus WSU19, a Lactobacilli with industrial significance

by Elly Soeryapranata, Ph.D. Washington State University August 2005 Chair: Joseph R. Powers Lactobacillus helveticus WSU19 is the adjunct culture of Cougar Gold, a Cheddartype cheese with non-bitter taste after extensive aging. The objective of the present study was to clone genes encoding for selected peptidases from Lb. helveticus WSU19 and to characterize the activities of these peptidases on chymosin-derived peptides, β-CN f193-209 and αs1-CN f1-23. The pepN, pepE, pepO, pepO2, and pepO3 genes from Lb. helveticus WSU19 were successfully cloned in Escherichia coli DH5α using the corresponding genes from Lb. helveticus CNRZ32 as probes. Primer walking of 5 genomic inserts (2.7-5.8 kb) revealed open reading frames encoding for the PepN, PepE, PepO, PepO2, and PepO3 enzymes. The deduced amino acid sequences of the cloned genes share 97-99% identities with the corresponding sequences from Lb. helveticus CNRZ32. PepN cleaves the bitter peptide, β-CN f193-209, at Tyr193-Gln194 and Gln194-Gln195 bonds. Degradation of αs1-CN f1-23 by PepN occurs in the presence of PepO, PepO2, or PepO3. PepE cleaves β-CN f193-209 in the presence of PepN or PepO-like endopeptidases.
The influence of genotype on sperm motility and sperm head morphometry of Merino (Ovis aries) sheep

69 4.1 Introduction 69 4.2 Materials and methods 71 4.2. 1 Experimental location 71 4.2. 2 Experimental animals 71 4.2. 3 Observation of the reproductive performance 72 4.2. 4 Semen collection 72 4.2. 5 Collection and processing of epididymal samples 73 4.2. 6 Motility and morphometry recordings and analyses 73 4.2. 7 Statistical analysis 74 4.3 Results and discussion 74 4.3. 1 Ram behaviour and conception rates of ewes served by HL and LL rams 74 4.3. 2 Macroscopic evaluation 78 4.3. 3 Microscopic evaluation 78 4.4 Conclusions 85 Chapter 5 86 The influence of genotype, sperm concentration and equilibration period on sperm traits and the ability of epididymal sperm to withstand cryodamage 86 Abstract 86 86 5.1 Introduction 86 5.2 Materials and methods 88 5.2. 1 Experimental location Elsenburg 88 5.2. 2 Experimental animals 88 5.2. 3 Collection of epididymal samples 88 5.2. 4 Experimental design 89 Stellenbosch University http://scholar.sun.ac.za
“N‐of‐1”—Study: A concept of acute and chronic stress research using the example of ballroom dancing

Athletes often report on heightened stress, higher disease susceptibility, and a deterioration in mood and performance throughout periods of high training load and competitions. This paper presents a single‐case study combining different research approaches to monitor the dynamic, idiosyncratic responses to competitive stress in elite sports using the example of professional ballroom dancing. Throughout an 8‐month period (313 data points), one international‐level female dancer provided data on mood, stress, and fatigue. In parallel, she collected saliva samples for the assessment of cortisol (sCort) and alpha‐amylase (sAA). A hair strand was collected every 3 months to examine cumulative cortisol secretion. As expected, perceived stress was related to a reduction in well‐being. On a daily basis, sCort predicted lower fatigue. In addition, tournaments resulted in a 3‐fold and a 2‐fold increase in sCort and sAA, respectively, and there was a pronounced drop in hair cortisol in the aftermath of a surgery‐related break from dancing. We confirm competitive ballroom dancing to constitute a major stressor with immediate and prolonged consequences for self‐reported well‐being and biological stress markers. Single‐case studies offer much potential for the observation of complex dynamic associations. In a next step, this approach will also become relevant when evaluating the efficacy of preventive and therapeutic interventions on an individual level.
The Influence of the Gate Driver and Common-Source Inductance on the Short-Circuit Behavior of IGBT Modules and Protection

In this article, the influence of the gate drive unit on the short-circuit (SC) type II and III behavior of insulated gate bipolar transistor (IGBT) modules was investigated in detail. It is found that the real gate voltage of the IGBT chip contacts cannot be measured across the auxiliary pins of a power module. The difference between applied gate voltage at the sense contacts and the real gate voltage at the IGBT gate contact is shown to be highly dependent on the common-source inductance and hence, the packaging concept. The value of the gate resistance has a significant effect on SC behavior. A gate voltage self-clamping effect during SC was found and verified with the help of circuit simulation. Finally, a gate voltage clamping circuit for improved SC ruggedness of the IGBT modules is introduced. Based on the clamping circuit, a new fast SC type II and III detection method is developed and tested, which can detect and turn-off the SC event within 400 ns.
Aerosol acidity and liquid water content regulate the dry deposition of inorganic reactive nitrogen

Abstract. Ecosystem productivity is strongly modulated by the atmospheric deposition of inorganic reactive nitrogen (the sum of ammonium and nitrate). The individual contributions of ammonium and nitrate vary considerably over space and time, giving rise to complex patterns of nitrogen deposition. In the absence of rain, much of this complexity is driven by the large difference between the dry deposition velocity of nitrogen-containing molecules in the gas or condensed phase. Here we quantify how aerosol liquid water and acidity, through their impact on gas–particle partitioning, modulate the deposition velocity of total NH3 and total HNO3 individually while simultaneously affecting the dry deposition of inorganic reactive nitrogen. Four regimes of deposition velocity emerge: (i) HNO3 – fast, NH3 – slow, (ii) HNO3 – slow, NH3 – fast, (iii) HNO3 – fast, NH3 – fast, and (iv) HNO3 – slow, NH3 – slow. Conditions that favor partitioning of species to the aerosol phase strongly reduce the local deposition of reactive nitrogen species and promote their accumulation in the boundary layer and potential for long-range transport. Application of this framework to select locations around the world reveals fundamentally important insights: the dry deposition of total ammonia displays little sensitivity to pH and liquid water variations, except under conditions of extreme acidity and/or low aerosol liquid water content. The dry deposition of total nitric acid, on the other hand, is quite variable, with maximum deposition velocities (close to gas deposition rates) found in the eastern United States and minimum velocities in northern Europe and China. In the latter case, the low deposition velocity leads to up to 10-fold increases in PM2.5 nitrate aerosol, thus contributing to the high PM2.5 levels observed during haze episodes. In this light, aerosol pH and associated liquid water content can be considered to be control parameters that drive dry deposition flux and can accelerate the accumulation of aerosol contributing to intense haze events throughout the globe.
Surgical Volumes in a Regional Trauma Center: Is It Enough?

The mid-1970s to the 1980s was the golden age of trauma surgery; during this era, trauma surgeons frequently performed complex trauma operations including hepatic resection, pancreaticoduodenectomy, and aortic repair [1]. In the same era, trauma surgeons could be the “master surgeon. ” However, following the golden age of trauma surgery, several critical changes have emerged with improvements in imaging techniques including computed tomography and ultrasonography, and the use of nonoperative management for solid organ injuries. In addition, violence associated with alcohol, drugs and gang warfare has decreased in Korea. Moreover, angioembolization has further enhanced nonoperative management of internal organ bleeding, and development of endovascular stents could treat vascular injuries without surgical repair. By contrast, surgical critical care has emerged as a discipline, and trauma has been absorbed into comprehensive intensive care for all patients with injuries. These changes have led to disinterest in trauma surgery as a career and avoidance of trauma responsibilities by many practicing general surgeons in the United States[2]. In Korea, with the trauma center development plan of the government, trauma surgeons who work in a regional trauma center must be dedicated to trauma surgery only. Some argue that this has caused several problems. Firstly, it has caused disinterest in trauma surgery as a career and has led to a decrease in the number of applicants for trauma surgery fellowships. Secondly, trauma surgeons lack surgical experience, especially those whose fellowship was training in trauma. Thirdly, dedicated specialists for non-trauma emergency surgery are lacking. Lastly, this system could not be maintained without financial support from the government. Implementation of the acute-care surgery model can be an option to solve these problems. The purpose of this study was to report the surgical volume in a regional trauma center in Korea and review the acute care surgery system in the United States. For this purpose, we analyzed the surgical data recorded by trauma surgeons in a single regional trauma center.
Cigarette Smoke and Lipoprotein Modification

It has been widely accepted that the cigarette smoking habit is linked to major chronic health risks including atherosclerosis, coronary heart disease, chronic obstructive lung disease, and lung cancer. ' Among those chronic diseases, coronary heart disease is responsible for the majority of deaths in most industrialized societies. Several experimental studies have shown that a number of components in cigarette smoke might be involved in the progression of coronary heart disease. Among those components, nicotine has been reported to stimulate catecolamine secretion into the plasma causing changes in vascular tonus2 and cardi~dynamics. ~ Carbon monoxide has also been proposed as an active constituent of gas-phase cigarette smoke that could be involved in atherogenesis by causing hypoxia and vascular injury? Epidemiological studies have also revealed that the cigarette smoking habit is associated with a change in plasma lipoprotein and fatty acid level^. ^ However, despite considerable investigation, very little has been understood concerning the molecular mechanisms by which cigarette smoking could accelerate atherogenesis leading to the development of coronary heart disease. Atherogenesis has been recognized to be a consequence of multiple serial events? Among those events, the appearance of foam cells filled with lipid droplets in the subendothelial space has been recognized as a characteristic feature of the fatty streak, the early stage of the atherosclerotic l e ~ i o n . ~ Recent intensive studies have revealed that these foam cells are macrophages enriched with cholesteryl ester? ' In the body, the majority of cholesterol is synthesized in the liver and transported in the circulation by low-density lipoprotein (LDL), the plasma level of which has been known to be closely linked to the risk of atherosclerotic disorders. Studies in vitro have shown that macrophages are converted into foam cells by taking up oxidatively modified LDL efficiently by the scavenger receptor. There has been an
Sparsity promoting super-resolution coverage segmentation by linear unmixing in presence of blur and noise

Abstract. We present a segmentation method that estimates the relative coverage of each pixel in a sensed image by each image component. The proposed super-resolution blur-aware model (utilizes a priori knowledge of the image blur) for linear unmixing of image intensities relies on a sparsity promoting approach expressed by two main requirements: (i) minimization of Huberized total variation, providing smooth object boundaries and noise removal, and (ii) minimization of nonedge image fuzziness, responding to an assumption that imaged objects are crisp and that fuzziness is mainly due to the imaging and digitization process. Edge fuzziness due to partial coverage is allowed, enabling subpixel precise feature estimates. The segmentation is formulated as an energy minimization problem and solved by the spectral projected gradient method, utilizing a graduated nonconvexity scheme. Quantitative and qualitative evaluation on synthetic and real multichannel images confirms good performance, particularly relevant when subpixel precision in segmentation and subsequent analysis is a requirement.
Urban land-use classification by combining high-resolution optical and long-wave infrared images

Abstract Multi-sensor and multi-resolution source images consisting of optical and long-wave infrared (LWIR) images are analyzed separately and then combined for urban mapping in this study. The framework of its methodology is based on a two-level classification approach. In the first level, contributions of these two data sources in urban mapping are examined extensively by four types of classifications, i.e. spectral-based, spectral-spatial-based, joint classification, and multiple feature classification. In the second level, an objected-based approach is applied to decline the boundaries. The specificity of our proposed framework not only lies in the combination of two different images, but also the exploration of the LWIR image as one complementary spectral information for urban mapping. To verify the effectiveness of the presented classification framework and to confirm the LWIR’s complementary role in the urban mapping task, experiment results are evaluated by the grss_dfc_2014 data-set.
Effects of the Interaction of Tannins with Co-existing Substances. VI. : Effects of Tannins and Related Polyphenols on Superoxide Anion Radical, and on 1, 1-Diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl Radical

The scavenging effects of twenty-five tannins including low-molecular polyphenols on the superoxide anion radical (O2-) generated in the hypoxanthine-xanthine oxidase system were estimated by electron spin resonance (ESR) measurements of the adducts formed by 5, 5-dimethyl-1-pyrroline-N-oxide (DMPO) and the radical. The scavenging effects of tannins and related polyphenols having ortho-trihydroxyl (pyrogallol) structure [galloyl, hexahydroxydiphenoyl (HHDP) groups in hydrolyzable tannins, galloyl group in acylated proanthocyanidins, and the B-ring of some flavan-3-ols] were stronger than the effects of unacylated proanthocyanidins. The effects of tannins and related polyphenols on the superoxide anion radical were also compared with those on the 1, 1-diphenyl-2-picrylhydrazyl (DPPH) radical. Each tannin in an ethanol solution of DPPH radical reduced the intensity of the signal of the DPPH radical, and gave a weak signal assignable to a radical derived from that tannin, in a similar way to the appearance of the signal of dl-α-tocopherol radical, accompanied with reduction of the signal of DPPH radical, in a mixture of dl-α-tocopherol and the DPPH radical. In contrast to the case of the superoxide anion radical, the effects of unacylated proanthocyanidins on DPPH radical were comparable with those of the other types of tannins. The scavenging effects of all of the tannins and related polyphenols tested in the experiments on DPPH radical were stronger than that of dl-α-tocopherol.
Computational Modeling of IP3 Receptor Function and Intracellular Mechanisms in Synaptic Plasticity

Learning and memory in the brain have been shown to involve complex molecular interactions. In the field of computational neuroscience, mathematical modeling and computer simulations are combined with laboratory experiments to better understand the dynamics of these interactions. A vast number of computational models related to intracellular molecular mechanisms calls for means to compare them to each other. In this thesis, computational models and methods for understanding specific molecular mechanisms in synaptic plasticity, a phenomenon involved in learning, are studied and compared both quantitatively and qualitatively. The focus is set on the IP3 receptor kinetics and the intracellular molecular mechanisms including processing of calcium ions in the postsynaptic neuron. Calcium has been shown to play an important role in different types of synaptic plasticity, only the mechanisms and dynamics for elevation of cytosolic calcium concentration vary. The IP3 receptor, an intracellular calcium releasing channel, is one of the major factors responsible for the calcium elevation in neurons. Firstly, the applicability of deterministic and stochastic approaches in modeling the IP3 receptor kinetics, involving small number of molecules, is studied. In this case, the study shows that stochastic approach, especially Gillespie stochastic simulation algorithm, should be favored. Secondly, since a well-established model for IP3 receptor function in neurons is lacking, this thesis provides not only tools for model comparison but also an insight to which model of the tens of models to choose. Using stochastic simulations, four IP3 models are compared to experimental data to clarify how well they model the measured features in neurons. The results show that there are major differences in the statistical properties of the IP3 receptor models although the models have originally been developed to describe the same phenomenon. Thirdly, this study shows that the models for postsynaptic signaling in synaptic plasticity are becoming more sophisticated by involving stochastic properties, incorporating electrophysiolocial properties of the entire neuron, or having diffusion of signaling molecules. Computational comparison of these models reveals that when using the same input, models describing the phenomenon in the same neuron type produce different
Stochastic Wave-Pipelined On-Chip Interconnect

A major bottleneck of current integrated circuits is the performance of on-chip communication. It can be dramatically improved using wave-pipelining, which is very power efficient since it avoids additional pipeline registers. However, the error-free operation is getting challenging as technology scales down. Recently, approximate/stochastic communication is gaining interest since it allows to trade-off transmission quality by performance/power in resilient applications such as machine learning. Taking into account the challenges of classical wave-pipelining, this brief proposes the concept of stochastic wave-pipelining communication. A comprehensive experimental result using a 65 nm commercial technology evaluates the proposed communication technique. Furthermore, the proposed approach is assessed using a case study employing Optical Character Recognition (OCR).