Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Sexual identity, attraction and behaviour in Britain: The implications of using different dimensions of sexual orientation to estimate the size of sexual minority populations and inform public health interventions

Background Sexual orientation encompasses three dimensions: sexual identity, attraction and behaviour. There is increasing demand for data on sexual orientation to meet equality legislation, monitor potential inequalities and address public health needs. We present estimates of all three dimensions and their overlap in British men and women, and consider the implications for health services, research and the development and evaluation of public health interventions. Methods Analyses of data from Britain’s third National Survey of Sexual Attitudes and Lifestyles, a probability sample survey (15,162 people aged 16–74 years) undertaken in 2010–2012. Findings A lesbian, gay or bisexual (LGB) identity was reported by 2·5% of men and 2·4% of women, whilst 6·5% of men and 11·5% of women reported any same-sex attraction and 5·5% of men and 6·1% of women reported ever experience of same-sex sex. This equates to approximately 547,000 men and 546,000 women aged 16–74 in Britain self-identifying as LGB and 1,204,000 men and 1,389,000 women ever having experience of same-sex sex. Of those reporting same-sex sex in the past 5 years, 28% of men and 45% of women identified as heterosexual. Interpretation There is large variation in the size of sexual minority populations depending on the dimension applied, with implications for the design of epidemiological studies, targeting and monitoring of public health interventions and estimating population-based denominators. There is also substantial diversity on an individual level between identity, behaviour and attraction, adding to the complexity of delivering appropriate services and interventions.
Capacity of the discrete-time AWGN channel under output quantization

We investigate the limits of communication over the discrete-time additive white Gaussian noise (AWGN) channel, when the channel output is quantized using a small number of bits. We first provide a proof of our recent conjecture on the optimality of a discrete input distribution in this scenario. Specifically, we show that for any given output quantizer choice with K quantization bins (i.e., a precision of log2 K bits), the input distribution, under an average power constraint, need not have any more than K + 1 mass points to achieve the channel capacity. The cutting-plane algorithm is employed to compute this capacity and to generate optimum input distributions. Numerical optimization over the choice of the quantizer is then performed (for 2-bit and 3-bit symmetric quantization), and the results we obtain show that the loss due to low-precision output quantization, which is small at low signal-to-noise ratio (SNR) as expected, can be quite acceptable even for moderate to high SNR values. For example, at SNRs up to 20 dB, 2-3 bit quantization achieves 80-90% of the capacity achievable using infinite-precision quantization.
The Effects of a Telephone-Based Intervention on Weight Loss

Purpose. To evaluate minimal-contact and telephone-assisted weight-loss programs for overweight persons. Design. Participants were randomized to a minimal-contact group or one of two telephone-assisted weight-loss groups. All participants attended two group-based behavioral weight-loss classes and received written educational materials and diaries. For the subsequent 24 weeks, the minimal-contact group received no contact and the telephone-assisted group members received weekly calls to monitor their weight, food intake, and exercise. Setting. Baseline educational sessions and data collection were conducted at a university site. Subjects. Sixty-four healthy subjects (4 men) who were from 120% to 150% of ideal weight and were 25 to 55 years of age participated in the study. Measures. The major outcome of interest was change in measured weight over a 24-week period Data on calories expended in exercise, dietary intake, and demographics were also gathered at baseline and 24 weeks. Results. Weight loss did not differ significantly by treatment. Unexpectedly, the minimal-contact group lost almost twice as much weight as the telephone-assisted groups (12.7 vs 7.9 lb). Conclusions. There appears to be an audience for low-contact and telephone-assisted weight-loss programs, and such programs can be delivered easily. However, because the data show only modest weight-loss success, work should continue to identify the optimal content and design of such interventions.
The hidden subgroup problem and permutation group theory

We employ concepts and tools from the theory of finite permutation groups in order to analyse the Hidden Subgroup Problem via Quantum Fourier Sampling (QFS) for the symmetric group. We show that under very general conditions both the weak and the random-strong form (strong form with random choices of basis) of QFS fail to provide any advantage over classical exhaustive search. In particular we give a complete characterisation of polynomial size subgroups, and of primitive subgroups, that can be distinguished from the identity subgroup with the above methods. Furthermore, assuming a plausible group theoretic conjecture for which we give supporting evidence, we show that weak and random-strong QFS for the symmetric group have no advantage whatsoever over classical search.
MammoGrid: Large-Scale Distributed Mammogram Analysis

Breast cancer as a medical condition and mammograms as images exhibit many dimensions of variability across the population. Similarly, the way diagnostic systems are used and maintained by clinicians varies between imaging centres and breast screening programmes, and so does the appearance of the mammograms generated. A distributed database that reflects the spread of pathologies across the population is an invaluable tool for the epidemiologist and the understanding of the variation in image acquisition protocols is essential to a radiologist in a screening programme. Exploiting emerging grid technology, the aim of the MammoGrid [1] project is to develop a Europe-wide database of mammograms that will be used to investigate a set of important healthcare applications and to explore the potential of the grid to support effective co-working between healthcare professionals.
Performance of Rake Receivers in IR-UWB Networks Using Energy-Efficient Power Control

This paper studies the performance of partial-Rake (PRake) receivers in impulse-radio ultrawideband wireless networks when an energy-efficient power control scheme is adopted. Due to the large bandwidth of the system, the multipath channel is assumed to be frequency-selective. By making use of noncooperative game-theoretic models and large-system analysis tools, explicit expressions are derived in terms of network parameters to measure the effects of self-interference and multiple-access interference at a receiving access point. Performance of the PRake receivers is thus compared in terms of achieved utilities and loss to that of the all-Rake receiver. Simulation results are provided to validate the analysis.
Local approximation schemes for topology control

This paper presents a distributed algorithm for wireless ad-hoc networks that runs in polylogarithmic number of rounds in the size of the network and constructs a lightweight, linear size, (1+ε)-spanner for any given ε > 0. A wireless network is modeled by a <i>d</i>-dimensional α-quasi unit ball graph (α-UBG), which is a higher dimensional generalization of the standard unit disk graph (UDG) model. The <i>d</i>-dimensional α-UBG model goes beyond the unrealistic "flat world" assumption of UDGs and also takes into account transmission errors, fading signal strength, and physical obstructions. The main result in the paper is this: for any fixed ε > 0, 0 < α ≤ 1, and <i>d</i> ≥ 2 there is a distributed algorithm running in <i>O</i>(log <i>n</i>•log* <i>n</i>) communication rounds on an <i>n</i>-node, <i>d</i>-dimensional α-UBG <i>G</i> that computes a (1+ε)-spanner <i>G'</i> of <i>G</i> with maximum degree Δ(<i>G'</i>) = <i>O</i>(1) and total weight <i>w</i>(<i>G'</i>) = <i>O</i>(<i>w</i>(<i>MST</i>(<i>G</i>)). This result is motivated by the topology control problem in wireless ad-hoc networks and improves on existing topology control algorithms along several dimensions. The technical contributions of the paper include a new, sequential, greedy algorithm with relaxed edge ordering and lazy updating, and clustering techniques for filtering out unnecessary edges.
Circulating Nesfatin-1 Levels and Type 2 Diabetes: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis

The role of nesfatin-1 in glucose homeostasis has been investigated previously. However, although numerous studies have examined the relationships between circulating nesfatin-1 levels and type 2 diabetes, the conclusions are contradictory. We aimed to probe the relationship between circulating nesfatin-1 levels and type 2 diabetes by meta-analysis. Seven studies including 328 type 2 diabetes patients and 294 control subjects were included. Although there was no obvious difference in circulating nesfatin-1 levels between patients with type 2 diabetes and the control group (MD = −0.04; 95% CI = −0.32 to −0.23), subgroup analysis showed higher nesfatin-1 levels in newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes patients (MD = 0.59; 95% CI = 0.45 to 0.74) and significantly lower nesfatin-1 levels in type 2 diabetes patients receiving antidiabetic treatment (MD = −0.26; 95% CI = −0.33 to −0.20). In conclusion, the analysis supports a relationship between circulating nesfatin-1 levels and type 2 diabetes, where newly diagnosed type 2 diabetes was associated with an elevated Nesfatin-1 level, and type 2 diabetes patients receiving antidiabetic treatment showed lower circulating nesfatin-1 levels.
Exhaustive exploration of Prisoner's Dilemma Parameter space in one-dimensional cellular automata

The Prisoner's Dilemma (PD) is one of the most popular games of the Game Theory due to the emergence of cooperation among competitive rational players. In this paper, we present the PD played in cells of one-dimension cellular automata, where the number of possible neighbors that each cell interacts, z, can vary. This makes possible to retrieve results obtained previously in regular lattices. Exhaustive exploration of the parameters space is presented. We show that the final state of the system is governed mainly by the number of neighbors z and there is a drastic difference if it is even or odd.
The complexity of counting solutions to Generalised Satisfiability Problems modulo k

Generalised Satisfiability Problems (or Boolean Constraint Satisfaction Problems), introduced by Schaefer in 1978, are a general class of problem which allow the systematic study of the complexity of satisfiability problems with different types of constraints. In 1979, Valiant introduced the complexity class parity P, the problem of counting the number of solutions to NP problems modulo two. Others have since considered the question of counting modulo other integers. We give a dichotomy theorem for the complexity of counting the number of solutions to Generalised Satisfiability Problems modulo integers. This follows from an earlier result of Creignou and Hermann which gave a counting dichotomy for these types of problem, and the dichotomy itself is almost identical. Specifically, counting the number of solutions to a Generalised Satisfiability Problem can be done in polynomial time if all the relations are affine. Otherwise, except for one special case with k = 2, it is #_kP-complete.
The Immunosuppressive Effect of CTLA4 Immunoglobulin Is Dependent on Regulatory T Cells at Low But Not High Doses

B7.1/2‐targeted costimulation blockade (CTLA4 immunoglobulin [CTLA4‐Ig]) is available for immunosuppression after kidney transplantation, but its potentially detrimental impact on regulatory T cells (Tregs) is of concern. We investigated the effects of CTLA4‐Ig monotherapy in a fully mismatched heart transplant model (BALB/c onto C57BL/6). CTLA4‐Ig was injected chronically (on days 0, 4, 14, and 28 and every 4 weeks thereafter) in dosing regimens paralleling clinical use, shown per mouse: low dose (LD), 0.25 mg (≈10 mg/kg body weight); high dose (HD), 1.25 mg (≈50 mg/kg body weight); and very high dose (VHD), 6.25 mg (≈250 mg/kg body weight). Chronic CTLA4‐Ig therapy showed dose‐dependent efficacy, with the LD regimen prolonging graft survival and with the HD and VHD regimens leading to >95% long‐term graft survival and preserved histology. CTLA4‐Ig's effect was immunosuppressive rather than tolerogenic because treatment cessation after ≈3 mo led to rejection. FoxP3‐positive Tregs were reduced in naïve mice to a similar degree, independent of the CTLA4‐Ig dose, but recovered to normal values in heart recipients under chronic CTLA4‐Ig therapy. Treg depletion (anti‐CD25) resulted in an impaired outcome under LD therapy but had no detectable effect under HD therapy. Consequently, the immunosuppressive effect of partially effective LD CTLA4‐Ig therapy is impaired when Tregs are removed, whereas CTLA4‐Ig monotherapy at higher doses effectively maintains graft survival independent of Tregs.
Computational Model Of Fiber Optic, Arc Fusion Splicing; Experimental Comparison

Acknowledgement: The assistance and support of the MICOM Army Missile Command is gratefully appreciated. An analytical tool to investigate the arc fusion splicing of optical fibers is developed. The physical model incorporates heat transfer and thermal, visco elastic strain. The heat transfer equations governing radiation, conduction and convection during arc heating are formulated. The radiation heat flux impinging on the fiber optics is modeled based on reported experimental analysis of a generic type arc discharge. The fusion process considers deformation of the fiber due to thermal, viscous and elastic strain. A Maxwell stress-strain relationship is assumed. The model assumes an initial gap at the beginning of the arc which is closed by a press-stroke during the heating cycle. All physical properties of the fused silica glass fibers are considered as functions of temperature based on available experimental data. A computer algorithm has been developed to solve the system of governing equations and parametric studies carried out. An experiment using a FSM-20 arc fusion splicer manufactured by Fujikura Ltd. was carried out to provide experimental verification of the analytical model. In the experiment a continuous fiber was positioned in the arc and cyclic heating and cooling was carried out. One end of the fiber was clamped and the other was free to move. The fiber was heated for 6 seconds and cooled for 3 minutes for several cycles. At the end of each cooling process, photographs of the deformation of the fiber were taken. The results showed that the fiber necked down on the free end and buldged up on the fixed end. With repeated heating and cooling cycles, the optical fiber eventually necked down to the point that it melted in two. The analytical model was run for the conditions of the experiment. Comparisons of the predicted deformation of the optical fiber with those measured is given. The analytical model displays all of the physical phenomenon of fiber deformation observed in the experiment. The magnitude of the deformation is over predicted in some instances and underpredicted in others. This effect is explained on the basis of unknowns in the model of radiation heat flux and in the variation of density with temperature (i.e., crystal structure changes during heating). It is concluded, however, that the model simulates all the physics correctly, and therefore, provides a meaningful technique for analyzing the significant parameters involved in arc fusion splicing. Plans for further parametric studies are described.
PAC Learning Mixtures of Axis-Aligned Gaussians with No Separation Assumption

We propose and analyze a new vantage point for the learning of mixtures of Gaussians: namely, the PAC-style model of learning probability distributions introduced by Kearns et al. [13]. Here the task is to construct a hypothesis mixture of Gaussians that is statistically indistinguishable from the actual mixture generating the data; specifically, the KL divergence should be at most ǫ. In this scenario, we give a poly(n/ǫ) time algorithm that learns the class of mixtures of any constant number of axis-aligned Gaussians in R n . Our algorithm makes no assumptions about the separation between the means of the Gaussians, nor does it have any dependence on the minimum mixing weight. This is in contrast to learning results known in the “clustering” model, where such assumptions are unavoidable. Our algorithm relies on the method of moments, and a subalgorithm developed in [8] for a discrete mixture-learning problem.
‘It’s bit of an eye opener’ – A qualitative study of women’s attitudes towards tanning, sun protection and a facial morphing intervention

Objective: Skin cancer is to a large degree behaviourally preventable, meaning that evidence-based interventions have scope to make a difference. Previous research indicates that appearance-based interventions such as facial morphing may be more effective than health-based interventions, and that it can personalise the issue of skin cancer. Method: This study examined attitudes to UV exposure, as well as reactions to a facial morphing intervention, through interviews with 25 women aged 35 years and older. Results: Thematic analysis revealed four themes; two regarding attitudes to UV exposure (confusion and contradiction, and change and continuity), and two relating to the facial morphing intervention (negative reactions to UV-exposed photo and positive outcomes of the intervention). Women experienced a number of barriers to adopting safer behaviour in the sun; their current attitudes to UV exposure had been shaped by available information sources throughout their ageing. They expressed negative evaluations of the UV photo, which fed directly into motivation to reduce UV exposure. Conclusions: These results can be interpreted along the lines of goal-directed behaviour. This type of intervention has the potential to reduce UV exposure among this participant group, something that needs to be further investigated with randomised control trials.
Experimental validation of the RC-interconnect effect equalization with negative group delay active circuit in planar hybrid technology

This paper deals with the experimental validation of equalization technique of RC-line degradations based on a negative group delay (NGD) active circuit. The feasibility of this method is illustrated by brief theoretical recalls. Formulas permitting the synthesis of this NGD circuit according to the RC-line parameters are proposed. Then, the analytical predictions are verified by experimental results, which also provide evidence the efficacy of the technique for prototypes in planar hybrid technology. So, for an input square-wave pulse of 25 Msym/s-rate, the rise-time and the propagation delay of the regarded RC-circuit were respectively reduced by 71.4% and 86.4%. As expected, the recovered measured signal shows enhancement of both the raising and trailing edges. Finally, the main benefits provided by this technique compared to the use of repeater are discussed.
Numerical modeling and experimental study of heat transfer in ceramic fiberboard

Ceramic fiber products form a class of excellent refractory insulation materials. The increasing usage of fibrous materials has given further impetus for research into their heat transfer characteristics. In order to obtain more accurate estimations of effective thermal conductivity, this paper proposes a numerical model with a random structure to estimate the effective thermal conductivity of ceramic fiberboard under various bulk densities and temperatures. The present model is able to sort out individual contributions of conduction and radiation heat transfer mechanisms in these materials. The numerical simulation results are in good agreement with measured values obtained by a guarded hot plate (GHP) apparatus, indicating that the adopted modeling approach can be extended to other insulation systems.
Information Flow Monitoring: Model, Policy, and Analysis

Live digital forensic techniques that capture a snapshot of operational state at the time of seizure are helpful, but only provide information about the current state. Attempting to audit every interaction on a system will yield records that are difficult to even store, with a low ratio of useful information to noise. In this paper we propose a distributed trace based monitoring platform that applies a user-specified policy to isolate interesting sequences of actions that may potentially involve multiple processes, files, and span network connections. The primary contribution of this paper is an efficient method for composing and monitoring system behaviour at runtime both within and between hosts. Through experimentation, we show that our system accurately identifies policy violations, and that we can place reasonable bounds on its operational complexity.
Ciphertext-Policy Attribute-Based Encryption With Delegated Equality Test in Cloud Computing

Public key encryption supporting equality test (referred to as PKE-ET) provides the capability of testing the equivalence between two messages encrypted under different public keys. Ciphertext-policy attribute-based encryption (CP-ABE) is a promising primitive to achieve versatile and secure data sharing in the cloud computing by providing flexible one-to-many encryption. In this paper, we first initialize the concept of CP-ABE with equality test (CP-ABE-ET) by combining the notions of PKE-ET and CP-ABE. Using ABE-ET primitive, the receiver can delegate a cloud server to perform an equivalence test between two messages, which are encrypted under different access policies. During the delegated equivalence test, the cloud server is unable to obtain any knowledge of the message encrypted under either access policy. We propose a concrete CP-ABE-ET scheme using bilinear pairing and Viète’s formulas, and give the security proof of the proposed scheme formally in the standard model. Moreover, the theoretic analysis and experimental simulation reveal that the proposed scheme is efficient and practical.
Does the assumption of exponential arrival distributions in wireless sensor networks hold?

Wireless sensor networks (WSNs) have seen a tremendous growth in various application areas despite prominent performance and availability challenges. Although researchers continue to address these challenges, the type of distributions for arrivals at the cluster head and intermediary routing nodes is still an interesting area of investigation. The general practice in published works is to compare an empirical exponential arrival distribution of WSNs with a theoretical exponential distribution in a Q-Q plot diagram. In this paper, we show that such comparisons based on simple eye checks are not sufficient since, in many cases, incorrect conclusions may be drawn from such plots. After estimating the maximum likelihood parameters of empirical distributions, we generate theoretical distributions based on the estimated parameters. By conducting Kolmogorov-Smirnov test statistics for each generated inter-arrival time distributions, we find out, if it is possible to represent the traffic into the cluster head by using theoretical distribution. Empirical exponential arrival distribution assumption of WSNs holds only for a few cases. The work is further extended to understand the effect of delay on inter-arrival time distributions based on the type of medium access control (MAC) used in WSNs.