Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Health check-ups and family screening allow detection of hereditary hemochromatosis with less advanced liver fibrosis and survival comparable with the general population

Abstract Objective. The information concerning the morbidity and mortality of hereditary hemochromatosis is based primarily on clinical cohorts of symptomatic patients. The major aim of this study was to analyze the long-term prognosis for Swedish patients with this condition, with respect to both clinical features and survival, in relation to the route by which the disease was detected. Patients and methods. 373 patients with hemochromatosis detected through routine health check-ups (n = 153), family screening (n = 44), symptoms of arthralgia (n = 23), investigation of other diseases/symptoms (n = 108) or signs of liver disease (n = 45) were monitored for a mean period of 11.9 ± 5.8 years. The degree of liver fibrosis and survival were analyzed. Results. Overall survival among these patients was not significantly different from that of a matched normal population. The patients diagnosed through health check-ups and family screening were detected at an earlier age and had the highest rate of survival. Liver biopsy at the time of diagnosis revealed cirrhosis in 9% of those detected through the health check-ups and 5% in the case of family screening, compared with 13% for the group with arthralgia, 17% for other diseases/symptoms and 42% for liver disease. Conclusion. Health check-ups and family screening allow detection of hereditary hemochromatosis at an earlier age and with less advanced liver fibrosis, although a few of these patients have already developed cirrhosis. Our study indicates that iron indices should be included in health check-ups, and if abnormal, should lead to further investigation.
Gene Polymorphisms of ADIPOQ +45T>G, UCP2 -866G>A, and FABP2 Ala54Thr on the Risk of Colorectal Cancer: A Matched Case-Control Study

As insulin resistance (IR) is an established risk factor for colorectal cancer (CRC), we explored the association between each of the IR-related gene polymorphisms of adiponectin (ADIPOQ) rs2241766, uncoupling protein 2 (UCP2) rs659366, and fatty acid-binding protein (FABP2) rs1799883 and CRC risk. Genotyping of blood samples and collection of lifestyle and dietary habits were performed for 400 case-control pairs. Unconditional logistic regression (ULR) was applied to assess the effects of the three single nucleotide polymorphisms (SNP), environmental factors. Both ULR and generalized multifactor dimensionality reduction (GMDR) were used to test the gene-gene and gene-environment interactions on CRC risk. Subjects carrying the ADIPOQ rs2241766 TG+GG genotype had a higher CRC risk than those carrying the TT genotype (OR = 1.429, 95% CI 1.069–1.909). The additive and multiplicative interactions between ADIPOQ rs2241766 and FABP2 rs1799883 on CRC were found by ULR (RERI = 0.764, 95%CI 0.218∼1.311, AP = 0.514, 95%CI 0.165∼0.864, S = −1.745, 95%CI is unachievable, and Pmulti = 0.017, respectively). Furthermore, the high order gene-gene interaction of the three SNPs were found by GMDR (P = 0.0107). A significant dosage effect with an increasing number of risk genotypes was observed as the risk of CRC increased (Ptrend = 0.037). In GMDR, the gene-environment interaction among the three SNPs and red meat consumption on CRC risk was significant (P = 0.0107). Compared with subjects with low red meat consumption and null risk genotypes, those with high-red meat consumption and three risk genotypes had 3.439-fold CRC risk (95% CI 1.410–8.385). In conclusion, the results showed that the ADIPOQ rs2241766 TG+GG genotype increased CRC risk. Given the complexity of the carcinogen for CRC, ADIPOQ rs2241766, UCP2 rs659366, FABP2 rs1799883 and red meat consumption potentially worked together in affecting CRC risk.
The significance of function shift to continuing education and training in South Africa : an active research approach

Function Shift is the transference of functions, which involves responsibilities, assets and human resources (including their employment packages), from one department to the next. The Function Shift to which I refer in this study entails the shifting of functions from the former Adult Education and Training provincial directorates to the Department of Higher Education and Training (DHET). This process started in 2009 in terms of proclamation 48 of 2009. The purpose of my active research is to investigate in depth the experienced positive and negative consequences of Function Shift with the intention of exploring problematic features and challenges of Community Education and possibilities for addressing them. By ‘experienced’ consequences, I mean consequences that are not just imagined but were expressed by participants. I employed an 'active' qualitative research approach whereby I, as a researcher, am actively involved in the research process in trying to ensure that the research is bearing results for me as well as for the participants. I based the selection of Community Education and Training Colleges on the characteristics of the regions in which the colleges belonged. I clustered regions that portrayed similar characteristics and came out with 3 clusters. I selected one region and its respective college from each of the 3 clusters. From each of the selected regions and their corresponding colleges, I sampled a Regional manager, Curriculum Implementer or regional official, Principal, 1 Centre manager, 1 lecturer and 1 student. I collected data through first and second interview sessions, focus group discussion in 1 college and through evaluative discussion with 2 head office officials. To carry out data analysis, I used the principles of Atlas TI that encourages the coding, categorisation and thematising data collected from participants simultaneously with data from the reviewed literature. It emerged that all participants agreed that a multilevel change management system is suitable for Function Shift as opposed to the traditional rational/linear model and that Function Shift is a potential solution to Adult Education and Training challenges. The prevailing challenge was insufficient consultation, which resulted in some transitional challenges that could have been identified and mitigated against. My concluding recommendation is that the oral or print input made by members on the ground including the assessment of the real and practical situation in Community Learning Centres must drive the development of policies that
Assembling homology classes in automorphism groups of free groups

The observation that a graph of rank n can be assembled from graphs of smaller rank k with s leaves by pairing the leaves together leads to a process for assembling homology classes for Out(Fn) and Aut(Fn) from classes for groups Γk,s, where the Γk,s generalize Out(Fk)=Γk,0 and Aut(Fk)=Γk,1. The symmetric group Gs acts on H∗(Γk,s) by permuting leaves, and for trivial rational coefficients we compute the Gs-module structure on H∗(Γk,s) completely for k≤2. Assembling these classes then produces all the known nontrivial rational homology classes for Aut(Fn) and Out(Fn) with the possible exception of classes for n=7 recently discovered by L. Bartholdi. It also produces an enormous number of candidates for other nontrivial classes, some old and some new, but we limit the number of these which can be nontrivial using the representation theory of symmetric groups. We gain new insight into some of the most promising candidates by finding small subgroups of Aut(Fn) and Out(Fn) which support them and by finding geometric representations for the candidate classes as maps of closed manifolds into the moduli space of graphs. Finally, our results have implications for the homology of the Lie algebra of symplectic derivations.
Secure and robust SIFT

Scale-invariant feature transform (SIFT) is a powerful tool extensively used in the community of pattern recognition and computer vision. However, the security issue of SIFT is relatively unexplored in the literature. This paper investigates the potential weakness of SIFT, meaning that the SIFT features can be deleted or destroyed while maintaining acceptable visual qualities. We then propose an improved scheme to enhance the security of SIFT by introducing a key-based transform process to images. Experimental results demonstrate the effectiveness of our methods.
How good is BPMN really? Insights from theory and practice

The increased interest in a more disciplined approach for Business Process Management has motivated many organizations to make significant investments in process modelling initiatives. This, in turn, has triggered significant related research. One outcome of this development is the Business Process Modeling Notation (BPMN), which has been proposed as the new process modelling industry standard. BPMN has become over the last two years a popular process modelling technique. This paper represents the first contribution towards a theoretically sound and empirically validated analysis of BPMN. Based on an established process, we conducted a representational analysis of BPMN using a representation model based on the Bunge ontology. In addition to the theoretical identification of possible shortcomings of BPMN, we conducted a comprehensive series of interviews with BPMN users in order to seek empirical evidence for our propositions. Through this study, we identified a number of critical issues related to the practice of modelling with BPMN in contemporary process management initiatives, for example, the capture of business rules and the specification of the Lane and the Pool constructs.
The Effects of Grant Aid on Student Persistence and Degree Attainment: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis of the Causal Evidence

The provision of grant aid is important to students’ postsecondary opportunities and success. It is well established that grant aid increases the probability of enrollment in postsecondary education. A slate of studies in recent years has extended this research to examine whether grant aid also has an impact on persistence and degree attainment. This article presents a systematic review and meta-analysis of the best available evidence of the effect of grant aid on postsecondary persistence and degree attainment. The systematic review identifies and describes the landscape of the literature on grant aid programs and their effects on postsecondary success. A meta-analysis of 43 studies yielding 75 effect sizes estimates that grant aid increases the probability of student persistence and degree completion between 2 and 3 percentage points. When considering the dollar amount of aid, we estimate an additional $1,000 of grant aid improves persistence and attainment by 1.5 to 2 percentage points. Suggestions for future research and implications for policy are discussed.
Control of Cellular Pattern Formation in the Vertebrate Inner Retina by Homotypic Regulation of Cell-Fate Decisions

The vertebrate retina is composed of cellular arrays that are nonrandom across two-dimensional space. The determinants of these nonrandom two-dimensional cellular patterns in the inner nuclear layer of the retina were investigated using empirical and computational modeling techniques. In normal and experimental models of goldfish retinal growth, the patterns of tyrosine hydroxylase- and serotonin-positive cells indicated that neither cell death nor lateral migration of differentiated cells were dominant mechanisms of cellular pattern formation. A computational model of cellular pattern formation that used a signaling mechanism arising from differentiated cells that inhibited homotypic cell-fate decisions generated accurate simulations of the empirically observed patterns in normal retina. This model also predicted the principal atypical cellular pattern characteristic, a transient cell-type-specific hyperplasia, which was empirically observed in the growing retina subsequent to selective ablation of differentiated retinal cells, either tyrosine hydroxylase positive or serotonin positive. The results support the hypothesis that inhibitory spatiotemporal regulation of homotypic cell-fate decisions is a dominant mechanistic determinant of nonrandom cellular patterns in the vertebrate retina.
Semi-Supervised Weight Learning for the Spatial Search Method in ConvNet-Based Image Retrieval

As the state-of-the-art ConvNet-based image retrieval method, spatial search has shown excellent retrieval performance and outperformed other competitors. A key component of this method is a weighted combination of distances evaluated at different regions of a query image. However, these weights are currently manually tuned, by a trial-and-error based exhaustive search. This not only incurs a lengthy parameter tuning process, but is also hard to guarantee the optimality of the tuned weights. Moreover, these weights may not be generally applied when the nature of image data set changes. To improve this situation, we propose to automatically learn the combination weights based on retrieval groundtruth. Specifically, we develop a method, called semi-supervised weight learning (SWL), based on the framework of distance metric learning. In addition to generating triplet constraints with retrieval groundtruth, we leverage unlabelled images to generate numerous unsupervised constraints to stabilise the learning process and improve learning efficiency. By linking with the latest primal solver of linear support vector machines, an efficient algorithm is put forward to solve the resulting large-scale optimization problem. Experimental results on three benchmark data sets and a newly collected archival photo data set demonstrate the effectiveness of the proposed weight learning approach. It achieves comparable or better retrieval performance than the manual tuning approach, especially on the new archival photo data set.
GLOBAL COMMODITY CYCLES AND LINKAGES

In this paper we examine linkages across non-energy commodity price developments by means of a factor-augmented VAR model (FAVAR). From a set of non-energy commodity price series, we extract two factors, which we identify as common trends in metals and a food prices. These factors are included in a FAVAR model together with selected macroeconomic variables, which have been associated with developments in commodity prices. Impulse response functions confirm that exchange rates and of economic activity affect individual non-energy commodity prices, but we fail to find strong spillovers from oil to non-oil commodity prices or an impact of the interest rate. In addition, we find that individual commodity prices are affected by common trends captured by the food and metals factors.
Hypothesis testing for automated community detection in networks

Community detection in networks is a key exploratory tool with applications in a diverse set of areas, ranging from finding communities in social and biological networks to identifying link farms in the World Wide Web. The problem of finding communities or clusters in a network has received much attention from statistics, physics and computer science. However, most clustering algorithms assume knowledge of the number of clusters k. We propose to determine k automatically in a graph generated from a stochastic block model by using a hypothesis test of independent interest. Our main contribution is twofold; first, we theoretically establish the limiting distribution of the principal eigenvalue of the suitably centred and scaled adjacency matrix and use that distribution for our test of the hypothesis that a random graph is of Erdős–Rényi (noise) type. Secondly, we use this test to design a recursive bipartitioning algorithm, which naturally uncovers nested community structure. Using simulations and quantifiable classification tasks on real world networks with ground truth, we show that our algorithm outperforms state of the art methods.
Semantic Parsing of Ambiguous Input through Paraphrasing and Verification

We propose a new method for semantic parsing of ambiguous and ungrammatical input, such as search queries. We do so by building on an existing semantic parsing framework that uses synchronous context free grammars (SCFG) to jointly model the input sentence and output meaning representation. We generalize this SCFG framework to allow not one, but multiple outputs. Using this formalism, we construct a grammar that takes an ambiguous input string and jointly maps it into both a meaning representation and a natural language paraphrase that is less ambiguous than the original input. This paraphrase can be used to disambiguate the meaning representation via verification using a language model that calculates the probability of each paraphrase.
Oil from the Olive : Fruit of Peace Against Cancer

The olive has a history almost as long as that of Western civilization and its cultivation dates back to biblical times. It has been celebrated and referenced in cultural works of all the ancient societies in Western Asia and has been looked upon as a sign of hope, peace, and sacredness by different cultures down to the present. The universal symbol of the United Nations is the Earth flanked by a wreath of crossed olive branches. The olive is native to the Mediterranean region, tropical and central Asia, and various parts of Africa. It is also grown commercially in California, Australia, and South Africa.The olive tree ( Olea europaea ) belongs to the family Oleaceae. It is an evergreen long-living species with a life expectancy of 500 years. It may grow as high as 50 feet with a spread of about 30 feet. The leaves are feather-shaped and gray-green in color, growing in pairs opposite each other, and replace themselves every 2 or 3 years. The olive fruit is a green drupe, and it becomes generally blackish-purple when fully ripe. The cultivars vary considerably in size, shape, oil content, and flavor.
Virtual-Audio Aided Visual Search on a Desktop Display

As visual display complexity grows, visual cues and alerts may become less salient and therefore less effective. Although the auditory system’s resolution is rather coarse relative to the visual system, there is some evidence for virtual spatialized audio to benefit visual search on a small frontal region, such as a desktop monitor. Two experiments examined if search times could be reduced compared to visual-only search through spatial auditory cues rendered using one of two methods: individualized or generic head-related transfer functions. Results showed the cue type interacted with display complexity, with larger reductions compared to visual-only search as set size increased. For larger set sizes, individualized cues were significantly better than generic cues overall. Across all set sizes, individualized cues were better than generic cues for cueing eccentric elevations (>± 8 °). Where performance must be maximized, designers should use individualized virtual audio if at all possible, even in small frontal region within the field of view.
Coordinating Internet and Traditional Channels

The Internet has provided traditional retailers a new avenue to conduct their business. As retailers consider the addition of an Internet channel, they need to decide two important issues – the degree of independence of the new channel and the pricing of goods across the two channels. In this paper, we use consumer utility theory to develop the aggregate demand for the product from both traditional and Internet channels and find the optimal prices under different degrees of autonomy for the Internet operations. We explore the effect of cost, customer affinity for shopping online, and the inherent profitability of the product on the optimal prices across the two channels. We also study a duopoly case where a traditional retailer competes with a pure e-tailer and prove the existence of a Nash equilibrium. Finally, through a detailed computational study we explore the behavior (price and profits) of the above models (monopoly and duopoly) under different parameters.
Tag-based model for knowledge sharing in agent society

In this paper we discuss a tag-based model that facilitates knowledge sharing. Sharing the knowledge incurs a cost for the sharing agent, and thus non-sharing is the preferred option for selfish agents. Through agent-based simulations we show that knowledge sharing is possible even in the presence of non-sharing agents in the population. We also show that the performance of an agent society can be better when some agents bear the cost of sharing instead of the whole group.
The Organizational Innovativeness of Public-Listed Housing Developers

— This paper investigated the organizational innovativeness of public listed housing developers in Malaysia. We conceptualized organizational innovativeness as a multi-dimensional construct consisting of 5 dimensions: market innovativeness, product innovativeness, process innovativeness, behavior innovativeness and strategic innovativeness. We carried out questionnaire survey with all accessible public listed developers in Malaysia and received a 56 percent response. We found that the innovativeness of public listed housing developers is low. The study extends the knowledge on innovativeness theory by using a multi-dimensional contructs to conceptualize the innovativeness of public listed housing developers in Malaysia where all this while most studies focused on single dimensional construct of innovativeness. The paper ends by providing some explanations for the results.
Recommender systems, consumer preferences, and anchoring effects

Recommender systems are becoming a salient part of many e-commerce websites. Much research has focused on advancing recommendation technologies to improve the accuracy of predictions, while behavioral aspects of using recommender systems are often overlooked. In this study, we explore how consumer preferences at the time of consumption are impacted by predictions generated by recommender systems. We conducted three controlled laboratory experiments to explore the effects of system recommendations on preferences. Studies 1 and 2 investigated user preferences for television programs, which were surveyed immediately following program viewing. Study 3 broadened to an additional context—preferences for jokes. Results provide strong evidence viewers’ preferences are malleable and can be significantly influenced by ratings provided by recommender systems. Additionally, the effects of pure number-based anchoring can be separated from the effects of the perceived reliability of a recommender system. Finally, the effect of anchoring is roughly continuous, operating over a range of perturbations of the system.