Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Impact of mHealth service: An understanding of TreCLifeStyle mobile app in Trentino province, Italy

ABSTRACT Objective: This paper represents an understanding of the ‘usability’ and ‘user experience’ of the TreCLifeStyle mobile app from an end-user experience in order to consider dietary food habit (e.g. Mediterranean Diet). Methods: A qualitative and quantitative approach was undertaken using the system usability scale questionnaire and semi-structured interviews in 2 phases that occurred over a period of 12 consecutive weeks. Six families (n = 12) of Trentino province, Italy, were included who have one obese child as primary inclusion criteria. Results: Incorporating three different aspects, (1) user preference, (2) usability evaluation and (3) system usability scale result; the study explains diversified end-user experiences. The outcome of the study addresses inadequate concentration of user-centered requirements from design to implementation level of a healthcare app. The users’ prioritise the appB (score >68) in terms of friendly interface usability and elaborative contents. Additionally, they identify necessary technological modifications at some point to operate the app seamlessly. Conclusions: The study concludes with a strong demand for end-users’ engagement to design user-friendly mHealth app interfaces where the socio-cultural needs should be considered significant.
ACTIVE GALACTIC NUCLEI AND THE TRUNCATION OF STAR FORMATION IN K+A GALAXIES

We have searched for active galactic nuclei (AGNs) in K+A galaxies, using multiwavelength imaging and spectroscopy in the Boötes field of the NOAO Deep Wide-Field Survey. The K+A galaxies, which have had their star formation rapidly truncated, are selected via their strong Balmer absorption lines and weak Hα emission. Our sample consists of 24 K+A galaxies selected from 6594 0.10 < z < 0.35 galaxies brighter than I = 20 with optical spectroscopy from the AGN and Galaxy Evolution Survey. Two thirds of the K+A galaxies are likely ongoing galaxy mergers, with nearby companion galaxies or tidal tails. Galaxy mergers may be responsible for the truncation of star formation, or we are observing the aftermath of merger triggered starbursts. As expected, the optical colors of K+A galaxies largely fall between blue galaxies with ongoing star formation and red passive galaxies. However, only 1% of the galaxies with colors between the red and blue populations are K+A galaxies, and we conclude that the truncation of star formation in K+A galaxies must have been unusually abrupt (≲100 Myr). We examined the AGN content of K+A galaxies with both optical emission-line ratios (BPT diagrams) and Chandra X-ray imaging. At least half of all K+A galaxies display the optical emission-line ratios of AGNs, and a third of MR < −22 K+A galaxies host AGNs with X-ray luminosities of ∼1042 erg s−1. The faintest K+A galaxies do not show clear evidence for hosting AGNs, having emission-line ratios consistent with photoionization by massive stars and few X-ray detections. We speculate that two mechanisms may be responsible for the truncation of star formation in K+A galaxies, with AGN feedback only playing a role in MR ≲ −20.5 galaxies.
Quantum-Behaved Flower Pollination Algorithm

Flower Pollination algorithm (FPA) is a new nature-inspired algorithm, based on the characteristics of flowering plants. In this paper, a new hybrid optimization method called quantum-behaved flower pollination algorithm (QFPA) is proposed. The method combines the standard Flower Pollination algorithm (FPA) with the quantum-behaved search mechanism to improve the global searching ability and accuracy. The simulation experiments show that the proposed QFPA algorithm can improve the convergence speed and the quality of solutions effectively.
oice perception in blind persons : A functional magnetic resonance maging study

Early blind persons have often been shown to be superior to sighted ones across a wide range of non-visual perceptual abilities, which in turn are often explained by the functionally relevant recruitment of occipital areas. While voice stimuli are known to involve voice-selective areas of the superior temporal sulcus (STS) in sighted persons, it remains unknown if the processing of vocal stimuli involves similar brain regions in blind persons, or whether it benefits from cross-modal processing. To address these questions, we used fMRI to measure cerebral responses to voice and non-voice stimuli in blind (congenital and acquired) and sighted subjects. The global comparison of all sounds vs. silence showed a different pattern of activation between blind (pooled congenital and acquired) and sighted groups, with blind subjects showing stronger rain imaging ross-modal ntramodal lasticity activation of occipital areas but weaker activation of temporal areas centered around Heschl’s gyrus. In contrast, the specific comparison of vocal vs. non-vocal sounds did not isolate activations in the occipital areas in either of the blind groups. In the congenitally blind group, however, it led to a stronger activation in the left STS, and to a lesser extent in the fusiform cortex, compared to both sighted participants and those with acquired blindness. Moreover, STS activity in congenital blind participants significantly correlated ice di rked c with performance in a vo voice processing is in ma
LA CIUDAD VISIBLE Y LA CIUDAD INVISIBLE: EL SURGIMIENTO DE LAS CASAS TOMADAS EN BUENOS AIRES

espanolEn este articulo interesa analizar el fenomeno de las ocupaciones de inmuebles en la ciudad de Buenos Aires desde el regreso de la democracia (1983). Mi interes se centra en comprender por que los ocupantes de inmuebles �a diferencia de otros habitantes precarios de la ciudad, como los villeros� son transformados en sujetos �invisibles� por parte del Estado, a la vez que categorizados a partir de una sumatoria de ilegalidades. En efecto, si este fenomeno fue reconocido como tal en los ultimos anos, lo fue solamente como justificativo de una politica cada vez mas restrictiva en relacion al mismo, que se expreso tanto en las mayores facilidades para viabilizar su expulsion, como en la dramatica ausencia de politicas habitacionales acordes con las necesidades de esta poblacion. EnglishThis article is intent on analizing the squatter phenomenon in the city of Buenos Aires since the return of the democratic government in 1983. I intend to focus on the reasons why squatters -unlike other precarious city inhabitants, such as the slumdwellers- become ignored by the government and are, at the same time, categorized on the basis of an aggregate of illegal factors. In fact, if this phenomenon has been regarded as such in the past years, it was due to an increasingly restrictive policy concerning this phenomenon, which was manifested not only in readily evicting strategies, but also in the dramatic lack of satisfactory housing policies for the aforementioned population.
Urinary albumin and transferrin as early diagnostic markers of chronic kidney disease

Feline renal diseases are increasingly noted in veterinary practice. It is important to diagnose and identify the pathological basis of renal dysfunction accurately at an early stage, but there are only a few reports on this area in clinical veterinary medicine. We investigated the efficacy of measurement of urinary albumin (u-Alb) and urinary transferrin (u-Tf) for early diagnosis using 5-µl urine samples collected noninvasively by catheterization from normal (IRIS stage I) cats and cats with stage I chronic kidney disease (CKD). The u-Alb levels in normal and stage I CKD cats were 6.0 ± 4.5 and 11.2 ± 8.4 mg/dl, respectively, and the u-Tf levels were 0.09 ± 0.42 and 0.52 ± 0.79 mg/dl, respectively. Based on ROC curve analysis, the sensitivity and specificity of u-Alb and u-Tf were higher than those of the currently used biomarker, the plasma creatinine level. The sensitivity of u-Alb was higher than that of u-Tf, whereas the specificity of u-Tf was higher than that of u-Alb. The validity of the threshold albumin level (20 mg/dl) was confirmed by measurements using SDS-PAGE. Since leakage of u-Tf in urine precedes leakage of u-Alb, inclusion of u-Tf in biochemistry tests may be appropriate for IRIS staging as a diagnostic marker of early diagnosis of renal disorder in cats.
Local stereo disparity estimation with novel cost aggregation for sub-pixel accuracy improvement in automotive applications

This paper presents a local disparity calculation algorithm on calibrated stereo images based on cost aggregation. Unlike most of the existing cost aggregation methods which are mainly based on the grouping of colour similarities, the proposed algorithm is grouped by local cost similarities. The proposed algorithm also applies a bilateral filter to enhance the normalised cost volume and, then, uses the winner-take-all technique to select the correspondence candidates. Finally, a quadratic polynomial interpolation is performed using the candidates and their neighbourhood values to achieve sub-pixel disparity resolution. The experimental results indicate that the proposed algorithm is able to provide dense disparity maps with sub-pixel resolution and achieves better accuracy compared to two similar stereo matching algorithms.
Resources and Costs for Microbial Sequence Analysis Evaluated Using Virtual Machines and Cloud Computing

Background The widespread popularity of genomic applications is threatened by the “bioinformatics bottleneck” resulting from uncertainty about the cost and infrastructure needed to meet increasing demands for next-generation sequence analysis. Cloud computing services have been discussed as potential new bioinformatics support systems but have not been evaluated thoroughly. Results We present benchmark costs and runtimes for common microbial genomics applications, including 16S rRNA analysis, microbial whole-genome shotgun (WGS) sequence assembly and annotation, WGS metagenomics and large-scale BLAST. Sequence dataset types and sizes were selected to correspond to outputs typically generated by small- to midsize facilities equipped with 454 and Illumina platforms, except for WGS metagenomics where sampling of Illumina data was used. Automated analysis pipelines, as implemented in the CloVR virtual machine, were used in order to guarantee transparency, reproducibility and portability across different operating systems, including the commercial Amazon Elastic Compute Cloud (EC2), which was used to attach real dollar costs to each analysis type. We found considerable differences in computational requirements, runtimes and costs associated with different microbial genomics applications. While all 16S analyses completed on a single-CPU desktop in under three hours, microbial genome and metagenome analyses utilized multi-CPU support of up to 120 CPUs on Amazon EC2, where each analysis completed in under 24 hours for less than $60. Representative datasets were used to estimate maximum data throughput on different cluster sizes and to compare costs between EC2 and comparable local grid servers. Conclusions Although bioinformatics requirements for microbial genomics depend on dataset characteristics and the analysis protocols applied, our results suggests that smaller sequencing facilities (up to three Roche/454 or one Illumina GAIIx sequencer) invested in 16S rRNA amplicon sequencing, microbial single-genome and metagenomics WGS projects can achieve cost-efficient bioinformatics support using CloVR in combination with Amazon EC2 as an alternative to local computing centers.
Circulating leptin during experimental endotoxemia in humans.

Figure 1. Changes in plasma leptin levels after intravenous injection of endotoxin. Healthy human volunteers were injected with 3 ng/kg endotoxin (A, ) or saline (B, ). At time of injection and at n 5 3 n 5 3 different times afterwards, plasma was isolated. Leptin levels were measured by ELISA. There were no significant changes in leptin levels over time in either group, nor were there significant differences between groups. Circulating Leptin during Experimental Endotoxemia in Humans
Path Establishment Algorithm for Mobile Ad Hoc Network : A novel approach

Ad-hoc on-demand routing protocols like ZRP establish and maintain routes on-demand. However, the paths established by on-demand protocols, which are optimal during route establishment phase, become sub-optimal over time due to node mobility. In this paper, we propose a Path Establishment Algorithm (PEA) that optimizes the established routes when feasible without incurring extra overhead. By utilizing promiscuous mode of operation, sender node „hears‟ the border neighbour node within each zone to forward a packet, hop counts embedded in IP-optional header of data packets to find shorter paths. PEA avoids unnecessary aggressive and ephemeral route updates, which improves the protocol performance. Routing path optimality is important as optimal path reduces the packet drop ratio, end-to-end delay, and reduces energy dissipation of end-to-end data transmission. It will also be easier to secure multicast routing. PEA for ZRP fits well for MANETs where bandwidth is limited, topology changes frequently, power is constrained and security problem is serious. Simulation results are presented to support our claim.
Analysis and Realization on Turbo Equalization based on 64-QAM in OFDM System

With the development of the mobile communication, the related technologies have gone through a rapid growing phase from 1G to 3G, until 4G. The technology evolution targets to improve the performance of overall system, and promote the related services and applications. In this paper, author makes analysis on Turbo equalization based on M-QAM modulation in OFDM system. Since Turbo equalization is an iterative receiver algorithm repeating equalization and channel decoding to improve the performance of the receiver, there researches on Turbo codes and turbo equalization have been emphasis, especially on the error-correction during these years. Due to the operations of equalization and decoding are repeated several times in one process, the computational complexity is increased in the receiver. Author aims at the cost function of CMA (Constant Modulus Algorithm) to change or recreate a new algorithm, and then as a contrast with the error functions, we can see the advantages about this change. Finally, author makes simulations on the Turbo equalization based on 64-QAM in OFDM system. Compared with the Turbo equalization based on 16-QAM, the performance of Turbo equalization based on 64- QAM is more efficient.
Linking Movement Ecology with Wildlife Management and Conservation

A common challenge in species conservation and management is how to incorporate species movements into management objectives. There often is a lack of knowledge of where, when and why species move. The field of movement ecology has grown rapidly in the last decade and is now providing the knowledge needed to incorporate movements of species into management planning. This knowledge can also be used to develop management strategies that are flexible in time and space and may improve the effectiveness of management actions. Therefore, wildlife management and conservation may benefit by strengthening the link with movement ecology. We present a framework that illustrates how animal movement can be used to enhance conservation planning and identify management actions that are complementary to existing strategies. The framework contains five steps that identify (1) the movement attributes of a species, (2) their impacts on ecosystems, (3) how this knowledge can be used to guide the scale and type of management, (4) the implementation, and (5) the evaluation of management actions. We discuss these five steps in detail, highlighting why the step is important and how the information can be obtained. We illustrate the framework through a case study of managing a highly mobile species, the Atlantic salmon (Salmo salar), a harvested species of conservation concern. We believe that the movement-management framework provides an important, and timely, link between movement ecology and wildlife management and conservation, and highlights the potential for complementary, dynamic solutions for managing wildlife.
When onboarding becomes risky: Extending social learning theory to explain newcomers’ adoption of heavy drinking with clients

What drives newcomers to adopt behaviors that, while perhaps helping them meet short-term role demands and organizational objectives, may also place themselves and/or their organization at risk in the long term? Based on social learning theory, research on onboarding and newcomer socialization suggests that such behavior may be explained by peer modeling. But is this always the case? Using heavy drinking with clients as an empirical referent and incorporating factors from research on learning in risky choice into a model grounded on social learning theory, we examine how contextual variables moderate the effect of veteran peer modeling on newcomer adoption or intensification of work-related risky behaviors over time, and demonstrate the impact of adoption/intensification on newcomer outcomes. Data from a longitudinal study of newcomers, their veteran peers, and supervisors in sales and client-service indicate that the extent to which veteran modeling influences the adoption/intensification of newcomer heavy drinking with clients depends on newcomers’ prior experiences and veteran peer (but not supervisor) guidance. Moreover, they indicate that steeper increases in heavy drinking with clients over time, while associated with improved job performance, also link to higher work-to-family conflict and turnover risk. Implications for research on onboarding and newcomer socialization are discussed.
The Far- and Mid-Infrared/Radio Correlations in the Spitzer Extragalactic First Look Survey

Using the Spitzer Space Telescope and the Very Large Array (VLA), we present the first direct evidence that the well-known far-infrared/radio correlation is valid to cosmologically significant redshift. We also confirm, with improved statistics compared with previous surveys, a similar result for the mid-IR/radio correlation. We explore the dependence of monochromatic q24 and q70 on z. The results were obtained by matching Spitzer sources at 24 and 70 μm with VLA 1.4 GHz microjansky radio sources obtained for the Spitzer First Look Survey (FLS). Spectroscopic redshifts have been obtained for over 500 matched IR/radio sources using observations at WIYN and Keck, and archival Sloan Digital Sky Survey (SDSS) data extending out to z > 2. We find that q24 shows significantly more dispersion than q70. By comparing the observed fluxes at 70, 24, and 4.5 μm with a library of SED templates, we find that the larger dispersion in q24 is predictable in terms of systematic variations in spectral energy distribution (SED) shape throughout the population. Although the models are not able to encompass the full range of observed behavior (both the presence of either extremely flat or extremely steep IR SEDs), the fitting parameters were used to "k-correct" the higher z galaxies, which resulted in a reduced scatter in q. For comparison, we also corrected these data using the SED for M82. The results for 24 and 70 μm provide strong consistent evidence for the universality of the mid- and far-IR/radio correlations out to redshifts of at least z = 1.
Performance Evaluation of UHF RFID Technologies for Real-Time Passenger Recognition in Intelligent Public Transportation Systems

Automated passenger tracking in public transportation systems can be used to estimate the short-term demand and, thereby, to optimize the fleet schedule in real time. It can also be used to determine the origin-destination matrix and to maintain statistics of each passenger's transportation habits over time, thus enabling enhancements in long-term planning. However, ubiquitously tracking passengers throughout a network requires the ability to recognize them at single locations in the network. In this paper, we study the merits of realizing this task by means of radio-frequency identification (RFID) technologies. Forty volunteers carried RFID tags of the norm EPC Gen2 in their backpacks, wallets, pockets, and hands through a mockup of a bus door equipped with four reading antennas. Setups with one and two rows of persons walking through the portal were evaluated. The RFID tags were embedded in laminated plastic cards. Single-tag cards embedded with a single EPC Gen2 tag and dual-tag cards that also contained a traditional Mifare tag were used. Recognition statistics of passengers for all the combinations of one, two, three, and four antennas are presented. The recognition percentages are mainly influenced by the antenna position and radiation pattern and by the line-of-sight conditions between the tag and the antennas.
Communicating with Autonomous Virtual Humans

Autonomous virtual humans have been of particular interest in last few years. Apart from avatars in shared virtual environments, applications can be found for virtual storyboards, virtual salespersons and assistants. In this paper we discuss the issues involved in the autonomy of such virtual humans and considerations involved in the communication with them. In particular we focus on the emotional aspect of the autonomous virtual humans. We concentrate on the evolution of the emotional state of the virtual actor through dialogue. The implementation of an emotionally autonomous actor and the possibility of conversation are discussed. The personality of an emotional autonomous virtual actor is defined and modeled to help the evolution of emotional state in a dialogue.
SIRT3 & SIRT7: Potential Novel Biomarkers for Determining Outcome in Pancreatic Cancer Patients

Purpose The sirtuin gene family has been linked with tumourigenesis, in both a tumour promoter and suppressor capacity. Information regarding the function of sirtuins in pancreatic cancer is sparse and equivocal. We undertook a novel study investigating SIRT1-7 protein expression in a cohort of pancreatic tumours. The aim of this study was to establish a protein expression profile for SIRT1-7 in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDAC) and to determine if there were associations between SIRT1-7 expression, clinico-pathological parameters and patient outcome. Material and Methods Immunohistochemical analysis of SIRT1-7 protein levels was undertaken in a tissue micro-array comprising 77 resected PDACs. Statistical analyses determined if SIRT1-7 protein expression was associated with clinical parameters or outcome. Results Two sirtuin family members demonstrated significant associations with clinico-pathological parameters and patient outcome. Low level SIRT3 expression in the tumour cytoplasm correlated with more aggressive tumours, and a shorter time to relapse and death, in the absence of chemotherapeutic intervention. Low levels of nuclear SIRT7 expression were also associated with an aggressive tumour phenotype and poorer outcome, as measured by disease-free and disease-specific survival time, 12 months post-diagnosis. Conclusions Our data suggests that SIRT3 and SIRT7 possess tumour suppressor properties in the context of pancreatic cancer. SIRT3 may also represent a novel predictive biomarker to determine which patients may or may not respond to chemotherapy. This study opens up an interesting avenue of investigation to potentially identify predictive biomarkers and novel therapeutic targets for pancreatic cancer, a disease that has seen no significant improvement in survival over the past 40 years.