Miracle-dz/UniFAR-FTUs huggingface dataset:
Emotional experience with portable health devices

This paper reports on a six month longitudinal study exploring people’s personal and social emotional experience with health related portable interactive devices (PIDs). The focus is on emotions and how health PIDs mediate this experience in everyday contexts. The study reported here is an extension of a previous experiment conducted by the authors exploring media related PIDs [1]. The findings identified interesting aspects of health device interaction. Findings revealed people interact with health PIDs emotionally both at a personal and a social level. However, in contrast to media PIDs, participants reported significantly less social experiences than personal experiences. Nevertheless, the social level plays an important role such that negative social experiences had a significant influence on the perceived emotional experience over the course of six months. When no negative social experiences were reported the emotional experience over the course of six months became neutral. The findings are discussed in regards to their significance to the field of design, their implication for future health PID design and future research directions.
A genealogy of information spreading on microblogs: A Galton-Watson-based explicative model

In this paper, we study the process of information diffusion in a microblog service developing Galton-Watson with Killing (GWK) model. Microblog services offer a unique approach to online information sharing allowing microblog users to forward messages to others. We describe an information propagation as a discrete GWK process based on Galton-Watson model which models the evolution of family names. Our model explains the interaction between the topology of the social graph and the intrinsic interest of the message. We validate our model on dataset collected from Sina Weibo and Twitter microblog. Sina Weibo is a Chinese microblog web service which reached over 100 million users as for January 2011. Our Sina Weibo dataset contains over 261 thousand tweets which have retweets and 2 million retweets from 500 thousand users. Twitter dataset contains over 1.1 million tweets which have retweets and 3.3 million retweets from 4.3 million users. The results of the validation show that our proposed GWK model fits the information diffusion of microblog service very well in terms of the number of message receivers. We show that our model can be used in generating tweets load and also analyze the relationships between parameters of our model and popularity of the diffused information. To the best of our knowledge, this paper is the first to give a systemic and comprehensive analysis for the information diffusion on microblog services, to be used in tweets-like load generators while still guaranteeing popularity distribution characteristics.
Genetic and Environmental Risk Factors for Intracerebral Hemorrhage: Preliminary Results of a Population-Based Study

Background and Purpose— Intracerebral hemorrhage (ICH) has a 30-day mortality rate of 40% to 50% and lacks a proven treatment. We report a preplanned, midpoint analysis of the first population-based, case-control study that examines both genetic and environmental risk factors of ICH. Methods— We prospectively identified cases of hemorrhagic stroke at all 16 hospitals in the Greater Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky region. All cases underwent medical record and neuroimaging review. Cases enrolled in the direct interview and genetic sampling arm of the study were matched to population-based control subjects by age, race, and sex. Multivariable logistic regression was performed to identify significant independent risk factors. Results— We enrolled 188 cases of ICH (67 lobar, 121 nonlobar) and 366 control subjects in the direct interview arm of the study. Significant independent risk factors for lobar ICH included the presence of an apolipoprotein E2 or E4 allele, frequent alcohol use, prior stroke, and first-degree relative with ICH. Significant independent risk factors for nonlobar ICH were hypertension, prior stroke, and first-degree relative with ICH. An increasing level of education was associated with a decreased risk of nonlobar ICH. The attributable risk of apolipoprotein E2 or E4 for lobar ICH was 29%, and the attributable risk of hypertension for nonlobar ICH was 54%. Conclusions— There is significant epidemiological evidence that the pathophysiology of ICH varies by location. We estimate that a third of all cases of lobar ICH are attributable to possession of an apolipoprotein E4 or E2 allele and that half of all cases of nonlobar ICH are attributable to hypertension.
When do adolescents become smokers?

Objective. To follow the development of a class of pupils’ tobacco habits for seven years, and to study differences in tobacco use between girls and boys. Setting. Kronoberg County in southern Sweden. Subjects. All the approximately 2000 pupils were followed from approximately age 12 to approximately age 18. Design. Yearly cross-sectional surveys from 1994 to 2000. Each year, the pupils filled in an established tobacco questionnaire. They did it anonymously in the classroom. Main outcome measures. Percentage of smokers, number of cigarettes smoked per day, and percentage of pupils using “snus”, the Swedish variety of oral moist snuff. Results. From grade 6 of compulsory school to grade 12 of upper secondary school, the proportion of daily smokers rose, from 0.2% to 22% for girls and from 0.5% to 14% for boys. Among both genders, the increase occurred mainly between grades 7 and 10, and from grade 10 onwards the daily smokers were the largest group of smokers. Starting from grade 9, boys had higher total tobacco consumption than girls, as a result of their increased use of “snus”, and at the end of the study 39% of the boys used tobacco compared with 34% of the girls. Conclusion. Studying young people's tobacco habits over time gives an understanding of when preventive measures should be implemented. In order for these to influence attitudes, they should be put in place well before tobacco is introduced.
In Vivo, Non-Invasive Characterization of Human Bone by Hybrid Broadband (600-1200 nm) Diffuse Optical and Correlation Spectroscopies

Non-invasive in vivo diffuse optical characterization of human bone opens a new possibility of diagnosing bone related pathologies. We present an in vivo characterization performed on seventeen healthy subjects at six different superficial bone locations: radius distal, radius proximal, ulna distal, ulna proximal, trochanter and calcaneus. A tailored diffuse optical protocol for high penetration depth combined with the rather superficial nature of considered tissues ensured the effective probing of the bone tissue. Measurements were performed using a broadband system for Time-Resolved Diffuse Optical Spectroscopy (TRS) to assess mean absorption and reduced scattering spectra in the 600–1200 nm range and Diffuse Correlation Spectroscopy (DCS) to monitor microvascular blood flow. Significant variations among tissue constituents were found between different locations; with radius distal rich of collagen, suggesting it as a prominent location for bone related measurements, and calcaneus bone having highest blood flow among the body locations being considered. By using TRS and DCS together, we are able to probe the perfusion and oxygen consumption of the tissue without any contrast agents. Therefore, we predict that these methods will be able to evaluate the impairment of the oxygen metabolism of the bone at the point-of-care.
An Interactive System for Electro-Acoustic Music Analysis

This paper, presents an interactive approach for the analysis of electro-acoustic music. An original classification scheme is devised using relevance feedback and active-learning segment selection in an interactive loop. Validation and correction information given by the user is injected in the learning process at each iteration to achieve more accurate classification. An experimental study is conducted to evaluate and compare the different classification and relevance feedback approaches that are envisaged, using a database of polyphonic pieces (with a varying degree of polyphony). The results show that the different approaches are adapted to different applications and they achieve satisfying performance in a reasonable number of iterations.
Views on recent trials and the future of hormonal therapy.

Views on Recent Trials and the Future of Hormonal Replacement Release of data to the media from various trials of hormone therapy (HT) has resulted in tremendous fear and anxiety for women and has put HT in an extremely negative light. The principal concern here is that the data have not been interpreted correctly. Because flaws may be found in any study, it is not appropriate to focus on weaknesses of a study, but rather to consider what lessons have been learned from the study and to put the findings into perspective. It is also most appropriate to consider the entire body of evidence from the literature (observational and clinical trial data) and not focus only on data from randomized clinical trials (RCTs). No single study, however large, has a monopoly on the “truth. ” In the early 1990s, when the observational data were considered to be so consistent in showing a protective effect of HT against coronary heart disease (CHD), various RCTs were designed to prove this association because it would be faster to obtain data from a secondary prevention trial (treating women with established disease). The Heart and Estrogen/Progestin Replacement Study (HERS) was launched to compare the effects of a fixed combination (conjugated equine estrogen [CEE] 0.625 mg + medroxyprogesterone acetate [MPA] 2.5 mg) against placebo in an older (mean age 73 years) population with known CHD. Around the same time, the Women’s Health Initiative (WHI) was launched, with the hormonal trials being the centerpiece of the overall initiative. We only have data on the continuous estrogen with progestogen trial, which was terminated in 2002; the estrogen alone trial in hysterectomized women will be published in April 2004. Between 1993 and 1998, 27,000 women were recruited by investigators of WHI and were randomized to receive CEE 0.625 + Correspondence: Rogerio A. Lobo, MD, Department of Obstetrics & Gynecology, Columbia University, College of Physicians & Surgeons, 622 West 168th Street, New York, NY 10032. CLINICAL OBSTETRICS AND GYNECOLOGY Volume 47, Number 2, 424–427 © 2004, Lippincott Williams & Wilkins
Numerical study of the compressive behavior of concrete material at high strain rate with active confinement

It is understood that the lateral inertia confinement, end-friction confinement, and aggregates influence the uniaxial dynamic compressive properties of concrete material. For particular circumstances such as stress wave propagation in concrete generated by impact or blast load on structures, the material is always dynamically loaded with complex stress states. Impact tests on concrete specimens with active confining pressure are often conducted to understand the material behavior under complex stress states for accurate structural analysis in such conditions. However, unlike the uniaxial impact test, the influences of lateral inertia confinement, end-friction confinement, and aggregates on laterally confined impact test have not been studied. This study investigates the properties of concrete materials in split Hopkinson pressure bar tests with confining pressure by means of numerical simulations. Different levels of confining pressures are considered in the simulations. The influences of lateral inertia confinement, end-friction confinement, and aggregates on the test results are studied. It is observed that the contributions of lateral inertia and end-friction confinements to the test results increase with strain rate, but decrease with the confining pressure. The existence of aggregates results in the increase in the dynamic strength of concrete with all levels of confining pressure. The results show that the strain rate effect on concrete dynamic strength decreases with the lateral confinement pressure applied to the specimen. Based on the results from the numerical simulations, empirical relations are proposed to quantify the influences of lateral inertia and end-friction confinement and coarse aggregates on the dynamic compressive properties of concrete material with lateral confining pressures.
Risk Preferences at Different Time Periods: An Experimental Investigation

Intertemporal decision making under risk involves two dimensions: time preferences and risk preferences. This paper focuses on the impact of time on risk preferences, independent of the intertemporal trade-off of outcomes, i.e., time preferences. It reports the results of an experimental study that examines how delayed resolution and payment of risky options influence individual choice. We used a simple experimental design based on the comparison of two-outcome monetary lotteries with the same delay. Raw data clearly reveal that subjects become more risk tolerant for delayed lotteries. Assuming a prospect theory--like model under risk, we analyze the impact of time on utility and decision weights, independent of time preferences. We show that the subjective treatment of outcomes (i.e., utility) is not significantly affected by time. In fact, the impact of time is completely absorbed by the probability weighting function. The effect of time on risk preferences was found to generate probabilistic optimism resulting in a higher risk tolerance for delayed lotteries. This paper was accepted by Teck Ho, decision analysis.
Subunit architecture of general transcription factor TFIIH

Structures of complete 10-subunit yeast TFIIH and of a nested set of subcomplexes, containing 5, 6, and 7 subunits, have been determined by electron microscopy (EM) and 3D reconstruction. Consistency among all the structures establishes the location of the “minimal core” subunits (Ssl1, Tfb1, Tfb2, Tfb4, and Tfb5), and additional densities can be specifically attributed to Rad3, Ssl2, and the TFIIK trimer. These results can be further interpreted by placement of previous X-ray structures into the additional densities to give a preliminary picture of the RNA polymerase II preinitiation complex. In this picture, the key catalytic components of TFIIH, the Ssl2 ATPase/helicase and the Kin28 protein kinase are in proximity to their targets, downstream promoter DNA and the RNA polymerase C-terminal domain.
Efficient Encoding of User IDs for Nearly Optimal Expected Time-To-Rendezvous in Heterogeneous Cognitive Radio Networks

The multichannel rendezvous problem in cognitive radio networks (CRNs) has been a hot research topic lately. One of the most challenging settings of the multichannel rendezvous problem is the oblivious rendezvous problem in heterogeneous CRNs, where: 1) there are no distinguishable roles of users; 2) users’ clocks are not synchronized; 3) users may have different available channel sets; and 4) there is no universal labelling of the channels. Most existing works in the literature focus on achieving deterministic bounds for the maximum conditional time-to-rendezvous (MCTTR) and perform poorly (in comparison with the random algorithm) for the expected time-to-rendezvous (ETTR) due to the “stay” modes in these works. In this paper, we tackle the oblivious rendezvous problem by taking both MCTTR and ETTR into consideration. In order to have guaranteed rendezvous, we only make two assumptions: (A1) there is at least one common available channel and (A2) there is a unique ID for each user. We first propose a new class of strong symmetrization mappings to encode user IDs for speeding up the rendezvous process. Two efficient and yet simple encoding schemes are proposed by utilizing the $\cal C$ -transform and the existing 4B5B encoding. Based on the new class of strong symmetrization mappings, we propose the two-prime modular clock algorithm for the two-user rendezvous problem. The ETTR of our algorithm is almost the same as that of the random algorithm and its MCTTR is also comparable to the best existing bound. We also extend the two-prime modular clock algorithm for multiuser rendezvous by proposing the stick together algorithm and the spread out algorithm. One interesting finding for the multiuser rendezvous problem is that the spread out algorithm is not always better than the stick together algorithm as commonly claimed in the literature.
Arginine induced acute pancreatitis alters the actin cytoskeleton and increases heat shock protein expression in rat pancreatic acinar cells

Arginine induced acute pancreatitis was evaluated as a novel and distinct form of experimental pancreatitis with particular attention to the actin cytoskeleton and expression of heat shock or stress proteins. Arginine induced a dose related necrotising pancreatitis in rats, as shown by histological evaluation, and an increase in serum amylase. Severe pancreatitis induced by 4.5 g/kg arginine was accompanied by dramatic changes in the actin cytoskeleton, as visualised with rhodamine phallodin. Intermediate filaments were also disrupted, as visualised by cytokeratin 8/18 immunocytochemistry. Arginine pancreatitis was accompanied by a stress response with a large increase in the small heat shock protein HSP27, as well as HSP70, peaking at 24 hours and localised to acinar cells. There was a lower increase in HSP60 and HSP90 and no effect on GRP78. HSP27 was also shifted to phosphorylated forms during pancreatitis. A lower dose of arginine (3.0 g/kg) induced less pancreatitis but a larger increase in HSP70 and HSP27 expression and phosphorylation of HSP27. Thus HSP expression can be overwhelmed by severe damage. The present work in conjunction with earlier work on caerulein induced pancreatitis indicates that changes in the actin cytoskeleton are an early component in experimental pancreatitis.
Analysis of measurements of Saharan dust by airborne and ground-based remote sensing methods during the Puerto Rico Dust Experiment (PRIDE)

[1] For 26 days in mid-June and July 2000, a research group comprised of U.S. Navy, NASA, and university scientists conducted the Puerto Rico Dust Experiment (PRIDE). In this paper we give a brief overview of mean meteorological conditions during the study. We focus on our findings on African dust transported into the Caribbean utilizing a Navajo aircraft and AERONET Sun photometer data. During the study midvisible aerosol optical thickness (AOT) in Puerto Rico averaged 0.25, with a maximum >0.5 and with clean marine periods of ∼0.08. Dust AOTs near the coast of Africa (Cape Verde Islands and Dakar) averaged ∼0.4, 30% less than previous years. By analyzing dust vertical profiles in addition to supplemental meteorology and MPLNET lidar data we found that dust transport cannot be easily categorized into any particular conceptual model. Toward the end of the study period, the vertical distribution of dust was similar to the commonly assumed Saharan Air Layer (SAL) transport. During the early periods of the study, dust had the highest concentrations in the marine and convective boundary layers with only a weak dust layer in the SAL being present, a state usually associated with wintertime transport patterns. We corroborate the findings of Maring et al. [2003] that in most cases, there was an unexpected lack of vertical stratification of dust particle size. We systematically analyze processes that may impact dust vertical distribution and speculate that dust vertical distribution predominately influenced by flow patterns over Africa and differential advection coupled with fair weather cloud entrainment, mixing by easterly waves, and regional subsidence.
Multistarter from Organic Viticulture for Red Wine Montepulciano d’Abruzzo Production

In the last years the use of a multistarter fermentation process has been proposed to improve the organoleptic characteristics of wines. In the present study the fermentation performances and the interactions of mixed and sequential cultures of Hanseniaspora uvarum, Candida zemplinina, and a strain of Saccharomyces cerevisiae isolated from organic musts were investigated. To evaluate the oenological performances of the tested strains microvinifications in pasteurized red grape juice from Montepulciano d’Abruzzo cultivar were compared. The course of fermentation has been controlled through classical determinations (CO2 evolution, ethanol, glycerol, pH, total titratable acidity, sugar content, free sulfur dioxide (SO2), dry extract, sugars, organic acids, and volatile compounds). Moreover, the yeast population was determined by both culture-dependent and independent approaches. In particular, the pure culture of H. uvarum and C. zemplinina did not end the fermentation. On the contrary, when S. cerevisiae was added, fermentations were faster confirming that yeast interactions influence the fermentation kinetics. Moreover, C. zemplinina showed a good interaction with S. cerevisiae by increasing the fermentation kinetic in high gravity Montepulciano must, with low ethyl acetate and acetic acid production. This study confirmed that non-Saccharomyces yeasts play a crucial role also in organic wines and their activity could be modulated through the selection of appropriate strains that correctly interact with S. cerevisiae.
MASS LOSS IN PRE-MAIN-SEQUENCE STARS VIA CORONAL MASS EJECTIONS AND IMPLICATIONS FOR ANGULAR MOMENTUM LOSS

We develop an empirical model to estimate mass-loss rates via coronal mass ejections (CMEs) for solar-type pre-main-sequence (PMS) stars. Our method estimates the CME mass-loss rate from the observed energies of PMS X-ray flares, using our empirically determined relationship between solar X-ray flare energy and CME mass: log (MCME[g]) = 0.63 × log (Eflare[erg]) − 2.57. Using masses determined for the largest flaring magnetic structures observed on PMS stars, we suggest that this solar-calibrated relationship may hold over 10 orders of magnitude in flare energy and 7 orders of magnitude in CME mass. The total CME mass-loss rate we calculate for typical solar-type PMS stars is in the range 10−12–10−9 M☉ yr−1. We then use these CME mass-loss rate estimates to infer the attendant angular momentum loss leading up to the main sequence. Assuming that the CME outflow rate for a typical ∼1 M☉ T Tauri star is <10−10 M☉ yr−1, the resulting spin-down torque is too small during the first ∼1 Myr to counteract the stellar spin-up due to contraction and accretion. However, if the CME mass-loss rate is ≳ 10−10 M☉ yr−1, as permitted by our calculations, then the CME spin-down torque may influence the stellar spin evolution after an age of a few Myr.